The Last Day of June

Chapter Two: Winter Storm

To be exact, I turned into a hazel Bengal cat. Y'know, the one that looks like a domesticated big cat?

Anyways, I shook off the effects of the change, sitting down and starting to groom myself. 

All casual.

The local police officers rushed into the alley, only to find little old me, a cat, blinking up curiously.

"Yes, officers?" I meowed, shaking in an attempt to hold in my laughter. "Is everything alright?"

They furrowed their brows, confused. Ms. Lawrence came storming after in a whirlwind of oven-baked anger. All she needed now was a dusting of powdered sugar because her face looked like a bright red strawberry tart.

"Where'd the girl do?!" She huffed, clenching her apron. "I want her gone! Behind bars!"

One officer cleared his throat. "Are you sure she went this way? All I see here..."

"Is a fluffy cat," I supplied, purring at the baker's annoyance.

"She was here!" Ms. Lawrence insisted. "I saw her go this way!"

"Hmm, is she wearing a red hoodie?" I questioned innocently, lifting a paw and pointing. "She went thataway officers."

I was having way too much fun.

"Ma'am," the other officer began hesitantly. "Are you certain -- "

"Yes! Yes, I am!" She nearly screeched. "Useless! All of you are useless!" Ms. Lawrence yelled into the night. "If I ever see you again, I'll deal with you myself!"

The officers shared a wary glance. "Go back home, Miss. We'll keep searching."

"Yes, go on," I meowed smugly. "Have a good night's sleep."

To complete my act, I padded up to the officers and circled around their legs, purring.

"Do you know who this cat belongs to?" He asked his partner, stretching and feeling for a collar while petting me. "If it's a stray, we have to take it to the shelter."

Yeah, yeah, now back to the subject...

"No, I've never seen this one around."

Wait...take me to the shelter? That awful place?!

"I guess we have to..." He said, reaching down slowly. "Pity, this one's quite -- "

I arched my back and hissed, "Oh, no. I'm not going to that filthy shelter! Over my dead body!"

"What's wrong with it? Ah, wait!"

Not taking my chances, I broke ranks and ran. Climbing quickly onto a trashcan, I leaped over the wall and ran into the dark.

Their voices began to fade into the distance. "Ah, it ran. I'm too tired to chase...call it a day..."

I kept going until I was sure they were gone, then stopped and caught my breath. Now I had to get to the Place to meet up with Axel.

My heartbeat returned to normal and I started thinking more clearly. 

Ugh, now I was going to get lectured by Axel again. It was worth the bread, though, he's gotta admit that. What else would we eat for the next few days? We have nowhere else to go.

Deciding that it'd be best to remain a cat, for now, I traced the steps to that Place. Concrete briefly turned into blades of soft grass as I bounded towards the boulders surrounding the base of the bridge. I crawled through a tiny gap and into the small, airy cave under the bridge. This was the Place.

I shape-shifted back human, kneeling as to not hit my head on the rocks.

"You're late."

Jumping slightly, I bumped against the ceiling.

"Ouch!" I rubbed my head resentfully. "Don't creep up on my like that Axel!"

The black cat from earlier crouched down and stared at me with one golden-yellow and one sapphire-blue eye. Axel grumbled, "I told you we'd get caught. We could've just stayed with one of the families for a few days."

We always changed the meeting Place every week or so. The Place was where we'd live and take shelter for a little while. Sometimes it was a warm family. Other times it'd be in a cardboard box.

"But all they ever feed us is scraps or dry cat food," I complained.

"Better than nothing," he countered, tucking his paws close and laying down.

Axel had seen harder times than I. He'd experienced near starvation, something I was only vaguely aware of. He'd also been on the streets a year longer than I.

"I know, but it still tastes gross," I said, drawing the loaves out of my pockets. "Plus, now we have this!"

Axel shifted out of his Turkish Angora cat form and crouched low. I passed him a loaf and he turned it over in his hands, sniffing a few times.

"Relax," I told him with a grin. "It's not poisoned or anything."

With a shrug, Axel tore a small piece off and stored the rest safely in a plastic bag. He then carefully took his duffel bag and tucked the bread away.

I did the same, then popped the piece in my mouth, savoring the taste. Axel ate more slowly, picking out the raisins and eating those first.

I picked up a far-off noise that was steadily getting closer.

"Shoes!" I hissed to Axel. That was our code word for approaching footsteps.

In an instant, we both shoved our bags out of sight, ate the rest of our bread, and shifted into cats. Hiding away in the shadows, we carefully listened as the noise got louder. Then it faded away.

Axel peered out from a crack in the rocks. "Jogger."

"At this time of night?" I questioned. Axel tended to speak in incomplete sentences, so I had to read in between the lines.

He shrugged again. "Humans are crazy."

I could hear our breaths returning to normal due to my enhanced senses. Because I was whatever hybrid-thing I was, I had a few traits that were permanently cat-like. My hearing was sharp, my eyesight tuned for the dark. Occasionally, my touch would be as sensitive too, though my nose wasn't as heightened.

Pacing the too-tight area, I kept my ears alert, too wired to sleep now.

"Stop walking," Axel muttered from where he was lying, attempting to get some sleep before sunrise. "I can hear every step."

"I can't, I'm too paranoid right now. I have this weird feeling in my stomach," I replied nervously.

Sighing, Axel got to his paws and padded over. "That's called hunger. C'mere."

He dragged me over to the warmer part of the cave and made me lie down. Putting a paw on my forehead, Axel said in a rare show of emotion, "Get some sleep, June. Everything's going to be fine."

Closing my eyes obediently, I felt Axel settle close to conserve warmth. I felt sleep lull me and spent the chilly night curled up next to my best friend.

(Side note: This might take a while to complete, as I'm kind of busy during the week, but I'll be working on this during the weekends. I still have two comics to start, a novel to finish, and this. Bear with me. TvT)