• ---Underearth---
    Chapter one

    Tabby had a fit of coughing as the smoke filled her lungs and she struggled to get out of the twisted blankets of her bed. She wanted desperately to scream, to scream for her family to get out, out of the house. But the smoke had scratched her throat and she could not make more then a squeak.

    She finally ripped herself from the bed and stumbled dizzily to her door. Tabby grabbed the handle, but drew her hand back quickly, for it was scathing hot. She was relieved to find that the door was slightly ajar, though, so she pushed a finger through and pulled the door open. The house was worse out of her room. Everything was in flames; felled chairs burning like kindling, the piano with its pages flaming out to a blink and flying ash, the couch ripped apart and half-charred, and so much more in her former home that was now a burning, sulfur-scented hell. The smoke was thicker and it stung her eyes, which were welling with tears from both the choking air and the extreme desperation, as well as the sadness from the thought that nothing will ever be the same again.

    There was no sign of other life. Tabby couldn’t see any of her family members anywhere. She hung between trying to get out of the house and trying to find her family. Tabby was still thinking when she heard a creaking sound, and part of the roof caved in. She screamed and leaped out of the way, landing on a pile of destroyed house beams, which ripped at her skin. She cringed as she saw her blood on the nails and splintering wood now stained red like cherry oak. She looked up at the night sky bleeding through the broken, burning roof with tear-stained cheeks.

    She could make out something darker than the sky, blotting out the stars and the crescent moon.

    It was the charred and dripping claw of an iron machine.

    So this was it… All of it was intentional. The house had been set on fire and was now being torn apart by a machine that looked a cross between a backhoe and a crane. It was a monster; oil leaking and smoke erupting from every crack. It was a mess, terribly built. As if it were only built in a hurry to only do its job, not bothered to be made to look efficient.

    In that moment, everything was still. The sound of all burning and collapsing beams was gone. Just the wind breathing against every fragment of the once-was beautiful mansion. For Tabby had spotted and recognized a crazed face in the window of the terrible machine.

    It was her uncle Tori.

    And then the flames reached the core of the stove, and exploded.

    ----

    “Tabby! C’mon, give the ball…”

    Tabby smiled as she hugged the football in her arms, up on a high and thin limb on a birch tree. She shook her head stubbornly at Brian, who was glaring up at her from the ground.

    “Tabby!”

    She giggled. “I told you, I wouldn’t get your ball until you licked Coby’s face.”

    Brian groaned and rolled his eyes. “And I told you I wasn’t going to do that.”

    By now the five other boys who were playing football had gathered at the tree. One of them, Hugh, said to Brian, “C’mon, dude, make her give us the ball. We were winning!”

    “Only by one point. And I’m trying, jeez.” Brian turned back to Tabby. “Tabby you have three seconds…”

    “Til’ what?” Tabby asked boredly.

    “This.” Brian motioned to Coby, who was very tall and muscular, who hugged the tree and began shaking it.

    Tabby’s eyes widened, “Brian! What the hell are you-” She let out a gasp as she slipped from the shaking limb, hugging the ball, and fell, brushing against branches on the way down, the whistling air cradling her decent. Brian stepped over about a foot and caught her, halting her fall with a jolt. Tabby blinked, her expression of shock. “Darn you…” She smiled.

    A boy named Jace grinned, “Nice catch, Brian.”

    Brian rolled his eyes and put Tabby down, propping her up on her unsteady feet. “Now how about that ball, Tabby…”

    Tabby held the ball tightly, close to her chest. “No! You almost killed me.” She said playfully.

    “You know I’m not shy, Tabby.” Jace said, smirking.

    Tabby blinked and then hurriedly gave Brian the ball. “Fine, but you owe me a soda later…”

    Brian smiled and took the ball, “Fine. Laura’s at the library if you want.” And with that, he and the other boys went off to finish their game.

    ----

    Tabby coughed and opened her eyes. She had only been out for about a minute, luckily. She shook those memories out of her mind and stood up shakily. She was still among the flaming rubble, and she was determined to get out. The house was getting hotter by the second. The heat and smoke were almost too much for her to bear, but she pressed onward in a stride, leaping over fallen objects. She ducked down to avoid a shelf crashing down what was left of the stairs, and saw something furry under the half-flaming couch.

