Chapter 5: Out of Place

Would you look at that, a wave of boredom, my favorite…

It had been two minutes since Nathan and Dad left the house for the job hunt and it didn’t take that long until I became bored. Seriously, there was nothing to do in this dumb and ancient hut! My phone wasn’t with me so I couldn’t even kill boredom since YouTube or games aren’t available. What was worse was that there were no toys in this house to even do something!

I debated if I should ask Mom about letting me out, but knowing her fear of the outside ever since learning that what we were going through was not a dream, I doubted she’d let me step outside for even a millisecond. Sure, she ain’t the kind of over-protective mom, but like… I could feel she was not going to let me even if I pleaded.

But even so… I don’t wanna spend the entire day locked in this house, melting with nothing better to do! Sure, it might be hot outside, but I’m not affected by it, strangely enough. But that was not the point! I was not about to be stuck in this smelly, dirty rut for the rest of my life. If worse comes to worst, I’ll sneak out the window in mine and Nathan’s bedroom so I could be a free bird! … Oor a free cub, I guess.

I remembered about the three Pokémon I met yesterday with Nathan. Those three seemed to know how to have fun in this world without any electronics. What were the names again? … eh, I’ll remember in time, maybe.

I got up from the floor and started walking towards the black lion that was my mom, sitting on the ground looking like she was still analyzing her body, specifically her tail. It was still weird looking at her in that form. She looked imposing and intimidating, and her eyes were scary as hell, but deep inside, I felt warm and comfortable around her, like an invisible voice told me she was a haven of protection and love. 

I just hoped that I wasn’t going crazy and I was hallucinating things.

“Mom?” I called out to her.

Mom looked at me, cringing a little before blinking a little bit. “Ah, uh… hey Alexa. What… is it?”

I realized she seemed a bit shaken from something, but I ignored it for now and went right to the important question. “So… can you let me go outside?”

Mom’s eyes widened as she shouted. “What!? Are you crazy!?”

“But Mom, listen to me! I have nothing to do in this house besides just sitting all day waiting for time to pass by. It’s not bad out there in the village, I saw it myself with Nathan yesterday!” I argued, trying to convince her. At this point, Mom was just becoming a big scaredy cat, quite literally.

“Sure, there might be some inoffensive and small Pokémon, but what about the dangerous ones that lurk around? You should have someone to watch you!”

I deadpanned, looking at her unamused. “If you say so, you could just come with me to watch me.” 

Mom opened her mouth to answer but visibly hesitated. “I… like…” She then groaned, flicking her tail to the side in annoyance. “If you really want to go out, then do it! You’re not the little baby that you once were so I don’t need to keep watch on you at all times!” She then grimaced as she muttered looking to the side. “Just make sure not to go far away from the house alright? Don’t go to the bottom floor of the village, alright?”

Wow, that was… way easier than expected. I was pretty sure it would take some convincing to get the point across but apparently, that wasn’t even needed. It felt weird seeing Mom give in so easily, she usually fought more to get her point across. Maybe we did change a little because of our new bodies, Mom seemed more focused on keeping on her pride like lions do…

I just remembered… cat lick their asses when they are bathing themselves. Did we have to do that too!?

I shivered at the thought, cringing at the prospect of bathing myself the gross way. Mom caught me cringing and tilted her head silently. I looked at her and responded. “Ah, nothing, Mom. I just thought of some gross stuff. Anyways, thanks, imma go now.” I said hastily before leaving the house, feeling Mom’s gaze on my back.

Outside, I felt a small breeze brush past me, cooling me a bit on this hot day. As I closed the door, I tried to filter my mind to another thought but the damn thought kept coming back no matter what I did!

I pawed my head. ‘Shut up brain, go think of something else!’ 

I sighed before looking around, seeing the neighborhood around our home. It was much more lively than it was yesterday. It was filled with strange Pokémon I knew nothing about. Some animal-like and some… uh… whatever it was the floating black thing with eyes on all sides of its head. I made a mental note to stay away from whatever that thing was…

I started walking around, feeling the heat of the sun send its rays against my body. I still didn’t know why, but for some reason, the sunrays felt like a massage to my body, mostly mental but a massage nonetheless. I felt so relaxed that I couldn’t help but stretch a little bit, raising my hips a little to stretch my back instinctively. 

