Nightlight in the Dark (Skyelle x Catnap)

Chapter 19: Moments Like These

Song Credits: MitiS - Moments (feat. Adara)

Italic - Importance/Text //// Bold - Emphasis/Phone Call //// ' ' - Thoughts //// ( ) - Memory

🎶 These are the moments. They keep me going. We lie in the silence. You keep my heart open... 🎶

Trigger Warning: Stitches, blood and vomit.

___________________________

Purple furr fills my vision. I smile some as I look up at my cat who was surprisingly still asleep. Usually he'd be up by now to greet me with a kiss or a sweet nose bump. I wince as my arm almost wakes him.

Successfully I grab my phone and check for anything new.

Nothing.

My brows furrow. Weird. I thought my family would say something, but whatever.

Catnap yawns as he lays his head in my lap. Purrs come from him as I scratch behind his ears how he liked it. "Morning Star." He sounded tired still. "Morning my cat. Sleep well?" (Get it? 😅)

Catnap purrs in response. I smile at his nonchalant reply. His eye looks up at me as I pet his head. 

Reluctantly he lets me up as I grab a change of clothes. He stays behind on the bed as I shower. Dirt and blood down the drain. I wince. My leg was still hurting. 

I have a flashback to when possessed Dogday ran after me. Poor guy. He didn't mean to. Wait. The fire. Was he okay? Dogday was Theo's favorite character back then. But that probably changed when he got converted to Catnap.

My heartbeat fills my senses. Someone must've did the fire on purpose, almost like they were trying to get rid of someone they hated...

...like me.

All I know that I should stay alert for now. Even if they weren't actively out to get me, I know that'll change eventually. 

Because I was just that unlucky.

___________________________

I eat my breakfast slowly, afraid I'd puke thinking about the fire again. My appetite was terrible. I had rebandaged my leg earlier and almost cried seeing the scar.

My leggings thankfully covered my ankle. Catnap was eating meat I gave him along with the small ones that came with us. Dad was on the couch still and I felt bad he couldn't do anything much anymore.

I promised that I'd make him a body, but that was taking too long.

A sigh as I push my plate away. Eating was impossible with all these thoughts that were spinning in my head right now. 

I clamp my mouth shut. Don't think about that. Think about how you were going to make this work. My legs almost cave in until I sit again in the chair. Just ignore the pain in your leg. Ignore the anxiety of almost dying. Twice. 

I look over at my new family. Catnap was laying with the minis, they sit nustled in his fur. Cute. If it weren't for his current situation, he'd be a great father.

I tried imagining what having a family with Theo would be like.

I sigh, knowing he was too far gone from being anything remotely human. Because some dumb scientists had to ruin his childhood like that. Turn him into something he hated.

Blood. His blood. Flashes of a screaming boy being torn apart for science. His organs being stuffed into a giant plush of a cat. It was harder to forget all those facts.

Standing up abruptly, I dash to the bathroom. Holding my hair back as my breakfast comes back up. I cry seeing blood coming up. I sob pathetically as it keeps coming out.

Damn it. 

Soon my tummy feels empty as I lay on the tile, my body scrunched up in a pile of sadness. Poor Theo. Poor Dogday. Poor dad. And poor childhood innocence. 

All because this stupid company doesn't have any human morals about what they're doing. It wasn't wrong to them. They found sickening enjoyment out of ruining human lives. 

If I could, I'd destroy all traces of Playtime Co.

Catnap nudges the door with his snout. "Star?" I weakly look up as I saw my only source of happiness stare down at me in concern. "Theo?" I haven't called him that in ages.

Catnap sits by me, purring to calm me down. I snuggle into his lavender scented fur. My sobs lighten up. The quiet comfort was all I needed.

___________________________

Theo and I run around the playground at Playcare. Child laughter come from us as we played tag. My purple dress with stars swishing with my little feet. I watch as my friend chases me down. 

We fall into a pile on the grass, laughing as Theo catches me. Our laughter filling our ears as we lay there. My stomach growls. So does his. We laugh again, knowing we were both hungry. 

I sit by my companion as we eat cereal bars in our bunkbed. Having snatched ourselves a snack from the kitchen when nobody was looking. 

Our other roommates were playing outside still. 

I fix my dress, my small child fingers bunching it up and smoothing it out. My blond hair and blue eyes were my most striking features unlike my friend's brown hair and eyes.

Theo was surprised nobody was adopting me since I had the most commonly attractive features for a child. I had told him that I wasn't leaving him behind multiple times.

Not unless they adopted us both. So yeah. That made it more difficult. 

I snuggle my Catnap plush as he does his Dogday one. It's lavender calmed me down. 

"Don't you ever think that someone would take us both?" Theo asks as I look over at him. He looked sad.

"I hope so. If not, we have each other at least." I reply. Like my reassurance would help us both.

He knows that I was never leaving his side unless we both leave together. And that was fine. Never in a million years would I leave my best friend behind.

___________________________

I hiss as the needle goes into the skin. My scar had torn open from the tile. So yeah. Stitches. My favorite. 

Tears stream down my face. Soon the pain was over as I bandaged my ankle up again. Throwing the gross needle away. It was far from salvageable. 

Catnap slept away with the minis. I walk back out to get medicine to help with the pain. I limp and look through the cabinet. Dad speaks up. 

"How have you been holding up since we left?" 

I reply softly. "How did you do it? Pretend that everything would be okay, even if it wouldn't be?" 

He sighs. "If it were any other way, I'd still be human and with my family. But we both know that's never happening." I sit by him. 

A soft sigh leaves me. "As long as this is over, we can try our best to be a family again."

Dad laughs dryly. "Then it wouldn't be life without the suffering."