My Pet Cat Turned Into A Boy!

The next day I was surprised when they let me out of my cell. I was told I was allowed to wonder around the place as long as I didn’t try anything stupid. I guess they didn’t really see me as much of a threat – which was a good thing.
I was wandering around a greenhouse that I found while exploring, when a hand reached out from inside a bush and pulled me inside. My scream was quickly muffled by a hand over my mouth.
‘Calm down! It’s only me,’ whispered Sehun with a frown.
I clutched my chest and sighed, ‘Thank god!’
‘Jongin and Minseok… you know them?’ he asked with a bright gleam in his eyes.
‘Yes, I’m friends with them. But there’s others - they’re going to help them get us out,’ I said with absolute confidence.
‘As great as that sounds, I don’t see how they’re going to manage to get us and Luhan out.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, fearfully.
‘Yifan had Luhan locked up in the tower after the escape attempt. He only brings him out when he wants to make use of his powers,’ said Sehun with barely contained rage.
‘Can’t we just break into it and-‘
Sehun was already shaking his head. ‘The tower is impenetrable. You can’t get in without Yifan at your side. There are,’ he hesitated, ‘…things guarding the towers iron doors. They answer only to Yifan himself.’
‘What… things?’ I asked, even though I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know the answer.
A dark look passed over Sehun’s face and he whispered so low, I almost didn’t hear him, ‘Abominations.’
‘What does that mean? If you could be a tad less cryptic it would be considerably more helpful,’ I snapped.
‘Doesn’t matter. I have an idea but I’d need your help,’ he whispered urgently.
‘It sure didn’t sound like it didn’t matter,’ I retorted caustically.
‘Well, if my plan works, it might not have to matter. There might be another way into the tower.’
‘That’s great! What’s the problem then?’
‘The problem is that it’s through an air vent. A very small air vent. Only a small person could fit through there. We used to be able to do it when we were kids but as we got older, none of us could fit through any longer. But I think you might be able to get through,’ he explained with a serious look on his face.
‘You think!? Considering where we are, I’m going to need something a little better than “you think”.’
‘I’m pretty sure you’d fit.’
I narrowed my eyes at him.
‘Well, do you have a better plan?’ he asked, crossing his arms over his chest, ‘Because if you do, I’m all ears.’
I opened my mouth then shut it again.
‘So you’ll do it?’
‘Of course I’ll do it,’ I huffed. ‘But if I end up losing any thumbs over this, I swear!’
He gave me a confused look.
‘So, when do you want me to do this?’ I asked.
‘Tomorrow would be best. I know Yifan’s going to be away on business so we could give it a try,’ said Sehun with a stony look (I was slowly coming to realise he had a serious case of resting bitch face, and that it really wasn’t personal).
‘Right. Okay. Where should we meet?’
‘Don’t worry about that. I’ll find you,’ he said, grimly.

That evening I was taken to the dining room to have dinner with Yifan again. I was shocked to find that he wasn’t alone, my shock quickly turned to horror then anger as I realised who was sitting directly to his right.
My first instinct was to punch him in the face but I was too scared of Yifan to try anything – the memory of our first encounter was still too fresh in my mind. Instead, I gritted my teeth and sat down stiffly across from Tao, my fists tightly clenched at my sides. Tao was avoiding all eye contact, his eyes firmly fastened on the table.
‘There she is, the lovely Cassandra,’ drawled Yifan.
I clenched my jaw but refrained from retorting that seeing as how he’d kidnapped me I didn’t have much of a choice but to be here.
‘Aren’t you two going to greet each other?’ asked Yifan with an amused look on his face.
Tao glanced at me then quickly looked away and it was like a fuse went off inside me, my mouth was talking before my brain could process what I was saying, ‘I’m not in the habit of greeting trash.’
Tao flinched.
‘Careful, my lovely, that’s my brother you’re insulting,’ warned Yifan, softly.
‘Yes, I can see the resemblance now,’ I retorted, scathingly.
Finally, Tao lifted his eyes to stare at me pleadingly. ‘Cassie, please, try to understand, my brother won’t hurt you or the boys. He’ll take care of all of us. We’ll all be a family again.’
I stared at him in complete disbelief. How could one person be so completely deluded?
‘Really?! I guess him threatening to chop my fingers off was just a product of my overactive imagination then,’ I said, sarcastically.
Tao cast Yifan an accusing look.
‘I didn’t mean it. She was being difficult and it was the quickest way to get her to cooperate,’ said Yifan, smoothly.
Tao relaxed.
‘And you believe him?’ I asked him, incredulously.
‘He’s my brother,’ he said, simply.
‘They were your brothers too,’ I said, my voice shaking slightly.
Tao’s jaw clenched, ‘There’s a lot of things you don’t understand and I’m not asking for forgiveness. I did what I had to do.’
We didn’t talk much after that and I was taken straight back to my cell after dinner.

