Life and Death

Life and Death


By: Tamanoella

1. Our New "Friends"
Skimble was patrolling the junkyard smiling. Everything was in order, the way he liked it. Suddenly as he rounded a bend he saw two sets of eyes staring at him out of the darkness. "Hello Mungojerrie, hello Rumpleteazer" he said to the eyes. Smothered laughs followed, telling him that this was not Mungo or Rumple. In fact it didn't sound like anyone he knew. "Bombalurina?" more giggles. "Munkustrap?" a laugh that was not Munkustrap's. "All right, whoever you are come out now!" said Skimble sounding very official. The commotion had attracted the other Jellicle's attention and now everyone was watching the shadows.

Out of the shadows stepped two cats, laughing and mocking Skimble. "Oh dear sir, we're so very scared!" said the female and giggled. It was a male and female pair, both looking sinister. The female was redish-orange with white streaks. Her spiked collar added the same evil look to the queen and to top it off, her green eyes were slitted evilly above a pair of sharp fangs. The male on the other hand was not as evil looking. His fur was a brownish-grey with black strips. His collar was plain with silver studs. Plain dull amber eyes that sometimes seemed to be moving like water completed his appearance.

"Who are you?" asked Munkustrap as he approached the pair. The female replied, pushing the tom out of the way, "I'm Eclise, this is my mate Lix."

"Well," began Munkustrap, "I'm Munkustrap and th-."

Eclise rudely cut him off "Wonderful, do we care?" Everyone took a step back. Nobody ever talked to Munkustrap that way. Munkustrap looked to shocked to reply.

"What are you looking at?" hissed Lix. Everyone turned away in horror. As Victoria turned to walk away Lix stepped on her tail and drew her close, "Hey baby-" he let her go in a yelp of pain.

Mistofelees stood behind them with his paw's raised. "You are so dead!" muttered Lix as he walked away from them.

As the day went on things got worse for the two new cats. Eclise had managed to piss off Bombalurina, Rum Tum Tugger, Etcetra, Electra, Jemima, Jellylorum, and Jennyanydots. Lix had picked a fight with Alonzo, Munkustrap, Mistofelees, Quaxo, Plato, Skimble, and Gus. Gus was visiting to see the new cats but all he got was a scratch. That night they chose to sleep in Coricopat and Tantomile's pipe. In the end all the cats went to bed that night mad at Eclise and Lix.

The next morning Old Deuteronomy walked into the junkyard, eager to meet the new cats. One by one the cats began to awaken. Eclise and Lix were both still sleeping. Suddenly a blood curdling scream cut through the air and Eclise rushed out of the pipe! "WHICH OF YOU HAS DONE THIS?!" she screamed "WHICH OF YOU KILLED MY MATE?!"

2.Everyone is a Suspect? --NEW!
Everyone turned to where Eclise stood with tears of furry running down her face. "What the?" said Munkustrap and ran into the pipe. He stopped short when he saw what was inside. At the edge of the pipe lay Lix. It was obvious that he had been killed in his sleep. His throat had been torn open and large scratches covered his back. "Oh my god!" he screamed which sent the cats into a state of panic to get inside the pipe. Electra, who was one of the first in, began to cry. Bombalurina made a choking noise, Demeter suddenly felt very lightheaded and fainted into Jennyanydots. Munkustrap shook himself out of his daze and began directing cats back out into the sunlight where Eclise sat crying.

The cats sat in silence for awhile before Tumblebrutus spoke "I think the only thing to do is find out who did it" All the cats agreed and began talking. Munkustrap was about to gather a group of cats to help when Eclise burst in, "We can't just find out who killed him now! He WILL have a proper burial before we do ANY searching!" Munkustrap was taken aback by the queen's anger and quickly decided that a funeral would take place that afternoon.

While Jenny and Jelly sat comforting the kittens on one side of the junkyard, Munkustrap, Alonzo, Mistofelees, and even Rum Tum Tugger (who had decided to show some responsibility) met on the other to discus what to be done. "Well, everyone in the Junkyard is a suspect" concluded Mistofelees.

"You know, the kitten's right!" replied Tugger sarcastically. Misto hissed at him.

"Well," began Alonzo "I wonder if Coricopat and Tantomile could....ummmm...." Alonzo trailed off, slightly embarrassed that his vocabulary wasn't the best.

"See which cat it is using ESP" finished Munkustrap for him.

"I guess we could give it a try" said Tugger and went off to find them. A few minutes later he came back. "They said it was beyond their powers."

"You know I hate to say this, but they could just be saying that to cover up murdering Lix" mused Alonzo. Everyone looked horrified. "Just saying...that....is *sigh*" "Well, I could do it!" volunteered Mistofelees.

