"Kaylee," Jensen asked some time after Fran and Darla had left along with his newest
daughters. "Did you find what I asked you to and double check to make sure it was a
human free zone and didn't have any natural inhabitants that could permanently harm the
pups?"
"Yes I did Master." Kaylee said, rather repulsed she had been made to actual -work- when
they had plenty of she wolves to do the work for them, "It was a headache to find and
finding any useful info' on it was drudgery but yeah, I found one that matched your
description."
Jensen spoke surprisingly calm, "Good. Be sure to give Alice, Abby, and Samantha the
precise location."
"Right: Nothing Island In the Middle of the Nowhere Sea. Easy enough to remember."
"Better be. If anything goes wrong, and we need to abandon the mansion, that's where
we'll relocate to."
Kaylee stared in total and complete -shock-. "What? But... but before you wanted to stay
at the mansion no matter what! You didn't want the hard work of the pack to go to waste!"
Jensen with a strange look in his eyes leaned back in the couch/chair and said, "Yes, I did.
But that was before..."
"Before what?"
"Before.. I..." Jensen spoke as if he had trouble getting the words out, "Before I started to
think about the pups if it came down to holding onto the mansion to the end."
"But why that one? It's in international waters, it's in the middle of military, economic, and
political limbo! It has no strategic importance, no political worth, and is far too away from
anything to function as a vacation site!"
"Exactly." Jensen said, "No humans will ever bother us there. And any cast away who by
stupid chance stumble on us will be done by Alice or Martha. If we need to abandon the
mansion, the children are to go first, then the pack, then us, Jack and Marcine and as much
of their herd as possible, and finally the gargoyles, the shadows will remain behind to take
care of any final matters. And to burn it down if we really are faced with an overwhelmingly
superior magical or military force."
"But.." Kaylee said, "The game can't be used outside of Glendale! It'll be worthless!" Kaylee
didn't like the idea of losing power.
"Exactly, which means no one will be able to 'Transform or Dare' our pack or ourselves
back into the lowly humans we used to be."
Kaylee still didn't like it. "That would mean no electricity...no television... no wii... no game
boy... NO INTERNET!"
Jensen guessed that the last part came from Kaylee's former life as the geeky Kyle. "Don't
worry dear, this is only going to be an emergency last resort. For if we find ourselves on
the business end of the US army, or some Men In Black army whose duty is to prevent the
strange and unknown from becoming known, or some absurd, contrived, cliche
organization of magicians or mythicals whose single duty is to keep humanity docile and
ignorant. Or any other situation which would make it impossible for us to stay in Glendale
or the mansion with trouble that would follow us if we tried a more simple relocation."
Kaylee hugged her Master and mate, "Master, I don't like that scenario at all..."
"Neither do I dear, neither do I."
++++++++++++++++
Trevor didn't know what to expect, but to end up at the Smith estate wasn't one of them.
Not everyone knew the Smiths. But Jennifer Smith had always made sure everyone at
school knew her, and Trevor hadn't lost his ability to read words with his curse, only his
ability to read dates, so the plaque on the wall facing the street was as plain as day to him.
He wondered whatever happened to the princess of Glendale High, he wondered if she was
in collage yet, so had always been so sexy, he had been near the top of her boyfriend
waiting list when the second stringer cursed him. Just one more reason for Trevor to loath
his fate.
Surrounding the front gate was a squad of day workers as they were systematically taking
apart the ornamental gate and replacing it with a slightly less ornamental one that looked
like it could withstand a pounding from a SWAT Team van.
Trevor of course saw the nasty but shapely looking gargoyles on the top of the walls,
looking like a cross between something winged and scaly from Hades and the most
intimidating werewolves ever produced by Hollywood. Trevor would have though how rich
people were weird but there something that drew his attention a lot more.
Standing at the front of the gate, talking to the apparent foreman and leaning against the
wall with one arm underneath her furry breasts and another holding a cup of coffee was a
naked humanoid she-wolf with dark blue fur. She was easily over six feet tall and actually
looking down at the foreman who was also holding a cup of coffee. They were talking
totally casually about the problems of being blamed for the mistakes of subordinates.
