Animal Kingdom Series Book 1: Animal Kingdom

Mia Burch lay still in her narrow bed, jolted from sleep, her eyes fixed on the window.

Rain traced restless paths down the glass, each impatient drop catching the light as a sudden flash lit the room.

A heartbeat later, thunder rolled through the darkness like a distant threat.

She wished her parents were here. But there was no one she trusted to turn to.

She held her stuffed bunny tightly. The eight-year-old loved it and kept it by her side during thunderstorms for comfort.

She tried taking normal, calm breaths. She knew she would fall back to sleep soon if she lay here long enough, maybe close her eyes and pretend.

The storm’s thunder ruined her chance. It was a bad night tonight.

She glanced at the fluffy black cat on her dresser, licking its paws and ignoring the chaos outside.

Something outside her bedroom disturbed the animal. It shifted its ears toward the door before jumping off the dresser and dashing out of the purple room.

A loud crash of falling pans made Mia lift her head and turn toward the cracked doorway.

The additional sound of moving furniture raised Mia’s curiosity. She wondered if Cindy, her babysitter, had heard.

She blinked a few times, hoping her dad would check. But she remembered they wouldn’t return until morning due to the storm.

Wearing her pink-clouded pajamas, she slid out of her bed and took the bunny with her for something to hold onto.

She walked over to peek out to see if she could detect what was outside in the hallway.

The sound of the pots before had scared her, knowing her babysitter never went into the kitchen. She especially didn’t touch the kitchen’s cooking items.

She peeked through the door crack toward the end of the hallway, seeing a shadow move past the flickering TV light in the living room.

It wasn’t Cindy’s tall figure, but a small, slender form that quickly passed by, accompanied by the sound of a table sliding across the wood.

Startled, Mia rushed to her bed as thunder shook the house. Someone else was here…

Did the burglar hurt Cindy? Although she wasn’t a nice person to Mia, she was nice to her parents.

It might’ve been fake niceness, but nobody deserved to get hurt.

Another noise came. Then, the hisses of her cat.

“Midnight!”

She peered over the side, her heart racing for her cat, whom her father let her rescue from the shelter. She had fed, loved, and bathed her strange water-loving feline.

She did not want him to get hurt.

She slowly slid from beside the safety of her bed and called her cat again, hoping that he would run into her arms like he always did, and she could lock the door. But he never came.

She left the safety of her room to search for him. Calling his name, she peeked out the door, then stepped into the dark hallway.

Without the TV’s light casting shadows, she felt more assured as she entered the living room.

Once her small feet pattered over the wood floor, she gazed at the living room.

Cindy lay on the couch with an open bag of chips on the table, but it wasn’t that which caught the young girl’s attention.

A fresh, glossy burgundy handprint marked the wall leading from the kitchen, sliding down to the floor. Another print was placed on the table, slightly pushed away from the couch.

Mia blinked and tilted her head at the scene. Someone was here, but she didn’t know why they would cause a mess.

The sound of a cat’s growl came from the dark basement where the red handprints led. Her breath caught. Clutching her bunny, she dashed to her parents’ room to grab her father’s flashlight.

She disliked dark places, especially the basement, but Midnight was hers. She loved that cat, and she knew he was down there.

But who else was?

She cautiously approached the open basement door, flashlight in hand, and the bunny cradled in her arms.

The light flickered as she pointed it down the stairs. She slowly stepped down each step and wished that her cat was down here.

She paused when she saw more red on the stairs below her.

“Midni—oh!”

The large flashlight slipped through her small fingers, tumbling down the stairs and rolling to a stop on the floor.

A noise in the basement made her freeze. The crack of lightning was bright but silent.

Should she back out now or get her dad’s flashlight?

She heard her cat’s hiss, confirming his presence down here. She needed to make sure he was all right.

She slid down the steps slowly, her heart racing as she reached for the flashlight.

Once in hand, she surveyed her surroundings. Boxes were stacked high, hiding the rest of the dark basement.

Mia noticed more red leading to a hidden area, along with her cat.

“Midnight!”

The cat arched its back, hissing in the direction the red marks led.

Mia stood up with the flashlight and stepped forward.

Midnight’s hiss was drowned out by a growl that made the cat flee past her. Mia froze, stunned.

She had never heard a growl like that.

A growl was followed by a painful moan that sparked her curiosity. She shifted closer, wanting to know if someone was in pain.

The flashlight flew from her hand as the light flickered away with it, revealing a larger, scarier shadow before her.

As it snarled like a large feline, she froze, her brown eyes flaring at the glowing eyes ahead.

She hugged her bunny tighter to her chest. Yellow. Yellow, bright eyes that made her continue to stare.

Especially when the eyes didn’t look human. It was more like a…cat.

The taller shadow growled again, more fiercely, trying to run her off so it could slip away.

But its threatening growls turned into slight hisses of pain as its arms covered its stomach and chest, bending forward. Its wound finally took its toll.

