I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 25: “Can’t Come Home”

I woke up to Alisha’s phone ringing and her subsequent detachment from me to answer it.

“Yeah?” she mumbled and after the voice on the other side said something bolted upright. She threw the blankets off and hurried into her walk-in closet. “Thank you for telling me.” There was a clunk of her phone getting dropped onto one of the shelves.

She came back out, buttoning up a dress shirt.

“Kitten, stay here,” she ordered and hurried down the stairs. I sat up and listened intently but couldn’t hear anything more.

I slowly got up and went into the closet to put some proper clothes on, in case there was an emergency I was going to need to run for.

Alisha’s attitude was certainly stressed, even if I was sure by the time she got downstairs she had smoothed over the rough edges and returned back to icy calmness to deal with whatever it was. I pulled on a t-shirt and some leggings and a miniskirt, thinking they’d be more comfortable to move in.

I then gazed out the window. They were tinted on the other side so no one should be able to see me despite the massive pane of glass. If I strained I could see a tiny segment of the road leading up here. And then there was a slow crawl of movement of a vehicle, which flashed black and white in the sunlight.

My heart sank and I wondered where I could hide. I would be found if they searched the house unless Alisha had a very well hidden spot somewhere. But law enforcement was trained to find those kinds of places and I wasn’t.

It would be best to just wait and hope this wasn’t going to be bad. If they had full warrants, there would be more than one car, I knew that much. So this was probably a voluntary search kind of thing and I could only guess that Alisha would tell them to go fuck themselves.

Still I  sat on the couch and anxiously wiggled my toes in my socks as I heard the voices only very faintly, discussing something I probably wouldn’t understand anyway.

It wasn’t until I heard Alisha’s steps on the stairs— she had put heels on as well—that I felt any kind of relief but she was way sterner than I would’ve expected and she came up to me.

I shrank away, sensing there was something wrong.

“Kitten,” she said softly. “The police are here.”

I nodded and swallowed as she kneeled next to me.

“They’re asking about you, so could you come downstairs?”

I nodded again, not questioning her in any way. I knew that gentle voice disguised someone perfectly capable of hurting people in terrible ways. I had no idea why the police were here, much less why they were here for me, but it was something I needed to deal with.

I stood and followed her down the stairs, again feeling like a small child but this time like getting sent to the principal's office for doing something bad.

I saw the two officers from the bottom of the stairs and swallowed down my fear. These men wouldn’t hurt me… but I didn’t really know that. Bad cops existed and there was no way to know if they were even cops. The amount of money Alisha handled meant her enemies would go to pretty extreme lengths to deal with her.

One of the officers opened the door behind him and ushered me outside.

I left Alisha behind, the adrenaline only increasing as my separation from the house grew.

They walked me at least a few hundred yards away until the house was in the distance where they finally stopped.

“Miss Bauer?” the officer who had ushered me out started.

My hair stood on end as he said that name. It had been a while since I heard it, since even before Sophia had called me out in the store.

I nodded though. “People call me Kit now though,” I told him. 

“Kit, okay.” The other officer shuffled nervously as he watched the house and the road all at the same time. “We’re responding to a report that you were potentially abducted, is that true?”

I shook my head. “No, absolutely not.”

“You’re here willingly?” he asked.

“Yes,” I told him. “No one made me come here.”

“But I’m going to ask you some questions anyway,” he told me.

I nodded. I wanted to get this over with. I couldn’t believe that the one thing Alisha told me not to do I had managed to do. She was going to be so mad. Maybe even mad enough I would need the police… or a hospital.

“You are staying with Alisha Takeno,” he stated and then waited for my response.

“Y-yes,” I said, unfamiliar with hearing her name spoken quite so officially.

“And Ms Alisha gave you a phone, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Has she made any attempt to keep you from leaving?”

I shook my head. “No. She said she would never try to stop me if I decided to go somewhere.”

“So… you had a conversation with her about this subject.”

Oops. Taken out of context that might sound bad. “I–I don’t understand,” I managed. “I decided to come live here with her. Why is that a problem? We haven’t bothered anybody.”

The officer looked skeptically and then pulled a folded sheet of paper from his back pocket. “We were told that you said, quote, “I can’t come home,” end-quote, and that was concerning for us to hear, and what was more concerning is when we checked who number was registered to…” he went quiet, waiting for me to fill in the blank. 

I knew better. This wasn’t just about me. Police wouldn’t usually go to quite this much length to do a wellness check on someone unannounced. Everything I said or did was going to be potential evidence. So I wasn’t going to say anything about anyone that didn’t dismiss this idea of me being held against my will.

At my silence he continued, “Alisha Takeno. Who inherited her father’s business assets after his death.”

