by Celeste Hall
Chapter Two
Morgan awoke the next morning with a blazing headache, her punishment for having guzzled so much wine. Wincing a little, she started to rise and then froze in distress. A monstrous black cat was curled up comfortably on the pillow beside her.
He was watching her through half closed eyes, but as soon as he saw that she was awake, he rose and gave a husky meow of greeting.
Morgan felt her heart give a frightened little flutter, but she forced herself to remain calm. How the heck had the creature snuck back into her room? She was almost certain that she’d locked him out. Yet here he was, as large as life and not a bit afraid of her.
“Hey cat, um, you’re not supposed to be on the bed.”
With the regal air of a diminutive panther, he rose and paced to the edge of the mattress before leaping lightly to the floor.
Morgan managed to fight through the pain of her hangover and sit up, looking for where the cat might be headed. It hadn’t gone far. He was seated near the bedroom door, lashing his tail in much the same manner she imagined a human might impatiently tap their foot.
She noted that the door was still firmly closed and decided that the cat must have found some hiding place in her room after all. Or maybe it had somehow snuck past her and hidden in the bathroom. She supposed it was possible.
At least he’d remained in his hiding place as she’d performed her ritual. It would have totally destroyed her concentration to have him make an appearance while she’d still been naked and vulnerable.
The feline didn’t look quite so frightening in the golden light of early day, and she had just survived an entire night with it lurking around her room. Maybe that was why she felt a little less intimidated by him this morning.
Still, she crawled out of the bed on the opposite side from the cat and dressed quickly. When she turned, the cat stepped a few paces away from the door, then turned and looked at her quite intently. There was no mistaking his meaning.
“Has anyone ever told you how creepy that is?”
The cat only blinked.
Morgan stepped cautiously to the door and opened it. The cat immediately raced through, leaving her to follow along behind. He glided down the stairs and leaped up onto the kitchen counter, arching to rub his back against the coffee maker before jumping up into the kitchen window and hunkering down to wait for her.
“You read my mind,” Morgan admitted, blinking against the painful glare of sunlight. A pot of coffee might indeed help put a dent in her hangover. “But don’t get too comfortable. Your holiday is over as soon as Rachel arrives. You may not have noticed, but I’m not much of a cat person.”
She filled the coffee filter and started the drip, taking a moment to sigh appreciatively as the rich aroma began to fill air.
Her stomach growled. When was the last time she’d actually eaten? Thinking back she recalled cleaning up a big salad for lunch, but the wine had dulled her appetite for dinner.
She piled a small mountain of scrambled eggs over an Asiago cheese bagel for breakfast, filling a mug with coffee for the caffeine Band-Aid it could offer, and a short glass of orange juice to help rehydrate her system.
Whether it was her spell taking affect, or just the influence of some home cooked comfort food, she didn’t know. But she was actually feeling a lot happier this morning. She could even spare a smile for the dark shadow lingering in her kitchen window.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any cat food,” she admitted, “but you could have some eggs if you’d like.”
As if he understood exactly what she was saying, the cat rose and offered one of his gravelly meows. The sound still made her hesitate, but she found it easier to shake it off this morning. The cat hadn’t made a single aggressive move towards her. In fact, he’d been a perfect house guest, aside from his spooky intensity.
Keeping a watchful eye on the creature, she scooped a couple of spoonfuls of scrambled egg into a cereal bowl and placed it on the countertop near the sink.
He remained considerately perched in the windowsill until she had again retreated to a safe distance, then he jumped lightly down to sniff at the offering. He must have found it to his liking because he began to eat with a surprisingly delicate manner for such a burly little animal.
As the cat ate, Morgan refilled her coffee mug and carried it to the study door. She stood outside the heavy wooden barrier for several long minutes before taking a deep breath and turning the handle.
She hadn’t been in this room since the night it had happened, not even to clean up the mess that the police officers had made when they’d stormed in to throw Craig to the ground and handcuff him.
There were still papers and shattered furniture scattered across the floor, some of which still carried droplets of blood that had gone almost black with age.
Her blood and Heidi’s, none of it belonged to Craig. He might have suffered a few bruises as he was captured and hauled away to jail, but that was nothing compared to the pain that the girls had suffered, or the nightmares that still haunted her every time she passed by this corner of the house.
It was probably the biggest reason for her recent dabbling into the faith of her grandmother. She desperately needed to face what had happened and cleanse her home as well as her spirit of this lingering horror.