The next morning, I was in a state of nerves as I waited for Sehun to come find me. This plan could go wrong in so many ways, and with the luck I’d been having I was expecting it to go wrong.
I casually wandered into the greenhouse and looked around furtively for Sehun. Nothing.
I didn’t know if I felt relieved or… no, actually I just felt relieved.
I sat on a bench and must have dozed off because, next thing I know, my shoulder is being shaken and someone is calling my name.
I sit up straight and look around wildly, ‘Wha-what!?’
‘Calm down! It’s me,’ Sehun whispers.
‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ I muttered.
Sehun gives me a mildly offended look.
‘I’m just kidding,’ I said, and then with even less conviction, ‘C’mon let’s do this!’

‘Are you kidding me!? How am I going to see in there?’ I exclaimed, horrified.
Sehun pulled a flashlight from his pocket, ‘Here, take this.’
‘But..but…but…’ I stuttered.
Sehun gave me an impatient look, ‘What?’
I swallowed back my question about spiders and rats, and looked down at the grate that Sehun had pulled from the wall. He had taken me down some creepy stairs into some sort of boiler room. There were no windows in here, and the only light shining in the room was a red emergency light. It gave the room a sinister glow. I looked back up at the hole in the wall, it was barely big enough to fit me in there. I could already feel my throat closing up and my heart stutter at the thought of crawling through such a small place.
Get a grip, Casey!
This was more important than my fear. I had to make sure that I could make it all the way to Luhan. Then I had to give him a message to be ready for an escape attempt.
‘I think Luhan can still fit inside the vent – he’s pretty skinny. You have to convince him to try - so when the day comes, we know he can get out through there,’ Sehun told me for the tenth time.
‘Why hasn’t he tried to get out through there before?’ I asked.
‘What would be the point? He’d still be stuck in here,’ said Sehun, ‘Besides I think Yifan is threatening him somehow – to keep him in line.’
I took the flashlight from him and took a deep steadying breath.
‘You’ll be fine, don’t worry,’ said Sehun, in what I’m sure he meant to be a reassuring way, but his expressionless face was as far from comforting as one could get.
I rolled my eyes and let him hoist me up. He helped me clamber into the hole until I was all the way inside.
‘Are you okay?’ His voice floated up towards me, already I felt like I was in a different dimension.
‘Yeah!’ I called back.
The air felt musty and my nose twitched as I inhaled all the dust I’d unsettled. I switched on the flashlight and almost switched it right back off when I saw what awaited me.
I could only see a few feet ahead of me, the rest was just a wall of impenetrable darkness. There were piles of dust clinging to the walls and forming in the corners, but more alarming then that were the cobwebs.
‘Oh, I almost forgot!’ Sehun called up.
I felt something land lightly on top of me. ‘You better use that for now. It gets cleaner when you get out of this bit though.’
‘Thanks for the warning,’ I muttered, resentfully.
I reached behind me and grabbed what he’d thrown at me – turned out to be a face mask. I began painstakingly crawling through the dirt.
I’d been going for a good five minutes when the vent began getting a bit wider and significantly cleaner. When I reached a place that bifurcated in opposite directions, I looked for the red mark on the wall. Sehun said they had marked the way a long time ago. I found it easily and kept going.
At a certain point, I placed the flashlight between my lips so I could use both my hands to crawl faster. Occasionally, I’d pass a grate but I didn’t want to waste time, so I barely glanced through them – they mainly seemed to give in to corridors that all basically looked the same. After a while, time seemed to have no meaning, it might have been an hour or ten, all I wanted was to find a way out. It was getting colder and somehow it seemed to be getting darker too. The walls around me seemed to be closing in and I had to keep reminding myself that it was all in my head.
Suddenly, an awful smell permeated the air around me. I choked and lifted the mask back up to my face but it didn’t seem to help much. It was getting stronger as I advanced but I didn’t have a choice except to keep going forward. I stumbled on the grate before I saw it, which was strange because with all the others, I’d always see some light before I reached them. It was under me and I shuffled back so I wasn’t directly on top of it. It was pitch black down there. I had switched my flash light off so as not to attract attention.