Trevor just blinked, she didn't smell like the two scents he had been following. They were
similar, but decidedly different 'people.' 'Oh who am I kidding? Do I still count as 'people'
any less than they do?' Trevor thought. Then he got his head back in reality.
'This is the place. It has to be.' Trevor concluded. What threw Trevor for a loop was how
the apparent foreman was talking to the she-wolf as if he talked with naked women with
fur all the time who were taller than him. And none of the day workers were giving her
any more of a look than any male would give an attractive lady (maybe a bit more).
'Are they all Dared?' Trevor wondered, remembering how Madam Serenity said the game
had been used a LOT lately. Heck, for all he knew, the conditions of her Transform made
it so no one considered her odd. Trevor remember Madam Serenity telling them that
people did that a lot if they wanted their victim to suffer in silence unable to tell anyone
things were wrong without coming across like a lunatic.
Whatever it was, the answers were in there. The scent of the big wild dogs of course got
stronger as Trevor skulked nearby. Those statues, it felt like they were watching him! But
they were just stone right? I mean, if they were Transform victims then they couldn't move
to begin with right? Then again Trevor now had a brain the size of a peach and was able
to remember every detail of his life with cruel crystal clarity. Who knew what else the game
could do? If what Madam Serenity said was true and the game was the result of a long
dead coven of witches who loved havoc, it might be a shorter list of what this sick game
COULDN'T do! Ugh! He wished that he could shake the feeling those pieces of rock were
watching him behind his back. He needed to stay focused so one of the day workers didn't
step on his tail or he didn't get impaled by a stray steel rod.
And the growing scent was making it harder and harder for him to ignore his instinct to
just run away from what was ever going to eat him. He didn't even know if the dark blue
werewolf wasn't going to eat him!!!
He carefully with all the grace and agility that his body granted him moved past the
foreman and blue she wolf... 'Why does everything except mice have to be bigger than me?
' Trevor wondered. Trevor remembered when he ferreted out the kid turned into a mouse
and managed to convince him he wasn't about to eat him... they both had to flee for their
lives from a pack of hungry rats... Trevor swore some were bigger than him. 'As Sherlock
Homes said, 'the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.' ' All
these distractions were doing wonders for keeping his primal fear under control, he was
past the she wolf and foreman, -and- those creepy statues. Or so he hoped, "And where
do you think you're going?"
Trevor fanged his own tongue and tasted blood to keep from screeching like violin strings.
"Queen!" He said in a hushed voice even thought it was unlikely the wolf could understand
them.
"Hello to you too. If you want to be a dare devil, there are less suicidal ways to do it."
"What are you doing here?!" Trevor said at wits end and using all his will power to keep
from screaming.
"Following you. You still owe me a deposit at the bank, and I'm not leaving until I collect."
"I never signed a check!"
"It's your species honor and obligation to continue Bast's perfect species."
'It's pronounced 'Bastet' you stupid cat.' Trevor thought, 'Then again, maybe the cats have
the right translation-WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT THIS NOW?!'
"Look! This is very dangerous!"
"Care about me?"
"Not in the least! But if you're along I'm more likely to get caught!"
"And there's no way I can change your mind?"
"Not in the least."
"Then I'm coming with you."
"WHAT?"
"No offense, but you're a house cat, you simply don't have the experience that an
unfettered felidae like me has when it comes going in a dog infested house you don't
belong... so tell me, is this the important thing you needed to take care of for your human?
"
"Sort of...."
"Always mysterious as well as strange.. I'm going to figure you out if it's the last thing I do
my tom. So tell me? Did you use your human's help to find this place or by yourself?"
"Doesn't matter." Trevor said seeing where this was going.
"Is that so?..." Queen said.
"Yes that so. And my name is Trevor not tom."
"You don't need a name, shouldn't want a name, shouldn't have a name. Names are a
human thing."
"You can't take a name back once it's been given. And maybe humans have some good
ideas if you bothered to learn."
"Why should I have to learn anything from them?"
Trevor was beginning to suspect the real reason most animals stayed where they did on
the evolutionary ladder (having flunked biology Trevor didn't know evolution didn't work
like that). "You don't know that until you try."
"Pst. Whatever. I'm just here to make sure my bank doesn't foreclose before I get the
return on my investment."
'Bad luck on that.' Trevor thought as he continued to move foreword with Queen close
behind him.