Stealing herself against the memories that threatened to overwhelm her, she set the coffee mug down on the desktop and began to collect parts and pieces of broken furniture, piling them near the door for removal. Shattered glass and other trash had to be swept up and bagged.
She’d only been cleaning for a few minutes, when her diminutive house guest crept into the room. He stepped very carefully through the debris, sniffing here and there, pausing for a long moment in the area where Morgan and Heidi had spent the majority of their time tied up and bleeding.
His tail lashed furiously as he finally looked up to meet her gaze.
“It’s a long story,” Morgan whispered, as if speaking too loudly might awaken the nightmares. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
The cat made a low rattling sound that resembled more of a snarl than a meow, the fur on his back ruffling slightly as he continued his investigation of the crime scene.
Morgan found herself gazing after him in rapt fascination, taking a strange comfort from having another living creature nearby.
The longer she watched, the more his attitude and the way that he moved reminded her of a lion trapped inside the body of a housecat. There was a dangerous feral confidence in the flex and release of thick muscles sliding beneath smooth black fur, but it was his hawk-like awareness and the way that he scrutinized the room which really struck her as odd.
She hadn’t spent much time in the company of cats during her lifetime, so she didn’t have any real point of reference, but this monstrous black stray certainly struck her as having an above average intelligence for an animal.
It was as if he were sorting through the scents and the ruins, deciphering everything that had happened here like a feline version of Sherlock Holmes. While at the same time, he made an almost painful effort to give her the space that she needed.
“Leo,” she murmured, surprising even herself. “I think I’ll call you Leo.”
The cat blinked at her, his tail offering a thoughtful twitch before he leaped up onto the desk, and from there up onto the mantel. From this higher perch he hunkered down and offered her a rumbling meow that she could have sworn was a murmur of acceptance.
“It’s hard seeing this all again,” she admitted out loud. “It’s all a horrible reminder of Craig’s anger, and of the pain and the fear we felt. I thought he was going to kill Heidi. We were both tied up and just so terribly helpless. I’ve never felt so frightened or so helpless in my entire life.”
Morgan shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
“I knew I was going to die, but I wasn’t sure how much I would have to suffer before that death finally came. Then the police arrived and every
one was shouting and gesturing. I must have been in shock because I couldn’t even feel relieved to see them. I just started to cry and didn’t stop until long after I ran out of tears.”
Leo murmured a sad sound and she felt herself wanting to reach out and hug him. Instead, she just offered a small smile.
“That was six months ago. You’d think I would have cleaned this place up before now, right?”
He snorted and gave a little shake of his head, then rose and looked sharply towards the window. A moment later she heard the rattle of keys in the front lock and the familiar voices of her two best friends coming from the entry hall.
“Morgan?”
“I’m in the study.”
As Heidi and Rachel stepped into the doorway she could see the surprise evident on their faces.
“You’re…cleaning up,” Rachel stammered, “Without us.”
“I decided it was time,” Morgan admitted. “And I had Leo here to keep me company.”
“Leo?”
Morgan nodded towards the dark figure crouched on the mantel.
“I thought it was a good name for him. He reminds me of a little black panther or a lion.”
The two newcomers looked at each other with a blend of surprise and concern. This was entirely out of character for their friend.
“You’re keeping the cat?” Heidi asked hesitantly. “Are you sure? I thought you hated cats.”
“I don’t hate them. Besides, Leo is different. He doesn’t really act like a cat. He’s respectful and smart.”
Rachel shook her head and shrugged as Heidi looked to her for support.
“Well, at least we can help you finish up in here.”
Neither of her friends wanted to admit how worried they’d been after Morgan had simply closed the room off and attempted to pretend that nothing was wrong. Heidi had gone to counseling and tried to talk her into attending as well. But Morgan hadn’t even been able to take that small step towards healing.
“He sent me a letter,” Morgan admitted after a few hours of working together in silence. It was surprising how much faster the job was done with the three of them working together.
“Who did?”
“Craig. He sent me a letter, last month.”
“No!” Heidi looked absolutely horrified.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Rachel asked, looking equally alarmed. “Has he done that before? Is he even allowed to write to you? Should we contact the police?”
From his perch on the mantel, Leo gave a low growling sound and leaned forward intently.
“Apparently, he is allowed, but they have to be approved by a jail monitor. The letter was inside a hand written envelope, which was opened and tucked into another envelope that was resealed with the jail address stamped on it.” Morgan scowled. “It gives me the creeps to think of how many people might have read what he wrote.”
