Cats And Dogs [Cashby]

12.

[Alan]

I wake up to the sound of hushed voices arguing. I don't bother opening my eyes, knowing that my eyelids feel like there's weights on them. Instead I listen to who's talking.

"We need to take him to the hospital, he's obviously not okay." It sounds like Alex is talking and there's a pause before someone says something.

"He has ears and a tail! We can't even take him into public!" Austin's voice rings through the room.

I open my eyes and my ears twitch at the noise of the bed creaking as I move.

As I thought, Alex and Austin are standing by the door.

They look at me and smile.

"Hey," Alex says softly and walks over, kneeling down by the bed next to me.

I smile at him, but when I go to talk nothing comes out. Why can't I talk?

"Hey, hey, don't try to talk, you might not be able to for a day or two," Alex says softly.

What, why? What's going on? Fear and panic course through me as I sit up, only earning a splitting headache and dizzyness.

"Here, listen," Alex says, shooing Austin out and laying me back down. "It turns out that when you got trapped again and they, uhh, you know tortured you, they tampered with your head more than we thought."

I go to say "What!?" But all that comes out is a panicked meow.

My eyes go wide and I clamp my hand over my mouth.

Alex scratched the back of his head and glances away, his ears falling flat on his head.

"Yeah, I was getting to that part. So basically hybrids like us have two voice boxes, ones for the cat side, the other for human and thankfully Jack got you out before they got to what they were going to do." He pauses taking a breath. "They were going to take out your human voice box, but before they could they had to issue a drug to help a couple days prior and I guess if you were still in there today, today would be the day they took it."

How does he know all this?

"The drugs should disable your english, but don't worry you'll be back to normal in a day or two."

He smiles and stands up, dusting his jeans off before walking out.

I climb out of the bed and wander out to the living room where Tay and Lynn are sitting.

Tay looks annoyed and unbearably tired and Lynn is laying with her head on Tay's shoulder and a hand on her stomach.

I walk upstairs to the kitchen where Kellin is talking to Shayley.

They both look at me and Kellin smiles as Shayley looks annoyed and gets up to walk away. I walk over to Kellin and Shayley, "accidentally" trips me.

I land hard on my back, but don't hesitate to grab his arm with my nails and claw down his fragile flesh.

"You stupid cat!" Shayley hold up his hand to hit me, but stops when he hears Austin clear his throat behind him.

I let go of his arm and scramble to my feet.

"Austin, Shay tripped Alan and I think he hit his head again," Kellin says casually.

I jut out my bottom lip and allow my eyes to start to water.

"Oh, are you okay!?" Austin asks, hurrying over to me and wrapping his arms around me.

If looks could kill, I'd be bleeding out in Austin's arms from the look Shayley is giving me. I wink at him, before resting my head against Austin's chest and pretending to cry.

"C'mon Shay, play nice, the poor kid can't even talk right now," Kellin says.

Austin nods in agreement before letting me go. I look at him with watery eyes, knowing that the slowly fading bruise around my eye will make him fall for whatever I want.

This is how I'm going to show Shayley that he doesn't belong here anymore.

---

I sit on the couch upside down with my head hanging off the end, allowing my plan to work perfectly.

Austin's attention is locked on me and he hasn't even spared a glance at Shayley.

I've been using my lack of English to my advantage. Austin thinks the meowing is one of the cutest things and I'm not letting him forget it.

Shayley has not let up on the glaring and eye-rolling since he tripped me this morning, and I think I've successfully managed to make him regret doing it.

Now I just have to get him to regret ever coming back.