Alley Cat

Every once in a while in my strange life, there would be instances of normalcy. Having a sleepover with Daphne Russo was definitely one of those instances.

Daphne lets me wear a pair of her pajamas and we take turns painting each other’s nails and sharing personal stories (I made most of mine up but hey. What do you expect?). We decide to finish the night by putting on Korean face masks as we lie next to each other in bed. Daphne’s long blond hair fans all over her pillow in a golden cascade while my short wavy locks are tied back into a small bun. As our conversation goes on, I feel myself drifting off to a fantasy world where I’m just a normal girl hanging out with my boyfriend’s sister. Daphne has an abundance of tales to entertain me. All of them involve petty high school drama about who is dating who, and of someone who got expelled for showing up high on campus. There’s also a bunch of girls in Daphne’s drill team whom she can’t stand. Sometimes I find myself laughing at how ridiculous everything sounds, and I’m amazed that Daphne could find interest in the smallest things. And like her brother, she’s a fun person to oppose.

“Renee doesn’t even sound that bad.”

A cucumber slides off from my eye, and I quickly slide it back into place. Daphne giggles. It causes both her cucumber slices to slide off her eyes, and we both end up laughing in bed. Eventually, our laughter dies off and Daphne sits up. She removes her face mask which leaves her skin radiant and glowing. I sit up and do the same, and we toss our used face masks and cucumbers into her trash bin.

“Renee ran a train with the boys basketball team and claimed that she was still a virgin afterwards. Like, hello? What kind of world does she live in?”

I let out a long sigh before rubbing in the remnants of my face mask into my skin. My face feels nice and refreshed. If I had the money, I would definitely purchase some face masks. “Let the girl live, Daphne. We all have our own vices and desires. Her’s just happens to involve large orgies.”

“Speaking of vices and desires…” Daphne’s voice lilts from a spike in interest. I foresee the subject she brings up, and I groan with dread. “You and Luka were pretty quiet back there. Did you guys––”

“Nope.” I shake my head, feeling my cool skin heat up again. “Not even close.”

Daphne sighs with frustration on my behalf. “Aw...what a bummer!”

I shrug and say, “What can I say? Your brother is the perfect gentleman.”

Daphne puts her hand on my arm as a comforting gesture and tells me, “It’ll happen eventually.”

“Hey. I’m not in a rush.”

I’ve never been the one to separate my emotions from sex. Now that I think about it, I nearly married the last person I slept with ‘for fun’. The thought of Raphael saddens me, and I’m grateful that I didn’t have sex with Luka. It would have compromised my emotions more than they already have been.

“I keep telling him, ‘Luka. You really gotta stop being so old fashioned and all that. Girls in America are different from girls in Sicily. They live fast and die hard. They want to get straight to the action. Stop wasting your time to romance them.’” I begin to laugh when Daphne shoots me down with a hawk-eye glare. It puts an immediate end to my laughter, sending chills down my spine. “But you’re not from here...are you?”

“Are you kidding?” I feign a laugh, but Daphne’s hawkish glare is here to stay. “I’m a hundred percent New Yorker, born and raised.” And to emphasize my point, I over enunciate the ‘oy’ in ‘Yorker’. But it doesn’t have Daphne convinced.

“Where are you really from?”

I look Daphne dead in the eye but am careful to keep up my playful disposition. “Manhattan.”

I hope that my answer intimidates Daphne so we could move on to another subject, but Daphne remains unfazed. After a moment of intense silence, I admit, “Nepal.”

“Nepal.” Daphne repeats the name of my country to herself, feeling the word roll off her tongue. “How interesting. I’ve never been there.” I sense that the conversation has taken a more serious turn. We are far from our initial topic of sex and gossip, and it’s likely that we won’t return there again.

I straighten my posture and speak steadily. I’m careful to choose my words. “Not many people have. But when they do, they usually go to Kathmandu, the capital, or they go there to climb Mount Everest. It’s a somewhat small country between India and China.”

“I see.” Daphne’s gaze is so intense that I have to allow mine to wander around her room. The walls are painted a pastel pink, the kind of color someone would choose for a nursery. Daphne’s violin case lurks around the corner of her room along with her music stand and metronome. A few other decorations fail to catch my attention. Daphne’s bedroom is spacious but neatly furnished. Nothing strikes me as out of the norm until one thing hooks my interest. A dying succulent is planted next to Daphne’s window. Its leaves are shriveled and brown. Color drains from the plant and its crumbly soil. It looks like it has been neglected for months. Its small ceramic pot collects with dust while the rest of it is shrouded in nightly shadow.