    “Dinah!” She exclaimed excitedly. She reached under the couch and pulled out a trembling, little red and white kitten. She held the poor little baby to her chest and kissed her ash-stained, furry head. Dinah mewed hoarsely, giving Tabby a relieved look.

    Tabby had named her after Alice in Wonderland’s kitten, the one in the Disney version. She was red with little white socks, a white underbelly, and white cheeks. But this Dinah had a white tip on her tail. Tabby had begged for a pet for so long, since her brother Allen had a lizard.

    Tabby burst into tears and began sobbing as she thought of her brother. Did he make it out? Or had he been crushed, or even worse, burned to death? He may have been a complete jerk to her, but she didn’t want to think about such a horrible thing. So she chokingly swallowed her tears, and stood up with Dinah in her arms. There would always be that lump in her throat.

    There was a crash as the claw ripped through the house again, shattering windows all around her. Several shards of glass whizzed through the air and sliced Tabby’s skin, or fell in her hair. Blood spurted out of the small, clean cuts. Tabby held back a screech, for fear of her uncle spotting her. She put Dinah in the bosom of her shirt, so she wouldn’t get cut. Dinah didn’t struggle; it was all too much shock for a little kitten to handle.

    Tabby spotted her way out; a shattered window close enough to the ground. She would have to jump, for there was still large pieces of the window left in the pane. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and held one arm to her shirt where Dinah was.

    And then she jumped.

    Tabby landed with a thud in the grass, careful not to land on Dinah by holding out her other arm to stop her fall. Some of the grass was in flames, the rest was too damp to catch fire. Tabby sat in the bushes, too exhausted to move anymore. She looked up at what was once her home, and finally cried.

    She took Dinah out of her shirt and held her on her lap, continuing to sob, the tears laying tracks on her ash-covered face.

    And she would have continued to if the sound of creaking metal hadn’t paused and then started in her direction. Tabby looked up, and, to her horror, her uncle had spotted her. He thrust the levers as far as they would go in her direction. Tabby scrambled to her feet, holding Dinah under one arm. The claw came after her in a surprisingly fast motion. The gears rolling it along made a loud, piercing screeching sound that went straight through Tabby’s skull and gave her a splitting headache. But she didn’t think about it, the only thing on her mind was ‘run’. And so she did. She stumbled as she flew along through the short strip of woods next to her house, not only because of the tangling bushes and trees, the rocks and roots, the rumbling of the machine causing the Earth itself to tremble, but also because of her slowly weakening legs that were ripped apart and burned. They stung like she had never thought possible, but still was that single thought in her mind, and she sought to obey it best she could with her weathering body. The claw and its sister claw tore through the trees as if they were nothing but spider’s webs. They were breathing roots and dirt and felled tree branches on her back and shoulders consistently.

    Then one of the claws caught her shirt. She screamed with effort as she tried her best to untangle herself from the talons of the machine. It had ripped through the fibers of her shirt and was cutting up her back. Suddenly its sibling came to the other side, and Tabby was trapped between them. She looked about frantically. The gap between the claws was closing in precipitously. Dinah yowled and struggled in her arms, but Tabby desperately tried to pull herself away from the first claw, holding her cat rather tightly for her comfort.

    Finally, her shirt tore, leaving her back exposed but it surprisingly still remained intact. Tabby didn’t hesitate for a blink. She jumped through the nearly-closed jaws of the two shovels and made a mad dash for the street that came into view as the trees came to an end. She heard her uncle in the distance roar furiously and the machine’s treads come to life with a rusty-sounding pop. Her uncle was driving the machine toward the town, toward Tabby. But Tabby never had the time to decide whether to sacrifice herself for the good of the town, or to continue running, for suddenly her feet were suddenly no longer on solid ground. Her eyes opened wide when she realized she had run straight into an open manhole, which had been boarded up with wood and then torn apart over the years on the weathered, unused road. In a heartbeat Tabby was falling, clutching the terrorized Dinah to herself, who was digging her claws painfully into her owner’s side.

    It had felt like a long fall, the walls consisting of dark-gray, tunneled-through dirt and rusty nail-covered, moldy plank ruins, before Tabby hit the broken-wood covered end of the manhole, and blacked out with a sickening snap and a flash of gray.




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