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the1rei · 8 years ago

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Billy’s Final Choice

I was and sort of still am a huge fan of Billy the Cat. I doubt many people remember it, being a minor known show from the 90s. Still I could help myself but write a conclusion for the series, I hope some other fans will find this and enjoy it.

Billy Final Choice

Jumbo soared overhead with all the heavy rush and mechanical straining of the large jet planes that were his namesake. He made the crackling sounds of a radio before speaking aloud to whatever he imagined or believed with on the other end of the imaginary radio. “Shhhk, Jumbo to ground control, Jumbo to ground control. The weather is fine, and I’m coming in for a landing so clear the runway! Shhhk!”

Billy glanced up at the pigeon with a bemused grin on his face, glad to once again see his friend flying so happily through the warming spring air. When he was a boy, he didn’t much care for spring. The loss of the fun winter sports that came with the snow and ice had been melted and washed away by the sun leaving behind a wet mess of puddles instead of dry clear streets.

There had been one thing he had enjoyed about this time of the year as a boy, and that was puddles. He and his friends would leap and crash through them splashing water everywhere all spring, terrorizing pedestrians and infuriating their mothers with their sopping wet clothes. He peered into a nearby puddle seeing his now year-old new form of an orange striped cat with a white underbelly and muzzle. He had finally grown a bit, shedding his more kitten-like stature becoming noticeable taller and bigger, though he was still smaller the Mr. Hubert. He sniffed the puddle, a now familiar habit before he drank anything, and turned his nose up at it, “Yuck, that stuff’s disgusting.”

“Bomb’s away kitty!” He heard a familiar voice shout and looked up startled seeing his former human friend Nick already sailing through the air. The freckled faced, buck-toothed boy had a sinister grin on his face as he stared down at Billy.

Billy gave a cry and whipped around to flee, but it was far too late, the wave crashed over him after only a few steps soaking him in cold water. “Come here ya mangy cat!” Nick cried with a laugh, but Billy hadn’t broken stride, rushing for the nearest alley.

A short distance down the alley it was blocked by a tall wooden fence, but a loose board hung on a single nail creating a small gap in it. “Yes, catch me if you can Nick,” Billy cried back at the human boy, though, to Nick it came out as a long yowl.

Billy ducked through the fence disappearing into the other side, “You can get away that easily cat!” Nick called after him picking up speed, jumping up and hoisting himself over the fence in a singled move. He couldn’t see Billy rushing down the alley as he came over the top of the fence; instead, a nearby garbage can rocked and tipped over right under Nick’s feet.

“Oh no!” Nick cried as his flailing feet touched the down on the garbage can for a moment before it rolled out from under him and he fell back smacking his head against the fence knocking him dizzy. Billy chuckled to himself jumping out from among the other trash cans and slipping quietly down the alley and out of Nick’s sight.

The danger passed the damp chill of his wet coat finally hit Billy; he shivered before shaking himself in what Mr. Hubert would have referred as a ‘disgraceful dog-like fashion’ to shed the water from his coat. It did little to help, and he sat down grumbling to himself, “Stupid Nick, why can’t he just leave poor animals alone.”

Billy gave a little, shocked start at those words, he wondered for a moment where they had come from before recalling that when he was a boy, he heard lots of people say thing like that when he was the one splashing animals with cold water and chasing them. A pang of guilt stung at the pit of his stomach as he remembered that terrorizing animals was one of the most fun things about splashing in puddles.

The chill of his wet fur snapped him out of his guilty memories of past ‘fun’, he lifted a foreleg and ran his tongue across the wet fur to smooth it down and rake out any filth from it. Suddenly his eye snapped wide and he stopped mid-lick. His eyes slowly fell to what he was doing and with a horrified expression he tore his tongue away from his foreleg and began spitting out the taste of wet fur from his mouth.

“Oh yuck, what the heck am I doing?” Billy failed to get the taste from his mouth, finding that trying to spit it out was useless. With a last spit, he started back down the street trying to stay out of the cold wind and forget about the taste in his mouth.

Billy frown as he walked, not even noticing how easily he forgot the bad taste in his mouth, as he thought, not for the first time, just how cat-like he was becoming. Most of it was awesome; he had figured out his claws, jumping, landing on his feet and even how his short newly grown whiskers acted like another sense for the world around him. Others things were problematic or disturbing, like how he’d started to accept the garbage can food Mr. Hubert dug up for them, the licking thing and even his heighten sense of smell.

Sure it had been as cool as his new whiskers at first, but the way he took to sniffing everything was more than a little weird and there were all the smells he just didn’t recognize. Like a new one that seemed to fill the air once the snow had all melted, it wasn’t something he’d ever noticed as a boy.

Mr. Hubert had noticed it first yesterday and had become even more excited and eccentric than usual. He called it ‘the smell of spring in the air, an invigorating scent that called all tomcats to action.' Billy hadn’t been able to smell anything then causing Hubert to smile at him in his fatherly way and said perhaps Billy was still a little too young, but for the sake of his ‘Amore’ he better not wait too long.

Billy, still tired in the unusually early morning, dismissed the older cat and crawled back into bed. The sun was high by the time he re-awoke and the white tomcat was gone. It wasn’t unusual for Hubert to go off on his own, so Billy didn’t give his disappearance much thought until he woke up this morning to find Mr. Hubert still missing, and the strange smell was filling the air as if trying to take his place. It was just as Hubert said too, it filled him energy and got his blood pumping faster.

Still, as much as the smell beckoned him to seek its source, and to run and fight, Mr. Hubert was more important. Given their trio’s tendency to get into trouble Billy was, unfortunately, confident that something had happened to him.

Billy started to renew his search when power of the scent struck him more fully than it had before, the air seemed to grow thick with it as if it were a haze and it made Billy’s head swim. He couldn’t help but turn towards the scent and almost stagger drunkenly towards it as it shoved the thoughts of Mr. Hubert from his mind.

He moved several feet down an alleyway following his nose when a voice cut through the haze, “Billy?”

Billy whipped his head around and peered into deep shadows of the alley to see a pair of shining blue eyes gazing out at him. He scrutinized them for a second before realizing just how familiar they were, “Queenie?”

The pink bowed, white-furred female cat leaped out of the shadows and rushed happily towards Billy who asked. “I thought you were still at your mom’s place? It’s been weeks, when did you get back?”

Rather than answer him, Queenie just embraced Billy in a tight hug that lasted much longer than even Billy had grown accustomed to getting from the sweet cat. “Come on Queenie let go,” He strained gently prying her arms away from him.

“Sorry,” She sounded out of breath, but despite the apology, she continued nuzzling against him. She had grown a little as well, but only enough to keep up with Billy she was no longer taller than him as she had been when she had left for her mother’s.

“Queenie what’s-” Billy started stepping away from her, but cut himself short when he realized that the source of the smell was right in front of him. It was radiating off of Queenie in thick waves that tried to steal his sense and came with each swish of her long white tail. “What’s gotten into you Queenie, why do you smell like that?”

Queenie’s blush brightened enough that Billy could see it through her fur and she looked down shyly, “Sorry, I should have realized you wouldn’t understand Billy. I’m-”

Queenie stopped suddenly, her ears perking up and swiveling around to pick up some sound that Billy’s drugged and addled mind hadn’t. However, seeing the worried look that came over Queenie’s face, his ears shot up and he too heard the sound of padding paws closing in around them.

“Billy we have to get out of here quickly,” Queenie said in a rush and they bolted for the mouth of the alley. As they neared it, however, a trio of cats appeared and at the sight of the pair let out a long throaty growl stalking forward menacingly. Billy and Queenie slid to a stop and turned rushing the opposite direction deeper into the alley. They slid to a stop again at the appearance of Blackie and his gang whom also let out the deep growls.

“Blackie, what are you guys doing?” Billy asked, careful not to get too close to the slim pure black cat recognizing the unfriendly intent in his eyes.

“We’re here for Queenie Billy, you’ve had her to yourself long enough,” Blackie hissed almost savagely advancing towards them. More cats began to appear both from the alleyway and street. Some rushed eagerly ahead trying to dash past the leaders, but they were met with an angry hiss and swipe of a paw knocking them back.

“What?” Billy gave Blackie a confused look, why they were after Queenie and what had Blackie meant about Billy having Queenie to himself. Regardless of his confusion, he wasn’t about to let the other cats just do whatever they wanted to Queenie. So, standing protectively over her he bristled his fur and growled threatening at the advancing tomcats.

“Billy look!” Queenie pointed up to a nearby fire escape ladder that hung down into the alley, the area around it clear of objects and cats. “If only we could make it up there.”

Billy looked up at the fire exit and, like Queenie, immediately noticed that the reason the isolated fixture was so perfect for escape was the same reason it was unusable to them. The jump to clear the distance from the ground to the bottom rung of the ladder was nearly impossible to make for most cats. However, a sudden boyhood memory flooded Billy’s mind. He and Nick had made plenty of jumps that were normally out of either of their abilities, but they always made it with a bit of teamwork.

“I got an idea, come on Queenie,” Billy rushed towards the ladder several strides ahead of Queenie. At the sudden burst of action from their quarry the aggressive tomcats too rushed ahead trying to overtake the. “Quick Queenie, jump off my back,” Billy cried crouching down to stabilize and steady himself to be used as Queenie’s springboard.

After so many adventures together Queenie trusted and immediately understood Billy’s unconventional thinking. With a couple of quick strides to pick up speed she leaped on to Billy’s back and with all the strength she could muster leaped straight up. She shot up the world around her falling away as she reached and wrapped her forearms around the bottom rung of the ladder. Groaning to hold her grip her back legs flailed and reached up to hook onto the ladder as well and after a few long moments she managed to secure one and pulled herself securely up onto the ladder.

“It worked!” she cried happily, but when she looked down her face fell and she gave a frightened gasp.

Billy felt the large tomcat’s body slam into his side knocking him down; he had been too distracted staying clear of Blackie’s wicked claws. Before he was even up others were on him hissing and growling. They, however, had never seen a cat breakdance and with a quick move Billy flipped onto his back and spun himself in a rapid circle smacking them all with a swing of his thick tail. Dazed momentarily they offered no resistance as Billy leap back onto his paws and knocked them all back with a fury of swipes and human-like kicks.

“Billy grab my paw!” Queenie called down to him. He looked up to see her clinging to the ladder with three of her legs while reaching as low as she could with the fourth. Billy looked down to see one of the tomcats he’d knocked silly slowing getting to his paws and dashed towards him. “Later losers!” He called jumping off the dazzled cat and up towards Queenie’s outstretched paw. Billy was nowhere near as good of a leaper as Queenie, but their paws managed to connect and with a strained groan she pulled him up onto the ladder.

“Thanks, Queenie,” Billy gave a sigh of relief, but it was cut short as Blackie’s paws wrapped around the ladder rung as well and he pulled his face up to them.

“You’re not getting away that easily,” He growled and tried to pull himself up, but a swift kick from Queenie knocked him back to the ground.

“We better get out of here,” Billy started up the ladder and Queenie followed only a step behind. Below more of the tomcats tried to follow Blackie example and leap up to the bottom rung of the ladder, but few even considered themselves nimble enough to make an attempt, others dashed back up the alleyway or to the street seeking another way to follow the pair.

----

Jumbo soared overhead chatting endlessly to himself when he suddenly caught sight of a familiar pair of cats, one white, the other colored like a tiger, rushing along the ridge of a roof. As they went, cats would leap from adjoining roof fields and rush at them usually to be knocked back with a quick kick from one of the partners given the advantage of the higher ground they occupied. Still, as they rushed from one rooftop to another, few of the tomcats they knocked away fell completely from the roof and so a growing mob of cats was forming behind them, chasing them like an arrow as the swiftest tomcats took the lead.

“Shhhk! Jumbo to ground control, Jumbo to ground control. Billy and Queenie are being pursued by a growing hostile force of cats. Moving to intercept. Shhhk!” Jumbo banked towards to the pair, and as he closed in on them he noticed Queenie fall back a few steps from Billy, she was panting much more heavily than him. In turn, the lead tomcat closed the distance with a growing swiftness. “Billy watch out, Queenie’s falling behind!”

Billy’s eyes shot from Jumbo to Queenie in an instant and saw the lead tomcat make a grab for her tail that missed by a hair’s breath. Billy slid to a stop and jumped up over and whipped around in the air kicking the tomcat in the face with enough force to send him tumbling off the roof.

“Billy! Watch out,” Queenie slid to a stop and turned to see the next swiftest tomcat barrel down on Billy, but the now larger Billy was able to knock the tomcat aside with a firm swipe of his paw.

Still, it was a losing battle; the tomcats would come on swifter and in increasing numbers until they overtook Billy. He was about to face off against another when Jumbo swooped in and gave a fierce cry. Normally this would have been an easy way to end up a cat’s lunch, but the frenzied tomcat instead jumped back in surprise at sudden threat and crashed into his fellow pursuers causing them to all fall over one another.

“Quick Billy run!” Jumbo cried out climbing back into the air.

“Thanks Jumbo,” Billy called back whipping around and race back to Queenie who had halted mid-step when Jumbo had saved Billy. “Let’s go Queenie.”

“Right,” Queenie answered with a huff taking off ahead of Billy.

Caught behind her Billy caught another big whiff of the overpowering scent that was coming off of Queenie, he had to pause for half a step, despite the danger to shake his head clear, but once he had, he was re-invigorated and was easily able to catch up with the much slower Queenie. “Queenie what’s wrong? You’re usually faster than me.”

“I’m too tired Billy. I’ve been running for too long,” She panted.

Billy glanced back over his shoulder at the mob of pursuing cats. Thankfully many of the faster ones had been flung off the roof, but others continued to swiftly join the crowd, which swelled with each passing minute.

Billy realized that running wouldn’t work, he may not know what the intoxicating scent coming from Queenie was, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with why they were chasing them. Billy had to admit that even if they weren’t in danger he would probably want to stay near Queenie, even if she insisted on hugging him, just for the sake of the scent alone. So staying out in the open and letting the smell spread across the city wouldn’t help them.

“Queenie, this way!” Billy leaped across to the adjacent building, but rather than continue across it took a sharp turn and rushed down the roof to another lower one and on down towards the street.

“Billy what are you doing,” Queenie panted chasing after her friend, “There’s just more of them down there.”

“I know, but there’s also something else down there,” Billy said coming to a stop at the edge of a roof top low enough that they could jump down to the street without hurting themselves. However, below lay a pair of large dogs sleeping on the edge of the sidewalk next to a shining pool that reflected the golden light of the sun back up at them. Looking back at the mob of cats closing in on them Billy smiled and wrapped his tail around Queenie’s who blushed but held tight. “Ok wait ‘til they're on top of us then jump.”

“What? Why?”

Before Billy could give her an answer, the tomcats closed the distance and Billy yelled, “Now!” He jumped off the roof bringing the confused but willing Queenie with him. They plummeted through the air, the mob of tomcats following without a seconds hesitation, past the dogs and crashed into the puddle of water. Even as just two tiny felines the pair made a sufficient splash that it washed over the dogs with cold water waking them with a shock.

“Billy!” Queenie started angrily finding herself cold and soaked, but he cut her off pulling her to run.

“Come on we have to hurry,” He pulled her from the puddle and the pair dashed down the street, Billy pushing Queenie ahead as he looked back and smiled. Most of the tomcats had aimed for the street in front of the dogs leaving them in the perfect position to take the blame for Billy’s cold splash. They barked and yelled obscenities at the tomcats scattering them in every direction except the one Billy and Queenie had fled in. The water had also had the temporary effect of substantially muting Queenie’s strange scent.

“You got rid of them,” Queenie said looking back to see the street clear of any pursuing tomcats. “Good job Billy.”

Billy ineffectively shook the water from his coat, and Queenie frowned at her own wet and dirty white fur, “Though I could have done without the puddle.”

“We’re not safe yet, but I think I know a cat-free place we can hide out in for a while,” Billy assured taking the lead again and setting a slow, relaxed pace for the exhausted Queenie.

It was only a few blocks before the came upon the large outdoor fruit market that covered several blocks of the city. Queenie sniffed the air and wrinkled her nose and cover it with a paw. “Oh, Billy lets go around I can’t stand the way this place smells.”

“I know as a boy I used to love sour things like lemons and limes, but now just the smell of them is like a punch to the nose.” Billy agreed thinking back to how he and his friend would swipe armfuls of the citrus fruits and challenge each other to who could eat the most without squirming. “But we’re not going around it cus that where we’re going to hide out.”

“What! No, Billy, we can’t,” Queenie protested her voice slightly muffled behind her paw.

“It’s the only place those other cats won’t follow us into, so the only place you’ll be able to get some rest.” Billy gave Queenie a sympathetic look, “Don’t worry I won’t leave you alone, I’ll be right there suffering alongside you.”

“Alright,” Queenie reluctantly agreed, moving alongside him into the fruit market. She wanted to stop at the edge, but he pushed to go in further, even as both their faces scrunched up almost painful at the repugnant scent of citrus fruit.

“Ahh what bring a sweet young couple such as this to such a thoroughly unpleasant place such as this?” A familiar voice gave a giddy laugh causing the pair to as one turn and see a drunkenly delighted Mr. Hubert leaning against a leg of one of the stalls. His fur was a mess sticking out every which way looking as if it hadn’t been groomed in more than a day revealing scratch and bite marks as well as bruises, yet he didn’t seem at all to care about his disheveled appearance as he swayed happily towards them.

“Mr. Hubert, am I glad to see you!” Billy cried happily and rushed up to the older cat, but noticing his appearance gave a curious look, “What happened to you.”

“He’s heat drunk, he must be here trying to get away from the scent,” Queenie explained approaching the older cat with Billy and gave him a critical look. “Just how many girls did you visit Mr. Hubert.”

“Tut, tut, my dear. A gentleman never reveals such things,” Mr. Hubert wagged a paw at Queenie, but could help smile and admit, “It was a few though, ho, ho, ho!”

“‘Heat drunk’ what are you talking about Queenie?” Billy asked giving the while female a critical, confused look.

