The One's You Love (Cat Johnson Chronicles Book 2)

by Katerina Degratte

  "What is it, Charming?" Cat groans, seeming surprisingly unmoved by my interruption. Which is silly in and of itself because I’m the most awesome one around.

  "Can you let me out?" I beg, trying my best to give her the cute kitten eyes. My body is just begging for her to get a peek of the cards, and maybe my hell will be over. But alas, her eyes stay glued to the screen. While occasionally glancing away to grab some entrapment, seal it, and put this sticker label thing on it. What is the point of that mundane process? The brightly colored envelopes look like they would be fun to bite, though.

  "What have I told you the other two hundred times you asked?" Her monotone voice is anything but encouraging.

  Hey, it doesn’t hurt to be optimistic.

  "Minx gets to roam the store. It doesn't seem fair." As if on cue, Minx gives me the evil eye from the stool she’s laying on behind the counter. Cat and I in the office behind that. Fucking bitch.

  She finally looks over, giving me the side-eye. She’s invulnerable to my cute kitty eyes, the monster! How can someone resist the pretty kitty eyes?

  "Minx doesn't knock everything over,” Cat rolls her eyes at me.

  Why the hell not? That’s rule number one to be a cat. Duh.

  "Then seems like she's not living her best life,” I point out. That at least gets a little bit of a laugh from Cat, so I’m making progress. "How long do we have to stay here?"

  She glances at the time on the corner of the laptop screen "There's not that much time left. Just a little under two hours,” Cat muses, as if it’s nothing. Two fucking hours? That's a shit ton of time. I could do so much playtime in that two hours. "Why don't you take a nap or something?" She offers the suggestion to me. As if, I was napped out.

  Cat looks at me with sympathy. But soon, she's committing worse crimes as she leaves me alone in another area of the store. Trapped and alone, trying to traumatize me here, I was young to deal with so many mind scars? The sound of stuff being moved around, that no matter how hard I stretch my neck, I can't get a vision of. Are we under attack?

  Cat comes back after what's way too long. "Here, you can play here for a bit." Of course, it's a closed-off area, so there won’t be as much to do, but it’s better than sitting in the bag I guess. Barely.

  I pounce from her arms into the area, landing with a bit of hmpf. "When you're done with work, can we visit Maori?" I ask, but she's already gone and ignoring my question. "I wanna see my spider friends again! Hello, Cat!" I yell out, trying to get her attention from across the room. "Cat, Cat, Cat!" I try again to no avail. Damned women was straining my vocal chords.

  I see a large container in the corner that has what looks to be many plastic crunchies at the bottom of it. Not being able to resist, I fling myself in there, enjoying playing with the brightly colored packs.

  Stomp. Crunch. Stomp. Crunch. It’s like my own little tune. The new card packs a tasty treat to clamp my jaws onto. Not eating, just savoring.

  Once the entertainment runs off, I feel my legs a bit too short of jumping out of the empty container bin. Some other trash like food wrappers shoved underneath. Cat? I'm stuck in here!" She doesn't seem to hear me, though, as she doesn't immediately run to my assistance. "Cat!"

  Someone else notices, though. "Aren't you a little cutie?" One of the customers with bright purple hair sees me and picks me out of the evil temptress’s trap. They give me a few pets as I purr in contentment. Yes, I am cute. And the most awesome cat ever in existence.

  Chapter 5

  Maori

  "Maori, Maori, Maori." I hear ringing through my ears, as my name is called out. That oh so annoying voice that can’t possibly be here. Hector the mouse, would never survive in these territories. "Maori!" the voice yells again as I groggily open my eyes. Why do all my guests have to come by while I’m trying to get my beauty sleep? Don’t they have anything better to do with their lives than interrupt mine? First Cat, now this guy?

  "Hi!" He yells again, not giving up now that he's seen my eyes open the slightest sliver. Damn persistent fucker. Light arms attempt to pull on my oversized paw. "Come on, I know you're awake. And you're so much bigger now. Did someone not take my advice?"

