Over the Wall

by Theolyn Boese

  A soft chitter caught his attention, and he turned to see two of the hamsters pressed up against the wire staring at him in a most peculiar manner. It gave him the creeps. He jumped as a very loud, echoing knock sounded at the door. His brain froze as he tried to decide if he should answer or not. The choice was taken from him a moment later, when he heard a key rattled in the lock. Heeled shoes clacked like angry chickens and the door slammed shut.

  A short, rotund woman click-clacked into the room. She froze when she saw him.

  Dar could only stare.

  She was wearing a huge straw hat with tattered silk flowers the size of dinner plates on it. Four clashing scarves appeared to be having a fight for supremacy on her shoulders. Just looking at them made his eyes water.

  Her ensemble was completed with green overalls, purple evening sandals, and a rainbow-hued striped T-shirt. Oh, and three large purses of varying animal prints,

  She blinked at him from behind rhinestone-encrusted glasses. “Who’re you?” she squawked.

  “Uh, Dar,” he mumbled.

  “Hello, Dar, I’m Sophie, Ceecee’s great-aunt.” She beamed at him. “You must be boinking Ceecee. How lovely.” She continued to smile happily.

  Dar wheezed out something non-committal.

  She flung her purses off her arm without a care for where they landed and began circling him like a farmer inspecting new livestock. “Excellent! You’ll make a fine breeding male. Can you ejaculate three or more times a night?”

  He croaked out something and then jumped like a scalded cat when she pinched his ass.

  “Oh, firm!”

  Dar whipped around to face her, his hands protectively cupping his violated bootie.

  The older woman smiled coyly. “I’d take a turn or two between the sheets with ya myself if I were a few years younger.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him flirtatiously.

  Blinking rapidly, he mumbled something vaguely complimentary and edged toward the stairs, hoping Cass would come down soon and save him from her crazy relative.

  Suddenly, she froze. Her mouth dropped open. Her chin quivered and her eyes glazed over.

  He stopped and took a hesitant step toward her again, wondering a little frantically if she was having a fit of some kind. Dar turned to see what she was staring at. Maybe she was autistic and certain things set her off.

  Tantrum sat in a frozen crouch at the base of the stairs, his blue eyes fixed on Sophie in mute horror.

  His head swiveled back to Sophie, who let out a yodeling scream and suddenly vanished. Her empty clothing collapsed in on itself and landed on the floor in a cotton puddle.

  “What the hell?!” he yelped, leaping back.

  The clothes rustled.

  Tantrum growled low and threateningly in his throat.

  Dar took another step away as his mind squirreled frantically in his head.

  A pink nose peeked out from under the straw hat. Then, a moment later, a huge black and white rabbit hopped out.

  It glared at the cat with malevolent hunger, threw back its head, and let out the most astonishing scream-roar Dar had ever heard.

  He stared dumbstruck, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

  The rabbit lunged for the cat, who yowled in terror and climbed Dar like a tree. The Sophie-rabbit spun and attacked Dar’s legs. She bit and clawed, trying to follow the cat and apparently furious that she was unable to do so. Snarls and growls filled the room and the hamsters went insane in their cage in response.

  For the second time that morning, Dar screamed like a girl.

  * * * * *

  Cass sighed with pleasure as she stood in front of her bathroom mirror in a pair of silky panties and toweled her hair dry. She had been very careful to not use up all the hot water, but it had been a trial. No matter what she did, it always seemed to take at least half an hour for her to shower.

  She tossed the towel aside then picked up her comb and drew it through her damp locks. While he showers, I can make breakfast and then we can just hang out and relax for the rest of the day. It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better, she decided.

  She smiled to herself, thinking of last night and how Dar had insisted on sleeping on the couch in case the intruder returned. He would have been much more comfortable sleeping in her bed with her, but nooo… He had to be at “ground zero,” as he had put it.

  Must protect helpless little woman. Grunt, grunt, scratch.

  She was surprised he hadn’t peed on her leg to mark his territory.

  Cass had to chuckle over the image that thought conjured up.

