Alley Cat

Todd and I exit our nearest bodega and head straight for the subways. My hands are loaded with snacks for our trip: egg sandwiches, gatorade, you name it. I’m so excited to leave Manhattan that the sting of spending the very last of my pocket change doesn’t hurt so bad. As we descend the stairs and emerge ourselves into the tunnels dimly lit with fluorescent lights, Todd tags along by my ankles. I can feel his hesitation seep through me in the dark.

“What’s wrong?”

Nothing’s wrong.

My silence presses him and it doesn’t take long for Todd to ’fess up. I dunno. I’m just a little uneasy, that’s all. We’re out here having fun while innocent people are getting killed.

“Todd,” I bend down to scoop him up in my arms. I carry him like a baby with his soft belly facing up, and I nuzzle my nose against his cheek. He lets out a rumbling purr that soothes my aching soul. “This isn’t just some vacation, alright? We’re leaving Manhattan to get some answers.”

All of a sudden, a familiar voice speaks from behind me, a voice that definitely didn’t come from Todd. “Answers to what?”

I instantly turn around to find Shirisha hauling a bulky pink suitcase and fully dressed in comfortable winter-wear. A burgundy scarf wraps around her neck, followed by a knitted black beanie that compliments her blonde wig. I can see her natural black hair stick out from her temples. Her hair’s starting to grow back already. The sleeves of her fluffy sweater hang over her hands, nearly covering the entire length of her skater skirt.

I breathe out a relieved sigh and groan, “God, Shirisha! Stop sneaking up on us like that!”

Shirisha can only shrug. “Can’t help it. I got leopard instincts. It is how it is.”

“Why are you here?” My muscles tense again as I recall our last conversation. I’m confused as to how I should feel, unable to distinguish any emotion other than unsavory discomfort. Shirisha had told me that she wanted me back and instead of telling her how I really felt, I ran off faster than my legs could carry me. I can tell that Shirisha is recalling the memory as well because she tries to hide her sting with a haughty smile. She’s unaware of her transparency.

“Well if you must know, I’m a little tired of Manhattan. It’s simply time to move on. How about you, Hel? From what I already heard, it sounded like you were about to say something really important.”

Shirisha and I end up sitting on the same train to The Bronx. We’re squeezed in with a bunch of strangers with barely enough room to cross our legs. As the train moves uptown, I’m left with more than enough time to update Shirisha on Raphael’s news. I tell her about the recent murders and the possibility that someone is trying to frame Luis to cover up a far more malicious plan. Shirisha nods attentively before saying, “That does sound pretty serious. Is that why you’re heading to The Bronx?”

“Yeah. Raphael says there’s a really powerful family of wolves in Manhattan and that they’re our best bet in curing Luis. The only problem is that we don’t have a clue as to who they are.”

Shirisha opens her mouth to say something but gets distracted from the sound of dirty fingernails scratching denim. We both turn to the source to see a burly man digging underneath his jeans to scratch his behind. When he’s done, he draws his fingers to his nose and takes a big whiff. Shirisha and I exchange looks of disgust.

Shirisha manages to recover first and says, “I would be more than happy to assist you. That is...if you’ll allow me to.”

Todd’s tail swishes with excitement, but I quickly answer on our behalf. “That’s really generous of you and all, but Todd and I got this covered.”

“Are you sure?” Shirisha leans in closer to whisper in my ear, and I can’t get away with her. We’re sandwiched between strangers from all sides. “I got some really powerful...assets.”

I try my best to suppress the blush that would have risen to my face and tell her with an unapologetic scoff that’s meant to slight her. “Trust me. I don’t want any of your assets.”

“Oh, Helene. When will you ever learn that stubbornness won’t get you anywhere?” Shirisha bends down to unzip a small pocket in her suitcase and pulls out a sleek black iphone. The moment she turns the phone over with its screen facing up, the wallpaper appears and stuns us all. The wallpaper showcases Luis wrapping his arms around a young woman with a large bulging belly. I feel a gut wrenching blow when the picture moves, allowing me to see Luis plant a wet kiss on the woman’s cheek. Her face is beaming with vivacity and joy as she closes her eyes, tilting her chin to the open sky.

“Oh my god. That’s Luis’s phone!”

Before I can take a closer look, Shirisha pulls the phone away. The gesture draws me closer to her, seizing my attention at its fullest capacity. “The night you and I left Luis to turn, I made sure to take his phone in case he tried to call the police. You were so distraught that you didn’t notice me reaching into his pocket and taking it.”

“Give me the phone,” I say with pressing urgency. Shirisha tilts her head upwards to think and quickly makes up her mind.

“I can...but good luck trying to crack the password.” Shirisha hands me the phone, and I yank it from her hand. “It’ll be fun to see you try.”

I sigh and lean back against my seat. My shoulder brushes the woman next to me, earning me an annoyed glare in her direction. “Let me guess, you already figured out the password and went through his phone and now you have a lot of juicy information that I’m dying to know about.”

