Floating Face Down (boyxboy)

Chapter Eighteen

I woke up to the panicked yelling and screaming of my step mother, and initially I thought it must have been something that came out of the residue of a strange dream, but I couldn't recall dreaming anything at all.

Nothing seemed out of place when I woke up, except the missing warm soft belly of the cat that usually stretched on or beside my face as I slept.

I heard the loud screech of a tiger outside my door and realised what was going on and hopped out of bed as fast as I good, struggling to untangle my leg from the covers before heading out of the door to see Irene screeching as she tried to hit Akuma off of her ankles where the cat was biting and scratching her legs and her wide terrified eyes looked directly at mine.

"Get... it... off... of me..." She half screeched, half whispered as she tried to keep backing up.

I dove for the cat and grabbed Akuma off of her, struggling to get the suddenly feral black cat off of the woman even as it spun its head around, twisting its back so it could scratch me too.

She only calmed down when she finally looked up to see it was me, even my scent apparently not alerting her, by which point she had thoroughly scratched up my arms and hands.

"What's this all about?"

Irene seemed to think I was talking to her. "I tried to wake you up in the morning! I didn't even touch you and that dratted cat scratched me all over!"

I frowned, looking down the hallway in the opposite direction where there was a small clock on the wall. "Why would you wake me up this early?"

Colby stepped out of his room just as I said this, looking bleary and wide eyed, circles under his eyes from the early wake-up call, ones that would fade without a trace during the day unlike mine.

"You think that's the question you should be asking?! I'm bleeding and you're asking me why I'm waking you up in the morning?"

Colby frowned at me as he walked up to us. "Mom are you okay? What just happened?" He eyed down the cat.

She wiped away a tear. "Nothing I just got scratched by your brothers cat."

"Wow you're bleeding..."

She extended both her hands and sniffed. "It's just a scratch."

"Do you need us to take you to the hospital?"

She covered her face briefly with her hands. "I'm sorry Colby I'm just... very shaken. Yes, god that's really messed up my whole day..."

He rubbed her back and frowned deeply.

I thought, somewhat in a manual, forced fashion, that I should also extend some sympathy, even though I wasn't apparently capable of it these days.

"Sorry, she didn't mean it."

She didn't seem placated by this and instead turned to me, outraged. "Are you crazy? Elliot? Have you lost your mind bringing that cat into my and your fathers house?"

I looked her over, unimpressed. "This cat's like a teddy bear. It doesn't normally scratch people." 

She blinked at me.

"And you have no reason to be in my room at five in the morning."

Colby blinked and then looked toward the clock, surprised. 

Irene on the other hand stared at me with that look where her eyes were so wide they practically bulged from shock. I hated the way that looked in the past, it was always filled with so much outrage, it made my anxious and made me lose focus on any argument I might have had.