I hadn't realized it before, but the cramped little alleyway in the city looked so much like the hallways back in my school. So similar, in fact, that I swore that's where I was. The humiliation was there, swallowing defeat that would not leave my throat. That was what I was feeling when she had stepped out. When she had helped me.

"Kat..."

My own voice echoed back to me with an emotion that threatened to put me back in the ground. Tears were once again threatening to spill from my eyes. At least, it felt like they were. I knew foxes couldn't cry anywhere but in their dreams.

But Kat did not reflect my emotion. Instead, she turned her head away, slightly to the left. That's when I saw it. One of her eyes, the one she had been trying to hide, was not as green as its counterpart. No, not green at all. A pale, white-blue.

"You need to go," Kat said as she walked past me and in the direction of my fallen Master. "I'll bring her the rest of the way."

Her voice was still raspy—still had the harsh, and slightly deep cadence to it. But it wasn't the Kat from the hallway of leering students all those years ago. This new Kat did not hide her feelings as well or, rather, stopped trying to. I could clearly hear the worry, the pressure, and the anxiety behind each word she spoke. Regardless, I could do nothing but try and follow her.

"Did you not hear me?!" she snapped, her back to me as she knelt over my Master. "You have to leave, Foxy. Right now!"

Her clothes were little more than a plain t-shirt smeared with mud and sweatpants riddled with holes. Her bones pushed against the loose shirt as she bent and cradled my Master in her arms. She was even thinner than before. Had she not been eating?

The evidence became clearer when Kat appeared to struggle a bit with picking my Master up from the ground. Though her thin legs wobbled, she stayed on her feet.

Kat kept her back to me, but she did not yell again. Instead, a deep sigh that sounded like it took years off her life escaped from her. "Maple will be here soon. You don't want to still be around when she does."

The name woke me up from my trance, slightly. Had I not been talking this whole time? The realization did not help find words to say any easier. The more I looked at her, the more I realized that this was reality. Not a dream. Kat was really here, just a few steps away. I could hold her, hug her.

I could have...if I was still human.

It wasn't until Kat took her first step away from me that the words finally came.

"I missed you."

Thinking it in my head did not have the same impact as it would have if I could have said it out loud, but I still felt an invisible weight leave my insides as I said them. A weight I hadn't realized was there until it was gone. Even if Kat could not hear it, even if it changed nothing, I was happy I could finally tell her.

I watched from the alleyway as Kat waited on the sidewalk for cars to pass. Evidentially, they all stopped when the drivers saw what she was carrying in her arms and she did not waste time sprinting the rest of the short distance to the grand doors of the hospital.

It was only after she was but a few steps from the building that I turned around to make my way back.

And it was only after that when I heard the raspy voice inside my head.

"We will find each other again."

A man in rags sitting against a wall let out a shout of surprise when I burst out from the alley he had been drinking beside. Loud horns blared from the cars as I sprinted across the road. My eyes did not leave the limber back of Kat.

No, I don't believe you. Stallion might have given up lying, but I wasn't going to put it past her. I wasn't going to risk it.

After I crossed the road, and for a brief moment of clarity, I wondered how a feral fox like me would follow Kat into a hospital. But strangely—and very, very, thankfully—enough, Kat did not go through the front doors. With my Master still cradled in her arms, she skirted around the building entirely, making her way down an alleyway that formed between the hospital and its adjacent building.

I stayed as low to the ground as I could as I followed, doing my best to avoid any loose stones or trash. Being stealthy was one of the few skills I had left to be proud of, but Kat's sense of hearing was almost as acute as Mary's. I couldn't afford to make one misstep.

I couldn't stand to have to hear her tell me to leave again.

Kat stopped about halfway down the alley. At first, I thought all my careful creeping and crawling had been for not. I was even about to call out to her. Before I sold myself out, Kat turned to the wall of the hospital that made up one side of the alley. With careful balance, she reached out with one foot and tapped three times against the side of the building.

