I hesitate when I reach the door and turn to the VRC members. “I am indebted to you for helping me find Rylee… thank you.”
“Of course,” Finn says. “We’re glad to see her okay.”
“She’s such a cutie pie, of course we couldn’t say no to saving her!” Claude chimes in.
“You make it sound like if she was ugly, we’d have thought harder about it,” Finn says.
Claude just laughs, which isn’t reassuring at all.
Once I’m outside, I set Rylee on the ground to look her over before I see that her shirt is moving. How I missed this fact, I’m uncertain. Probably had something to do with the rest of the vampires. Not like everything else was quite distracting. At least she’s finally stopped crying.
“What is in your shirt?” I ask as I eye the shirt that looks close to bursting open.
“Nothin’,” she whispers while refusing to look me in the eyes. It’s very clearly something when it’s stretching the shirt to its limits.
“Rylee, now.”
“It was an accident,” she cries as she pulls the ugliest and dirtiest cat I’ve ever seen out of her shirt. One ear is bent over and hairless, the other has a chunk out of it. Hair hangs in mats and he looks like he was rolled in one too many puddles.
I can’t seem to find words. My brain is telling me what happened but the words just elude me.
“Aww, what a sweetheart. Did you leave the house to save the little kitty?” the irritating council member says as he comes over and kneels in front of Rylee.
Rylee nods vigorously, thrilled to have someone who sees her sideandunderstands it. I’m seeing it, alright, I’m just really not comprehending it.
“I did! He was crying and hurt, and I couldn’t justleavehim there or he’d get hit by a car! So I went out and then he ran so I ran after him, and then when I caught him… I realized the evil vampires noticed me!”
“Let me get this straight. You risked your life…for a cat?” I ask in disbelief. It’s like everything I’d ever ingrained in her head went out the second she saw acat. I’ve spent so much time with her teaching her how to hide and how to defend herself and she goes and… chases after a cat?
Rylee’s eyes get super wide as she aims them at me, like this display of innocence will fix everything. Like I’ll forgive her for what she’s done.
“That was very brave of you—” Mads must get a look at my face because he quickly backtracks. “Not… brave? No… that was…”
“What are you even doing here?” I ask him.
“I don’t know! They seemed to want to talk about me, so I excused myself so they could do it without feeling awkward! And then I saw the kitty. I mean, look at that kitty. I’d risk my life for it too!”
“See, Ender? He understandsandhe’s funny!” Rylee says.
“He’s not funny. He’s a monster. He’s like the guys I told you about.”
Her eyes get even wider. “Like the ones who tell you they have candy and puppies in their van and then they abduct you?”
“Yes, just like that.”
“Mister, I don’t want to get in your murder van. Nuh-uh. I wanna go home,” Rylee announces.
“I… I don’t have a murder van,” Mads says, looking perplexed. “I have a rental car, though. No sweets or puppies, but I could definitely get some sweets if you want some!”
I grab the cat by the scruff of the neck and set it in his hands. “Have a blast,” I tell him as I pick up Rylee and rush off into the night.
Rylee is silent for all of fifteen seconds before she realizes what’s happened. “EN! NO! MY CAT!”
“It’s not your cat,” I say.
If I thought the tears over being abducted by vampires was a lot, it’s nothing compared to the tears over me handing that mangy thing off.
She’s now beating on my chest and sobbing. “You’re. SO. MEAN.”