“It happens when a tomcat,” Queen emphasized the word with a glare at Mr. Hubert, “Indulges too much time around in-heat females they go loopy. You better not try to pull that with me,” She warned with a small hiss.

Mr. Hubert smiled and slumped to the ground waving off the notion without the slightest hint of offense at the suggestion. “Oh come now Queenie as if I would even think to do such a thing with my own daughter.”

“Daughter?” Billy and Queenie gasped in unison eyes wide, ears up and tails spiked in shock.

“Oops, cat’s outta the bag.” Mr. Hubert laughed rolling onto his back and tracing circles in the air with a paw. “Thought you would have figured it out by now my dear given how much we look alike, oh but you do have your mother’s eyes.” He said with a distant sigh.

“B-b-but you never said anything, neither of you, not even when I introduced you two to each other,” Queenie nearly shouted thinking of their past visit to her mother’s place. “It can’t be true I came here on my own, there’s no way I would just happened upon my father without intending to.”

“Oh, but your mother did intend you to, she knew how much you wanted to go off on your own.” He looked up at her fondly, “You have such an independent streak just like me. Your mother was still worried about you so we sort of tricked you into staying in my area of town so I could keep an eye on you.

“I’m so glad to,” His expression took a serious turn looking up at Queenie fondly. “I’ve never had the opportunity to see any of my children grow up and fall in love before.” Mr. Hubert reached up at if to run a paw over her cheek but Queenie stepped back and angrily turned her nose up at him.

“Whoa that’s deep,” Billy and glanced apprehensively between the two white cats as Queenie rebuked Mr. Hubert’s affection.

“Ahh, Billy my boy I see that you have finally caught the scent as it were, hmm?” Mr. Hubert gave a laugh. “I knew you would my lad; I’m not surprised that it was Queenie that woke the desire within you. Ah, such pure young love the likes of which I have never known?”

“What are you talking about Mr. Hubert? That smell you were talking about yesterday? What is it and why is it coming from Queenie.” Billy frowned looking over to Queenie who once more had a disappointed look on her face as she cast her eyes away from his.

“Why it’s not just coming from Queenie my boy, it the smell of spring, love and life, new beginnings and new experiences. It originates from all lovely female felines beckoning for the company of dashing gentlemen such as ourselves.” The older cat expounded a distant, dreamy look in his eyes as stared wistfully off into space.

“What the heck does all that mean Mr. Hubert I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Billy groaned angrily glaring down at his unhelpful surrogate older brother.

A paw touched his shoulder, and he looked up to see Queenie giving him a sadly sympathetic look. “I’m in heat.”

“Ya I know things are bad with all those cats after you, but I want to know why.”

“Darn it, Billy! How can you be this dense about basic cat biology,” Queenie growled her sympathy for the usually enduring naivetés of the self-proclaimed boy turned cat gone.

“It means she’s ready to have kittens with you, my lad,” Mr. Hubert helpfully explained the matter plainly, having lost much tact in his drunken state.

“What?!” Billy shouts staggering back from Queenie shaking his head furiously, “I-I can’t do that, I’m a boy.”

“Ya I know,” Queenie snaps back angrily, she clenches her jaw as if trying to hold on her anger but is unable to and instead gives a sniff and blinks back the stinging in her eyes. “I was the one who always believed you, but I thought… I thought…” Unable to hold in her tears, she turned to hide them from him; shaking her head and taking off running, “I don’t know what I thought.”

“Queenie wait!” Billy calls after her. He hesitates a moment looking down uncertainly, but shakes his head and chases after her.

“Ah to be young.” Mr. Hubert yawns as rolls contently onto his side only to begin snoring a moment later.

The pair had cleared the fruit vendors for a couple of blocks before Billy managed to catch up to Queenie, even with her fatigue she could run much faster than him, at least for short distances. “Queenie wait, please.”

“Why?” Queenie stopped dead and turned angrily to face him, her eyes damp, more sad than angry. “So you can reject me again, wasn’t once enough.”

“No Queenie I…” Billy fumbled with his words under the gaze of his best friend’s eyes, his heart to squeeze painfully in his chest. “It’s dangerous we have to go back.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Billy looked up to see Blackie come around the corner a joyless smile on his face as he looked at Queenie, one which vanished as he regarded Billy spitefully and hissed. “You can buzz off though kid.”

“I won’t let you touch her,” Billy hissed back his tail up and bristled as he put himself between Queenie and Blackie. It did little to deter Blackie and Billy’s advancement on the tomcat was halted by the appearance of the rest of his gang.

Billy heard Queenie hiss behind him and looked back to see several more tomcats approaching from the other side. There were fewer than there had been in the alleyway, the smell of the nearby citrus deterring other tomcats from the area, but there was also no helpful fire escape to flee onto this time. Billy and Queenie continued to hiss and growl even as they backed up in a slow retreat that was arrested when their erect tails touched the wall of a building.

Blackie leaped at Billy his fangs and claws bared, being trapped and the rush the renewed scent of heat caused the tiger color cat to shoot forward to meet the black tomcat’s attack. Billy ducked under a swipe of Blackie’s claws and slammed his head into the tomcat’s chest knocking the wind from his lungs and throwing him back. Blackie hit the ground coughing and sputtering painfully.

Blackie two cronies came in after their boss, Billy pivoted on his left hind leg and kicked out at the darker tiger-striped tomcat with his right, his feline instincts prompting him to extend his claws. He landed a kick of considerable force and cutting savagery that knocked back the tomcat and left his a stinging reminder to stay back.

His heavier bobcat-like partner was not deterred and slammed himself into Billy midsection knocking them to the ground as he raked at Billy’s back, through his thick shielding fur, and pulled the younger cat in to do the save to him much more vulnerable belly.

Billy hissed angrily and let his instincts take over clawing that the tomcat’s back as well and snapping his head forward to clamp down on the other cat’s ear. The tomcat yowled in pain and released Billy, bringing his claws up to scratch at Billy’s face. Billy swiftly released the ear and batted the claw away bring his hind legs up and kicking the tomcat back across the sidewalk.

Queenie made a much fiercer showing against the tomcats on her side deterring the advancement of each with an equally cutting hiss and swipe of her claws at any who came within reach. Still, her run from Billy had done nothing to relief her fatigue, and she panted between each hiss. Fortunately, so close to their prize, the tomcats saw each other as much as enemies as Blackie and his gang currently saw Billy. They hissed, clawed and bit at one another when one got too close to Queenie.

Queenie capitalized on this by slashing her claws at the tomcats as they were distracted and fought amongst themselves. One would turn back a rival’s advances only to receive a stinging cut from Queenie’s claws.

Still, they were not all so stupid and heat drunk not to use this to their own advantage. A brown tabby skirted toward Queenie trying to slip quietly under the notice of the others. He had almost reached her when a large smoky tomcat noticed his proximity to Queenie and rushed in hissing and swiping at the tabby. The tabby timidly shied back as Queenie’s claws cut across the smoky tomcat’s ear causing it to yowl in pain and quickly retreat from the hostile female.

Queenie was catching her breath when the sly tabby, who had used the distraction to slip out of sight shot forth from the side and clamped his jaws onto the back of her neck. He was attempting to quickly subdue her by applying pressure to the back of her neck where a bundle of nerves would leave her temporarily paralyzed. Queenie felt her body go a little numb, but the tabby’s aim had been more than a little off, and she was still able to fight.

Queenie struggled for a moment, but it was evident in her fatigued state she wouldn’t be able to throw off the heat fueled tomcat. Instead, she forced herself to relax and even go a little limp in the tomcat’s grasp, whom in lustful eagerness moved quickly to mount her. The second Queenie felt his stance shift she threw her body back with all the strength she could muster and slammed the tabby into the wall. The loss of air and blow to the head caused him relinquish his grip and slump to the ground unconscious.

Queenie to was left dazed for a moment, but through her blurred vision, she saw another tomcat advancing. She hissed weakly unable to catch her breath for very long and back up a step closer to Billy. ��Billy we can’t keep this up.”

Billy spun around lashing out with his tail and slapped the nearest tomcat across the eyes with his spiked out tail fur. The tomcat cried out more in annoyance than pain and pawed at its stinging eyes. “You're right,” He seemed to reluctantly agree, but seeing Queenie panting, looking exhausted he had to.

He scanned the area quickly something catching his eye, “This way, stay close to me.” He rushed forward jumping and kicking the tomcat that had been advancing on Queenie knocking him back and sending him crashing to the ground. Queenie followed closely and saw that Billy was leading them to an open manhole, its cover laying half over the open top.

The tomcats gave chase just a step behind Billy and Queenie, so when they reached the edge of the manhole and Billy shouted, “Stop on the edge of the cover over the hole.” Queenie was bewildered but again trusted Billy seemingly mad reasoning. They slid to a stop on the edge of the cover and Queenie was about to ask why when suddenly the cover gave way under them and they plummeted down into the sewer as the cover flipping over and cut off the light overhead.

They landed softly on their padded feet on a stone ledge just in front of a canal of filthy water. “Why do all of your escape plans involve falling,” Queenie asked still panting to catch her breath.

“It’s just what works,” Billy gave a small chuckle and looked up. The cover was only identifiable from the dark of the top of the tunnel by a few points of light that marked the holes in it. He watched it for a minute as the points of light blinked irregularly, and Queenie caught her breath. “We’re safe for now, but we shouldn’t wait around to see if they can figure out how to open it, come on.”

“Ugg, Billy this place smells disgusting, and it’s filthy,” Queenie brought her paw up to cover her nose only the pull it back seeing it covered in filth.

“I know, but there aren’t many cats down here, probably none other than us, so you’ll be safe down here,” Billy assured her continuing to walk guided by what little light poured in through the grates above.

----

“Darn it he got away with her away again!” Blackie angrily shouted swiping a paw at a nearby garbage can knocking it around and causing it to wobble back and forth noisily. He paced back and forth angrily as the members of his gang watched on nervously.

“Calm down there Blackie, don’t let the heat go to your head.” The tiger striped cat advised somewhat hypocritically given how he was acting not a minute ago.

“It’s not the heat,” Blackie snapped back agitatedly sitting down to save some face to his gang. “I saw Queenie first! That Billy’s been giving her the cold shoulder all last year, and still, she won’t give me the time of day.”

Blackie growled a last time, and as if it had chased off his anger his shoulders slumped, and his head hung downcast. “It’s bad enough Queenie's pedigree is so high every cat in town after her, but she’s gotta go after that no account freaking fur ball Billy!” Blackie spat his anger returning.

“Hey come on Blackie, Billy’s our friend,” The bobcat interjected defensively.

“Ya, we’re gonna have a hard time explaining this whole thing to him,” The tiger striped cat added in head sinking downcast. “He doesn’t get cat things too well; he’s not gonna understand that this stuff’s not personal. But he looked real hurt and mad.”

Blackie’s shoulders sunk again, lower this time, and he gave a glum nod of his head. He hadn’t meant those things he’d said to the kid; it was just the heat talking.

“Ha, pathetic,” The sound of a deep voice cut through the air before they could turn to find its source there was a loud thump behind Blackie. The other two cats froze seeing the massive gray figure drop behind Blackie and scrabbled to run as a huge paw slammed into Blackie back sending him crashing forward to the ground. Blackie flipped over and looked up to see Sanctifur’s dead eye glaring down at him. Before he could get away, the massive paw shot around his neck and pulled him off the ground, Blackie’s paws grasping helplessly at the foreleg that was now holding him up. “Still, you could be of some use, tell me to whom that high breed scent belongs to.”

“Go sniff the back end of a dog-” Blackie began to spit back, but Sanctifur just gave the scrawny black cat a toss and flung him into a nearby trash can. Blackie was too dazed to stand, but Sanctifur just picked him back up by the throat and slammed him into the tipped over trash can. “I won’t ask again.”

“Queenie, it’s Queenie,” Blackie gasped desperately afraid his eyes wide as saucers as he felt his breath being slowly crushed out of him.

“Ah yes, she was a little too young before, but I did note she was of a distinctive quality, even if she is related to that wretch!” Sanctifur growled thinking of his blue tipped tailed adversary. Blackie’s wheezing alerted the fat gray cat that he was about to lose consciousness. Sanctifur dropped the black cat to the ground and Blackie gasped for air. “Where did she go?”

“She and… Billy escaped into the sewers,” Blackie gasped out whatever guilt he might have felt about selling out his friends was quickly shouted down by sheer terror. Still, he allowed himself a bit of relief and satisfaction adding with a cough, “Even you won’t be able to find them down there.”

“We shall see,” Sanctifur smiled evilly.

----

Billy and Queenie were lucky, the recent melting and rain of spring had washed most of the filth away and left the water relatively clear. It wouldn’t be until deep into summer this place would be truly become disgusting.

They walked at a slow, relaxed pace, allowing Queenie something like rest while they kept moving. What little light there was in their underground refuge waned slowly until they were almost in complete darkness and the chill of early spring nights began nipping at their noses.

“Billy we’re going to freeze down here,” Queenie pressed herself up against Billy for warmth. It was a lot like all the times she had tried to cuddle up next to him, but he didn’t shy away this time, after all, he was the reason they were down in this place, even if it had been the only way to save them.

“There’s gotta be someplace warm down here, we just have to keep moving,” Billy reassured though he barely felt the cold. The scent of her heat in the air warmed his blood in a way he had never felt before.

“Wait do you hear that,” Queenie asked her ears swiveling forward to better catch the distant sound she had heard.

Billy’s ears mimicked hers, and he too found the sound of a dull metallic moaning and the rush of air. “Ya c'mon let’s check it out.”

Billy started towards the sound a little faster than before, as they rounded a corner a blueish artificial light shone down at the end of the path. Billy laughed at the sight of it and rushed forward, “Alright this is perfect!”

“What is it?” Queenie asked coming up behind him. She followed his gaze to see a large metal chute protruding from the sewer wall. It went out from the wall a short distance then turned up and rose up to where it was bolted into the center of a large grate in the ceiling; blue fluorescent light poured down from the grate where around the chute. Heat radiated from the chute warming the room considerably.

“It’s a heating duct,” Billy explained pointing to where the chute was bolted to the grate. “It blows hot air into an open space, like a train station to keep it warm. As a boy, I once burned myself on one. They must not have fitted this one correctly otherwise it would totally cover the grate.”

“Well at least it’s warm,” Queenie moved closer to the chute until she was comfortably warm then laid down. Billy noted with a smile that the light caused her fur to take on a bluish tinge. She began checking herself over, but when she tried to stretch her head down she winced and gave a little gasp of pain.

“What’s the matter?” Billy frowned moving over to her.

“I think that tabby’s teeth cut me when he grabbed me, but I can’t reach it.” She turned as if trying to see the back of her own neck, but it was useless. She looked back up at Billy and asked, “Would you check it for me.”

Billy nodded, and Queenie laid down. He moved to brush her fur aside with his paw but seeing how filthy it was he sighed and leaned in to nose her fur aside resisting the urge to huff the bothersome strands out of the way. Down near the skin, he found a gash where the blood that had oozed out had dried and matter the fur. “Ya he got you, looks bad,” He immediately regretted saying that and stammered out, “N-not that bad though.”

“I can’t reach it, would you clean it for me?”

“You mean lick it?” Billy grimaced and gave a little shiver.

“Yes Billy, it hurts, and I don’t want it to get infected,” Queenie argued frowning.

Billy didn’t see how licking it would help with either of those problems, but the thought of her suffering or disappointing her pushed him past his disgust. With a little groan of displeasure, he leaned in and ran his tongue across the wound.

Queenie gave a sigh and relaxed as she felt his tongue soothing the wound with greater gentleness than she would have expected from the inexperienced groomer. She looked up knowing she wouldn’t be able to see him properly and caught sight of a few patches of matted red fur on his legs.

She recognized them as scratches from fending off the claws of the tomcats, normally there would have been quite a few of them, but Billy’s unusual way of fighting kept him safe from most of the tomcats’ swipes. Still, the few he had received could get infected just like hers; it was more likely in fact as the wounds were so much closer to the filthy sewer floor. So as he tended to hers, Queenie leaned forward and ran her tongue across the first of his wounds.

Billy was surprised himself that he quickly managed to get used to the coppery taste of Queenie’s blood. Still, he couldn’t imagine how running his rough cat tongue over the wound could feel good. Then he felt Queenie run her own tongue over the scratch on his right leg and he shuttered, though not totally in pain or displeasure. The gentle attention of her tongue soothed the stinging wound and hurt only a little as it swept away the dried blood. For a moment Billy though that maybe getting licked clean wouldn’t be such a disgusting thing if it was Queenie doing the grooming.

With much more experience Queenie worked much faster than Billy and finished her work while Billy still clumsily, but gently continued to groom her wound. With Billy’s gentle attention and no work of her own to distract her the needy burning of her heat came back to Queenie. It combined with the kind attention of Billy to make her head swim, and she began to purr with pleasure.

“That’s enough Billy,” Queenie said after several moments of this dizzy pleasure. She rose up as he backed up a step and quickly closed the distance between the two of them nuzzling up against him, “I’m so glad you’re here with me Billy.”

“Oh no Queenie don’t start that again,” Billy said shaking his head and retreating a step from her. The shake of his head did little to alleviate the desire to be close to her that rose up from his heated blood.

“But I need you, Billy,” she purred and stepped in pressing her chest to his; her tone just a desperate as her words.

“Queenie I can’t, I’m a boy,” He stepped back again growing dangerously close to the hot metal chute.

Queenie’s face fell looking hurt and annoyed, “I know Billy, I know. I’m the one who always believed you remember.” She took a breath and gave him a smile stepping in close again. “But you’re not a boy anymore Billy you’re a cat, let me help show you how to be a cat.”

“N-no,” Billy shook his head furiously as if he was trying to deny himself more than her. He took another half-step back, which was as far as he could go, a full step would have backed him into the hot metal.

“I know you want to Billy, I can hear it in your voice,” Queenie whispered alluringly swishing her tail back and forth seductively. “You say you’re a boy, but my scent is driving you crazy, just like any other male cat.” She punctuated the last word and purred eagerly.

“No, it’s driving you crazy just like it was doing to Blackie and the others,” Billy said this truth renewing his resolve and he met her gaze firmly. “E-even if I wanted to, it wouldn’t be right; you’re not yourself.”