Daphne realizes where my interest has diverted and walks over to the succulent only to throw it away. I can’t help but wince when the plant falls into the trash bin with a crash. Its ceramic pot breaks apart during the fall. The lid falls into place as soon as Daphne removes her foot over the trashcan’s pedal, sealing the dying plant in its tomb.

“I’ve been meaning to throw it away.” Daphne’s expression darkens and sours. I’m able to pick apart a hint of satisfaction from her which is clouded by her apparent disgust. Daphne stares at the trashcan like she’d just gotten rid of a roach or a trespassing spider. I grow weary when I realize that the thing she threw away wasn’t a roach or a spider at all but an innocent plant.

“Life is so fickle.” Daphne’s gaze lifts to meet mine. Her eyes are ice cold; it has the effect of petrifying my body motionless. All I can do is listen. “Don’t you agree?”

Daphne doesn’t wait for me to respond before going on. “Did Luka ever tell you how my mother died?”

I shake my head. My attention is still attached to the dying plant in her trash can. “She was sick, wasn’t she?”

“Oh yes.” Daphne says. Her head tilts down towards her feet. Her bangs fall like curtains over her empty blue eyes. “She. Was. Sick. She could do cartwheels when sick. She ran a marathon when sick. She would sweep little Luka off his feet and throw him in the air when sick.”

“Well shit.” My lips curve into an uneasy smile which Daphne reciprocates. “She doesn’t sound very sick.”

“But that’s because my mother didn’t know she was sick.” Daphne’s expression turns disgustingly vicious. Her tone is cold, devoid of emotion and feeling. She only seems amused. Even when she’s looking somewhere else, I can tell she still has her eyes on me. “My mother died from a brain aneurysm. Do you know what a brain aneurysm is, Helene?”

I muster all the sympathy I can while trying to ignore Daphne’s treacherous air. Of course I know what a brain aneurysm is. But for the sake of buying time, I play stupid. “No, I don’t.”

My false ignorance fuels Daphne’s superiority complex and makes her swell with pride. “A brain aneurysm is when a weakened blood vessel in your brain bursts. My mom was born sick her entire life and didn’t even know until one day, she dropped dead.” Daphne snaps her fingers, sending an ominous clap into the still air. “Just like that. With no warning. Nothing.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh. Don’t be. Like I said, it didn’t affect me all too much.”

I bite down on my tongue to prevent myself from saying, It clearly did.

“If anything, her death fascinated me. It inspired me to learn everything I can about brain aneurysms. For instance, there’s a one in fifty chance that you could have an unruptured brain aneurysm and there’s no way to tell until a minor head injury causes your brain to implode on itself.”

“That doesn’t sound pleasant at all,” I say in a matter-of-fact manner. As terrified as I feel, I find my discourse with Daphne entertaining in a messed up way.

“But I’m sure you’ve witnessed much worse ways of dying in your lifetime. Or should I say...lifetimes?”

My body tenses up, and I steady myself into a combative stance. A satisfactory sneer grows on Daphne’s face. My defensive reaction confirms her suspicions; I have exposed myself as a werecat.

“What did you do to Luis?” My question bolts out of my mouth, leaving me breathless.

Daphne moves quickly. She runs behind me at lightning speed, kicking my back, and I fall to the ground. I hiss. My head slams against the carpet, and I pounce back to my feet. Daphne and I fight hand-to-hand combat, but Daphne plays dirty. She rips a leg from her music stand and throws it at me like a harpoon.

I dodge the steel leg. The leg plunges itself into a wall behind me, its body still vibrating. My heart pounds from within, knowing that if I had been three seconds slower, the steel leg would have taken off my head.

“So...you wanna know what happened to Luis?” Daphne snickers as she makes her way towards a spot on the floor. She starts stomping around until her foot hits a hollow spot. I listen closely and hear a muffled cry and scratching underneath.

Under here! Under here! Please! Someone, help!

“What the fuck, Daphne?”

My feet are cemented to the floor as I stare, stricken with horror at the patch of carpet which conceals Luis’s whereabouts. Daphne lets out a piercing laugh that chills me to the bone. “As you can tell, Luis is perfectly alive.”

“I don’t think being locked up in a cramped and dark basement counts as ‘living’.”

To my utmost surprise and horror, Daphne mistakes my commentary as a joke and laughs again. “Oh, don’t be so serious. Once we find the right medication for him, he’ll be a free and happy wolf in no time.”

“What medication?”

Daphne rolls her eyes so hard that I’m afraid they’ll get stuck in the back of her head. Note to self: stop getting involved with psychotic bitches.

