A Thing About Cats

So I wrote this ages ago and I can't even really remember what it's about so yeah haha

Ingrid sneezed. She narrowed her eyes. There must be a cat somewhere around, she thought, looking around the dark alley. And where there’s a cat, there’s a cat-lover. So in her mission to kill all cats and cat-lovers she sharpened her senses and she heard the hurried footfalls of the cat-lover running away. Ingrid sped after it. She jumped onto the roof of the building on her right. She looked down and saw a hooded figure carrying a hessian sack. The hessian was struggling. Ingrid narrowed her eyes. She took a running jump and dived onto the cat-lover. She got out her knife and held it to the figure’s neck.

“Hand over the bag,” she ordered. The cat-lover handed it over. Ingrid looked inside. It was empty. Ingrid growled and tossed the bag onto the ground.

“Where is it?” Though she couldn’t see the cat-lover’s face, she could tell she was smiling.

“You’ll kill me anyway, Ingrid, you will never find that cat.” laughed Phoebe. Ingrid stabbed her.

Liam Applegate woke up to his average Monday morning. His younger brother, Jackson was still asleep in his bed. Liam slipped out of bed, being careful not to wake his brother. He glances at the glowing numbers on his alarm clock, and as usual when Liam woke on a school morning it was only 4am. He got dressed and put on his shoes and walked out of the house. He grabbed an unripe apple from the tree in his father’s garden and started jogging up the mountain, Mt Mountalocks. Liam loved the feel of the cool wind on his face and the slope of the mountain under his feet, things his father and brother couldn’t seem to understand the joy of.

It only took Liam half an hour to get to the top where he could look down on the sparkling lights of the city. He sat down on his boulder and watched the city slowly come alive. The sun started rising at 6am and Liam reluctantly trudged back down the mountain. His father had cereal and bowls sitting on the bench and was sleepily eating his own coco pops.

“Get Jack up, will you? Or you’ll be late for school.” he said tiredly. Liam knew that his dad would have yelled twice for Jack then given up, as per usual. Liam walked into the bedroom.

“Jack! Get up!” Liam walked into the tiny bedroom. He gasped. Jack’s covers were thrown in a pile on the floor and he was nowhere to be seen.

“Dad! Where’s Jack?”

“What d’you mean where’s Jack, he should be…” Mr. Applegate walked into the room.

“He’s probably…just gone for a walk or something…” Liam said, uncertainly.

“Yeah, yeah. C’mon, get ready for school already!” Mr. Applegate clapped his hands.

Liam waited at the bus stop without Jackson, for he still hadn’t returned. Mr. Applegate called the police but because it took an hour to get around the mountain, they hadn’t arrived yet.

Liam got onto the bus at 7am. There were only 2 other kids who lived on this side of the mountain and he was the first on and he wouldn’t get to school until 8:30am. He sat in his usual seat, 3 rows from the back.

An hour and a half later, the bus was full of people as it lumbered up to school. As he got off the bus, Liam sighed and realised he couldn’t handle school today. Everyone would ask him where Jackson was and pity him as he said “I don’t know.” He glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then, inconspicuously tiptoed away. As soon as he was a fair distance from school he ducked into an alleyway and hid his schoolbag under a dumpster. A streak of grey fur darted past and sat at the entrance of the alley.

“Here kitty, kitty,” he called. The cat glared at him with bright yellow eyes and slowly padded away. It was strange seeing a cat, Liam hadn’t seen one for about two years, ever since the law was passed that any cats seen in the streets were to be killed or anyone found with a cat in their possession had to be reported to the authorities.

Liam had a weird urge to follow this grey cat. As he rounded the corner of the alley, onto the street, he could see the cat sitting a little way ahead and it appeared to be waiting for him. Liam looked around then set off after it. The cat walked two streets down then turned into another alleyway. Lying there, bleeding from what appeared to be a stab wound, was a girl with bright red hair.

“Oh God,” Liam whispered. He knelt beside her and checked her pulse. Miraculously, she was still alive. She groaned and Liam jumped back. She opened her eyes.

“My bag…” she whispered. Liam looked around and spotted a purple backpack lying nearby. He grabbed it and handed it to her. Her hand fished around in the bag and she pulled out a clear bottle half full of silver liquid. She unscrewed the lid and took a couple of gulps. She sighed as she slipped the bottle back into the bag. She all of a sudden seemed healthier and the hole in her stomach less severe. Liam stared at her. She got up.

“Um…are you sure you should be walking, I mean, you just got stabbed!”

“That stuff I just drank, it was healing potion. The wound will be completely healed in a few minutes,” Liam looked at her sceptically.“Walk with me,” she said,

“I don’t think so. First of all, I don’t even know you. Secondly, I’m kinda…skipping school, and I don’t want to be seen wandering around the city. And third of all, you should be taken to a hospital, you’ve got a big gaping hole in your stomach and you’re obviously delusional!”

