Chapter Thirty-Nine | Broken






A fox, a cat, a witch who could control fire, a witch who could only make it rain, and a girl who could not die approached a grand mansion on the outskirts of Son's city. It's brick walls that surrounded the vast, green fields were at least eight feet high and overgrown with vines.

The wrought-iron gate, that was the only visible way inside, revealed to the group that dogs of all shapes and sizes were playing in the rain. Some running through mud puddles, some barking, others play fighting, still more actual fighting. A few dotted the field with their bodies. They were the unlucky ones.

            "That's a lot of dogs," August mumbled. Maybe he had tried to say it quietly, but his voice still clearly rang out in the storm, making Maple laugh.

            "Guess we're in the right place, huh?" she asked, grin still stretched across her face. Her and Kat were damp now, like the rest of us, the witch forgoing her fire in favor of a more stealth-like approach. "Looks like I don't get to torture you after all, fox."

            I nodded and both ignored the glare in my direction and the genuine disappointment in her voice. Instead, I focused on the grip I had on the handles of my Master's wheelchair.

            "Her dogs are unorganized," Rosetta observed before turning in her seat to give me a look. "You said Shepherd attacked my mom and Hornroot. Do you know what happened to him?"

            "Y-Your mom touched him and he k-kind of...turned human?" August said, answering for me. He flinched when my Master's eyes switched to him. "Your owl butler threw him into a wall and, um, I didn't see what happened after that."

            "That's all I saw, too," I said when Rosetta went back to me.

            "So, her familiar is dead?" Maple shouted over the rain. "This next part should be easy, then."

            The young girl threw out her arm in the direction of the gate. In response, flames sprung out from the base of her feet, spilling out into the rain and colliding with the iron bars. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to take a step back when the literal ball of fire burst through the defenses, blowing apart the gate and sending sparks and flames shooting up and down the brick walls and into the grassy field.

            Kat, in her brown and blonde cat body, raced through the gate as the flames of the fire parted to allow her passage. High pitched whines from several dogs could be heard through the rolling thunder.

            "If you two are going to help, do it now," Maple shot at my Master and I, keeping her arm raised as she pushed her flames further into Madame Terrebonne's territory. "At this rate, Kat and I will be taking this all down on our own."

            "This is crazy. This is crazy, right?" August's voice asked.

            I only spared the weather witch a short, sympathetic glance before looking back down at Rosetta. "Master..."

            "Stop calling me that." The girl bound in the wheelchair did not look away from the fire's consuming of the damp field of green. "I'm not your Master and you aren't my familiar. I didn't want you and you didn't want me, so let's stop pretending. I'm only helping you to save my mother and Hornroot. I don't care what you do as long as they are safe, do you understand?"

            "Ye—"

            "So, if whatever you are doing is going to put them in danger, we are going to have a problem, understand?"

            I let out a calming breath and relaxed the grip I had on the handlebars, not realizing how pent up I was until that moment. Despite our differences, and our feelings for one another, Rosetta was just trying to look out for the people she cared about. Just like I was.

            "I understand," I said.

            Rosetta nodded. "Then don't get yourself killed in there. Change."

...

            Kat was waiting for me at the front doors of Terrebonne's mansion. In her mouth was a large, leather collar that I did not recognize.

            "What's that for?" I asked as I approached the grand stone stairs leading up to the doors.

            "What are you doing here, Foxy?" Kat asked me instead.

            Her eyes bore into mine. Both the blue and the green.

            "Saving Mutt," I answered without hesitating. "And saving you, too."

            "Are you?" The cat took a few steps away from the door and planted herself at the top step, eyes never leaving me. "Cause it looks like you're in over your head."

            Would you hate me if I said I do not believe you? Ash had said. Her dull eyes looking down on me. Pitying me.

            "Are you going to abandon me too?" I shot before I could stop myself. "If you're going to betray me somewhere down the line, just do it now and get it over with."

            Kat blinked once, her tail twitched, and a deep pang rung out in my chest.

            "Kat, I—"

            "I'm with you, Foxy. Forever. But I get it. The Kat under a witch's influence isn't the Kat you know. I trust you, but you can't trust me, not completely. If it ever comes to it—"

            "Don't." I shook my head, forcing our eyes to break contact.

            "Would you let me kill you, then?" Kat pressed. "Would you try and kill Maple?"

            Killing Maple would be the best thing. She was crazed, dangerous. But I had my chance before, and couldn't. Could I be pushed to do it? If it was between me, Kat, and her, could I do it?

