Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

1.1.3 Chapter 3

Bath, UK, Earth, June 2019.

Late on Sunday afternoon, Violet headed into town to meet up with Lily at the cinema. She consumed the entirety of a large popcorn and diet coke as they watched the latest film in a series about a group of time-travelling heroes who always arrived just in time to save the day. She was very grateful for the three-hour-long distraction from the real world.

It was dark again when they reluctantly emerged out back into reality. Lily launched into a detailed analysis of the film's plot, how it met and differed from her expectations, the anachronisms and what she thought that meant for the next in the series. Vi only half-listened, despite being as much of a fan as Lily was. Half of her thoughts were back on the vanishing vase. Should she tell Lily? She had told her earlier about Toby and Matilda but had stopped at mentioning what happened after she walked in on them. Would Lily also put in down to the drink and weed and the shock? Or would she think Vi was going mad? She usually told her best friend absolutely everything, but this was just a bit too weird.

Vi and Lily headed through the familiar Southgate square, shops all closed due to the late hour, towards Bath Spa station to catch a bus home. Neither of them noticed that they were being followed by a small grey-blue cat who was limping softly on his front left paw as he crept from shadow to shadow.

The girls crossed the road and headed towards their bus stop. Lily was continuing her film analysis; she had moved from plot onto historical inaccuracies. Vi was trying her best to keep up and nod along accordingly, but her head was not in it. Her eyes wandered to the office block opposite the bus stop, which was covered in a giant colourful mural. It was a recent endeavour by Bath City Council to give visitors a good first impression. Violet loved the mural especially the 'twist' that some of the puffins were actually people in costumes. When it had first appeared, Vi and Lily spent the entire journey home discussing what it could mean.

Vi's eyes glazed over as she stared at the familiar animals and hidden people. Covering over a puffin in the corner was a complicated twisting pattern. The new addition to the wall leapt out at her, the shape was all twisting lines and interconnected circles. Was it just graffiti? How did the artist make it stand out from the already hectic mural? The image was so curved and fluid that Vi thought she could almost see it moving, like something from an optical illusion book.

She crossed the street to take a closer look, earning a confused frown from Lily, who ended her film treatise and followed her friend over. Up close, Vi could see that shape was just chalked paint, but when she stepped back so the entirety of the symbol was visible, the whole shape appeared to give off a pale glow. Woah. How weird was that! Vi got out her phone and snapped several quick photos, meaning to look up later if the symbol had any meaning.

"You ok, Vi?" asked Lily slowly.

"Yeah, just wondering how they made it glow like that!" Vi answered, snapping another photo, this one more zoomed in.

Lily frowned "How who made what glow?"

"The graffiti artist! How they made this symbol glow! Must be some sort of special paint?"

"What symbol? I think that puffin was always looked like that!"

Vi glanced at her friend, however at that moment their bus pulled into the bus stop, and the girls stopped their conversation as they hurried over to catch it.

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Middy watched in horror from the shadows.

He liked it when Vi and Lily went to the cinema, it was like a night out for him as well as them. The immersive nature of the cinema experience meant an extremely low risk of any incidents occurring and no-one ever noticed him in the dark. He had enjoyed the film, although he was inclined to agree with Lily's points about inconsistencies between this one and the previous one in the series.

But now, on the way home, in one of the familiar city streets, when Middy had been least expecting it, Vi had spotted something. Middy has been listening to Lily and had noticed way too late that something was up with his ward. Vi was already crossing the road to take a closer look and he had missed his chance to intervene, to cause a distraction.

For Middy too could see the glowing symbol that had been spray-painted over the puffin mural. He could see the curved interconnected lines and circles and he knew exactly what they meant. And he knew exactly why the symbol had caught Vi's attention whilst it appeared that Lily could not see it at all. This was irrevocably bad news. His worst nightmare had come to pass.

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Middy met the Harmonizer in an unscheduled meeting in the early hours of the morning. Her eyes widened with horror as Middy explained how a symbol had been added to the mural which Violet had noticed. His tail twitched as he awaited her response, expecting to be admonished for being negligent and allowing his ward to spot something she should not have been allowed to see.

Instead, the Harmonizer responded with uncharacteristic desperation. "Cover it up Middy! All of it! That girl is so nearly 18. Just a few more months. We cannot lose her now!" the Harmonizer paused and then to Middy's utter shock announced, "I will return your malleability. I trust you will use it appropriately this time."

Middy let the Harmonizer remove his black collar, with the silver pendant, and waited impatiently whilst she took it away to make some careful alterations. Several hours later, when the collar was returned to its home around his neck, Middy noticed the difference instantly. After eleven years, he was no longer confined to the form of an adorable small blue-grey cat.

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The sky had already turned from the black of night to the indigo of a summer's dawn when Middy returned from his meeting with the Harmonizer. He was still revelling in having his full Guardian abilities returned as he crept into Vi's room at number 64 Henrietta Street. Violet was sleeping, her long black hair out of its usual night-time braids and spread in disarray over her pillow, indicating that she had spent the night tossing and turning. Middy glanced her with concern, then got on to his first task.

Middy looked at his paws and drew upon the fresh energy that the Harmonizer had imbued into the silver pendant upon his collar. It had been a long time, eleven years in fact since Middy had had the ability and the energy resources available to be able to alter his form. The Harmonizer had taken away his abilities in punishment after a failed disastrous mission in Los Angeles that he had spent the past eleven years trying not to think too much about.

It may have been a long time, but Middy would never forget how to shift. He focused on his front paws and willed them to alter, to change into a slightly different form. It hurt. Oh, he had forgotten the burning pain in the last eleven years, the cost of malleability. Middy's front paws grew larger, the fingers lengthened and altered positions into an approximation of fingers and thumbs; paws replaced by small hands in proportion to his current size. The sight of a blue-grey cat with tiny human hands would have been profoundly disturbing to any human onlookers.

Vi remained sleeping, unaware of what her not-cat was up to. Now, where had she left her phone? Middy spotted it in its usual place on her nightstand. He picked it up and carried it into the bathroom so that the light of the screen would not wake his ward. Oh, how he had missed being able to shift and having opposable thumbs! Middy unlocked the phone, having seen Vi's unlock pattern countless times. He browsed over to her recent photos, found the ones she had taken of the mural and promptly deleted them. Good. Now to on to the next part of the cover-up.

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Next morning, Fred Greenglass, newly-appointed head of Bath City Council Maintenance Department found a very strongly worded letter upon his desk from his superiors. The Council had decreed the animal mural opposite Bath Spa station was to be painted over immediately. It was a risk of causing a car accident via distracting drivers. Fred frowned. He knew many in the city loved that mural, his two young children included. But orders were orders.

Furthermore, the letter detailed that his department had been rewarded a significant increase in funding. These funds were to be used for a daily-whole Bath city centre washing and graffiti cleaning service that was to commence immediately. Fred's brow furrowed again at all the extra logistics and manpower this new initiative would entail but knew his huge new budget would more than cover the costs.

Fred Greenglass did not notice the small blue-grey cat sitting on his outside windowsill watching as he read. He also did not notice the intricate swirling patten added into the letterhead that compelled him to follow the letter's contents.

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