The cripple, the cat girl, and the killer

Two weeks after the massacre at the water park, Summermount still hadn't quite recovered. Families were moving away from Summermount faster than Casey could watch them go from the rooftops. She pinched a car between her fingers and kept it there as it passed onto the freeway and disappeared into a tunnel. She looked down at her arms. She'd had the brace off since last week, and her cast was gone since yesterday. Despite—or perhaps because of—her prosthetic legs, she felt free again. Her knees no longer hurt when she made a bad landing, though admittedly, she hadn't tried anything too crazy since her accident.

"Up there, Casey?"

Casey looked over the edge of the building. Her dad stood twenty feet below.

"Sup, Dad?"

Casey prepared herself for a lecture on how unsafe she was, jumping around rooftops and all.

"Can you come down for a minute? You can go right back up if you want."

"Sure."

Casey swung her legs over the edge of the building. She dropped a few feet and caught herself on someone's windowsill. She swung sideways and let go. Momentum carried her to the awning over a doorway, from which she slid to the ground. "So," she said. "Whassup?"

"We're leaving Summermount. At least until this serial killer leaves the world."

Casey shrugged. "Can we live in the country somewhere?"

"Yes, actually. We're leaving in three days, and we'll live with my brother in the country for the next . . . segment of time."

"Segment of time?"

"Yeah. Spend these last few days with your friends."

"Friend," said Casey. "Singular. Kitty Grant."

Her dad smiled. "Someone like her has got to be worth ten ordinary friends."

Casey smiled back. "Sure you're not just biased since she thought you were a fashion model?"

"Absolutely not." He paused. "Yes." He absently plucked at his tie. Casey rolled her eyes.

"What if someone catches the killer before we leave?"

Her dad thought about it. "I suppose we'll still pay Uncle George a visit. Unless you'd rather not."

"I'm fine," said Casey. "I'll go. I just wanted to know. Fuck, I hate rhyming."

Her dad held out his hand. Casey deposited a quarter into it.

"Casey."

"Yeah, Dad?"

"No matter what happens, I love you. I don't want to see you in danger. Don't do anything stupid between now and the trip."

Casey thought about it. "How about after the trip?"

***

Kitty Grant squatted in front of the megacat's alley and stared the beast in the eyes. The kittens didn't come out to her this time. They didn't eat any of the food she'd set out for them in the morning, nearly five hours ago. The food she'd set out for the past two weeks always got eaten, but slowly.

"If you weren't hungry," said Kitty, "then why in the world did you kill me? You're sending me mixed signals."

The megacat made its weird sonar blip noise. One of the kittens mewed.

"Are you even their mom? Or dad? You're not even really a cat. I'm not even really a human for that matter. I'm a zombie. Or an angel. Or a cyborg. A zombie-angel-cyborg. Are you a cat-lion-bird? A lion-dinosaur-submarine?"

Silence.

"Do you have to stay in that alley? Your kittens could use some sunlight, you know."

Kitty tentatively reached for a kitten. The megacat's eyes shot from her face to her hand. She retracted it.

"Oh, come on. I love kittens. You should know that. All I was doing was petting them when you killed me. You jerk."

Kitty looked behind her. Some people were watching from a distance. No one walked on the sidewalk connecting to the megacat's alley.

"Do you just want to protect the kittens?"

Kitty waited.

"Don't you know that everyone in their right mind would protect kittens? You'd have to be a complete psychopath to harm a kitten. Do I look like a complete psychopath to you?"

From behind, someone said, "Maybe not a psychopath, but you're pretty crazy facing that thing again."

Kitty looked over her shoulder. Fay Ryan was there with dark circles under her eyes, wearing thick clothes. Her hair was a mess and she wore no makeup.

"I haven't seen you in a while," said Kitty. "Are you doing all right?"

"Better. You think you can get God to give me Leeli back? Or Buddha? Or whoever brought you back?"

Kitty said nothing. Adrian had been pretty clear about his financial situation, and she was well aware how much she alone had cost him. Irri hadn't been much better. They'd need another huge chunk of cash to even think of making a Leeli cyborg.

