Thanks for reading, guys. I knew Summermount was well-liked, but it's still nice to hear good things about it.

One of the post-Queenslayer ideas I've been kicking around is a spiritual successor to this story. More rape and guro than Queenslayer, but also the same attention to story and character. Also more balance of m/f and f/f, because my lesbian fetish clearly shows throughout the rest of Summermount.

Kitty

Sixteen-year-old Kitty Grant sat with her knees comfortably tucked into her sweatshirt, sitting behind the safety of her computer screen.

"Teens murdered," she muttered to herself as she read the local news. It probably wasn't anybody she knew, but it was interesting, so she kept reading. "Dani and Erica Winters . . . no way."

Kitty's heart clenched for a moment. She hadn't talked to either of them for years, but she saw them nearly every day. She'd even seen them yesterday, walking into the hotel they'd died at. It felt so strange. The Winters kids were so young—Dani was fourteen and Erica was fifteen. People died in Summermount all the time, but it was rarely by murder, and it had never happened to people Kitty knew. Her heart clenched up again when she realized she'd miss them. Despite never talking to these girls, she'd grown attached to them.

"Rest in peace," said Kitty to the screen, bowing her head. "I'll miss you both."

How had they died? The article didn't give any details. It would hurt that much more to know how the Winters kids died, but she had to know. Wasn't it the newspaper's job to inform? If they wouldn't, Kitty would have to find out herself.

She could call the news, but that would mean talking to people she didn't want to talk to. Instead, she slipped her feet into a pair of sandals and headed out of her room.

"Going out?" her mom asked.

Kitty mumbled a yes.

"Take something to protect yourself. The Winters girls died yesterday to a serial killer. And stay away from alleyways."

Kitty mumbled something about two victims not constituting a serial killer, but her mom didn't hear. She patted the knife in her pocket, meeting her mom's eyes.

"Good. Be safe. I love you."

Kitty smiled and left her home. She jogged to the Ocean Heights hotel, where she wasn't the only snooper. Fifteen or twenty people were already there. They surrounded yellow and black police tape. Kitty slipped past a couple people and poked her head over the tape. There were chalk markings, just like on TV, but something was different about these: the chalk didn't outline any recognizable human forms. There were two police officers there, a young man and a middle-aged man. She filtered out the surrounding noise and focused on what the cops said.

". . . completely absurd," the young man was saying. "Did they get DNA tests on the sperm?"

"Yeah, no results, obviously. We need suspects first.”

"Well, I guess we know the killer wanted us to see the bodies."

"Bodies?"

"For lack of a better term."

"Remains."

"Remains it is. If they were dead before he tossed them off, all that accomplished was getting everyone's attention."

Kitty backed away, a hand covering her mouth. She tried not to visualize what she'd just heard. She couldn't help it. She staggered off somewhere and vomited in a dumpster full of dead rats. The dead rats almost made her puke again, so she slammed the dumpster shut and curled up against the cement wall on the other side of the alley. She tucked her knees into her sweatshirt and hugged them to her chest. Keeping a tight check on her stomach, she recalled what she'd seen and heard. Besides the chalk outlines not resembling a human, they were fragmented—Erica and Dani had been dismembered either before or after falling from the hotel. For the outlines to be as deformed as they were, she imagined they'd fallen from at least the twentieth story. No wonder the news hadn't gone into detail. It was a disgusting, horrifying way to die and Kitty wouldn't have wished it on Hitler himself.

She'd learned what she wanted. She stood and took in a deep breath that still tasted like puke. Realizing she was in a dark alley, she drew her pocket knife and flicked the blade out. She stood silent and listened for any sign of a hostile. She had no intention of becoming the victim that turned the murderer into a serial killer, but she was admittedly flawless bait: teen girl, alone, nearly defenseless.

She almost stepped on something small and beige. She knelt in front of it. It had red lines all over it and looked like a squished sphere. She had a feeling she knew what it was. She poked it with her shoe. It rolled over to reveal a dirt-covered green pupil. Surely it was a fake, planted to scare people, but it unnerved her all the same. She strafed around it and got three steps before she heard a quiet mew behind her.

"Kitty?" she said, turning around. She could almost feel her eyes brightening. Petting a cute kitten would help her feel better, so she walked toward the noise. Indeed, it was a kitten, tiny and brown and absolutely adorable. It curled on a trash can's lid, sleeping. Kitty approached it on her toes. She reached out and gently petted it while it slept. She felt her fear and pain subside. Petting a kitten would never make her forget what had happened to Dani and Erica, but it definitely made her feel better. The soft fur under her hand calmed her. Now all she needed was a book and a pretty piano playing in the background and she'd be in her own personal heaven.

