The Billionaire's Possession (Voted Best Reads for Cats)

Chapter 1/The Kiss of the virus

or 8 things the media hasn't told you about the possessed, including the spelling of eight.

You can't wake someone who is pretending to be asleep. 

Navaho proverb

SpringFalls resettlement camp: Infection + 5 years 14 days.(2023)

Kaitlyn's POV. 

The Actress Hedy Lammar* once said 'Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid'. Which meant every single girl in my school was very glamorous, except me. I don't blame them**, everyone was infected with the TS-17 virus. The kiss of the virus either killed you or scrambled your brain with a whisk. Leaving you falling behind the IQ of a bowl of chocolate mousse. Unless like me, you were lucky enough to be resistant. Lucky, like being the hair stylist who gets Sinead O'Connor in a celebrity hair curling contest, lucky. I am now the smartest girl in school (cue vuvuzelas). Which might have been OK, except I was now one test away from being burnt as a witch (cue Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings).

I was sitting after school, on our houses porch, on a warm Friday afternoon. I was reading my death warrant cleverly disguised as my practice test paper. The test results gut-wrenching feeling was still with me. I felt like a PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant hearing the words 'and the award for best picture goes to La La land'. I was the top of the class and no sign of Moonlight anywhere. 90% - S**t I got 90% in the mock exam. How could I be so stupid? Anything above 20% was going to kill me. Only possessed people get 90% in an exam. I was distracted by Brad Logan's skin tight jeans in class. Brad Logan's jeans should take at least 50% of the blame here, 50% possibly more.

I looked at the paper again. Why did I have to get so many questions right? Like 'Q1. Is a plutocracy government by a cartoon dog?' Why did I have to pick no? Or ' Q5. Is a barbecue a long line of plastic dolls?', what made me tick No? My paper had an A with five hearts after it. This was terrible, I had to come up with something. Just then Mom's car pulled into the driveway.

"Hi, Kaitlyn. I'm back, we haven't found a cure yet. " Mom shouted up to the window of my bedroom as she left the car. She had a long oval face caught by her shoulder length hair which now had hints of gray.

"Mom I'm standing right next to you," I said putting my hand over my ears.

"There you are! My you came down quick" said Mom smiling as she got her bag out of the car.

Mom was infected with TS-17. I remembered I was twelve, the news had been full of urgent broadcasts. They said a new type of Avian Flu had been found. Scientists like Mom and Dad quickly discovered it was a super bug related to Mad Cow disease. It was resistant to all known antibiotics. On a bad day, I could walk to the death pits on the edge of town. There I could witness the mountains of white bones piled high like a dog's idea of heaven. All our family had run a fever but we lived. Many had died from the first infection. After getting better, we had a long government bus ride through the desolation of America. Much of the wasteland beyond the fence was dead now. We were dropped at a government 'safe zone', a town called Spring Falls. After we arrived I noticed changes in Mom and my sister. Now neither of them could outwit a rabid chipmunk. That was five years ago.

"Want some dinner?" said Mom.

"Is 'dinner' going to be more than a piece of dry toast?" I asked her.

"Can be, how about a Cinnamon Swirl from the freezer? Or a pop tart they're natural," said Mom raising a smile. She got the door keys from the secret hiding pit under the flower pot on the porch, as she always did.

"Sure, you so are the Rachael Ray of SpringFalls mom," I said while I unlocked the front door for her. When Mom unlocked the house she had to try every key.

"Why thank you. Are you going to become invisible while I cook?" said Mom smiling in the hall.

"If by invisible you mean, upstairs in my bedroom, then yes," I said.

"That's nice," said mom "You have a good time being invisible."

"I'll give H.G. Wells your love," I said.

Mom looked at me unsure for a second.

I smiled "The kitchen is to your left."

Mom looked relieved and started to move. Once mom had done dinner in the bathroom. I had been pulling bits of flannel out of my teeth for weeks.

"Maybe your other left," I said. She nodded and turned round 180 degrees and walked into the kitchen.

****

I went to my room. My bedroom window formed a nice blue frame around the desolation beyond the settlement. I got down and pulled out my secret stash of books. If someone found these books, the word would get out faster than Robert Pattinson's tongue at a singles party. Then I would be arrested for sure. I sat on my government bed and thought about my scant options.

If I passed the Test they would know I was possessed. Possessed is what infected people called someone who was not infected by TS-17 and/or could still multiply 4 by 5 without a calculator. People said the word 'possessed' with the same affection as 'Benedict Arnold' 'Kim Jong-un' or 'Kristen Stewart'. Or I could continue to pretend to be infected or 'normal'. If I was found 'cheating' the system, I would be arrest like the next Rodney Alcala.

My duty was to pass the test. Then I would get on an orange bus with the other possessed. People would be pleased, my school mates would waggle little flags. Parents would stand crying, proudly waving goodbye. The possessed were then all driven away. Like the plot of Lost, we never knew where they were going. To the secret location called Overworld they said. No one ever came back. No one wrote or sent as much as an emoticon because everyone was 'very very busy'. Dad guessed that they were using women to breed TS-17 resistant kids.

Many possessed went of their own free will. Breeding for the greater good. I was different, I hid every day pretending to be stupider than I was. Hiding this way I could look after my Mom, my sister and my cat. Plus, I didn't fancy spending the rest of my life on my back having something poked into me or pushing something out. This had been dad's plan(the hiding not poking). He had hidden, then he was taken away and now it was left to be my plan. So what was there to think about? I had to flunk the test. Even if it meant pretending to be something I wasn't, every day for the rest of my life. I drew a deep breath of solid resolution, Hey if William Shatner could say he had a natural head of hair, I could do it too.

"Kaitlyn! dinner is ready" Mom shouted up.

I went downstairs to notice a plate with a piece of bread and a strange man sitting in our living room.

* The original Actress/Inventor/Model/Fighter of Fascists/ ( all true).

**this is a lie, I do blame them. 

****

A/N HELLO EVERYONE - THE QUEEN OF SASS IS BACK AND THIS TIME SHE ISN'T SERIOUS. SO SHOW SOME LOVE.