The shadow collapsed and pushed the smaller girl down onto the floor. The stranger curled in pain.

Mia left her bunny on the floor so she could reach for the flashlight to shine on it.

She didn’t fully grasp what lay before her. At first, she mistook him for a hurt boy, lying in pain on the ground.

He seemed like an older preteen, but there was something more to him.

The boy had the ears and tail of a feline. Two pointed ears sat on top of his head. His tail was long, moving side to side in pain. His clothes were unusual; he wore only black trousers that looked handmade.

His body faced her direction with his eyes squeezed shut.

His bare, slender torso seemed to have been wounded. He had bruises, cuts, dirt, and blood covering his battered skin.

Mia began to shiver, yet seeing the boy in such a terrible condition made her fear slip away. He was hurt.

She sat up and moved closer, but the first slight noise she made caused his eyes to open.

His pupils were thin slits as he first stared, his yellow eyes locking onto her brown ones in warning. But as he gazed at her, he stilled.

Mia examined his pupils as they grew into wide circles while his body went limp without lowering his head. He blinked a couple of times, more than she did, and let out a breath he had held for some time.

The little girl didn’t know what was going on, but she knew she needed to help him. Despite her closeness, he remained silent, staring.

Concerned, she said, “I—I don’t know how to fix it, but maybe you should clean up.”

His large pupils made him appear normal, but his dazed expression revealed confusion. He blinked more at her, remaining silent when she touched his battered arm.

His pain intensified as she encouraged him to rise. He groaned. He just wanted to lie down for a while somewhere.

“My babysitter is sleeping,” she whispered to him and helped him to the stairs.

He looked exhausted and hurt. She had to help him.

“She can sleep through anything, but stay quiet just in case, all right?” she said.

He stared once again.

She helped the exhausted boy up the stairs, his sore body making it difficult. He was bigger and taller, but leaned against the wall for support, struggling with each step.

He was quiet through the living room and into the hallway with her. At the very end, right next to her room, was a bathroom she led him into.

By that time, his exhaustion overcame him, and he fell, grabbing the shower curtain in a weak attempt to keep up. She could not stop him from falling in.

His head rolled back, his tail halfway out of the tub. His ears were low with his eyes shut.

He passed out.

She grabbed the showerhead, standing on a nearby stool to reach, and turned on the water. She made sure it was a warm temperature so she could clean the poor boy.

She knew he was a strange stranger, but she couldn’t leave him filthy. She cleaned his face and torso, tilting her head in question as she examined him.

He didn’t look like a typical twelve-year-old. His hair was slightly long, which was uncommon for boys in this town, and he had a slim build—a sign of his youth.

Who was he?

He lay in the tub while she cleaned the blood off the wall and wherever else she could see and manage, hoping to protect Cindy from the blame. She hated to leave the boy in the bathroom, but she wasn’t big enough to carry him.

She returned to the bathroom to find him awake, his tail curling slowly. Sensing her presence, he turned his head, eyes half-closed and breathing slowly.

“I…I cleaned you off a bit,” she said, her fingers weaving together in her nervousness. “I am sorry I left you there, I just… Well, too small to pick you up.”

She thought he would speak, but he lay there silently, soaking and content. The warm falling rain was pleasant, and the tip of his tail curled.

She wanted to ask questions but didn’t.

“Do you need a medicine box for that?” her voice trembled.

She was rarely around others, thanks to her mom’s homeschooling. Her social skills were lacking.

He stared still.

She looked away from him this time. She was new to this eye contact thing, even with a stranger. Especially with a stranger. A strange stranger.

She left for the medicine kit and returned to find him still there. She did not know how to use it, but it seemed like a good idea to grab it.

As she set the kit down by the tub, he snatched and grabbed her wrist while her guard was down. She began to struggle.

“No,” he said.

Just that one word prompted Mia to become even more frightened. His voice was too serious for a young boy to have.

He jerked her wrist toward him. In a flash, her eyes spotted his long front canines.

He used them to bite into her wrist, using his other hand to cover her mouth to smother her panicked scream, and held her down over the side away from the water. He took light sips, and her body went limp from too much fear.

Confused, her eyes watched him. They were wide, seeing his lids were shut casually to focus. Her screams stopped when she realized it didn’t hurt.

Her wrist was numb, although his fangs were in. She was still nervous at the sight.

Once he let go, she scurried away and quickly checked her wrist, where two pinpricks now oozed droplets of blood. She shot him a frightened stare and kept her distance far away.

Her breath stilled when she saw that all his wounds had healed except for a strange white line below the left side of his chest. She held her bleeding wrist as he stared at it.

“A-are you fine now?” The experience was odd but appeared to help him, yet her heart still raced. Her small body was shaking from distress.

For once, he answered with a nod.

“The basement is warm,” she said finally as she tried to find her next words. “Um…uh… Y-you can sleep there… I think there is something you can lie on.”