“You really need to stop playing dumb, Helene. It’s not cute. I know that you’ve been snooping around long enough to learn about the wolf stabilizers. You even had this in your pocket.”

Daphne holds an empty plastic pill bottle in her hand and examines it with interest. “I can’t imagine how heartbroken my brother will be when he finds out that his sweet little kitty stole his medication.”

My hand flies to my pocket, searching for a hard lump but finds smooth denim. I utter a curse before scoffing back in Daphne’s face. “And I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for him to have grown up with a psycho sister. Or maybe, crazy runs in the family?”

I expect Daphne’s haughty smirk to falter from my insult, but she seems to find amusement in everything I say. “Crazy is just a symptom. Luka and I are half-breeds. My father is a purebred werewolf from the Lunatic pack in Sicily and my mother was an ordinary village girl. As you can see,” Daphne’s blue eyes glow brightly, and she races to her wardrobe door. She easily tears off the door and uses the entire thing to swat me as if I’m a human-sized roach. I dodge Daphne’s swings, jumping from the ground to the top of her wardrobe. Daphne drops her door and wraps her arms around the wardrobe to shake me off, but I hold on. “The outcome turned out to be a little problematic.”

My voice wobbles as I try to hold onto the wardrobe. “A LITTLE, HUH?” I summon my claws and dig into the wood, whimpering to myself as my vision quakes from seven feet up.

I scream at the top of my lungs. The wardrobe catches fire underneath my feet. The ember slithers down the entire length of the wardrobe, consuming the furniture with trailing hot blaze. For the first time, Daphne’s eyes widen in dismay as she watches her entire wardrobe and all her precious clothes incinerate into ash. The smoke produced from the fire stimulates the fire alarm on the ceiling, causing the whole house to beep anxiously.

“Great. Just great.” Daphne stamps her foot in outrage. “Now our premium is going up because of you!”

I leap down from the burning wardrobe and tackle Daphne to the ground. We roll to the leg of her bed where I punch her in her face. Blood spurts from Daphne’s nose, but she laughs it off. I punch her again. It leaves a nasty bruise on her cheek. “Is this the part where you tell me your evil plan?”

Daphne slams her forehead into mine so hard that I see stars. The blow leaves me vulnerable, and Daphne takes the opportunity to roll on top. She punches me senselessly as she talks. “Where’s the fun in that? I think I’ll have you guess.”

“I don’t know if I can. I never learned how to think like a psycho bitch!”

Despite my brain bursting headache, I find the strength to free my hands from Daphne’s grip and clutch into her forearms. Heat seethes through my palms, burning Daphne’s skin. Daphne screams in agony, and I kick her square in the chest. The force of my kick sends her flying across the room. Daphne collides into a wall and falls to the ground.

I scramble to the spot where Daphne was initially standing and run my hands all over the carpet, trying to find a hidden seam or hinge, but I’m too slow. Daphne rises to her feet and growls. It’s a beastly growl that sends adrenaline coursing through my veins.

“Is this your idea of love?”

I claw at the carpet, shredding slivers into the floor. Daphne lumps over to me, and I hear Luis’s muffled pounding underneath. I expect Daphne to pounce on me, but she hovers over me instead.

“No. I prefer to think of it as a fruit of my generosity. I gave Luis the gift of eternal life.”

“No.” I stare at the shredded carpet. It’s stained red by my bloody claws, and I put my hand over the area where I believe Luis to be. “You separated him from his family and turned him into a monster.”

“It’s a work in progress, Helene. Not everyone is lucky enough to have been born with eight extra lives like you.”

“Lucky?” The word catches in my throat, strangling me. “You think I’m lucky?” My fingertips sizzle and flicker into a light ember, but I inhale deeply, smoldering the fire. “I’ve been slandered, chased, and alone for the last eight hundred years. And you think I’m lucky? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Tears well in my eyes. Daphne stares at me, focusing in on each individual tear that glistens on my cheeks. She stares at them like she’s witnessing a marvelous spectacle and cocks her head to the side. She’s studying me. And for a brief moment, I pity her. Some people are born broken.

“But you are lucky. You’ve had so many chances to live your life right. So many chances to find love. So many chances to make something of yourself. And yet...something tells me that you aren’t so happy.”

“Yeah? Well I’m not the one that has a mutt locked in their basement.” Daphne tunes out my comment and continues to study the orange pill bottle, prompting me to ask, “Does Luka know?”

“What?” Daphne snorts. “That Luis is locked up in our basement or that I’m turning the humans of New York into experimental mutts?”