“Come on now Billy, you know I’ve had feelings for you for a long time. Don’t pretend like you didn’t know.”

“Ya I did, but that still doesn’t make it right.”

“Oh Billy,” Queenie purred and stepped in and nuzzled against him again, “You’re so noble, it’s one of the things I like the most about you.”

Billy had no room to escape, but he didn’t think to retreat. Instead, he leaned in as if returning a hug, his eyes downcast. “I liked how you were the most sensible cat I knew.”

Queenie smiled and dipped her mouth to Billy’s ear. “You’ll like it.”

Billy shook his head, “No Queenie I said we can’t.”

Queenie just smiled at the protest, “I think you-”

“I said no!” Billy snapped with very savage cat-like hiss even bringing his paw up and baring his claws but catching himself before he made a swipe at Queenie who jumped back as if he had scratched her, reason returning to her eyes followed swiftly by hurt.

“Oh no,” Queenie gasped bringing a foreleg up to cover her quivering mouth, but it did little to hide the tears that pooled in her blue eyes. “Billy I’m so sorry I don’t know-”

“It’s ok,” Billy cut her off quickly stepping in and wrapping his forelegs around her in a hug, “It’s not your fault, you just have to keep fighting it.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Queenie pulled away and took a few steps back from Billy shuttering sadly. “It’s been two days already, two days of running. Two days of fighting tomcats.” She looked back at him with a sad yearning in her blue eyes, “Two days of wanting it to be you.”

Billy returned her pained gaze, but not a single comforting word rose to his mind. Queenie slumped to the ground and curled into herself and sobbed, “Mom said it could last a week, how can I survive this awful torment for a whole week.”

Billy watched Queenie sob for a moment, a painful tightness in his chest and a queasy churning in his stomach. Not knowing what else to do he moved over to her and curled around her. He wondered for a moment if it was a good idea to get so close to her, he had never snuggled up to anyone else before. But it felt right to do it with Queenie, to be close to her and hold her when she was hurting.

“If it hurts too much to be around me then I’ll go away,” Billy finally said resting his head on her shoulder blades, she looked up at him, their eyes searching the others. “Until then I’ll help you run and fight and rest as much as you need me to.”

A large part of Queenie wanted to entice him again; it would be so much easier if he would just fulfill her need. That wasn’t true of course; her heat would continue even if he did give in to her pleas. Ending the heat wasn’t the point, long before the heat she wanted it to be Billy, almost from the moment Mr. Hubert introduced them she had been taken in by the strange cat that thought he was a boy, and all their adventures had only deepened those feelings.

Queenie twisted around and placed a kiss on the side of his mouth, “Thank you, Billy, you’re really a good person.”

Billy shot back from the friendly kiss his eyes telling Queenie he was worried that she had been overcome by her heat again. “Sorry,” She apologized, her smile a little more teasing then apologetic, “I didn’t mean to, to…”

Queenie trailed off not really knowing what to say to reassure him, but Billy seemed to understand without the explanation. “It’s ok,” He assured her and they fell silent. Queenie leaned her head back down to rest it on her paws comforted by the weight of Billy’s head on her shoulder.

After several long quiet moments, Billy broke the silence without warning, “I’m not actually a very good person at all.”

“What?” Queenie looked up at that seeing Billy’s face twisted with a sad pain.

“Nothing, forget I said anything,” He looked away to avoid her gaze. “You should go to sleep anyway.”

“No, what do you mean Billy? Of course you are a good person, you save tons of animals.”

“As a cat,” Billy answered pointedly, hoping that would be enough for Queenie to drop the subject. Instead, she just continued to stare at him, waiting for more of an explanation. He tried to ignore it, but her eyes bore into him and he so clearly wanted to confess. “As a boy, I wasn’t so nice to animals.”

“Well, boys can be rough when they play,” She said remembering the trips she had taken to schoolyards. When Billy had told her he was a boy she had curiously sought out human boys to watch them and see if they were anything like Billy. They fought and bickered in the same ways she’d seen many tomcats, but they seemed not at all like Billy. Billy was kind and oh so much more charming than any of those silly boys.

“I wasn’t just rough; I was mean. A terror.” Billy again hoped that would be enough, but Queenie just continued to stare waiting for more of an explanation. “I would throw water at any cat I saw, and they were lucky if that was all I threw. I would chase them for as long as I could and well… it was best if I didn’t get a hold of them. Dogs, birds, any animal really, I took pleasure in making their life miserable. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was Mr. Hubert or Blackie or even you.” He met her eyes for a moment; they shone with hurt and disbelief, so he quickly looked away but his self-loathing pushing him to continue. “And if I did, I wouldn’t remember, that’s how many animals I used to terrorize. That’s not how a good person acts; you shouldn’t want to know someone like me.”

Billy stood to leave, he couldn’t imagine Queenie still wanting to be around him after that, but he felt her paw grab him and pull him back down. “Please Billy, don’t go. That all sounds terrible, but that’s not who you are anymore, that’s not who I-” Queenie’s voiced hitched and though she yearned to say something but forced the confession back down.

Billy wanted to shake off her paw and leave anyway; he wanted Queenie to hate him just as he had grown to hate himself. It would be so much easier to ignore the painful yearning if only she would hate him. He searched her eyes for any sign of anger or hate, but all they contained was worry. Worry that he would leave. So he didn’t instead settling down next to her again and letting their world lapse back into a long silence filled only by the droning from within the chute.

“Billy, have you ever heard of reincarnation?” Billy had thought from how still and quiet Queenie had become that his exhausted friend had fallen asleep. He was about to chastise her for not going to sleep, but instead sighed and said. “I think reincarnation is one of those things Mr. Hubert talks about sometimes, I really didn’t pay attention ever.”

“My mom told me about it. Reincarnation is something the universe does when you die, you are born again as something else and don’t remember who you were before."

Billy couldn’t imagine where Queenie was going with this. “It’s not like I was hit by a car Queenie. That stupid wizard turned me into a cat; I remember being a boy.”

“Well I was just thinking, maybe dying isn’t the only way the universe reincarnates a person, but maybe you are still meant to be a cat.”

“Queenie-” Billy started a reluctant tone to his voice, but Queenie cut off his protest. “I’m not trying to… do what I was doing before. I just want you to be happy Billy. Being a cat isn’t so bad is it, your life as a cat hasn’t been that bad has it?”

Billy was about to say it was, that having a warm home, TV, movies and video games was well worth any of the minor troubles of being a boy; while the hardships of a cat’s life were far too numerous and deadly to even compare the two. But he had to admit that none of those things were as amazing as all the adventures he’d gone on as a cat. That he, Nick and his boyhood friends were not as close as he was to Mr. Hubert or Jumbo, and there was no one like Queenie in his old life, she seemed like so much more than a friend.

“It’s been alright,” He admitted coolly, “But I’m still a boy.”

“I know,” She said, and Billy could picture Queenie rolling her eyes at him. She settled back down but was quiet for only a moment, “Tell me about your life as a boy.”

“Huh, why?”

“You never really talk about it much, only how much better this or that is as a boy, or how you know about human things because you were a boy. Tell me what you did as a boy, about your family, your friends or that school place human children go.”

Billy gave another sigh, “Alright. Well at school I hated English class, it was all about reading and stuff.”

“Really, but you actually know how to read?”

“Ya well tell Miss Dinkleburg that. She was the meanest teacher in the whole school.”

----

Billy talked on for a long time about his life as a boy, omitting his repeated mistreatment of animals of course. He wasn’t sure during which story exactly Queenie had fallen asleep; he was just grateful she was finally getting some much-needed rest.

Billy knew he should get some sleep as well, but his blood was too hot and being so close to Queenie had only made it worse. He thought about moving, perhaps putting some distance between them would help, but the thought of disturbing her rest by moving and being away from her stopped him from actually going anywhere.

Instead, Billy lay awake thinking, and inevitably his thoughts turned to her alone. Just their adventures at first, but he found he liked the unremarkable memories just as much. Without fail his thoughts turned to all the not so subtle hints of her feelings she had given him over the year. The ones he had purposely ignored, even fled from proclaiming himself a boy with no interest in cats, really he had no interest in girls of any species at the time.

Then he started to remember things she had done that were not so obvious. The way she’d favor his company over others, or the compliments she’d paid him that he really didn’t deserve, or the sympathetic ear she so freely leant him. As she said, she was the only one that had believed him about being a boy.

Those thoughts lead him down a dangerous road, one where Billy began to see many of the same behavior in his own action towards Queenie. How much he favored her over everyone else, even Mr. Hubert. How worried he became when she got in trouble and how often he shielded her from something threatening. Was more than mere friendship between them?

These thoughts permeated Billy’s mind so thoroughly that when Queenie stirred awake, he hadn’t realized how many hours had passed. “You should get some more sleep.”

Queenie stood up and stretched out groaning with pleasure, “It feels like I’ve been asleep for hours. How late is it?”

“Can’t say,” Billy looked up through the grate where the same blue light shone unchanged. He stood and stretched to in a very cat-like fashion; he hadn’t realized just how stiff his body had become laying there with Queenie. “I can’t have been that long.”

“Well I’m too hungry to sleep anymore, and it’s getting hot in here.” Billy realized she was right; it was as if the cold chill of the night had receded of its own accord and the hot metal chute was making the room unbearable. “Come on; maybe the sun has come up.”

Billy followed Queenie out of the room, quickly rushing ahead when her dizzying uncovered scent assaulted him again. They stepped back into the sewers to find them no longer pitch black. Not-so-faint sunlight streamed in from the grates overhead providing more than enough for their keen eyes to see the whole of the sewer system. “How are we gonna get out?”

Billy’s eyes moved to the churning filthy water in the canal next to them and watched bits of debris floating down swept by the current. “This way, the sewer’s gotta open up to drain out somewhere.”

“Sounds lovely,” Queenie grimaced but relented to follow him.

Thankfully they didn’t end up having to crawl through a drainage pipe. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a large pile of sand that had piled against the wall under a grate. “Oh hey this might be even better,” Billy said excitedly rushing towards the pile.

“What’s all this sand doing down here?”

“It’s the beach, listen,” Billy answered, and the two fell silent for a moment, and the sound of gull cries and lapping waves came to their keen ears. “The sand gets swept down the grate all the time, usually the city sends someone down to clear it out, but they must have missed this one the last few times. Come on maybe we can climb out here and check out the local fish market for something to eat.”

Billy started up the pile of sand eagerly, slipping and sliding down a few times in the loose grit of the pile. Queenie was a little hesitant, imagining herself tumbling down into filthy water, but the grate was a little way from the canal, and it was hard to believe even the clumsiest fall causing anyone to slip into the water. So she too began to climb, making much better progress than Billy with her careful steps.

Queenie reached Billy as he reached the grate, “Getting up here is one problem, but I don’t see how we’re going to get out through that grate.”

“Well, I was thinkin’, that if they haven’t cleaned up the sand down here in a while then maybe.” Billy reached and pushed the grate up with little effort, “Yep, the latch on these things break all the time. Come on Quee-”

Billy was suddenly cut off as a large paw grabbed him by the fur of his chest and yanked him violently up through the open grate. Queenie called his name and rushed to push open the grate, but as she lifted it, the massive paw slammed down on top of it knocking Queenie back and sending her tumbling down the pile.

Queenie managed to land back on her feet and looked up, her face twisting in horror as she saw the formidable form and familiar scarred face looking down at her, “No Sanctifur!”

“Just give me one moment my dear, and I’ll be with you,” Sanctifur purred sinisterly in his dark tone.

Queenie saw a flash of orange fur leap at Sanctifur who struggled for a moment before whirling around and slamming Billy’s back into the grate. “Billy!” Queenie cried, but it did nothing to stop Sanctifur’s massive paw from swiping across and batting Billy out of sight then moving after him. Queenie rushed up the sand mound, but her frantic paws couldn’t find a stable hold on the loose grit and she repeatedly only managed to get a few inches before sliding back down to the stony floor of the sewer frantically crying Billy’s name.

Above Billy hit the ground once before rolling back onto his paws and stared down the incoming Sanctifur. Billy leaped up over the swipe of Sanctifur’s massive paw and slammed his own into his face knocking him back. “Buzz off Sanctifur I beat you before, and I’ll do it again.”

Sanctifur rolled back onto his feet and shook his head glaring coolly over at the bigger, though still much smaller than himself, Billy. “Yes I remember, but you won’t have it so easy this time.”

Sanctifur bounded in on him again, and Billy repeated his jump kick as well, this time, however, Sanctifur caught Billy’s leg mid-air in his massive paw. Billy quickly snapped his other hind leg forward and slammed it into Sanctifur’s face, but without the added weight of his body, it did little to hurt the larger cat who swung Billy around and threw him to the ground again.

Billy rolled back to his paws with a groan and quickly moved to put some distance between him and Sanctifur. “How did you know where I was?”

“Rats,” Sanctifur hissed, “They were very cooperative after I ate their fat leader. But it wasn’t you I was looking for runt, it was her.” Sanctifur rumbled and pointed back to the grate where Queenie was still calling Billy’s name. “Like me, she is an oh so perfect specimen of the feline race, our ancestors were worshipped as gods, just like the worthless creatures of this city worship me, I am the only fit mate for her.”

Billy hissed involuntarily at the thought of Sanctifur touching Queenie like that, or in any way. Without thinking he charged the larger cat, his claws and teeth bared and leaped at him, but this proved a faulty strategy as Sanctifur grabbed him out of the air. Still, Billy didn’t care biting and scratching at Sanctifur foreleg savagely.

Sanctifur did seem to feel any pain and raked his claws across Billy’s side as he batted him away again. “I thought I might have to deal with you tainting her first,” Sanctifur growled slamming his paw into Billy again. “Your infatuation with her was always so plain to see.” Another slam of Sanctifur’s paw tossed Billy another direction, his claws finding unmarred skin to rake. “Not to worry though I will simply have to cull your blood from the litter.”

A final swipe of his paw sent Billy rolling several feet away, and this time the striped cat didn’t get back up, he just lay there coughing his fur disheveled, covered in grit and spotted with blood in several places. Satisfied with his work Sanctifur left the dying Billy on the sidewalk and moved back to the grate flinging it open. Looking down he saw Queenie, a horrified look on her face, slide back down to the bottom of the sand pile.

“Oh no,” Queenie’s eyes welled up with tears as she shook her head in denial, “BILLY!”

Sanctifur jumped down the hole and slid down the sand pile, Queenie backing up fearfully giving him room to land with a thump on the stone floor. “You won’t have to worry about that wretch again my dear.” Sanctifur took a deep whiff of the scent in the air, “Now come, let us fulfill our destiny together.”

“No!” Queenie shouted backing away from the hulking tomcat, “Stay away from me Sanctifur, I don’t want anything to do with a vile cat like you.” She hissed savagely, but Sanctifur didn’t seem to be threatened in the least.

“Come now my dear, let me show you how much you’ll like it,” Sanctifur purred the vile twist of Queenie’s words back at her.

“She said ‘no.'” A voice cut through them, and they both looked up in shock to see Billy jump back down into the sewer. The weight of his words was somewhat diminished by his clumsy fall down the sand pile, though he managed to stay on his paws. Three of them at least, his front left was held up off the ground protectively. His right eye had swollen shut and he limped even on his three good legs, but his glare was no less fierce.

Sanctifur growled and turned on Billy, “You should have taken your worthless life and gone, boy! This time I’ll make sure your dead.”

“No!” Queenie cried and leaped up on Sanctifur’s back biting and clawing at him.

“Ungrateful witch!” Sanctifur snarled and rose up to shake Queenie off. It was then that she remembered what the tabby had tried to do to her. Pushing herself up she clamped her teeth into the back of Sanctifur’s neck, and she didn’t miss.

“What?” Sanctifur strained to speak as he felt his body go limp. Before he could ever register what had happened, Billy jumped forward and slammed a paw into Sanctifur’s unprotected chest. There was a loud crack as several of his ribs broke and he was tossed back several feet, Queenie being thrown from his back.

Sanctifur struggled to his feet spitting angrily about revenge, but when he looked up, Billy was coming in on him again whipped around and slammed his paw into Sanctifur’s nose knocking him back again. This time Sanctifur had enough control that, with a blind grab, he managed to wrap a paw around Billy’s tail.

The force of the kick sent him rolling back over the lip of the canal and into the filthy water, but his grip held firm, and he dragged Billy towards the water with him; Billy’s claws screeching in protest against the stone floor.

“Billy!” Queenie rushed forward and grabbed Billy’s good foreleg just as Sanctifur disappeared beneath the filthy water. They struggled to pull his tail from the larger cat’s grip, but just as they thought Sanctifur’s grip would slack it tightened, and the smoky cat rose out of the water.

“I’ll drag you to hell with me!” Sanctifur snarled, but Queenie leaped forward and raked her claws across his face. He cried out in pain and Billy kicked Sanctifur’s paw breaking his tail free from its grip.

His tie to the shore gone Sanctifur sank beneath the water again too weakened by the pain in his chest and face to fight the sewer’s current.

“Oh my god Billy you’re hurt,” Queenie pulled Billy away from the canal setting him down in the soft sand. Looking him over and seeing how badly injured he was her eyes began to well with tears, “I was so scared.”

“Me too,” He agreed weakly and reached up to place his good paw on her cheek. He didn’t protest as Queenie began tending to his wounds. There were so many, it as if there wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t cut in some way. By the sharp gasps he let out every time she pressed a little too hard she imagined that he was equally covered in bruises as well.

“I can’t believe you still managed to fight in this state, Billy.”

“I-I,” Billy started hesitantly as if he didn’t want to admit to the motivation that had spurred him on to fight, but he had to hear himself say it. “I could stand the thought of him doing that to you. I had to stop him. I had to protect you.”

Queenie looked up at him with surprise, her eyes searching his one open one for the meaning behind those words. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? He couldn’t meet her gaze, but it was there, and now they both knew it. It couldn’t be unsaid.

Without a word Queenie went back to tending to Billy’s wounds, the silence in the air quickly became so oppressive Billy had to break it. “Nick was a jerk like me, but he always had my back.”

