Psych

Why not?

Keep telling yourself that, you don’t believe it.

Why do you persist in this fallacy? They know it. They all know. You think you made it better, but like always, you were the one that messed up.

You couldn’t have stood it, alone with all them around, you would have gone mad. And then where would you be?

You’re the fiercest out there, they feel it though they don’t know. How could you desert the ones who need you like that?

You never would have let them have power over you like this before.

You know that’s bunk, look at you, even when you don’t eat and don’t move, you’ve power, they’re secretly afraid...you know this.

It is a matter of opinion., you don’t need to be here.

Yes you are. Look at you, what is this? A week without food?

Your temper hasn’t improved. Why can’t we get out of here?

You let them inflict those.

He escaped. You suffered needlessly.

So you want to stay here forever? You will you know. They’ll all pass away. You’ll soon be left with no one to bring you food so you can ignore It. How long has it been since we tasted real meat?

:

:It won’t help. The hunting has moved on. What would you have me do? Kill the meatlings?:

:We let them live, though, they found life sweeter after being in the jaws of death, isn’t that so?:

I put my hand on the wall, the click-whirr taking my vital signs quickly as I let my warmth rest there on the cold concrete. Cold. So cold this place was. Walk six paces, there’s the bed mat. I ease myself onto it.

:Sometimes I think you should be out here and let me be in here.:

I grimace, I know it’s seen, but suddenly instead of the passing smolder of desire cast away, I feel instead a flare within. I pause, my breathing stills, and there it is, my form true to nature, willing to be brought to bear upon the meatlings. It is such a tremor that shoots through me that the apathy and learned lethargy of the past year or so melts away in an instant and I feel the need to once again…become who I am.

:If you’re ready, I can see nothing stopping us, what is death to life with no purpose?:

:Don’t get mushy on me, now, that’s the last thing I need.:

:I’d say after, I think this shell is strong enough to make it to the run-in yard, but the wall will prove difficult if they’ve not caught us-:

:same to you, now, shall we?:

The click-whirr doesn’t sound as my adrenalin spikes, but the act of apathy is serving me well…they can see I haven’t eaten. They’ll come soon.

:Door’s opening.:

I needed no other words, as soon as the guard got in the room, I was moving. I bashed into him, sending him sprawling, my leap carrying me into the wall outside my room. Instinct drove me to the left, I could almost sense the grass outside, and I headed for it. The alarm had sounded as soon as I broke the seal on the door, but I was in full rush. My six foot frame carried me well and the guards went down under crushing blows as I blew by.

I grunted assent and sent myself rocketing out the one unbarred window, thanking whatever providence was left me that I was on the ground floor today of all days. The guns weren’t allowed in the building itself, tasers, but no guns….until the yard. My shoulder absorbed the main impact and I rolled through the shards and splintered wood and tore off again, headed for the southern wall.

:Give ‘em something to remember us by.:

I leaped, and as I sent my wounded and emaciated body into the air, It was like I broke into a clear surface, like a pebble tossed into a vertical lake. A wash of freedom opened my senses, as it brushed along my scarred shell and with that loving touch, came the form I had denied so long. I could feel my muscles broaden, I became a shadow, quiet as a whisper in the snow, my form rippling into it’s blessed natural shape. I was a panther as I touched ground, my ears perked, my paws, five pounds of bones and sinew carried me along in a powerful gallop, my tail balancing my strides as my long muscled legs bunched and coiled like twin pythons. I was five strides away from the wall…three….one…And then I was air born again. I felt the piston-like thrust of my hind legs, my front paws drawing up, ebony claws extended to catch the wall top, eight foot, but I knew that I had been capable of those heights before. But I was sick and tired now, could I make it….In the instant I heard the gun-shots and the crack-piff impacts of them striking the wall around me.

I roared in assent, my lungs bursting with adrenalin and I was on top of the wall….But suddenly I felt a dull thud on my ribcage and I tripped, sending my body collapsing off the wall. I wanted to catch myself, cat’s always land on their feet people said. I can’t move…why can’t I?

I landed, a sharp crack at the base of my broad head ending the movements once and for all.

I began to feel a thorn, with tendrils of fire attached to it, blossom and work itself into my lungs, through them and into my heart. As my life darkened, and began to fade, I hear the voice, weakened and fading as well.

:I’m really going to miss her…:

From the Morgue De Fallensen, Dr. E. Reynard, mortician on duty.

The strange case of the were cat or Changeling, known as Symnal Veer, was documented by the guard that happened to bring her down that fated day, her inner dialogues supplemented by her Doctor at Sinking Springs. She had turned herself in for Psychiatric evaluation at Sinking Springs Psychiatric Ward a year before the day of her death, claiming to want to “keep them safe”. This ambiguity was never fully explained though other were cat prints have been documented since then.

Cause of death was shown to be a bullet wound to the chest, entrance below the right arm, the bullet was found lodged in the main artery of the heart, and a broken neck. Death was not instant, but she was dead upon retrieval. Her post-mortem form was that of a panther, seven feet in length, nose to tail, a ponderous size for any were cat. Her remains were given to her family and she was interred at a private ceremony.