Black Cat Crossing

by Fitz Molly

  The big cat ignored me; sending one scathing word: "Quiet."

  I was not going to be quiet. No way, no how. I thrashed around in the carrier. I was terrified of falling off the table, but I didn't know what else to do. I'd managed to get the carrier within a couple inches of the edge when he sauntered over. He sat down, licked his back paw, then looked at me, head tilted to one side.

  "What are you looking at?" I asked. "Are you going to get me out of here or not?"

  He shifted so he could lift a paw to his face. He licked it thoughtfully, then set it down and asked, "What's the hurry?"

  "What's the hurry? What's the hurry?" I was furious. "The hurry is that a little boy is alone, injured, in the dark, dark woods. And little miss witchy over there nearly ran me over then brought me here, in this cage." I rattled the bars with my paw. "I have to find some help and save him."

  He looked over at the two witches who were eating something that smelled delicious, then back at me. "Tell me everything. From the beginning." He tilted his head to the side and looked at a spot over my head. Cats don’t like eye contact very much, so it didn’t surprise me.

  I snorted and yowled. "I don't have time for that. Just get me out of here."

  He hissed and started to turn away. I realized he wasn't going to help me unless I made my case a little clearer. I took a deep breath and started over. "I’m sorry. I’m just very worried and I need help.” I paused and he turned back towards me, his tail flapping against the floor. “Look. You don't have to like me. I don't like you either. But please help me save Adam. He's a good kid and he's hurt and alone. He needs my help and I'm asking—no, I’m begging, for yours."

  "Like I said, tell me what's going on. I can't help if I don't know what's going on." His voice was gruff, and I knew I was irritating him, but I needed his help, so I told him everything. When I was done, I was exhausted, and I rested on the bottom of the carrier, too weak to stand up any longer.

  "Thank you," he said. "I'll be right back." As he walked away, I felt the last bit of hope drain away. I'd let Adam down. He'd asked me to get help and I'd failed him. I shut my eyes and tried not to cry.

  Chapter Four -Stella

  “Well, first of all, the kitten is a she, not an it,” Henry reported, glaring at Stella.

  “Sorry, geez.” As the cat’s eyes narrowed, she decided to rethink her answer. “Sorry, Henry and . . . she-cat. My mistake.”

  “Her name is Midnight and we have to help her.” Henry’s tone was serious, and Stella looked up to meet Pixie’s concerned gaze.

  “What did Midnight tell you about why she was on the road in the middle of a storm?” Pixie asked.

  “And is that blood on her fur?” Stella had to know.

  “Yes, but she says she’s okay. It’s not her we need to help, it’s her human.” Henry’s tail flicked as Midnight let out a loud yowl. “Kittens are so annoying,” he muttered under his breath. “I know, I know, I’m getting to it,” he called out over his shoulder.

  Stella stifled a giggle. She was pretty sure if Henry could roll his eyes, he’d be rolling them right now. “Do tell,” she urged.

  “She says that her human is a young boy, named Adam. She thinks he’s about six years old. His mom got angry with him earlier in the evening and sent him to his room. She says he cried for a bit, then he got angry. He packed up his backpack and snuck out the window.”

  Pixie gasped. “Oh no. That sounds like a really bad idea.”

  Henry nodded his head. “She says that she tried to stop him by yowling at the top of her lungs, but when she wouldn’t be quiet, he stuffed her into the backpack and took her with him.”

  “I found the cat, er, Midnight, on the highway in the middle of the woods. Does that mean the little boy is lost in the forest?” Stella’s voice cracked on the last word and she felt her heart start to race. She was an adult witch and she would be terrified to be lost in the woods at night. She couldn’t imagine how scary it would be for a little boy.

  Pixie reached out her hand and placed it on top of Stella’s. “Let’s let Henry finish his story before we jump to any conclusions,” she suggested.

