Captive Witch

Chapter Six

I wake up bleary eyed, searching around blindly for something to lighten up the dark room that I am in, I feel the curve of a lamp stand and follow it up until I feel the switch, pushing it on, the room slowly comes into focus now that there is some light. I look around the room with confusion and fear, wondering how I got into this cell-like room, but then as Nox stretches out in his adult cat form beside me, brushing me with his fluffy paws, I finally remember. I am safe, with someone from my world, a vampire that had provided me a safe place to stay. I slump back onto the bed, making the mattress squeak and bounce, causing Nox to finally wake up. "Why are you up so early, Val?" Now that may have sounded like a nice question, but it was full of snark. "And why did you have to wake me up too?" And there is the snark, cats are never very polite, especially if you get in the way of their beauty rest.

"I woke up and panicked, I had forgotten where we were. My relief upon remembering caused me to fall back onto the bed as a way to release all my tension, and then I woke you up on accident. So, I apologize, also how do you even know that its early, is there a clock in here that I can't see?" He scoffs at me and rolls over onto his stomach before stretching out, only responding once he was done his morning cardio.

"I am an animal, a very intelligent one with magic because of you, but still an animal, we instinctively know the time, maybe not the way you humans measure it, but we also don't need clocks, so that makes us better." I glare at him, not sure if I appreciated his tone.

"Hey! I am no human either, don't go lumping me in with them. So, what time is it then, smartie?" More like snarky, but I don't he'd tell me the time if I called him out on his attitude.

"Close to noon, and since dawn was at 6 AM, that means we haven't even gotten five hours of sleep yet, meaning you are indeed up way too early and I am going back to sleep." I roll my eyes at him as he turns away from the light and curls into a ball, using his tail to cover the rest of his face.

I get out of the bed and walk over to my bag, that is resting against the wall, I sort through it for my last set of clean clothes, which still don't smell very nice because of being stuffed together with my dirty ones, I lift up my arm and take a quick sniff, wincing at the smell, oh god, how long had I smelled like living death? I grab the clothes and quickly leave the room in search of the shower, right now I could do with a good shower, though I probably need two to get the smell off. My shower is efficient, not quick, but not long either, just long enough to get me smelling like a normal person again, and Jim was right, the water pressure wasn't great at all, neither was the temperature, because going past luke warm made the pipes groan in a way that had me quickly turning the dial back for fear of losing water all together.

I brush my hair out with my fingers, not having anything to comb it with, though I was grateful that Jim had thought ahead enough to put soap and 2 in 1 hair wash here for me to use. Knowing this was as good as I was going to get, I grab my only hair elastic and put my wet hair up in a messy bun. I needed to go shopping, to get more clothes, deodorant, a razor, a hairbrush, the list was growing the more that I thought about it. I walked back into my room to see Nox now completely sprawled out across the bed, still in his adult cat form but cats can take up a surprising amount of room when they want to.

"Alright, you can stay here and sleep, but I am going shopping, I guess I'll just eat all the salmon I buy." I swear I have never seen him move so fast before, because one moment he is sprawled across the bed and the next he is right in front of me, his form shifting into that of the younger cat variety and looking at me with annoyance for waiting to pick him up and put him in my pocket.

"Let's go already." I roll my eyes at him before picking him up and putting him inside my jacket pocket, I head out the door and into the darkened warehouse, because it seems that Jim has boarded up all the windows. None the less, it wasn't far to the door into the bar, it was weird seeing all the chairs up and the place dark, but I found my way easy enough, unlocking the door, I stepped out onto the street and shut it behind me, locking it back up with a flick of my wrist.