HOPE

Part Three

“Celeste? You in there?” Celeste came staggering out of the office bleeding badly and looking like she had gone ten rounds with a wild bear. Blood was streaming down her face and from other cuts as well. Debbie ran up the stairs and grabbed her before she hit the floor in obvious pain. “What the hell happened to you? Who did this to you?” “A tiger. A human tiger. It moved so fast I never stood a chance. Oh God I hurt.”

“Anyone that can beat you in a fair fight is someone I don't want to meet. We need to get you to a hospital honey. Just lean on me and don't even think of arguing this time. You are bleeding and your face is so swollen that you can barely see out of one eye.” Debbie took Celeste out of the shop and drove her to the hospital.

The nurse took one look at Celeste as Debbie helped her in. She immediately came around from back with a wheelchair for Celeste. Debbie eased Celeste into the chair careful to not to crush her wings as Celeste winced in pain. Celeste was taken in back immediately and looked at by a doctor. It took the doctor twenty minutes to get all of Celeste's wounds stitched shut.

“I'm no expert on animals miss, but I'd say you tangled with something big with claws. Come back in a week to ten days and we will remove the stitches. Come back sooner if you have problems with them. I'm giving you a prescription for the ribs you cracked and broke. The medicine will ease the pain while the ribs heal.”

Debbie drove Celeste back to the shop and helped her into the office to lay down. Celeste was asleep within a few minutes and Debbie covered her with a blanket before going down to make sure all the doors were shut and locked. She had no idea that in this short span of time that Hope would return to the shop.

Five of them blocked the alley and advanced on me with obvious intent of not letting me get away. This is what I get for panicking and not staying calm. “Little girl wants to play kitty cat on our turf. Time for this little pussy cat to pay for being on our turf.” “Don't do this, please. I don't want to have to kill you.” They all seemed to think this was funny and advanced on me in an effort to pin me and have their way with me. “Little kitty, we are going to have a lot of fun. We gonna teach you who is in charge here. You keep us happy for a little bit and maybe we let you live”

I screamed a feral scream and attacked them. The one that had been talking had a gun and thus was my first target. I slammed into him before he could react to me. He went down with the gun he was holding and I bit his wrist as hard as I could. My hands ripped up his face as my feet shredded his chest to ribbons.

I bounced off him as one of the others tried to grab me. I moved too fast for him to get me and raked my claws across his face and shredded his eyeballs. He screamed and dropped his knife as he held his ruined face. I landed on my feet next to one of them and ripped his throat out a half second later. I never hesitated and moved on to the next one before they could figure out what to do.