"What is it now?" a rough, impatient voice of a woman with a thick accent asked not seconds later.

I nearly jumped and gave away my position. I looked behind me, although it was clear the voice came from the spot on the wall where Kat had knocked. Either way, there was no one here or there.

"It's Kat," Kat answered. "I've got someone who needs to see you." She shifted the weight in her body as she struggled to keep my Master in her arms.

"Damnit, who? Despite the name, I am not running a charity service here. This had better be important. Or someone important."

Kat glanced down at the girl in her arms. "This might be both. I'm not sure, but I think she's the Lady's daughter."

Almost immediately, bright, gold light followed her last words. I watched in wonder as lines of gold traced themselves out against the bricks. In a matter of moments, a plain, wooden door formed into the wall.

Damning the consequences, I snaked my way down the alley. There was no other way. I couldn't risk not getting through the door in time. This might be my only chance—

I was nearly blown backwards by the force of the door suddenly flying open. I shrunk against the side of the alley as much as my meek body would allow me as a stout woman with grey hair and a wrinkled, white coat came storming out.

"What in God's name have you done, girl?!" she practically hollered. Kat had to flatten her back against the opposite wall as the shorter woman rounded on her. "The Lady's daughter? And you bring her to my doorstep? You wish to bring ruin to this entire facility?!"

"I did not do this," Kat cut in, stressing each word. "I don't know what did. Can you help her?"

"Can I help her?" the woman squawked back.

I had to restrain myself from running over and giving her a piece of my...teeth? Okay, there wasn't much I could do that didn't end up with lots of screams and blood, but I was seriously getting sick of seeing this woman talk to Kat this way.

Alternatively, Kat appeared completely unfazed with this person's crazed assault. "Yes. In her condition, I think only you can, Dr. Garcia."

The mysterious praise seemed to calm down the doctor a bit. Enough to make her step back from Kat and give my Master the first glance since she erupted from behind the door. Her eyes were green, surprisingly enough, but a much darker and duller shade compared to Kat's. Though, they seemed to exude a sort of serious intensity as she took in Rosetta's pale and lifeless body.

"And you say you know nothing of what happened to her?" Dr. Garcia asked, her eyes not leaving the body.

"No," Kat repeated, her own eyes fixated on the top of the doctor's head. "Why? Is there something I should know?"

"Nothing that concerns you." Dr. Garcia turned back towards the door, waving for Kat to follow with her burden. "Come, come, we've dallied here long enough."

Keeping my body against the side of the wall, I tried to follow after them. But Dr. Garcia was already opening the door and preparing to step through it. I wasn't going to make it. Not without her or Kat seeing me.

Shit. Maybe I should just risk—

"Wait," Kat said, not moving from her spot.

Dr. Garcia paused and turned back to face her, one hand still keeping the door open. "What is it, girl? Can this not wait until we are inside?"

I didn't stick around to hear Kat's response. Not squandering this golden opportunity, I moved as quickly as I could down the alley, past the squat doctor, and through the door.

Inside was some sort of storage closet. Shelves on both sides stacked with boxes and an assortment of cleaning supplies. The door across the small room was shut tight.

Great. What the hell was I suppo—

"Climb up the shelf to your right," a voice instructed, cutting into my thought process. "At the top, there's a hole leading into the attic."

I chanced a glance out the door I had come in. Dr. Garcia seemed to be in the middle of a lecture on idleness. "Kat?"

"Wait for me there and don't make a sound. I can't keep this woman distracted forever, Foxy. Go, now."

Oh, right. Of course she could hear what I was thinking. Of course she knew I would follow her. But, if she wasn't telling me to leave, I could live with the embarrassment of a completely failed infiltration plan.

