Nine lives

Just a kitten

Ch.6

"I..." My head bowed in shame, I address Felix to tell him about my fault.

"You didn't kill him," I nod "I didn't think so..." He sounds disappointed, but not enraged at me.

"You aren't mad?" I ask.

"No, I have tried many times myself and failed, but we must flee if you would like to live much longer." Felix's wound appear to have stopped bleeding. For a moment I forgot that he was also half cat. I imagine he possesses equally amazing healing abilities such as myself and, I'd imagine, Phenir.

"Can you stand?" I ask Felix.

"I think so, can you help me?" He looks at me pleadingly. Nodding, I walk to his side, I loop my arm around his torso and feel his erratic heartbeat. Using only an ounce of my strength, I lift Felix to his feet and ask him:

"What now?"

"My car," Felix motions to the direction from which we first entered the forrest

"But you walked here..."

"Felix tip number one: always have a plan B" he tells me. As we reach the edge of the forest I stop abruptly.

"Felix, ummm... you can't really go around looking like that," I point to his ears and tail " you might want to uhm...retract."

"Is that what you call it?" he chuckles but his voice drops.

He looks at me with an expression of sorrow. I sympathize with him for I know how extremely painful it can be to retract our features; I squeeze his hand, hoping to offer him the slightest bit of comfort.

"Arrgh!" Felix howls in pain as his cat characteristics return into his person, although grotesque to a human, I am more than used to it, having glimpsed it in my reflection, and don't even bother to look away.

When the process is over Felix sighs and slumps his shoulders in exhaustion. We continue our trek to his car. As we reach a Cadillac hidden in some brush I look up at Felix, eyebrows raised.

"Rich much?"

"After three thousand years, you learn to understand the art of money making." Ya, maybe for him, meanwhile I live in a treehouse, or at leas tI did. Since Felix is in no condition, I take over the wheel. He points out directions and we start driving out of the town on a deserted road.

"Take this next exit," he points to my left.

"There's nothing there!" I can't see any kind of exit where he told me to turn, only brush.

"Turn...now!" Felix grabs a hold of the steering wheel and jerks it to the right.

"What are you doing!? Arghh!" I scream as we drive through the thick foliage, sincerely hoping we don't hit a tree and I have to lose one of my lives.

"How did you know...what?" we drive out from the greenery and onto a narrow gravel road.

"Can't let just anyone find me, now can I?" Felix turns to me and gives me a crooked smile.We continue driving down the path for a kilometre or so.

"Oh my Lord!" I gasp. Here, before my eyes and in the middle of a forrest, lies an immense mansion. Stretching beyond my peripheral vision and adorned with stone embellishments and gargoyles it stands, millions of dollars tall. What is with this guy?

"What? Don't tell me you didn't at least stack up on some dough after all these years?" he asks me.

"No! Are you kidding me? Last week I was living in a dead man's house!" Felix looks at me with  surprise.

"Seriously, huh. Ok turn here." I  turn left and round the mansion, approaching large garage doors.  He presses a button on the roof of the car and they slowly glide open to reveal an equally immense garage, if such a showroom can even be called as much, filled with cars. Driving slowly both out of caution and out of distraction I pull into the garage. I need not help Felix exit the car because he has no problem standing on his, now barely scratched, leg. He crosses the showroom, which takes a rather long moment, and I follow him wordlessly. He takes out a set of keys to open its only door and his index flashes . When he reaches for the lock I swiftly catch his right hand. I had completely forgotten about the ring because of all the commotion.

"Wait, where did you get that ring?! How do you know Othel?!"

"Who's Othel?"

"Wait, what? How did you get that ring?"

"It was a pharaoh who gave it to me, Shazak." He looks down at my ring "I'm guessing this, Othel, gave you yours, right?" I nod, baffled. "Well I guess that's a secret for the future to unravel, come on." He motions me to follow him through the garage and into an immense corridor of his mansion. Mouth agape, I hungrily devour all the pieces of art with my emerald eyes that adorn the corridor.

"Whoa, man, you're loaded." I turn to Felix and state.

"I guess that's one way of putting it. Come with me." Felix guides me into a room devoid of light and closes the door.

"Felix?" I'm getting nervous, "Where are you?" I hear a small click and the opening and closing of a sort of drawer. I can hear his heartbeat, it's getting faster. "Felix?"

"Found it!" he says, "Sorry, I was just looking for the light switch, bloody thing." The lights turn on and I gaze at my surroundings, I'm officially freaked out and on edge. We are in a torture chamber. I look at Felix with suspicion. Whatever he might try to pull, I'm ready.

"I know how it looks, but this room is especially reserved for Phenir, once I catch him." He motions with his hand to a table with straps obviously meant to hold in place the limbs and neck of its subject. "I need to hold him in place, can't have him run away with all his lives. Each time he wakes into his next, ill gruesomely kill the bastard again." He grins and looks at the contraption lovingly, okay this is freaky.

"Okay... good luck with that, since you're fine now, I think I'll leave..." He turns back to me and glares into my eyes.

"No." he states.

"Excuse me?' This guy is getting crazier by the minute. He pulls something out of his back pocket, a gun. Fuck, he must have gotten it when the lights were turned off. He aims it to my head and repeats:

"I said no," he starts circling me to block the entrance of the room "you're so naïve, a kitten really. Yes, why not trust a complete stranger? Great idea. You see missy, my name isn't Felix; it's Phenir." He grins, and fires.