“What?” Queenie looked up from her work curiously.

“You still want to know about me as a boy don't you?”

It was Queenie’s turn to fall silent, to want to protest but found herself unable to find a reason to stop him from going back to those memories. She liked his stories, but in the wake of what had just passed between them, she didn’t want to think of the boy he had once been. “You shouldn’t talk, you’re too hurt.”

“You’re probably right,” He agreed with a cough. Queenie went back to work, but despite agreeing with her, Billy continued, “This one time these older kids were picking on us, and Nick…”

Billy talked on until Queenie finished treating him. She took her time and when she had finished not only had Billy’s wounds been tended, but he was groomed better than he had ever been in his year as a cat.

Queenie left to get food and Billy finally slept, though his dreams were plagued by terrible memories of the things he had done to animals as a boy. Queenie shook him gently awake when she returned with food, and they returned to the heated room when night fell.

Thankfully Queenie’s heat didn’t last a week, and a day after their fight with Sanctifur it finally receded. Still, it was too difficult for Billy to make the climb up the unsteady sand pile and so they remained in the sewer.

For the next few days, their routine became moving back and forth between the two chambers following the day-night cycle. Queenie would groom Billy as he told stories of his boyhood and he even took to grooming her wherever she couldn’t reach herself. She told him a few stories of her own from before they met when he was too tired to speak anymore, but she had much fewer stories to tell. While he slept, she would go out and find them food.

His nightmares about his actions as a boy continued to haunt him, and he was lucky most time to wake to the gentle stroking of Queenie’s paws across his back and her soft voice whispering reassurances into his ear. Queenie asked him of course about the nightmares, and he told her honestly what they were about, but Billy refused to give any details.

As Queenie doted over him in their growing familiar routine, Billy couldn’t help but think worriedly about the future beyond this place. He was quickly growing stronger and once he was fully recovered he and Queenie would escape this place and return to the real world. What then?

He knew now that she was not the only one of them to have feelings for the other, it wasn’t something he could hide from anymore. It would be bad enough once Mr. Hurbert found out, the older cat teasing would be annoying enough, but far more worrisome would be what Queenie would expect from him next. Dates and affection, soon enough her next heat would come, and her desire to be with him would only be stronger. Could he keep denying her what she wanted, what she deserved and what would it mean if he did? Would it be any less evil an act then Sanctifur trying to take her against her will?

The sound popping of bulbs snapping him awake late one night. He looked up to find the now familiar blue light no longer streaming through the grate. His tired mind told him it must have been some kind of power surge. Disturbed by the thick cloak of dark in the chamber and the muffled sounds from above Billy crawled out of the chamber.

He sniffed at the air, but couldn’t catch the scent of the ocean that typically guided him through the dark of the sewer at night. He knew the way well by now, so he stood up and reached out to touch the wall of the sewer using it as both a guide and marker to keep him from stumbling into the water until he came upon the other chamber.

Silvery moonlight streamed in from the grate illuminating the pile of sand under it, but Billy was surprised that his keen eyes couldn’t see more of the chamber in this light. Curiously he moved forward and reached out into the beam of light only to gasp as he saw a pale human hand come into sight.

“It can’t be,” He said and fully stepped into the light staring down at human hands and arms rather than a cat’s paws and forearms. Reaching up Billy cupped a face that was no longer furry and feline, but smooth and human. His finger touched his mouth, and it formed into a wide relieved smile, “I’m human again.”

----

Billy raced through the darken streets regularly illuminated by a light post showing him as a raven-haired, freckled boy his clothes unchanged in his year as a cat. An exuberant smile stretched across Billy’s face pushing painfully against his cheeks, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t have stopped smiling if he tried. It was just so good to feel the independent pumping of his legs and arms as he ran fast enough to let the cool night air chill his sweat damped skin and blow back his hair. He pumped both arms, hands clenched into fists, into the air just to prove he could keep running on his two legs alone.

He laughed almost manically as he ran slapping signs as he passed the as if high fiving old friends that had been long out of touch. Dogs cowed away from what they took as a mad boy running down the street, some even still remembered him from days past, more and more so as he grew closer to his home. His parents’ house where there would be a soft, warm bed just for him. Heating to push back the cold night air and in the summer air conditioning to defend against the heat. There would be all the food he could eat anytime he was hungry and TV and video games to entertain him whenever he was bored.

Despite his smiling and laughing tears stung his eyes was he reached his neighborhood and his house came into view seeming so much smaller then he remembered. Billy raced to the locked door and banged on it almost frantically, “Mom! Dad!” His laughing had stopped, and his smile faded as if this, his first obstacle since returning to boyhood, instill in him a fear that all this might not be real.

Light poured through the small window in the door so suddenly that Billy could have almost heard the click of the light switch. He stopped banging on the door, his breath hitched in his throat, held there until the lock of the door thumped open and the door was pulled open.

“Billy?” The soft, confused voice of a man asked it were as if, just like Billy, he was worried what he was seeing in front of him wasn’t real.

“Dad!” Billy cried and threw himself forward wrapping both arms around his father, squeezing him tightly.

“Oh my god Billy it’s really you,” his father gasped matching the fierceness of his son’s hug. A gasp from behind Billy’s dad snapped the two from their reunion and Billy looked past his father to see his mother standing at the bottom of the stairs collapse back and sitting down on the stair, a trembling hand covering her mouth.

“Mom!” Billy cried and pushed past his dad, wiping the tears from his eyes that blurred his vision, and running the few steps to his mother throwing his arms around her in a desperate, needy hug as well.

“Billy, oh Billy where have you been,” She whispered as she hugged him back, more fiercely than Billy or her husband had, “What happened to you.”

“Big brother?” A small voice floated down from the top of the stairs, and Billy looked up to see his little sister rubbing the sleep from her eyes and clutching the top banister of the stairs, “Is that really you?”

“Ya Marie,” Billy smiled up at her, “I’m back.”

----

Billy’s parents watched as their son lay sleeping curled up on top of the covers of his bed. He had left almost all of their questions unanswered, just wanting to go to sleep. Their reunion had been so draining and Billy’s desire to go to bed so pleading that they couldn’t argue. Still, as his father ushered Marie back to bed as well, Billy’s mom worriedly watched her son crawl onto the bed, just as he had done when he had first come home, acting not at all like himself, a year ago.

When her husband returned and saw the way Billy was sleeping a quick look at his wife told him that she was worried about the same thing, “What should we do?”

“Call Dr. More I guess,” He sighed putting a comforting arm around his wife, “What else can we do?”

“I don’t want to send him away again,” Billy’s mom said with a shake of her head. She would be hard fought if they did try and send him to the hospital again.

“We shouldn’t think about that right now.” He wished she would try to go back to bed, but he knew that just like him she wouldn’t be able to take her eyes off their son. Instead, they waited there together until the sun crested the horizon.

----

Billy tugged at the collar of his dress shirt trying to relieve the choking grip it had on his neck, but only succeeded in pinching his fingers. It would figure that his parents would waste no time after his return to force him into the much-hated dress clothes they were always insisting he wear, which was only made worse as it seems in his time as a cat his body had nearly outgrown even his more comfortable clothes. He groaned and gave up on the collar, this was never a problem as a cat, his fur got messed up at times, but it was always comfortable.

Billy bit his tongue as if he could stop himself from thinking such things the same way he could stop himself from saying them. He was finally a boy again, and all he wanted to do was forget about the past year as a cat. He had to; things would just be better that way.

No one would believe him if he told them the truth, he would have believed it himself. He’d remembered movies where characters lost their memories of what had happened to them; it was called amnesia. That had proven the best excuse he could think of, and Billy had answered any question his parents asked with a sad, ‘I don’t remember.' With his practiced sad face it seemed to work well, and halfway through the morning, his parents had stopped asking him questions.

Billy had hoped that was the end of it, but by the afternoon they told him that they had managed to get an appointment with a Dr. More. He could tell that they hoped the name would mean something to Billy, but his confusion as to the identity of the doctor was no lie.

They forced him to dress in the uncomfortable clothes and brought him downtown to a small office that looked and felt more like the place where his dad did his taxes than the sterile smelling office of a doctor. Billy had tried to ask his parents why they were there, but they seemed to have taken a page from his book and explained as little as possible saying only that Dr. More would hopefully help him remember what happened. That alone made Billy not want to go; he had no wish to remember what had happened to him the past year, in fact, he desperately just wanted to forget and let her move on.

“The doctor will see you now,” The receptionist spoke in a high nasalise voice peering out at them rather critically from behind a pair of wingtip glasses.

They entered the doctor’s office, Billy’s parents hurrying forward to thank the doctor profusely for seeing them on such short notice. Billy crossed his arms and eyed the doctor from a safe distance. With his gray striped tailored suit, round glasses, white-bearded face and golden pocket watch chain he looked like every stereotypical psychiatrist Billy had ever seen in movies or comics, and he rolled his eyes at the thought of having to deal with such a man.

“Well now Billy you are looking much better today,” The doctor said stepping past Billy’s parents and smiling down at the young man. One had grasped the lapel of his jacket while the other extended slightly in a gentle offering to Billy.

Billy met the man’s gaze, and despite how very much he didn’t want to be cooped up in a doctor’s office he could sense a genuine good nature in the man. With a sigh Billy decided that there really wasn’t any point in being difficult and forcing enough of a smile to be polite, but not disingenuous, he took up the doctor’s hand and gave it a firm shake, “Nice to meet ya Doc.”

The three adults looked a little surprised at this and Billy looked up at them to see three pairs of eyes staring down at him widely. Billy felt a little worried for a minute that he’d done something wrong but quickly shook away that thought. Instead, he smiled jokingly, “What?” offering them a good natured challenged to point out any wrong or odd behavior.

That seemed to snap the adults out of their shocked stupor, and the doctor released Billy’s hand and turned back to his parents, “Well why don’t you let Billy and I get reacquainted, hmm. I’ll call you back in to talk later alright.”

Billy parents seemed both reluctant and hopeful at the same time, quickly agreeing but moving slowly to leave, giving Billy a lot of worried looks as they did. Billy returned the worried looks as Dr. More moved back around to sit on his side of the desk and offered the seat opposite to Billy. Billy was suddenly struck with the notion of being sat down in the principal’s office, but shook it away and took his chair, “’fraid this is just getting acquainted for me Doc.”

“Yes, your parents said that you could not remember what happened,” The doctor leaned back relaxing in his chair. He was silent for a few moments letting the statement hang in the air as he passively studied Billy. Billy did his best to follow suit, though his clothes made it difficult to relax. He figured if the doctor already knew the story of his amnesia it would only sound like a lie if he told it over too many times. Instead, he just nodded in agreement that it was the truth and the doctor eventually took up a pen and pad of yellow paper. “Tell me then what’s the last thing you remember?”

Billy couldn’t help but shift a little uncomfortably at this, but caught himself and made himself hold still. He looked down his eyes turning as he thought back to that day a year ago, it hadn’t been far from his mind on any given day in the past year, but the shame with which he viewed it had grown considerably. “I was just hanging out Nick and Joe, just doing normal kids’ stuff y’know.”

“Come now Billy,” Dr. More scratched a few notes and tapped his pen on the pad, “It was just yesterday to you, no? Surely you can remember more than that.”

Billy gave a quiet groan, his collar was choking him again, but he resisted the urge to tug at it, he knew how guilty it would make him look. He was guilty of course just not that way. With a sigh Billy leaned back into the chair and looked off into space, “We were being punks.” Billy admitted and leaned forward looking the doctor in the eye again. “We were running around tormenting strays, it was stupid, but we did it all the time.”

The doctor gave a quiet but interested ‘hmm’ and scribbled some more notes. Billy stopped talking and watched the doctor write for a moment, before long the doctor gave him a soft reassuring smile, “What happened next?”

Billy frowned and made like he was going to protest, he would have with anyone else, but it was like the doctor had some uncanny ability to compel him to speak. “Nick and Joe got caught by this saleslady chasing a dog we’d run into her store. I slipped away and started chasing this cat I’d splashed with a bucket of water. I had it cornered in an alley when…”

Billy stopped there, this was where the story would have taken its unbelievable turn, and he knew he couldn’t tell that to Dr. More. He quickly put on a confused face and gripped the chair darting his eyes back and forth a few times in mock confusion. After a moment he shrugged in surrender and looked back up at the doctor, “There was a flash of light, and that’s all I can remember until I woke up last night.”

“Hmm,” The doctor nodded, but didn’t seem as convinced as his agreeable actions would suggest. Pointing his pen at Billy, he asked, “So what happened after that? When you woke up what happened there.”

Queenie’s face flashed across Billy’s mind, but he quickly pushed the thoughts that followed away as he looked down and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He looked back up at the doctor worried he might have given away something, but the doctor remained as passive and inviting a listener as he had before.

“I was dreaming about that day with the guys,” Billy started, still oddly compelled to talk to Dr. More. He hadn’t told his parents much of anything and hadn’t thought of what he would say when he did, but ultimately he saw no reason not to tell the truth. “I woke up in the sewers, under this heating grate, y’know next to the vent duct. I felt my way to this broken grate with a mound of sand that had been swept in from the beach under it. I climbed out and ran straight home.”

The doctor ‘hmm’ed again and took a few more notes still holding that air of agreeableness without actually seeming to accept or reject Billy’s story. “Your parents said you acted like you hadn’t seen them in… sometime,” Dr. More noted conversationally glancing up at Billy over his glasses.

“It felt like I hadn’t,” Billy nodded half-lying.

“I see, and you have no indication that you were gone for more than a day. Thoughts, memories, even dreams?”

Billy just shook his head at the question, he had a year’s worth of memories, so many that it seemed liked it was a lifetime, but none he could ever talk about again.

“Alright well, why don’t we try the ink blot test, eh?” The doctor said with a grin placing the pad down on his desk and pulling a stack of cards from a drawer. “I bet you know what that is right, all the kids your age do.”

Billy smiled almost jovially and leaned forward with a chuckle, “Ya I’ve heard of it. I didn’t think you guys actually used it though; I figured it was just junk psychology.”

“I’m just old fashioned I guess,” Dr. More said and picked up the top card holding it up for Billy to see. “You know then, just tell me the first thing that comes to mind.”

Billy looked at the splattered and pressed symmetrical image before him. The ink stretched out on either side like a set of wings and Billy instantly heard the sound of Jumbo calling into an imaginary ground control. “Jumbo…” He spoke with a hint of bitter regret thinking he would never talk to the bird again.

“Who?” The doctor asked as Billy trailed off, eying him carefully.

Billy pulled himself from the memories of his pigeon friend and quickly recovered, “A jumbo jet, that’s what I was saying. It doesn’t look like anyone.”

“I see,” The doctor said putting the card down and writing briefly before picking up another.

This one looked cylindrical in the middle branching off at the top and Billy instantly saw Blackie’s gang rummaging through trashcans and inviting him, the cat that beat up Sanctifur, to join them. “Blackie… I mean some black cats, rooting through garbage cans.”

The doctor gave a similar response and held up the next, which looked like a blocky hill and Billy instantly saw his home. No, what he saw was Mr. Hubert’s car in the junkyard, “A stack of cars in a junkyard.”

The next was oval with clear tufts of fur and pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes, “Queenie!” He whispered his eyes turning fiercely on the doctor as he thought the man was trying to trick him, the image was a better likeness to his best friend then he could ever hope to draw. But the doctor’s face told only of his innocence in the face of Billy’s anger, and Billy looked again not finding any likeness of his friend in the picture. “It doesn’t look like anything.”

“I thought you said something there about the queen?” The doctor ventured watching Billy closely.

Billy pretended to look at the image again and forced a laugh, “Ya I guess it does look like the Queen of England.”

“Remember you’re supposed to give your first impression, not think too much about it.” The doctor didn’t share the laugh and took a few more notes as Billy nodded in agreement and tried to push the thoughts of his time as a cat from his mind. It didn’t really work as the next image looked like the Dead End Dogs gang, but Billy managed just to say it seemed like a pack of dogs without hesitation. The next looked like the mischief of rats that had chased him and the kittens through the sewer; he said a swarm of rats.

The next one came an instant after the last and was just a huge blot that covered almost the entire card. “Sanctifur!” Billy cried before he could stop himself, but at least he managed not to jump out of his chair as the mostly healed scratches concealed under his clothes burned angrily.

Dr. More looked up with concern his pen halting in his hand as he turned the card to look at it himself, then back at Billy. “Billy lad, are you all right?”

“Ya,” Billy lied as he calmed his breathing, “Sorry.”

“Who is Sanctifur?”

“Oh, unn.” Billy stammered for a moment trying desperately to think up a believable lie. Once again he went with what was mostly the truth, “He was this big old mean cat I knew back when I was little. He would scratch me up all the time.”

The doctor watched Billy silently for a moment; Billy figured he was trying to gauge where or not he was lying. Billy was about to start reaffirming his story when the doctor spoke, “Perhaps that’s why you were so mean to cats yourself.”

“No,” Billy answered quietly shaking his head, “I was just a little punk.”

The doctor gave Billy another look that was partially empathetic and partially skeptical but didn’t pursue the matter further. They continued with the ink blots, Billy continuing to see images of his life as a cat in them. He had never realized just how much he had done and seen as a cat; it was so much more than he could remember from his human life.

Soon after they finished with the ink blots, the doctor sent Billy out and had his parents went in again alone. That left Billy alone in the reception room with all the memories of his life as a cat swirling in his head, and as much as he wanted to forget about them, as much as he felt he had to and return to a normal life, he found himself getting lost in them. On the drive home, he stared out the window of the car watching the animals interact on the streets in ways he never remembered noticing before is life as a cat.

The whole event was so draining that Billy just wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep by the time they got home again. He said as much, hardly even noticing the way his parents lingered in the car as he got out and entered the house. He somberly removed his shoes and climbed the stairs to his room without hardly a sound halting only when he heard a faint noise coming from beyond the slightly ajar door to his room.

“Come on what was the order? First this one, then this one,” The panicked voice of his sister muttered to itself and Billy could practically feel his ears perk to attention as he heard the sound of something shuffling around.

