Starfall

Chapter 18 - Ben

The cat keeps meowing—more so than it did the last time I followed it. In fact, it continuously looks over its shoulder at me, as if to check that I'm still there.

It leads me down the varying alleyways, taking turns and giving the occasional meow.

"Where are we going?" I ask. I immediately feel weird, though, asking a cat a question as if it'll respond. "I should hope you're taking me to Elyse."

Only a few seconds later, it stops. Looks up at me, then back down. It paws at a small window that rests a foot above the ground, meowing.

I wait for it to do something more, but it just keeps looking from me to the window and pawing at it carefully.

With a frown, I crouch down beside the window. It's dark inside, so I can't see anything that it contains, and in the shadow of the alley, I don't see much of a latch to open it.

I'm about to give up when a light clicks on from inside. I jump in surprise and move away, making sure no one inside can see me. The cat doesn't move. It just sits and stares.

When I take another peek through the window, I don't see much at first. It looks like a cellar. The walls are filled with selections of wines and malt, and there are unopened boxes and crates.

But then there's a man. I quickly recognize him to be one of the men that took Kamal and Elyse away. But then I see what he has. A person—an unconscious person. She's got blazing red hair and a cut on her forehead.

It's Leola.

"What. Even." I look back to the cat with wide eyes. It just stares.

The man in the cellar tosses her carelessly onto the ground, and her head hits the corner of a box. It makes me cringe a bit, but do I really feel that bad? No, not really. She's only been a jerk to me this past day.

Once the man has turned out the light and left her in the room, the cat leans down and rubs its nose gently on the glass. Then it turns, walks in a small circle, and sits. It's at least a few feet away from the window now, and it's staring at me expectantly, as if I'm supposed to do something.

"What?" I raise my hands defensively. "She's not my responsibility."

The cat's luminous eyes don't leave me. It just sits there, looking at me. It blinks.

"Look, I can't break in," I say, running my hand along the perimeter of the window. "There's no latch."

I can tell the cat isn't going to do anything, but I can also tell it's got a lot of thoughts going through that little head. I just wonder what they are.

My gaze moves from the cat to the window.

I guess I'm not really one to do things according to the law, am I? And besides, they took Elyse. And Kamal, too. It's getting to be pretty clear whose responsibility it is to get them out of this pickle.

I don't know what this is about, but it can't be good.

So with a deep breath, I position myself in front of the window, leaning back so my weight is on my hands. The cat watches calmly as I rear my leg back. But when I kick the glass using the force of my heel, it doesn't break. Not yet, at least. I rear back again. Kick. Rear back. Kick again. The glass cracks, but not much.

It's only once I'm out of breath and give it one last strike that the cracks give in to my heel and the glass breaks.

I look to the cat for approval, but it just yawns at me, as if this is no big deal.

After clearing the glass out of the frame, I stick my legs through and scoot in backwards.

I just barely fit through the opening, but it's good enough. So as soon as my feet touch a crate that's pushed up against the wall, I let out a breath and lower myself the rest of the way in.