By Rio: Macavitysgirl@hotmail.com

Screaming, she struggled helplessly as her sister was dragged away again, her own slim black and gold arms pinioned behind her back viciously.

Pausing in the doorway, the Evil One turned coolly to face the weeping and terrified kitten. Her sister looked frantically from one face to the other.

"Silence." Taking a step across the room, his cruel lips curled back to bare his fangs, a tense stillness falling, at his word.

Struggling against her captors, the kitten's eyes widened in sheer terror, her hind claws scrabbling against the wooden floor, all attempts to back away viciously restrained.

"You again?" He acted surprised, mock-confusion furrowing his brow, one claw lazily scratching the tangled fur on his neck. "You know, little one, I can't understand why you don't appreciate me...using your sister."

Cupping her jaw in his paw, his claws sinking cruelly into her cheeks, he gazed into her wide, fearful eyes. Noticing her flinch at his touch, he smirked, tracing the outline of her taut white lips with one claw. "Well?"

Barely able to speak through chattering teeth, she mumbled nervously. "You're nasty...you...you hurt her all the time."

"Me? Hurt her?" With a humourless smile, he stared icily at her, his deeply-sunken, dark eyes penetrating her, her spine freezing, suddenly a column of ice. "Would you prefer I took you, little one?"

"Yes!" Her sister growled, yawning. "I'm bored with having such a dull lover. Practise on the kitt. Maybe then you'll be as good as some of your agents..."

Demeter stared at Bombalurina in shock. Her own sister wanting her to be hurt? But in her beloved sister's eyes, she could see that she was trying to save her.

"What did you say?" The Evil One was motionless.

"You heard, " Bombalurina leaned against the doorframe casually. "You ain't the real big boy round here...not by a long shot. And as for good lovers..." She gave a laugh. "You don't even come high on the list, my dear."

"Slut!" Whirling around, he slammed the red queen to the ground viciously, snapping her head back with a cruel kick. "You filthy little slut."

"You knew that when you hired me, sir." She spat the words, along with a tooth and a mouthful of blood, her eyes blazing.

"Perverted, twisted, sick whore..." Punctuating each word with a furious punch to her stomach, he drew back, panting. "Never betray me..."

"Bombie!" Demeter whispered, struggling weakly.

"Can't stand the competition, huh?" Drawing her knees up to her stomach, the red queen wrapped her arms around them, her face contorted in pain, her voice strained and full of pain.

"I'll show you exactly what I can do." Sneering the Evil One gestured for the queen to be taken away, disdainfully kicking her viciously in the buttocks.

"This'll be fun." She mumbled sarcasticallly, her vision clouding with pain, only to receive another blow.

"No! Don't hurt her!...please..."

Swivelling coolly, the Evil One calmly approached the younger of the sisters...and the more beautiful. On the verge of adulthood, she was still a kitten, he reminded himself. A helpless, terrified kitten who turned him on more and more with every tremble and whimper.

"Now, now." Gripping her thin chin in his paw, he forced her to look at him. "You don't understand, little one." Caressing her soft, tangled headfur, he smiled gently. "Your sister enjoys this...soon you will too."

"No..." Pulling away, she shook her head in disbelief and defiance. "NO!" Sinking her sharp teeth into his paw, her eyes blazed with pure fear and anger.

Wincing, he twisted his other paw in her fur, smirking as she screamed, releasing his bloody paw, his blood staining her golden and white chest fur, dripping down her chin, giving her an almost-vampiric appearance.

"Good." Saying nothing more, he swept away, marching calmly from the room along with his agents, leaving the solitary kitten crouched in the darkness, sobbing softly.

* * *

Tensing, she raised her face as the door ominously creaked open. Squinting through swollen bruised eyes, a shiver of dread crept over her.

"Leave me alone." She rasped, her cut lip opening again, thick dark blood trickling down, only to be swept away by the Evil One's paw. His deceptively gentle paw. "Please...don't...no..."

"Don't speak." Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to hers carefully, almost tenderly.

Pressing her paws against his broad chest, she tried to fend him away, his strong paws suddenly snapping up and catching her stick-thin wrists, kissing harder, intensely.

Mewling helplessly, Demeter pummeled her fists weakly against him, nausea and dizziness flooding her again. Either she broke the routine and breathed, or she was going to pass out...or even die...

Sinking her teeth into his lip, she panted as he fell back, cursing, clutching his face.

"Go to hell, you bastard!" She gasped, sinking back against the wall, blinking to clear the darkness that was clouding her vision.