It felt weird to be doing some shit on instinct. It was like I was a puppet on a string for something greater controlling me, that’s what it felt to me when I fucking ate raw meat for the first time in my life. I may not had nightmares that night but I’m definitely sure I’m gonna have them some later nights of me eating living animals off-

No! Stop thinking about that shit! 

I sighed before starting to walk around the residential area of the village, thinking to myself as some Pokémon eyed me for a second. ‘Seriously, how the fuck Nathan goes along with this shit so easily? He’s bound to be freaked out by SOMETHING, right?’  

As I continued walking a bit further, I noticed three familiar figures in the distance. They were those kids from yesterday, the orange mouse, the purple cat, and the bluish cat-like Pokémon. What were their names again…? Uh… Tami, Yuku, and… wait, was the mouse named Yuku…? Eh, I’d cross that bridge when I get to it.

I approached the trio who seemed to be idling around, talking to themselves, the purple cat leaning on the wall of a wood-made house and licking his forepaws. It only reminded me of my current condition if I decide to bathe, let alone, be controlled by instinct when I bathe.

I shook my head as I reached them, the trio of Pokémon looking at me. The mouse’s eyes glistened a little once he saw me, unlike the others, for some strange reason. “Oh, you’re here!” The mouse said, waddling up to me with his little arms and hands. “So you want to play with us!?” He asked with a gleeful grin on his face.

I nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, I decided “why not”, you know?”

The purple cat got away from the wall, smirking at me as he crossed his arms in a very human-like way… “So, boredom got you it seems like.” He said, which made me widen my eyes a little. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s written all over your face. As I said yesterday, this town is small, nothing exciting happens so Pokémon are bound to get bored.”

I sheepishly smiled, getting a little embarrassed for getting called out like that. “I guess so.”

The other cat… badger Pokémon put a paw on his side and said. “Good timing for you to be here. It’s the day off from school and we were about to play our favorite game.”

I tilted my head. “And that game is…?”

“Seek Hit ‘n Miss!” The rodent said while lifting a paw. “Think of Hide and Seek but with a few extra steps!”

The purple cat… wait, Yugu, yeah, Yugu, added with a motion of his paws. “See, the game is simple, you just hide until the guy who finds you catches you. You can attempt to run, but here’s the second part of the game. Let’s say, if I catch you, we’ll be forced into a one-on-one. If you hit me with one of your moves first, you escape and I can’t catch you anymore. But if I hit you, I win and you are caught.”

I blinked a little before a wave of nervousness came crashing down on me. If I wasn’t a fire cub right now, I’d definitely be sweating. Why? Simple. Me getting hit and trying to use powers that I don’t even know how to use!

This was the worst outcome ever! If I needed to hide my true identity, I needed to behave and act like a Pokémon in front of others, which meant using my magic powers like a normal lit… litleo, right? But unfortunately, I’m not a normal litleo and I literally just appeared in this world yesterday!  

Honestly, why couldn’t they have a game about hunting small critters and-… honestly no, I was not gonna put other living beings in my mouth, especially things like bugs, hell no.

The cat badger tilted his head as he looked back at me. “Alexa, you alright? You look unsure of something…”

I blinked as my attention focused back on them. I sheepishly laughed before responding. “Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just thinking about what the best hiding spots should be around here!” It was a simple lie, but one that would suffice. “So… I guess the area of the game is just within the residential of the village, right?”

Yugu flicked his fingers to me. “Spot on. And not entering other houses as well to hide.” He then shrugged with his paws. Damn, why do the bipedal ones remind me of humans…? “After all, I’m pretty sure your parents also prohibited you from exiting the town to go into the forest, right?” 

“Yep, exactly.” I replied with a sigh. Not like I was particularly sad about this outcome, but like, it invoked a feeling inside of me, like I was trapped. What are these feelings and why do I keep developing them!? “But well, anyways, who’s gonna be the seeker?”

The mouse… uh… Tami raised a paw. “Well, it’s my turn! Mikama was the seeker last time!” 

Mikama (I guess, the badger cat) shook his head. “Nah, I think it’s fair to let Alexa be the seeker. After all, she’s the new one to this.” He then started looking at me, one of his ears flickering. “Well, that is if she wants to.”

The trio looked at me expectantly. I resisted taking a step back from the pressure of their expectations as I took a moment to evaluate my options. I could just turn down the offer of playing with them and just continue hiding my identity. But of course, the only con in that is the boredom I’ll get for doing absolutely nothing.