  “Unfortunately, she’s right,” he sighed. “According to Midnight, their home is right on the edge of the forest. He followed the path they normally take to go to his friend’s house, but when the storm rolled in, he took shelter under a large tree. When the rain started coming down harder, he decided to head back home, but he couldn’t find the path. She thinks he started to panic because he suddenly took off running.” He paused to lick his paw and Stella had to bite her lip to keep from telling him to hurry up. “Lightning lit up the sky and Adam screamed. He started running again, then slipped in some mud and twisted his ankle.”

  Pixie’s hand was squeezing hers, tighter and tighter. “Oh no! What happened then?” Midnight let out a long whine and Stella felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

  “He told Midnight to go home and get his mom. He said to tell her he was sorry for eating the Halloween candy and that he’d be a good boy.” He paused to cough and clear his throat, then continued. “He crawled into a hollowed-out tree and pulled a bunch of branches down around him, to give him some protection.”

  “What did she do? She didn’t leave him there, did she?” Caught up in the story, Pixie’s eyes were huge.

  “Well, of course she left him there. If she’d stayed with him, she wouldn’t have been running out in the middle of the road,” Stella scoffed.

  “Oh yeah. That’s true,” Pixie agreed. “Go on, Henry.”

  “She didn’t want to leave him, but she didn’t know what else to do. She said he was shivering, and his legs and arms were scratched and bleeding. He couldn’t walk on his own and she’s too little to keep him warm, so she decided he was right, and she’d need to find some help. She says she purred and head butted him, to let him know she loved him, then she headed out into the woods to get help.”

  “Wow. What a brave little kitten,” Pixie whispered. Stella nodded, the lump in her throat keeping her from commenting herself.

  “What about the blood on her fur? Is that his?” Stella swallowed hard.

  “No. That’s hers.” Henry cleared his throat before continuing. “She hadn’t gone very far when she saw eyes glowing in the darkness.” The two witches gasped.

  “Oh no! What was it? What did she do?” Pixie’s voice was full of fear and Stella squeezed her hand, hard.

  “It was a wolf.” The kitten was silent, for once, and Stella wondered if it understood what Henry was saying. “It came at her and tried to eat her. Its teeth tore into her back, but she managed to get away and climb a tree. She clung to the branches, high enough so he couldn’t reach her.”

  “Oh my goodness. That poor little thing,” Pixie exclaimed.

  “As she was looking down at the wolf, she realized how close they were to Adam. She was afraid he might sense the boy’s presence, so she jumped down and taunted the wolf into following her. That’s why she was running across the road,” he looked up at Stella. “She was leading him away from Adam.”

  “Like I said, she’s a brave little kitten,” Pixie muttered, wiping a tear from her eye.

  “We have to help her. We have to go out and find this little boy and get him back to his mother,” Henry stated, summing things up.

  The door to the bakery opened and a very wet vampire walked in. He removed his raincoat, shook it off in the doorway, then shut the door and hung the coat on the coatrack. He turned to find four sets of eyes watching him closely. Midnight hissed and let out a low growl.

  “He’s one of us,” Henry told the kitten. “Stop your hissing.” The kitten let out one more, tiny growl, then watched silently from inside the carrier.

  “Thanks, Henry, I think,” Chester told him. “What’s going on?”

  “It looks like we have a mystery to solve and a little boy to save. Are you up for an adventure?” Pixie’s eyes gleamed as she waited for his response.

  �
�Of course. What do you need me to do?”

  Chapter Five -Stella

  Stella was impressed with how quickly they pulled together a plan. While Henry explained to Chester, Pixie and Stella put together a rescue kit.

  “Okay, flashlights, snacks, water, blankets, walkie talkies, raincoats . . . check, check, check.” Pixie tilted her head to the side and looked at Stella. “What are we forgetting?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that you’re both witches and you could conjure up all this stuff as you need it instead of having to carry it with you,” Chester joined them with a grin on his face.

  “He does have a point,” Stella agreed.

  “You both forget that I am a baker. And I bake from scratch. And my pies are so much better than anything you could make with a snap of your fingers.”