"You spoke." He remarked coldly, grabbing her chin in his paw, his eyes narrowing, his other paw smearing away the blood that ran ticklishly down his chin. "What did I just tell you?"

Glaring bitterly at him, she gathered the saliva in her mouth and threw herself forward.

Flinching, he raised a paw to his shocked face, wiping the mess of blood and saliva from his eyes, his body shaking with barely contained fury - or mirth. She couldn't tell which.

"My, my." Flexing and unflexing his paws, his claws slowly extending to their full length, he tilted his head quizzically at her. "The little kitten has decided to show a little spunk."

Shivering with fear, eyes flashing with defiance, she hissed up at him. "Damn straight."

"So you like to play rough, huh?" Sinking his claws into the flesh of her shoulders, jerking his paws down sharply, he smirked coldly at her shriek of agony as her skin was torn, flesh blood welling under his calculating claws.

If I survive this, she told herself - the blackness gathering around her - I'm outta here. Even if I die tryin', anythings better than this.

Lunging at the Evil One, she sank her teeth into his neck, hearing his muffled roar of rage, as she fell back into oblivion.

* * *

It was dark. Much darker than before. But she was alive...barely.

Forcing her swollen eyes open, the blood gumming them shut, she tried to moisten her scabbed lips with her dry tongue, liquid fire flowing through her throbbing, tormented body.

Bombie had never been this bad. Never ever...but Bombie had always known what to say and do to keep all the toms satisfied, even fighting with him to turn him on, so he wouldn't kill her.

Sprawled on her side on the damp, cold stone floor, her blood-crusted fur coated in dirt and slime, she felt the chill cut to the bone, every muscle aching as she shivered.

She knew where she was: The place they put the felines that the boss was most angry with; The greatest threat that hung over any agents head. The pit of death.

Only the lucky ones were given a reprieve, got pulled out and knew never to infuriate the boss again. Bombie had been one of the unlucky ones.

Thrown in several weeks previously for fighting a bit too enthusiatically and damaging the Evil One's family jewels, Bombalurina had gone to her 'death' still mocking the ginger tom's sexual prowess.

Like many of the boss' ex-agents and former lovers, she had never been heard from or seen again. Presumed dead...but Demeter knew different. She knew her sister was too smart and too streetwise to die from just getting thrown down a dark hole.

Pulling herself upright, cluthing her arm with a soft moan of pain, she forced her eyes to stay open, to focus on her surroundings, the words her mother had taught her pounding in her head.

"Can you see in the dark? Can you see in the dark? Can you see in the dark?" Muttering the words over and over, she examined the room that was her new prison.

Finally, her eyes settled on a bricked-up section of the stone wall, a flicker of relief sparking a flame of hope.

Limping determinedly over, she ran her paw carefully down it, almost crying with relief as one of the bricks fell out, a beam of sunlight almost blinding her, flooding the room with light.

Hurriedly, she pushed out another, then another, working as fast as she could, hindered by a broken wrist, but spurred on by sheer fear and determination.

* * *

Keeping to the shadows, she kept looking back, certain he was watching her run and waiting to grab her and drag her back into his prison for her.

The ground seemed unstable beneath her trembling paws, but she knew the unsteadiness was all in her. She had to escape to make sure the same thing never happened to anyone else again and she couldn't believe she was free. It was all a trap. It had to be.

Mumbling her way through the songs her mother and sister had taught her, she kept moving doggedly, forcing back the pain that shot through her.

Stumbling into the sunlight at the end of a maze of dark, twisted alleyways, she fell to her knees, her arm clutched to her chest, tears forming in her eyes.

* * *

"There she is!" A triumphant voice shouted.

Weakly raising her head, she could see a fleet of cats racing towards her and knew she didn't have the strength to fight them all.

Suddenly she was enveloped in a warm pair of silver- and black-striped arms and pulled gently against a warm, broad chest that didn't smell of hatred and anger...that had the scent of something different.

"You're safe now, Demeter." A deep, husky voice murmured in her ear as she found herself lifted in those strong, secure arms.

"Are you blind when you're born...? Can you see..." Burying her face in the chest, she felt her tears pattering hotly onto his fur.

"In the dark?" He finished softly, nuzzling her gently. "Demeter, trust me, there is no more dark. I'll make sure of that, for you."

"Who are you?" She whispered, opening her eyes to meet a pair of the greenest eyes she had ever seen.

"I'm Munkustrap" Came the silky reply, a gentle paw caressing her cheek softly. "And I'm going to take care of you, little one. I promise you."