Speaking of boredom, how the hell is Mom not feeling bored out of her mind right now just being cooped up in that house with nothing better to do?

Whatever, that just left me with the other option and that is to play their game and figure shit out as I went. If I remember, Nathan already figured out how to use SOME magic, meaning that I could just follow what he knows and pull something outta my ass. What was that he said to pull out that lighting bolt? Intent…? Yeah, I think that was it.

I would be fine… right?

“Sure… I can be the seeker. I just hope my ele- I mean, flames aren’t that hot for you guys!” I said with a small stutter and a wink. Hopefully, they didn’t catch my mistake. I was a fire lion, not an electric one like Nathan and Mom were!

“Well, if you say so.” Yugu stretched before getting into a running position. “You can close your eyes and start counting to ten…” The other three did the same, it even seemed like some were ready to pounce at something. “Now!”

With that, the three Pokémon started running in random directions as I closed my eyes. I started counting slowly out loud. While I counted, I started to think about how would I find them in a big place like this. If they could always find each other in here, then that meant they were using some sort of animal tracking instinct or- … of course, the smell.

Shit, I wasn’t paying attention to how they smell! 

Okay, I couldn’t panic. I didn’t have time to do that! I’m still a human deep inside, I should improvise, adapt, and overcome the situation. I needed to think of a way to find them as soon as possible. But how…?

Wait a second, the mouse, he was the one closest to me. Now that I thought about it… he did have a unique smell… ugh, what was it? I couldn’t remember it!

“10!” 

I shouted the last number a bit out loud as I opened my eyes, looking around the place and noticing they were nowhere to be seen. The hunt finally began, and I had no idea how to start. 

“Wait a second.” I looked down and prayed to whatever god there was in this magic land there would be some. Oh lucky me, I found just what I wanted. Squinting my eyes, I saw a little bit of orange fur on the ground, gathering a bit of dust. Maybe, just maybe, the mouse’s scent was still there. “I might not be a dog, but I just hope it’s enough.” I smirked. “Gonna be like a cat and mouse chase for now.”

I lowered my head and sniffed the small bits of orange fur. I didn’t know if it was the dust or the fur itself but it had a sweet but musky scent like some of it had been dipped in various places and hadn’t washed in a week or so. Now that I thought about it, every time I got close to a Pokémon that wasn’t from my family, their smell was either musky if they had fur, or neutral if they had scales. I just hope I didn’t find any aquatic Pokémon or something because I fucking hate fish smell…

“Alright time to start searching.”

So, I began my search, aimlessly walking around and sniffing the air along the way trying to find three cute pet-like Pokémon hiding around the place. I shifted my fringe to the side to see a little better. It also helped me not to get strands of fur sucked into my nostrils as well since I noticed I shed a lot of fur, more than the others. I hope that didn’t mean anything bad… 

After a small I realized, sniffing led to nowhere. Ugh, that was a waste of time. I didn’t know how to separate smells since I was new to this body. What made it worse was that other different kinds of smells and scents appeared out of nowhere, making me forget the fur’s scent immediately. Wait, was someone cooking eggs?

It was just hopeless at this point. I should just stop looking like an idiot and just look around. Maybe I could find them that way. If I could spot something about them like that orange ear and cream-colored tail poking out behind a house, it could give me some hope. Honestly, it would just be better to aimlessly walk and- wait a minute…

I stopped and looked back where I saw a glimpse of those body parts. I knew I saw those before, they belonged to the mouse. I grinned as I started sprinting behind the house, skidding to a stop once I saw the orange mouse gasp in surprise from being found. I grinned and said. “Found ya!”

Now all I needed to do was just tag him and- wait, what was he doing?

The mouse suddenly got up in his hind legs and started rubbing his cheeks rapidly, and for some reason, they were releasing sparks of electricity. His rubbing got to a point where his entire body was covered with electricity, but less bright than what Nathan did.

I then remembered one crucial thing about this game… this wasn’t the normal Hide & Seek.

Even with that realization, I was too slow. The mouse launched a small thunderbolt at me, shocking my entire body. I screamed as electricity coursed through my body, leaving my fur standing up straight from the static. The pain… was something I never experienced before. Sure, I got some small shocks from some exposed wires and finicky outlets, but holy shit, never something to this degree. It felt like outlet shocks but multiplied by a hundred…

After the shock was gone, only static electricity lingered around the air and my body. I dropped to the ground, feeling the strength of my legs fade. I honestly thought I was gonna die, but just as much as that pain came, it went away, like it had just drained a bit of my stamina. I opened my eyes slowly and saw the mouse coming directly at me. “What…?” 

