Narrative: Altering Plans WHO: Caitlin Murphy WHEN: Wednesday, after school WHERE: Around Camden
With Van serving detention until what seemed like the end of time, Caitlin was bored. A bored cat sìth could be quite a bit of trouble. In some way, it might be good that Van was otherwise occupied because it meant she could think a bit more clearly. Van was her friend. Friend was a word she didn't just hand out like candy or free samples. She could only name two people at the school she would use that term for. Friend was something deeper for her. Something damn near sacred. Van wasn't a friend like John was. She liked John. He was grumpy and sarcastic and funny. Van was . . . something else.
When she'd more or less asked him to the dance and he said he wanted to go with someone else, it hurt. Hurt more than she wanted to admit to anyone, even Van. Van probably had some idea but that only made her angrier at him. She wanted him to go to the dance with her because he wanted her to, not because she got annoyed that he wasn't. The conversation ended amiably but Van had been right that Caitlin wasn't going to show up at the dance. She wasn't going to waste a whole fucking evening at a thing she wouldn't go to normally just to hang out for a little bit here and there with him. Fuck that.
She was starting to wonder if maybe she needed to distance herself a bit from Van. She hadn't expected what he said to bother her as much as it did. She didn't like feeling that way. She didn't like . . .
So instead she would busy herself with going into town. There were other fish to fry and someone was overdue for a bit of vengeance. Caitlin hadn't forgotten about the picture that Sasha took of her in the bonnet. The little fucker still had it on his phone. He clutched that phone for dear life. Even if she could pickpocket it from him, he would notice its absence.
She'd contemplated pushing him into the water during the Polar Bear Dive. Too obvious. Then she remembered the school play. Sasha had been cast in it. She began sneaking into the play practices as a cat. Nimble and small, nobody noticed her at all. Her dark pelt had her blend in easily with the curtains, and she kept up high on the rafters. Last week she sat and watched the practices from her perch, mapping out how she wanted to go about doing this.
It was on the way into town when she passed by a building that caught her attention.
It wasn't the sort of building any of her classmates might shown an interest in. It wasn't in the heart of town, nor was it a place of entertainment. Caitlin stood outside the door of Long Funeral Home. It might appear odd to see a teenager wearing a pair of worn jeans and a hooded sweatshirt take such an interest in a mortuary. Caitlin's fingers twitched at her side, as if she was looking for something there and remembered it wasn't there anymore.
Her muscles tensed a bit when she thought about it. The soul she'd once possessed was gone. She'd used it back in Arizona when her foster dad killed her. Every day was a risk that she could die and not come back. Much like her parents had.
Cat sìth cheated death. They literally had nine lives if they were smart about keeping a soul handy. Caitlin had eight left but even then, it was more like none since she didn't have her 'get out of jail free' card. She exhaled through her teeth. She would need to fix that.
A lot of people didn't just die every day in a small town like Camden. Cities had a much higher probability of having a wake of some sort. Funerals were good for sending a person to the next world. Until then they were trapped, and a cat sìth needed a fresh soul to trap. If she could use any old soul, she might have thought about snatching one of the ones around the school. But that would've been too risky. She doubted Ms. Menides would approve.
But outside the school, Ms. Menides couldn't tell her to do shit. Neither could Hallowfen. Gnawing on the inside of her cheek, Caitlin looked to see a list of planned services on the outside. No names yet but maybe she'd get lucky. Maybe in the next few weeks someone would croak and they would have a service. If she was really lucky, it would be on the same day as the dance. Not that she needed to give Van an excuse, but she wanted one anyway. Just in case he tried to give her a hard time about bailing, even if he knew that was exactly what she was going to do.
She made a note of the website listed on a board just outside the place. She would keep an eye on that in case something popped up. However, she couldn't just snap her fingers and get the soul. She needed to plan and put together a spell. She would need to prepare the container that the soul would be kept in.
Caitlin moved away from the building and went further into town toward Nazar's. Sasha would get his comeuppance, but Caitlin had something more pressing to take care of first.