I gave him a genuinely confused look since I didn’t understand why that mattered.

“Listen,” he said. “We need to know what your relationship with her is and how you met and–”

“No,” I said.

He stopped abruptly. “No?”

“You don’t need to know that,” I clarified.

“Ms. Bauer–”

“Don’t call me that,” I cut him off. “If you must know why you had to come here, I’ll explain it to you.” I took a deep breath and tried to channel the confidence Alisha carried herself with. It was easier when paired with the rage I felt inside at this moment. “My parents,” I started. “Have been terrible to me. And in their need to try and control me they took my words out of context. I can’t go home, not because I can’t leave Alisha, but because I can’t go back to them. I would literally kill myself before I let that happen. So if they try and tell you that I don’t want to be here, that I would like to come home, those are all lies. And they will lie in every attempt to get me to do what they want because to them, my life is all about them and what they want out of it, and not what I want or even need. Do I make myself clear?” I let my lungs inflate slowly while trying to muster the strength to stare the man in the face.

“Listen, there’s no need–”

“Do I make myself clear?” I repeated. My fists clenched tighter.

The officer who had been watching the house was now keeping me in the corner of his eye, looking more wary but I refused to back down. 

“Crystal,” my questioner finally agreed. There was a pronounced frown on his face now: discontentment rather than the stark seriousness he had approached me with. “But we will still need to see the phone to confirm the messages.”

“That’s something the phone’s owner would have to allow,” I told him.

“Alright,” he said, frustrated. “Let’s walk you back.”

“I’ll be fine on my own, thank you,” I told him and turned my back before hurrying to get back to the house.

My heart rate wasn’t going down and the blood pumping in my neck was tangible, not to mention the swirling happening on the edges of my vision.

I needed to keep it together a little longer. They were still watching me from behind and I was just grateful that they hadn’t asked to see my ID or anything, which I didn’t have. If they knew that it would just be more cannon fodder for a repeat of this incident. Even more so if they knew I also had no money in my own name.

I wanted oh so desperately to remove that name from every record that ever existed. It would make things so much easier.

I reached the house and opened the door, finding Alisha waiting, furiously typing on her phone.

She looked up at my reappearance and went to say something but stopped seeing the look on my face. She still wasn’t happy with me and the cracks in my armor finally fractured and I shattered.

My knees hit the floor hard. I caught myself with my hands but it didn’t do much as the shaking took over.

I didn’t know exactly what I said or did but I came back with Alisha hushing me.

“Breathe, Kitten,” she instructed. “Just focus on that.”

There were tears sliding down my cheeks and dropping to the floor between my hands. I leaned back to sit on top of my calves and Alisha ran a hand down my back before pulling me closer.

“It’s okay,” she said softly.

I was still trembling and there was a terrible cold in my bones I couldn’t shake. She put her phone aside as my breathing evened out, slowly but surely syncing up with her own breathing. I realized she was intentionally taking slow deep breaths, and doing so loudly and closed my eyes to follow along.

“How?” I asked once my heart rate had slowed.

“How?” she repeated. 

“How the fuck do you do this all day?” My hands were trembling so badly I couldn’t even reliably hold her.

“Do what?” She ran a hand down my face and wiped away some of the tears, leaving a damp smudge in its wake.

“Just put everything in a box and push it aside like it doesn’t matter.”

She gazed at the floor for a long moment. My tear drops were still there in perfect little circles, reflecting the sunlight in a way that could be described as pretty. “It’s… practice,” she said. “And very high stakes.”

I closed my eyes and breathed, trying to reground myself. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I had no idea they were going to come here.”

“I know, Kitten.” She stood and helped me up, never leaving my side until she’d sat me down at the table. “But we should still talk so I’ll make us some tea.”

I swallowed and put my hands on the glass of the table. My socks were dirty, I noticed. I hadn’t thought to put shoes on before walking outside. I reached down and peeled them off to avoid tracking dirt through her house and set them aside while Alisha was in the kitchen, getting mugs.

In the quiet, I felt calmer, and wondered if the officers were still lingering outside or not. If they were, they’d have to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Alisha came back with a couple cups, steam curling away from the water in them and the sweet smell of peppermint wafting into the air.

She pulled the chair out and sat down in it, but turned it so it was facing me. “I won’t force you to tell me anything, you know that, but I can’t… extend my trust to you if you don’t trust me.”

I nodded. “I know. I just… wanted to leave the past behind me. I didn’t want to have to think about it anymore.” I rubbed a few tears from my eyes. “I didn’t think they’d go this far.”

“Your family?” she asked.