The orange rodent stopped in front of me with a panicked look on his face. “Alexa! Are you okay!? I didn’t mean for the attack to be that strong!” He then put one of his forepaws on my forehead, probably checking for any damage. Instead of him smelling sweet and musky at the same time, he smelled kinda funky, like someone who bathed themselves in some kind of strange sauce and then washed themselves. “Please tell me you’re not that hurt-”

I brushed the paw off my head softly. “I’m… fine…” The strength in my legs slowly returned as I started to stand up again. “Ugh… that was painful…”

“Why didn’t you dodge?” The mouse- wait, now I remembered, Tami, asked with a tilt of his head. “I know electricity is fast but Thunder Shock is one of my slower electric moves.”

I looked away in embarrassment. “I uh… forgot about the “Hit ‘n Miss” part of the game… so I was caught off guard.”

“It’s alright, I take it it’s the first time you’re playing with us so you could’ve forgotten easily. I’m just worried I hurt you.” Tami said as he got in his hind legs for a moment again and fiddled with his small fingers in shame.

“As I said, I’m fine.” I then looked away and muttered to myself. “For some reason, this body takes electrical shocks like it’s nothing…”

“What?”

I looked back at the mouse with a surprised and nervous look as I quickly said sheepishly. “N-nothing!” I started to walk away a bit hastily, just trying to get away ASAP before the rodent decided to question me further. “Anyways, since you’re free from me, I’m gonna look for the others, see ya later!” 

“Uh, okay, I’ll wait for you at the counting spot!” Tami said as he rushed to supposedly the place I was counting at (and the place I forgot where it was).

I sighed and started the search again, however, with a lot of other things in mind. ‘Are Pokémon just that much more resistant? I’m pretty sure if I received a shock like that as a human, I would straight up be in a hospital or worse…’ It just felt so wrong to receive an electrical shock like that and just be walking like nothing happened at all. I’m pretty sure a normal cat my size would just die if they received that like I did. 

You know, as weird as it is, I don’t think being that resistant to other magic is a bad thing. Sure, it still hurts like hell, but after receiving an attack like that, I realized that we are way more resistant than normal animals. And hey, I have power over fire so I might be even more resistant to that!

I continued walking around, trying to spot any trace of the two other boys. Instead of having an idea of where they could be, I didn’t have any clue to help me in their search. No scent to follow, no noise they could make, and of course, they wouldn’t be hiding in plain sight. A part of my mind wanted me to give up and just surrender, but like, what if they called me out for that? What if they say something, like, “Oh why aren’t you using your feline senses or something? I’m pretty sure you could easily spot us if you used that!” And then I had to make some sort of excuse to not get found out that I’m a human.

Maybe I was overthinking things and my brother is probably passing his overthinker virus onto me. At least I’m not an angsty bitch like he is!

I turned my head around, feeling my ears flicker as the sound of chatter entered my ears. The voices weren’t from any of the boys. “Ugh, just where are they? It’s been two whole minutes already…” This was leading me nowhere, I couldn’t spot them anywhere, and I was making sure to check every house as well. Not the inside of course, but just around it. And yet, despite the town (more like a village) being small, there were so many houses and some empty ones! “Dammit, at this rate I’m never gonna find them…”

I sighed before saying, “If I could see through walls, this would’ve been way fucking easier…” I blinked while groaning.

However, as I opened my eyes, I doubled back and flinched at what I saw, screaming a little bit. It’s just like what I wished came true and I could see through fucking walls and objects. Nothing was filtered through me, when I said could see through anything, I meant it. I even could see the inside of one of the villagers, seeing their inner organs and dog-like skeleton. That scared the shit out of me.

I blinked again and, just like that, the weird vision was gone. I took quick breaths, trying to recover myself from that scare. I even saw some of the villagers looking at me in confusion. I tried to regain my composure as I quickly muttered. “What the fuck was that…?”

“Hey, kid.”

I jumped, startled by the sudden male voice before turning around to face the source of it. The Pokémon was some sort of red and white mushroom with a strange but familiar emblem for a cap at the top of his head and at the tip of his limbs. That emblem… I’ve seen it somewhere before… like, it’s at the tip of my tongue. “Are you alright? You seemed… a bit startled by something. Is everything okay?” He asked with his weird (and kind of disgusting) round lips.