  “Well, yes, my dear Pixie,” Chester said. “But walkie talkies? Don’t you both have cell phones?”

  “Yes, we do. But we’re going to be in the middle of nowhere, in the deep, dark forest. Cell service will be spotty at best. We can’t take that chance. With these, we can stay in contact regardless of cell service. Plus, these are pretty cool, you have to admit,” Pixie grinned, waving a hot pink walkie in the air.

  “I don’t know about cool,” he teased. “But I do understand about cell service, so that makes sense. Tell me this, though, do you really think this stuff is somehow more effective than the kind you . . .” he waved his hands frantically in the air and Stella snorted.

  “It’s a good thing you’re a vampire and not a witch. That’s not how you cast a spell,” she giggled.

  “No, there’s probably no difference, but I like to be prepared,” Pixie added, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

  Stella could see her cousin was getting annoyed, so she shrugged her shoulders and started packing each set of supplies into the duffel bags Pixie had set next to the table. “Come on, Chester. These things aren’t going to pack themselves.”

  He started to say something but apparently thought better of it, because he sighed and joined Stella.

  Midnight let out a long, angry-sounding yowl and Henry’s fur ruffled. “She says to stop messing about. She’s worried about the little boy and wants to get going.” He lowered his voice and added, “She’s really starting to get on my last nerve.”

  Pixie laughed. “Stop it, Henry. You know that pretty much everything gets on your last nerve.”

  The cat looked up at her, his tail thwapping against the floor and his eyes narrowed, then he shrugged. “You’re not wrong.”

  “Okay then, I think we’re ready. Well, almost. We should probably clean the kitten’s wound before we take her back into the woods.” She turned to Henry. “Could you please explain to her that I’m just going to check the wound and clean it? That I’m not trying to hurt her?”

  He nodded. I’ll let her know. He padded off towards the kitten while Pixie opened her first aid kit and pulled out some supplies. She set them down on the table and carefully opened the door in the top of the carrier. It created an opening big enough to put her hand through, but not quite big enough for the kitten to escape. She gave it a good shot, though.

  “Hold still!” Henry’s growl had the desired effect and she settled down long enough for Pixie to wipe the spot with disinfectant, eliciting a hiss from the kitten.

  “Does it look bad?” Stella asked from across the room. She had a cat of her own, so she knew better than to crowd the wounded kitten.

  “I can’t really tell. But the gauze I wiped it with only has a little blood and I don’t feel anything too concerning.” Pixie pulled her hand out of the carrier and closed it up, making sure the latch was secure. “There you go. Hopefully that didn’t hurt too much.”

  The kitten growled, but Henry chuckled. “She says thank you, but yes, it hurt.”

  “Sorry, little kitty.” Pixie cleaned up her mess, washed her hands and returned to the table where Stella and Chester were waiting.

  “Whose car are we taking? I don’t think we can all fit in mine. And if . . . I mean, when we find Adam, there definitely won’t be enough room.”

  “We can take mine,” Chester offered, but Pixie quickly nixed that.

  “Oh no, we’re not taking your old Woodie wagon. Not even.”

  “Woodie wagon?” Stella asked, giggling at the mental image that conjured up.

  “Yeah, you know, the old station wagons with the wood paneling on the sides?” Chester’s cluelessness only made her laugh harder.

  “We’ll take my delivery van,” Pixie announced. “It has seats for 4 people and room in the back for the cat carrier and the supplies.”

  “Shotgun!” Henry yelled as he made a beeline for the door.

  “No fair!” Stella whined. “Shouldn’t you be in the back with the kitten?”

  He shook his head. “No way. I get carsick if I sit in back. I have to be in the front seat or,” he mimed having a hair ball and Stella shuddered.

  “Fine. I can be a grown up and sit in the back seat,” she grumbled. She looked over and caught Pixie making a face. “I can, Pixie.”

  “I didn’t say a word,” her cousin laughed. “But I do need you to be able to show me where you found Midnight, so Henry, too bad, so sad, you’ll have to sit in the backseat with Chester.”

