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Dusk was well settled into the west window pane when a large, black shadow leapt up to lean against the cooling glass. It shifted and resettled itself, amber eyes gazing with expressionless request. Kate smiled slightly as she approached the window, gingerly stroking her feline companion. "Obsidian, Obsidian," she chanted in a low pitched sigh, "sleep all day, out all night. What am I going to do with you?" The cat merely purred as Kate wrapped her slender fingers around the handle of the window, the animal's thick, black fur brushing against her arm in a hop of anticipation. With a grunt, the young woman thrust the window open well enough for her cat to leap through and land steadily with an inaudible pad on the moist grass. The small, dark shadow bounded off along the cool, paved road as Kate called after her, "and don't go killing any more rats!"
Obsidian crept along the road stealthily, amber eyes scanning every detail laid before her in a precise green tint. Her long, dark fur was faithful to her name as it shimmered with a hypnotic luster from the thin slit of the moon. Those amber orbs glanced behind her with a human-like caution; she padded onto the cracked pavement, lazily surveying the transition from gray to white, and back to gray again. She paused, gazing at the yellow strips before her, ears perked to catch a curved white noise rumbling along in the distance. For a moment, it melded with the scream of the crickets in the crisp spring night, cooling to an insignificant whir to drown out the silence; but it burst back into consciousness as two piercing beams thrust through the darkness, rising over the distant hill and flating back to the pavement. Obsidian stopped and gazed hypnotically at these beams, her mind screaming at her instincts with irritated fury. But she continued to gaze, amber eyes blurring, mesmerized. Like a deer staring into headlights. The old human phrase came back to her, one she had been hearing for countless years. That same pity she had always conjured up for the deer rose for herself now... Anne gasped as her silver Cavalier jumped sharply on the dark, abandoned road. She blinked, slowly pressing her food to the brake until the car bounced to a stop. She tucked a lock of her copper brown hair behind her ear as she glanced down at her wide-eyed six year old daughter, whose lip trembled, her dark brown curls spilling into her heart shaped face. "W-what was that, Mommy?" she asked, a high pitched tear in her voice. Anne forced up a comforting smile to offer her daughter. "It's alright, sweetie," she said calmly, cupping her hand over the child's pink face. Then, looking out of the window, she murmered to herself, "I must've hit something..." The small child stood in her seat, tiny fingers gripping the taut leather as curious sapphire eyes scanned the side of the road, falling on a small, dark shadow. She outstretched a stubby finger, pinpointing the figure. "That kitty, Mommy?" Anne followed her daughter's gaze, spying the feline shape sitting comfortably beside the old pavement. She gazed at it quizzically, but it responded with no more than a passive blink. Its tail flicked beside it, swishing up and down, back and forth. Its amber eyes remained fixed on her with an expressionless gaze. She furrowed her brows curiously. "No, can't be..." Obsidian blinked lazily as she watched the silver vehicle retreat. She rose and turned away as if with a sigh, bounding off into the nearby words. She crept through the trees, her small, black feet padding softly along the last patches of snow that clung stubbornly to the crisp, dead leaves beneath. While losing her sharp consciousness to the heavy evening scent of the forest, a gray blur whizzed past her. She shifted her eyes to rest upon a timid rat cringing in the natural debris, its course, stringy fur matted like wire to its oval-shaped form. She gazed at it for a long while, eyes shimmering at its every move, before finally returning to her quest out of the wildnerness. Emerging from the blanket of the trees, she strode onto a tan path, her round head darting around to drink in every life through her amber orbs. And as they rested on each creature in this moonlit park, her attention shot to one - an old man slumped on a bench, drawing a messily assembled sandwich to his dry lips with trembling hands. With an internal smirk, she approached him with a royal stride, calling sweetly for a ttention. The old man lowered his meal, his warm, gray eyes peering over the slope of bread. He smiled, dark lines tugging athis eyes and mouth, pulling his loose skin taut. He stretched an arm out to beckon his visitor and Obsidian eagerly leapt up onto the bench, running her back under his dirt-caked hand. She purred contentedly as the boney fingers worked on their own, gliding over her voluptuous fur. "You're a sweet thing," the man's voice wavered with age. His words ended with a sharp cough, roaring up from his throat fiercely. He turned his gray eyes to his feline companion to see her ears tucked against her head, eyes wide. He flashed that same warm smile, smoothing her silky fur down again. Obsidian erupted with a purr, blinking intoxicatedly up at him. After a moment he paused, tearing a small corner of his sandwich off. He held it out to the cat, "You hungry, sweetheart?" Obsidian stretched her neck toward the food, inhaling the cold, nearly undetectable scent. She knew she would refuse it, but she had long ago concluded that humans found some satisfaction in knowing from a curious sniff and a repelled sneer. She whipped her head back, disgusted, and the man withdrew his hand with a shrug, popping the corner into his mouth. Obsidian crooned, calling back his attention. As his gray eyes fell into hers of amber, he caught a glimpse of a red glint sparkling with interest withing their depths. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if to filter out his imagination, and reopened them. He still caught the red glint, shining with such an eerie glow that for a moment, he mistook it for menace. And for yet another moment, he would have insisted the cat smiled. The west window rattled sharply, startling Kate as she plucked away tediously at her computer, bathed in the pale, blue glow from the screen. She darted her eyes to the dark window, spying a black form resettling itself upon the sill. Her chair groaned as she rose, striding to the window and thrusting it open just as she had three hours before, moving to the side as Obsidian leapt onto the wooden floor. "Welcome home, my little vampire," she jested, slipping back into the creaking chair, "time to slip into your kitty coffin and sleep all day?" Obsidian gazed up at her, seeming to take little liking to the playful taunt. Kate's smile faded, however, as she glanced at her cat's chin. Gently, she pressed a finger to it, pulling her hand close to her face for examination. It took little scrutiny to identify the sticky crimson substance clinging to her white fingers. She sighed with frustration as her emerald eyes passed reprimandingly to the bed the black cat dedicatedly composed in the corner. "Obsidian," she called sternly, stretching her vowels in a low tone. "What have I told you about killing rats?" The content feline turned her head up with a relaxed purr, her eyes reduced to amber slits. She drank in Kate's words, but didn't give them much thought. She merely curled up in the dark corner, her constant purr mingling with the whir of the computer. |