“Oh, Helene!” A radiant smile spreads all over her face as she leans on me affectionately. “You know me so well!”

“What do you want?”

Shirisha presses her hand against her heart as if I had wounded her. “Only to join my two bestest friends to solve a mystery together! Is that too much to ask?”

Todd paws at the fabric of my t-shirt to grab my attention. Just let her, Hel. We could really use her help.

“But Todd!” My voice rises embarrassingly high when I whine. “This was supposed to be a you-and-me thing! Isn’t there a saying for that? Two is company, three is a crowd?”

Before Todd could consider my plea, Shirisha juts in and pouts at Todd. “Todd, baby. I promise I’ll be a good girl. I even have a bunch of treats for you in my suitcase.”

Todd’s bushy tail brushes under my nose. Ooh! What kind?

“All the canned tuna and sardines you can dream of.”

Now it’s Todd’s turn to plead with me. Can she please join us Helene? Pretty please?

I’m defeated; two against one. “Fine!” Todd and Shirisha rejoice with a gasp. I cross my arms against my chest. “As long as you make yourself useful.”

Shirisha gives me a suffocating hug that deprives me of precious oxygen. “Yes! Yes Helene! Ooh, you won’t regret it. You won’t regret it at all!”

I wheeze right as I peel her arms off of me. “I’m regretting it already.”

When the hug is over, Shirisha becomes serious and straightens her posture. “Okay, here’s what I found out.” She furiously jabs at the padlock, unlocking the phone. “I’ve had a couple weeks to search his data and turns out our innocent victim isn’t as innocent as we thought him to be.”

Shirisha opens up Luis’s messages, and I immediately feel uneasy. There’s nothing I hate more than invading people’s privacy, but I understand that it must be done. Shirsha scrolls through his messages until she lands on a contact named ’Dee. Upon opening the conversation, a long chain of provocative photos takes up the screen. I have to fight the urge to avert my eyes. Almost all the photos contain some kind of nudity and they are all of the same girl. The girl seems young and blonde. She looks like she should have been in high school and her slanted drill-team uniform shows it. “Does she seem familiar?”

I stammer, “I–I don’t know.” I envy Todd who’s curled up in my lap with his eyes glued shut. “I can’t see her face that well. Just her...other bits.”

Shirisha rolls her eyes and shakes her head like a disappointed parent. “Gee, Helene. I don’t remember you being this much of a prude!” She finds another photo and covers the girl’s body with her hand, leaving only her face. My eyes widen as the revelation of her identity hits me like a bullet.

“That’s––”

“––the hostess from Russo’s,” Shirisha says with an all-knowing look. “I could totally tell there was something slutty about her.”

I glare at Shirisha. I feel offended on Luka’s behalf, and I don’t know why. “She has a name and it’s Daphne. God. So that means Luis and Daphne were having an affair. What does that have to do with him getting bit by a werewolf?”

“I don’t know but read their conversation receipts. Luis actually ghosted her for a couple months. And telling from the date of his baby pictures, he was determined to end the affair for good when his kid was born.”

Luis?

Helloooo?

I scroll down and see a bunch of red angry emojis.

Why are you ignoring me?

You SAID you loved me!

The conversation hangs there. I decide to scroll up to the earliest saved conversation dating two months back.

Daphne: What if I told you that there was a way for us to be together?

Luis: What do you mean?

Daphne: Every couple has a way of staying connected. I love you, Luis. I want you to be a part of me. I’ll always be your other half.

I quickly skim through the rest of their conversations and find nothing particular. Handing the phone back to Shirsha, I say, “It honestly just sounds like an affair gone wrong. Luis is a cheater and a pedofile and Daphne’s clearly got issues of her own.”

Shirisha gives me a grave look that’s cold enough to scare me. “Luis got killed by a werewolf, Hel. And he was clearly dealing with a psycho ex before his neck got shredded. Don’t you think—“

“No. No! Luka isn’t a werewolf. I know him.”

“Do you though?” Shirisha says gently like I might burst into flames in front of her. “Helene, I’d hate to break it to you but werewolves, especially purebred werewolves, aren’t anything like you’ve ever encountered. Most of the time they pass off as normal people. You probably brushed past a hundred of them and never noticed.”

“I’m not as sheltered as you think, Shirisha! I’ve met purebreds too.”

“So I would assume you know how hard it is to tell them apart.”

The train jerks forward as it slows to a stop. Shirisha and I watch as a crowd of people exit the subways only for an even larger influx of people to climb on. When the train starts moving again, Shirisha mutters under her breath. “Five more stops to go.”

The brief break in our conversation allows me time to cool my temper, resulting in a much clearer head. I realize that I’ve let my crush on Luka cloud my judgement and that I haven’t known him long enough. Red rises to my cheeks, warming them to the touch. There’s a real possibility that Luka has been deceiving me this whole time and that I was foolish enough to buy into his kind gestures. I see how suspicious it is that his whole family has an unnatural hatred for cats.

