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David Daily 2020-02-11 09:17:27 -06:00
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@ -369,5 +369,114 @@ Now that they were alone and in relative safety it felt like they had just met.
``I \dots''
He shook his head helplessly.
Everything was spinning around him.
This could only \textit{be} a nightmare!
He stood up with a start,
stepped forward and almost fell over because he forgot to tie his right shoe,
promptly stepping on one of the shoelaces.
He hastily bent over,
tied his shoe and wanted to turn towards the door,
but Katt held him back with a quick motion.
``Don't'', she said.
She almost sounded frightened.
``Why?'', asked Andrew.
``I would rather if you \dots''
Katt raised her shoulders.
``If I don't go out there?'', he asked with an accompanying gesture towards the door.
Katt nodded and Andrew pursed his lips, arriving at the door with two faster steps.
With a determined yank he pulled the hanging to the side and stepped out.
But in spite of everything he was still level-headed enough to stop after one step out of the door to look around.
And in the next moment he was very glad he had done that.
In front of him was a long,
asymmetrical square that seemed to have been rectangular at one point.
Now the entire row of houses on the other side had collapsed
and made an enormous pile of rubble that shoved long fingers of stone and concrete into the square.
The rest of the buildings were more or less heavily damaged and altogether leaning in the same direction,
just like he had seen before.
Red or yellow fire light shone from behind several windows and on the square two or three large fires,
around whom a number of figures sat.
In the darkness he could only identify them as stout shadows.
And even that was enough for him to tell that they weren't all \textit{human}\dots
Some of the outlines were too shaggy as if they had fur,
had long pointy ears,
or seemed to be humpbacked.
Andrew saw more than one figure that had a tail trailing them,
or some that seemed to walk on all fours.
Even the sounds that he heard reminded him of the grunting of an entire zoo more than sounds humans would make.
``Come back inside'', Katt said behind him.
After a moment she added. ``Please.''
Even though it was too dark to see the expressions on the faces of the assembled nightmare figures,
Andrew could still feel their gaze resting on him,
and the feeling was so uncomfortable that he withdrew only a moment later.
Katt was still sitting on the edge of the bed,
but Andrew didn't go back to her,
instead steering towards one of the ancient chairs and carefully sat down on it;
a camping chair made of metal that only had the wire frame left.
``They're all like Ratt?'', he mumbled.
Katt didn't react to the question and Andrew struggled to continue.
Why was it suddenly so difficult for him to find the right words?
He usually didn't have any problems with that.
Eventually he got over himself and asked the question that he \textit{actually} wanted to ask.
``But you're \dots?''
``What?'', Katt interrupted. ``Normal?''
Of course she wasn't.
\textit{Katt}.
At least after he had seen her sister
--- Ratt ---,
it should have been clear to him.
She had heard things a while before \textit{he} had.
Her oddly elegant gliding way to move about and her alarming strength.
And it was almost as if she could see in the dark.\footnote{Thanks for the catgirls Elon}
``No'', she said after a few seconds.
Her voice sounded rough.
``I'm a monster just like the everyone else here.''
``I didn't mean that'', he said hastily.
``Yes, that's exactly what you meant!''
Katt stood up with a jolt.
The mattress springs squeaked loudly.
``Do you want to see?
Here!
Look very closely!''
She stepped towards him and started to rip her clothes off with angry movements
--- which didn't take long.
She only had a shirt and pants with nothing underneath,
and no shoes.
In the pale light that filled the room like dully glowing haze,
he could only see her body as a silhouette even though she was only two steps away.
Just far enough away that he couldn't see any details
--- or touch her if he had stuck out his arm quickly.
At least at first glance her body seemed to be completely human,
even though it was very lean and emaciated.
Just looking at it gave him a sharp pang of guilt.
Under normal circumstances he would have been embarrassed
that a girl had gotten undressed in front of him just like that,
but in that moment he didn't feel anything other than sympathy;
and a gradual increase of anger for a fate that forced a kid to grow up in such squalor.
Katt's gaunt body was just like her face:
You couldn't ignore how pretty she \textit{could have been},
if she would have had the chance.
Then she turned around and he saw what she was actually trying to show him:
Between her bony shoulder blades a striped strip of fluffy fur
that followed her spine and ended right above her butt cheeks;
as if it were supposed to end in a tail that to his relief wasn't there.
Katt stood there motionless for a few seconds,
then turned her head and looked at him through blinking eyes.