"Why didn't we think of that before?" asked Tugger. They all shrugged. With that decided they left for the funeral, Mistofelees unaware of the danger he had brought upon himself.

2.Will There Ever Again be a Cat so Clever?
The cats sat glumly around the junkyard. The funeral had been a disaster. Nobody knew the cats well enough to say anything about them.

The only impressions they had of them were bad, and you can't say at a person's funeral "I hated their guts, and I'm glad they're dead." All the cats sat around watching Eclise cry on her mate's grave. Munkustrap called Mistofelees to him, "I can't stand this anymore, do what you must find the murder!"

It was the next at the junkyard. The cats were there with the exceptions of Mistofelees, Bombalurina, and Rum Tum Tugger. It was a habit for The Tugger to come late, and chances were that Bombalurina was with him. But Mistofelees was always prompt. Now when they needed him most, he was gone.

On their way to the junkyard Bombalurina and Rum Tum Tugger stopped by an alley. Tugger turned his ear's as a faint whimper came from the alley. He stopped to listen. "Ummm....you coming Tugger?" asked Bomb.

"Just a sec, you go on ahead, I'll meet you in the junkyard later," replied Tugger. Bomb shrugged and walked off. Tugger stepped into the alley, searching for what had made the noise. He stumbled across something big and silently swore. Why did he get stuck with this stuff? It didn't seem to occur to him that he had volunteered for this. He stopped dead in his tracks as the lump groaned and rolled over. It was Mistofelees! "Misto, my friend, what are you doing here?!" Tugger exclaimed. He tried to help Misto up, but he was limp. "You know, you're not really helping here," said Tugger. He caught his breath as his paw touched something warm and sticky on the back of Mistofelees's head. Blood! Tugger dropped Mistofelees instantly, but he landed on Tugger's feet so no harm was. "What happened to you?" asked Tugger, his voice full of worry.

Mistofelees tried to sit up,but slipped as his paw's gave way. Tugger gently placed his head on his lap. "I was walking to the junkyard, I hadn't found anything of significance, but I knew I would soon. I turned into this alley because I heard a noise coming from it. Suddenly I felt something hard smash into my head. Really hard. I collapsed and saw a bloody rock roll past me. I never saw who my attacker was, I bet it was who ever killed Lix, they didn't want me to find out." Mistofelees finished his story and closed his eyes.

"It's going to be okay, Misto, I'll get you to some help!" said Tugger almost desperately. Mistofelees tried again to sit up but fell back again. Mistofelees looked up again and grabbed Tugger's paw. His eye's were clouding over and his voice croaked as he spoke. "Rum Tum Tugger, go back to the junkyard, tell everybody what happened, and tell Victoria that" he coughed and struggled to go forward with his last words, "Tell Victoria that I love her, good-bye my friend." said Mistofelees as he slipped into darkness. Thus, the Magical Mr. Mistofelees died. Rum Tum Tugger sat stunned with the dead cat in his lap, not believing what he had just seen.

Finally it dawned on him and he clutched his friend's body to him and cried.

3. Sadness in the Junkyard
Bombalurina sat staring at the opening to the junkyard. "Where is HE?" she thought to herself. She had left Tugger twenty minutes ago, and he being the easily bored cat that he was should be in the junkyard by now. Bomb jumped off her perch on the tire to go peek around the corner, of course if he was coming she would have to cover it up.

There was no way she was going to let Tugger know that she was waiting for him. She looked around the corner and saw to her disappointment, no Tugger, sadly she walked back to the tire. About two minutes after she had checked Tugger walked into the junkyard carrying a black bundle. Bomb leapt up, but she calmed herself and walked slowly over to Tugger.

"Hey Tugger, whacha ca-," her voice stopped dead when she saw what it was. "OH MY GOD! MISTOFFELEES!" she screamed. Cats all around stopped what they were doing to rush over. Victoria was the first to get there, when she saw Mistoffelees she sank to the ground in a faint. Eclise's jaw hung open as she gawked at the body, Munkustrap and Demeter stood together, trying to understand, Bombalurina gave Tugger a sad nuzzle. She didn't like to see him cry, but it was obvious he was. Alonzo and Plato rushed over to Vicarage Wall to tell Old Deuteronomy the news. With in half an hour he there. Munkustrap and he sat and planned Mistoffelees's funeral. On the other side of the junkyard Jennyanydotts and Jellylorum comforted a hysterical Victoria.

Later that day every cat sat around a freshly dug grave near the car. Lix's grave was there too, but nobody seemed to pay much attention to his. The flowers that had been placed there by Eclise were smashed into the ground. Everycat was so involved in the service that none of them noticed Eclise sneak off out of the junkyard, grinning like a maniac...

...to be continued

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