12

"You did well sister, though you really..." she said, not really completing her sentence.

"...had no choice in the matter," said a similar voice from behind me, completing the first Neko's thought in an almost cartoonish way.

I spun and looked at the other Neko, not able to make out her face either, but the two were very similar in size and manner.

"Now it is time to..." spoke the one that was currently in front of me.

"...take your place at Master's feet," said the other, taking me by surprise as she moved faster than I thought possible and closed a heavy metal collar around my neck, the clank of the locking mechanism echoing loud with disturbing finality in my ears.

The moment the metal ring closed I felt a burning throughout my body and pain like I have never experienced before. From the collar itself, chains shot out with cuffs, lined with the same sickly green writing as the stone, to encircle my wrists and ankles. Once secured the chains shortened and forced me to kneel in a posture of submission. My heart at this point was racing and I was not sure what I could do, and then the two Neko spoke together.

"We are sorry sister, but you belong to him now and all of your power with it," they chorused, their voices harmonizing together in an almost hypnotic way.

And then I felt a sharp increase in Kelli's terror and pain that cut me through to the very depths of my soul, and within moments of that horrible feeling it all ceased as if someone had blown out a candle. I knew in my heart at that moment that Kelli was dead and that I had failed her somehow. I was supposed to protect her, my girlfriend, my mate, my love. Her life had been cut short and the only thing left deep in my soul was an aching emptiness which made me want to weep to the stars that I could see above me. The collar that was now around my neck pulsed then and I felt his presence in my mind, like the fetid scum that floats on top of a Louisiana bayou. I wanted to vomit, I wanted to claw my eyes out, but the collar and he would not let me. I did the only thing I could at that point and threw back my head and screamed out in despair and anguish, longing for an end to my suffering that I knew he would never let me have.

I was pulled back to consciousness right at that moment, and the scream that had begun in my dream finished there in our bedroom as I shot up in bed, feeling my heartbeat thunder like a herd of wild horses running through my chest. My scream woke Kelli up as well and she did nothing but hold me silently as I shook from the remembered terror and wept bitterly from the emotions my nightmare had evoked. She stroked my hair and whispered nothing but comfort to me as she let my crying take its course, and waited for me to be ready to talk about what had happened.

"Tell me what's wrong sweetie," she quietly whispered while rubbing her cheek against mine.

"You're going to die, and there is nothing I'm going to be able to do about it," I replied, in a voice that Kelli could barely hear.

"What do you mean, I'm going to die?"

"Just that," I cried as it brought me to tears again. "Someone is going to kill you and use some sort of magic to enslave me, and I don't think I will be able to stop it from happening."

"Shhh, shhh," she whispered, and pulled me tighter into her embrace. "Just start at the top and tell me everything you remember, and what you felt. It was probably just a bad dream, but let's talk about it anyway."

And so I did. I started from the point that I realized I was not in my bed anymore and gave Kelli a detailed description of all that went on in my nightmare. Over the next several minutes as I poured out my emotions and fears to her, I realized that just having Kelli hold me and listen as I dumped this in her lap was helping me to deal with the very raw emotions that I was still feeling. I described everything to her, especially the way the world around was so vibrant and real, almost more real than the waking world that we lived in. Kelli occasionally asked a question or two, mainly to clarify details that got muddled up from my crying, and I got the sense that she was cataloguing everything that I was saying so that we could discuss it later if needed.

It must have taken me more than twenty minutes to purge all of the negative emotions and get all of the details I could remember out of my head. During all of that time Kelli never let me go, listened more than she spoke, and made damn sure that if I felt anything sitting there in our bed after such a terrible experience that it was her boundless love for me. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around her at that point and kiss her within an inch of her life, and then I finally was able to wipe my eyes and excuse myself to go to the bathroom so that I could wash my face and rinse the ashen taste of fear out of my mouth. When I came back into our room I saw that Kelli was texting Cassandra with the phone she had given us, even though it was just past 3 am.

"Kinda rude to text Cassandra this early in the morning," I joked as I crawled back into bed.

Kelli giggled a bit at that then said, "You're probably right, but something about the way that this has affected you tells me that we need to let her know sooner rather than later."

I gave a little sigh at that and then nodded my head in agreement, realizing that if anyone could make sense of what this dream meant, if it meant anything, it would be Cassandra. It only took a couple of minutes to find out that Kelli had been right to send the text because we got a reply that instructed us to meet her for tea that afternoon, and she asked to take some time right then to write down everything that we could remember about the dream and our discussion of it so that we could start with a record drawn from fresh memories.

After I had done as Cassandra had asked and had written down everything that I could remember about my dream, Kelli then turned on one of the bedside lamps before she turned out the main light in the room. She looked at me with concern in her eyes and enfolded me in her arms and gently rocked back and forth with me until I was finally able to go back to sleep. I don't remember how long it took, but she was awake with me the entire time until I had lost consciousness again. Kelli never told me either way, but I also suspect that she didn't get any more sleep that night in order to make sure that I was ok.

Because of her concern for me, and probably from a lack of sleep, the next day it was Kelli's turn to run out of the house, late for her class, and I was able to spend the morning taking a run in the park, and doing some yoga near the fountain with an outdoor group I had found. I had discovered these excursions really kept my head grounded and after my nightmare I really needed the exercise and emotional balance that they provided more than ever.

On a side note, getting into yoga allowed me to discover just how much more flexible and steady I had now become. I could hold poses for much longer than anyone I worked out with, and my literally unreal flexibility was the envy of everyone. It also brought my attention back to a familiar oddity, because like many other people in other situations such as the woman and her son by the train, they did not seem to find it strange that I was a cat-girl. They just thought it a bit odd that I would be there with them, and all remarked that I was the first one they had run into, as if the possibility of running into a cat-girl would actually happen. It was just another in what was apparently a long list of things I would have to tell Cassandra later.

After the park I went home and studied some more before getting ready for noon tea with Cassandra and Kelli. We had only had one other meeting with her since New Year's and that was when she had left us with a lot of reading and research material, most of which I found terribly boring. Kelli, however, had dived right in and seemed to have a really good grasp of things. At least one of us did. Once I was finished getting ready I texted Kelli and let her know that I was headed to the tea house and she should meet me there. Her return text let me know that she would be there at about the same time and reminded me to bring the record I had made of my nightmare.

Cassandra and Kelli were already there when I arrived, and were both seated with another girl. She was similar in age to Kelli and me, but had the same long raven colored hair that Cassandra did and her face had very similar features to the older woman, but that was where the similarities ended. Cassandra, as always, had an aura of wisdom and calm that surrounded her, and she also had an ethereal beauty that few could rival. She was seated primly at the table in one of her Victorian inspired dresses, and indicated that I should sit. The new girl, on the other hand barely gave me a glance and I noticed that she was certainly pretty, but the boots, the tight black pants, the numerous piercings, and her belly shirt that was at least a size too small for her, gave her an edge that shouted "rebel" from a mile away.

Cassandra gave me a smile as I sat with them and said, "It is so wonderful to see you again dear Myka. How are you doing?"

"So far most things have been pretty great. I don't think Kelli and I could be much happier right now."

Kelli smiled at me when I said this and blushed a little as she took my hand and replied, "Yeah, things are really going well, though we haven't figured out how to open the box you gave us yet."