            "Please, choose me."

            I opened my eyes and looked upon the face of a cat that was half melted away. The green eye locked with mine, unflinching. "You and Maple are victims of circumstance, neither of you chose to be a part of this life. I did. When Georgie asked me, I said yes."

            "You're asking me to kill you, if it comes down to it?" I asked, heat in my thought-out words. "No. Never."

            Kat closed her eyes again before turning away from me. She walked over to the giant, wooden doors and held up the leather collar still in her mouth to a small panel built within the door. There was a small click before the hidden dog door opened.

            "I know it's hard to think about. But really think about it. Maple is broken and scared, she was changed by events she could not control. Like you were." The cat glanced back at me with it's one good eye. "If you choose to kill her, consider whatever it is we have to be done, because the Foxy I have grown to care about would be dead, too."

            Kat didn't give me time to answer, slipping through the dog door and leaving me to have to scurry after her before it shut closed again. Not that I had an answer ready. Not that I ever would.

...

            The inside was all polished, marble floors, beautiful paintings, and weird sculptures of naked people. It would have been a lot to take in, if not for how quickly Kat and I were slipping through it, and how clouded my thoughts were.

            Kat was no better than Mary. Both so quick to throw away their lives, both so willing to let me kill them, as if it didn't matter. As if they didn't matter. Why did they think I was risking my own life so much? Because I wanted to? Because I enjoyed it?

            No, I was doing it for them. Kat, Mary, Mutt, Stallion. All of this was for them. And what do I get for my efforts? Mary trying to stop me. Stallion telling me it all 'isn't so bad'. And now Kat telling me to choose some witch's life over hers. I mean, what the hell? Did they think things would be okay if they died? That I would be okay?

            "You hear that?" Kat's voice asked, cutting into my thoughts.

            I was about to embarrass myself and ask what, but then I heard it. Music. I couldn't tell what was playing it, but it was both high and low. Happy and sad. It echoed up and down the expansive hallway we had been sneaking down.

            "Think that could be Terrebonne?" I asked. "She must know what Maple is doing by now."

            "It could be anyone," Kat said, the hairs at the nape of her neck still raised. "Let's keep going."

            Following the music soon led us to a large, perfectly domed room. More naked sculptures and paintings lined the walls, but the interior was completely bare save for a big, black instrument that was producing the music we heard and the short boy that was seated on a stool, playing it.

            "Mutt!" I exclaimed, making to enter the room. I was stopped by Kat biting my tail.

            "This room screams 'trap', Foxy," she quickly explained when I turned to face her. "We should not go in there."

            "What if it isn't a trap? What if he's trying to bring us here without alerting his Master? What if he needs us?"

            "I'm sorry, but I don't think that is the case." Kat let go of my tail to turn her head away. "You've been there with him. You've seen what losing his leg has done to him. He's strived to be the 'perfect familiar', and I think he has succeeded."

            "He's our friend, Kat. He's saved our lives more than once, and now he needs us to save his."

            Kat's eyes returned to entrap me, once again. "The Mutt that's in there doesn't need saving, Foxy. He's probably forgotten all about yo—"

            "What do you know?!" I snapped, letting loose a growl that made Kat flinch. "I lost my memories, I turned against you guys, but after everything you all did to me, I'm still here. I'm still trying to save you! So why don't you all just shut-up and let me help you!"

            Before Kat could say anything, before she could betray me and try and stop me, I turned away from her and raced into the room. All the while, I screamed Mutt's name in my head. He didn't say anything back or even stop playing the music.

            He probably couldn't hear me like this. Knowing him, Terrebonne was probably unable to ever form the right connection. He probably never even learned to talk this way.

            "Rosetta!" I screamed the thought as loud as I could. "If you can hear me, change me back! If you want me to save your family, ch—"

            "Change."

            I tripped over my front paws when they stopped being paws. My much flatter face hit the floor and I let out a gasp of pain as my human teeth bit down on my human tongue.

            When I looked up, Mutt was still sitting on the stool playing the music on the black, table-looking, instrument. He didn't turn to see my painful spill. He didn't say a word.

            "Mutt, please," I said, my voice a cracked mess. Tears poured from my eyes. I couldn't tell if they were from the pain, or something else. "I'm here to get you out. Please, just come with me and we can go get Stallion and Mary. We can leave...We can..."

            "Foxy."