“That’s what bothers you?” Heidi shivered as if spiders were crawling up her spine, “My god, Morgan! I don’t want him even thinking about you, much less sending you mail. We need to contact someone and put a restraining order on him. I can’t believe the jail allowed it.”
“I think they misunderstood the contents,” Morgan looked around at the room, remembering again. It didn’t really matter that the mess was cleaned up. The memories were impossible to scrub out, they left an invisible stain all over everything.
She gathered the last bag of garbage and headed for the kitchen. Leo was instantly at her heels. “Rachel, could you please close the study door behind you and Heidi? I’m going to make us some tea.”
“What was in the letter?” Heidi’s voice was uncharacteristically pinched by fear as she followed Morgan into the kitchen, making her wish that she’d never mentioned it. There was no reason to drag Heidi back through the nightmare they had shared.
Morgan filled the tea kettle with water and returned it to the stove before turning to confront the concerned faces of her friends.
“I don’t remember, exactly,” she gave a halfhearted shrug, but she wasn’t fooling either of them. “I only got about a third of the way through before I tossed it away.”
“Tell us what you do remember,” Rachel instructed.
Morgan sighed.
“He told me that he was sorry for what had happened and that he’s doing much better now that he’s been getting counseling and proper medication. He blames the drugs and the stress of having Mario’s crew demanding larger and larger portions of his pay cut.”
“That’s bullshit,” Heidi snarled. “He’s a psycho and I hope they keep him locked up forever.”
“What else,” Rachel demanded, seeing the hesitation in Morgan’s eyes.
“He told me that he’s going to save our relationship,” Morgan admitted, drawing a hiss and a snarl from both Heidi and Rachel. She didn’t dare tell them exactly how Craig had phrased that particular suggestion, because it had come out as more of a threat than a plea.
Heidi snorted.
“How exactly does he plan to do that?”
Morgan shook her head.
“This is Craig we’re talking about. I really don’t want to know.”
“I’m going to talk to Matt and see if we can prevent him from sending any more letters,” Rachel scowled. Her brother worked for a well-respected law firm. “I only wish you hadn’t thrown the letter away so I could show it to him.”
The tea kettle began to whistle and Morgan pulled a trio of mugs out of the cupboard.
“None of that green stuff for me,” Heidi piped up. “Do you have any wine?”
“It’s only two pm,” Rachel chided.
“Yeah, well, if we’re going to sit here and talk about psychopathic drug addicts then I think I should have a glass of wine.”
Morgan gave Rachel a meaningful look that made her friend sigh.
“Fine, I’ll drop the subject. But I’m still going to talk to Matt and see if I can get that creep banned from all forms of communication.”
“Thanks,” Morgan offered a wan smile as she placed tea bags into the remaining two cups before filling them with hot water. There was more to that letter then she was willing to talk about with Heidi present.
As the tea began to steep, Rachel walked over to where Leo was perched in the windowsill. The old Victorian house was flush with crown molding and thick decorative trim. The windows even had a wide shelf-like area that gave the cat a nice comfortable place to bask in the sunshine or to relax at a level where he could view everything going on around him.
As Rachel grew closer, Leo rose and watched her approach. There was something intimidating about the way that he held eye contact, but he didn’t hiss or bristle. He wasn’t afraid of her. He was simply very alert.
As she reached out a hand to pet him, Leo dropped his head ever so slightly, much as a person might shrug away from the touch of someone they didn’t trust. Rachel was savvy enough to recognize the gesture and withdraw.
“Poor little fellow. You must have been on the streets for a while, huh? Did your master move and leave you behind?” She knew that sort of thing happened far too often. People were either unable to find their cat on moving day, or they just didn’t care enough to stop and look for him. The cat was then left behind to fend for itself.
For some reason people still thought a domesticated cat could just flip a switch in its head and start hunting again after living as a housecat for most of its life. That was as ridiculous as thinking a businessman could be dropped off in the jungle and that he’d just instinctively be able to draw on the knowledge of his primitive ancestors to survive.
All creatures had to be taught how to hunt and live in the wild, from the smallest dormouse to the largest lion. In the wild, animals could learn from their mothers or their prides. But an abandoned cat didn’t have anyone.
Leo gave Rachel a long look, then leaped lightly down onto the countertop and padded over to where Morgan was pinching the bridge of her nose to ward off the headache that was threateni
ng. Dealing with the memories and the mess in the study had taken their toll.
The cat made no move to touch the woman who had, albeit unwillingly, sheltered him through the night. He simply sat down beside her, offering his silent support, and gazed his challenge out towards Heidi and Rachel.
