This Cat Has Claws

27: The Past

The past month and a half have gone by smoothly. Every now and then I'll see a shadow of a figure follow me, but these people are really good at hiding and not being seen. I'm sure it's only because I'm not human that I even know they're there. I just don't know if they are aware that I have seen them, even if it's mostly just an after image out of the corner of my eye. Mom and Dad haven't been able to pinpoint anything concrete on whoever it is that's following me. It has never occured to me before that someone would follow and target me for personal reasons since I wasn't technically part of the family business, but now it seemed more and more plausible. No one else was being followed. They would have been able to feel it just like I did, and there was nothing.

Now all I could do was wait for Mom and Dad to find something, or for me to find something in my memories. If this was some personal vendetta, I'd have to figure out who it was vengeance for. I have only killed three people in my life, all out of self defense, and they didn't have any relatives with them at the time who I thought could be connected. I didn't know the immediate relatives of the three who died, but if they weren't in the business, which they most likely weren't, then it would have been difficult to find out the truth behind their deaths. When you die in this business it's either covered up and made to look like you never existed, or, and this happens often when they have family outside the business, it's covered up enough so that whoever did the killing won't get caught by the police.

I made my way to my parents' house so I could talk to them and look into the backgrounds of the three who died at my hands. I wanted to make this a quick visit since Landon and I were going to dinner to celebrate my birthday. This definitely wasn't something I really wanted to do on my birthday, but it was necessary that I at least start to search for a plausible answer. Even more so since my parents were having no luck through their connections.

"Hey, I have an idea of the connection, not who it is though," I said as I made my way into the study. Dad flinched at my voice since no one heard me come inside the house.

"Hey, kid. It's nice to see you to. How have you been? We've been good. A little sad that you haven't visited in a while," Dad teased.

"Ha ha, you're very funny. Where are the files?"

"Over there."

Dad knew what files I was talking about. The three people I killed were part of another large business that shut down a few years ago. They kidnapped me and JayJay for ransom since they weren't doing so good. Since our business had been thriving, and still is, they wanted in on that action and thought it was the best choice to just take us and demand money. JayJay was pretty young then and was too scared to think clearly, so when he began thrashing around demanding to be let go, our captours began beating him, and then me. Of course, I wasn't going to stand for that, especially not when my baby brother was being harmed. So as a fist made its way for my face, I grabbed it and twisted. The guy was thrown off balance and I grabbed a piece of glass next to me and jabbed into his chest. I hadn't paid attention to the size and shape of the glass, but it was pretty long and I angled it so that it went into his heart, though I wasn't planning on it actually being big enough to reach.

After that first guy was down for the count, I went after the guy beating down on JayJay. I basically just beat him to death as I couldn't control my rage after seeing JayJay bleeding and bruising all over his face and exposed arms. JayJay had to pry me off his lifeless body so we could escape. Once I found my head again as we ran, I knew Mom and Dad had to be close. And that's when we were stopped by the third guy. He had an evil look in his eyes that said he was just dying to hurt us, the sadistic bastard. I pushed JayJay behind me protectively and glanced around for something I could use as a weapon. In those days, I was shorter and not as experienced in fighting and defending myself, so I had to rely on a weapon and then running away.

There was nothing in sight, but I saw a gun and knife hidden in the man's waistband. I would have to take a punch or two to get close enough to taking one of them. And I knew that was the only way JayJay and I could get out alive. This guy stared at us disgustingly; it was like we were toys he had just bought and couldn't wait to break in. I shuddered and tried my best to mask my fear; I had to be strong for JayJay.

In less than five seconds, I leapt forward, was punched in the jaw, and had secured one of his weapons. In all the fuss, I just lunged my hand forward not caring which one I got, as long as I got something. When I jumped back in front of JayJay, I looked down and found a gun in my hand. I had never used a gun before, so I knew I'd have to use my bullets wisely. It did reassure me that we were in such close proximity; there was a greater probability that the bullet would make contact.

When the man realized I had his gun, his face turned red in anger and he made his way towards us. With shaking hands, I raised the gun in front of me and fired. I missed. The man laughed. I fired again and again. The man realized I knew nothing about guns and made a run for it. I pushed JayJay to the side and dove between the man's legs, swiping one of my legs along the way so he'd lose his footing. Luckily my plan worked and the man fell to the ground. As quick as I could I jumped up off the ground and stood over the man with the gun pointed to his head. He grabbed my leg and pulled. As I lost my footing, I pulled the trigger and the hand that was on my leg fell limp on the ground. Mom and Dad ran to our sides seconds later and rushed us home.

There were no consequences for my actions, and while I did find it weird, I didn't question it too much. Mom and Dad had me take a week off from school to recuperate and wrap my head around the events. They compiled files, looked over them, and stored them away.

Now it was time for me to look at them myself. Hopefully they would lend some insight as to who the hell was watching me. If I found nothing here, I had no idea what it could be that made someone want to harm me.

"Aha!" I exclaimed as I dug out the three files I had spent at least twenty minutes looking for.

"Finally found them?" Dad chuckled from his desk.

"Yup. I've gotta go. Landon and I are having dinner. I'm taking these. Love you."

I waved from the door then left the house. Mom and JayJay must have been out. They always said hi and tried to chat when I was home. I was looking forward to what Landon had planned for dinner. He wouldn't tell me where we were going, just to be ready by six, and it was already 5:30 and I wasn't even home yet.