Hush (Venom Epidemic, #1)

Chapter 10 - Kitty Cat

          Katrina eyes were cloudy as she thought of what her parents would be doing right now. She was very worried about their wellbeing, as one would in such a hellish time, and refused to let herself breakdown.

          "...In my workplace, you see," Fleur was explaining to Cruise. She had already shifted herself in the passenger seat next to Cruise. "I - It all happened so fast that all we could do was ... run ... just run. I mean ... I – I mean I just ... it's just so ... unreal, don't you think?" She was gesturing with her hands, as if to make him understand her rambling thoughts in her mind.

          "I totally get it," Cruise said, "Feels like a bloody nigh'mare."

          Katrina sighed and leant the back of her head against the headset and closed her eyes for a moment. The mental images of her laughing parents' faces came into focus. Their kinds brown eyes were shining in delight and happiness. She was missing them terribly for the first time in and very long time.

          She had had moved out from her parents' house when she was eighteen to live on her own, to work and live in independent life from her overprotective parents. All she wanted to do now was to find them and curl up in their warm and protective embrace, like a caterpillar would within a cocoon until it was ready to face the world. Right now she had to be strong.

          "Oh mon Dieu!" Fleur cried out in French. She was pointing at something in the trees on her side of the window. As the trees draw closer and closer, her eyes widened more and more and she gasped. "We have to save it, please, we have to," she begged Cruise and turned to him.

          Cruise pretended not to listen and kept on going.

          "Hey, can you stop for a moment?" Katrina asked, but the car had gone past the poor cat. "I don't believe it. You would actually leave a poor, defenseless and helpless little kitty all alone?"

          "Listen-"

          "You better listen to me, Mister," Katrina threatened. "I know karate."

          "Fine," he caved in, "But you will look after the cat. Feed it, bathe it, and everything. I don't want any distraction from the real mission."

          "Mission?" Katrina caught on quickly, "What mission?"

          "Heh, nothing, just having fun with wordplay, that's all," he smirked. He reversed the car about ten meters back and then nodded towards the cat on the tree.

          "Hurry right back girls - go get it, Miss. Tenaces!" he cheered, trying to avert her attention.

          Katrina stopped in mid exit when she yelled, "Stop calling me ten-asses!" She huffed annoyingly and climbed out.

          "I – It's meant to be pronounced as tenaces, Kat, not like ten-asses," Fleur corrected her and proceeded to follow her out.

          Katrina stared at her friend. "Who's side are you on?" She demanded, throwing her hands up. She stood in front of the tree where the cat was meowing in distress, as if it knew something they did not.

          "It was funny the way you said it," Fleur giggled. A smile that reminded them both of how things were before the world went topsy-turvy in an endemic, living nightmare.