The Grotesque 'Front Door' and his female shaped subordinates saw no reason to care
about some cat wandering in the yard meowing to each other, what possible threat could
they be? And moving to deal with such an insignificant pair of nothings in plain sight of
the human construction workers was a High Risk, Low Gain scenario and ultimately just
not worth their time.
"I've got ask..." Trevor said, "How did you find me?"
"You've been over half of Glendale, what do you think?" Queen responded as if the answer
was obvious.
"I see... " Trevor sighed.
"Why are you helping your human like this anyway? it's not like your some dog who doesn't
know how to think about itself once in a blue moon."
"Maybe because there are things greater than one's self, and the self."
Queen actually pause at that her animal brain wondering what Trevor meant. Did he mean
the species as a whole? But he seemed to be sulking his responsibilities in that
department or she'd be with kitten again by now. So what did he mean?
That was when Queen quickly got closer to Trevor and pulled him back.
"Hey-what-"
That was when a big violet she wolf and a smaller child purple one being carried on her
shoulders.
"You almost marched right into them." Queen said sternly, "Keep your head out of the
clouds or you're going to lose it, Trevor."
Trevor looked at her for several seconds, said nothing, and continued foreword, having no
clue that was the cat way of saying with no irony or sarcasm: 'Thank You Very Much!'
Queen smirked at that and now followed along side him at a more relaxed pace (which for
a cat was something else to see!).
Tevor strangely didn't feel as eager to run away now with a fellow cat nearby. And now,
thinking about it -logically- he should have turned and ran right back to Madam Serenity
and told her precisely where he saw the she-wolf... 'Dangit! Cat curiosity!' Trevor thought
with thundering realization. And Trevor knew what curiosity did to cats.
But Trevor now that he was here, didn't know if he could go back in without rousing
suspicion from whoever now lived her (it was perfectly possible some greedy selfish
pervert had just taken a random mansion for himself and turned the Smiths into sex crazy
wolf women who spent all day servicing the fat slob).
Madam Serenity said that the men who normally created harems like this, as she had
suggested was likely the case, grew increasingly arrogant and self deluded the more they
used the game to ensnare more women into their sick fantasies. Trevor almost wondered
if it was the second stringer who had stolen his life. If it was. Trevor would claw his eyes
out, or throat, or nose, whatever his claws sank into first.
Trevor felt Queen bite his tail.
"OW! You-"
"What are you doing?!"
"Getting inside."
"Through the front door?!"
Trevor started, that was, pretty much, exactly what he was about to do.
Queen sniffed the air a few times, then began to lead -him- "Follow me."
"If you think-"
"You want in or do you want to be eaten?"
Trevor followed.
Queen led him to the side of the household, downwind. Queen systematically scanned
some of the windows, Trevor followed her eyes.
"Okay, fewer of the mutts that know we're here the better, don't stop to look at them,
don't stop to chat with them, don't stop to make faces at them, just keep moving and
maybe they won't give us mind."
Trevor nodded. There weren't any pet doors, but the two violet colored wolves from before
came in, and Trevor and Queen quickly followed in their wake. The smell in side was
overwhelming.
"You stupid tom please, let's just go!"
"I'm not keeping you were."
"Yes you are! I promised to have your litter and I keep my promises like any proper cat."
"I thought proper cats never gave straight answers."
"You HAVE been spending too long with humans: That only applies when dealing with
non-felidae."
Personally, Trevor had never thought of cats of -ever- keeping promises, they did was
suited their whims, nothing more.
"So what are you looking for precisely?" Queen asked.
"You ask that now?"
"Didn't really matter until now."
Trevor sighed. "I'll know it when I see it."
Queen made no reply.
The two cats, now in a kitchen smelling of blood and meat, began to systematically
explore the (to them) cavernous house. Following Queen's instructions, Trevor didn't
speak to any of the wolves. If 'wolves' was the best way to describe them. No wolf Trevor
had ever seen were the colors he was beholding. And since when did wolves go on two
legs and have maternal material shaped like THAT? Trevor decided that the only way to
find out what he would likely need to know, was to do the exact opposite of what he felt
the urge to do, and go more towards the smell of danger. Queen herself thought Trevor
had simply gone insane, but her own curiosity won over her too.
