Story

Note to readers:

This story is written for a contest for www.felisfire.com. All species names are created by Felisfire and are not my own.

Feel free to read and critique! I should be done this story by the end of October when contest judging will commence. I'll also figure out a title for it later. That's always a hard part =P

I haven't written many stories on my own volition (only for school work haha) and surprisingly its pretty fun!



Cats used in my story:

http://www.felisfire.com/feli?i=128292

http://www.felisfire.com/feli?i=122535

~~~~

The cryo tanks gleamed in the steel-coated corridor, and the neon green glow cast shadows on the professor’s face as he guided me along. His eyes were covered with matte black sunglasses, contrasting with his snow white hair and stubble. My sixth sense activated, and I felt as if my every move was traced; pinpricks of needles stabbed at my legs. My eyes roamed over to the nearest cryo tank to my right. I knew what this corridor contained, but I was not prepared to face it.



I gasped and pulled away to the opposite site, pressing my back to cold glass. The tank contained a feline with a familiar shape, but his tail seemed to come out of his face instead, making him look like an elephant. My eyes roamed down the row, and saw similar atrocities; Chetaes with missing eyes, Aquus with extra legs coming out of their bodies, and even one cute Zerda that shared a chest with another Zerda, making them conjoined for life. I swivelled my head and looked behind me at a gorgeous horned Iuridon who had no wings, and whos stinger was embedded into its hide. My eyes welled up, and the professor seemed to sense it, even without looking in my direction.

“We had to freeze them so we could study them. Their mutations don’t permit them to live very long…” said the professor.

“Are you sure you want to see Set? You're still very young...” he mumbled.

“…Yes. I need to see with my very own eyes the one that killed all those scientists. I know it’s dangerous,” I blurted, when I saw the old man about to open his mouth, “but I’ll be careful! It should be safe to see it right now, right? ”

“…Yes. Alright then. Come this way.” He said, and he strolled away into the dark.

I followed tentatively, keeping my eyes focused ahead. I noticed that the professor seemed to walk in a stumbling gait, and his left hand was out, nails scratching the glass as he walked forward.

“Maybe you should take your shades off?” I asked, but he was silent.

We strolled to the very end of the corridor. The professor kept walking with right hand stretched out like a zombie, and once it hit the wall with a “thump”, he turned right. We arrived at a big open space, much wider than the corridor, and I let out a sigh of relief as we left the gazes of the frozen mutants.

In the center of the room was a huge steel box, big enough to contain several feli. On both sides of the box, I could faintly see hundreds of clear IVs feeding into the box through many holes.

“Is he a giant mutant or something?” I joked, trying to remove the tension from the air.

As a response, the professor pointed to a square hatch carved upon the closest wall of the steel box.  I tentatively reached for it, but before I could open it, the professor grabbed my hair tentatively.

“There’s something you should know first. What is inside may look normal, but in fact, this feli is the only one that can inflict grave injuries. T There should be some IVs sticking out from it... are they still there?"

I nodded, curious as to why he was asking me that when he could have verified their existence himself.

“You know what they are for?”

I shook my head slowly.

“Those are drugs that prevent the feli from moving,” He said in a hushed whisper.

“But, isn’t he frozen right now?” I gasped.

“Yes, that is what we thought, before… you know what happened.” He said gravely. “We know it is safe when his eyes are closed, but when they are open and they see your face, you are done for.”

“But he shouldn’t be able to move! What if it’s an optical illusion or something?!” I exclaimed, shuddering .

“I would like to think that as well, but how can one explain all those innocent people that died? We found 5 bodies, all of them slashed to death. The glass was broken, and almost all the fluid leaked out. The devil that done it was lying in the shards of glass. You know that his name, Set, means devil. One scientist managed to stab it with a tranquilizer, and he was put to hospital with grave injuries.”

“But… what has that got to do whether its eyes are closed or not?” I asked.

“Well…”, he hesitated.

I waited patiently, feeling that this was something that could not be explained. He was still wearing the shades so I could not see his eyes, but I could see his hands start to shake and his feet starting rocking back and forth like a pendulum. He was staring at a spot above my head. I looked up, and then I heard a sound. I looked down to see the professor still staring at the spot above my forehead, shades in hand.

I waited for my eyes to adjust, since his eyes appeared white against his skin. But after a while, I realized that his eyes were completely white, and the irises were missing.

“Oh… my god. Your eyes! What happened?!?!” I exclaimed, backing away from the professor.

“ One day I was on the other side of that steel box… and I looked into his face. Its eyes were open, and they were staring at me…” mumbled the professor. I looked down at the floor, scared that his gaze would pass the blindness on to my own eyes.

“So… are you saying that you became blind just because of its stare? Is he like a medusa?” I said.

To my surprise, the professor chuckled.

“No… I ran out of there quickly, and my vision was alright. But when I opened my eyes the next morning, my vision was gone” said the professor. I was silent at his words, and slowly turned to look at the steel box, trying to imagine the horror within.

A couple seconds passed, and I found myself standing in front of the window. It seemed to grow larger and larger in my vision, and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears like a drum. The professor pressed a pair of shades into my hands. “ Just in case…” he mumbled. I understood.

As I slipped them on, I hooked my finger into the latch. Click. The door swung open.

