The Queen of Cats

Chapter 3: Why Are You Wounding Me?

She stopped walking and turned around to look at another building. Ni signboard. No light from inside. No sound except for a steady, bass rumble.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Something that will surprise you, perhaps." Death told me. "Now, I must take my leave. Places to go, souls to collect. You know how it is."

I didn't know how it was, but I nodded anyway.

"We will meet soon. Before you die, I think." she told me. Then she walked. She turned and waved. I waved back. Then I walked into the building.

I was in a tiny, toilet-sized little room with a door. And a pretty young woman in a suit. A bouncer. I looked for something peculiar. A tail, a dog's head or something like that. Nothing.

"What do you want?" She asked me.

"I want to meet the mouthpiece."

"Alright. Password. I told you no when you told me to die."

"I rage but I do not cry." I told her. The last poem I read before I left the Wolf Hall.

Her face broke out into a sunny smile almost immediately. "Welcome. Welcome! I'm Violet! What's your name?"

"Priyanka Chopra." I told her.

"Ooh! Pretty name. Alright, come with me. Let's uh..." she searched her pockets and pulled out a key-card. She slid it into a little slot beside the door and it hissed open.

"I know right?" she said. "All high-tech and stuff. Well, come on. Don't be shy."

The door opened out to a steep stair-case lit only by a single blue bubble light above the door.

"Watch your step, treasure. It's dark here."

She held my hand (rough and callused hands she had this Violet this chitin on the back of the underworld) and we walked down the stairs. They seemed to go on forever.

"Shit, we had to build this like deep, really deep underground. I've only been down here once. My job is just to let the cats in when they show up with I.D, you know?"

I didn't reply.

"You're quiet, aren't you. If you're hungry or something, we can get you some food to eat from the first level. We have a lot of cat food, a lot of tuna and sardines and stuff."

"No, thank you." I said.

"Yeah, I hate the stuff myself. Cats really think Tuna's the bees knees. I'll never figure out why. So, how are you finding the in-between so far?"

"I...uh..."

"Oh, yeah." she said. "You haven't really seen much of the place, have you? Some of it's pretty but it's mostly just shite, you know?"

"Oh."

I finally saw some light. Red light.

"Welcome to level one." Violet told me. "Here's where the cats are."

The room was the size of a small auditorium and it was filled with cats of all kinds. They sat around round tables, eating and drinking, speaking with one-another. Most of them were talking quite animatedly, some on the verge of fighting.

"So many philosophies in one room, all of them just right pissed off. The fight-potential is stunning. Anyways, you'd best not disturb them right now, if you know what I mean."

The two of us walked straight past the room and to another door. Violet swiped her card through the slot and we walked through, this time into a plush little waiting room. Two sofas sat across each other with a coffee table in the middle.

"You can sit here for a bit. There's a coffee machine over there, if you need something to drink. They'll attend to you in a while, maybe." She waved. "I'll see you when you're finished then. Bye."

"Bye." I told her, and sat.

I waited.

An hour passed. I got up, stretched for a bit, made some coffee, drank a sip and threw the disgusting slurry away. I ate a croissant, which tasted a bit cold but alright other than that.

I waited some more. I walked around the room. I tried to touch the ceiling. I counted the polka dots on the curtains.

I slept.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I awoke.

"Miss. Hello, miss. Wake up."

I rubbed my eyes. A little boy stood in front of me, maybe four years old.

"Erm...Hello." I told him.

"Good morning, miss. I'm Karim. Do you need some coffee or something. Or if you want you can freshen up. There's a toilet over there."

"No, I'm alright."

"Good. That's good. Come on, then. The mouthpiece will see you now." H said. He didn't sound like a four year old. He sounded older than me.

"Now, miss." he said. "I need you to follow me very closely. Don't lose sight of me, alright? It's very easy for that to happen. I need you to always stay behind me. If you're comfortable with it, you might even hold my hand."

Karim stretched out his hand. I took it. We walked through the next door.

It looked like the dungeons of a medieval castle. Moss and ivy grew on the walls. Strange sounds ebbed from deep within. Chains clanked.

"Remember miss, right behind me. Whatever you hear. Right behind me."

We wove through a maze of walls, taking turns seemingly at random. I heard screams of pain (pain just pain? be honest with yourself eye) and perhaps pleasure. I saw Death's shadow flitting across the walls with her umbrella and cat's head.

I held tight to Karim's hand and I walked.

"What is this place?" I asked him.

"Jail Hall." he told me. "Are you frightened?"

"Yes." I told him.

He turned around and smiled at me. "Don't be. Nothing will harm you here. Except maybe yourself."

We stopped in front of a dead end. Karim kicked the wall. It disappeared.

"Welcome." he told me. "Welcome to the underworld."