Don't Fear The Reaper

Kay had been running for what felt like hours, her breath catching in her throat, ripping from her lungs, her legs turning slowly into jelly. Insanity, pure insanity. She had never meant to become a thief for The Guild, but at the time she had had no choice. Now she had to run, and keep running. She was in their territory, she had no idea where she was. America was an alien place to her, an alien land full of alien people who frowned upon her the same way her peers had frowned upon her in England. The occasional one would coo over her accent, but that was it. All the support she got. "Oh my gawd your accent is just so cy-ute!!!" No use at all. Kay stumbled, almost falling, and she heard a triumphant shout from behind her. They were gaining. In retrospect, it was her own fault; she had stolen the money from them in order to make her escape... But still... She should have remembered that that was not the best bet.

Using the last of her energy, and the knowledge she had gained whilst part of The Guild, Kay vaulted over a wall and stumbled, falling to her knees. The pain burned through her weary muscles; she had to move... But she just wanted to stay there, bre, ne, not move in the beautiful LA moonlight. But she knew she had to get up, a fact reiterated by the shouts she could hear. Gaining on her. Kay managed to get to her feet and scrabble across the scrubby grass to the shadowed house. There were no lights on inside, and Kay despaired of ever finding help. If only there had been someone in... She might have been able to get help... Cry 'rape' - no, wait, bad idea... She would have done something, anyway! Thief's Intuition had taught her that...

Hearing more calls, Kay slunk around the shadows, looking in desperate hope for something, anything to help her escape her capture and imminent sale. Please God... If You exist... Please help me now... Please...! I don't want to die, not just yet...! Please help me...?

Wonder of wonders, perhaps God did exist after all! As Kay rounded a corner to the brightly-moonlit side of the house she spotted it. A window that was slightly ajar. She breathed a silent sigh of relief and, mindless of any potential alarms, pulled the sash up and slid her insignificant frame through, pulling it closed behind her.

"She went up to the house!"

"Alright, scout around, and find her! We can't afford letting Minerva get away! She will fetch a pretty penny or two!"

Minerva. Kay shuddered; her surname filled her with loathing. Her father's surname. Roger Minerva. Scientist. Crime lord extrodinaire. Until his murder. Kay loathed being associated with the cruel things her father had done to innocents -including her beautiful, murdered mutant mother- and had never used her surname since she ran away from her foster-care at fifteen. But at sixteen The Guild found her, and her surname entitled her to automatic Membership. Whoopie. Kay turned away from the window and scampered silently out of the room.

At a mere 5"1, Kay Minerva, with her huge green eyes and platinum blonde hair attracted no attention, and would not be seen slinking through the shadows. In fact, the only thing that set her apart from the rest of The Guild was her tail. Her mother had been a Feliæ, a half-human, half-cat mutant. Her father had been fascinated with mutants, and had married Selena as an experiment. After Kay had been born he had Selene murdered. He had hoped that his 'pure' genes would purge their child of the mother's mutant genes, but they had failed, to a degree. Kay did not possess her mother's ability to morph completely into a feline, but she had inherited her mothers' cat-eyes, tail and ears. Her ears were easily hidden under her hair, her tail could be hidden under clothes, the eyes could be fobbed off under the guise of contact lenses, but the charade was destined to fail after a time. Being part of The Guild meant Kay could hide nothing, and eventually her mutancy was discovered, so she had to run.

She made her way slowy up the stairs, taking in her surroundings. She could hear no movement -her own was silent- in the house, and from the chill in the air she imagined that the owner was out. It was a beautiful house, Kay noticed. A 'nice' house. It had been so long since she had seen a house that wasn't covered in graffiti, blood and goodness-only-knows-what-else, that this was a novelty, and Kay spent a little time exploring once she had made certain everything was safe. Three bedrooms. Three! What was one to do with three bedrooms?! Kay shook her head in wonder, pausing to look at each one. All three had beds in. The first room, what Kay assumed to be the 'Master' room, held a massive bed, bigger than double. She was tempted to run over and leap on it. She refrained for a moment, then gave into temptation. She had almost completely forgotten her persuers as she leaped up and down, grinning, but a faint shout stopped her, made her remember, and she stopped jumping, scrabbled off the bed quickly and went back to the second room. It was somewhat smaller than the first, with a double bed, not quite as interesting. The last held a single bed, and was so cluttered with junk and other various amounts of paraphrenelia that Kay couldn't help going in. She leaped lightly onto the bed, not disturbing the many blankets piled there. It looked warm... Kay yawned, suddenly realising how tired she was. She was frightened; she didn't want to sleep in a strange place, in a strange house with members of The Guild outside waiting for her... But sleep seemed inevitable...

Perhaps... Perhaps they won't find me... Underneath all these blankets... I'm only small... She thought, her eyelids already drooping. She burrowed deep under the covers, shut her eyes, and was practically asleep straight away.