I stared at Tristian with a raised brow as he crouched down in front of me, a small black kitten in his hands.

"You got me a cat?" I asked for the tenth time since he brought it.

Tristian held the small paw of the kitten and waved at me. "Yes," He cooed, surprising me at how... soft and gentle he was with a thing that only fit into the palm of his hands, "I have a cat who just gave birth to five, so I figured you could have one."

I blinked. "Wait, you have a cat? Since when?"

Tristian sat on his knees and brought the kitten to his chest, letting it reach up to claw at his chin that was protected by the mask so he didn't try to push it away. "I found her not too long ago. She was hurt, so I nursed her back to health and she just stayed with me."

I hummed and looked down at the pictures I had been rummaging through. Another long week had passed and while I still went to look for Drakon with that horrible cold, the storm was bad and lasted all through last night and this morning. I tried to go, but after almost being killed by a tree falling after it had been struck by lightning, Tristian took me home. He promised he would go on with search as he was, in his words though he almost fell off a cliff twice, "more careful".

I stared down at the baby pictures of Drakon who smiled at the camera or looked close to bursting into tears as he was held to be still for the picture. I wanted to smile but kept a frown on my face.

"I can't have a cat right now. The poor thing would probably starve here." I added, stacking up the pictures to tuck away in the box.

Tristian looked down at the kitten who was curling itself up, yawning as it laid its small head on Tristian's wrist.

"How could you say no to this?" Tristian asked, his voice low so as not to disturb the kitten.

As I sat there, staring at Tristian look down at the sleeping kitten, my heart fluttered. My weakness was men who adored their pets, who would do whatever it took to make them comfortable and safe. And right now, Tristian was making me feel weak as he brought the kitten closer to his chest, letting it rest on his chest as he shushed the kitten who meowed in protest at having been moved.

I sighed in defeat and averted my eyes. "Fine. I'll take the cat."

Tristian looked up, his chest moving as he spoke and the kitten looked up with narrowed eyes. "Really?"

I nodded and grimaced when the kitten turned to me, its ears up as it stared at me with his green-yellow eyes.

"Yes, so long as you help me take care of..." I trailed off as I tried to think of a name when Tristian beat me to it.

"I call him Tom. If you want to change the name, that's okay."

"Tom it shall be." I declared after giving it some thought.

Tristian seemed excited as he raised the kitten to his face, gloved hand gently stroking Tom's head. "You hear that, bud? You made Varia a cat mom!"

I chuckled and Tom meowed before hopping off of Tristian's hand and gracefully landing on his paws. He stretched, arching its back before looking around his new surroundings.

"Tom is very friendly, unlike his siblings," Tristian spoke making me tear away my eyes from Tom to glance at him, "He follows me everywhere and likes to wake me up bright and early."

I groaned and looked back at Tom who was sniffing around the room. "Great. Just what I need. Another alarm clock."

Tristian chuckled and we both stood up after watching Tom jump into a box only to have him running out when he touched something that disgusted him.

"So, have you heard anything from Javon?" Tristian casually asked as we made our way to the kitchen.

True to his words, Tom trailed behind Tristian, warily eyeing the unknown surroundings. I shook my head as I went to the stove.

"No. He said the police are coming up empty-handed so far." I mumbled sadly.

When Drakon was officially declared as missing, Javon stayed in town for about a week. He searched everywhere and even went into town to look for him, something that hadn't occurred to me. He avoided me since my outburst and only approached me to see if there was any new information.

He went back to the city after having missed a dozen calls from his boss. It wasn't long until his boss called me, apologizing and saying "I hope he's found soon". After that Javon's co-workers and personal friends also called me and some even going so far as to visiting me and helping out with the search.

I was mildly surprised and uncomfortable by the sudden attention but quickly grew tired of hearing the same things over and over. I knew they all meant well, but when someone said "I know what you're going through. It'll be okay."

No. They had no idea what it felt like. One minute, I had my baby by my side. I had my whole world, my will to push forward, by my side.

And the next minute, he was gone with the wind.

Now I had nothing by my side. My whole world was slowly crumbling to pieces; my will to push forward was dwindling as the days went by.

I had nothing.

A hand reached out and turned off the stove, the screaming kettle slowly calming down. I blinked out of my thoughts as Tristian poured the hot water into a mug and dipped in a tea bag.

"You all alright?" He asked, looking at me over his shoulder.

I blinked and slowly nodded. "Yes, sorry. I zoned out."

Tristian handed me the mug and went back around the counter across from me empty-handed.

"You know you can't go out today, right?" He stated, and right on cue, there was thunder clap.

I grimaced as the rain started to pour down. "I know."

