Chapter 7
“Are you ready to head home, Alani?” Boston exclaims excitedly. He had gotten up early that Tuesday morning before he has to go to work. He checks over everything that he had put out for his new companion before he leaves for the humane society. Now he stands at the front desk with a carrier in hand that he has brought from home, anxiously awaiting to take her home.
Cindy wasn’t working that day to Boston’s delight and anther young lady named Gertrude walks out of the cat wing with Alani in her arms. Boston can see Alani’s stomach shaved from the surgery and can see the stitches but didn’t see any sort of cone around her head. Gertrude carries one to give to him and told him that she hasn’t been touching the stitches. She also told him that he only needed to use it if she begins to lick at her stitches. Boston eagerly steps forward, listening and nodding his head while placing the carrier on the counter beside him. He gratefully takes Alani into his arms and snuggles her close, taking in a deep breath and enjoying the musky cat fur smell.
Torrance, once again feeling sick from being so close to the man who had ended her life, forces herself to play nice. Instead of clawing out his eyes, she head butts the man, meowing constantly to make Boston believe that she is happy to see him. Boston laughs, for once feeling happy. It had been so long since he had felt true happiness that it began to scare him. With Gertrude’s help, Boston places Torrance…Alani into the cat carrier so that he can take her home. He carefully picks up the carrier and the head cone before he thanks Gertrude and Lily, the older woman sitting behind the desk that day, and heads out the front door. He carefully sits the carrier in the front seat of his truck, placing the cone on the ground, and buckles in the carrier for some extra security for the ride home. Boston drives home, chatting to Torrance all the way back to his house, laughing a little whenever Torrance meowed as if in response to him.
Once at the house, Boston lets Alani out of the carrier, tossing the cone off to the side since he doubted he would need to put it on her. He steps back so that she can investigate her new home. Alani slowly steps out of the carrier, feeling anxious now that she is standing inside the murderer’s house She can feel her heart beating hard in her tiny chest. Since she has been given a new name, she has had a hard time remembering her other name. Her memories have shifted as if she has never been a human and has always been a cat and she doesn’t like the changes. Alani gingerly steps around the living room, her nose smelling everything. Boston still stands beside the open carrier, watching as Alani takes in her new home and chews on his lower lip as anxiety races through his veins. Will she like her new house? What if she hates it here? What if she changes and hates him?
Alani walks from one room to the next, returning to the living room after a quick look around and heads over to the cat tree. She walks around it before she leaps into a hole on the first floor of the cat tree to find a comfortable bed waiting for her inside. She pokes her head out of the hole to look over at Boston, meows at him, then disappears back inside. She lays down in the bed and begins to recite repeatedly that her name is Torrance and that she must stop Boston from killing anyone else.
Feeling satisfied that Alani will be happy now, he picks up the carrier and closes the front door. He walks to the closet and stores it inside under the hanging coats before he heads into the kitchen. He needs a good cup of coffee and some cereal before he has to get ready for work. He had thought about using a sick day since this is Alain’s first day at home but he knew that his boss would not appreciate it. He had found out a while ago that his boss is not being a cat person after he told him that he was thinking about getting a cat. In no time Boston has eaten, had a cup of coffee, and has his second cup already poured into his traveling mug, and is ready to get to work at the accounting office.
“Okay Alani, I have to get going to the office now. I will work as fast as I can so that I can actually leave on time around 5:30 today,” he says as he peers inside the hole at his new friend, seeing her eyes staring back at out at him. “I’ll do what I can to get home to you as fast as I can. Food and water are in the kitchen while your litter box is in the bathroom.” He sticks his hand in and gently pets her on the head a few times before he rushes out to get to work before he would be considered late.
Torrance waits for a moment, listening to Boston driving away. She stands up and hops out of the cat tree, stretching as soon as her paws touch the ground. She slowly walks around the house this time taking her time to investigate each room. She wants to see everything, still unsure of how she will get her revenge on the man. There are no stairs in the house, it being only a one-story with no basement, so tripping him down the stairs to his death is out of the question. She sighs heavily as she stares around Boston’s bedroom, not really seeing anything helpful. She trots into the bathroom to see if she has any better luck. She eyes the bathtub and wonders if she could drown him or throw in some sort of electronics that is on while he is taking a bath. Of course, that would be hard since she is only a cat and has no thumbs to help her out.
Feeling discouraged, she slinks out of the bathroom and sits down just inside his bedroom again. Her eyes scan the room thinking maybe she can just cause a pillow to fall on his face as he sleeps and then sit on it, smothering him as he sleeps. She walks out of his bedroom and into the office next door, wondering if she could chew on the computer wires as part of the revenge, just to get under his skin. She heads under the desk and looks at the wires, licking her lips devilishly. Sighing heavily, she walks out from under the desk, looking everything over. Torrance eyes the contents of the room to see what she can knock off and break, preferably on his head while he is working on the computer.
She finishes her tour in the kitchen. She paws the cabinets below the sink to see what Boston has underneath that she could possibly use. Finally getting the cabinets open, she sits down and stares at the contents inside, seeing things that she could use to poison him but again she’s a cat. Not having human hands is really making this whole revenge idea quite complicated.
Slamming the cabinet doors closed with her back paws, she decides to settle on a little technology destruction for now. She runs back to the office, rushing back under the desk to cause havoc for the murder. She eyes all the cords stretching into the wall under the desk, trying to decide where to start. She listens to the computer but doesn’t hear the usual humming that tells her the computer isn’t on right now. She freezes and listens to the house settling around her, not knowing what time it was since she can no longer read a clock. Though she should be able to since she used to be a human, right? She shakes away the strange thoughts and returns to the task at hand; causing computer issues for Boston. She steps closer, pawing at the first cord, she thinks is the main cord for the computer but she isn’t 100% sure. Shrugging her shoulders, or as much as she can, and begins to chew on the cord, feeling her sharp teeth slowly to begin to shred the cord. She takes a couple of breaks so that she stays safe from getting electrocuted. Before she knows it, all of the cords have been shredded beyond repair and she smiles wickedly as she walks out of the office. She trots back to the kitchen, eats and drinks then makes herself at home in the cat tree, waiting for Boston to come home to her little gift.