Lost & Found

Chapter 6

"-better here. No sense trying just to fail, like you know you will. No more letting your friends down when they learn what a failure you really are." The rat hissed and tore something out of the orb floating beside it, causing it to dim further. "This is where you deserve to be. You'd just mess everything up if you went anywhere else."

The orb shivered as the cruel red eyes of the three rats surrounding it grew brighter. "It's better for you to be here. Now you don't have to worry about hurting anyone, or letting them down, or screwing all their hopes up by being the rotten, miserable thing you are. The one smart thing you ever did was turn those annoying cats away-"

The rat exploded into goo as a black cat pounced on it and slammed it into the ground.

Pipsqueak hissed at the two other rats, arching her back as she stalked forward. She swiped at one, showing off claws still stained with the goo of the first rat, and it hissed and advanced towards her.

It burst into goo as Oliver leapt from behind a tree and pounced on the rat.

The final rat hissed back at the cats and moved behind the spirit, keeping the dull orb between itself and the cats.

"Careful. The Native will destroy the memory if it gets a chance. Don't let go of it until you're certain Roger will touch it first." Oliver began moving away from Pipsqueak, circling around the orb and stalking towards the rat. "I will deal with this one while you work on him. Good luck."

Pipsqueak twitched her tail at Oliver, then looked back up at the spirit. "We're back! Do you remember us?" The black cat raised her voice, almost yelling angrily as she called out to the orb.

The gray orb shivered. "Yes... those cats. You brought those memories..." The dim glow around the orb began to turn blue, and the orb sank towards the ground. "Just go away... those memories hurt."

"No. You have to come back with us." Pipsqueak glanced warily at the rat on the far side of the spirit, but it seemed to be focusing on edging away from Oliver. "There is someone waiting for you. She needs you."

"I can't." Blue began to tinge the dim glow around the orb. "I already told you. I've tried; I couldn't do it. I can't give her what she needs. I can't do anything right."

"Then keep trying!" Pipsqueak growled and began circling after Oliver, edging away from the rat as it crept towards her. "It doesn't matter if somebody else tells you a tree can't be climbed, or even if you've failed fifty-three times in a row. You'll just be better at the fifty-fourth try than they could ever hope to be." She shifted again, making sure the spirit was between her and the rat, then looked back at the dull orb. "Not every hunt works. It's disappointing, but it doesn't mean anything. I've failed to catch hundreds of mice. I've gone to bed hungry, and woken up starving. Trying and failing happens; even I know that."

"It happens if you're a failure." The rat hissed and slipped closer to Pipsqueak. "If you can't catch mice, you're just as much of a screw-up as he is. Other cats catch mice with no trouble at all. It's just what they do. If you can't do it, then that's because something is wrong with you." The rat paused to sit up on its hindlegs, then pointed one curled paw up at the orb. "Just like there is with Roger, who can't even find a job to pay his bills. Everybody else manages it just fine. The problem is with him."

Oliver's tail swished behind him, and he jumped through the air to pounce at the distracted rat. The rat hissed at the last second and stepped to the side, then jumped onto Oliver's back as the cat landed. The orange cat let out a yowl of pain and began rolling on the ground, but the rat clung to his back.