“Just you and her against the world is it?” Rachel smiled. “Don’t look now, Morgan, but I think you have a fan.”
Morgan glanced down to where the cat was seated beside her. If it were any other feline, she would have cringed away from such proximity. Instead, she felt a strange little flutter of appreciation stirring in her chest. She certainly hadn’t done anything to encourage the animal, but he did look as if he were trying to offer his support and comfort.
“I don’t want to put him back outside where a dog or car might kill him. I think I’ll make up some posters to place around town and see if anyone is missing their pet.”
She wasn’t aware of the look exchanged between her friends. They were both fully aware of her fears and phobias. Seeing her sharing a space with the monstrous black cat was only slightly less shocking than either of them inviting a giant spider home for dinner.
“I should probably do some shopping today and pick up a litter box for him,” Morgan continued. “With my luck he’s probably been using my favorite shoes as a bathroom.”
Leo’s eyes instantly snapped up to glower at her and Heidi laughed.
“Oh my god, he’s insulted!”
Rachel smiled too. The cat did look offended by the suggestion.
“Actually, these days, a lot people are toilet training their cats. Some of them are even smart enough to flush after themselves,” Rachel suggested. “If you haven’t found any little kitty logs hiding around the house, you may have gotten lucky and found yourself a potty trained pet. He certainly looks smart enough.”
Morgan eyed Leo skeptically.
“How exactly does one potty train a cat?” Heidi snickered, obviously finding a great deal of humor in the idea. “When my mom was housetraining my little brother, she would put a boat in the toilet and reward him every time he ‘sunk the ship’. Is it like that?”
Her own vivid imagination had Heidi doubling over in a burst of giggles.
Rachel rolled her eyes.
“No. It usually involves setting up a platform around the bowl, so that cat can easily balance near the edge. Then it’s just a case of transferring his litter box conditioning to the bowl. Once they’ve been properly trained, you can sometimes remove the platform and they’ll keep using the toilet on their own.”
“So, are you saying that I don’t need a litter box, but that I should set up a platform around my toilet?” Morgan asked, sending Heidi into another fit of laughter.
Rachel put an elbow into Heidi’s ribs before answering, but it only mildly dampened her friend’s good humor.
“No, if he’s using the toilet already, there’s no reason to change anything. I’m just saying you might watch him for a bit to be sure. I don’t know if he’s potty trained or not. It’s just a possibility I thought you should be aware of. Geez, Heidi, breathe already. You sound like you’re about to pass out.”
“Potty trained…cats…toilet…!”
Rachel shook her head.
“Fine, I need to get to work anyway. Do you want a ride home, 'Chuckles?’”
“Yes, please,” Heidi gasped, wiping tears out of her eyes. “Why do you have to work today? It’s Saturday.”
“Thus is the life of a mortgage loan officer,” Rachel shrugged. “You have to work around the schedule of your clients. I’ve been trying to get the Allred’s paperwork completed for days now, but they both work full time and haven’t been able to spare me a minute.”
Morgan placed her empty tea mug into the sink before following her friends to the front door. Too late, she realized that Leo was again following right on her heels, but the cat made no attempt to escape through the open doorway.
She found herself smiling. Was it possible to be fond of something that had always scared you before?
“If you’re going to keep him, you should probably set up a preventative vet check,” Rachel suggested as she saw the smile on Morgan’s lips. “You’ll want to have him examined, de-wormed and vaccinated. Who knows what kind of medical care he’s had up until now.”
Morgan opened her mouth to claim there was no chance of her actually keeping the cat, but she found herself hesitating. He wasn’t anything like the nasty stray that had attacked her so long ago. And she did find it comforting to have him following her around the house.
She closed the door behind the girls and gave Leo a thoughtful look.
“What makes you so special?”
The cat offered a gravelly meow in answer.
Making sure that the door was locked again, Morgan headed upstairs to clean up her ritual supplies, but she didn’t take them far. Instead of bundling them up into boxes and bags to hide back up in the attic, she stowed most of the items on the floor in her bedroom closet.
She may want to try completing the ritual again. She’d actually felt good about the spell this morning, right up until she’d started talking to her friends about Craig’s letter. A second attempt at magic cleansing may help remove the rest of her fear.
After dinner that night, Morgan went shopping for cat supplies. She still wasn’t sure if she planned to keep Leo or not, but she knew it could be days or even weeks before she found out if he were a stray or someone’s lost pet. She would need to feed and care for him in the interim.
