The Ninth Life

1 - The Beginning of Things

A/N so when I first joined Wattpad, 2 years ago at the time of my writing this, I posted a story titled "Katt." Once I got about halfway through writing it, I realized that A) it was just plain awful writing B) the storyline was full of plot holes and C) the plot line made absolutely no sense.

However, after revisiting the story, I decided with a little (and I actually mean a LOT) reworking, it could actually be a good story. So, I gutted the work, then deleted it, then rewrote it. This is the result.

(Oh, and thanks, @chrom567 for the cover, even if you did draw it two years ago!)

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The Ninth Life Chapter One "the beginning of things"
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"Lill! Lill dear, it's time to get up!" I awoke to my mother's voice shouting up the stairs, much louder to me than it would ever be to you.

Groaning, I rolled over in bed, pulling the sheet over my shoulders. "Jus' five more minutes..." I moaned, then promptly fell back asleep.

... Only to wake up definitely less than five minutes later, my mom shaking my shoulder. "Lill! Wake up!"

I groaned again in response. "But it's Saturday! Can't I at least sleep in on Saturday?"

"Dearest, its 1:26. I mean, I know that ever since you... became cat-y you need extra sleep, but really. It's 1:27 PM now."

So before I continue, I feel the need to explain something. My mom said "cat-y." That's probably not what you think it means. She said that actually quite literally. I became sort of catish. One day, two years ago, I woke up with a black cat tail, and my ears had shifted to the top of my head and become nice little black kitty ears. I have enhanced senses, an inhuman sense of balance, feline reflexes, a need to sleep almost 14 hours a day, and a strange urge to bat at anything small, fuzzy, or hanging in front of my face. Since then, my mom has started homeschooling me, and we moved to some woods somewhere in the northern peninsula of Michigan. I am, technically, in eighth grade, but well, homeschooled. I'm a bit on the short side, at just under five feet tall. I have shoulder-length wavy brown hair, pale blue eyes, and a slight dappling of freckles across my nose. And so, now that we've gotten that out of the way, back to our story.

I slowly sat up. My mom watched me, a slightly creepy and anxious expression on her face. "Um, Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Um, I'm awake now. You can go."

She nodded, the expression disappearing from her face. "Yes, of course, Lilly." She nodded again, and headed to the door of my room. Stopping, she turned back to me. "Oh, Lil? I think I'm going to go out shopping for a little while."

I nodded. "Alright."

I hopped down the stairs, maybe twenty minutes later, after getting dressed, brushing my teeth, etc. In the kitchen, I opened the fridge. Seeing a pizza box containing last night's dinner, I decided on my breakfast.

What the heck, I thought as I stuffed my plate with two slices of pizza on it into the microwave, it's technically lunchtime anyway.

Sometime later, after stuffing my face full of pizza, I wandered to the study near the back of the house, where I do my schoolwork and my mom runs her business doing who-knows-what (not that I was actually going to be doing schoolwork, it being Saturday and all.) As I sat at my desk (and it was actually, like, a nice desk, with drawers, not a crappy school desk,) I glanced at my mom's desk. She had left a while ago, shopping, like she had said she would. But she wasn't normally so anxious about leaving on a shopping trip.

Somewhat curious and very guilty feeling, I snuck over to her desk and glanced at the numerous different papers strewn across the desk. For the most part, it was just the usual stuff: bills, bills, a shipment order, more bills, records of some sort, an ad for some anti-aging something or other that probably wouldn't work. But then something else caught my eye. Nearly hidden by all the other papers was what appeared to be a letter. And my name was on it.

I yanked the letter out of the stack, frenziedly scanning it's contents.

Dear Madeline Asterfeild,

I must sincerely thank you for your consent to our program. Your daughter, Lillian, shall be most satisfied at our facilities, as well as we shall have ample opportunities to study her "catiness" as you describe it.
In addition, I'd like to meet you in person. How does the Kyrok Bridge sound, around two, on Saturday?

Sincerely,
Felicity Dunmark, head of the M.A.D.R. facility

I dropped the letter back onto the desk, shocked. I had heard about M.A.D.R. facility before. The Mutations And Disfigurations Research facility. The people there "researched" mutations in humans. And by that, I mean they experimented on people who had mutations. People like me.

And then it occurred to me exactly what this letter was saying. Apparently, I was going to be satisfied at their facility, and they would be able to "research" my "mutation." they were going to take me.

And then it further occurred to me: today was Saturday. It was about 2:45. Mom had left home at about 1:30, and the Kyrok Bridge was about thirty minutes away. My mom had already been talking to the head of M.A.D.R. for forty five minutes.

Crap. I need to get out of here.

I ran to the door, put on my shoes, and ran out into the woods surrounding my house, not really paying attention to where I was going. Eventually, I reached a small creek.

A small creek that, roughly two miles downstream, turned into the Kyrok river.

Better keep going. I thought after a minute's rest. Then I readied myself to leap over the creek. As soon as my feet left the ground, though, something strange happened. Time seemed to slow down, moving in strange jumps and jerks. Then, as I was directly over the center of the creek, a swirling orange vortex ripped apart the streambed. As I was sucked into the orange whirlpool, my last thoughts before I blacked out were this could either be really good, or really bad.