The smell seemed to be coming from down there. It was awful – like rotting meat. I squinted down into the dark trying to see something. I felt a wave of dread sweep through me. Something felt wrong. I needed to get as far away from here as possible.
I was about to move when I heard it. A low growl followed by a hissing sound. Something was moving down there - and I’m pretty sure it was something I did not want to meet. I lay perfectly still, hardly even daring to breathe.
Everything was quiet again. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I couldn’t fully explain or even understand the terror that was slowly taking a hold of my body. The instinct to run was almost overwhelming. I forced my body to move really slowly, as I tried to crawl forward as quietly as I could manage. I had just made it past the grate when an odd swooshing sound followed by a snarl broke the silence.
I scrambled forward with all my might before a horrible screeching noise, like metal being torn apart, echoed behind me. Something wrapped around my ankle and dragged me backwards, and with nothing to hold on to, I could only scream as my body was pulled through the grate. I dropped on the ground so hard my bones rattled – I would be lucky if I hadn’t broken anything.
I scrambled blindly backwards before remembering that I was still gripping the flashlight. I switched it on and immediately wished I hadn’t.
I seemed to be inside an antechamber of some sort, but what had me screaming like a banshee were the monsters facing me – yes, there was more than one.
They sort of looked like men except for very large glaring differences. The one closest to me was bald, his skin was pale but looked very hard and scaly, a huge snakelike tail swished behind him and long fangs protruded from his mouth. The worst thing though was how the right side of him, at least his face, shoulder and arm, seemed to be rotting. His flesh was black there contrasting heavily with his otherwise pale skin, yellow and green pus was oozing down his arm, and the smell coming off him was overpowering.
The guy just behind him looked even less human. He had the head of a hyena, and he was shirtless so I could see the fur and scruff extended all the way down his back but not down his chest. The black rotting flesh started at his shoulder and extended down his chest. He snapped his teeth at me and I promptly dove behind the nearest piece of furniture – which turned out to be a couch.
This was nightmare. It had to be a nightmare. But then I remembered what Sehun had said about things guarding the tower. But weren’t the vents supposed to avoid them?
If I ever made it out of here alive, I was going to kill him.
‘Has master sent us a pet to play with?’ a voice hissed in the darkness, it barely sounded human.
I swallowed dryly and tried to look around for a weapon but I was facing a wall.
‘Seems to me like she’s sneaking around, Hades,’ said a bored voice, that thankfully sounded pretty normal.
There was another whooshing sound and another guy landed right in front of me. I squeaked in fright. He actually looked pretty normal if you chose to ignore the huge ass wings on his back, they looked like they were made of velvet. They reminded me of a moth’s wings.
‘So, were you sneaking around?’ he asked me, crouching down to eye level.
He had honey coloured eyes and long dark hair. My hands shook as I held the flashlight like a weapon.
‘No,’ I spat, defiantly.
At that moment, I felt something wrap around my leg and, before I even realised it was happening, I was being dragged from behind the couch. I was lifted in the air upside down until I was eye to eye with the snake guy. His eyes were red.
‘Pretty,’ he hissed, ‘She looks like she’ll taste good.’
He dropped me on the ground and straddled me. I tried to throw him off but it was useless.
‘Just a bite,’ he hissed, softly.
There was a crazy look in his eyes. I realised that his eyes weren’t actually red, but that they were filled with blood, like his veins had all popped or something. I only had time to notice this before his teeth sank into the flesh between my shoulder and neck. I screamed.

Notes

It's been soooo long. I'm so sorry! Anyway here's a new chapter if you want to carry on reading this. Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last chapter, it's super encouraging and I'm dedicating this chapter to you guys:)
I'm sorry for any mistakes as I haven't really proofread this chapter.
Please don't be afraid to comment, I love hearing your thoughts!
Lots of love,
Ange