            The music stopped abruptly. The boy that stopped it lowered his head and then looked back at me, allowing me to see the wet, brown eyes and the streaks of pain streaming down from them.

            "Why did you have to be here?"

            The stool flew to one side as the boy burst into a dead sprint. He was coming right for me. I could see him coming. But I was frozen in place by the way the tear-stained eyes darkened, the mouth turning into a solid line, and the reckless abandon the familiar with one leg possessed in his attempt to take me down.

            I was thrown back by someone from behind. I had enough time to see Kat, back in her human form, collide with Mutt before my back hit the wall and the wind was knocked out of me.

            "Mu...Ka..." I wheezed, already trying to stand back up. I was halfway off the ground when Mutt sent a strong knee into Kat's stomach, knocking her off balance, before tossing her easily to one side.

            I was back on two feet when Mutt was upon me. He shoulder checked me back against the wall, hitting me in the chest and making me lose the air I had just gotten back. The familiar didn't even allow me to slink back to the floor before gripping me around the throat, pinning me against the wall.

            I tried to say his name, but all that came out was gurgled noises. Like the sounds Dr. Garcia made when Maple was killing her. Mutt was gripping so tight I could not see beyond the blurred tears and darkness. In a few seconds, he was going to crush my thr—

            Mutt let out a horrid scream and I was released. Air rushed back into my lungs and I chocked on the flood gates being raised. I hardly registered my backside hitting the ground or seeing Kat jamming the shard of glass deep into Mutt's side.

            Still in mid scream, Mutt threw his hand back, catching Kat on the side of her face and sending her sliding along the floor.

            "Stop it!" I shouted, before ducking and tackling Mutt into the ground. As he shouted in renewed pain, I gripped his wrists and attempted to pin them. "Get ahold of yourself, Mutt! It's us, your friends!"

            Mutt snarled and screamed and fought against my grip on him in response.

            "That won't work, Foxy!" Kat shouted, struggling to stand. "He's with his Master, not us!"

            "What would you have me do, Kat?!" I shouted back. "What—?!"

            Mutt rolled to one side, catching me off guard. I slipped up while still on his body and my head lowered just enough for him to throw his own head into it. A white hot flash filled my vision and I was immediately thrown off by a burst of his strength. I was back on the ground, but Mutt didn't seize the advantage. When my vision cleared, I saw why.

            Kat was on his back, shard of glass still in her hand. She was attempting to stab it back into Mutt's body, but he had a grip on her arm and was keeping it from landing home. I had a sudden image of the lake in the woods. Of Kat trying to do the same thing to a lost student. But it was wrong, all wrong.

            "It's Foxy, and Kat!" I screamed, slowly raising to my feet as my friends fought. "Alex and Elizabeth! You're Mutt—Ezekiel!"

            "That isn't going to work!" Kat shouted back as Mutt spun around and tried to shake her off. "It's either us or him, Foxy! Choose!"

            No. No no no it wasn't like this. It wasn't going to end like this. I wasn't going to fail again. I couldn't fail again!

            I looked around the room for something. Anything. There had to be an answer in here. But all there was were the instrument, sculptures, paintings, and windows.

            Windows.

            A witch only had a limited range to communicate with their familiars. Maybe the same went with their influence. Maybe, if I could take Mutt far enough away, his Master would lose her grip on him.

            It was risky. It had holes. But it was all I had.

            I broke into a sprint without a sound. As Mutt appeared to get the upper hand on Kat, almost throwing her off, I tackled him in the stomach again. But this time I kept the momentum, I held him and carried him backwards. I had to angle it a bit, and nearly missed, but I managed to lead Mutt into the window. Kat barely had time to leap off of him before the both of us crashed through it, sending us tumbling out into the torrential storm.  

            We landed on Mutt's back, but it wasn't a long drop and he recovered enough to send a few sharp elbows into my back, forcing me to let go. He threw a hard punch into my face as I did, knocking me backwards, but I threw out a kick in response, catching him in the groin as he attempted to capitalize on my vulnerable position.

            "Sorry," I said as Mutt groaned and clutched his sensitive area, "but you need to chill the fuck out."

            "Why'd...you...come?" Mutt breathed. I almost didn't hear him over the rain and nearly had a heart attack.

            "Didn't you hear me back there?" I asked, having to shout. "We're here to save—"

            I was shoved to the side as Kat appeared from behind me. Glass shard still in her bleeding hand, she wen't to stab it into Mutt's exposed back. I only barely had enough time to come up behind her and grab her arm before she did.

