Page 86 of Madness Becomes Her

Beau takes off toward the house, barreling inside as a massive cat emerges from the edge of Cheshire Wood.

“Oh my God,” I breathe, backing toward the house like it’ll save me.

It is as big as an elephant, covered in dark gray fur, and its yellow eyes are honed in on me.

“It will obey once it’s tamed,” I hear Prospero whisper from around me.

“How the fuck do you tame a mammoth cat?” I ask, but no answer comes.

I’m on my own, it seems.

One doesn’t know how they’ll die. It’s the looming fear everyone in life has, but I never once thought I’d die by the hand of a magical cat.

Running from the Bog,I kept looking over my shoulder at the enormous cat giving chase behind me. In my head, I knew running would be futile, but instinct took over, and it seemed like the imminent thing to do.

The Vorpal Blade is heavy in my hands, giving me some assurance I’ll live through the fight, but I was fighting a giant man with the damned thing during training.

Not a bloodthirsty cat.

The hungry beast’s snarls behind me send shivers up my spine, and the hairs on my body stand on end as I run as fast as I can. My muscles burn and my lungs ache as I pull shallow breaths of cold air into them.

Searching the treeline of the path I’m on, I find no place to hide and nothing that’ll help me defeat the damned thing, either.

“Running is futile!” Prospero’s voice booms from somewhere, causing me to snag my foot on a rock and fall ass over tea kettle.

A scream rips from my throat. Rolling onto my back, I stand the Vorpal Blade upward, hoping the massive cat will run right over me and I can open it up from beneath with the tip.

No such thing happens, though.

The beast comes to a skidding halt over the top of me, its ugly face dipping into mine, drool dripping from its teeth.

“You must tame it!” Prospero yells.

“Really helpful!” I grit out, jutting the blade upward into the feline’s chest.

The cat hisses, fury blazing through its yellow eyes. Snapping its teeth mere inches from my face, it nearly bites me.

I press further into the ground beneath me, digging my feet into the dirt and moving backward. The Vorpal Blade sinks into the cat’s chest, with a popping sound ripples through the air, and I feel the moment the tip enters its body.

A whimper gets caught in my throat. “I’m sorry,” I tell it. “But if you’d just cease trying to kill me, we can both be on our way!”

“Give me one good reason,” it says.

“You can speak?” I squeak out.

“Yessss. Why wouldn’t I be able to speak?”

“I just thought… Never mind.”

“Give me one good reason not to kill you,” it repeats.

“I’ve done nothing to you?” I float.

“But I have my orders.”

“Orders?”

Holding the blade steady is hard with my shaky hands, but I do my best.