  He growled and Stella stepped back, but Pixie wasn’t concerned and walked right past him, carrying Midnight. Chester gestured for her to go ahead of him as she grabbed a couple of duffle bags and headed for the van. The vampire followed, with the last of the gear and a sullen, talking cat beside him. Once they were all seated and buckled in, and the carrier was wedged between two crates so Midnight wouldn’t slide around every time Pixie turned a corner, they headed out to look for Adam.

  Chapter Six -Midnight

  Great. Just great. I couldn’t find a policeman, or a fireman or a detective, oh no. I had to find two witches, a talking cat and a vampire. I hissed to myself. A vampire, of all things. Well, beggars can’t be choosers and I needed all the help I could get—even if it came from supernatural beings.

  I was annoyed by the way Henry kept talking about how annoying I was, and it was really starting to hurt my feelings. I was an adorable little kitten and I couldn’t fathom how anyone could find me annoying.

  As Pixie took a turn a little too fast the carrier slid, and I let out a startled yelp. My torn-up claws scraped along the bottom of the carrier and Henry hissed, peering around the edge of the car seat in front of me.

  “Stop that infernal racket,” he said. I tried to think of an appropriately snarky reply, but I was tired and scared, so I let it go. He looked at me oddly but didn’t say anything else.

  “I think it was up here,” Stella said from the front seat. “Yes. You can see my skid marks right there.” The rain had stopped but the road was still slick, and the shoulder was muddy, so the van slid a bit as Pixie pulled to the side and parked.

  I felt my energy return in a rush. We were close to Adam. Or were we? I wasn’t sure how long the wolf chased me before I ran into the road. I felt myself start to panic and I looked up to meet Henry’s eyes, watching me carefully.

  “We’ll find him, I promise. My friends are good people. We’ll find him.”

  I wanted to believe him, but I was scared. I didn’t know what I would do if anything had happened to Adam. I let out a yowl; I couldn’t help it. I expected the cat to hiss or give me attitude, but he didn’t. Maybe he was starting to like me after all.

  The vampire opened the back doors of the van and lifted the carrier, setting it on the ground. It took everything in my power not to hiss at him. Witches I could tolerate, but a vampire? Not so much.

  “She ran into the road from right over here,” Stella told the others. They left me behind as they walked over to peer into the dark forest lining the road. She sighed. “That’s a lot of trees and darkness to search.”

  Pixie put her arm around her shoulders. “I know, but that’s why we brought the gear. We can split
up and cover more ground. The walkies will keep us in contact, so we’ll never be far away from each other.”

  “It’s a little scary, even for me,” Stella admitted.

  “I know. But it’s even scarier for that little boy.” Pixie’s words tore at my heart and I yowled, shaking the carrier. She turned towards me. “What should we do with the kitten? Should we let her out? Or carry her along with us?” She turned to Henry who shrugged and walked over to me.

  “If we let you out, will you behave?” I was angry. How dare he ask me if I would behave. I hissed and glared at him. “Nope. She needs to stay in the carrier for now,” he announced.

  I howled in rage and threw myself against the side of the carrier. He turned back to me; his eyes gleaming. “You’re proving my point, you know.”

  I realized he was right, but he made me so angry. “You’re not the boss of me. Let me out! I need to find my boy!”

  He walked closer and sat down in front of me. “I know. But if we let you out now, you’ll run off and get yourself lost, or worse. Calm down and behave. When we have a better idea of where Adam is, we’ll let you out and you can help. For now, just keep your eyes open and let us know if you see anything that seems familiar.”

  He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t willing to admit that to him. Every instinct I had was telling me to run and I felt helpless, trapped in a cage. As much as I hated it, I needed their help. No, I reminded myself, Adam needed their help. I sucked up my frustration and nodded. “Fine. But I don’t want the vampire to carry me.”

  Henry’s tail twitched in irritation. “He’s a good guy. He can’t help it if he’s a vampire.”

  With that, he turned and strutted back to the others, leaving me behind once again.