            "Stop!" I cried, trying a calming hand on her shoulder. "Mutt just asked me why we were here."

            Kat didn't say anything and instead threw an elbow into my stomach, the force of which made me release her. She didn't waste anytime making room to kick me in my still wounded gut, sending me into the grass and mud.

            "You're being delusional," she said, bringing her shard back up into the air, "and you're going to get us both killed."

            I didn't have the air or time to stop her, but Mutt had gathered himself enough to roll out of the way as she came down. He was on his feet and launched himself into her before she could recover. The shard was tossed aside as Mutt smacked at her flailing arms and face. She got a grip on his throat just as he grabbed her disheveled hair in his hand. There was then a struggling match as Kat attempted to choke the life out of Mutt while he attempted to sink his teeth into her exposed neck.

            The memories came back. Dozens of them. I felt the bile rise up in my throat coupled with a terrible shudder that wen't up and down my body.

            This wasn't how it was supposed to be. None of it.

            "Knock it off," I said with a deep growl. "Both of you!"

            They didn't. Of course. None of them listened to me. None of them trusted me. Even after everything I did for them. Everything I was still doing. They hurt me, tortured me, starved me to near death. They brought me into this life and all I was trying to do was help them out of it.

            It wasn't fair.

            "Did you hear me?" I whispered, not loud enough for them to hear me over the storm. But loud enough for me to hear.

            Kat was still strangling Mutt. His eyes were rolling back into his head, drool rolling down his mouth.

            Mutt was still trying to rip out Kat's throat. His teeth were inching towards her. Her skinny arms were shaking with effort.

            It wasn't fair.

            "I said..." I stood up, walked over to them, and punched Mutt with all the strength I could muster across his face, "...knock it off!"

            Mutt flew off Kat and into the mud. Kat tried to stand, but I planted my foot hard into her stomach. "Don't get up."

            When Kat looked at me, I hoped she could see just how much I meant it.

            I rounded on Mutt who was in the middle of getting back up. As he raised his head, I made sure I was there and punched him squarely in the face. There was a loud crunch and pain raced from my fist and up my arm. But I knew it was Mutt's nose, and not my fist, that was broken. The familiar recovered fast, not even stepping back, and made a move to drag me to the ground. I raised up my knee in response, catching him under the chin, and meeting his raised head with another firm punch into the side of his skull. That time, he went down.

            I didn't give him the time to get back up. As soon as he hit the ground, I was upon him. He didn't even try to fight me off as I hit him again and again. The cheek, the temple, the eyes, the re-broken nose, the mouth. He left it all exposed.

            It just wasn't fair.

            I didn't even realize I had been screaming when the sound of wet footsteps reached my ears, making me stop. It was Kat. It had to be Kat. None of them ever listened.

            "What did I say?" I said, turning to face her.

            It wasn't Kat.

            "Sorry to ruin your fun," Maple said, looking at me without a smile, "but your part in this plan is over."

            I hadn't even noticed the glow of the fire, or felt the heat of the flames that danced around me, almost laughing at the rain as it tried to defuse them. Kat was where I had left her, sprawled out against the mud, looking at me with one dead eye and one eye filled with tears.

            "This has been a long time coming, fox," Maple said, bringing my attention back to her. "I've played nice for years. Bowing down to their will. But now that ends, tonight."

            Maple raised her hand in my direction. As our eyes met, a single, cruel smile stretched across her face. "Fitting that it all starts with you."

            "You're going to kill me?" I asked. Maybe it was something in my eyes, maybe in the way I said those words, but Maple said nothing right away. She even allowed me to stand up and face her. "You can't."

            "Oh? Can't I?" Maple laughed and twirled her hand. The fire, under her command, swirled from around us and encircled me and Mutt. "I beg to differ."

            "Maybe you can," I said, feeling the renewed burst of heat on my skin. "But you won't."

            "And what makes you so sure, fox?!" Maple demanded. "Does being a psychopath give you some form of clairvoyance or some shit?"

            I thought about remarking on the irony of her words, but instead said, "Because you're a coward."

Maple lowered her arm and lost her smile. "What?"

"Those years we chased you and back at the cabin. You could have killed me like you killed your mother, but you didn't. Instead, you ran. You ran because you can't face what you did or what you've become. You're still running because that's all you know how to do. That's all cowards know how to do."

"So, you do still remember?"

