The Oddities: Chapter One

One

It had been a glorious summer day. The grass, emerald as the jewel itself, grew high and tickled my knees as I stepped through it. Being four, I had fondly nicknamed it giggle grass. I hid myself in it, ready to pounce on the tiny yellow and brown chickadee that was twittering merrily while searching for fallen seeds or any other food it would find. My tail swished underneath my skirt. I leaped and caught the little bird in my hands. I could not feel it moving. Terrified that I had actually killed it, I lifted my paw to look at it. Thankfully it quickly came to its feet, spread its wings, and flapped away. I didn’t truly want to kill it, I was just playing hunt. I utterly repulsed the taste of raw food anyhow, so to kill it would be wasteful.

Food; I hadn’t had any in a while. I skipped over to where my mother was curled up on the giggle grass nearby, napping. Her curly blonde hair was in such a mess it hid her white ears from sight. Her hair actually more resembled a bird’s nest at that time, it was in knots, twigs and grass poked out of it from every which way. I meowed loudly. She didn’t stir. I poked her and she responded by curling up tighter. “Mommy, I’m hungry,” I whispered. I heard a grunt. I shook her a little, “Mommy?” She flopped onto her stomach and yawned. She opened one eye sleepily at me, her olive green eyes peaking out beneath her blonde curls.

“Now?” she whined.

“Yes, now!” I said, pulling at her paw, “Come on mommy, up, up, up!”

“In a minute my kitten,” she said. She turned on her stomach and stretched, paws grasping the earth. After she was up we started off toward the house. We had lived in a log cabin in a remote part of the woods, so we wouldn’t be found. Of course I hadn’t known at the time what exactly we were hiding from, only that I should never stray from the forest because things outside of it may hurt me. Being in the forest I was perfectly content and without fear, being part predator myself, I had never learned to fear bears or wolves like humans do. When I wasn’t wandering the forest, I read, an activity which I loved. I followed my mother to the house excitedly skipping, bouncing, and twirling.

“Mommy I caught a birdie today!”

My mother glanced at me, “If you caught a bird then why are you hungry?”

I made a face, “Ew, raw food is gross.”

She smiled, “Well I like it fine, you must have gotten that from your father.”

We entered the house and mother walked over to the kitchen area and opened the cupboard. “What do you want to eat?”

“Chicken!”

“We’re going to have chicken for dinner soon, what would you like as a snack?”

“Uhh...” My young mind hesitated for several minutes, contemplating all of my options, as if it were the most important decision in the world. My mother waited patiently while I formulated an answer, “Cheese?”

“Okay,” Mother said, opening the icebox, digging around a bit for cheddar cheese, but soon she had it successfully dug out and had cut a slice off for me, “Here you are my darling kitten.”

While I snacked on cheese with one hand, I held my book in the other. The book was about a girl who was starting kindergarten. I wanted so badly to go to school; to learn new things and make friends. I didn’t know anyone my own age where I lived. My mother said that I couldn’t go to school like the girl in my book. She said that the children at school were… different.

I looked at the pictures in my book. The children were the same basic human shape as me, but we were different. Their ears were odd in appearance and the same color as their skin, where mine were more triangular and covered in reddish fur. I also then realized that none of them had a tail. How do they balance, I wondered. I turned the page. There was a drawing of a girl writing, something I didn’t know how to do. Whenever I tried to grip a pencil I would become so frustrated I would end up bursting into tears. Everything else I knew came easily to me, like an instinct, and failing wasn’t one of them. I looked at the girl’s hands; her fingers were long and slender, she didn’t have claws. I observed my own paws, short stubby fingers stuck out from the palm of my hand, and made my claws stick out. Puzzled, I studied the girl more. Her eyes were also different; the pupil was round and soft instead of a jagged slit. I remember thinking how strange they looked, how different. Then a thought struck me fast like lightning, what if I was the one who was different and strange?

I looked up at my mother. Her features were very similar to mine, as were my fathers. They too, had the same basic body structure as a human, but with cat-like attributes to offset them. I must not be that different, I decided, I had seen more of my kind than these strange types of humans, for all I know they could be some sort of mythical creature, a kind that only existed in the books I read.

My mother’s ear twitched and she jerked her head up from dinner. “Someone’s coming,” she said, and hastily walked over to the door.

I scurried over to the window and peaked out of it, pushing the curtain aside, “It’s Daddy!”

Mother sighed in relief and opened the door. Unfortunately that relief would not be for long as my father rushed into the house and slammed the door tight behind him, quickly locking and chaining the door.

“Jon, what’s wrong?”

Father dragged a chair from the kitchen table and blocked the door with it. “I think I was followed, turn off all the lights,” he said.

Mother ran about the house to do so, and I flipped off the one that was by the window. Father was pushing on the door, the red hair on the back of his neck standing on end.

“Who followed you Daddy?” I asked.

He looked down at me, and the fierceness in his eyes softened, “Some humans, I’m not sure what they want.”

Mother returned from turning all the lights off.

“Carrie, get the shotgun.”

She ran into the bedroom and returned with it only moments later. She then pushed a rug on the floor aside with her foot and opened the trap door. “Kitty, please stay down here.”

“Why?”

“So you’ll be safe.”

“Safe from what?”

“Please just do it kitten, there’s not time to explain”

I obeyed reluctantly. Once I was down she shut the door and I heard her replace the rug. Someone knocked at the door.

Silence.

More knocking, then a voice, “We know your in there, come out and you will not be harmed.”

More silence followed, although it sounded to me as if my heartbeat alone would give us away.

“We’re going to break down the door.”

Silence greeted the strangers once again, who apparently did not like it and started pounding on the door with something that sounded large.

A loud crashing sound came as I heard the door giving in. Another followed shortly, and I could now hear the footsteps of the strangers on the floor above me.

“Drop your weapon,” yelled the voice.

“What do you want from us, we have done nothing wrong, just leave us alone!” Father shouted.

“We can’t do that,” said the voice, “our orders specifically say that we must take you to the lab where you can be studied.”

Mother hissed, “We are not your experiments and you cannot take us from our lives.”

My mother’s shotgun sounded and I heard a body hit the floor above me.

The voices all yelled, “Drop your weapon!”

“Leave us, and I will!” Mom shouted.

A second gunshot sounded followed by yet another thud on the floor.

Mother’s voice, “Jon!”

By this time I had really started to shake, and it was taking all of my self control not to whimper and give me away.

“You killed him!” Mother cried.

“He’s not dead yet, but he will be if you don’t come with us.”

Mother hit the floor next to her fallen husband and sobbed. I had never heard my mother cry before, I knew things must have been even worse from above me.

“We must go quickly before your husband loses any more blood.”

Mother continued to sob but I heard her rise to her feet.

I heard a clink on the floor.

Then footsteps, “Cuff her.”

Metallic noises followed this instruction, and I hoped with all of my heart it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

“Bill, are you alright?” a voice asked.

Another voice responded, “She nearly shot me! The nerve of that… woman!”

The first voice came again, this time in a lighter tone accompanied by a chuckle, “Yes, I think you’re just fine.”

I failed to see the humor in the situation.

More loud footsteps, “Someone get his feet.”

After more grunting and loud heavy footsteps, there was perfect silence.

*Author's Note: This story is a novel in progress. If anything doesn't make sense to anybody now, later chapters will most likely provide your answers. I apologize for any formatting errors but I am somewhat computor retarded so please bear with me because I tried the best I could to make it easier to read. Thank you to all who read.