Pastor Jay Schilling starts asking for the names of the young and eager youth. “Is Jeff Tiefenthaler here?”
A tall young teenage boy steps up, “Yeah Mr. Cool is here.”
Kenton his best friend pushes him, “Oh yeah now who’s Mr. Cool?”
Jeff pushes him back as Steve Bonzer stops them ”Now stop that now remember we are going to be a Godly example for unbelievers and also to have fun, now pay attention.”
Jay said his thanks and continues, soon all 38 teenagers where there, Jay asks if anyone wanted to start the prayer and the kids elected John Orten to say the prayer.
“And God help us get though this trip as we remember you in all of our actions and on what we said amen. O.k. I said it, let’s get going before I have to do it again.”He joked as he moved to the bus that is taking them to the airport. Once all the kids and leaders were on the bus the bus driver give them final intrusions they were on their way
On the cross country trip Katie Pearson was talking to her best friend Katherine Brown{Or Miss Katherine Brown as she to be called} about the trip and how she is excited about her being with her. "Man this is so cool, I mean we are going across the USA and our first stop is my grandparents house! It’s been so long since I have seen them I wonder how my grandma is doing and ohhh I can’t wait can you?”
Her friend answered. ”Yes I can wait.”
“But all the thing that we are going to do, like going to movies, fairs and most imported when we go to New York we are going to see CATS!!! Ohh man I just can’t wait! I just can’t wait.”
As their conversion went on like that for a while. Wendy Perry one of the leaders listen on their conversion and butted in smiling” Ohh hush up now, you are making me all excited about it, thanks a bunch.” shaking her head smiling as she sits down next to her friend Julia Sorenson.” Will those kids be quiet for one second *sigh* I remember when Katie would sit in a corner all by herself with no one to talk to, but now look at her yakking away, well at last she has a friend to talk to, what do you think Julia?”
“Well I think it’s great...”and that’s how it was like on the bus for about three hours to the airport. Finally they got to the airport the youth leaders got the teenagers in order after five minutes and unloaded the bus, then they walked into the airport
“Jay check the time”
“There’s 2 hours to walk around but stay in sight remember only two hours until the airplane comes.”The kids split into groups of there own and talk away.
Katie and Katherine walk to the gift shop looking and accidentally bump into a young small teenage boy and drop both of their stuff and money. Katie, Katherine and the boy bent down to pick the stuff they dropped and then looked at each other. The boy that they bumped into was a small, very young looking, has a beautiful tan, with black hair, and strangely bright black eyes as he looked at them and smiles.
”Sorry it’s my fault, I should have watched where I was going. My name is Hector Jaime Mercado what’s your names?” He said as he reach out his hand, sees their hesitation and smiles” Hey don’t worry it’s not like I am gonna rape you or something.”With his hand still stretch out Katie grab his hand and shakes it. “My name is Katie Pearson and over there is my best friend Katherine brown.” Hector just stared and blink his black eyes and smiles.
“So umm.. where are you ladies going?”
This time Katherine answered his question. “We are going to Denver, Colorado for two weeks and I forgot where else. Where are you going?”
“Someplace.” Hector answer.
“But where is this someplace?” Katie butted in.
Hector just laughs at Katie.
“What was it something I said?” Katie asked with a confused look on her face.
“Oh nothing it was something really funny I remembered and the answer to your question is, I don’t know, I just wander around with no sense of direction whatsoever..”Looks at the clock “well I hope we met each other again someday.”Looks at Katie and Katherine and his eyes glowed then walks away leaving both girls looking baffled then Katherine looks at the time and put her hand to her face.
”We have got to go or we’ll miss the plane”
The two friends raced to the rest of the youth group as Jay was calling out the names ”Denise...well better late then never, huh girls”
Katie and Katherine run up to the group huffing and puffing as Katie spoke for the both of them. ”Yeah *puff puff* better late then *gasp* never well both of us is here so you can mark us off” Jay just smiles
”Well o.k.” Check his list and sees that everyone is there. ”O.k. everybody’s here let’s go and start our six month adventure.”Everyone soon got aboard the plane as the plane waitress gets the tickets and boarded the plane.
Chapter Two:Strange happenings
The youth group arrived at Denver and got on a bus. They proceeded to Katie’s Grandparents house to spend the week there and start to settle down for the night.
