Black Cat Origins

Chapter 3

Her father left about five days later, and thus, her thoughts about the other night came to forethought as she stepped into middle school the next day. Her time table had IT scheduled in the afternoon and so she spent the morning jiggling in her chair just waiting for lunch to arrive so she could grab her food and head to the IT suite. The bell rang, and she shot out of her chair so fast, her teacher had to assume her pupil desperately needed the toilet or something. As she grabbed her food, she headed to the IT suite, sweet talking the head of IT to let her on the computers to finish off some homework that she had finished a week ago. Not that she would tell him that. As he left her at the computer, she started researching the items mentioned in her father's work phone. Bejing? A place in Japan. Hm, somehow she knew she was going to find out facts about this place rather than anything useful about her father's job. Cats eye? Oh.. Here we go! Some articles from a Japanese newspaper. She couldn't understand the words, though the picture showed the item in question missing, and a picture of the actual item. A pretty black gem, so it seemed to her. Clicking through a few more articles, she found one in English and started reading. A person had taken the gem only a few days ago, a male dressed all in black, wearing.. A mask? How odd. Only a couple of witnesses had seen the masked man and they said he looked almost.. Feline like as he took to the rooftops with, they believe, said item in a sack. He was definately fleeing the scene of the crime in any case. She sat back on her chair, pondering her thoughts on the matter. Was her dad involved somehow? No, he couldn't be! This was her father she was talking about! A calm middle aged man who dealt in antiques. Not some free wheeling vigalante. She closed down her pages on the internet and sat eating her sandwich. It was just a weird coincidence. That was all. 

As the months crept by without a sound or a message from her father, Felicia started to grow concerned at her father's lack of contact to them. He always messaged her once a week to tell her he was okay and how bored he was at some meeting or other, small things that kept Felicia giggling and appreciating her father. When nothing came up, she wondered if he had merely forgotten to message her due to work or if he had merely not charged his phone. Cheerleading kept her busy, each measured arm movement and leg stance kept her from thinking about her father, and how much she just wanted a message from him saying he was okay. As they performed thier usual routine, spin here, back flip, land in arms of male cheerleader, she started to see the form of her mother rushing over to the football field, her face streaked with tears and expression grim. Felicia stumbled in her routine. Her father?! Another family member?! She dashed over, pom poms and all, to her mother, as she crumpled on the very emerald green grass. She caught her mother as she fell, holding her as she started to tell the young girl her father was dead. A sweeping numbness took her, as she asked "H-How? How did he die?" Her mother looked up at her and simply said "Plane crash, over the Andes Mountians in South America.'' A strangled sob escapes her as a fresh set of tears fell from her eyes, her head tucked against her daughter. Felicia could only hold her mother as she stared blankly into space, unsure on how to proceed, now her father had gone, and left her mother and her to live on. 

The funeral was a short and sweet affair, mother and daughter stood at the grave of thier departed father and husband. The mother, dressed all in black, veil over her face as tears rolled down her cheeks, never ending since they had found out weeks ago. The daughter stood next to her, numb and disbelieving, staring at the grave of her father. Her daddy. As people past them, some they knew and some they didn't, offering condolences at thier loss, Felicia just stared at them, her usually chatty nature gone, words unwilling to come to the surface. They stayed there for a while after that, staring down at the grave as the other people left.