I clear my throat before speaking. “Hypothetically speaking, let’s say the Russos really are a powerful family of werewolves. What’s the move, then? We still don’t have a motive. What can they possibly have to gain by turning humans into wolves?”

Shirisha sighs before running her fingers through her blonde wig. “Even I don’t have answers for that yet. The only other thing I found when sleuthing through Luis’s phone was that he was working a really peculiar side job. By day, he’s just an ordinary office worker. By night, he’s smuggling drugs from some pharmaceutical company called Aeternum.”

“What kind of drugs?”

“The kind that you can’t pronounce. They’re new and experimental. I tried google searching the drug name but nothing came up.”

“Great,” I say flatly.

Shirisha gives me a half-hearted smile before opening up her suitcase to pass around three cans of sardines. “Snacks anyone?”

Todd jumps at the chance. We eat and talk for the rest of the ride to The Bronx. Without meaning to, our conversation shifts away from our werewolf mystery into something more fun and light-hearted. I listen as Shirisha and Todd take turns telling horrible jokes. I lose track of how many times I roll my eyes when Shirisha tells me all her outlandish tales. The mayonnaise from the egg sandwich tastes like it’s one day away from expiring, but I eat it anyway. At last when we’re over stuffed and bloated beyond what should be possible, Shirisha slouches in her seat and lets out a huge burp. The other passengers don’t bother to look our way, and for once I’m glad to live in New York City.

“Oh my god, Helene! This whole werewolf mystery just reminded me of something.”

“What?” I say with a yawn. Without meaning to, I smell my breath in the air and scrunch up my face in disgust. The egg sandwich really was expired.

“Remember our old friend Min-Jun?”

“You mean the cute Korean village boy?” I blink my eyes like I’m trying to recall a dream. “Oh yeah! You and I always fought to get his attention. When was that, anyway?”

Shirisha covers her mouth to prevent herself from burping. For the first time in forever, I admire her for her decency. “Goryeo Dynasty, I think.”

“God, we’re so old!”

We laugh in unison. Todd lifts his head up to look at us both before curling back into a sleeping position. “I can’t believe I forgot about him.” I close my eyes and feel my smile taking over my face. “I used to be so jealous of you. Didn’t I push you into a rice paddy?”

“No way! I was jealous of you, too! I told Min-Jun that you only bathed twice a month!”

I laugh so hard that it comes off as an obnoxious snort. “That’s why he was so determined to stand so far away from me!”

Shirisha cranes her head to the train’s ceiling and laughs. “Those were some good times!”

I could have laughed for a long time, but the glorious rose-tinted memories blacken just as fast. Frightening flashbacks of Min-Jun’s white robes drenched in his red blood resurface in my mind. His already pale face turned porcelain by blood-lost. Claw marks raked his chest and back as Shirisha and I painstakingly drag him out of the darkest parts of the bamboo forest. My body trembles as I remember how the tragedy ended: with Shirisha dying and Min-Jun slain.

I’m taunted by memories until I become aware that Shirisha is holding me in her arms. Soft shushes pull me back to reality and gentle fingers stroking my hair keep me there. “Shhh...it’s okay. You’re okay.”

When I recover enough of my sanity to answer back, I tell her, “No, it’s not okay!”

“What’s done is done. He’s in a better place now.”

“He died at the hands of angry villagers, knowing that he killed his whole family! And we forgot!” My voice trembles at the realization of my own odiousness. “How could we be so cruel, Shirisha? We forgot about him! We forgot about poor Min-Jun! I–I never forget! How could I?”

Hot tears stream my face and drench Shirisha’s knitted sweater. “It wasn’t our fault.” Shirisha’s voice remains leveled and soothing. “We were young. It was the first time we dealt with werewolves.”

My voice raises to a twisted and whinny pitch that would make any mouse embarrassed. “We should have killed him and ended his misery! But we didn’t! And now look what’s happened! We did the same thing again! What have we done?”

“Helene.” Shirisha gives me a pitiful look before whispering something to Todd. My brain feels like it’s on fire. I can’t think; I can only feel. All I can feel is remorse for walking away, for not doing the right thing. I feel nauseous like I’ve eaten all the expired food in the world. My skin burns. I smell smoke. I think I’m saying things that I don’t understand. I feel like they’re names, but I can’t connect the names to a face. I wonder how many other people I’ve forgotten. How many people have loved me but have been erased from my memories forever? I think I’ve had children, but what did they look like? Did I raise them well?

Shirisha leans me back in my seat and tilts my head to face the opposite window. “I’m sorry...”

Before I can even think to ask what she meant, I feel a sharp stabbing pain in my thigh that makes me cry out. My body turns into a numb pile of bricks. The passengers, the train, the burning smell, all vanish as I sink into darkness.