  Dar seemed to have a strong caveman instinct that she hadn’t expected. It made her want to pat him on the head and offer him a biscuit.

  She tossed the comb down and shimmied into a pair of jeans and a fresh T-shirt. Dressing complete, she set about brushing her teeth. Morning breath kisses are bad, she thought happily as she scrubbed industriously and hummed to herself.

  As she bent to spit out a mouthful of foam, a scream rent the air.

  She threw the toothbrush down and slammed out of the bathroom, racing toward the commotion in her living room. The snake man came back! she thought frantically, worried for Dar who wouldn’t stand a chance against a shifter’s strength.

  Her bare feet slid to a stop at the top of the stairs and she froze, taking in the scene below her.

  Dar was hopping around on one bare foot while the other flailed in the air as he desperately tried to dislodge the enraged rabbit clinging to it. His arms were swatting at her cat, who appeared to be trying to take up residence in his hair. Long scratches wept trails of blood down his arms, chest, and side.

  More blood darkened his jeans where the rabbit was gnawing on him and making high-pitched growling squeals like a weed-whacker running on demon-possessed gasoline.

  Tantrum let loose with another of those bansheelike death screams that Siamese cats were notorious for and dug his claws in for balance.

  Dar screeched again as the cat raked his scalp and the rabbit spit out a piece of ripped fabric before diving back into his leg for more.

  Cass gaped for a moment. Dear God! My aunt is trying to eat my boyfriend! “Aunt Sophie, no!” she yelled, charging down the stairs to rescue her poor, beleaguered lover.

  She lunged at Sophie and, grasping the back of her neck, peeled her away from Dar’s leg. Sophie squealed with outrage and writhed like a mad thing as she tried to break free. Cass quick-stepped to the hall closet and flung the enraged animal inside and slammed the door shut behind her. She turned and pressed her back against the wood and braced her legs. Just in time too. The door shuddered and she heard the rabbit drag long furrows in the heavy wood. Once again she blessed her father for changing the door after the first Sophie-eats-the-guests episode. So, now the door was a rich, heavy mahogany that matched the decor and trim in the house. And it was completely rabbit-proof.

  “Dar, go upstairs and hide till I tell you to come out!” she bellowed at him as he finally dislodged her cat. The door thudded behind her, almost knocking her off her feet. She scrambled back into place and tensed against the increasing force with which Sophie was trying to escape.

  He stared at her in shock and mumbled something that sounded like “rabid rabbit.” He took a step toward her, but she could tell that he wasn’t really hearing her. She didn’t dare leave the door to shake him out of it either.

  Shit, shit, shit, she chanted to herself silently. How the hell am I supposed to explain this to him? He saw her shift! Damn it, Sophie!

  When she found out who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her aunt, she was going to shred them into tiny bloody pieces.

  Sophie was never allowed to go anywhere alone because of what had just happened.

  As a young woman, Sophie had been out in her rabbit form and had disappeared without a trace. It had taken the uncles four months to track her down.

  She had been caught and stuffed into a cage by a family with four bratty children. Those children
had dyed her black and white fur with drink mixes and pierced her ears. Then, once they had grown bored, they’d kept her in a hutch in the backyard and rarely remembered to feed her or give her any water.

  What had finally broken her mind, however, was the family’s dog, a massive black Rottweiler that had become vicious from neglect. The dog had spent its days circling the cage. It would snarl and lunge, catching bits of fur and muscle as it tried to drag Sophie through the wire. The only safe place in the cage was right in the center of a small slab of plywood that she could cower on until the dog went to sleep at night.

  Cass’s great-uncles had snuck into the yard one night to rescue their sister. They had been forced to fight the dog into submission and nearly destroyed the cage to get her out. The next day they had called animal services on the family. It had caused a huge scandal in the neighborhood when several half-starved animals had been removed and the parents were given huge fines.

  Sadly, Sophie had never been the same. She didn’t speak for several months, and when she finally did, it was to announce that she was an alligator. After that, every time she shifted she would act like an alligator. The family called her the Rabbigator.