“Both.” My voice squeaks pathetically.

“Oh yeah.” Daphne swells when she sees my shoulders slump in defeat. “He knows. In fact? He’s in on it.” Daphne’s expression shifts into a disturbing show of sympathy, and she lowers herself to my level. Luis continues to pound against the carpet, but I’m so dumb from shock that the sound deflects from my ears. “Aw...Helene! Don’t cry. Your eyes will get puffy.”

Daphne gradually reaches towards me, but I know better than to let her touch me. I push my hands out and blast her with a flamethrower of fire. Daphne screams. I take my chance and head for Daphne’s door, letting myself out.

The first place I go is Luka’s room. His door is swung wide open, and I barge in. I rummage through Luka’s closet to find Todd, but he’s not there.

“TODD!” I frantically check under Luka’s empty bed. I’m so anxious that I don’t smell the smoke in the air. The house is burning. Fire creeps down the halls and slithers through Luka’s room, consuming his bed and his nightstand. “TODD!” I shout. Smoke coats the inside of my lungs, making me cough. I look under every crevice I could find until a strong hand yanks me from underneath a chair. I yelp. My feet scramble to find footing on the ground, and I look up at the person who grabbed me. My heart flops inside my chest, and I yank my arm free.

“Helene!” Todd clings to Luka’s chest, safely cradled in Luka’s arms. I breathe a sigh of relief. They’re both safe and Luka seems fine despite the fact that his face is smothered in soot. Flames burn around us. It seems like we’re both stuck in our personal Hell. I find it hard to meet Luka’s eyes as the sound of crackling fire sputters all around us. The blaze torches the surrounding air to a skyrocketing temperature. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you! We need to get out of here!”

“Free Luis first.” My voice is hoarse and dry from inhaling so much smoke, but it’s still commanding and stubborn as it would be if I was healthy.

Luka’s sooty face pales at the mention of Luis. Before he has a chance to question me, I bite back harder. “Daphne told me everything. Now are you going to help me free Luis?”

Luka’s pupils shrink as he’s stuck in a state of speechlessness. When the ceiling collapses, Luka unfreezes and tackles me out of the way. He protects my body with his, but I crawl out from underneath him. I can’t allow myself to feel in a time of danger.

“I–I can’t. Please Helene. I’ll explain everything once we get outside. Please believe me, Helene. It’s not as bad as it seems.”

“Not as bad?” The fire burns more intensely as my emotions surge overboard. “You have a man locked up in your basement! You come from an entire family of werewolves and drug dealers! Your sister is a psychopath who’s turning innocent people into wolves! Give me one reason why I should believe you! One!”

Luka’s chest heaves frantically as he looks all around us. If we don’t leave the house soon, all the exits would be blocked, trapping us from the inside. He knows it, as do I. I expect him to argue with me or drag me out of the house, but Luka does something that exceeds my expectations. He falls to his knees at my feet and bows his head down. It takes me a moment to realize that he’s crying.

“I love you.”

I stare at the pathetic boy at my feet as the fire continues to rage around us. My skin is raw from the heat, but I’m so numb. “I swear. Things weren’t supposed to end like this. You know I would never do anything to hurt you.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“Please.”

Luka reaches out to take my hand, and I let him. “Let’s get out of here.”

“What about Luis?”

Tears dribble down my chin, and Luka brushes it away with his free hand. “I think we can both agree that the fate that awaits him is a lot more merciful than if we save him.”

The ceiling crumbles above us, forcing me to choose fast. I squeeze Luka’s hand, and we run.

Luka and I run to the halls to find the stairs burning, so he finds the nearest window and breaks it with a single jab of his elbow. The glass shatters, leaving a free frame for us to jump through.

“Hold on.” Luka sweeps me off my feet and carries me in his arms. Todd finds a spot on my chest and hooks his claws against the fabric of my pajamas to secure himself. We all exchange one last dire look before leaping out.

We fall three stories until Luka lands on the sidewalk. My body shakes from the impact, but Luka holds me close in his arms. Eventually, I recover from my shock and Luka releases me.

We stare at each other breathlessly as tongues of fire burst out of every orifice of his house. A fat gibbous moon hangs awkwardly in the night sky, shining down at us. Our clothes are burned black and patches of our skin are red from minor burns. I don’t even know what to say. I’m not even grateful to be alive.

Luka’s eyes widen with fear; they’re focused on something behind me. His face pales. He springs from his feet, but it’s too late. Two gunshots fire from behind me. One hits my shoulder blade. The other hits my thigh. Pain electrifies my body as I bleed.