I stood a bit quiet, trying to come up with an excuse that would get me out of this situation. The stress was finally catching up to me so I stuttered a lot. “I-I… um… s-sorry, I thought I s-saw… something…” I started taking a couple of steps back before running away. “Gotta go!!!” 

During my run, I was not looking at where I was going so I bumped into something- actually someone, hearing an “Oof” from the person (or Pokémon rather). I sat on the ground and rubbed my head. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was… going?” I opened my eyes and saw Mikama, the badger cat, sitting on the ground as well, rubbing his chest. “Oh… hi Mikama.”

“Geez girl, you got a tough skull.” The badger cat (I was probably butchering what animal he resembled) said as he got up and dusted himself, putting a paw on his side. “But well, congrats on finding me. It took longer than expected but alright. Have you found the others yet?” 

“Well… I… I found Ta… was it Taro? No wait, Tami. I found Tami already and… lost to him. But I still need to find Yugu.” I admitted, feeling a bit ashamed of myself.

“Huh, weird. Yugu is always the first one to be found since his hiding spots are lazy.” Mikama shrugged. “Ah well, you’ll find him later, no worries. But anyways…” He got into a fighting position before fire fucking quills suddenly came out of his head and back all sizzling and sparking. “You ready for the Hit ‘n Miss?”

I got a bit nervous about it since I didn’t know what he could do with fire. But since I was of fire as well, it put me a little bit at ease about this. Although, it’s impressive that I didn’t chicken out from this game yet after I knew its dangers and all the stress I’ve been through.

Wait a second, WHY I didn’t stop playing yet? I still need to figure out what the hell was that x-ray vision shit that I did!

I wanted to just say a hard no to Mikama and just go back home to my mom so we could figure out all this mess together. But… for some damn reason, I wanted to continue this game until the end. I don’t know if it was the overthinking virus of my brother or this body making me think differently than usual, but for some reason, I wanted to go complete. But still… why?

“Alright, I’m ready.” I said as I got into a pouncing stance like cats do. I just hoped that I would be able to figure out how to do any fire because, if not, I just hope my claws did something useful.

… I would fail again, wouldn’t I?

The “battle” started with Mikama shooting a small fireball from his mouth. Thankfully the adrenaline kicked in at the same time when my brain made a simple connection of: “Fireball = danger. FUCKING DODGE!!!” Answering the demands of my brain, I jumped out of the way of the fireball, feeling the heat brush through the fur of my tail. That was close, I almost couldn’t jump out of the way in time.

Wait, I remembered, now it was my chance to do something! 

I stomped on the ground and mustered all the intent I wanted to conjure a fireball. I could feel my entire body increase in temperature, but instead of feeling sick over this, it felt warm and comfortable. This was it, I was ready to release my first fireball! 

I opened my mouth and I could feel all the heat my body built up travel all the way to the tip of my mouth and, for some reason, the red fur of my fringe as it lit up. With one mighty blow, I sent a- … a small ember that just dissipated in the air after two seconds. 

The badger cat and I stood silent, the fire in my fringe disappearing quickly as we just stared at each other for a bit. “Uh…” He started, scratching the side of his head with a paw. “What was that…?”

“… I-” ‘Oh for fuck’s sake! I’m so dumb! Why did I agree to this stupid game without knowing how to do jackshit with flames!? Now he’s gonna get suspicious of me!!!’ “-Don’t know…” I rubbed the back of my head (somehow…?) and looked aside. “I… uh… to be honest, I never trained with my uh… flames.”

The fire quill Pokémon took a step back, flinching in surprise. “WHAT!? Why!? Every fire-type Pokémon knows that their flames are important!”

“I- I know that and all but uh…” I stayed silent, thinking of an answer. “I find my claws and teeth more reliable. Y-yep.”

Ugh, if only I was a master liar like Nathan was… I knew this was gonna bite me later in the ass…

Mikama frowned, crossing his forearms and flattening his ears. “Well, if you say so… but why did you try to use your fire if you didn’t train it?”

I looked away again, faking embarrassment. “I just didn’t want to seem like a weirdo of a Pokémon for you three.” Technically the truth. Sure, my case was much deeper than that but it was kinda the same, right?