I nodded. “I ran into my sister at the grocery store,” I explained. “And she’s okay. It rattled me but she is a good person. But apparently she told my parents she ran into me and then my parents stole my number from her phone to start texting me.”

Alisha nodded along, quietly listening with one hand on top of mine. 

“So I told them, and I guess this is my fault, but I told them I couldn’t come home and blocked the number.”

Alisha paused. “And then they told the police you were being held against your will,” she concluded. “And when the police checked the account records they found my name.”

I nodded and took a second to pull my mug of tea closer.

“Is there a reason your parents want you to come home so badly?” she asked.

“No. It’s just about control with them. They never tried to reach out when I was on the streets. Only when they learned I found a place to stay.”

“So they just want you to suffer,” she followed.

“It’s… It’s not that bad. It’s like… they see me as an extension of themselves so when I admitted to having some alphabet soup in me, they really didn’t like that. And they kind of viewed me as a cancer from then on. Something that needed to be corrected and treated and if all else fails: cut out and destroyed.”

Alisha was frowning. “Alphabet… soup?”

“LGBTQIA. You know, the alphabet people,” I explained.

“I see. But if you’re away from them, why do they care? It’s not like you’re doing them any harm.”

“I think it’s the principle of the thing,” I explained. “It goes against their pride to just let it be.”

“Okay, I understand. Did you tell this to the police?” she asked.

I nodded. “In no uncertain terms. They’d have to try very hard to make a case to return here for me.”

There was a softness to her expression as she slowly sat up and released my hand. “I’m proud of you,” she said. “You have every right to tell people to fuck off if they’re trying to make you do something you don’t want to.”

I nodded. It was a little absurd to hear Alisha curse for the first time, but it was almost refreshing.

She took a long sip of her tea and gazed thoughtfully at the far wall. “Is there something I can do to keep you safe from your parents?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I guess if they try to message me again you could change my phone number, but as it is they haven’t done so.”

She nodded. “But what about… your ID. You said you don’t have one but that’s going to be problematic for a number of reasons.”

“I know,” I agreed. It already had been problematic. “But I really don’t want to continue using that name. It brings up all kinds of bad memories.”

“And you can’t get it legally changed?”

“Well, not without money, and even then you need to go through these hoops, a judge has to look it over and then it’s like if the judge is stuffy they’ll just deny it.”

“I can take care of it financially and any lawyers you would need, but you’d still have to get your documents. I’m guessing your parents have them?”

I nodded.

“And they probably wouldn’t let you peaceably obtain them?”

“Probably not.”

She nodded. “Okay. We’ll figure something out. Even if we just have to wait until you’re ready to confront them.”

I could feel my anxiety at that thought. “Thank you, Alisha,” I said finally.

She looked over from her mug of tea.

“For not getting really mad,” I explained. “And for being here for me.”

“I want to be partners,” she said and examined the surface of the hot liquid clasped between her hands. “So your wellbeing is important to me. And the things that are important to you are important to me too.”

I nodded. “Thank you,” I said. I felt my throat getting tight and more tears trying to push their way out of my eyes.

“On the topic of things that are important to you,” she continued. “You said you had a sister who’s staying with your parents. Is she safe?”

“Oh, uh,” I rubbed my eyes briefly. “She should be. I mean she’s… straight, so my parents don’t really have a problem.”

“But she isn’t as close minded as your parents?”

I nodded. “Yeah she was supportive when I came out,” I explained.

“Is it possible that she’s closeted?”

I hesitated. “I mean why would she hide that… from me?”

“You said your parents went through her phone to get to you, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” I said.

“So wouldn’t they also go to some lengths to snoop through your sister’s stuff just because?”

“I mean I guess… Oh, so she wouldn’t feel comfortable coming out if she was… gay. To anybody.”

“Yes,” Alisha said. She took another long sip of tea while contemplating. “Why don’t you invite her over for dinner one of these days?”

“Eh–huh?” I managed. “Here?”

“Most people don’t know the significance,” Alisha said. “And it would make it easier for everyone to feel a little safer, would it not?”

“No– maybe? I don’t know.” My sister, from my old life, coming to this place where I felt safe and comfortable? She could bring more of my parents’ wrath with her if she wasn’t careful.

“I won’t force you, Kitten, but family is important. I don’t expect you to show your parents any forgiveness, but your sister can still be in your life.”

I nodded. “If you really think it's a good idea.” It was true I worried about her sometimes, but there was so much that happened with myself I didn’t have the capacity to think much further than that. Was I actually being really selfish?

Alisha got up and took her empty mug with her. “I need to start my work for the day, Kitten, but don’t be afraid to tell me if something comes up, okay?”

I nodded, and let her go before taking a deep breath and going upstairs to get my phone.