Another mew came from below, this one presumably the first she'd heard. It was another kitten, colored like the other one, yet bearing a different pattern of brown and white. It brushed against Kitty's bare ankle and purred. Kitty instantly loved it. She knelt and petted it, scratching its chin with her free hand.

Then there was another kitten approaching from behind, and then another, and another. Kitty stared in delighted shock for a moment, and then she started laughing. She sat back against the wall beside the trash can and let the kittens come to her, petting them all as they came, one after the other. There must have been at least three litters swarming her, mewing, pressing up against her, begging for attention that Kitty gladly gave them. Despite everything she'd seen and heard today, she imagined she couldn't feel much happier than she did now.

She looked up and sighed a happy sigh. And suddenly, she saw it. There was something in front of her, looming over her. Something huge, inhuman—something she couldn't quite make out in the darkness of the alley. The kittens kept playing on Kitty like a human playground. Her knife was on the other side of the trash can, but whatever that thing in front of her was, she couldn't let it hurt the kittens. She started to stand. The thing lunged.

Kitty didn't even have time to scream. The kittens darted off her in an instant and the thing crashed into her. She felt hot, wet breath on her throat. Her hands instinctively shot up to the thing. It was soft to the touch, and now Kitty could see it. She heard a noise like a hiss rolled in with a sonar blip. The thing clamped its teeth around her throat, piercing it, and jerked to the side. Kitty gurgled as she tried to scream. The pain was worse than any she'd ever felt. Her throat was gone, but the thing didn't stop there. As she watched in silent horror, it bit into her shoulder. The bone gave with a loud crunch. Blood spurted out as Kitty's arm lifted away from her body, taking her sleeve with it. Her scream came out as a pathetic gurgle, accompanied by a couple spurts of blood. She was vaguely aware that she was fighting, and vaguely aware that the kittens were watching from behind and beside the thing. Even as her fist connected with the thing's mouth, only to be ripped from her wrist, she realized this was both the best and the worst way she could possibly die: eaten alive by a monster, yet surrounded by kittens. Claws tore her sweatshirt to bits, slicing the skin on her chest and stomach as well. The thing tore off half her breast, then opened up her belly. Kitty's vision was fading now. She saw the thing feasting on her guts in the distance, and then she saw nothing. She felt chunks of her leg ripped off for just a moment, and then she felt nothing.

***

A police officer found Kitty's corpse just minutes after her death. She was missing an arm and a hand, one breast, and all her insides. Several chunks were gone from her
legs. To the officer's surprise, a couple brown and white kittens climbed on the girl's corpse. He knelt beside it. He knew the girl was dead—her throat was gone—but he checked anyway. Her eyes and mouth were open, staring at some unseen killer. The officer put a hand on her cheek and sighed. He'd seen her literally ten minutes ago, and now she was dead right in front of him. She'd been pretty, too, with a mix of Asian and Caucasian features. She was quite possibly the murderer's third victim, following the Winters girls yesterday.

It didn't look quite like a human had done this, though. The parts of her that were missing were just gone without a trace, like something had eaten them on the spot without bothering to leave a trail of blood. The officer shook his head and drew his radio. "I found a girl dead in an alley. We've officially got ourselves a serial killer."

-

The Summermount News E-edition
July 7

Third teen killed, serial killer responsible?

High school junior Kitty Grant was found dead yesterday, July 6, surrounded by kittens. Evidence does not point to the killer of the Winters girls. However, the police are still investigating. Evidence suggests she died protecting the kittens from something, though the police disagree.

High caution is advised. Do not leave your houses unless absolutely necessary, and never go anywhere alone.

"I'd seen her alive just ten minutes before I found her body," said James Courtland, the officer who found her body. "It's incredible how quickly humans can die. I only wish I'd have been interesting enough to keep her from leaving."

The victim's parents refused to comment.

Do we have a serial killer on the loose, or are the deaths of Grant and the Winters girls unrelated? More news will be posted as it comes in.

Fay Ryan, intern editor

Comments

Max Morten (5:56 p.m.)
A girl named Kitty dies protecting kitties. well, there are worse ways to die=

Mary Fredrick (6:01 p.m.)
edging on 'too soon' max.

Kayden North (6:10 p.m.)
This is really sad, i really liked Kitty

Jessie North (6:12 p.m.)
ya u nvr let me here teh end of it it is rly sad tho she was nice

Adrian Winters (6:19 p.m.)

why her? first my sisters, then my tennis partner?

Fay Ryan (6:30 p.m.)
That really sucks, Adrian. I'm sorry.

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