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

Chapter Fourteen: Clues

"Puss, are you okay?" Dulcinea asked in her usual sweet tone. "You don't look so good."

Puss ignored her, his stare unmoving.

"It's...him," he breathed, terrified. "It's him."

"Puss?" Dulcinea asked. He grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall.

"Where did you get this picture?" he breathed.

Dulcinea stammered. "Puss, what's going on? You can trust me."

Puss let her go and sighed. "Okay. This is going to sound absolutely insane, but here's the truth. My friend and I are from the future. This cat killed someone very close to me-" He couldn't bring himself to say Kitty's name to her. "...and I need to know who he is and where he came from."

"Puss, it's okay. I believe you. I met him in the thief market one day. He told me things, things that he said he thought he would take to his grave."

"What did he tell you?"

"He has eyes everywhere, Puss. It's not safe for me to say. He would hunt me down and kill me and the townspeople."

Puss nodded and understood.

"At least tell me where I can find him," Puss said quietly.

"I don't know," Dulcinea replied. "But he said something about Cráneo Ensangrentado."

"The thief den," Puss realized. "O, we must go there at once."

"Puss, wait," Dulcinea said. "What happens in the future?"

Puss looked at her forlornly.

"You get to choose the path you take," he said, and then he left with O.

Dulcinea looked out the window as they got into the time machine and then disappeared into thin air.

****

Puss and O had arrived in a cold place. They could feel it right when they pushed the door open. They stepped outside and Puss' fur stood up from the cold of the atmosphere. The sight that immediately met them was dead bodies. Hundreds, thousands of them.

Puss saw one in particular and gasped. "No." The PTSD he had received as a token of war made his head ache.

It was Toby's corpse, his face mangled.

"Let's get out of here," Puss said hurriedly.

"Wait, Señor Puss," O said. "I am scanning the area. Scars may be here."

He took a few moments, and then said, "Scars is there." He pointed to a tower in the distance.

"Carnage's fortress," Puss gasped.

"I sense that this is after the war is over, but that cannot be accurate, because Señora Carnage is in there too."

"That would mean..." Puss started in a whisper.

"Yes," said O, "Carnage won the war."