Scars (Part II of J.H. White's Puss in Boots)

Chapter One: World in Ruins

"They're coming," Puss said as he looked outside the window of the new home his family lived in. Kitty and four-year old Maria shivered.

"The bad men, Papi?" Maria asked. Puss sighed as he drew his sword from his brown leather belt in case there was any trouble.

"Yes, Pequena, the bad men," he said. Most of Spain was still in ruins because of the war Puss and Kitty had fought in years ago, and crime ran rampant. Now, the newly appointed scum of the Earth went around, assassinating everybody that was worth anything.

Bounty hunters. Puss wished he could do something to fight them off, protect people like he had in his San Lorenzo days. But with a wife and child, he couldn't risk death. He hated the thought of Kitty alone, having to provide for Maria herself. This he would never let happen.

"Kitty, take Maria down to the bunker. You'll both be safe there."

"Be careful, mi rey," Kitty said, hugging Puss tightly, her soft paws running up his back.

"Everything's going to be fine," Puss reassured her. "If anything goes wrong, I'll turn these idiotas into carne picada." Kitty smiled. She took Maria in her hand and they opened the door to the bunker which creaked from years of rust. Kitty put their daughter inside safely and then followed suit herself. She shut the hatch carefully, and the lock clicked. Only Kitty could reopen it; it couldn't be breached from the outside.

Puss readied his weapon and crouched down by the window. He couldn't be seen. The bounty hunters marched in front of the house, the sound of the footsteps loud and foreboding. The noise ceased, indicating they had stopped at the door. Somebody shouted, "ANYBODY IN THERE?" One of them slammed open the door, dust flying off of it into the air. Puss swore under his breath.

How could he have been so stupid? He had forgotten to lock the door! He knew that this small mistake could be the demise of both himself and his family, and he instantly cursed himself for it.

A dog with an extremely ugly face stormed through and punched Puss in the side of the head, showing no mercy in the move. He fell to the ground, rubbing his cheek, which he could tell was bleeding by the texture of the warm liquid starting to drip down his face.

"Hey, Scars! You think this trash is worth anything?" the dog called to one of his associates, if you could even call a bounty hunter a term as sophisticated as "associate." A scruffy cat came out of the darkness. He wore a long cloak and was covered in wounds, battle scars and the like. His eyes widened.

"Puss in Boots. The Great Cat Burglar of Santiago de Compostela. The hero of San Ricardo. Rebel leader from the war. This 'trash' is worth more than all of you. We're bringing in his head."

"You think I'm going to die without a fight, hermano? You're stupider than you look," Puss hissed aggressively. He wasn't taking crap from this garbage. The other bounty hunters moved in to attack him, one of them carrying a screwdriver covered with the maroon dried blood of past victims, but Scars stopped them by holding up a paw.

"Back off, idiotas. He's mine." Scars drew a long dagger from his belt and brandished it at Puss, running the edge of the blade lightly across his neck. "Do you think you can defeat me? I've killed more men today than you have in your entire life," he said in a half-whisper.

He gripped Puss' throat suddenly and squeezed. Puss gagged through the hold. "You are pathetic," Scars said. He sliced off one of Puss' ears, and it thumped against the ground as our hero could see the red running down the side of his head.

Kitty emerged from the bunker, leaping out with no warning. "STOP!" she cried. "Take me. I've killed countless. My head's worth the same as his." Scars turned to her.

He walked over to Kitty, stroking her cheek to Puss' rage and then grabbed Maria, holding his knife now covered with Puss' fresh blood to her neck.

"NO!" Puss shouted. He started to run toward the bounty hunter, but Scars made a mock movement with the knife and waggled his finger as if to say, "Back off or I kill her."

"Now," Scars said through his teeth. "this is how it's going to work. You let me kill both of you, or you can watch your precious kid die."

Puss seethed. "Kill me. Kill me now." A tear ran down his face. "Leave my family alone. Just kill me." Scars looked into Puss' eyes. He saw his soul, begging for mercy. A smile crept across the villain's face. "Okay," Scars said, dropping Maria softly. "I'm a reasonable guy." Puss sighed in relief.

"Kill her," Scars said, gesturing to Kitty. The dog slammed her against a wall and pulled out a gun. She winced.

"KITTY!" Puss screamed. He tried to grab at the dog, but he was kicked to the floor before he could get a punch in. Gasping for breath, Kitty gazed at him.

How could this be happening? Was it a nightmare? A dream, like the one before the start of the war?

He looked at her, pain swelling through his entire body. He saw his love, his life in her bright blue eyes. He wanted to do something, anything, but it was too late. He pictured the two of them kissing in his mind, her touch, her beauty. A tear rolled down his face before anything had even happened. And then she said five words, the words she said to him every day.

"I love you, mi rey," she breathed.

The dog pulled the trigger and in a fragment of a moment everything was gone.

Puss had experienced what he thought to be her death before. In the dream, when Shrek's swamp had caught ablaze, when she had fallen lifeless in Carnage's fortress. But this was different. This felt like a part of him had been ripped out, his heart torn from his chest and cut into thousands of pieces.

Her limp body fell to the ground, and Puss was too horrified to even let more tears come. It was like watching a flower, a beautiful, perfect flower wilt as it died. He gripped her soft, limp, blood-stained paw, never wanting to let go, never wanting to grasp the truth as they put the bag over his head and dragged him out of the house to his doom.