A mischievous smile came to Billy’s lips as he crept up to the door and gently placed his hand on the knob listening carefully for any indication that she’d heard him. Hearing only her continued worried muttering, he readied himself and threw open the door stepped in and with a look of mock annoyance said sharply, “Marie what are you doing in my room.”

Marie snapped around to face Billy, her brad whipping from one side to the other as her eyes went wide with panic. “I’m sorry!” She said with a startled gasp and dropped what she had been clutching to her chest; several comic books flapped to the ground at her feet.

“I’m sorry,” She gasped again and dropped to her knees and leaned over trying to recover the fallen comics before their pages could be bent or folded in the misaligned fall. “I-I was putting them back; I just wanted to read them. I was very careful with them and, and you were gone so I-I…” She tried to explain in a rush, but her voice became increasing strained and choked, and Billy noticed tears start dripping from her face.

“Oh hey kiddo,” Billy rushed up to Marie. His intended joke now stinging at him from the back of his mind as threw his arm around her shoulders pulling her into a hug. “It’s ok I’m not mad. Shhh, don’t worry it’s fine.”

“You were gone,” She wailed her hand forgetting about the comic books and reaching up to wrap around Billy. “And-and I was glad at-at first because you wouldn’t pick on me anymore but-but you didn’t come back! And I-I was scared something h-happened to you!” Marie wailed stuttering with choked sobs as she pressed her face into her brother’s shoulder and soaked his nice clothes through with her pouring tears.

“Hey it’s ok,” Billy soothed alternating between rubbing and patting his little sister’s back, “I’m back now. Everything’s fine.”

“But I-I…”

“Ya I was a bit of a jerk wasn’t I,” Billy admitted with a reassuring chuckle. “It’s ok you don’t have to be upset that you were glad I was gone for a little while and I’m not mad about the comics, you can read them as much as you like.”

Marie sobs died down a little at Billy’s words. She moved her head a little and rubbed her eyes against a dry patch of his shirt to wipe away the wetness from her eyes then sniffed and looked up at him, her nose still wet and dripping pearls, “R-really Billy, you’re not mad?”

Billy gave her a reassuring grin and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it up for her to use before she decided to wipe her nose on his shirt as well. “Really Marie, here blow your nose before you make any more of a mess on my shirt, Snot-face.”

Marie gave a little giggle at that, took the handkerchief and blew her nose into it then gave a last sniff to clear her nose. The sibling separated and sat themselves down on either side of the pile of comic books. Billy picked up the first cover that caught his eye and held it up to Marie. “The Toxic Avenger, bet you regretted picking this one.”

Marie, who was busy picking up the rest of the books and concerned with smoothing out the rumpled and bent pages shook her head, “Uh-uh, that’s my favorite one.”

“This,” Billy held it out with a shocked look on his face and Marie reconfirmed her love of the particular comic. Billy smiled and flipped through the book, “You just went straight for the grossest comic I had, mom wouldn’t even let me read it if she knew what it was like.”

“I won’t tell her if you don’t,” Marie offered conspiratorially giving Billy a sly grin as she set the other comics back in order.

“Deal,” Billy said throwing the book down on top of the others with far less care than Marie had treated them with, which she frowned at disapprovingly. Standing, Billy moved to shove his sister out of his room gently. “Now get out.”

“Hey, I thought you were gonna be nice to me,” She protested, but he continued to push her out the door.

“I never said that,” Billy took hold of his door giving her a wicked grin.

“But…” She started and looked like she was going to tear but again.

“Just kidding Kiddo,” Billy gave her a more genuine smile and ruffled her hair, “I gotta change otta these clothes you soaked, then we’ll hang out, K.”

Marie frowned at Billy ruffling her hair and the light teasing, but there weren’t any really hurt feeling behind the expression. “I didn’t soak them.”

Billy shut his door, but called through, “Sure you didn’t Waterworks.”

----

“Hey Billy, your back!” Nick called out roughly pushing or dodging past other kids to make his way across the school’s halls seeing his long lost friend making his way through from the opposite direction. Joe followed close behind.

“Nick, Joe!” Billy’s face lit up like his friends', and he moved to meet them, clearing his path with a quick word and brief touch to the shoulder to any who anyone who wasn’t paying attention. “Am I glad to see you guys.”

“Where have you been man,” Nick asked popping Billy in the arm with a friendly, but still painful punch which was mimicked by Joe on the other arm. Not to be outdone Billy returned the greeting with equal force, “Mom sent me to stay with an uncle, guess she thought this place was a bad influence on me or something.”

Billy had thought up the lie the day before after convincing his mom to let him go back to school. She had been as surprised that he wanted to go back to school at all as she was nervous to let him go out on his own. But while Marie was a lot more fun to hang out with then he remembered he wanted to get back to his life just as it had been. Staying at home all the time gave him too much time to think, to remember. Finally after much reasoning, and even calling the school himself to see how he could get back into classes with his friends, all that was needed was his parents’ approval.

“Not us right?” Nick laughed pointing between himself and Joe who joined in with a knowing smile.

“Of course not,” Billy jokingly assured them, and added with emphasis, “If anything she probably thought I was being a bad influence on a couple of upstanding guys like you.”

“Ya well we’ll let you hang out with us anyhow,” Nick laughed only to be interrupted by the ringing of the school bell.

“Ah man I’m going to be late,” Billy looked down at the schedule he’d been given at the office earlier that morning and scrunched up his face in discomfort. “And I have Miss Dinkleburg’s class first.”

“Us too, come on,” Joe said nodding his head up the hall. Billy followed them to the classroom, and the trio slipped through the door and into the unhappy glare of the elderly Miss Dinkleburg causing them all to come to a screeching halt and cringe back in fear.

“So nice of you boy’s to join us,” Miss Dinkleburg spoke in a cracked high voice glowering down at the kids almost hunched over them. Her eyes fell on Billy, and she sneered showing yellowed teeth, “I see you already started wasting your time now that Billy has returned.”

“We were just tellin’ him about what’d he’d missed in class,” Nick lied quickly in a lame meek voice his eyes shooting looks back and forth at everything except his teacher.

“Ya we just lost track of time,” Joe added in confirmation. The other kids watched the scene with rapt attention some giggling slightly as the boys sweated under the intimidating teacher.

“Oh is that so,” Miss Dinkleburg leaned back and crossed her arms, a sinister grin on her lips, “Then I sure you can answer the meaning of the question we were discussing last class. So tell the class, ‘Who are you?’.”

“Ah, Nick Jones,” Nick answered giving his teacher a hopeful look which was returned with a glare. She turned her attention to Joe who didn’t dare speak, and had no better answer to give anyway.

“Perhaps you need to spend this afternoon in detention to think over your answers?” Miss Dinkleburg suggested and sneered happily as the two began to whine, but when she looked over at Billy who just looked up at her with quiet anger. “Perhaps you, Billy, with your time away from these two have gained enough insight to answer the question. So tell me, what makes you who you are?”

Billy seemed taken aback by the question, glancing down and Miss Dinkleburg looked triumphant that she had caught all three. “I guess my situation,” Billy ventured to answer, “If I weren't a boy going to school with a home to go to that would change who I was.”

Despite his efforts not to Billy thought of that first night he and Queenie had spent in the sewer and the things he had confessed to her about when he was a boy. He looked up to see Miss Dinkleburg frowning, but not glaring or sneering down at him and he hurriedly continued, his thoughts accented by the memory. “The people around me would think so anyway; I guess they affected who I am as well. And the experiences we have change us as well, you’re not the same afterward, that’s for sure.”

“The character’s not the same at the end of the story?” Miss Dinkleburg questioned almost gently her eyes never leaving Billy’s face. He noticed for the first time that she was staring at him intensely and a quick glance around the room told him the other students were doing the same, Nick and Joe included.

“Mm ya, that’s what I meant,” Billy quickly agreed hoping to escape to the empty desks at the back of the classroom and out of the class’s questioning gaze as quickly as possible.

“Humph,” Miss Dinkleburg glowered and crossed her arms turning to look at Nick and Joe again, “You two are lucky that Billy here seems to have learned something in his time away. Now take your seats and I better not hear any of you interrupting my class, understand?”

“Yes ma’am,” Nick and Joe said in unison and rushed for the desks, Billy followed with just a nod. The elderly teacher’s eyes followed him a moment before she whipped around and marched to the blackboard. “Now what Billy said speaks to the central theme of many stories which asks ‘who am I’ as you should have learned giving last night’s homework assignment.”

----

“Boy what a cranky old crone,” Joe said with a yawn as they made their way out of the classroom.

“Ya I could have at least gotten some sleep, but her voice is so annoying to listen to,” Nick said doing a squeaking incomprehensible mockery of their teacher, then laughed folding his arms behind his head. He glanced over at Billy who hadn’t joined in on their complaining, “We got science class next, it’ll be way more fun, you coming with Billy?”

Billy took out his schedule, looked over the day, and shook his head, “Naw I’ve got math next.”

“That sucks it’s almost as boring as English, science is way cooler,” Nick affirmed. His disappointed at the loss of Billy from their next class was abided as he noticed a shorter boy with thick glasses and hiked up pants held in place by suspenders trying to navigate the halls around a stack of books coming towards them. He smiled and with a callous and practiced casual ease he stuck out his foot at just the right moment to catch the other boy’s foot.

“Woooh!” The younger boy cried out tossing the books into the air as his arms cartwheeled to steady himself, but it was far too little and fell forward crashing into the ground with a pained cry. Joe and many other students rang out in laughter at the boy’s seeming misfortune, and Nick snickered, “Have a nice trip kid.”

Nick’s good time was spoiled suddenly when rather than joining in as expected Billy stepped up to him and glared Nick down, “Hey what’s the big idea Nick.”

“What I didn’t do anything,” Nick answered holding his arms up defensively, seeming to forget for the moment that Billy wasn’t some adult he had to placate and play innocent to.

“I saw you trip him, that’s not funny man,” Several of the students were quietly watching the exchange many with surprised expressions including the young man Nick had tripped who stopped in the middle of picking himself up to stare at Billy as well.

Nick started to notice the crowd watching them and realized that he was being openly challenged by another boy. Something he couldn't let stand even from Billy. Nick clenched his fists and glared back at Billy, “So what if I did, they thought it was pretty funny, ‘sides what are you gonna do about it.”

But instead of returning the challenge Billy just shook his head and said, “I’ll see you guys after class,” and turned around to offer the younger boy a hand up.

Nick didn’t know how to react to this, the thought that he had won and Billy backed off battled with the thought that Billy had just disrespected him by not even responding to his challenge. After a minute he gave an angry growl, “Ya whatever, see you at lunch,” and turned away. Then smiled and added with a laugh, “And see you next fall kid,” before starting back up the hall with Joe.

“Sorry about that, Nick can be a jerk sometimes, I’m Billy.” Billy held his hand out to the younger boy who looked at it in disbelief for a moment before pushing his glasses back on his nose and accepting Billy’s hand. “Thanks, my name is Poindexter.”

Billy grimaced at the name as he pulled the boy up, that name wasn’t going to help a kid like him avoid getting bullied. “That’s quite a mouthful, how about Dexter for short.”

“Umm sure, I guess,” Dexter hesitantly agreed in a nasally voice that fit his name a little too well.

“Great here let me help you,” Billy said stooping down to pick up the books. Dexter did the same but he was much clumsier and slower than Billy, and soon the older boy was carrying the lion’s share of the books.

Billy asked where Dexter was headed and soon they were making their way to the library together. Dexter’s confusion as to why Billy, a year above him in school and someone so completely different from him, would help him quickly gave way to embarrassment. His ears twitched, and he glanced around at every snicker, and even turned red when someone shouted, “Hey look Poindexter’s boyfriend is carrying his books for him.”

Dexter looked nervously to Billy who’s only indication that he had even heard the comment was a roll of his eyes. “You don’t have to help me; people already make fun of me all the time. They’re going to start doing the same to you if you get see hanging around with me like this.”

Billy just laughed at that, “Who cares what some jerks say Dexter. Trust me I’ve seen…” Billy paused for a moment his features turning insular and dark for a moment before he shook his head and snapped himself out of it. “People do a lot worse, even done worse. Just ignore them.”

Billy said this as he stepped into the library and put the books down on the corner looking up to see old Mrs. Hayworth glare over at him from where she was talking to Miss Dinkleburg who looked on at the scene a little more curiously.

“I gotta go, see you around,” Billy said not giving Dexter much of a chance to respond. Giving him a pat on the arm Billy rushed off to his next class leaving the younger boy and as Miss Dinkleburg perplexed as they both watched him leave.

----

Billy met back up with Nick and Joe at lunch; the pair had seemingly forgotten about the fight Nick and Billy had in the halls. Billy noticed Dexter briefly and it looked as if the nerdy younger boy was about to approach, but at the sight of Billy’s friends quickly retreated to the other side of the cafeteria. Billy wasn’t surprised and quickly forgot about the younger boy and got caught up in jovial banter with his old friends.

He forgot completely about his troubles, and for a few dozen minutes it was as if the clock had been turned back to a year ago. He hopped that could maintain things this, for some reason he had felt more out of place at school than he did at home. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was that was so out of place, but it was as if he had gone back to elementary school my mistake.

Ignoring this feeling Billy cracked a joke that had Joe laughing so hard he nearly fell off his seat, but he noticed that not only had Nick not laughed but he was staring dreamily past Billy. Billy chuckled, “Earth to Nick watta ya seeing out there that’s so interesting?” He turned to follow Nick’s line of sight and found that the other boy had been staring rather intently at a table of girls from their class across the cafeteria. Billy could almost guess which one he was staring at, the brunette with the long straight hair.

“It’s his girlfriend,” Joe cooed with a snicker, and Nick snapped back to reality his face flushing so bad it glowed.

“Shut up!” He snapped and punched Joe hard enough that he yelped in pain and rubbed his shoulder. “She’s not my girlfriend, don’t go around sayin’ stuff like that!”

Despite the painful hit Joe didn’t seem to learn his lesson and started making kissing noises. “Ya right, Nick and Jessica sittin’ in a tree K-”

Joe’s rhyme was cut short by another punch, and it would have been followed by a third, resulting in a full-out brawl between the two, if Billy hadn’t caught Nick’s wrist and stepped between the two. “Joe cut it out, Nick why don’t you go talk to her.”

Nick yanked his hand away from Billy, folded his arms and glared angrily at the pair, “Ya right. Why don’t you go talk to her?”

“I’m not into-” a pair of blue almond shaped eyes flashed across Billy’s mind reflecting both yearning and sadness. Billy's heart clenched painfully, and he swallowed at a lump in his throat that blocked him from saying anything else. Thankfully the bell rung out saving him, they all picked up their trays and disposed of them Joe and Nick heading off to their class and leaving Billy to do the same, they would meet back up for final period.

Billy almost angrily tried to shake the thoughts of his life as a cat from his mind telling himself that was never meant to be his life. He tried to not think about it, which of course only made him think about it more. He tried to bury himself in schoolwork but just found himself doodling images of his animal friends on the edges of his paper.

By the end of the day he was depressed, he hung his head low, and he clutched at the straps of his backpack as he stepped from the school building wanting nothing more than just to go home and fall into bed. Instead, he felt a sudden heavy slap to the back.

“Cheer up Billy! Schools done and now we can have some real fun,” Nick laughed and before Billy could protest he was being pushed along away from home by his two friends. They took to the streets of downtown like a trio of kings; they owned the streets talking, laughing and fighting as loud as they liked without a single care for anything or one. Despite his previous resistance Billy mood swiftly lightened as he quickly proved himself the better of his friends telling the best jokes, tripping them up with his words and dodging or catching any attempt to punch or shovel him without any more force than was friendly.

“Ha here we go, target eleven o’clock,” Nick said with a chuckle and pointed at a scrawny tabby cat sleeping on a stoop. Billy's eyes shot wide with shocked understanding; he shouldn’t have been surprised, of course, Billy himself was a victim of Nick’s cruel games not even a week ago. He wasn’t going to be a part of this, not again, but he didn’t want just to leave the poor cat at the mercy of the pair either. He was about to scoff and say something snide about them still acting like kids when Nick charged the cat, followed only a step behind by Joe, yelling, “Get it.”

The cat, of course, heard them and looked up to see the boys charging at it, the cat jumped into the air and let out a howling cry before tearing off down the street Nick and Joe in close pursuit. Billy ran after calling out for them to stop, but they just yelled back for him to keep up. They chased the cat around a bend and into a blind walled off alley reminiscent of where Nick had chased Billy as a cat.

The cat clawed at the wooden wall, it would have been able to jump over if it had a chance to ready itself and use its claws effectively, but at the sound of the approaching boys it turned nervously to face them. Nick laughed and picked up a solid can off the ground, “Nowhere to go now kitty cat.”

“Stop it,” Billy shouted and ran forward grabbing both boys by the shoulder and whipping them around to face him. “What’s the matter with you two, leave that poor cat alone!”

Joe was stunned into silence, but Nick threw down the can and clenched his fists angrily, “What’s the matter with us? What the heck is the matter with you Billy? That geek back in school was one thing, but this is just a stupid cat who cares what happens to it.”

“I care that cat is a living person Nick, you can just go around terrorizing him for fun. His life’s hard enough as is.” Billy shot back clenching his fists and glaring back fiercely.

“A person! It’s not a person; it’s just a stupid cat. What happened to you to make you such a spaz Billy?”

“I grew up a little; maybe you should do the same.”

Nick scoffed, “Whatever, forget you Billy, go home and cry to you mommy if you can’t handle a little fun.”

Nick turned, scooped up the can again and raised it to throw it at the cat who huddle confused in the corner of the alley, but fear streaked across its features as Nick turned to it again. But before Nick could throw the can Billy grabbed his wrist, “Leave it alone Nick.”

“Buzz off Billy!” Nick whipped around his left fist coming at Billy, who instinctually jumped back from the attack only to rock forward and take a swipe at Nick. Nick gave a gasp of pain and dropped the can to clutch at his face. He shook his head in pain before glaring at Billy and pulling his hand away from his face to clench it to into a fist. There on his cheek instead of a welt were four bright red scratches, far too shallow to pool even a drop of blood.

