9 lives
"You dumb dog! Sigh..."
Tabitha looked at the scratches on her dog Kayla's muzzle. Cleaning off the blood, she tousled the collie's head and stood up. She was a pretty girl, rather boyish in appearence, about thirteen, with short chestnut hair, and she was tall for her age, towering over most of the boys at school. She wiped her hands on her jeans and squatted down again.
"I don't know why you're always getting beat up by that cat, you outweigh him by ten times. How can you let him walk all over you? You should be ashamed of yourself!"
She sighed again and finished cleaning off Kayla's wounds. The cat from hell was being a real pain lately. The cat belonged to Miles, the boy next door, and was the same age as her collie. She hated that cat from the first day she saw it as a kitten, two years ago. She had just gotten Kayla, and had been showing her off to all her girlfriends. Miles had come by with that scrawny little ball of fur and all the girls had gone soft and mushy over it. She had ignored her fickle friends and entertained herself by teaching her new puppy some tricks. Tossing a tennisball in her yard, she had Kayla fetching it with just a little practice. Calling for her friends to come and watch, she threw the ball and sent Kayla chasing after it. Kayla was rudely interupted by a hissing orange furball that charged the ball and defended it with a savage swipe to Kayla's nose. That had sent Kayla yelping away and set the stage for future feline/canine relations. The cat had promptly taken over the neighborhood and was the ruin of many a garden, Tabitha's included.
She had complained to Miles several times after school, but though he promised each time would be the last, he never bothered to keep an eye out for his furry orange terror. He was always in the house all day, reading books or playing the violin. Tabitha wasn't able to watch out for the cat either. She had softball practice every day after school, and only Kayla remained nearby to watch over her garden. But she was a miserable guard where the cat was concerned. Well today was the last straw. She was gonna fix that cat but good.
The sun had set when Tabitha took up a position watching her garden. She had her B.B. rifle in hand, and she began pumping it up. "One, two, three....twenty-nine, and thirty!" she exclaimed as she finished. No sign of that darn cat yet. She began to wonder if it could tell she was laying in ambush for it. It was almost nine o'clock, and her mother would be telling her to get ready for bed before too long. She checked her watch impatiently. "I'll wait another half-hour." she thought. It was then that the orange tom announced his presence atop the wooden fence. He jumped down to the dirt and proceeded to water the neatly ordered plot of earth that was Tabitha's garden. "What a great shot!" thought Tabitha "I can see his ass perfectly!" as she aimed beneath the twitching tail. The first shot went off perfectly. The tom howled in pain and Tabitha quickly advanced another round and pumped the rifle. The next shot hit the collar and bounced, but her next knocked the tom's front leg out from under him. Panicked, the cat tried to scramble up the fence, but his injured leg slowed him down. Smiling with glee, Tabitha took careful aim at his mean little eye and fired. The cat screeched and fell off the fence back onto Miles' side.
Tabitha quickly ran inside and put her gun away. The smirk on her face was the only indication she had been up to anything. She jumped into the bathroom and got ready for bed. "Funny," she thought as she crept beneath the covers, " you'd think that darn cat would be howling up a storm by now..." She shrugged and let herself forget about the whole thing and fell asleep.
She felt a hand shaking her awake. She opened one eye a crack and saw a shadowy figure standing next to her dresser. Rolling over to the opposite end in alarm, she shouted "Aaaaahhhhh!!!!!! Who are you?!!!!!!"" A faint light centered on the figure and revealed a beautiful woman wearing nothing but a mask and a headdress. The mask was obviously of a feline, but of what sort Tabitha could not tell. The headdress looked like those on a mummycase, and shined with an aura of unearthly light. Tabitha screamed for her parents for several minutes while the mysterious figure simply stood there and stared. After it became evident that no one was answering, she glared at the woman and demanded " What did you do to my parents? Who are you and how did you get in my bedroom.?" The woman slowly reached up and removed the mask. The face behind it was breathtaking. It was the most beautiful woman Tabitha had ever seen. Only her eyes betrayed her unearthly nature, for they were the slit pupils of a cat. Then in a voice like a purr, she spoke.
"I am Bast. You have harmed one of my children. You took pleasure in causing him pain...why?"
Tabitha gulped. "He, ummm, was beating up my dog and ruining my garden..."
"Did your pet demand justice? Did your plants?"
"Ummm.....no." she answered as the thought of Kayla smiling stupidly in a courtroom popped into her mind.
"My child is dying. Who will give him justice? Will you pay for the hurt you have caused him? "
" I'm sorry...I didn't think..."
"Will you pay?!!" the voice turned harsh and cold.
"Okay! Okay!" Tabitha grabbed her piggy bank and held it out. "I'm sorry, take all of my money...it's all I have!"
"I will take my payment tommorow..." purred Bast. Then the room returned to darkness and there was no sign of Bast.
"Wow, what a dream..." thought Tabitha.
The next morning at school, Tabitha saw Miles wandering the hall in a daze. He looked as if he hadn't gotten any sleep. She decided to approach him and apoplogize for what had happened.
"Hey, Miles! Ummm, listen I ummm..."
"Tabitha! Oh god! Someone shot Nosy last night really bad! " The vet doesn't think he'll make it!" sobbed Miles as he hugged her.
"Ulp! I'm sorry...I'm sorry Miles...." was all she was able to say. That Miles would be this broken up over his cat hadn't occured to her. She was beginning to feel really bad about the whole thing.