I don’t even have time to scream. I fall forward and Todd leaps from my shoulders to the ground. He guards me and scans the area for intruders. His blue fur sticks up like lightning rods amidst a storm. Luka takes his place as my guard.

The sound of multiple footsteps approaching forces me to look up. I see Luka’s family coming towards me. Each member bears a silver gun which gleams brighter than falling stars in the dark. Emiliano takes the lead and Daphne tags by his side. Like the wolves they are, they hunt in packs.

When the pack is close enough, Luka stretches out his arms to take up as much space as he can. He fiercely looks his father in the eye and barks at him.

“How could you?”

Emiliano produces an exhaustive groan like he’s dealing with a stubborn child. “Now, now. Don’t make this harder than this has to be. Step out of the way.”

“No!”

The wolves pick up the scent of my blood, and I watch as their lips separate to reveal their long canines. Their teeth are sharp enough to tear through flesh. A single bite can decapitate a head. My vision blurs and a brutal chill takes me by surprise. I’m bleeding out. I lie against the pavement and gasp for air, shivering against the cold.

“Papà! You said no one would get hurt. Drop your arms!”

“She burned down our house, Luka.” Emiliano reloads his gun and smacks the barrel. It clicks closed. “She’s a witch.”

Witch.

Even as I bleed, I can’t help but smirk. Memories flood my mind, and I see myself running in the mountains. My lungs sting with each breath of thin mountain air. Snow piles on my black hair as I sprint past a boulder. I trip over my own feet and can’t get up fast enough. Malicious jeers crescendo from behind me.

Faster! The witch is getting away!

On the ground! Right over there!

My delirium worsens. The witch hunters are on me. They topple my body and stab me with enchanted stakes. It’s a kind of pain that takes my breath away, like a searing hot rod that cuts through my insides.

I’m dying all over again.

Daphne’s voice mingles with the hunters’ voices until they become one. “She’s not a witch. She’s a cat.” Daphne’s nose crinkles at the word. “And she knows everything. We can’t let her live.”

Emiliano’s eyes sparkle at Daphne. His gaze is full of tender paternal joy, and Daphne reflects her sweetness with equal intimacy. It’s clear now that Daphne was the favorite child all this time.

“How many times do you think it’ll take?” Emiliano says, chuckling with his daughter to his son’s horror.

“For her to die?” Daphne’s voice rises from excitement. She takes her father’s gun and points at me, grinning. She rests her finger on the trigger, eager to pull the very thing that will end my life. “One.”

I close my eyes to prepare for the worst. I expect to hear a gunshot, but I hear a lion’s roar instead. It prompts me to open my eyes. I see a large lioness jump the gang of wolves, knocking them over from behind. They fall like bowling pins. Their guns fly out of their grasps as they scream from the ambush.

Luka throws a protective arm around me and carries me off to a safer corner. I watch in half delirium and dismay as a leopard gallops to the scene, joining the lioness in battle. The wolves recover from the first attack and shred their clothes. Their forms shift and break at an impossible speed. Even though I’m dying, I know that their transformation shouldn’t be possible. The moon isn’t full.

Chaos ensues. I’m so weak that I can’t tell who’s winning or losing. All I see is an arena of beasts. They’re angry. They’re hungry. And they’re ready to kill.

I hear a rush of footsteps coming my way. I want to see who it is, but my eyelids collapse on me. I feel the strongest urge to sleep.

Luka shakes me. I hear the urgency in his voice as he calls my name over and over again, but I can’t open my eyes.

“Helene. You need to wake up. Wake up, Hel!”

Luka’s voice fades out, and I lose track of my surroundings. I sleep for a while (at least what I believe to be a while) until I hear a familiar voice that rouses me conscious.

“You need to let her go.”

My eyes flutter open to see Raphael conversing with Luka. They have me leaning against a street lamp while they argue about what to do with me.

“Trust me. She’ll be safe with me. Bullet extractions are my specialty.”

Luka succumbs to a state of silence. He kneels by my side and brushes his fingers against my cold cheek, caressing me. Remorse adds years to his complexion. It smears his identity beyond my comprehension. I wonder if it has always been my fate to fall in love with boys who will deceive me.

“Ciao, Helene.”

Luka kisses me one last time before relinquishing me to Raphael. “Take care of her.”

“I will.” Raphael says with an inflated sense of duty. The boys look at each other with mutual satisfaction despite being enemies.

I lie limply as Raphael picks me up in his arms. Todd curls around Raphael’s shoulders, and we leave.