  Hector. I tried to stay away from the captors, but a cute stupid kitten got in the way, hence big me. "There were unforeseen circumstances,” I yawn out as I hear the little guy jump back. Right. I'm bigger now. It's not like I can remember that without the constant reminders.

  I have to push back the inclination to shove him to the side with my paw, as it's closer to the size of a dinner plate.

  "I don't think she wants your attention runt," Tiger says menacingly, and I instantly know that it's now time to get up before my dear old friend is no more. Hector, why must you make me active at whatever time it is? Cats are supposed to at least get eighteen hours of sleep.

  "I'm her friend!" Hector argues, his squeaky voice going up a notch. It does that whenever he’s in trouble or anxious in a situation. Tiger picks him up by the end of the tail. "And you're nothing but a big bully," Hector yells out as loud as his small set of lungs will let him.

  "Stop it, you two. Tiger, put him down gently," I order, glowering at him, challenging his own glare. I’m not afraid of him because, in the end, I win. I’m the queen of sass. That's how our stare downs always ended, even before we were this way. Even when he was a massive monster, and I was me. "Gentle," I repeat as he gruffly puts Hector down, keeping eye contact with me the whole time as if to say, 'fuck you.' "What news did you hear on the underground this time, Hector?" I ask after he has a few moments to regain his focus.

  This must be good with how hyped-up he looks. He starts, "I heard you were experimented on, so I had to check that stuff out. Is it true you killed Susan?" His eyes look at me with admiration. I don’t want him to look at me as his savior. I killed Susan because I was blacked out. I only found the remains after Cat brought me back to my senses.

  "Yes," I admit. I hated her, but it still isn’t one of the highlights of my life. If they were going to monsterize animals out here, why couldn't they have oversized beds, couches, beds, or even rugs? Or best of all, boxes! Something to lay on other than dirt and grass. It feels like I have to take extra care of my coat now to keep it all shiny and clean. Cats take extra care in their appearances, in case you don’t know.

  "Thank you for avenging my love." He attempts to give my leg a hug, though his arms can hardly make it around the thickness. "Also, I don't believe that's the end of things." The dreaded words, bad things never seem to come to a halt. At least, not that easily.

  Also, this is not surprising. If there is evil afoot, it takes more than one dead body to eliminate it. I’m just worried about how big the organization Susan was in and how long it's been going on. With the cost of those experiments, had to be huge. "Yeah, while they were testing on me, one of Susan's cohorts was overdosing me because she was too close to finding out the truth on some matters." I don’t really want to tell him precisely what matters because he’d hate me if I made him feel any shred of sympathy for that she-devil. "I was a bloodthirsty animal until Cat saved me."

  "She saved you? As in, didn't hurt you?" Hector asks. Even after all this time, Hector's still in shock when a human would give a damn. "I figured she chased you off to resign here."

  "I almost ripped out Charming’s throat,” I sigh. I shake my head, ashamed of myself. Well, I guess it was a combination of the two of them saving me. Charming's idiotic self ran into the table, and I just came crashing down after him. Whatever spilled on me seemed to regulate those killer tendencies. "Then I got knocked into a table; something in those chemicals helped me. The three of us were lucky that whatever I knocked into didn't kill me. Then Raven helped us run off to the woods before HQ could trap me like a bug."

  "Still can't believe that's the little killer's name." Hector's face scrunches up at the mention of him, the two not having gotten off on good terms. He shakes his head. "That's beside the point. I don't think things are over. An
d that Brian guy has a hard-on for letting Cat suffer. Wouldn't it be safer for you to move away? Forget about her?"

  My jaw nearly drops to the floor at the mention of that. That isn’t even on my list of remote possibilities. "If he's going after her, I don't think that's safe for my human."

  Hector sighs. "Maori, you can't be putting yourself in danger for a human. There are countless of them. If you end up the same…,” his expression conveys his worry. My anger fumes more at the words being drawn out. Sure there are billions of humans, but Cat is the one who chose to save me. She didn't just ignore my pleas. She saved me. Even when the dirty old man tried to run her down.

  "Maori, he might be right," Tiger pipes in. "We could go elsewhere."

  Men … Don't they have any sense in the word commitment?