"I'm going to see him at the vets after school today. Do you want to come along?" murmured Miles.
"Ummm, maybe, I guess..." she answered.
"See ya" came the mumbled answer as Miles shuffled away.
Tabitha's first class was P.E. and she walked in the locker room before anyone else. As she undressed in the silence, her brushed against a wart on her stomach. "That's curious," she thought, "when did that develop?" She looked carefully and saw more than one. There was eight, arranged in pairs down her chest and stomach. Witha sinking feeling, she guessed what they were. "Oh my god..." She quickly covered them with her t-shirt, and finished putting on her uniform. "What's happening to me?" she thought. The bell rang and other girls began filtering into the locker room. She got up and walked out to the field where all the students met for exercise.
When she walked onto the field, she saw the freshly cut grass lay in piles near the cement basketball courts. The smell tickled her nose and she sneezed. She sneezed several times in succession and when she wiped her nose, she felt an unfamiliar rough moistness to it. Panicking, she ran inside to the restrooms and looked at her face. The tip of her nose was seperate from the rest of her nose and it was a light pink in color and damp. It looked like a cat's nose. Her heart raced. She couldn't let anyone see her like this. She needed to get away. When the bell rang, she was hiding in the stalls. Everyone rushed out of the lockers and she was left alone. In seclusion, she slowly realized what was happening to her. She was turning into a cat.
Putting her normal clothes back on, she snuck out into the hallway. If she could just cross the parking lot without being seen, she could make it home. She started waking briskly towards the building's exit. Her eyes darted everywhere. She kept imagining people were watching her. Within minutes she had left the building and was crossing the parking lot. Ducking behind cars, she made her way through the lot to the edge where the fence was. Looking about, she paused and took a deep breath. She dashed throught the gate and began running down the street. After what seemed like an eternity, she got to her home. Opening the door with her keys, she fumbled and gasped in horror as she saw her fingers had grown curved claws where her nails had been. She threw open the door and rushed to the bathroom. Her face looked the same, but she thought she could see whiskers sprouting from her cheeks. Quickly, she stripped off her clothes and moaned as she saw her body. Her feet were almost completely paws, and they began to lengthen as soon as she had removed her sneakers. Her pubic hair had been replaced with a patch of thick white fur that rapidly spread to her thighs and stomach. The teats she had seen earlier were almost fully developed and her breasts were non-existent. A stub of a tail poked out of the base her spine, and began to grow several inches within seconds. Her arms seemed longer, and her fingers had just receded to the point where she couldn't even tell they were fingers. Of her thumbs, there was almost no trace.
The phone rang and startled Tabitha out of her catatonic state. She ran over to the phone and tripped. She couldn't walk normally with her feet turned to paws. They seemed to arch so she could only tip-toe. Making her way across the room, she picked up the receiver with what was left of both hands. "Rainewwooo?" she said and froze. She couldn't talk anymore! The voice on the other end, uncertain who it was talking to, said "Hello? This is Conway Jr. High calling for Mrs. McAdams?" Tabitha tried to respond with "Help me! I'm turning into a cat!" but all that came out was feline wailing and mewing. Dropping the phone, she tip-toed her way back to the bathroom. Her hands were completely paws now, and she could barely keep her balance. Her tail was almost as long as she was now, and the white fur had spread across her entire torso. Only her face remained remotely human. Whiskers had definitely sprouted and her ears were growing to points. Her eyes were still the same though, and she still had a human mouth. That didn't last however, as her nose and lips came closer and pushed out into a cat's snout. Her teeth grew sharp and her jaw elongated making room for the larger set. Her hair turned white and shortened into a cap of fur that spread over her face and neck in amatter of seconds. She began to totter and lose her balance. "Noooooo!!!!!" she mentally screamed as she dropped to all fours as naturally as if she'd beeen born to it. Fur covered the remainder of her body in an instant. Bringing herself up and resting her front paws on the sink, she looked at her still human eyes. They were her eyes, intelligent and full of fear at what had happened. She stared at them, they were her only reminder of a former existence. Then they began to dull over. The change was so gradual, she never noticed it. Within moments, all intelligence had left them, and only the look of an confused animal remained. Only one thing remained to change. Her body shrank to a fraction of its former size.
The cat looked around its surroundings curiously. Exploring the house, she came upon an open window. A dumb creature pranced in a yard outside and yelped at her. Tongue lolling out and tail wagging, it was obvious it wanted to be friends. She hopped down and strolled outside. Ignoring the dog, she smelled another cat nearby. Cautiously, she mewed a greeting. A tousled orange tom jumped on the fence and regarded her expectantly. He answered and signalled for her to follow him. Together they jumped to the other side and found a young man pouring cat food into a dish. "Nosy! You're supposed to be in the house until you're healed! Shame! And now you've found a friend..." He reached over and petted her. "Gosh, she's a beauty. Well, if she wants to stick around, I've got another collar around here somewhere..."
Nosy stretched his paws out and yawned. His new mate had settled in quite nicely, and they had had several litters already. His wounds had healed without any complications, and he had almost forgotten the memory of their pain. Yawning again, he glanced over at the white cat nursing her kittens. "It was worth the pain", he thought, " to get such a lovely mate afterwards." Stretching, he got up and walked over to the fence. He was glad she was with him. It was a good life.