Katie begans to remember the night before and sighed. Taking a deep breath her eyes got wider as she covered her nose and making a face. “WHOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEE!!!! What is that smell?”
Katie looked at Rachelle who was also covering her nose.”I don’t know but it stinks.”
Katie then turned to Katherine and saw that she was covering her nose as well.”I don’t know why don’t you go and find out!”
Katie sighed and took a deep breath smelling the air,she quickly ran to the window and looked outside to see a trash can across the street open, full of rotting trash. Then Katie came back with a confused look on her face as she sat down with Katherine and Rachelle who were still covering their noses.
Katherine spoes up.”So what is it?”She asked and then saw Katie’s confuse face. “What is it?”
Katie looked at them and shook her head.”You better get use to it.” She continued her explanation seeing their surprised faces. ”The smell is from across the street, a open trash can. Do you know if anybody else smells it too?” She looked around and saw that the boys didn’t seem to smell it.”It looks like the men don’t smell it but the women do, look.” Katie then pointed to Addie who was walking around with her shirt over her mouth and Kara sitting down with her mouth cupped in her hands.
Rachelle looked around, confused, because the girls were smelling the trash but not the boys. ”This is very odd, indeed very odd.” She then looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. “Oh well, I guess we’d better get ready for bed. A new day tomorrow. Talk to you guys later, good night.” Rachelle walked off leaving Katie and Katherine to ponder about what was happening.
Katie broke the silence as she looked at Katherine puzzled.”Is it just me or did our senses just get better?”
Katherinesimply replied. ”Our senses got upgraded.”
Katie nodded in agreement. ”I thought so because we wouldn’t normally smell that trash can across the street but hey it’s kinda cool. You can ease drop on people because I can hear Jay talking to Steve right now.”
The two girls looked towards the direction of their leaders, followed the sound from where they were and found out that they were outside near the fence talking to someone next door. That was about 20 feet away from the door to the fence and about ten feet from where they were to the door!
Katie looked at Katherine. ”This is too creepy. First we can smell something across the street and now we can hear someone talking 30 feet away this is sooo creepy don’t you think?” Katherine just looked back at her with a blank stare. ”Are we doing what I think are doing?” Katherine then started trembling.”What is happening to us? What are we turning into? That’s the only way this could be happening. It’s the only way.”
Katie then had a urge to protect Katherine and huged her.”No that can not be maybe tomorrow all this will go away.” She started singing because that helps Katherine get to sleep. {Which was a sleeping bag on the ground}.
”Try not to get worry,
try not to turn on two problems that upset you
ohh don’t you know that everything’s alright
yes everything’s fine and we want you to sleep well tonight.
Let the world turn without you tonight
if we try we get by so forgot all about us tonight.
Sleep and I shall calm you and anoint.
Close your eyes close your eyes relax think of nothing tonight.”
She stopped singing when she saw that her friend had fallen asleep and then yawned as her grandfather came in and shut off the light. He kisseed her on her forehead and said his good nights. ”That was very beautiful singing that you did. Grandma and I heard you and thought we heard a angel singing. Well Grandma is asleep thanks to your singing, now I better get some shut eye. Good night.” He walked off as Katie slowly closed her eye and soon fell asleep.
***
Five hours later Katie woke up with a jolt as she heard someone trying to get inside her grandparents house. She started breathing deeply as she heard voices outside then got up and ran, without making a sound, to the fireplace. Grabbing a poker she walked to the sleeping Katherine and started shakes her awake.
“Huh? What's going on? Is it morning yet?" Katherine asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes, then she heard the sound of someone trying to break in. She quickly grabbed her glasses and put them on then looked at Katie with fear in her eyes. "Wh..wh..what was that?"
Katie put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, no one will rob my grandparents house. to be sure." Katie showed the poker to Katherine. "I will bonk him on the head."
Katherine looked at the poker and shook her head, doubting, then looked at Katie, puzzled. "How did you know that it's a boy?"