  "If you want to leave, Tiger, you can, but I'm staying here. Or I could at least try. I told Cat I would get HQ the intel they needed."

  "You'd rather work for those monsters instead of the ones like you?" Tiger asks, disgusted. He can't even stand to look at me as he averts his gaze, walking away.

  "You poor girl." Cat holds my kitten body, running the flea comb through after treatment settles in. "We'll get you all fixed up." She hums me sweet songs while making sure I'm entirely free of those buggers, and I doze off in her lap.

  "She's not a monster!" I bare my teeth at them both.

  Me and Cat watch out for each other.

  Chapter 6

  Cat

  “Come on, Charming. It’s time to go.” I try to locate wherever he scattered off too. He’s silent as a bed of sheep, though, as he won’t come running to the call. “Charming,” I repeat, a little more urgently this time, as my mind starts to go to the worries of what could have happened to him. He had been far from the door, so he shouldn’t have been able to escape. Not that he would consider it to be running. He would think it to be exploring, then get lost somewhere. And I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with that right now.

  “Hey, Cat.” Colin walks into the store. I messaged him earlier about having a movie night, after that plan went sideways last night with the HQ stuff to get fixed up.

  “Hey, Colin,” I greet him, still looking around for where the little stinker ran off to. “Charming?” I call out, worry sinking into my stomach when he’s not immediately running over.

  “Everything okay?” Colin asks, confused.

  “Yeah.” As if on cue, Charming realizes there’s a new person to give him affection and love, so he makes his appearance. The fucker.

  “Hi. I’m Charming!” He jumps up, rubbing himself against Colin’s legs. “Who are you?” All while ignoring the glares from me, that would be burning holes through his skull if I had the ability.

  “Did the store get a new cat?” Colin asks, moving to pick up the kitten. He holds him in his arms as Charming purrs in contentment. Charming’s words being lost again on yet another human. It isn’t genetic. I scratch the side of my head, feeling uncomfortable. None of those chemicals got on me the other night, did they? I guess I’m in too much of a frenzy to notice either way. Oh well, whatever it was can’t be fatal since I’m still walking and talking.

  I lay in a pile of my own sweat, my breathing laboring as I struggle to hold on. My body is in endless pain. It’ll all be over soon enough. Tears fall freely from my eyes.

  A lifetime of torment and horrible memories are so close to being gone. I can finally be free. No more mean stepmother, no more mean kids to deal with. I left notes on the fridge to everybody I loved, apologizing for taking this course of action. I figured they’d eventually find them when my body was discovered.

  “Cat?” Maori jumps over to me. Her face smelling up close to me, the one I felt terrible to be leaving behind. She’s only six months old. Maybe she’d be better off with a more stable human being. Worry echoes in her eyes. “What’s wrong, Cat? Why do you smell off?” She notes the empty pill bottle by my legs, something I got from a dealer of sorts, as none of mine can reasonably do the job.

  “It’ll be okay,” I try to soothe her, my hand too weak to pet her.

  “No, this isn’t okay. Don’t give in, Cat.” She looks over me to see what she can do to try to fix things. “You can’t do this to me.” This is the first time her voice has been in desperation.

  “It’s okay,” I whisper to her as I feel my eyes draw closed.

  She opens the window as I make out bits of conversation. Before she draws back to me, jumping on my stomach, my eyes shockingly open from the effect.

  “No, Maori, don’t take this away from me.”

  “You don’t get to do this to me, Cat.” She jumps again, me powerless to stop it, as I’m not much in the position to do anything. “Don’t give in. Hold on.” Her eyes glow for a second as I feel the overwhelming urge to puke everything out.

  She nudges my back so I’m turned on my side; so the puke doesn’t choke me to death. And it’s all splurged out, scattered around me, the wreak filling the air. My stomach feels wretched.

  I hear other cats meowing and jumping into the building. Am I dead?

  “Maori, what’s happening?” I choke as I feel the cats surround my body. They lick and nip at me.

  “I’m fixing your mistake,” Maori tells me. And maybe I’m hallucinating as her eyes start to glow like an emerald medallion. Finally, I feel the pain begin to drift away as sleep overtakes me.