With no small amount of care and dexterity, I climbed my way up the shelf Kat had indicated, using certain gallon bottles, loose boards, and other items that were scattered around almost as though to allow my assent. At the top shelf, I spotted a hole that appeared to have been gnawed through the plaster of the ceiling. It looked just big enough for a creature of my size to fit.

As soon as I slipped my body through, I could hear the sounds of the two women entering the closet, Dr. Garcia's heated words filling up the small space.

"Honestly, your Master must have requested you to be this insubordinate. In all my years in this hellhole, I have never had to deal with a familiar as stubborn as you."

"Have you met with many familiars, Doctor?"

"From the first generation to the last. So, when I say you are the most difficult, you know I do not exaggerate."

Their voices began to fade away as the two moved out of the room. Wanting to follow what they were saying, I maneuvered myself carefully through the tight arches and narrow pathway that took up the space between the floor and the roof of this building.

"You have yet to meet with everyone from my generation," Kat pointed out. I kept my face nearly pressed up against the uncomfortably cotton-like substance that made up the walls, but I still had to strain to hear her.

"If they are anything like you and that dog boy, I hope I never do," came Dr. Garcia's equally as hard to hear response. "Place the Lady's daughter on the bed there and return to your Master. She has been asking for you and I do not desire an audience while I work."

There was silence for a moment, and I prepared to move further down, when Kat spoke up again. "I will not keep her waiting. Thank you for your assistance, Doctor."

"Foxy, if you are still near that hole, keep moving until you get to the attic. Wait for me there."

I listened closely to the sound of Kat's light footsteps. With ears still nearly pressed to the walls, I tried to keep pace with her as I moved down the narrow, little space. When the footsteps stopped, I wasn't even halfway to the open area I could only assume was the 'attic'. I stayed where I was, still as a statue, and hardly breathing.

"If you haven't moved on, this is your last chance. I do not want you to be around for this."

She didn't want me to be around when she talked to Maple? Granted, I wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought of sharing the same building with the pyromaniac, but if Kat thought I was just going to run away from this, then she was wrong.

"I'm not going anywhere," I thought at her.

Not a sound was made, footsteps or otherwise, for a solid few seconds. Then, I could almost swear I heard what sounded like a tiny, muffled sigh.

"Suit yourself."

The sound of a door opening soon followed. "Master? I am here, as requested."

"So, you had your fill of disobeying me?"

Even though the voice was muffled through several layers of pink fluff, a chill seared through my body. Countless memories fought to take over, but I bit my tongue and focused on the pain. If there was never the time for those memories, it certainly wasn't now.

"I did not disobey you, Master," Kat said. "I only—"

"I asked you to observe. Observe! Not interact. Not speak. Not help the daughter of another free-freaking-witch! Are you trying to get us killed? Are you trying to ruin everything?!"

"Master, please, your temper—"

"What did I say?"

I did not have to strain to hear those words. They broke through the layers of walls and struck me as though I was standing right before the speaker. But whoever said those words could not have been a twelve year old girl. I could not even picture what could have spoken. Not something human or animal.

"You asked me to observe—"

"No, not that. What did I say about looking at me? Keep your face down, Elizabeth."

My body shook with each word it spoke. Something within the word's it said told me that I should be angry with it, but I could not summon the desire. If I moved, it felt like the owner of the voice would know of my existence and strike me down.

"Never look anyone in the eye. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Master."

In comparison, Kat's voice was so faint. She sounded on the verge of disappearing.

"Then get out of my sight."

There was nothing then but the sound of Kat's footsteps. I had to almost force my own feet to move after her. The whole time I strained my ears for any disturbance or abnormality. Anything that would tell me if the creature she had spoken with had discovered me.

...

*Author's Note*

So, Foxy has taken a big risk "infiltrating" the hospital that houses both enemies and friends. Though Kat appears to be helping him, is it out of the goodness of her heart, or because someone else wants her to?

Can our fearless fox avoid the stings from this hornet's nest he is kicking? Whatever your thoughts, I'd love to hear them!