I closed the door and went up into my living room, where I went to the window to look outside at the beach. The rain was still pouring, and now lightning and loud thunder were growling in the sky. I could see water splashing over the cliffs, it showed how much force the waves had.

I was thinking about going to bed, watching series until I would fall asleep, so I changed into my sleeping clothes. When I laid down, I realized I hadn't locked the door and instantly hated myself for it because now I had to go back down again.

When I reached the door and locked it, I looked through the small window the door had and noticed someone walking on the street through the rain. Although walking probably wasn't the right word for it. The person was limping slowly, stumbling to the side every few steps.

Although I first thought that whoever it was, was drunk and couldn't even walk straight, I soon realized that the person looked injured and tired, rather than wasted.

I went into the next room because whoever it was moved out of my sight, and the window over there was wider.

The stranger seemed to be holding something close to themselves, trying to shield it from the rain. When they passed the path which led to my garage, they suddenly stopped.

The person looked like they were thinking about something, and then went closer to my home. The path to the garage was covered with a roof, so they probably wanted to hide underneath it.

Suddenly I heard a splash and a quiet high pitched scream. It seemed that the person was a girl and slipped down the path.

I rushed down to the garage to check on her, but as soon as I opened the door, she got up and tried to run away along the beach.

Lightning illuminated the sky which made the girl flinch, almost to the point of falling to the ground. A few seconds later came the expected loud thunder, and this time the girl really fell. She tried getting up but fell again; now she was lying there, not moving at all.

Before I even realized what was happening, I was already running out to the beach in nothing but a tank top and my underwear. I had no umbrella or coat near me, so I just sprinted out in the clothes I meant to sleep in. I couldn't help myself but go out and see if the girl was okay; if she passed out here, she could very much die. When I got closer to her, I yelled, "Hey! Are you alright?"

She slowly looked up, and after she saw me approaching her, she got up quickly and tried running away.

"The hell!?" I screamed in surprise and annoyance, I was already thoroughly soaked and cold from the rain just to help her after all.

The strength she mustered up after seeing me left her soon, and she fell back to the ground. I went after her, and when I reached her, I saw what she was holding so close to her body. It greeted me with a faint "meow," which was hard to hear because of the storm. The girl had been protecting a small kitten from the rain and wind all this time.

"Please..." said a small and shaky voice, while panting hard, "d-don't hurt... her..."

With that, she passed out, and let go of her kitten, which then started licking the hand of the unconscious girl.

I decided that I couldn't let her lie on the ground in the rain with her little cat worrying about her, so I picked the girl up in a princess carry with her kitten still sitting on her stomach. She was surprisingly light which made it easy for me to take her to my house.

Before I reached the garage, she woke up and was shocked because I was holding her. While suddenly pushing herself away from me, she yelled, "Nooo let me go!"

Although she didn't have much strength, I almost dropped her on the floor, because she drove her nails, which felt like claws, deep into my shoulder.

"Dammit girl, calm down! I'm just trying to help!" I yelled at her. Although it was too dark for me to see her facial expression, I think I scared her, because she got silent and I felt her tremble in my hands.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to yell at you..." I apologized, trying to calm her down. By now I reached my house and went through the back door into the garage, where I put the girl down.

Now, I was the shocked one. The light inside of the garage illuminated the girl, so now I could clearly see her. At the sight of her angelic face, her beautiful light blue eyes and her also light blue hair that was hanging down in short cute twin-tails, my heart skipped a beat.

What surprised me was that she had the rare cat-like tail and cat ears that were parts of her body, both covered with fur that had the same blue color as her hair. Although I knew that people with those existed, it was my first time seeing one.

But what shocked me even more than that was, that she had many injuries. She had bruises and slightly healed cuts all over her body.

When looking at all the wounds she had, I thought for sure that she was attacked by someone and needed to go to the hospital.

"Oh my god, are you alright? Were you attacked? Should I call your parents? Wait, I'll call the police," I panicked and dialed 911. Immediately the girl took my phone and stopped the call.

"N-No please, whatever you do, don't... don't let them take me back to... to them," the girl said while tearing up, her ears hanging down.

"After years... I finally can be free. Just let me go, I'm fine. Everything is... fine..." now she was crying and tried to stand up to go back outside.

I wasn't sure what she was trying to say, but it seemed like she fled from somewhere. I didn't know where she came from, or why she was injured like that, but I thought that it might be better if I don't call the police.

Although, it was way too dangerous for her to go out there, with injuries and weather like that she might even die out there. She looked terrified and probably wanted to get away from a stranger like me as fast as possible. But I would feel awful for letting this girl out into the storm, so I said, "Look, either you stay here for the night, so you are safe and sound, or you go out, but if you do that, I'll call the police and have them look for you. I don't want to be responsible for a girl dying near my house. Besides, who would care for your kitten then?"

I tried sounding determined so that she would stay here to avoid the police thing. Her little ears were pointing up again and turned back to me; I probably caught her attention.

The girl turned around to me, and looked at my right shoulder, seeing the blood on my skin. She realized that she did that with her nails while I was trying to help.

