Chapter 5

Soft, warm and extremely comfortable. He could have lay there forever, sleeping his life away. He felt content and safe for the first time in days. He rolled over, pulling the satin sheets over his body and snuggling his head into the pillow.

But this didn't feel like his bed. His bed wasn't anywhere as nice as this. This felt like heaven, not like his scratchy, hard bed from back home. But home was gone. So where was he?

Kitty's eyes snapped open. All the memories flooded his mind; the death and destruction, the loss of his family – Nyuujaku.

He jolted up, head spinning around to search his surroundings. He found he was in a room. A bedroom, he deduced, since he was in a bed. How did he get here? Where was Nyuujaku?

The bedroom he was in confused him. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl's room. The décor was masculine and a little bit Halloween-ish. Creepy posters and spider stickers littered the blood red walls. But there was make-up and a ton of hairspray on the dresser. He pulled the sheets off, noting that they were also red, and got out of the bed to have a further inspection.

The wardrobe was a good place to start. You could tell a lot about a person from what they wore. He opened the doors, but what was inside befuddled him even more. Black and red clothes that seemed to be for a young man but could also be for an androgynous woman. What most perplexed him were the long ankle-length skirts. Who did these clothes belong to? He couldn't tell. From the skirts, you'd imagine it would be a girl, but some men wore them, too. Just look at kilts. They're skirts for men. But these weren't kilts. They weren't feminine, either. Just flowy plain black ones. They could have belonged to a boy, possibly a cross-dresser, but they could also belong to a girl who liked to look like a boy but sometimes wore skirts and make-up. Kitty had no idea.

Being here wasn't a good idea. Richard and Claire were most likely wondering where he was. He didn't want to worry them. They had done so much for him and were so kind to him. He didn't want to cause any stress for them. He left the room and went down the stairs. It was time to go back.

The lack of hallways in this place seemed familiar to him. Once he reached the kitchen, he realised why. He was in Richard and Claire's house. Was it them who brought him here? It must have been. But he didn't remember them saving him or even being in the vicinity when he passed out. They must have found him afterwards.

A loud growling in his stomach interrupted his thoughts. He was absolutely starving. He hadn't eaten in days, possibly weeks. He had a nibble of the sandwich that Richard made, but he wasn't in the mood for food then. The stress and misery made him lose his appetite. Now, his hunger hit him full force. He had to eat something quick. Surely they wouldn't mind if he got some food.

There was a pantry by the door in front of him. It was closer than the fridge, so he decided to look there first. He found a packet of biscuits. The label was in Japanese, so he didn't know what type or flavour they were. But he ate them anyway. Any food was better than no food. Luckily, they tasted pretty good.

While he nibbled on them, he became thirsty. He went over to the fridge and found some milk. He needed something to put it in. He couldn't just drink from the carton like an animal. That would be disgusting. He needed a cup.

He glanced over to his right and spotted a cupboard. Didn't people usually keep tumblers and mugs in cupboards? There could be something he could drink out of in there. He sauntered over to it and opened it. But he didn't find cups in there. Instead, he found something bizarre.

A person was sitting in there, sipping a can of cola through a straw, with a creepy Victorian doll in their arms.

Kitty was too shocked to move or even breath. The person stared at him, their big blue eyes – well, eye, a red eyepatch covered their right one – boring into his. They both stared at each other in silence. After about three seconds of this, they pulled the straw out of their mouth and grinned at him like a psychopath.

Kitty proceeded to scream the house down.