Chapter 5: 'What's is THIS?'

It was before dawn when she got back to her building.

The opening strings stirred of Danny Elfman’s ‘Batman’ score Batman theme as Cassandra exited the elevator on the floor of her apartment, the conversation with Carl was stuck in the back of her mind and refused to budge. ‘Oh well’, she sighed, ‘will have to deal with him soon enough’, paced down the hallway, the music finishing just as she reached her front door and noticed a slip of paper sticking out the letterbox.

She rummaged for her keys, the letter only meant one thing, that her familiar had got caught on the way to the morgue again, ‘no animals in the building’ the superintendent said, this was the third time now and there will be consequences. She unlocked the door, her living room was pitch black with the darkness of her familiar, ‘JOSEPH’, she yelled, ‘you reappear this instant’, she dropped her bag onto the wooden floor of her apartment.

Cass looked in the direction of the balcony door, saw two little emerald eyes blink and then drop to the floor. The darkness evaporated and formed a slender black cat with a white tip on his tail making it look like the cat printer had run out of ink when it got to the end and Cass smiled. Joseph padded over a Persian rug towards her and leapt into Cass’s arms.

He started to purr and nuzzled the underside of her chin, ‘welcome home’ he mewed.

‘Is it welcome Jo?’, Asked Cass, dropping him to the floor ungracefully yet he landed with the airs of a bag of feathers and looked up at her. ‘You got caught again, you know this right?’

‘No’, he answered, ‘I took every precaution’. Cass scoffed, ‘at the meeting, even the zombie sensed you!’ She made her way over to her white leather couch, dropped onto it, pushed off her shoes and went to put her feet on her matching futon but found it was too far away.

Jo had pushed it closer to the TV so he could watch his shows, he normally pushes it back, she noted and got back up again. Jo looked up at Cass affectionately waiting for food. ‘No food’, she said, ‘ you got caught multiple times and didn't put back the futon’. He cried in protest. ‘Don't make me turn you back into a human’, she glared, blue tendrils of magic wrapping around her ringed fingers on her left hand, ‘we both know you wouldn't survive the transition back’, Joseph dropped to the floor, his eyes locking in on her hand, the tendrils of magic started to pulse and become translucent.

‘Is that what you want?’ She cocked her head, ‘do you not like the life i have given you?

He padded over to the rug again, plonked himself right in the middle of it and fell immediately to sleep. ‘Fine’, she aimed her magic at the flat screen TV, it came to life and with the flick of her wrist Carl appeared on the screen as she had left him facing the boy’s corpse and his pupil-less eyes staring straight through her own.

‘What to do with you?’ she wondered, smiling and then Joseph suggested, ‘Maybe you could control him?’ Cass sat back down on her couch, clicked her tongue and turned the idea over in her head. ‘I would need permission from the voodoo doctor who brought him back’, she started. Joseph got up and with tail high walked over to the foot of the couch, sat and looked up at her intently. ‘That sounds like hard work’, Cass stated. Joseph grinned. ‘No!’ She barked.

Joseph fell back to the floor. ‘I know you will fail, just so you get your wish’, she frowned and exhaled, he had been her familiar since college, ‘sorry’, Cass looked down at him, ‘ok, regardless of what happens you will get your wish’. His ears twitched and he mewed loudly, ‘thank you’, he purred. He padded over to the balcony doors, phased through the glass and jumped onto the metal balcony railing and perched there looking at the first rays of sunlight that broke through the night.

Cass’s magic crackled at the tv again, ‘the nightmare before christmas’ started on the screen, she sunk into her couch and with her other hand pulled the futon closer with her magic. Her eyes rolled back and she could see through Joseph's eyes, ‘pretty’, she smiled and her body went limp as she took over Joseph's body.

...

i love you Baby