  As a child, Cass had quickly learned to avoid her wading pool when she saw a large black and white rabbit sitting in it. Aunt Sophie was not willing to share “her” pond.

  She thought that it was because her aunt never wanted to feel helpless again. The irony was that the family cared for her and sent her from home to home in an effort to keep her safe from the men with the butterfly nets. In fact, the rotation had Cass up in a few more months.

  She would have to warn Dar if they were still together then. She had her doubts about that now.

  Which brought her attention back to her traumatized lover. He was still staring at her and mumbling about rabid rabbits. “Dar? Honey?” she called in a gentle voice.

  His glazed eyes slowly focused on her.

  “Could you please go upstairs for a little while, sweetie?” She kept her voice soft. The door bounced behind her again.

  He nodded slowly and trudged upstairs with the zombie-like shuffle of someone whose world had just been turned upside down.

  She sighed with relief when she heard her bedroom door shut a few moments later. Quickly willing a partial shift, she backed away from the door.

  The door was flung open, just as Cass had expected, and an enraged Rabbigator flew out.

  Cass let out a trilling scream of challenge. It stopped Sophie in her tracks as her still rabbit-like instincts registered an angry predator in the vicinity.

  Cass continued to chitter angrily and bounced in place, looming over the confused were-rabbit.

  This was the tricky part. Her mongoose was furious that a rabbit had the gall to attack her mate! She wanted out to teach that uppity grass-eater a thing or two about manners. And while Cass knew she could take Sophie in a fight, shifting would cause the Rabbigator to attack again. Cass really did not want to hurt her batty aunt, who was now cowering back away from her.

  The front door flew open and her cousin, Carmen, skidded in and started barking angrily down at Sophie. She was partially shifted, as well. A long, plush foxtail waved behind her in agitation.

  The combined ass chewing was too much for their poor aunt and she fell over in a dead faint.

  Cass rounded on her cousin, tail bristling and her fangs flashing. “Were you watching her?” she barked out, her half-mongoose form trilling every “R” angrily.

  Carmen’s eyes rounded in shock and she carefully backed away, throat bared submissively. “No, she was staying with Uncle Hiram. He called me because she left him a note saying she was going to visit Ceecee,” she blurted out in a rush.

  Cass and her mongoose stopped advancing on Carmen as that sank in. Sophie called both of them Ceecee. It was very confusing, since no one was ever really sure which of them Sophie was talking about.

  “She stole his car so he couldn’t come after her, and he didn’t know she was gone till this morning.” Carmen spoke in a rush, obviously trying to get the explanation out before Cass bit her.

  “Sophie hasn’t driven in thirty years!” Cass finally squeaked out.

  “I know!” Carmen wailed.

  They both shuddered thinking about what would have happened if she had been pulled over by a police officer. Uncle Hiram’s farm was a six-hour drive away. Sophie lived with him most of the year because he had the most land and she felt safe there. He had even gone so far as to build her a little alligator habitat to keep her happy.

  She spent most of her time lounging in her little heated pond and tormenting any raccoons stupid enough to get close to it.

  Best of all, Uncle Hiram was her oldest brother and an elephant shifter so no matter what her mindset was, she didn’t attack or challenge him. Usually, she didn’t run away from the farm either. Cass shook herself all over and swore several times.

  Carmen relaxed and lowered her head cautiously. “Anyway, when she didn’t show up, I came here.” She sniffed the air. “Blood?” She inhaled deeply. “Not yours.” Her tail bushed out and quivered. She speared Cass with an enquiring look.

  “She bit my new boyfriend,” Cass admitted wearily, She reached back and adjusted her low-slung jeans more comfortably under her tail.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Carmen chanted angrily. Her little fox ears flickered back and forth in agitation.

  “Cass, the bleeding won’t stop and Tantrum threw up on your bed,” said a dazed voice from the top of the stairs.

