Ryne had called the other cats over to his side after his conversation with Mrs. Matthews. They now waited for a bus to come.

“I think it would be better for you three to get in the bag for now,” said Ryne, thankful that his bag was big enough to hold the others in.

“Why is that?” asked Fonmi, as the other two were going in.

“Well, I am planning to ride the bus back to the city so we could get there faster. I’m not sure if they’ll let you ride along with me, though.”

“Ohhhhh, okay. What’s a bus?”

Ryne was going to answer him but realized that the answer might spark another question. “Um, you know what, you’ll see what it is soon enough.”

“Wow, a surprise! Yay!” said the juvenile feline as he hopped into the bag.

“Is he… always like this, Nini?” asked Ryne in a whisper.

“Quite often, I’m afraid,” answered Nini, as she watched Fonmi starting to play with Prauza in the bag.

She then turned to Ryne and said, “But I’d rather he talk to you than to a complete stranger. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve nearly lost sight of him because of the latter.”

“That seems like quite the challenge. I don’t think I’d have that much patience with a child like that.”

Nini laughed a bit. “I think you will make a wonderful father someday.”

“You’re certainly being a great mother today.”

Nothing else was said after that, as the two were caught up in embarrassment. Soon, the bus came to pick them up.

“Oh, is that what you called the bus?” asked Fonmi as Ryne started to zip the bag up.

“Yes,” Ryne whispered.

He went on the bus and paid the fare. Then, as soon as he was fully inside, he looked for a seat. Not many people were traveling that early in the morning, so he had no problem finding a free one. He chose one that was near the window, so he could see the outside.

This is going to be some journey… I hope we do well, Ryne murmured to himself.

I hope I do well.

----------

Back in the city…

By the time it was fully bathed in the morning light, a part of it had been thrown into confusion. This included the household of one Ella Allen, a college student.

“Ella… Ella. Wake up!”

She was still groggy, being woken up before her customary hours and all, but forced herself to get up for the sake of her housemate.

“What is it?” she asked, noticing the desperation in her friend’s voice.

“Could you help me look for Percy? I’ve been meaning to feed him, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.”

Ella scratched her head, as the situation didn’t make sense. “That’s odd. He usually comes to you even when you’re still getting his cat food.”

“I know, right? He’s not even that much of an outdoor cat, either, so I don’t know where he is if he isn’t in the house or in the yard.”

Ella thought of what to do next, then stood up from the bed. “Why don’t we go and ask the neighbors first? Maybe they’ve seen him.”

“Right… Maybe we should,” said her friend in agreement. “Come to think of it, Percy is good friends with Yuki. Maybe he’s there somewhere.”

Still in her pajamas and with her long blonde hair unkempt, since she didn’t think she would need to leave the yard yet, Ella readily accompanied her friend to ask the neighbors about their feline pet.

In their inquiry, they found out that some of the neighbors were also looking for their pets and were in the same situation as them.

“Well, this is something you don’t experience every day,” said Ella.

“Do you think it could be cat-nappers?” asked her friend, who was plagued with worry. “Oh dear, my poor Percy… I hope he’s all right…”

Ella knew that sitting around won’t do much good if they wanted to find Percy. “I’ll go and look around more of the neighborhood, just to be sure. Maybe I could even post a missing animal report at the police station. Do you have a picture of him?”

Her friend’s face brightened up.

“Oh yes, please. Here, have all the pictures you need!” She showed a full album of pictures and videos of her pet, some of them embarrassing, from her smartphone.

“Um, thanks,” Ella said while she started to sort out the ones she could transfer to her device.

After she was done, she changed into her outdoor clothes, tied her hair into a ponytail, and went out.

But, right before she got out of the yard, her dog, Brownie, went to her and tried to climb up her leg. It was as if it didn’t want her to leave.

“Hey there, Brownie. I’m just going out for a stroll, okay? I’ll be back,” Ella said while giving Brownie a reassuring hug. “That’s okay, that’s okay. Good girl.”

Brownie still whined and whimpered a little as Ella tried to calm her down enough so she could get out of the house in peace. She felt sorry seeing the dog sit near the gate, but she knew she had to do something for her friend. She ran off so that she could search a little faster and get to go to the police station as well.

She looked in every nook and cranny she could reach but found no trace of the pet. However, she did notice that a few other, more distant neighbors were also looking for their pet cats. She thought it was odd, and what’s more, it reminded her somewhat of the paper she had made for her grant by the publishing company, Spiritbooks.

It was research on the mostly unknown mythological origins of the city which involved cats, people, and some sort of monster sealed deep underground. She did it because of her interest in animals, myths, and legends, and because of a book that her grandfather had in his library that interested her.

But there was no way that it is actually real, right? Whoever would believe that mumbo-jumbo? It made for a good story, yes, but for it to be real… How?

This is no time to think about it, she said to herself as she made her way to the police station to file a report. Going to the station is the more practical thing to do.

It didn’t take long for her to get there, even on foot. She went in and was surprised by the number of people inside.

She thought it would be wise to get a grasp of the situation first. “Excuse me,” she said to one of the officers. “Has the station always been this busy?”

“Not usually. From what I can tell, a good number of people suddenly had their pets missing. And all of them have been cats,” said the officer. “Are you going to file a report as well?”

Now it was hitting her…

“Okay… This is unusual,” she thought.

She said yes to the officer and proceeded to report her friend’s missing pet.

I hope this doesn’t actually mean something sinister or whatnot, she said to herself.

But deep down, she felt as if there was something big and dark looming over the horizon. Maybe it was the reason her dog didn’t want her to leave home? Maybe the cat disappearances meant something?

She attempted to rationalize with thoughts like, Oh, the human brain just tends to look for patterns in everything. Even seeing things that are not there or expecting the worst.

However, it didn’t quite seem to work as well as she wanted it to.