"I'm sorry..." she sounded so shy and was tearing up again, possibly thinking that she would get some kind of punishment, her ears also dropped back down again.

"It's fine, okay? It was me who approached you although you were scared, just stay here for the night, so I didn't get injured for nothing," I answered, trying to make her stay after the trouble I went through because of her already. I wasn't exactly keen to have a stranger stay the night, but neither sending her back out nor calling the police seemed to be a good idea.

She looked at something on the floor, and I noticed that my bracelet was lying there torn apart. I said, "Seems like it broke when I carried you in... I hope I can fix it..."

"I... I'm sorry..." apologized the girl again while curiously looking at the blue bracelet.

"It's fine. Now follow me inside, I'm cold," I responded and got up. She was still looking at the bracelet in my hand, but then nodded and followed me to the stairs.

"Want to tell me your name? I'm Brea Faye," I introduced myself. She remained silent for a moment, so I turned around and saw that she was curiously looking at me, averting her face when I caught her staring. When we reached the first floor, she said shyly, "It's Alma."

"What?" I asked, not knowing what she meant.

"M-My name. It's Alma White," she said, still with this shy voice. It was a lovely name and kinda sounded familiar, but I didn't know where from.

As I got hungry and was guessing she was too, I questioned, "So Alma, are you hungry? You and your cat can have something to eat."

Her ears made cute little movements, which fascinated me because just from that, I could tell that she was nervous. She looked at the solid-white Scottish Fold kitty in her arms and spoke, "Just give her something to eat please, I have no hunger..."

Suddenly Alma's stomach growled really loudly, and her lie about not being hungry was exposed. She was standing there, looking at the ground with her face blushing with embarrassment, the nervous twitching of her ears being faster than before. I kinda loved watching her ears move with her emotions because it was unusual for me. I had seen photos of catgirls before but didn't know that the ears were moving this strongly. I noticed that I was staring at her ears and blushed, trying to focus on talking again.

"I am going to order pizza for myself, do you want some too?" I asked her, expecting that no one would decline pizza.

"I never had that..." answered Alma quietly. "You never had pizza!?" I yelled a bit louder than I should have.

"I'm sorry!" she screamed and took a step back, defending her face with her arm. She seemed like she was expecting me to hit her for never having eaten pizza before, which made me wonder what kind of life she had lived up to this point. Normally, people expect punishment for doing things wrong, but she seemed to be used to getting beaten whenever she didn't fulfill someone's expectations. It made me feel like I had to protect this poor soul.

"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell like that. But no way am I going to hurt you because of something like that," I apologized. She calmed down and nodded. After that, I ordered pizza for us before giving the kitten water and pieces of sliced turkey which luckily were left. When the small cat happily munched on the food, the blue-haired girl smiled for a moment, which made my heart beat faster.

While we waited for our pizza, I gave Alma PJ's and showed her where she could take a shower. When she went into the bath, I sat down near her kitten, with my mind staying occupied with Alma and the genuine smile I got to see on her face for a moment. I was deep in thought, so when the doorbell rang, it made me jump. I paid for the pizza and brought it to the table, waiting for Alma to be done showering.

When the door of the bathroom finally opened, I got up quickly, and in my attempt to move closer to Alma, knocked over the glass of water I had been drinking from. I could hear a small chuckle from Alma, who immediately apologized for it and wiped the water with a towel.

While she was cleaning, I offered to clean out the wounds on her body, which she expectedly refused.

Then I led her to the table, where we started eating our pizza in silence. She didn't speak a word until after we had finished the pizza, "T-Thank you, it was really yummy. B-But I want to sleep, please..." before letting out an adorable yawn.

"Yes, of course, I'll show you where you can sleep. How old are you, by the way, I don't want your parents to worry about you," I asked.

Her behavior made her seem rather young, but her facial features and her body, although she was short, looked quite mature.

"I t-turned eighteen today... so I don't have to go back to them," said Alma, shy as always, while tearing up. Meaning that she ran away as soon as her eighteenth birthday came around.

Then I realized something and asked, "Wait, you ran away from home, so where did you want to go today?"

She merely shook her head as an answer. Which told me that she was just wandering around without any goal. I was wondering what made her situation that desperate that she would just run away through the rain like that.

We eventually arrived in the guest room on the second floor, and I explained, "You can use this room for tonight, I can bring a pillow for your kitten to sleep on."

She nodded, so I went to my living room and grabbed a big fluffy cushion from the couch. When I came back to the guest room, my heart once again skipped a beat at the sight before me.

Alma was playing with her kitten on the bed and looked so happy that it brought a smile to my face. She seemed so weak and fragile, I was wondering how anybody could hurt this innocent girl.

I stepped inside and gave her the pillow, which she put down beside the bed and placed her cat on. The kitten got the hint and laid down to sleep. Then I said, "Good night," and turned off the light.

Alma said quietly, "Y-You too," then I closed the door and went in the direction of my own bedroom. I wasn't too sure how to feel about a stranger staying here, though, at the same time, I felt like it was my responsibility to protect her. It seemed like she had been through a lot which apparently made her stay innocent like a child.

It was very well possible that I was just being naive, but for now, I decided to take my chances.