'Just how many are there?' Trevor thought as he saw naked she-wolf after naked she-wolf
going about daily routines or just killing time.
"Hey," Said a blue-green she-wolf to a teal she wolf, "What's with the cats?"
The teal she wolf replied, "Oh don't worry about it, I'm sure they're just pets for the
Master's new children."
"New children?"
"Oh you haven't seen them yet? They're so cute! And they're just like Alice!"
'Alice?' Trevor thought.
"Oh? Where are they then?" The blue-green asked.
"Oh don't worry about it Terri, I'm sure Master will formally introduce them to us at dinner
time."
'Master huh? At least that clinches the whole 'harem' theory, if all the naked women
weren't a big enough clue... but why would the owner of a harem have kids? That's about
the last thing any pervert wants! They're interested in the fun part not the responsibility
afterwards...'
Trevor took note that all the doors in the house were gone from what he saw, and nearly
all the furniture, and the whole place smelled like a kennel, which for Trevor and Queen
might as well have been the next layer of Hades!
That was when Trevor picked up a scent that threw him for a loop. A chihuahua. Among
the storm of scent of super wolves it stood out like a sore thumb.
'Wait... this scent... couldn't be... didn't Mrs. Butler's girls have.. oh no.'
Trevor dashed in one particular direction with a frantic Queen following him.
They stopped at an opening revealing a study filled with books, but that wasn't what drew
Trevor's attention.
Inside were two nine year olds, two seven year olds, and a slightly older seven year old. All
of them naked wolf people. The older girl had glistening black fur, while the others had
reddish brown fur, the slightly older one was walking talking glass!
'Thank goodness,' Trevor thought, 'None of them are the right age for Mrs. Butler's kids.'
But his heart sank at the sight of a vaguely familiar smelling Chihuahua sleeping very
nervously. There was also a silvered she wolf who looked right out of Hindu mythology, a
two headed monster with four arms, four breasts and a pair of tails... Then Trevor noticed
her eyes were solid red and each head had an extra eye in it's forehead.
'What kind of thing from a nightmare is that?' Trevor wondered.
"They're taking over the world." Queen said plainly with an undertone of dismay.
"Maybe..." Trevor replied.
"So you finally have sisters." Said the smallest girl to the glass one.
"Do not be silly!" The glass one laughed, "I had sister before with you and Jenny, so I now
merely have -more- sisters."
'Oh crude.' Trevor thought, the word -Doom- flashing through his head.
"So their mom will be coming here soon too?" Asked the oldest girl, Jenny.
"Yes." The glass one nodded, "They promised they would be there when mom and Auntie
brought Auntie Julie into the pack, so it is only proper they be present."
Trevor turned his head to see a neighboring room which was empty and had the window
open ever so slightly.
"Follow me." Trevor whispered to Queen as they tip toed into the empty room and the
open window.
"We're leaving?" Queen said doing her absolute best not to sound relieved.
"Not yet. Stay out of sight and don't say anything," Trevor said, "I'm going to get some
information out of them and then we get out of here like Hades."
"Information? How?" Queen tilted her head, "And what could a bunch of mutant monster
wolf pups know?"
"Hopefully enough. And I'm going to ask them."
"What-?!" Said a gasp, "BUT-but that's impossible!"
"Not for me...."
"Trevor... -what- are you?"
"... I'll tell you after we get out of here."
Trevor squeezed out of the window and Queen reluctantly followed, the decrease in wolf
smell was a Godsend in of itself.
Trevor inched along the windowsill, pressing his body against the side of the building,
carefully bringing himself to the window that led into the study. Queen was a safe
distance behind him.
Still safely downwind, Trevor scratched at the glass, and repeated this several times until
he got of the wolf pup's attention, in this case the glass one, who curiously followed the
sound to it's source and looked outside.
"Oh! It is a cat! I wonder what it wants!" Asked Alice, "What do you want?"
Trevor dared speak. "Just to come inside and have a friendly chat."
Alice gasped in surprise, "It spoke!"
Trevor was fully ready to go into a spiel about being a magic cat, but instead the youngest
girl answered.
"Well, if we can understand Chester, maybe we can understand other pets too?"