Cold. The fire shrank away and in its place was the freezing cold and the never ending rain. Maple stood just a few feet away from me, her oversized shirt clinging to her frail body, her dark eyes seeing me in a way they had never seen me since...

"Yes, I still remember," I said, clearing the sudden lump in my throat. "I remember everything."

"Then why are you here?" the little girl asked me, her eyes shining as tears began to mix with the rain. "What have you become?"

"I'm still Alex!" I shouted, taking a step towards her. "I'm still trying to save people. My friends, you and your siblings, I—"

Maple took a step away from me. "Like you saved him?" she asked, her eyes moving to something on the ground, beside my feet.

I looked and saw a face bloodied and bruised so badly I didn't even recognize who it was. Not right away. I reached out to touch him, to see if he was still breathing, and saw my hands. The blood. The swollen knuckles. The sudden pain.

"You aren't Alex," Maple said as I brought my hands against the sides of Mutt's broken face. "Not since my grandpa's cabin. Not since Meadow. You're something else. A monster."

"This isn't my fault!" I shouted as the rain blurred my vision. "I didn't have a choice! He made me do this! You made me do it! Every fucking person in this fucked up world did this to me!"

            My eyes cleared enough to see that Kat had moved from her spot and joined Maple in watching me suffer. I cradled Mutt in my arms as chocking sobs wracked my whole body. He wasn't moving. Maybe not even breathing. I didn't mean to do it. He made me do it. He didn't give me a choice. I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen. I didn't have a choice. I'm sorry. It's their fault. They made me do it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.

            "You're right," Maple said, her voice clear and no longer the voice of the young girl I once knew, "I can't kill you. But Kat can."

            "She remembers too!" I cried as Kat took a step towards me. "Everything! She cares about me, and you too! The only reason she is doing this is to try and save you!"

            "You sad, pitiful thing." Maple wouldn't even look at me, her dark eyes boring into the back of Kat's head. "Have you become so mad that you've built these lies around yourself? Kat, tell him you love him."

            Kat looked at me with a small smile that made my whole body ache. "I love you."

            "Tell him you hate him."

            The smile was replaced by a scowl and a look returned to her one good eye. The look that she could hurt me without a second thought. "I hate you."

            "Whatever happened to you, whatever broke you, didn't do the same to her," Maple said, looking at nothing now. "Kat is the perfect little doll. She'll do whatever I say. Feel whatever I want her to feel. Anything you might have seen was just a fabrication of mine. She isn't the person we once knew, she's just a thing to be used."

            "Shut-up!" I spat, keeping my arms around Mutt as I glared hot daggers into the side of her head. "Go on, tell her, Kat. Tell her the truth!"

            "Go ahead, Kat." Maple shot me a glare one-hundred times hotter. "Tell us."

            "I don't know what to feel."

            The fire in my veins froze in place. I could only get out strangled nonsense as I looked from Maple's unhappy smirk to Kat's blank face.

            "...Kat?"

            "It's all too much," she said, her eyes falling to the muddy ground. "All of it. Love, Hate. Joy, Fear. I don't know what to feel to anyone. I don't know who anyone is. It's all just too much."

            "Satisfied?" Maple asked me when Kat fell silent. I could only stare at her, at the both of them.

            No, not again. I wasn't being tricked again. I talked with her. She admitted her feelings to me. That couldn't be fake. I couldn't be making that up...could I? No no no no no.

            "I'll give you one chance," the girl who could control fire went on, bringing my attention back to her. Only I couldn't see her any longer. Kat was standing in my way, the shard of glass back in her hand. "Take your 'friend' and run away. Far away. If I ever see you again, I will have Kat kill you. And she will. She won't think twice about it."

            Kat looked down at me with eyes that matched her Master's words. The shard of glass dug deep into her still bleeding hand, poised to strike me should I make one wrong move.

            "Kat," I said, my words catching in my throat and another sob escaping, "this can't be real."

            "Do what you have to do," Kat said back.

            I couldn't kill her. Not Kat. Even if I was fast enough, I couldn't kill Maple, either. Somewhere there was still that girl who watched over her father and siblings.

            And I wasn't ready to die, either.

            So, I did the only thing I had left to do. My only option I had left.

I ran.

...

*Author's Note*

And there we have it. The end of the second arc. As goes the pattern of these books, there is only one arc left! The way things are going now, does Foxy have any hope of reuniting with his friends again?

At this point, he may be lucky just to make it out of this situation alive.

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