Katie just looked back at her with her tomboy exspression."I smelled him." Katie answered."I'll be back." Then she walked off to the front door and saw that the man who was trying to break in wasn't there. Puzzled she unlocked the door and walked outside to look around. "Strange I could have sworn that I saw somebody here and not to mention smell somebody here, and why in the bloody heck am I doing this when I should be inside waking up Grandpa and the others?! Oh well I guess..." Katie turned around quickly when she heard a sound. "What was that?" She asked, as she saw the shadow. Slowly she raised the poker and moved towards the shadow, holding it above her head. "Get ready to go nighty night!" She got ready to strike it on the head when it turned and riased his hand. Katie let out scream when she saw his face."EEEEEAAACCCCCKKKK! What are you?"She yelled at the top of her lungs which woke up everyone in the house, and on the block! As she struck it on head it grabbed her. Katie fainted and it started carrying her away from the house.
As it carried her five miles from the house a young black and white cat-like being heard her cry and came to her rescue. It grabbed her from the kidnapper and started taking her back to the house but the kidnapper blocked his path.
"Where are you going with that girl, little kitten? Give her back!"He demanded as he made a grab for Katie but the cat-like being put her in a tree.
"Only if you can defeat me, Macavity!"He replied then launched forward to attack Macavity and Macavity fought back.
"Fool! I gave you a chance to turn and run! Now you shall pay!"Macavity yelled at his attacker as the two continues to fight.
Katie woke up from where she was, looked down and gasped as she watches the fight. Macavity was winning but the tables turned when more cat-like beings came to the rescue and chased off Macavity. One of them picked up the wounded one and leaned him against the tree which Katie was in. Then it looked up into the tree and started climbing it. When it saw Katie it raised a hand in the air and got ready to attack, just in chase Katie attacked. All Katie did was scream and cover her head with her hands, crying. It then lowered it's hand and touched one of her tears with it's finger tip then gently raised her head to it's eye level and looks at her with it's black eyes.
"Who are you? Where did you came from? And what did Macavity want with you?"It asked in a deep voice.
Katie could tell that it was a male as she forced out her answer."My..my..my name is Katie and I come from my grandparents house where I don't know where it is and I don't know what Macav..Macavity wanted from me...hey if that was Macavity then you are..." She looked hard at him and what she saw was a large,strong looking,GRAY TABBY?!?! "Munkustrap!" The gray tabby nodded. "Munkustrap...Munkustrap..." She fainted as Munkustrap carried her down the tree and started to question Alonzo {The black and white cat-like being that rescued Katie} "Where did you find this girl? Do you know where she comes from?"
Alonzo groaned as a young brown calico male nursed him back to perfect health. Alonzo answered with a Spanish accent. "I found her in the airport in WA and fallowed her and her friend to her grandparents house. When Macavity kidnapped her I fallowed him to here and Munkustrap..." Alonzo then smiles."I have found them. Fallow me to her grandparents house."
Munkustrap just smiled and nodded as they took Katie back to the house but before they did the brown calico whose name was Coricopat put a sleep spell on Katie. When they arrived at the house police cars parked in the front of the house as the cat-like beings took Katie to the back yard and dropped her off there. They then disappeared into the darkness as Katie slowly woke up.
Katie looked around her surprised the next morning as Wendy and Steve and especially Katherine sat around her during breakfast with concern and started asking her what happened.
”Now Katie tell us all that happen last night, slowly, so we can understand it o.k.?” Steve asked but all Katie did was shake her head. She was still in shock over what happened last night.
”You won’t believe me, in fact, I still don’t believe it.”She then looked at her clothes, especially around her hips where claw marks were, as if someone or something was carrying her by her hips and trembled at the memory of it.
Wendy saw her trembling and put one of her arms around her.”Shh...Everything’s alright. It’s all in the past.” She grabbed some of Katie’s hair released it, and grabbed it again then repeats the process over and over again.”We were worried about you and your grandpa would not sleep at all when we discovered that you were gone. We saw the marks on the front door. Now, can you tell us all that happen?”
Katie just shook her head and took a deep breath to calm down a little then gently grabbed Wendy’s arms and took them off of her. “It all happened so fast, first my senses got upgraded and...”
“What do you mean your senses got upgraded? That’s impossible!”Steve asked Katie, interrupting her.