Tom hopped on the counter, startling me for a second as he went up to Tristian, butting his head on his arm.

"Why can't you keep him? He seems to be fond of you." I added when the cat sat back and meowed.

Tristian rubbed Tom's head and he purred at the attention. "I feel like he would be happier here with you."

"Hardly. He hasn't even come up to me since you brought it here." I deadpanned.

"Are you jealous?" Tristian said, a playful tone in his voice to indicate he was teasing me. It was rare to hear him be playful or laid back. He was usually more guarded and kept his tone void of emotion, but over the past two months, we had grown closer together.

I scoffed and dipped my tea bag in and out of the water. "I'm not much of a cat person. They never liked me."

Tom curled up against Tristian, laying his head on the crook of Tristian's elbow as his eyes drifted shut.

"He's just not used to you yet. Give him time."

I wasn't convinced but nodded anyway. Maybe Tom would be the one to change my view of cats. It wasn't that I thought of them as evil demons crammed into a cute four-legged animal like most people thought. It was just that I never had a cat or even came close to one so I simply didn't care about them.

But as I stared at the little kitten, his tail wrapped around him as he slept, I realized why people looked at cat videos all day.

They were cute and harmless.

At least for now, he was.

I'm pretty sure that once Tristian was gone, he would be a whole different cat.

"I've always liked cats," Tristian spoke up suddenly, "Ever since I was a kid."

I sat up at that. He was talking about his childhood. I swallowed down my excitement of him opening up and tried to get the ball rolling.

"What do you like about them?" I asked.

"I think it's their ability to sense danger. They don't stick around to see what it is. They just run."

I hummed and took a gulp of my tea. "I bet if everyone had that, horror movies wouldn't exist."

Tristian softly laughed at that. "I guess that's true though I've only seen one horror movie."

"Which one?"

"I don't remember the name, but it's about a man in a mask killing off a bunch of teenagers and going after a girl. They made a whole bunch of references of what not to do in horror movies."

"Scream. The mask has this long..." I trailed off as I waved my hands around my face to indicate what I meant.

He nodded. "Yes, that one."

I smiled. "Yeah, that's one of my favorite horror movies. I like to watch all of the Scream movies every once in a while."

"There's more?"

"Uh-hmm. There are four in total. I have them all on DVD. We could watch them one day if you'd like."

Tristian seemed to like that idea as he eagerly nodded.

"Great," I chirped, getting up from the stool to put my empty mug in the sink, "It's a date."

"A... date?" Tristian echoed.

My face grew hot as I realized what I said. I shifted uncomfortably as Tristian stared at me and that only succeed in making my face redder than a tomato.

I knew there was something going on between me and Tristian. I mean, we kissed more than once and we hugged longer than when friends hugged. And I knew I wasn't the only one imagining it since he usually made the first move. I only kissed back and yearned for more every time.

There was something there.

I opened my mouth, but there was a loud bang on the door that startled us. Even Tom jumped from his nap, jerking his head towards the sound.

"You're expecting someone?" Tristian asked, glancing at the time on the microwave.

I shook my head, feeling my face cool down a bit as I wondered who could be out on a day like this. I opened the front door, frowning when there was no one there.

I poked my head out, the wind pushing the rain towards me. I hissed and went to close the door when a box that sat on my doormat caught my attention. I looked around once more and picked it up. It was small square cardboard box that was dripping wet and looked close to being torn up.

I faced towards the hallway where Tristian and Tom stood at the doorway of the kitchen, peering from behind the wall. I kicked the door closed and peeled the tape off, almost dropping a piece of paper as the box tore in half.

My eyes widen and a hand flew to my mouth as tears stung my eyes as I focused on the paper. No, the small Polaroid picture of Drakon sitting on a metal chair, held in place by tape His tearful eyes were wide with fear as he stared at the camera. Today's newspaper was on his lap indicating he was alive.

I choked on a sob as my eyes trailed down to the writing.

Whore was sloppily written in all caps multiple times as if this person couldn't stop.

I closed my eyes and Tristian came up to me, taking the picture from my hand. I heard him suck in a sharp breath, his body tensing as he slowly flipped it over.

He seemed to be frozen in place as if there was something more to it.

"W-What is it?" I quietly asked, scared by his reaction.

He didn't answer me but held it out for me to read. There was nothing, but an address scribbled. It took me a moment to realize that address belonged to a closed bar—the same bar where Kris died. The bar mysteriously was lit on fire a few weeks after all the bodies were taken to the morgue and it would have been burned to the ground if everyone hadn't of pitched in to help put it out.

"Do you think he's there?" I asked, afraid to grab the picture.

Tristian lowered his hand, staring down at the address. "I guess there's only one way to find out."