"Look, Kitty, I know you want to keep everything secret. Really. But if there's any time to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, it's now. More than twenty girls are dead and whoever killed them is still loose—and all we know is that a redheaded teenager killed them under someone else's orders. We could use a miracle. Or a competent police force."

Kitty looked at the megacat. "You've got it easy," she told the creature. She stood up and faced Fay. "I can't do a miracle. I can show you why—as long as you can keep a secret."

“You’d trust a reporter to keep a secret?”

***

Casey went to the megacat's alley to find Kitty, but she wasn't there. She went to ground level and immediately wished she'd taken earplugs with her. The cars whishing by beside her were so loud she wondered how anyone could stand it. She put her fingers in her ears and ran for the alley a few blocks away. Once there, she unplugged her ears. There were no cars here, and people were scarce. Casey saw the megacat staring at her from its alley.

"What?" she said. "You wanna go?"

The megacat stayed put. Casey tried to look around it. The kittens were all there behind it, but there was nothing else. No Kitty. No nothing.

"Hey. Animal. Where'd Kitty go?"

The megacat kept staring at her with its single eye and empty eye socket. It surely recognized her by now. Every day for two weeks, she'd been out here with Kitty and Irri Snowski, who was also apparently alive despite having her head chopped off and her body flayed. The megacat didn't look any more threatening than a half-skeletal cat-type monster should toward her, but she wasn't willing to risk her hand or leg or any other part of her to it yet. She wouldn't risk any piece of her to an animal that she couldn't get to sit on command.

"Sit," said Casey. She held a finger in the air. The megacat looked at it. It did nothing else.

"Fine, don't," said Casey. She backed away—something she did whenever Kitty wasn't with her. Where could she find her friend, if not here? Kitty didn't carry a phone as far as Casey knew. She returned to the rooftops and resumed her running. Now, she searched for Kitty. Her new legs let her run even faster. They were less precise, but sturdier. She could jump from higher places now. In some cases, this removed her need for ziplines, though she still wanted to use one. She wouldn't let herself do so again. No one could sabotage her movement if she didn't use them.

She spotted Kitty walking with Fay down below. They were going toward a suburb, where Casey would have to go on foot. She went to ground level. Thankfully, there weren't many cars around. A few passed here and there. Casey kept as far from them as possible while keeping Kitty and Fay in her field of view. She started walking on the grass as a car slowed down and passed her with the driver-side window rolled down. The driver stared at her legs.

"Twenty bucks and I'll give you a footjob."

"I'll pass," said the driver. Casey smiled.

"You totally don't look like a stalker right now."

"Sorry."

The driver sped up and turned a corner a couple blocks down. Casey stayed on the grass just to be safe. Kitty and Fay turned left and crossed the street to Casey's side. She waved to them as she walked, and then something caught on her leg. It flew in an arch like she'd flicked a soccer ball, but it had hair and skin.

"Casey, what's that?" Kitty called. Casey watched it hit the ground and roll. She knew what it was. But she still squatted and turned it over. One dead yellow eye looked back at her, the other covered by warm red hair. Casey felt her back hit the fence before she even knew she was backing away.

"Casey!" Fay and Kitty called at the same time. They ran for her. Casey pointed at the decapitated head in the dirt in front of her.

"I found the killer," she said. Kitty picked up the head.

"I know her," she said. "I've see this girl's face before."

Fay stood back a few feet. "She killed my sister?"

"I guess so," said Casey. "But unless she took off her own head, we've got a bigger problem."

Fay took the head from Kitty. "The blood is dried," she said, "but she's not decomposing and she doesn't smell." She paused. She looked over her shoulder. She passed the head back to Kitty, took her phone from her pocket, and hit three numbers with familiar tones. She held the device to her ear. There was a sound like a tiny rock pinging off a piece of metal, a spurt of red, and Fay stumbled sideways. Her hands closed on Casey's shoulders.

"Run," said Fay. Casey felt something warm drip down her shoulder from under Fay's hand. "Run!"