Trevor knew better than to try and contradict them.
"Well if you can understand me, would you mind letting me in for just a bit?"
Alice not a drop of malice inside her opened up the window and Trevor gracefully jumped
in.
"So who are all of you?" Trevor asked not trying to be too direct.
"These are Master and Alpha Female's pups, Bart, Jenny, Kevin, and Marcy, all of us of the
Big Bad Wolf Pack."
"Hello."
"Howdy."
"Are you a magic cat?"
"Yes are you?"
Trevor stiffened, then he remembered, "Cats rarely give straight answers."
Alice thought of the Cheshire Cat, "True."
"I am Martha, Pack Omega, I am the governess and nanny to the pack's pups." Said the
silver monster's two heads together.
"And I am Alice." The glass wolf figure mimed a curtsy.
"Is this all of you there are?"
"No." Alice said, "We just got some new siblings, Abbey and Samantha."
Trevor did his best to hide his absolute horror at that statement. "Who are their parents?"
"Well, their father is our father too." Alice said, "And one of their mothers is the twin of my
mother, so that makes them both my half-sisters and my cousins."
'Other Mother. Check. Looks like Frank ended up a wolf woman after all.' Trevor thought
grimly.
"So what about their.... mothers?"
"One of their mothers, Samantha's, is already part of the pack, and so is mine. But soon
Abbey's will too."
"How is that?"
"Some odd lady told their mother to go away to Frostvile and not stay at home. But Abbey
and Samantha left me a note on where to find them and their mother, and I was able to
help them become like me using the reflection on the TV."
'Without the game?! In Frostvile?! Don't jump to conclusions! But still... did this girls'
transform give her the power to transform others? Oh crude.'
Alice continued, "They left another note to their mom, now in writing instead of pictures,
to come to 3452 Hiss Street here in Glendale as soon as she could. Mama and Auntie will
be waiting there with a turn of the Game for her."
"Game?" Trevor replied.
"Yes! It's the game of 'Transform or Dare', I already used my turn so it doesn't matter if I
say it, but if some of my siblings said it, you'd have to answer transform or dare and-"
Trevor tuned it out, having heard the rules to the game a hundred times. "-Father used
the game a lot to improve everybody who lived here including us!"
"We didn't live here before." Kevin spoke up.
"You do now." Alice pointed out.
"Oh right." Kevin nodded.
"Father used the game to create protectors for us, food for us, family for us, father is so
wonderful!" Alice clapped.
Trevor shuddered, "So... when are you going to curse-I mean improve Abbey and
Samantha's mom?"
The pups were confused a bit by his stutter but said nothing.
Queen meanwhile... gears were turning around in her head, 'What Trevor Dared to act
strange so no female would mate with him?... No... that wouldn't explain how he can
speak like humans unless... but that's impossible... But what if it isn't?'
"We're going as soon as Abbey and Samantha get back with Mr. P." Alice explained, "He's
showing them our bedroom before we go."
That was when Trevor picked up a scent that all the wolves put together so far didn't make
him this scared. Scared? He was petrified!
Coming into the room, a black and gold wolf that made biggest, meanest, most ill-
tempered pitbull Trevor had met seem like a friendly puppy in comparison. It was going
on four legs, and on top of it, was riding two five year old girl glass wolf pups.
"Hello Mr. P." Alice said politely, "Please meet our new friend Trevor."
The monstrous beast came closer and closer to Trevor. Trevor screamed at his legs to
move but they wouldn't. His felt his hairs all standing up as he instinctually tried to make
himself look larger.
"So Abbey, Samantha," Jenny said nicely. "What do you think of our room?"
Trevor terror was broken at the sound of the names just enough.
The five year old glass pups didn't answer, instead one of them (they looked alike) leaned
foreword and pointed, "Hey, I think that's that weird lady's cat. The one who told mommy
and us to go away."
"What's his collar say?" Jenny asked.
Trevor ran. He ran out the second story window. He fell, and landed squarely on his feet
on the grass. Behind him he heard something very large snarl and the sound of a cracking
window. Trevor didn't waste time looking behind him, he just ran.
In the backyard out of sight of the construction crew, BackDoor and the other two
backyard gargoyles saw the giant wolf chasing the cat, but Mr. P hadn't been given
information about the Gargoyles, and thus didn't call them to capture the mangy animal.