“What the heck you scratched me, like a girl.” Billy looked down at his hand to see it not clenched in a fist but spread out like the claws of a cat. Billy was stunned, he’d thought he’d thrown a punch.

“Get him, Joe.” Billy didn’t realize what was happening until Joe grabbed his wrist in a tight grip and he looked up to see Nick’s fist coming towards his face.

----

Marie looked up from her comic book as the sound out the front door open and shutting echoed through the otherwise silent house. It was too early still for it to be either her mother or father, the sound of footsteps trudging up the stairs confirmed it to be Billy. With a grin, she snapped the comic shut and rolled off her bed landing a little less gracefully than she intended, but quickly scrambled back up to her feet. A quick glance confirmed her comic was in pristine condition she rushed to the door throwing it open and peering out into the hall, “Hey Billy.”

Billy was halfway to his room when Marie called to him, he stopped mid-step but didn’t turn to face her. His hair and clothes were disheveled, and his hands were buried deep in his pockets, “Hey Marie.”

Marie took a few steps from her room smiling delightfully as she held up the comic for him to see, just as soon as he turned around. “I got the new issue of the Toxic Avenger today. I wanted to start collecting the new ones, but it was tough. The clerk wouldn’t sell it to me; I had to buy one of those little kid ones and switch them out as I left. Sneaky huh?” She gave a devious little laugh.

Billy didn’t turn around and just replied in a serious though neutral tone, “If they catch you doing that, you’ll get busted for stealing.”

Marie's face fell a little at that, but she pulled it back into a smug smile, “I won’t get caught I’m too good. So you want to read it with me.”

“Maybe later sis, I’m tired right now. Think I’ll just go to bed for a while.” Billy answered continuing to his room. As he reached to push open the door she noticed that his knuckles were red, perhaps even bloody. Her eyes shot to his face which was scuffed and bruised, his eye nearly swollen shut.

Marie gasped and she dropped the comic as her hands jumped to her mouth. She rushed up the hall, but Billy had already disappeared through his door. She grabbed the handle as she found her voice, “Billy what happened?”

Marie wrenched on the door knob, but it refused to move, held fast on the opposite side. Billy’s voice answered through the door, “It’s nothing Marie, just leave it alone.”

“What no Billy-”

“GO AWAY!” Billy snapped through the door as he fist slammed into it cutting Marie off. Her hands jumped back from the door knob as if it had turned red hot. Tears began to sting her eyes and her nose began to run as a lump formed in her throat, but she gave just a single defiant sniff and angrily wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Fine!” Marie shouted back that the door and stomped loudly back to her room snatching up her comic and slamming her door behind her. Tossing the comic down on her desk she fell onto her bed, but she was still for only a moment before she began angrily beating her pillow. That helped her maintain her anger, but only for a minute before she buried her face into the pillow instead and cried bitterly into it.

Billy and Marie's rooms were separated by a bathroom, so Billy heard little beyond the slamming of his sister’s door. Once he was sure, she’d leave him be Billy released the door knob and kicked off his shoes. He started to remove his jacket, but as he pulled an arm from a sleeve a wave of pain shot through both of his arms, back, chest and especially his stomach. Not wanting to go back he removed the rest of the jacket with more careful motions and deposited it carelessly on the ground.

Billy thought better than to flop onto the bed and eased himself on carefully instead, though he doubted just flopping could have been much more painful. He wanted to beat his pillow as Marie had, to use his anger to push away the thoughts he didn’t want to have, but he didn’t have the fight in him to do so. So the thoughts flooded his mind unabated, and his tears flowed out and soaked up by his pillow as the beautiful white face of his best friend with her almond shaped blue eyes flooded his mind. Billy didn’t try to fight the desire for her to be there with him tending to his aching wounds.

----

Billy told his parents he’d been beaten up by a bunch of teenagers he didn’t know, for standing up to them when they were picking on a cat. Even the parts of the story that weren’t true felt like they were to Billy. His parents responded as they seemed prone to since his return, with too much worry and a call to Dr. More making a new appointment for him the next day. It frustrated Billy to no end before forced to comply the decisions he had no say in, but he knew it was equally futile to protest to his parents.

Billy went to school in the morning catching sight of Nick and Joe in the hall. The two had their share of bruises and brushed past him with little more than a glare exchanged. Billy accepted that his friendship with the pair was over, he didn’t want anything to do with them anymore admitting that they weren’t going to stop bullying people and animals no matter what he said. Billy was quiet and sullen throughout class as he listened to his young teen classmates gossip and joke about things he couldn’t bring himself to care about, he skipped lunch altogether.

Dexter had found him in the halls again and asked about what had happened to Billy and his friends, having seen them in a similar state. Billy listened to the younger boy stammer out one long stuttering explanation after another, each time he answered Dexter’s statement with a silent look. Billy could see he was making him nervous, but at least he found Dexter’s rambling less tedious than that of his own classmates. He considered taking Dexter up as a friend, he would have been none the worse for it, but it was not meant to be. All Billy’s friends were scaling rooftops and rooting through garbage for scraps, and for the first time, that was where he most wanted to be.

As Billy walked through the streets he could help but look down every alley he came to, hoping to see some sign of his friends, but every animal he saw seemed to be some unknown stray he’s never met, he couldn’t even catch sight of Jumbo soaring through the air chatting to himself. It was as if when he had abandoned the world of animals, and it had abandoned him as well.

Time seemed to lose all meaning to the boy, and before Billy realized it, he was once again in Dr. More’s office sitting across from the doctor. “Well now Billy you’re looking a little worse for wear, you want to tell me what happened?”

Billy sighed his head down; he couldn’t find the energy to lie. “My friends and I were hanging out after school, and they started harassing this cat, so I tried to make them stop, and we beat each other up.” The offhanded tone of Billy’s voice showed the doctor that the fight didn’t bother him.

“Don’t tell my parents it was Nick and Joe though, please. They might be a couple of jerks, but it was our fight, they don’t need trouble from my parents.” Billy added the first hint of worry edging into his voice.

Dr. More gave a ‘hmm’ and jotted down a few notes. “Why did that bother you so much? You parents told me you and these boys were almost inseparable before. Certainly, that’s not the first time you boys have had a little fun at an animal’s expense.”

Billy tensed up as he thought of his life before becoming a cat, the way they had treated animals and what had happened to him since that time. He chewed his tongue and thought about just telling the doctor that he’d grown up and realized how cruel it was, but when he glanced up at the doctor he still couldn’t find the will to lie; he didn’t even want to. “You won’t believe me, but… I was turned into a cat. That’s what happened to me for the last year, and I realized just how terrible the things I’d been doing were, so couldn’t let them pick on animals anymore.”

Billy waited for the doctor to respond, to call his parents or the men with the padded van. To tell him it that it was silly to believe he’d been a cat or how it was just some delusion to cope with the trauma of being lost for a year. Instead, the doctor just scribbled something down on his notepad and said, “Tell me more.”

Billy was taken aback for a moment; his mind screamed at him to lie to cover what he had said as a joke. A lifetime as both a clever boy and a cat had taught him never to show his hand to an adult, but looking up at the open face of the doctor the dam of lies and half-truths that had protected him burst; the entire story came pouring out of him at once.

He told the doctor the whole story of being transformed into a cat by the wizard, all the adventures he went on, and friends and enemies he’d made. Embarrassment and a sense of decency was the only thing that prompted him to give a very abridged, censored version of what had happened with Queenie just before he turned human again.

“What do I do?” Billy asked, at last, so drained and weak by the emotional outpouring of his story that he craved any answer any solution that might ease the pain that now came with simply living.

“That is not an easily question to answer,” Dr. More admitted leaning back in his chair, “And your story has taken up all the time we have to meet today. I have time to meet you again tomorrow, but in the meantime, I want you just to relax and enjoy being who you are now. I don’t want you to do anything rash until we can speak again Billy, will you give me your word on that?”

It hadn’t been what Billy had wanted to hear, but he felt so much lighter having gotten all that had happened off his chest that he nodded amicably, “Ya sure doc. Thanks, you know, for believing me.”

“What’s important Billy is not what I believe, but what you do. I am glad you felt you could trust me with this if you don't trust me I can’t do anything to help you.”

Billy gave a small laugh, “Couldn’t help it doc, your just such a trustworthy guy.”

----

Billy arrived home just as Marie rounded the corner of the street of their block. She gave a little, startled jump when she saw Billy and their eyes met. Billy gave her an apologetic look, but she just stuck her nose into the air angrily and marched forward as if to brush right past him. Billy almost let her, but instead relaxed and leaned against the front door, preventing her from entering. She glared up at him when they came face to face, but he just gave her a smug grin.

“Get out of the way Billy,” She demanded with considerable authority despite not having anything to put weight behind her words.

Knowing he had her trapped outside Billy traded the smug look back for an apologetic one, “Sorry about yesterday sis, guess I’m not very nice after taking a few licks.”

“Whatever, I didn’t even care.” Marie lied transparently crossing her arms and pouting, though not meaning to.

“Come on sis let’s hang out today instead.”

“I don’t want to,” Marie refused, turning a literal cold shoulder to him.

“Come on; I’ll show you a way better place to get comic books then that old corner story. It sells comics and nothin’ else.” Billy said giving her an enticing wiggle of his eyebrows.

“No way,” Marie gasped and turned back to Billy her eyes wide with excitement. She quickly recovered and glared again crossing her arms, “You just making it up.”

Billy smirked again; he knew he had her. Pushing off the door her knitted his finger together behind his head and started up the walk, “You’ll have to come with me and find out.”

Marie glanced from the unobscured door to her brother as he rounded the end of their walkway and started up the street. Clenching her fists angrily she glanced back and forth one last time before growling angrily and racing after her brother. “You better be telling the truth or else!”

----

“This is it,” Billy proclaimed standing in front of a small storefront they found tucked away in the corner of a narrow street. It didn’t seem to have any windows, just banner sign across the front that ready M.I.D. Books.

“Mid Books?” Marie asked skeptically looking at the sign.

“Just think of the three big publishers, and you’ll get it,” Billy said grabbing the door handle and pulling it open waiting for his sister to enter. She gave him a weird look but did so, Billy stepping in after her.

At her appearance the place fell silent, several shocked pairs of eyes turned to the entrance of the unusual new customer. Far stranger than seeing a girl entering the shop was a girl who seemed far too young to enjoy the… intricate stories of their beloved books. The appearance of Billy behind her set them back at ease; it wasn’t so unusual for brothers, forced to babysit, to bring their younger sibling along.

The patrons quickly went back to their reading not taking the time to realize the awe and delight the young girl gave to the shop. Her eyes never once stopped darting from the rows upon rows of books and even more so, the interesting paraphernalia that decorated walls across the top of the shop walls in every bit of free space.

“Billy?” A familiar nasally voice asked from across the shop.

Billy looked up to see the thick glasses and hiked up pants of Dexter as he made his way across the shop to them. “Dexter, how’s it going man?” Billy reached out and caught the hand of the younger boy, much to his surprise, and shook it.

“Oh umm, cool,” Dexter replied with some hesitation before shaking Billy’s hand back genuinely happy to see the older boy. He glanced over at Marie and gave Billy a little nod towards her, “Babysitting?”

Dexter might have intended Marie not to hear that, but she did, and a finger shot out and jabbed the geeky boy in the chest, causing him to give a none-to-quiet cry of pain. “I like comics too; I’ll have you know, and not just ones for little kids. I’ve read all my brothers comics. Even the Toxic Avenger.”

Dexter clutched at his chest giving a little groan of pain as Billy chuckled under his breath. Dexter started to apologize, but the weight of Marie words sunk into his mind and he gave her a surprised look. “Really? Even the limited edition they released last Christmas, ‘Toxie Saves Santa’, most people won’t read even their own copy.”

Marie gave a look that was a mix of eagerness and disappointment. “Ohh no, Billy did get any from the last year, so I’m behind.”

“So you didn’t read ‘The Toxic Commandos Vs The Space Pirate Patrol’ either. It was the special of the year.” Dexter asked in turn almost as aghast as Marie at all she had missed in the last year.

“No, Billy didn’t even collect the Space Pirate Patrol,” Marie practically whines giving Billy a reproachful look as if it were his fault somehow.

Billy just gave her a shrug, “It was stupid, pirates don’t patrol the galaxy, they rob people.”

Marie rolled her eyes and shook her head as if Billy had just said the most idiotic thing possible and turned back to Dexter ignoring her brother. “Can you help me find some copies?”

“Maybe… We can take a look at the back issues.” Dexter offered, leading Marie to the back where rows of comic had been stashed away in huge long white boxes.

“Wow ditched by my own sister in less than five minutes. I’ve created a monster.” Billy chuckled to himself and was about to head after the pair when the bell over the door rang out, and Billy turned to see the absolute last person he would have expected to in this place. “Miss Dinkleburg!”

“Why Billy, I’m completely unsurprised to find you here,” Miss Dinkleburg said with a sneering smile looking down at the young man.

The surprise passed Billy quickly realizing that the teacher could do little to reprimand him out of school. Billy gave the teacher a questioning look Billy ignored her sharp words and asked. “What bring you here Miss Dinkleburg?”

The teacher gave Billy an appraising look and raising a single eyebrow at him before turning her eyes to sweep across the shop frowning unhappily at the sight of the place. “I come here every once in a while to lament the state of what passes for literature for children these days.”

“You ever try reading some,” Billy questioned with a shrug earning him another questioning look from Miss Dinkleburg.

“Have you ever tried reading a book?” She returned, reached into a bag she was carrying and pulled out a small hardcover book with the outline of a dog team pulling a sled on the cover. Above it was the title ‘Call of the Wild.' “Here you might like this one just as much violence and cursing as you’ll find in one of those damn things. It’s about a civilized farm dog that is forced to become a sled dog in the harsh wilds of the north.”

Billy breath hitched in his throat at the description of the book the memories of the past year flooding his mind. He looked up at Miss Dinkleburg who eyed Billy nervousness carefully. Not wanting to lose ground to her in what had become something of a conversational duel Billy forced himself to speak.

“Sounds like that’d be hard for him,” Billy commented quietly looking away from the book and his teacher, “It’s scary to end up someplace so different, it must change him a lot.”

Miss Dinkleburg eyed Billy a final time before nodding in agreement, “It is indeed. You seemed to have gone through something similar in your time away from us.”

Billy breath caught in his throat hand his eyes shot back up to Miss Dinkleburg’s nervously worried that he’d given himself away. “What do you mean?”

“You seem so much older my boy like you’ve grown up a great deal. I’ve noticed it even during just these past few days; you seem completely different.”

“Billy!” Marie voice cut across the store breaking Billy’s attention on the English teacher. He turned to see his sister waving at him holding a bundle of comics in her arms next to Dexter who held a few himself. “You got some money. I don’t have enough.”

“Sure,” He called back and turned to Miss Dinkleburg, “I gotta go before my sister gets us thrown out of here shouting like that.”

“Most boys your age couldn’t be forced to bring their little sisters along with them here, let alone buy anything for them.” Miss Dinkleburg noted still smiling a sly knowing smile, which suddenly dropped back to her old frown. “Great she’ll be completely ruined by the time she gets to me.” Miss Dinkleburg heaved a big sigh and turned on heels to escape the den of literary decadence. Their duel seemed to have been somewhat of a draw with the interruption of Marie.

Billy rolled his eyes at her and turned on his own heels to make his way to his only human friends.

Later Billy found himself widely left out of the conversation between Marie and Dexter as the trio made their way back home. The new friends talked endlessly about characters and stories of favored comic books most of which pertained to Space Pirate Patrol for which he had no interest and what few of his sister questions he could have answered was quickly swept up by Dexter. Billy didn’t mind this at all though, his thoughts on what he might say during his next appointment tomorrow.

----

“Well, you look much better today my boy, physically and otherwise.” Dr. More said with a smile as Billy sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

“Thanks doc, I feel a lot better. You were right I just needed to relax a bit.”

“That’s good,” Dr. More scratched a note down, “Tell me then soon what are your thoughts on our conversation yesterday.”

Billy frowned a little; he had not expected the doctor to ask him something like that. A look up at Dr. More did nothing to help understand what the doctor might want him to say. His expression remained inviting but veiled.

“It felt good to tell you all that doc,” Billy said at last shifting in his chair his attention shifting from the doctor as he searched for something to say. “You know I didn’t want any of this to happen, but the more I think about it, it felt right to be a cat way more than it does to be a boy. You know even though I was different from the all the other animals I didn’t feel like an outcast, alone. But that’s how I feel all the time now, like the world just doesn’t make sense anymore, or maybe that I don’t make sense to it. It doesn’t feel like this is how I’m supposed to be.”

“Billy lad, what are you saying?”

“I think,” Billy's eyes grew wide as the thought blossomed in his mind, one so fantastic he couldn’t help but smile. “I want to be a cat again.” It felt even more wonderful to say it, like it had been such a clear answer waiting all this time for him to find it.

“Ya! I know my family will be sad to see me go, but-” Billy’s eyes met Dr. More’s again, but this time they weren’t the soft, warm ones they had been. Instead, they were hard and much less inviting.

At Billy’s sudden stop Dr. More sighed and looked down to finish his notes before looking back up at Billy a little more gently. “Understand Billy, I’m not disappointed, the fact that you came back to talk to me is a good sign. It means the delusion hasn’t taken full hold over you again, and we can still prevent you from going back.”

Billy gave the doctor a confused looked and panic started to rise back up in his chest, “W-what do you mean doc, I thought you believed me.”

“Billy,” Dr. More began trying to sound gentle and sympathetic, “I believed that what you told me was what you believe happened and I didn’t challenge that belief, not until I was confident I could prove to you what actually happened.”

“You lied!” Billy shouted shooting up from his chair and glaring hatefully down at the doctor.

Dr. More patted the air in a gentle motion for Billy to both be calm and sit down. “Now my boy I did not lie, it is just that your delusion was so through I-”

“It’s not a delusion; it’s what really happened!” Billy shouted slamming his hand down on the desk.