“Well, it’s hard to explain, but it’s like our senses got upgraded last night. I heard you talking to Jay by the gate and yet I was inside the house by the front door 30 feet away.” She saw Steve’s shocked face.”It’s true! I could and I bet all the other girls could tell you the same...Well where was I...Oh yes now I remember umm.. Well I was sleeping next to Katherine don’tcha know, well you know us ladies need our beauty sleep don’tca know.” Laughing at her hare accent from a book series she likes to mimic.”and the next thing I hear is a sound and went into the Living room to grab the fireplace poker. I went back to where Katherine was sleeping and shook her awake..Remember Katherine?”Katherine nodded as to say yes.”Well I told her not to worry about him..I think it’s a him, trust me after you see it’s face you will also wouldn’t know. Oh..it still gives me creeps! Well anyway, let’s called it a him, well I hit him on the head as hard as I could and it didn’t phase him at all, not at all..”
Just then Jeff walked into the room and had very little concern, very very little concern, for Katie after what happen last night. “Is everything alright here? Not like I am concerned or anything like that and...Mind if I listen as well?”
Steve looked at Jeff with one of his eyebrows raised{Because it was not like Jeff to be kind to Katie, especially since he considered himself as a big boy}. “And when did you, all of a sudden, start liking Katie?”Steve asked Jeff suspiciously, then noticed Katie’s facial expression changed from fear to surprise and he was surprised at her face. “Well...O.k. but no jokes about this o.k? This is serious just remember that.”
Jeff nodded and sat on the ground {Since there were no more chairs to sit on}and smiled at Katie which made her move uneasily and takes a deep breath then she continued. “Well anyway, he turn around and grinned as I screamed my lungs out at his face...and those eyes ohh...Those eyes just keep me away from those eyes...”
“What about his eyes that made you so much afraid?”Wendy asked with concern, because when Katie mentioned the eyes she started to shake badly.
“Those eyes. I don’t know why but it’s almost like looking into the eyes of a snake and they were red, that’s right, red eyes.” she sighed, “anyways then he grabbed me by the hips and I fainted, of course, and when I woke up I was up in a tree. I must have been five miles away from the house and I was about to climb down but when I looked down I saw my kidnapper fighting someone who I guess had come to my rescue..”
“Oh ain’t that romantic?” Maria interrupted with a far away look in her eyes. “A boy coming to a girls rescue just like Jack in Titanic.”
“No it ain’t and I hate Titanic! It’s so gross, it’s not even funny! Well before I got interrupted, well guess what I did was I gasped and almost screamed as I saw them fighting. Boy, they fought for a long time because the one who came to my rescue kept on falling down with every punch my kidnapper made. When all of a sudden two came to his rescue and chased the kidnapper off. The one that saved me was lain down against the tree that I was stuck in and my rotten luck got worse as the one who did most of the fighting just happen to look up the tree and saw me. it climbed it with ease, that’s right, with ease and when he saw me he rose a hand and got ready to attack. All I did was scream, cover my face with my hands and cry, then he lowered his hand and touched one of my tears with his finger. Then he grabbed my head, raised it to his eye level and I saw his eyes color and they were black! That’s right, black and looked into my eyes and started asking me questions..”
“What type of questions?” Steve asked interrupting her.
“I was going to that part Steve! Ahem.. well he asked me in a deep voice ‘who are you? Where did you came from? and what did Macavity want with you?’ Those were the questions he ask me...”
“Macavity?!?! He’s not even real! Are you sure that what he said?” Katherine asked, putting her hand on Katie’s forehead to see if it was hot. ”You know as much as I do that he’s not real, are you sick or something?”
“But that’s what he said and no I am not sick! That’s what he said, ohh...I knew it! You don’t believe me! Well, anyways I say that a lot do I? I course I did not believe him at first but then I looked at him more deeper and what I saw, how he looked, I asked him if his name was Munkustrap and he nodded ‘yes’ and I said his name, I think, two times before I fainted and the next thing I know that I wake up in the backyard. So that’s my story, if you don’t believe me, well that’s your tough luck because that’s what happen, so there.” By the time she finished half of the youths had stopped, what they were doing was listening to Katie’s story.
Jay was the first to speak up. “Well if that’s what happened then that’s what happened, but are you sure that you weren't imagining it up?”
“Yes I am sure! If not then how do you explain the claw marks by my hips?”
“Well, I don’t know, I guess that’s good enough evidence but I am not sure that the police will believe your story. If you don’t have more evidence, we got a problem...and Katie, you have nice long hair but I will recommend that you wash out all the red spots in it o.k.? Unless you dyed it last night and didn’t wash it all the way.”
“What red spots? My hair is blonde not blonde with red spots and how long is it?”
