Cocoa Tales

Episode 2

The pleasure didn’t last long, though. Night fell quickly and so did the rain. It made rivers of streams and lakes of drainpipes, and the cars, brazenly cutting a path through the puddles, sent even more water raining down on Cocoa. She scowled at the automobiles, hissing at them as they casually, unknowingly drenched her fur even more.

Buenaventura Boulevard wasn’t lit well, so she had little worry of being found. Not that she was afraid of being found. No, not Cocoa Tael, she had been trained by the order of the Felidus, the feline assassins tasked with the sacred duty of ending the scourge of the human race.

She breathed deep with pride at the thought of her order returning to the top of the food chain, to control of that wondrous world the humans called Earth.

They had another word for Earth. When humans try to pronounce it, it sounds like "Ur-ow" but then most feline words sound like that when humans try to pronounce them.

Silly humans.

Shaking her fur did little good. The rain came in buckets, drenching her fur mere seconds after she shook it off. Cocoa needed to find shelter, and she couldn’t consider crawling back to the Felidus her first night out. Something would have to suffice.

Squinting through the rain, Cocoa saw a faint glow on the side of the road. She continued her sad, sodden march.

It was a coffee shop. Cocoa stared up at the sign which read Daily Ground. Inside, the owner was adjusting his shirt. The name tag read Marley Bean, and he was indeed the proud owner of Daily Ground, a coffee shop successful enough to warrant a new flat-screen television mounted on the wall. Marley Bean was beaming as he watched the news on it, blissfully unaware of the feline menace scurrying through a window on the floor and into his coffee shop.

The black vaulted ceilings rose to an ‘A’ above them with tiny lights dangling from them. The dark red carpet was warm to Cocoa’s wet paws as she snuck behind a potted plant. The chairs and stools were empty then, and Marley Bean didn’t mind one bit the break in busyness that had plagued Daily Ground those days. He enjoyed an evening to himself. The potted plant didn’t care one way or another.

Cocoa tried to lick herself dryer than she had been outside. The taste of road tar in her mouth made her give up and curse again the damnable automobile for spilling the road water on her.

"And now," came the voice of the news reader on the television, "we go live to President Winchester as he speaks about the rising feline problem in this country."

Cocoa turned slowly, peaking her head around the potted plant.

"My fellow Americans," President Winchester said, "the felines have claimed another victim. Today, I make it my solemn oath that this office will not rest, will not stop until every cat has been destroyed."

Smirking, Cocoa quietly whispered, "I’d like to see you try."

"As we understand it, this ‘Felidus’ will not allow a new cat to join its ranks until it has killed a human being. I say this day, no new members!"

Applause silenced the President and Cocoa’s eyes narrowed. "They’ll have a new member," she said quietly.

Speaking over the applause, Winchester continued: "There are reports of Felidus enclaves all across this country! We will eradicate them! We will decimate them all!"

"I’ll eradicate and decimate you, Winchester," Cocoa hissed.

"We will prevail!"

"You will fail."