“Alright lad, let’s call it a theory alright, one explanation for what happened to you this past year, ok?” The doctor offered amicably, and Billy crossed his arms angrily. He wanted to yell or tear from the office and run back to his real life as a cat, but despite how sure he was of what had happened, some tiny sliver of doubt stuck in his mind. Whether doubt that it was true or doubt that he truly wanted to go back to a life of scrounging through garbage for food, he couldn’t say.

“Alright then sit down lad and let me give you another theory on what happened.” Dr. More gestured to the chair and gave Billy a reassuring look. “I promise to answer any questions you may have.”

Billy remained silent but complied, and the doctor let out a gentle sigh, “You say you have been gone for a year correct? However, you have only been missing for eleven months.”

Billy whom had nodded to the doctor’s question gives the man a strange look. The difference of a month isn’t a lot of time, though Billy was very sure he had been gone at least a full year and sentiment parroted by Nick and Joe when they were still speaking to him. Dr. More met Billy gaze and leaned back in his chair. “You see for the first month of your perceived absents you were still with your parents, though you insisted you were a cat transformed into a boy.”

“What?” Billy scrunched up his face in confusion giving the doctor a critical look. Then a moment later realization dawned on him and he remembered when he had gone home for the first time there had been a double of him crawling around at his parent’s feet. “Ya, I remember that it was probably some trick by the magician.”

Dr. More listened but didn’t answer Billy’s explanation save to give a look asking to be allowed to finish. “You said you were a cat, and when we confronted you on the matter, you became distraught saying that you wanted to go back to being a cat. You became so hysterical that we were forced to put you in secure care.”

“You had him committed?”

“To put it in simple terms yes, we had YOU committed, but you escaped and we lost track of you until the night you showed up at your parents’ house just a few days ago seeming cured of your delusions.”

“That’s crazy, that wasn’t me. It was probably some cat the magician turned into me to take my place.” Billy glared at the Doctor. “I hope he got turned back after he ditched the funny farm.”

“Now Billy I know you don’t want to hear this, but you agreed to give me time to explain my theory.” Dr. More met Billy’s glare with an even look and Billy rolled his eyes but nodded and agreed, prompting the doctor to continue.

“Now I believe after you escaped you lived these past eleven months on the streets avoiding authorities, the stories you told me about your life as a cat were merely the delusions you made up to cope with being homeless and deal with your guilt about the way you had mistreated animals. You, Billy, are a kind hearted boy but you lashed out against animals because of your anger at the repeated attacks of the cat Sanctifur when you were a young child.”

Billy shook his head, “Doc no I just made that up to cover for my reaction to the ink blot. I didn’t know any cat named Sanctifur as a kid.”

“Ah but you did Billy, your parents confirmed it themselves after our first meeting, he fit your description perfectly. A big smoky colored cat of your neighbor that used to terrorize you when you were about four. Even if you hadn’t supressed the memory, I'm not surprised you don’t remember him too well.”

“No doc you’re wrong, I didn’t meet Sanctifur until a year ago. Why would I suppress the memory of him anyway.”

“Because you killed him, my dear boy,” Dr. More explained and Billy jumped back in shock, speechless. “You were playing near a river that flowed past your old house, you weren't supposed to be, of course, it had rained recently, and the river was flowing fast. Sanctifur came by to terrorize you as normal, but this time you fought back. Your father said he saw it once the Sanctifur’s yowling caught his attention.

“You were wrestling around with him on the bank, you cut his eye with a plastic shovel you had been playing with and tossed him off you into the river where he drown pulled down by the current. Sound familiar; you said your Sanctifur had a scarred eye and when you finally defeated him he was pulled under by the sewers current.

“However, as a child, you never let go of your hate for this Sanctifur and as I said lashed out at other animals unable to deal with your anger. But when you finally realized you had become the very mean creature you hated, you sought to punish yourself and escape the role you had made for yourself as the aggressor. So your mind pushing into the role of the new victim in your mind, and you convinced yourself you had been changed into a cat as a form of punishment. You convinced yourself that you spent that year doing right and repeatedly confronting and overcoming Sanctifur, the person, to you, you associated with your own negative actions. This method may not have been a healthy one, but indeed it may have helped you start to come to terms with the things you have done.”

Billy his head in denial, “That can’t be true, there were others, Jumbo, Blackie and the gang.”

“Common strays and Jumbo was probably your mind giving you a reason not to harm an animal that your self-identified animal kind would have normally killed and eaten at every opportunity. In your delusion even managed to convince other cats to leave him alone, does that seem plausible to you my boy.” The doctor countered easily; it was if he had prepared already.

Billy had the erg to say both yes and no at once, so he pushed that aside and went on. “There was Mr. Hubert.”

“Ah yes your mentor, I believe you mean this cat,” Dr. More open his desk and placed several clippings of advertisements on the desktop facing Billy.

“Ya these prove he’s real,” Billy said picking them up and flipping through the still images of Mr. Hubert as the face of the GourMont cat food company.

“Come now Billy; this was just some cat you saw on a commercial ad. In your state see such a lofty depiction of a cat resonated with you, and you imagined him your caretaker. An impossibly traveled and knowledgeable cat yet still so ridiculous and silly as well. He was just a phantom that helped you deal with the harshness of living on the streets.

“I suppose you think Queenie was fake as well!” Billy snarled tossing the clipping down on the desk.

“Ah yes your female companion who looked almost exactly like your mentor.”

“That’s because she was his daughter.”

Dr. More gave Billy a gentle but strong look over his glasses. “A fact you only discovered days before you broke from delusion. I think this was just your reawakening mind trying to rationalize the inconsistency of your delusion before it broke completely.”

Billy just scoffed and leaned back in the chair and looked off to the side, “Ya whatever doc. Nice theory but you have no more proof of it then I do. The only reason you know about Sanctifur or Mr. Hubert being in those cat food commercials was that I told you about them first. You don’t have any proof.”

“Of course I do Billy, you are my proof.” The doctor countered causing Billy to look back at him sceptically. “You’re a smart kid Billy, we both know you are if you really wanted people to know you were a boy, not a cat why wouldn’t you just tell them?”

Billy gave the doctor a look like he was the crazy one of the two, “Because I was a cat and couldn’t speak.”

The doctor smiled knowingly, “Even so Billy. You told me yourself that you used computers while you were a cat. A note to your parents, something even as a cat you could have managed to write legibly enough with your mouth, asking for a typewriter and a few questions only you would know the answers to would have been sufficient to convince anyone. And there are probably dozens of other feasible ideas that could have served to obtain the same ends. Yet in all your time as a cat can you remember one instance where you truly made an effort to communicate to any human?”

“I,” Billy eyes had shot wide and darted nervously as he searched for an explanation. “I,” How could he had been so stupid, the doctor was right he hadn’t really tried to get anyone’s help the only human he’d really ever tried to talk to was the magician who transformed him in the first place. “didn’t…” Why! Why hadn’t he tried harder?

“You didn’t want to break the spell,” Dr. More finished for him looking down at the boy sympathetically. “Because you wanted to be punished.”

“N-no I wasn’t…” Billy continued to stammer his eyes wide and nearly vacant. He passed a hand over his brow which was damp with sweat. “I didn’t…”

“It alright, Billy look at me,” Billy looked up vacantly at the doctor, too confused by all this to think clearly. “It alright you're safe now, but you have to stay here with your parents and me. You can’t let yourself become a cat again. Just tell yourself it wasn’t real, it wasn’t real.” The doctor repeated that over a few times and Billy soon found comfort in his words.

“I think we have done enough for today,” Dr. More says once Billy had calmed down and met his gaze with a muted nod. “I was worried today would be a difficult session for you Billy, but you have done better than I thought you might. It’s important now that you remain around people who can help stabilize you, so I made sure one of your parents would be able to come and pick you up.”

Dr. More pressed a button on his intercom and told his secretary to send Billy’s mother in. She rushes through the door and hugged Billy whom neither resists nor returns the fierce hug only gently wrapping his arms around her waist. The doctor and she began to talk, but their voices seemed so far away Billy couldn’t really make out what they were saying.

----

The ride home was quiet Billy’s mom tries to talk to him, but Billy gives only short indifferent answers. He sat with his head pressed against the glass of the window watching the world go by seemingly lost as to his place in it. At home, he retreated to his room to lying on his bed his back to the door.

That was the state Marie found him in when she got home. Their mother told her to leave him be, but Marie snuck to his door and pushed it open to look in on him. For several moments she was quiet wondering if he was sleep; a thought broken when he turned and looked over his shoulder at her, only to turn back quietly.

“Are you going to yell at me again?” Marie asked sucking in a breath and trying not to sound worried.

“No.”

Marie let out a breath, walked in and plopped herself down on the bed jostling him roughly and giving him a sad look. She looked down at her hands which fidgeted in her lap, “Mom says you went to the doctor’s again today… Are they going to send you away?”

“Like they did before when I told everyone I was a cat.” Billy finished for her muttering into his pillow.

Marie shifted uncomfortably, “Well that wasn’t you, it was Dandelion.”

“It was me, Marie, I was just insane. Making things up because I couldn’t deal with other stuff.”

“No it wasn’t, Dandelion was an entirely different person.” Marie counter a sob catching in her throat. “It was all my fault they sent him away.”

Billy was about to snap at Marie to get out of his room, but when he flipped over and found her on the verge of tears, he hugged her instead. “It’s ok Marie; it wasn’t your fault. They were bound to find out eventually.”

Marie sobbed properly now tears running down her cheeks, “But I was the one who told them all those things. When he started talking about how you would age really fast as a cat, I got worried you’d die and so I told mum and dad what he said.”

She sniffed and rubbed her eyes on his shirt, “I mean it was seven cat years for every one human year. You’d be gone before you were even as old as mum and dad.”

“Seven,” The number resonated in Billy’s mind stirring up memories.

‘What the heck is the matter with you, Billy?!’

‘You seem so much older like you’ve grown up a great deal.’

‘That is the smell of adulthood my boy.’

“Marie I’m sorry I have to go,” Billy apologized as he separated from his sister, and jumped to his feet racing from the room. Marie moved to follow but by the time she was to his bedroom door he was already out the front door their mother calling frantically after him and by the time Marie was at the bottom of the stairs she was calling Dr. More.

----

Billy raced through the streets trying to remember the exact location it had happened. Thankfully the clothing store was still there just as it was a year ago and Billy followed the route as if he had first run it yesterday. A sharp turn took him down an alleyway, one that looked like hundreds of others throughout the city ending in a familiar brick wall. He ran to it, touching it then turned to look all around him for some sign of where he needed to go. There was none however, the building around him looked perfectly ordinary lined with perfectly ordinary windows.

Billy felt a burning rage fueled by the endless confusion of the last few days ignite in his chest and he yelled out to the empty alley. “Come out you stupid magician! You did this to me; you caused all of this to happen! Tell me it was real!” Billy voice quickly grew tired, and he started to sob with impotent anger. Turning back to the wall he pressed his forehead against it, “It has to have been real…”

“Feeling a little disorientated about what’s real Billy?” A familiar low raspy voice asked.

Billy’s head snapped up from the wall and he whipped around to see the magician standing before him, his gray cat perched on his shoulder again. “You’re real…”

“Am I?” The magician questioned mockingly, “Or are you just slipping back into madness.”

Billy growled, fists clenched, and stepped towards the magician. “It was real, and it was all your doing, and now I can’t go back to my old life.”

“Oh why is that,” the magician asked stroking his beard.

“Seven years as a cat, thirteen as a boy, I’m not a kid anymore I’m an adult.”

“I think the department of motor vehicles would disagree.” The magician mused.

Billy didn’t find it funny glaring at the man. “In my head, I’m like twenty I can’t be a kid anymore. And my family thinks I’m crazy. Why did you even turn me back at all?”

“Hmm,” The magician gave a dismissive wave of his hand causing a bellow of smoke to rise and surround them. A moment later it sunk back into nothingness and Billy found himself standing in the magician’s laboratory. The magician moved over to an armchair, sat down, picked up a book and began reading it looking quite casual. “I didn’t change you back Billy. The spell was meant to teach you what it was to live in an animal’s skin. Once you had learned all there was to know its effect on you ended naturally.”

He held the spell book up and showed Billy the page containing the description of the spell underneath it lay a seemingly endless equation of symbols Billy had never seen before. The magician snapped the book closed. “You may never fully shed the side effects of the spell, but they will not impede your whole life. Eventually, your physical and emotional ages will equalize, twenty is not so old after all.”

The magician paused and reached up to scratch his cat under the chin. “I will apologize for the confusion with your family. I tried to balance the loss of you from your family and ended up creating a bad situation for both you and Dandelion. And in saving him from that institution they send him to I undid all the good I’d tried to do and made it even worse.”

“You're saying things will go back to normal if I just wait?” Billy ventured cautiously though he understood that normal in this case could only be relative at best.

“Everything changes Billy, but yes time will heal your wounds.” The magician confirmed with a nod arching his finger in front of his face and sinking back into the chair.

“What if I want to be a cat again?”

The magician looked hard into Billy’s eyes for several seconds gauging the seriousness of the question before standing and moving over to his equipment stroking his beard again. “It is possible to turn you back into a cat, but I will also warn you, Billy. If you transform into a cat again, there will be no going back.” He turned to Billy a hard expression on his face. “Your family will lose you again, and you will live a cat’s life and most likely die before you turn thirty.”

Billy would have liked to have said it was a hard decision that he weighed the pro and cons and thought about the impact beyond himself of his decision; acting in any way like the adult he claimed to be. But in truth, the only thought that came to his mind was of Queenie, and the decision was made. “I want to be a cat.”

“Very well,” The magician moved about his lab equipment pouring pastel colored liquids from various vials into a single one and fitting it with a stopper shaking it until the liquids mixed perfectly and turned clear as water.

Billy took the vial and looked at the clear liquid inside, the key to the life he had chosen so he could be with Queenie. He looked up to thank the magician, but he found himself alone back in the alleyway he had met the magician twice now and for the last time. A small voice in the back of his mind questioned if the whole thing were real, but Billy easily pushed the thought aside.

He was tempted to drink it right there, but another face came to his mind, Marie. He couldn’t leave again without at least telling her why she was the only one who’d believed him after all.

----

Billy had spied his parent’s house from a distance, as much as he wanted to he couldn’t just walk in and pretend everything was alright, it was far too late for that. Instead, he snuck around back, and with skills born of sneaking in and out of his room while grounded, he climbed the side of the house to Marie’s window.

Marie sat in her room bouncing nervously on her bed, hand clenching and unclenching her sheets as he anxiously watched the door.

Billy gave a light knock on her window and put a finger to his lips as she whipped around to see him hanging there, signaling her to be quiet. She didn’t say anything but her desperate scramble across the bed and to the window could be called anything but quiet.

“Billy, what are you doing?” She whispered after throwing open the window.

“I had to come back to say goodbye to my little sister,” Billy said flashing her a smile as he sat down on her windowsill.

Marie tensed up for a moment but relaxed and let out a breath, “You’re going to be a cat again aren’t you.”

Billy nodded still smiling but a little more sadly hearing the disappointment in her voice.

“Why,” She pouted pulling him into a hug, “Why can’t you stay. I don’t want you to go away again.”

Billy hugged Marie back resting his chin on her head. “I don’t want to leave you either kiddo, but… Well, there’s this cat, Queenie, and well…”

Billy struggled to explain, but before he could, Marie pulled back from him and looked up a smile forming on her face. “You have a cat girlfriend!”

“No,” Billy quickly denied momentarily slipping back to his twelve-year-old self, not that it fool his keen little sister for a second.

“You do,” Marie gasped still trying to be quiet but couldn’t help but break out into rhyme. “Billy and Queenie sittin’ in a tree K-I-S-”

Billy tightened his arm around Marie's neck in a headlock muting her singing and tussling her hair for good measure, but stopped and released her before they got too loud. “Alright yes.”

Marie giggled triumphantly but her smile quickly faded, “I’m not going to get to see you ever again am I.”

“I can still come visit,” Billy tried to assure her.

“I won’t know what you look like; I never met cat Billy.” Marie countered quietly, her head dipping down so low she was almost talking into her chest.

“Sure you did, I was that orange striped cat you tried to adopt when Dandelion first took my place,” Billy explained lifting her chin up so she would meet his gaze.

“That was you?” She gasped, and Billy nodded giving her a loving smile which dimmed as she sighed sadly.

Billy wanted to tell Marie more; he wished he could stay and tell her all of the stories of him as a cat. All the adventures he had gone on and all the friends he had made, but he knew this last goodbye wasn’t long enough to do either. His life was about to become very short, and he didn’t want to waste any more time on regret.

“Here give this to mom and dad,” He handed her a sealed envelope containing the best explanation he thought his parents would believe. Or at least they would understand Dr. More when he explained it to them. “Don’t try and tell them the truth ok, just let them believe whatever they want to.”

“O-ok,” Marie nodded hesitantly, taking the letter and giving her big brother one last hug she squeezed him so hard the letter slipped from her hands.

“Oh no,” She gasped and let go, moving to snatch the letter back up. With it back in hand she turned to see Billy off, but he was already gone. She rushed to the window and looked down, but instead of her brother, there was just a pile of clothes on the ground. A flash of movement caught her eye and she looked up to see an orange striped cat walking along the top of her fence. It stopped, looked up at her and waved its tiny paw at her. Marie waved back, and with that last goodbye the cat leaped over off the fence and disappeared.

----

“Queenie! QUEENIE!” Billy called rounding the corner into the junkyard running as fast as he could through the rows of piled scrapped cars and other metal machines. He had no idea if he would find her there, Queenie liked to move around even taking up temporary residence with humans for time to time as she had with Arthur. However, Billy couldn’t contain himself, even if Queenie wasn’t there he hoped Mr. Hubert would know where she was.

“Billy?” Queenie’s voice called out uncertainly and Billy rushed around another corner to the base of the pile that Mr. Hubert’s car rested atop. He looked up and saw her gazing down out of the window. Queenie’s eyes shot wide as they fell upon him and she leaped through the window crying, “BILLY!”

“Queenie!” Billy called again and began leaping up the pile of junk towards her.