“Well there’s red spots in your hair and it goes down, from the looks of it, to your waist...”
“What do you mean my hair goes down to my waist?! I wish it did but it’s not see!” Katie then stood up and twirled around in a circle to prove it wasn’t as long as Jay said it was.
“Yep, I was right it’s down to your waist and I also recommend wearing loose clothing because of the reason I dare not say and only your mother should say..Well I got to go and check on everybody because we are going to the mall in a few minutes o.k? That should give you enough time to change.”
“But I...oh what’s the use, I should obey my elders even though I have no idea what they are talking about...about.” Katie then walked by a mirror and her jaw dropped open as she looked into it and saw what Jay was talking about. “OH-MY-GOSH!!! Jay’s right! I better change right now.” Katie ran off into a bedroom to change into her loose clothing and after a while all the youth group was ready to go to the mall.
As Jay shouted everybody’s name they all heard Kara’s mom, Julia, one of the leader’s. “You go right now into Katie’s grandparents house and wash your face young lady!!”
“But why mom? My face is already clean.”
“Oh no it ain’t! Just look at all those black spots across your nose!”
“What black spots?”
“Those black spots!” Julia answered as she points to Kara’s nose which had two lines of black spots across her nose. Kara crossed her eyes to see what black her mom was talking about {Which made her look very funny} and gasped when she saw the black spots.
“Oh my gosh how did they get there?”
Jay walked over to see the manner more closely and giggled when he saw Kara cross eyed. “We don’t have enough time, just go and get a paper towel and clean your face on the way to the mall.” Jay said as Kara, without any questions, ran into the house and came out less then a minute with a paper towel and ran into the bus that was waiting for them. She started scrubbing her face very very fast to get rid if the spots because it would be very embarrassing if anybody saw her with the black stops.
The bus driver gave instructions and soon they were on their way to the mall. As they were going to the mall Joshua {or Josh for short} was getting bored and started to shuffle his card deck in the air but got in trouble for doing it so he began grumbling about it. He looked over to where Denise was and saw that she wasn’t acting like she usually acted because she wasn’t talking and that scared Joshua. He continued looking around and saw one of his best friends Josiah’s sister Katie {and no there is not two Katie’s} and saw her long blonde hair with red spots being braided by Katherine which was scaring him even more.
“Hey, what’s the matter, Josh?” Asked Steve {Another Steve} when he saw Joshua scared look on his face. “,you look like you have seen a ghost.”
“I...I don’t know.”
“Now Josh, don’t lie, it’s against the Bible to lie, you know that don’t you? Now tell me what’s wrong?”
“I really don’t know well I guess umm..do you notice any change on any of the girls?”
“Well yes..yes I do notice changes on the girls, like last night, remember all the girls were covering their noses as if they were smelling something really bad or gross? Rachelle is acting very strange she seems to be more away from the group by the minute and she has gotten slimmer then she was last night and so has most of the girls, especially Katie! Remember all the chunks of fat on her, now all the chunks are gone and seems to be more protective of Katherine who now never leaves her side! And Kara *hee hee* her black spots across her nose, they weren’t there this morning and *ha ha hee hee* she is still scrubbing them and now there’s seems yellow markings on her now which is making her mom go crazy by the minute* hee hee*.” He pointed over to where Kara and Julia was sitting as Julia grabbed the paper towel, grabbed Kara’s head and started scrubbing her face but the black spots and now the yellow markings weren’t coming off and the paper towel kept on coming clean.
“Yes and also Addie and Angie they seem to be more close to each other as if they were sisters, very, very strange.” And with that their conversion stopped there as they reached the mall.
Katie looked out of the window and saw a figure run into the tree above them as the bus driver told them to make sure not to forget their stuff as they got off the bus. Jay started to call everybody and soon everyone was present and accounted for. He gave final intructions and soon they were having fun in the mall.
The youth group spilt into two groups the men went one way and the women went the other, with Julia still fussing over Kara’s face, quite confuse at it as well. “I can’t seem to get those black spots and yellow marks off of your face and I don’t know why that is.”
Wendy stopped by a clothes shop as the rest fallowed her Denise sensed something was wrong and tried to get the others to get out of there but the only one who listen was Katie. She then went to the mall’s police officer and brought him to Denise, who told him what she was sensing and then he told her not to worry and that he would check it out.
To be continue
