Shadow Cat

Kitty paces nervously in the kitchen, her body quaking with nerves, awaiting her stepfather. 'Why, oh why didn't I leave when I had the chance?' she thinks to herself. Her heart picks up, and beats a heavy, rapid tattoo against her chest. Her knees shake and the sensation of having to urinate quivers in the intamate region of her thighs, but she doesn't give into that desire, as much as she so dearly wanted to.

Footsteps pound up the stairs, throwing Kitty into a state of panic, her eyes skittering all . No. Not knowing where to run, she halts the nervous pacing and simply stares at Will. His face is livid with rage, and her heart almost stops, then drums against her ribcage sickeningly hard, making her fear that it may burst through her ribs. The beat is like thunder in her ears, and Kitty wonders if her stepfather can hear it.

He advances in what seems to be slow motion, and she shakes her head, and not knowing why, mumbles, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." she ends with a sob, and raises her hands pitifully, as if to fend him off.

"'Sorry'? Sorry?! That cuts no ice with me." Will responds with eyes that are hard and bright as burnished steel, red-hot contempt etched into every line of his aging featres as he studies her pale, shaken face. "How dare you look at me and insult my intelligence with that pathetic excuse of a word 'sorry'?" he takes a threatening step towards her, andty fty feels his hot breath fan her cheek, and she inwardly cringes.

"I had a bad night tonight, and I don't care anymore, I want your worthless body out of here. I want you to leave." from behind his eyes, she sees power, quaking to be released.

She steps back, now pinned against the counter she had previously crumpled upon. Her throat convulses as she swallows loudly, feeling like she swallowed a hard ball, a knot of tension.

"I've put up enough from you," Will grabs a handful of her thick hair, and jerks her head up, painfully ripping it from the roots. Tears sprout in her eyes, and spill over onto her cheeks without a thought from Kitty. "I don't care where you go, just leave." Will stated.

"I never did anything to you!" Kitty's chest heaves as she sobs, and her voice breaks with emotion, cheeks flaming in humilitation and pain.

She should have kept quiet, kept her mouth shut. Suddenly, her hair is dragging Kitty up the stairs. Strands, which feel like locks, tear out of her scalp, and she cries out, struggling to be released. But her struggles are in vain. He is much stronger than she realized, and he clamps Kitty to his side, hitting her in the face. Her head flares in pain, and she goes limp, vision fogging.

Reaching upstairs, he shoves her to the wall, and the back of her head strikes it, cracking the plaster. Kitty slumps to the ground, finding that her legs can no longer support her. Will's legs stride angrily away down the stairs.

A scream of pure terror echoes the house, and panic stricken, Kitty thinks, 'Mother!'. A loud crash, a tinkling array of broken glass shatters and silences Louise's scream. Kitty presses her fingernails into the soft flesh of her palms, the biting crescents nearly drawing blood.

Will's feet begin to stomp up both flights of stairs and Kittars ars that she may lose control of her bladder at any moment, making her feel as if the urine was pressing right against the tender organ. Will had never hit Louise before, only Kitty, without her mother's knowledge. But kitty feels she is too weak to do anything about it.

Angry fingers bite into Kitty's shoulder, it startles her because she hadn't thought Will was so close. Will jerks her upright and throws her into the wall on the other side of the hall. Hard. Pain as hot as fire blazes up Kitty's side as she strikes the mirror hanging on the wall, then crashes to the floor. The mirror shatters upon impact and sparkles as the shards cascade around her in a startling loud crash.

Will, who had followed Kitty as she sailed through the air, kicks her in the chest after the glass had finished falling, causing her to wheeze breathlessly for oxygen. Her lungs threaten to close up, and her head feels like it is about to explode from pressure. Kitty's heart thumping erratically as her lungs beg for air.

Kitty groans, her arms trailing weakly up to hug her injured side, small palms press, clinging to the bruised, heated flesh through the material of her clothing. Her long, thick burnt chestnut hair swirls around her like a cloud of gossamer silk fibres, keeping her face in shadow.

A warm, wet, sticky substance leaks from a spot on her forehead and she reaches up with a trembling hand to her head and push the silky hair to the side, and probe with gentle fingers. There is a gash just inside of her hairline and winces as her fingers accidentally brush the wound which oozes blood.

"Get up!" Will screams in her ear, and not waiting for a response, drags her up roughly, and smashes her back into the wall. He is breathing hard, the sweat now soaking his hair, and running in rivulets down his face. The whites of his eyes are almost completely red. He lets Kitty go, the only support in keeping her up are her trembling legs and the bracing wall, to pace infront of her still body.

Kitty's hand does not shake as she shoves the hair off her face, and meekly glowers into Will's beady eyes. Her fear is not gone, but a strange ripple of calm passes over her body, her brown eyes rock hard when she lifts her chin, breath held tightly in her aching chest.

"What's wrong with you?" he strikes her high on her chest with his hard, meaty fist. She can't help but flinch as imagines the sickening crunch of her collarbone. But Will had not broken it, it just felt that way. She is white hot in pain as she falls over and gasps for breath. Blood bubbles up in her throat and the saliva is red when she spits onto the carpet. Kitty heaves with exertion; trying to breathe.

Crowing with success, the deraved man kicks the fallen girl in the abdomen, causing the blackness that threatens to consume her close in.

She begins not to feel a thing anymore, her body almost peaceful. Kitty's mind drifts away from the man beating on the girl in the hall. It's all so fuzzy to her, her vision blurs, sta starts to fade. She blacks out, her mind soaring with freedom. The suddenly, she fell to earth with a clammer, not knowing how long she was out for, seconds, most likely.

As she comes to, Kitty sees a fist sailing down in the direction of her head. He strikes her in the face a couple of times, and she struggles to focus at the crazed man in front of her, but all she can do is throw herhands up to her face instead, feeling the tenderness and sco scortching heat there, knowing that my fair skin is already purple and swollen. Kitty's face goes numb, as Will shoves her hands away and strieksd a final punch on her cheekbone, but she refuses to respond. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't, she can't, or at least, she doesn't think she can move at all. At the last hit, Will stops to give himself a rest.

She sinks even farther on the ground, breathing hard as she closes her eyes and waits for the next punch to be thrown. A few minutes pass, and then she senses him steady his body, and prepare to strike again. The calm waves passes over Kitty again, and she halts her breathing, making her body relax. She can hear him, and let fly his fist.

She feels a fluttering against her cheek, and along the inside of her head. But, what hapened to Will's fist? Kitty opens her brown eyes and peers infront of her. Will stands there with a murderous, shocked look on his face.

"How did you do that?!" he rages, spit flying from his mouth, sweat running down his forehead and the sides of his cheeks.

With enormous effort, Kitty blinks and connects momentarily to angry, puzzled eyes that she would never have dared to meet had she been in been in full control of herself, "What?" she doubles over with the pain, piercing in her abdomen and chest.

Will vents an angry gorwl, and grips the lapels of Kitty's sweater, lifting her dead weight slightly, "How did you do that?" he rakes down at her again with aggravated urgency.

It was such an effort for her to concentrate, "Do what?" her tongue is thick inside her mouth, "What... did I do?" she wheezes into stunned silence.

"You're a fucking mutant!" he screams, and kicks her, sending her flying down the stairs. Loud, painful thumps are heard as Kitty crashes down the steps. Her left arm cracks beneath her, shattering the bone, into splintering, poking through the flesh of her forearm.

'Mutant?' was the hazy thought the mulling brain thought, before swimming in pain and blacking out once more. Oblivion.