“What’s this now?” Mr. Hubert asked popping his head up and looking out of the window Queenie had leapt through. He saw Billy climb the pile to meet Queenie, surprise and joy lighting his face. “Billy my boy you’re back!”

Billy and Queenie landed on the same car half way up the pile and the next instant they were together their paws wrapped tightly around the other’s neck.

“You’re back, you’re back,” Queenie sobbed into his neck wetting the fur, “When you disappeared I was so scared.”

“I know, I’m so sorry Queenie.” Billy apologized his voice muffled as he sunk his face into her fur and breathed in her scent tears pouring from his eyes as well. “I should have never left, I’m sorry.”

“What happened,” Queenie pulled back to look into his eyes dark eyes and sniffed, “I was scared Sanctifur had come back and done something with you.”

“That brute hasn’t been seen around the city since the spring heat ended.” Mr. Hubert explained jumping down to join the two on the car roof, “Hopefully we’ve seen the last of him.”

“I…” Billy started, ignoring Mr. Hubert, but he didn’t know what to say. He wanted to say it all, tell Queenie everything about what happened to him and how he felt, but he was too impatient to say all that right now. “I had to deal with something, but it’s done and I promise I will never leave you ever again.”

“Billy are you saying…” Queenie started but didn’t dare finish, as if it were all some wonderful dream and saying the words would force her to wake up and lose her heart’s desire. Billy just smiled and with an almost imperceptible nod closed his face in toward hers.

Mr. Hubert suddenly cleared his throat causing Billy to halt his advance, “Well I’ll be off then Billy. I’ve got to ahh… I’ve got th-”

“For crying out loud Mr. Hubert just go away!” Queenie’s snapped cutting the stuttering older cat off, her head snapping around to glare angrily at him as Billy’s face went from shocked to amused as Mr. Hubert scrambled back from his daughter’s wrathful gaze. Without another word of excuse, Hubert dashed away from the pair and slipped out of sight.

Queenie sheepishly looked back to Billy more than a little embarrassed about her outburst, “S-sorry about that.”

Billy just smiled brightly at her and leaned back in, “Nevermind, where were we.” As their lips touched a sense of wholeness washed over them and they knew that no matter what else happened so long as they had each other they would be at home.

----

Dear Mom and Dad

I’m sorry things had to end this way. Please know that this

is not your fault and I’m happy to have had such good people as

parents. But I can’t stay with you. This past week has shown

me that there is something I need to do, something I have to

make right. I love you both.

My cat is waiting for me.

Your Son

Billy

Dr. More read the letter one last time before slipping it into Billy’s folder over the report marking the boy as missing. He had told the police to check the river, but they had yet to find any sign of the boy’s body, perhaps it had already washed out to sea.

The parents had blamed him of course, not surprising. Parents often laid blame on him when things such as this happened; people needed to make sense of loss and blame was the easiest way.

Dr. More felt some guilt in this case, perhaps he had tried to push Billy too fast or at least he should have made sure the boy was in more secure care then his parents could provide. But then there was no profit in dwelling on what one could have done. Billy had seen himself as the same evil creature Sanctifur had been in his delusion and his grief had to lead him to kill himself, it was as simple as that.

Dr. More closed the cabinet containing Billy’s file, moved to pull on his coat, switched off the light in his office, stepped out and shut the door behind him.

----

Morning light had only just begun to faintly illuminate the interior of the car when Billy’s eyes cracked open, and he lifted his head slightly. That was a much as he was willing to move not wanting to disturb Queenie who still slept curled tightly into him. He looked down at her and smiled contently. It felt so right to be with her; he couldn’t imagine why he had ever tried to fight his feelings.

The sound of rummaging in the front seat caused Billy ears to perk up, but his worry was quelled instantly by the sound of Mr. Hubert’s voice. “Now where did I put that?” A moment later Mr. Hubert head popped up over the front seat, and his eyes went wide seeing Billy awake.

“Oh sorry my boy,” the older cat said in a whisper not wanting to wake Queenie either. “I’m just looking for something, and then I’ll be off.” Mr. Hubert explained looking about the car, his ear suddenly perked, and he ducked down again muttering, “Ahh there it is, right under my nose.”

“Where are you going Mr. Hubert?” Billy asked careful to keep his voice low as Queenie snuggled into him in her sleep.

“Oh just away, on to new places and new experiences,” Mr. Hubert said his paw peeking up over the seat to gesture as he spoke. After a moment Mr. Hubert popped back up and leaned over on the back of the front seat a stick and bindle slung over his other shoulder. “You know Billy I have never actually stayed in one place for so long until you came into my life. We had so many wonderful adventures this past year Billy, but you’re grown up now and have no more need for me to look out for you. And you have Queenie now, you’ll be having kittens by the next heat and things will be too crowded for a cat like me. Ahh, I do sometimes envy the simple life.” Mr. Hubert noted dreamily.

Billy blushed at the thought of kittens, but where once the thought would have been immediately banished from his mind as ridiculous, now it too filled him with warmth and happiness his eyes falling lovingly to Queenie. “Ya, it’s going to be good.”

“Well ta-ta Billy,” Mr. Hubert snapped Billy out of his sweet thoughts with a wave and started for the door.

“Wait shouldn’t you at least wait to say goodbye to Queenie,” Billy said the thought of Queenie worried sad face crying over his own sudden disappearance flooded his mind.

Hubert paused and looked over at Queenie with a smile, “No sorry Billy I’m not one for long goodbyes. Besides I’ll see you both again, eventually, and I know she’ll take good care of you while I’m gone and vice versa.”

“Until then,” With a swift jump, Mr. Hubert leaped from the front passenger window before Billy could protest any further. Billy listened to him thump softly from car to car growing fainter by the moment until he was lost among the sounds of the city.

Billy let out a sigh and tried not to feel too melancholy, after all, he had no doubt that he would see Mr. Hubert again and when he did he would introduce his old friend to his grandkittens. With that thought, Billy leaned back down and snuggled into Queenie and let sleep take him again.

----

“It’s alright Billy; I knew Mr. Hubert would leave like that someday,” Queenie admitted later that morning as they made their way through the alleys of the city seeking something to quell their morning hunger. Queenie gave a small fond smile at nothing, “We talked about it and other things,” Her face suddenly fell at the memory, “When he could manage to get me to talk anyway.”

Billy's face grew a little sad as well remembering what she had told him. Last night that had stayed up late talking about all that had happened the last week, it had seemed like a year for both of them. Queenie had flipped rapidly back and forth between frantically searching for him and almost lifeless spells of depression thinking he was gone forever. Billy almost felt guilty at every moment of peace or even contentment he had experienced while she was undoubtedly suffering. Queenie had dismissed such guilt every time he expressed it and he didn’t dare entice her anger by trying for another apology.

They rounded the corner to Grosmier's, and Queenie face turned fierce and angry as a familiar trio of cats came into sight. Billy looked to see Blackie and his gang huddling around one of the turned over trash cans.

The trio looked up at them and their faces lit up at the sight of Billy and they called happily to him, “You’re back,” Blackie added starting towards them only to stop dead at the sight of Queenie’s fierce glare.

A thick, oppressive silent atmosphere dropped over the alley as the former antagonists failed to meet their former victim’s eyes. It hung over them like a thick blanket for several long moments before Blackie managed to speak up, “B-Billy can I talk to you o-over there for a minute… alone.”

Billy looked at Queenie who didn’t seem at all pleased by the idea of either of them talking to Blackie, but seeing a quiet sympathy in her mate’s eyes, she didn’t protest him going. Billy gave her a grateful look back and moved over to join Blackie adopting a less fierce version of Queenie’s glare, “What do you want Blackie?”

“Billy, look man,” Blackie paced nervously running a paw over his slick black fur, “I’m sorry about what happened ok. It was the heat and there were so many other cats and-and-”

“You liked Queenie,” Billy finished. Black looked up, surprised that Billy knew he’d had feelings for the white feline, not that he should have been, everyone had known. Blackie nodded mutely and tried to find something else to say to make it right, but Billy saved him instead. “I get it Blackie, I do.”

“Really,” Blackie asked looking down at the younger cat hopefully and Billy nodded.

“You get it too right Blackie, why it can’t happen again.” Billy countered his tone warning as his glare returned.

Blackie looked from Billy to Queenie who watched them carefully glaring at him in silent anger. Looking back at Billy Blackie nodded mutely again, then forced himself to speak. “I get it Billy, I do.”

“Good, then maybe we can try and put all this behind us,” Billy said with a smile extending a paw to Blackie.

The black tomcat was about to shake it when another thought struck him, another memory from that day. He looked down and shied away from Billy looking ashamed. “It wasn’t just that Billy I also told Sanctifur about Queenie and where you guys were, it’s my fault what happened to you both.”

“Come on Blackie,” Billy let out an amused scoff and moved to give the taller cat a pat on the back. “You don’t have to blame yourself for that. That big oaf would have found a way to mess with Queenie no matter what and we took care of him. He’s off running scare somewhere, so don’t sweat it.”

At the sight of the genuine smile on Billy’s face, Blackie perked up and gave Billy a confident, and intentionally sinister smile and returned the familial gestured patting Billy on the back. “Ya I should have known he’d be no match for you, Billy, hehe.”

Queenie’s expression softened as she watched the jovial exchange between Billy and Blackie. She was still mad at the possessive way Blackie had treated her, and while she would always be hurt by the thought of him trying to force himself on her Queenie began to think she might be able to forgive him. It was because of the heat that he’d done any of that, and if he ever tried it again, Queenie thought with a smile, she would rip his ears off.

----

Several Months later…

“Uck, I can’t believe they brought the Scarlet Corsair back as a kid, it’s so stupid.” Marie scoffed flipping through the pages of the comic book with a look of destain across her face before snapping it closed and thrusting it back into Dexter’s arms.

“Really?” Dexter carefully put the comic into his bag and slung it over his shoulder again before pushing his glasses up on his nose. “I thought it was kinda cool seeing a kid with all the Corsair abilities; it’s really funny too.”

Marie just rolled her eyes at her best friend and shook her head ready to tell him every way which his opinion was, as usual, wrong when she saw a striped orange tail disappear over the top of her fence. Her eyes shot wide and she mouthed her brother’s name before running for the gate.

“Marie hey wait, I mean I guess you’re right it’s not that good!” Dexter called after, worried that he had somehow made his friend mad at him again.

“Sorry Dexter I gotta go, I’ll see you after school tomorrow, ok. Bye!” Marie called back disappearing through the fence before Dexter could say anything further. Dexter watched her go and scratched his head in confusion for a moment wondering if he would ever understand the girl.

“Billy?” Marie called in the safety of her back yard softly enough that the neighbor would hopefully not hear her, the last thing she needed was her parent to start asking why she was calling for her dead brother. She didn’t see anyone at first, but a loud meow caught her attention and she looked to see her brother’s orange striped head poke out and look at her. They smiled at each other and rushed to meet one another, Billy leaping up into Marie outstretched arms.

“Oh, Billy it’s so good to see you,” Marie crushed the cat to her chest fiercely as if to make up of all the missed hugs of the past summer and all the one’s that would be missed in the future. Billy gave a pained meow and Marie loosened her grip on him pulling him back slightly to look him in the face again. “Did you find your girlfriend?”

Billy smiled and gave her a nod turning back to look at the bush he had been hiding in and gave another meow. Queenie’s white head popped out from the bush her blue almond shaped eyes sparkling as she smiled up at the siblings.

“Oh Billy she’s beautiful,” Marie gasped putting her brother down and moving to stroke Queenie behind the ears, “No wonder you wanted to be a cat again.”

Billy just smiled at her and glanced over to Queenie and gave her a nod. Queenie nodded back at the signal and stepped out of the bush unleashing a trio of kittens. One looked almost just like Billy, but she had her mother’s almond-shaped eyes and muzzle. The other two were white like their mother, but had their father’s stripes, they both had their mother’s blue eyes, but the boy’s eyes didn’t have the almond shape to them and the girl had a tuft of black fur on her head.

“Oh, my gosh they're adorable,” Marie gasped at the sight of the kittens who ran around her mewing softly. Dropping to her knees, Marie picked up the white female and cradled her in her arms. “They're already so big,” She laughed noticing that they were almost as big as Billy was when she had first found him trying to sneak back into their house. The realization struck her and Marie grew quite for a moment understanding just how fast cats grew, but the insistent mews of the kittens quickly dissuaded her worried thoughts and she began playing with her nieces and nephew.

After a few minutes of playing she looked back at Billy and Queenie again, “I’m really happy you two have each other.” She leaned over and picked up Queenie hugging the female cat to her almost as fiercely as she had Billy. “Promise, promise me you’ll take care of him,” Marie whispered burying her face into Queenie’s fur.

Queenie gave a little push to Marie's shoulder getting the girl to pull back and met her gaze with an understanding nod.

The sound of their parent’s car pulling into the driveway told the siblings that the visit was at an end. With a last hug and goodbye Billy and Queenie gathered up the kittens, who all seemed reluctant to leave their new aunt behind, and the five of them quickly disappeared over the fence.

That wouldn’t be the only visit her brother and his new family would pay to Marie, but they never seemed to come often enough or stay long enough. As the years ran by the visits became less and less frequent Marie doing her best not to worry about her cat brother.

----

Several years later…

“Is that the last of it Dear,” Marie asked turning from the open back of the car. Her braided hair was the only feature she would have said she’d kept from her youth, and now twenty years old she couldn’t be expected to remember that the pink and white striped shirt she wore was almost exactly like the dress she had once favored so greatly as a kid.

“I think so- oh whoa!” Dexter said taking a bad step off the stoop and stumbling off balance. Before he could crash face first on the ground and sent the boxes he was carrying flying, Marie was in front of him steadying both the stack and her fiancé.

“Thanks, Sweetie,” He said peeking at her from around the boxes. He had lost much of his nerdy exterior trading in his thick horn-rimmed glasses with a nicer pair; acne had cleared away and, thanks to Marie’s guiding eye, his clothes weren’t the dorky ensemble they had once been.

Marie moved to take the boxes from Dexter who was about to protest about making her carry more things to the car. Before he could she cut in suggesting, “Why don’t you double check your list and make sure there’s nothing else, we don’t want to have to drive all the way back because we forgot something.”

“Oh ya sure,” Dexter nodded and handing over the boxes, quickly ran back in to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. Marie, however, was sure they hadn’t but knew that Dexter would worry endlessly unless he checked and double-checked his list.

She packed the last boxes into the trunk and closed the door only to gasp and jump at the sight of something orange and black perched on the roof of the car looking down at her. “Billy!” She recognized him and gave him a big smile, “How did you know I was leaving today?”

Billy gave her a sly tired smile and standing he moved to the edge of the roof. He seemed reluctant to jump down, and once he had, he seemed to amble to her slowly. Marie’s eyes widened as she looked over her brother and saw just how much older and tired he looked, even graying in places.

“Oh Billy,” She moaned quietly and moved to pick him up gently bring him to her chest, he seemed happy with this, purring and nuzzling against the underside of her chin. It was her fears come true; Billy had chosen the life of a cat, a short life, what had been ten years for her had been more like sixty for him, he was an old man now.

Something else struck Marie as odd and she glanced around quickly before asking, “Where’s Queenie?”

Billy’s happy purring stopped dead at that question and he pressed his face into her neck for long moment before pulling back and looking away sadly. He didn’t have explain further, not that he would have been able to. In all of his visits he had never come without Queenie, the couple was like a single entity in two bodies and there could be only one reason for her to be absent.

“Oh Billy I’m so sorry,” Marie hugged Billy to her, tears stinging at her eyes as she thought of her brother alone in the world, his children having moved on with lives of their own and Queenie having passed on.

“Marie?” Dexter questioned curiously as he emerged from the house. Marie whipped around to face him and revealing the old tomcat she had clutched in her arms, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. He quickly moved to her side clasping her shoulders concern etched on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh I,” Marie shook her head starting to deny there wasn’t anything wrong, but when Billy shifted in her arms as if he was going to leap down she clutched him firmly to her unwilling to let go. “I didn’t know how to tell you about my cat.”

Dexter gave her a surprised look and looked down at the orange and black striped cat in her arms. Billy gave Dexter a cold look in return giving the man the impression of a not entirely approving father. “Unn I thought your mother was allergic?”

“She is, that’s why he can’t stay with her and Heather can’t take him so he has to come with us,” Marie said hoping he wouldn’t ask too many questions about where she and her roommate had been keeping the cat they were now supposed to have had all along. Billy looked as taken aback as Dexter, casting a critical eye up at his sister.

“Ahh well, I’m not sure…” Dexter began to stammer rubbing the back of his head nervously. He wasn’t sure they could have pets in there new apartment and he knew he had at least been somewhat allergic to cats as a kid.

“Please,” Marie gave him a pleading look and that was it, he couldn’t deny her anything she wanted.

“Alright, I mean of course we’ll take him.” Dexter nodded smiling as happily as if it had been his plan all along. Marie gave him a bright smile and a peck on the lips in thanks before slipping over to the passenger door.

The sting of a few claws poking her arm caused Marie to turn her back to the car and look down at Billy who was giving her a grumpy look, an unhappy meow and shake of his head in refusal of what she was suggesting. Marie just met his glare and whispered forcefully as if she could understand his words, “Yes you are coming to live with me. I’m not going to let you spend the rest of your life living by yourself on the streets. You’re my brother I’m going to take care of you,” She paused and fixed him with the same pleading look she’d given Dexter, “Please let me take care of you.”

The look had the same effect on Billy as it had on Dexter, he couldn’t deny it and gave her a reluctant nod of acceptance relaxing in her arms. Marie smiled, once again triumphant, and slipped into the vehicle.

Starting the car Dexter looked over at the cat in Marie’s arms, who gave him a sympathetic look this time, and he asked, “So what’s his name.”

“Billy.”

“Like your brother?”

“Just like him.” Marie smiled and leaned back stroking Billy whom reluctantly began purring contently.

Dexter smiled seeing his fiancé so happy with her cat, but a sudden nagging twitch came to his nose, and he gave a loud sneeze. Sniffling he made a mental note to get some allergy medication as soon as they got to their new apartment, he would need a constant supply.

The End

#Billy the cat #fanfic #90s

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