~~~~

I was expecting to see a huge beast hulking in the shadows, but instead was met with a surprise.  I froze, not moving an inch.

At first I thought I saw a man, but the pitch black fur and long lanky body said otherwise. It was a Xano.

But he was the most beautiful and graceful Xano that I have ever seen. His back was lined with furry spike-like markings, and his face was lined with noble lines, crimson in color. Around his neck, the necklace of the Egyptian gods showed his noble strength, which was now silently supressed. The feathers upon his back were pink and red, and his tail was striped like a cheshire cat. If he was moving, I'm sure I would have seen muscles rippling and mane flowing, but he was as still as a ragdoll. As I stood there, I felt a soft blush come to my cheeks. What am I doing? This is supposed to be the man killer, the most frightening cat of all the ones imprisoned here, combined.

But as I studied him some more, I felt that this cat could not inflict danger. Sure, the markings reminded me of crime and despair, but his beauty and grace overrode those opinions. I looked at his face, into his eyes, which seemed to be gently pleading. His pupils were almost the same shade as his irises, and I was surprised that the eyes were not red, but in fact a deep magenta color....

Wait a moment...

His eyes?

I froze. All my blood seemed to rush to my heart, and my legs gave way. I thudded to the floor, my mouth gaping in a silent scream. Set, the Egyptian devil, was looking at me now, and I could not look away. Was he always looking at me, since I opened that hatch? My ears rang as if jumbo jets were flying right over my head, pulling my hair as they flew by, and I cowered away, still looking into his eyes...

A feeble hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled, but I had no recollection of what happened next.

~~~~

...

It's dark.

Is my sight still there?

The professor's white eyes floated in front of my face, snarling, and his eyes transformed to magenta orbs, sucking me in.

I reached my hands out, and touched a fuzzy muzzle, steamlined and poised for the kill...

AAAAAAH!

Silence.

"Owwww, why did you do that for?" purred a voice above my left ear.

I looked to my left, but before I could revel at the fact that my vision was as good as ever, a fluffy muzzle bonked me hard.

"Hey, watch it!" I growled, staring into the face of my intruder.

Glowing, crimson eyes stared back at me. I gasped and pushed that demonic face away again, but before I could get far, I fell over what seemed to be a huge fluffy ball.

"What's wrong, Rina?" said the fluff ball, which I recognized to be one of the Zerdas that I took care of. "Are you scared of Krim now? He's only playing..."

I glanced over at Krim, and instantly felt guilty from screaming at him. He was a glorious Xano, but his grayish fur hid many secrets. He was conceived in the ship, just like every cat was. However, when he opened his eyes, his own mother screamed and sprinted away, IVs still sticking in her fur. Bright unseeing crimson eyes looked up at me, and I fell in love at first sight. It wasn't his fault that he was an albino... even though its rare, it still happens. I was the only one who accepted him for whom he was, and probably was the only one who knew about his charm, his humor, and his intellect. His aloofness annoyed me at times,but I loved him the most out of all the feli I knew. All the feli that I was friends with also accepted Krim into the large family, and even painted his fur grey to hide his condition. But later on it grew into a game, and Krim became the play toy of the felines. At first he was not amused, and even lashed out at them, but the baby Zerdas did not back down, and ended up covering the grey fur with crimson rings and splotches of maroon. Krim eventually gave up resisting, and even started to appreciate his new makeover. No matter how scary he looked, with bloody markings and ruby eyes, his aloofness always put me at ease.

~~

Couple days later



I was hunched on top of the ladder. A sharp pain suddenly jarred my spine, and my eyes felt like popping out of my inflated head. I dropped the paint brush from my mouth and sighed. I knew that painting the ceiling would be impossible when I only had a couple days. I looked up at the fluffy clouds and the stoic palm trees standing like guardians upon the walls. The floor was the same color as lemon sand, and the lowest half of the wall was a deep sapphire blue with little glints of white. Only the sky was yet to be finished... Since I had no wings, I usually had the help of the Chetaes and Zerdas to bring me the paints and help with covering the ceiling with shades of blue, but they were out in the playhouse right now. All the feli spent quite a bit of time out of the room, and as they grew older, they spent even more time outside. I would often get lonely without them.



NOT DONE YET, TO BE CONTINUED =)