Hunting Darkness

Chapter 32

Astral gets me out of the Key, but not before telling me to keep this a secret. I agree, and he lets me out.

"What were you two talking about?" Yuma asks.

"Private matter," I say. "I promised him to keep it a secret."

Yuma sighs. "Typical."

"He also said not to look into it. He hates it when you do that," I add. "Well, I'm off! I've gotten what I wanted." Bella and I go home.

"Shiro told me to tell you that Astral said that he'll be coming over tomorrow," Bella informs.

"Really?" I ask. "Do you know what time?"

"No. Just any random time, I guess."

"Oh." So, I have to spend all day tomorrow waiting for the two to randomly pop up. Sounds good. They could come up in the morning or the afternoon. Heck, they might even come at night.

When we reach the house, I find that Mama and Papa aren't home yet. Good. That means they won't notice that I was gone. Whew. I enter the house with Bella in tow and take off my shoes. I sigh.

"Well, now I have someone to talk to when Mama and Papa are away," I say with a smile. Then, a thought occurs to me. "Hey, do you think the same thing happened to Yuma?"

Bella cocks her head to the side. "Dunno. Maybe. I don't think so, though. Since you're around cats most of the time, then your mind was most likely to open faster since we were trying to talk to you."

I chuckle. "You sound like Astral."

"Well, he was the one who told me that. I'm just repeating his words." Bella sounds like she's chuckling, too. "It feels nice talking to you."

"It feels nice to me, too, though you probably always understood what I was saying."

"Yeah, I did." Bella silently pads over to the stairs. "You only understood us to a certain length, though. Not to the point of really understanding."

I sigh again. "Oh, by the way, what did Shiro do to make Astral forever grateful?"

Bella sits down on the first step. "Believe it or not, Shiro actually spied on Black Mist to confirm Astral's suspicions. For a white cat, he's really sneaky. By doing this, Astral knows who Kasai really is, which is why he was so suspicious toward him."

"Cool! I had no idea Shiro could to that." I smile. "I guess there's more to you than I think I know."

"Yeah." Bella appears to be smiling. "Now, I'm going to take a quick nap." She goes upstairs and rests on one of the tables.

I walk to my room. I remember Astral saying that to strengthen my mental abilities, I need to rest my mind a lot. We went through some meditation practices, and I do one of the basic ones. I lay on my bed and close my eyes, doing my best to empty all of my thoughts. I steady my breathing and lower the defenses my mind naturally has. Now, I know how Astral feels when he's sensing. It's such a powerful yet vulnerable feeling. Like anybody can attack at any minute.

I can hear my cats' thoughts, but I can sort of make them out. I understand, yet I don't. That's what Astral said to do. It's really relaxing, actually. You should really try it.

"Cathy?" Mama calls, interrupting my meditation.

"Yes, Mama?" I call back, getting up and dashing downstairs.

"Come help us bring the things in."

"Okay." I reach the foot of the stairs and go outside. I help carry in the groceries, and I can hear every one of Mama and Papa's thoughts.