The fire badger cat sighed and smiled. “No need to feel nervous about us. We’re a chill group and we don’t judge other Pokémon based on their defects.” He then looked aside and mouthed something in a low voice that I wasn’t able to hear correctly, only hearing the words “unlike” and “group”. He clenched his paws and put his arms forward again, getting into a fighting stance. “Wanna keep going then…?”

I internally sigh before getting into stance again. “Yeah.” This time, my strategy would change to a simple: Get close and swipe. Seems easy enough, right? Right?

I charged first, trying to get close once again. However, that was my fatal mistake as when I got a bit close, Mikama shot an almost point-blank fireball at my face, obscuring my vision in flames and forcing me to close my eyes. The sting of pain came back at full force but at the same time… I almost didn’t feel agony afterwards? It was a really strange sensation, smoke entered my nostrils and I could feel the smell of burning fur (somewhat), and yet, it didn’t hurt that much. I opened my eyes and noticed that the flames were gone, although, I did cough a bit probably because of the smoke. 

Well, that plan certainly worked as I intended! This game was going nowhere.

Mikama approached me, his sizzling flame quills disappearing. “Hey, are you hurt?”

I looked away, feeling a bit disappointed and ashamed. “N-no… not really… not by that much, honestly.”

“Well, if you say so…” The badger cat looked aside and crossed his arms. “Honestly, no hard feelings, but you would probably have better chances at winning battles if you trained your fire more. Like, you might be part normal, but fire is also a part of you.” 

I sighed and looked back at him. If only he knew the full picture… “Yes, I understand… it’s just so hard for me…” 

Mikama tilted his head. “Why so…?”

Honestly, if it was just for me, I would’ve told him already. But nope, apparently I need to please Nathan’s paranoia (because he also passed it on to me). Instead of coming up with an elaborate lie, I just simply replied while looking down. “You wouldn’t understand…”

The badger cat Pokémon sighed. “Well, it’s fine if you don’t wanna tell.” He then started walking away. “Anyway, I’m gonna go back to the initial spot. Hope you can find Yugu.” That was the last thing he said before disappearing from my sight.

I sighed and blew my fringe away from my eyes. “I hate this feeling…” I started walking again in a random direction. There was one last member of the trio to find and it was the purple cat. Mikama said that Yugu’s hiding spots were lazy, but like… were they, really? Maybe it was lazy for him since he knew Yugu or because he had some sort of tracking instinct or something. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t know how to cat!

I continued walking aimlessly before a recognizable lax voice could be heard at my side. 

“Hey.”

I looked at the source of the voice and saw Yugu standing next to me, his arms crossed while he had the same feline smirk on his face as he did our last few encounters. I flinched a little. “Yugu!? Why did you reveal yourself to me?”

“Long story short: I got bored and went searching for you.” He then put one of his paws on his side. “You see, I’m more into the Hit ‘n Miss part than the “seek” part of the game if you get what I mean.”

My tail lowered as I looked a bit down. “You didn’t come looking for me because I took too long, did I?”

Yugu shrugged with a grin. “Girl, I would’ve come looking for you regardless if you took long or not. I do that whenever Mikama or Tami are the seekers.” 

“Oh, I see…”

The purple cat smirked. “Anyways…” He unsheathed his claws while putting one paw on his side. “Ready for our dance?”

I looked at Yugu with a grimace. My brain was heavily debating if I should do this or not. One last try in proving myself that I can be a Pokémon. But another part of it was heavily deciding the opposite, saying that I should just go back home and get my bearings together because all of this was becoming too much for a single human-turned-Pokémon to endure. And eventually, I reached a decision…

“… no.”

Yugu’s smirk disappeared and was slowly replaced with a frown. “What…?”

I started taking some steps back, slowly distancing myself from Yugu, not being able to face him anymore. I felt like a coward. “I… I’m sorry… I just…” I turned away from the purple cat, starting to walk away. “I just… I can’t do it.” 

“Wait, Alexa, what’s wrong?”

I heard Yugu call for me, but I ignored him and started walking away from him. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear to face him. I knew that if I did continue lying, I would eventually crack and tell the truth. It was always like that with my parents and my old friends… 

I didn’t go back to the counting spot, but instead, I walked back home. However, on the way back, I saw Dad and Nathan walking out of the lift that led to the residential street, carrying some paper bags in their mouths. From the smell alone, I could already tell it was more delicious meat- ugh! No, I wouldn’t let my instincts think for me!

I groaned and walked straight towards our house. Not even acknowledging their presence when they saw me. I needed some time alone…