100TBC - 3 - Content

"Content"

He considered running. It was the plausible thing to do. It was the smart thing to do. By the time she realized he was gone he would have left his scent all over the town and leading out in twelve different directions. She’d eventually give up and find someone else to bother, someone else to latch onto. Of course, was it fair that he hand off the worst thing that’d ever happened to him to a complete stranger? Still, there was no guarantee that she’d form such an instant attachment to anyone in this town. Heck, it took her five cities and a trek across the Wasteland for her to find him and decide that she was his “sidekick”.

He grunted to himself as the clock struck the hour. He still had time to lay the fake trails. And then she’d be gone from his life for good. Even if she did end up attaching herself onto the next stranger she met, if they were smarter than he was they would put her where she belonged, in a mental hospital. The clouds shifted across the night sky and the faint moonlight filtered into the room. Her freckles, which normally looked like the pox was permanently glued to her face, were completely washed out, leaving the moonlight to freely highlight all the grooves and abnormally straight lines on her skin that hinted to a past he didn’t particularly want to know about. She shifted in her cardboard box and sighed into her hand, corners of her mouth pulled into a content smile. He imagined that she was probably dreaming that she was a dog chasing a squirrel or a bird flying in the sky. Then the moon was obscured behind the sky cover and all further thoughts of her were banished with the light. He stood up and silently walked across the floor. As he cautiously pulled the door open, the floorboard beneath his boot creaked and he silently cursed himself as he cast a glance in the direction of the sleeping lunatic.

“Are we leaving early?” He cursed himself again. Her head was up and alert, eyes shining with a brightness that any person just did not have after waking up. He had a strange feeling in his gut that she didn’t even suspect that he was going to just take off and leave her, and that make him stomach slightly unsettled.

“Yeah, I have a feeling it’s going to be really hot today, so I’d like to reach the next town before noon,” he said, grimacing as he heard her crawling and fumbling in the dark for her clothes. He was closing the door behind himself to give her some privacy when she tugged it back open.

“Wait.” Her voice was so small and heartbroken he almost felt sorry for trying to lose her. Almost. He turned to face her and immediately wondered how she managed to walk across the room without falling over. Her pants were halfway pulled up one leg and twisted around her other foot. Her shirt, which she had been sleeping in, was pulled over her head like a hood and exposed everything below her chest. He wondered in the back of his head if she even remembered that the shirt had buttons. “We’re not really leaving right now are we?” He looked away partly because of propriety, but mostly because the eyes that stared up at him from inside the shirt were a little more than he could bear. His stomach gave another strange little twist.

“No,” he answered truthfully, too ashamed of his lie to make another one.

“If you’re that hungry you could have woken me.” He could literally hear all the guilt leave.

“What?” when he turned to face her, she was pulling her shirt back into place and away from her neck, exposing the bandage wrapped and taped halfway between her neck and shoulder. In an instant he could smell the coppery liquid on his tongue. It was true, he hadn’t eaten in a while, but he wasn’t nearly as hungry as he had been last time she’d talked him into eating. And he wasn’t anywhere near as desperate to try it again. “Oh, no. I wasn’t-”

“I know you don’t like it, but-”

“It’s okay. I’m not-”

“-you really shouldn’t. Besides-”

“Kitty, listen to me I’m not-”

“-and just think of all the-”

“I’M NOT HUNGRY!”

Her mouth snapped shut and her eyes widened in stunned silence. His stomach wretched again as the usual fleeting look of hurt passed over her face whenever he yelled at her. But it was gone in an instant and she tripped over herself walking back to the rest of her things across the room.

“Okay, give me two minutes and I’ll be ready to go!” He groaned and shut the door after himself, hoping that the next night they’d find a room with non-squeaking floorboards.


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Kitty's first appearance in my regular deviations as a content content. She is both happy and the contents of a box.

At this point Joseph does not know that she is a lycanthrope. He just thinks she's crazy, another observation that is also correct. She likes to sleep in boxes and drawers and the like. No, her ears and tail (not featured) do not exist in her normal, human form. Only when a chibi.

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