When she returned home there was a plain brown box waiting on the doorstep. Her name was scrawled across the top, but there wasn’t an address or a return label.
She didn’t recognize the handwriting, but she suspected it was probably from Heidi or Rachel. One of them must have stopped by while she was out and just left the box on the mat for her to find when she got back.
There was no sign of Leo as she opened the door and carried her groceries into the kitchen, leaving them on the counter before heading back out to collect the box from the porch.
The cat didn’t appear until she had the box in her arms and was kicking the door shut behind her, then he followed her quite solemnly into the kitchen and jumped up on the counter to sniff through her bags.
“I wasn’t really sure what kind of cat food you liked, so I thought we could experiment a little.” Morgan placed six cans of varying flavors out before him, but the cat shook his head and looked more interested in the groceries she’d purchased for herself.
When he placed his paw possessively over the Styrofoam package of steaks, Morgan sighed. She wasn’t prepared to fight a cat for the meat, particularly when they seemed to be getting along so well.
“It’s raw. Wait until tonight and I’ll cook some up for both of us, alright?”
Leo considerately retreated to his position in the windowsill so she could put away the steak and other food items.
She’d also purchased a litter box and scoop, but as she looked up to meet the scornful gaze of her diminutive house guest, she decided it was probably wasted money. Somehow he was either sneaking outside when she wasn’t looking, or he was one of those rare toilet trained cats that Rachel had told her about.
“We’ll set it up in the guest bathroom, just in case,” she told him.
Leo simply blinked and looked towards the brown box that had been sitting on the porch when she arrived.
“I think it’s from the girls,” Morgan told him, as if he’d asked. It was surprisingly nice to have someone to talk to, even if he didn’t answer back. “Maybe there’s something in here for you. Rachel was pretty happy to see us getting along.”
Pulling a thin steak knife out of the butcher block, she slid it along the taped edges and opened the flaps to look inside.
“That’s weird.”
It was full of crumpled newspaper.
She started to dig through the paper, when Leo abruptly hissed and lunged off the windo
wsill towards her.
Morgan screamed and jumped away, her fear of cats leaping up to choke her, making her forget that this was the same animal that she’d slept beside and spent hours around. Instead, she only saw a snarling black demon bristling next to the box. With his back arched, and his thick hair and tail bristled up so fiercely, he looked twice as large as he already was.
“Oh my god!” Morgan ran out of the room, heading for the safety of the bedroom. Once there she quickly closed and locked her door and grabbed for the house phone resting on the bed table.
Rachel answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Rachel! He’s gone crazy!”
“What? Who’s crazy?” There was a tang of stark fear in her friend’s voice as she remembered the last time she’d received a call like this, the night that Craig had effectively destroyed all their lives.
“It’s the cat,” Morgan whimpered, unaware of the instant rush of relief that had Rachel sighing into the other end of the line. “I think he might have rabies or something. He just attacked me for no reason! Can you please come over here? Please, Rachel. I can’t face him alone.”
“Just give me a minute, okay? You caught me in the shower. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
It was almost half an hour before Morgan heard the front door open and Rachel’s voice calling out for her. She quickly hurried to the bedroom door and cracked it just enough to yell down the stairs.
“Rachel? Do you see Leo? Is he still in the kitchen?”
“Give me a minute. Let me look.”
The house was silent for a very long time it seemed to Morgan, but at last she heard her friend coming up the stairs.
“Morgan?”
She opened the door.
“Oh Rachel, thank you for coming! Is it safe? Did you put him outside?”
Short brown hair shook in the negative.
“No, because I think he was trying to protect you.”
Morgan gaped.
“You didn’t see him. It was horrible. He just leaped at me, hissing and spitting.”
“Did you look in the box?” Rachel asked.
“I just saw a bunch of wadded up newspaper. I was about to dump it out when Leo…” Morgan hesitated. Was it possible that the cat had seen or sensed something suspicious about the contents of the package? Could he have really been trying to protect her?
“I’m glad you didn’t dig any deeper,” Rachel admitted with a dark scowl that suggested she wished she could erase the memory of what she’d found. “I called the police. They’ll come take care of it. Where did you find that nasty thing?”
“I went shopping and it was on the porch when I got home. I thought you or Heidi had left it for me.” Morgan felt cold spikes of fear crawling up her spine like the many legs of a centipede. “Why? What’s was in it?”
Rachel shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as if seeking solace from something terrible.
“It was hard to tell exactly. I think it’s been dead for a while.”