It would have likely resulted in two of the gargoyles butting head anyway as the fast and
agile small target fled the giant wolf.
Trevor didn't think. He just ran. He ran between the legs of some wild deer that nealy
impaled him on their hooves as they in a wild panic spread apart for the chasing Big Bad
Wolf. Trevor ran up a tree without thinking. Mr P. snarled and snapped and for a few
seconds Trevor dared think he was relatively safe. Until Mr. P began to jump up and TEAR
OFF the branch Trevor was on as if it was a match stick! Then it bit into one of his
tangling legs, nearly going -through- it, grazing him before the jaws snapped shut below.
The desire to live overrode all pain.
Trevor leapt to another, and another, but Mr. P was always right there behind him,
removing his avenues of escape one by one. 'I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I can't die!
Madam Serenity needs to know about this place! I have to warn her! I have to tell her! BUT
I'M GOING TO DIE!' And the secret of this place was about to die with him.
He ran madly behind some leaves, madly thinking that somehow Mr P. wouldn't find him
here even though he had seen him go in there in plain sight. Already the beast began to
tear the limb off the tree to drop Trevor into his waiting jaws, Trevor held onto the mad
hope that somehow Mr. P would think he had moved on and move on himself, he began to
lose his grip with the giant wolf right below him.
Trevor heard a hiss and a snarl and another tabby flashed past him like furry lightning
right into Mr. P's face.
"QUEEN!" He screamed but neither seemed to hear him over the noise that came at the
same time as Queen with all four sets of claws unsheathed came down on Mr. P's face,
hissing and clawing at the giant wolf's nose, snout, eyes and ears. Blood stained Queen's
claws as she cut into Mr. P's sensitive flesh.
Queen cut at the monster's nose. It whimpered and howled. 'What is this monster?!
Cerberus?! DOESN'T MATTER! Just like it doesn't matter if Trevor WAS a human or not...
he's part of Bast's perfect species now, and he's going to be MY mate!'
Mr. P cursed as the tabby suddenly chose to change tactic and apparently wanted to die
fighting! Then the bloody thing cuts at his nose! The pain stroked like a sword blade
through him. The cat madly tore into his face, red being everywhere.
'I have to end this now before it gets an eye!' Mr. P though as the claws cut deeper into his
face, into muscles and bones.
Trevor stood transfixed by the sight. Queen taking on a dog beast only about five or
twenty times her size! She tirelessly tore him like a small swirling mass of claws and fangs.
The beast rammed it's own head into a tree, Queen got off just in time and the entire tree
shook nearly knocking Trevor out of the tree.
Every instinct inside Trevor told him to run like Hades. To flee. To escape. To survive! To
live!
The beast now chased after Tabby, and from his hiding place among the leaves he spotted
the wolf cubs at the window along with the silver wolf. He saw the rainbow colored she
wolves coming to the back windows too. The fear got stronger.
Queen tore at the front of one of the beast's legs, cutting into the flesh underneath, being
a tiny bit too fast for him to capture with his jaws as he nipped the end of her tail. Queen
cut her claws along his gold belly. And the monster simply let the entire weight of his body
down on top of her.
Trevor's eyes went wide.
The gold and black monster got up, underneath it, Queen twitched and tried to move, half
the bones in her body broken. She got up all the same. She hissed and snarled at him and
attacked again, he easily caught her with no paw, her element of surprise gone and her
body now too clumsy to spring board at him. He crushed the bones already broken,
cutting into internal organs and muscle, one or two even breaking skin.
The mix of blood and stink and the sheer CHAOS making it impossible to tell from scent
this wasn't the tom who escaped. Mr. P didn't look to see the gender of the cat he was
holding, and no one from this distance could see if the cat had a collar or not and didn't
bother to keep a tally on where he bad bitten it before or not.
Queen struggled to move, then she felt the monster's jaws around her head, then horrible
pain, then no pain at all, and an odd sense of flying before she hit the ground. She saw the
beheaded corpse of a tabby and hoped it wasn't Trevor's. The monster began to tear the
body to shreds, before it turned towards her. It had been day, why was it turning to night?