  They both spun around to stare up at him. His glazed eyes focused on Carmen with glacial slowness. “Kitsune,” he breathed. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he crumpled, tumbling down the stairs,

  “Dar!” Cass cried out as both women rushed to his unconscious body. She frantically patted him all over looking for broken bones. She was only marginally relieved when she didn’t find any. How he would take all of this, she didn’t know, but he had to! If he didn’t agree to keep it secret, the family would kill him.

  And, God help her, she was in love with him.

  She looked up at Carmen with despair. Her cousin touched her cheek, her own gaze dark with understanding. “I’ll call Kevin to come get Auntie Sophie and I’ll stay with you for this.”

  Cass nodded miserably. She gently picked Dar up and cradled him against her chest as Carmen crossed the room to call another of their cousins. She laid him on the couch and ran upstairs to get the items she would need to treat his wounds.

  When she came back down, Carmen was pulling off his jeans and boxers. “Jesus, what happened to his cock?” her cousin asked, blinking down at the punctures.

  “Tantrum wanted to play What’s Under The Blanket with him this morning.”

  Carmen cringed. “And these?” She pointed at the other scratches and claw marks decorating his smooth brown skin.

  “Tantrum used him to get away from Sophie,” she mumbled, wiping blood off his chest with a piece of cotton soaked in antiseptic. She handed Carmen a cloth similarly treated and both women fell silent as they worked.

  “That cat is a fucking menace!” Carmen muttered suddenly, after cleaning a particularly vicious slash on Dar’s scalp.

  “He was scared,” Cass replied defensively. “Auntie Sophie has been trying to eat him for years and the hamster chases him! You’d be neurotic too.”

  A moan from the closet alerted them to Sophie’s return to consciousness. After a minute, she staggered into the room.

  Cass barely spared her nude aunt a glance as she continued to clean Dar up. Carmen left her to help Sophie dress, and Cass ignored their heated discussion of Sophie’s actions.

  The rabbit bite on Dar’s leg was turning a deep purple and wouldn’t stop weeping blood. The skin around the bite had been completely gnawed off, leaving a raw patch the size of a silver dollar on his thigh. She chittered angrily as she finally bent her head to lick the wound. It took several minutes before the bleeding finally eased and then sto
pped completely. A touch on her shoulder brought her head up, and she snarled viciously before she realized that it was Carmen. She stopped and she rested her forehead against her cousin’s midriff and shook.

  “I’m sorry, Ceecee,” her aunt said in a timid voice from where she was huddled in Cass’s armchair.

  “I know, Aunt Sophie,” Cass replied tiredly, fighting tears.

  “Why did you run away from Uncle Hiram?” Carmen asked, stroking Cass’s hair gently.

  “I wanted to see my girls,” their aunt replied vaguely, “and he kept saying in another month, but I had to see my girls.”

  Cass ground her teeth. There wasn’t any point in getting angry with Sophie. It was like getting mad at rain for falling.

  The front door opened and closed quietly, and her cousin Kevin entered silently. He was tall and gangly, with a beaky nose and huge Adam’s apple poking out of the center of his rather scrawny neck. “Hey, Cee, Auntie Sophie. What’s up?” He pushed his hands into his pockets as he surveyed the room. His eyes lit on Dar and stayed there for several minutes before he finally met Cass’s gaze and raised an eyebrow in silent enquiry.

  “Aunt Sophie decided to visit us early,” she murmured with a significant look at her unconscious lover.

  Kevin wasn’t dumb; he understood immediately. “Okay. Sophie, I wanted to hit the zoo today; want to join me?”

  Their aunt’s eyes lit up for a moment before dimming again. “I’m in trouble, Kevin,” she mumbled in a childlike voice. “I bit Ceecee’s male and I tried to eat the cat again.”

  “Cass has a male?” he asked, ignoring the bit about Sophie biting him. Now, he strolled over to peer down at Dar with bright curiously. “Cool. How long?”

  “Three days,” Cass said from behind clenched teeth, “counting today.”

  Kevin cringed. “Oh, shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  He sighed. “C’mon, Aunt Sophie. You can come visit with me for a couple days. I haven’t had any cookies as good as yours since the last time you stayed with me.” He casually swept up her purses while Sophie looked at Cass hopefully.