  I flutter my eyes open, not sure where I am when I see Maori at my side. “What happened?” I ask. I hadn’t been expecting to wake up. Parts of my body feel different than they once did. My nails are tingling, and my canines hurt in a way they never did before. It’s like new canines are growing in place. Or the current ones had been readjusted. Sounds register to my ears that I wouldn’t have picked up earlier.

  “It’ll hurt for a bit, Cat, but I wasn’t just going to let you pass.” Maori glares at me. “It’ll pass soon though,” She says somewhat sympathetically. As much as she can muster given the situation.

  The light feels too vivid, and it’s almost like I’m a vampire, but that’s for sure not what I am. I notice a clatter of paper on the ground, all goodbye notes. Maori must have put those there, after that planning this talk for when I woke up.

  “Now we need to get you help so some stupid ass shit like that doesn’t happen again!” She gets in my face, ready to give me the full-blown plan. “Because I like having you as my human, and as a cat, I don’t adjust to change well.” She gives me a knowing look. And at this moment, I feel myself hating Maori, but I’m slightly grateful. This isn’t the course of action I originally planned for the night but then … that isn’t entirely true. I got the items in case the opportunity presented itself. Just unmedicated severe depression and a bit too much booze, always a great mix.

  Finally, the broken butterfly learned how to spread her wings and fly.

  Once we reach the apartment, my eyes nearly burst open in shock. I have to actually turn my key to open the door. It’s fixed. And the furniture and walls that were in wreckage are now back to their once good shape. Hell better than they were, with how Maori likes to sharpen her claws on the couch. The couch is now in pristine condition. Like I just moved here. Fuck, better than when I moved in.

  Broken dishes have either been fixed or replaced. They even managed to fix my one autographed memoir by Andy Biersack, and the photo is glistening the way it did when it was first taken. I guess one of the company employees just tore the book to shreds to be spiteful, I did manage to runout on him instead of being captured. But now it’s intact, autographed with a special note and all. It’s one of the items I got during the pandemic. With my social anxiety, it was a relief that they were doing a video chat deal for the memoir release. And considering his music helped me and that he was a significant influence on me since I was fifteen, it was a hard-to-get kind of thing. Plus, it was a pretty good price for that sort of thing.

  The cat tower is back in its former glory, and it’s once again ready to be deci
mated by two kitties. Maori would love it … My face drops at the thought. Well, one kitty at the moment since Maori is elsewhere. Right now, if she was around it, one paw swoop would have it tumbling down.

  “Wow. This place looks better than when I first got here,” Charming chips in like he didn’t run the place to shreds when he first arrived. “A little too clean. It’s making me itch for excitement.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. I’d have to obtain a stopentor soon with his shenanigans. For those unacquainted with the term it’s a cat quirt bottle.

  “Where’s Maori?” Colin asks, not seeing her. That’s not something we discussed on the walk here. I lived within walking distance of my job. We talked about what the movie roster was for tonight, along with munchies to have. I asked him about how he enjoyed his new Kroger job and how his dad’s work was going. Still, I was hoping to prolong telling him about miss tuxedo kitty.

  “She’s gone.” I feel my breath catch. I knew he won’t just leave it at that. He would have further questions and ponderings to the circumstances of the whole ordeal.

  “Did she die? Or run off?” He pouts, likely missing the infamous ‘baby kitty.’ It’s a nickname she got when she was little due to being the runt of the litter, and it kind of just stuck. Even though now she’s far from tiny.

  “Maori ran off.” Technically, that isn’t a complete lie since she had to run off to protect herself from HQ. However, HQ is something that Colin doesn’t know about, and it isn’t something I’d ever unveil to him. He has a pretty good optimistic mindset of the world, and I’m not about to change it by telling him about that. The only adventures he needs to know about were in his anime shows and movies.

  “Hopefully, she comes back soon,” he says, expression saddened. She wasn’t the most social cat, but she would come out for pets in between naps. And she would sometimes like to sit at the edge of the couch to be near everyone. She’s not nearly as much of a lap kitty as Charming is looking to be, though.