'Trevor is sure to mate with me after this... I did just save his life... I wonder what good,
heh, names for our kittens would be: Princess, Prince, Trinni, Quinn, Kathy...' The giant
beasts moved over from the recognizable red mess and brought it's heavy paw down on
top of Queen to the noise of a sickening crunching sound.
+++
A few blocks away, Trevor moved with a limp, trailing blood behind him, only hoping the
wolves didn't follow it, half hoping that Queen would. If he had been human his body
would have been covered with sweat. His eyes were glazed over as he moved, struggling to
just put one paw in front of the other, completely disoriented.
'Have to.. I'm a coward.... tell Madam... I'm a coward... Serenity that... I'm a coward... the
place the wolves' nest is... I'm a coward... the Smiths... I'm the only who knows... I'm a
coward... can't pass out, just can't... I'm a coward... because... I'm a coward...'
Trevor's eyes rolled in the back of his head as he fell onto his side as darkness took him.
++++
"Wake up... please wake up.. it's okay... you're safe now... wake up Trevor... wake up!"
A noise invaded the darkness... he was a coward.... a noise invaded his darkness... he was
a coward...
"WAKE UP! Please! You might not wake up at all!"
Wake up? He was a coward. Was that an important thing? He was a coward. He always got
up early. He was a coward.
"Trevor! Please!"
Trevor opened his eyes.... the light was of course painful... a black outline with triangle
ears an slumped shoulders became visible.
"Queen...?"
"No." Said a tom's voice. Trevor's voice focused on a black cat with green eyes, "My name
is Judas. You're Trevor yes? It was the name on your collar."
He was a coward. "Yes, that's my name. Where-where am I?"
"In safety. In sanctuary. With friends."
Trevor tried to turn over, but found that was painful, he looked down to see his body was
bandaged. He rolled his eyes around to see he was in a church. "Wha... what-"
"Father found you and brought you in... we've, that is Father has already called your
human... it's okay, you're safe now, no one is going to hurt you here. I promise." Judas
said in a kind voice.
Trevor tried to get his mind back in order. He was a, "I... what... how..." He couldn't think
of a proper answer or question to give to anything.
"It's alright, just rest... you don't need to say anything...I just need to make sure you
weren't going into a coma or something awful."
Trevor didn't want to relax, he tried to focus on something -anything- he ended up on the
very last thing any straight male would, "You're not neutered."
"Father doesn't believe in such things. He simply keeps me away from the cat with scissors
and from mollies in heat. Self control and know when you wouldn't be able to control
yourself is part of the faith after all."
"Faith?"
"Im Catholic Christian." Judas said with absolutely no hint of humor or cynicism.
Trevor felt a headache, "You're kidding..."
"Do you think it's that strange?"
Trevor replied at once, "Yes."
"Well, it's not like most cats NEED to be Christian anyway. The Savior came for the sick, not
the healthy. ="
"What about you?"
The collared black cat said simply, "My great-great-great-great-who-actually-cares-
mother was a witch's familiar who delighted in reeking havoc. My line has been making
up for it ever since. I don't know if her mistakes count as mine or not, but I feel my line
owes to the world and the people in Glendale in general."
"You do realize that the catholic church once declared black cats to be agents of the devil
right?"
"A sweeping generalization that has since been rectified." Judas said simply.
Trevor groaned again.
"If you ever need a safe place, there's a spot at the back of the church you can use as a
sanctuary."
"Sorry, I'm Lutheran."
Judas looked at him oddly for a second before saying, "All the same, you're welcome to
rest here any time you feel the need to. One has to help those who can't help themselves."
Trevor then asked a very simple question. "Do you believe you, us cats, have souls?"
"Personally, I have thought about it, and realized it is a moot point. If Heaven is reserved
for the selfless, and Hell is reserved for the selfish, then how could animals, who simply -
are-, neither good or evil, possibly enter?"
Trevor realized he was close to engaging in a Protestant verses Catholic debate with a cat
and chose to VERY wisely drop the matter. "How long was I out?"
"Over an hour, I've spent the last five minutes getting you awake, you human should be
here any second now."
'Over an hour-?!' Trevor felt a thunder clap. You are a coward. 'Mrs. Bulter... I'm sorry, we'll
save you, I promise.'