“God, don’t you listen? I’m fine! Look,” Liam looked at her stomach. It was completely healed. He stared at her in amazement.

“Told you. I’m Phoebe, I’m…from out of town,” Liam raised an eyebrow. This girl, Phoebe, was a bit of a nutcase and there was definitely something she was hiding but she didn’t seem like a serial killer or anything, so Liam decided to walk with her.

“So, what are you doing in Hillsview?” Liam asked, because that’s what the pathetically named city was called,

“Um, I’m here on…business…”

“What sort of business?” because he was wondering what sort of business a 16 year old could have in a foreign city.

“R…research…for…something…er…um, yeah” Liam raised his eyebrows at her. “Well it’s none of your business, is it?” Phoebe snapped.

“I guess not…”

“Why are you skipping school?”

“Research for something,” he laughed at her. She smiled.

“Ha ha, very funny,” A silence followed, both lost in thoughts of their own secrets.

“Was that your cat? I thought they were extinct,” Liam asked suddenly remembering the grey ball of fur. Phoebe hesitated.

“Yeah. Yeah, he’s mine. They’re not extinct yet,” she replied.

“Don’t you know how much trouble you could get in for owning him? Not that I would inform the police or anything but, still…”

Liam looked around for the cat but he appeared to have disappeared.

“He’s gone home,” Phoebe said. “And you don’t know the half of it. But I’m not worried for him, Arthur knows his way around.” They wandered up and down the streets for ages making small talk i.e. how sunny it was for July. Liam saw a poster of a woman with shiny black hair. “VOTE 1 Ingrid Hunter!” the poster commanded. Liam spontaneously rushed up at the poster and ripped Ingrid’s face off. Phoebe looked bewildered but oddly pleased.

“Why did you do that?” She asked.

“I dunno… I just had this sort of rush of hatred for this chick. It seems like ever since she started running for Mayor of the city, everything’s gone wrong!”

“She hasn’t even been elected yet,”

“Yet. That’s the key word. I just…I don’t know…Er!” Liam yelled frustratedly. Phoebe didn’t question him anymore. They entered a residential area of Hillsview when suddenly…

“Omygoshness! Hide!” Phoebe whispered as though she would like to scream but didn’t want to give away their position. She jumped into a large untidy hedge and pulled Liam in beside her just as an overlarge woman in a green coat walked by.

“What’s going on? Liam whispered, annoyed.

“Don’t worry, it was a false alarm.”

“A false alarm for what?” Liam pulled away from her, as she was holding onto his arm, and got out of the bush. Phoebe followed, brushing the leaves out of her hair.

“I thought it was, er, one of them,” Phoebe muttered. Liam rolled his eyes.

“One of who, exactly?”

“No one, alright, just someone dangerous,” The fat woman in a green coat looked as much ready hurt someone as he was to eat a peanut butter and glue sandwich. Liam looked at his watch. His eyes widened. It was 4 o’clock already and he had missed his bus. In an hour it would reach his house and his Dad would go out of his mind with worry if Liam didn’t get off it. After all Mr. Applegate had already lost one son and a wife. Liam said as much to Phoebe, only leaving out the bit about losing Jackson and his mum.

“And I still have to get my bag from under that dumpster!” he finished.

“God, chill! I know a shortcut. It’ll only take like 20 minutes to get your bag and, using my shortcut, it will only take you another 20 minutes to get home!” Liam, once again, doubted Phoebe’s sanity.

“Fine, let’s go then,” he agreed reluctantly. Phoebe and Liam went back to the dumpster where Liam had hidden his bag, only to find it wasn’t there.

“Oh man! What am I going to tell my dad?”

“That someone stole it?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, then he can ring the school to dob on whoever has ‘stolen’ it, only to find out that his remaining son has been wagging!” Liam all but shouted. But Phoebe only heard one thing.

“Remaining son? What do you mean, remaining?”

“It’s nothing, okay? Jack’s just, trying to scare us,” Liam tried to explain, not believing a word he was saying. Phoebe shrugged.

“It’s none of my business,” she said although you could tell she wanted to hear every juicy detail. “Let’s just get you back home ok?”

“Right.”

Phoebe led Liam through the city, towards Mt Mountalocks. Surprisingly it only took a few minutes before they were at the start of the track that amateur hikers from Hillsview liked to climb in their spare time. Phoebe started walking up the track.

“Um, I hate to tell you this Phoebe, but that is not a shortcut. It will probably take over an hour to get home from here!”

