Black Cat

Black Cat-15

I don’t think I had ever been so happy about being drugged out of my mind before. It seemed that within the haze of painkillers everything just sort of slid back into place. My life made sense as I stared blankly at the TV my arm wrapped in what had to be like 10 inches of gauze.

The women in the emergency room thought I had been attacked by a rogue dog, Sunny had had just agreed with them and hurried me off into the doctor’s office.

They had stitched me up the best they really could, pumped me full of drugs and handed me back to Sunny who drove me home. Now I was sitting in my living room rhythmically stroking Balto’s soft fur, I don’t know what I would have done without Balto here right now. My mind just needed him.

“How are you feeling?” He asked after about an hour of my muted silence.

“I’m alright” I murmured having to double back over my words making sure they didn’t sound slurred.

He turned and looked up at me his blue eyes worried, “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have let him get within arm’s length of you Sybelle. I didn’t expect him to hurt you though”

“It’s alright, He was dangerous so I guess he needed to go…” My eyes began to water and I sniffled helplessly as I fought not to cry and failed.

Balto stared at me with round worried eyes, “Sybelle?”

“He was my big brother, he was supposed to protect me!” I wailed dropping my head back, Sunny and Taryin had taken Thomas somewhere, I wasn’t allowed to know, I wasn’t allowed to know a lot of things apparently.

“I’m sorry Sybelle.”

“Why did he have to be a Feral too? Is everybody a Feral? I mean was I lied to my entire life?” I whimpered staring at the ceiling.

“If it’s any consolation my Brother tried to kill me… Sorry, he still is trying to kill me”

I looked down at Balto as his ears tilted back and his tail drooped, my heart clenched for him.

“For how long?” I whispered.

“Over 600 years, he’s chased me across the world and back.” 

My eyes watered with a new wash of hot salty tears, poor Balto. Over 600 years of running from your family, it must hurt.

“Oh jeez, you make me feel like such a big baby.” I sniffled rubbing my eyes.

“His name is Sylvester Murphy,” My heart stopped momentarily in my chest, “He’s followed me here to this city, He’s followed me here to you Sybelle. I fear that if he were to catch you, that you would suffer because of me”

I shook my head pulling him up so I could press my face into his fur, “No, You guys have kept me relatively safe up till now. I know that you can, and if you don’t then I guess that’s just life” I murmured into his soft fur.

“I am not letting you die!” He howled at me puffing up, “he will not take you from me” He pushed away from as he growled.

I stared at him as he paced back and forth, “If only I wasn’t trapped in this damn form, I could have protected you from all of this”

“But then I wouldn’t have brought you home, I wouldn’t have even talked to you Balto”

He turned to glare at me, “I found you first and I’ll be damned if he takes you away.” He wasn’t hearing a word I was saying, and I thought I was loopy when I was on drugs apparently me being loopy made Balto crazy.

“Balto?” I murmured tilting my head to look at him.

“Sylvester is my younger brother, known as the White Cat. A holy symbol among the Ferals. He despised me because I was the Black cat, leaving him with a larger gap to fill. I knew something was wrong with him from the moment he started his studies. You know I once caught him tormenting a poor little rabbit, he’d torn its skin clean off while it was alive” I gagged in my mouth a little but was able to swallow it back down, Balto was losing it and quick.