“Why won’t you just trust me? I know what I’m doing!” Although Liam didn’t believe Phoebe, there was no other way to his house other than taking the road and that would take at least three hours on foot. So he followed Phoebe up the slope, barely watching where he was going, until he crashed right into the back of her.

“Why have we stopped? Do you want it to take even longer?” Liam demanded. Phoebe just rolled her eyes at him. Then she stepped off the path and started pushing her way through the scrub. Even though Liam was confused he followed her without questions. Phoebe stopped, turned and pushed away what appeared to be a large tumbleweed. Behind the tumbleweed was a cave. Phoebe crawled into the entrance, leaving Liam to follow or walk away. Wisely, Liam chose to follow. He was a bit dubious about getting into a cave so small but he needn’t have worried, as soon as he was inside the cave expanded, allowing him to stand up.

“What is this?” he asked, incredulously.

“It’s the shortcut I told you about. This tunnel leads directly to the track on the other side. It’ll take us about 5 minutes to get through the tunnel, then 5 minutes to run down the mountain. You’ll get there long before the bus so I suggest you wait till it arrives before going home.” Phoebe barely took a breath while she was saying all this.

“Um, okay then,” So Phoebe led Liam through the tunnel, and amazingly, at the other end was the track he ran up every morning. Liam could see his house and he just wanted to rush home and see if Jackson was back yet. But there was still half an hour before the bus would come. So Liam sat down on a rock and stared at the spot on the road where he would first see the bus come around the mountain. Phoebe sat on the ground next to him. They sat in comfortable silence for about twenty minutes and it was like they didn’t even have to speak. It was okay just to sit there because Phoebe understood that. Liam broke the silence with,

“What are you going to do after I go home?”

Phoebe looked at him.

“I don’t know. I suppose I’ll just go home,”

“Where are you staying?” Phoebe was looked taken aback by this question, and looked at him questioningly. “You said you were from out of town. Remember?”

“Oh. Yeah. Um.” She looked at the ground. Liam laughed.

“Don’t worry I kind of figured that was a lie,” Phoebe looked back at him and smiled gratefully. Liam stared at the ground and went off into a daydream world, thinking about his brother and about the mysterious Phoebe. He felt her tap on his shoulder.

“Um.” She said. Then she pointed in the direction of his house. The bus was just leaving.

“Goddamn!” Liam shouted and ran down the mountain.

“Bye, Liam!” Phoebe called after him. She smiled to herself then got up and slipped back through the tunnel.

Liam walked into the kitchen where his dad was sitting at the table staring at nothing.

“Dad?” Liam whispered tentatively. For a moment Liam thought his dad hadn’t heard him and was about to repeat himself when his dad turned around.

“Liam! Is it 5:30 already?” Mr. Applegate said in a falsely cheery voice. Liam ignored the question.

“Is there any news, Dad?” he asked instead. Mr. Applegate sighed.

“No. The police left half an hour ago, but it looks like Jack left on his own accord. There was no sign of a struggle,”

“But why would he even do that?” Liam wondered aloud. Mr Applegate shook his head.

“For reasons unknown to us all.”

Liam decided to actually go to school the next day. But, in hope of maybe seeing Phoebe again, he chose to walk. He would pretend he was taking the bus though, he didn’t want his father knowing about the shortcut.

Liam hid in the apple tree until the bus drove past, then, as planned, slipped through the tunnel.

He had hoped Phoebe might be in the tunnel though he wasn’t surprised when she wasn’t. Liam trudged down the other side of Mt Mountalocks feeling utterly unhappy. It wasn’t long before he found himself at the school gate. It was only 7:30. No one else was there yet. Liam cursed himself for being so stupid. He decided to walk around the city for an hour. He looked in every alley that he saw but he still didn’t catch a glimpse of Phoebe. What he did see was the grey cat, Arthur. It stared at Liam with big yellow eyes. Go to school he seemed to be saying. Actually, it was probably just Liam’s imagination but he was still a bit freaked out. He looked at his watch. If he started walking back now he would make it to school just in time for the first bell. He stared at the cat. The cat stared back.

“Okay, okay,” Liam gave in, but he felt a little silly being bossed around by a cat.

Ingrid cackled evilly. She had successfully lured a stupid fourteen year old kid into her clutches. She had chosen this particular boy because her second sight had revealed that his brother was the only one who could overthrow her from her pedestal. And of course what better way to get someone to come after you than to take away someone they love? This boy, the one she had captured, would obviously have been his accomplice, the one she had seen in the dream, so really she was hitting two birds with one stone.

The boy groaned. Damn he was waking up. She grabbed the steel pole she had been carrying around for moments like this, and brought it down on his head. The boy lost consciousness again. Now all Ingrid had to do was show his brother exactly where he was…