Hunting Burning Houses

“Ok, so what are we doing here?” Connor turned to his brother, who was pulling their car into an abandoned lot. 1

Nathan’s ran a hand through his chestnut colored hair with a sigh and then pulled the key out of the ignition. “We’re here because someone, or something, keeps lighting houses on fire.” 2

Connor held out his arms. “So? Chuck it up to some jack ass teenagers and call it a night.” 3

“It’s not that simple. The fires all range in time frame. Some of them happened in broad daylight, with people there to witness it. They all claim that there hadn’t been anything suspicious going on. No cars drove by, no one broke into the house. Nothing.” 4

“And the owners?” Con got out of the car and leaned both arms on the hood, looking at Nathan who was also climbing out. 5

“Got out ok. Apparently the only fatalities in any of the homes were the house hold pets.”6

“Pets? So what you’re saying is someone’s going around killing dogs?” 7

“No. Cats.” Nathan pulled a shot gun out from the backseat and handed it over the car to Connor. Then he got out another one and headed for the building at the end of the lot. The sun was dipping low in the sky, almost gone from their sight already. There was also a light evening breeze, which blew their hair about them. 8

The ground crunched underneath their worn in leather boots as they moved with a gait that spoke volumes of their confidence. 9

“Cats?” Connor asked. 10

“Each family claims that their cat died in the fire. It’s the only link that anyone can find. Of course, the police wrote it off as coincidence but,”11

“We know better.”12

“Yeah,” Nathan nodded his head. 13

“Then what are we doing at an abandoned building if all of these attacks are happening houses?” Connor reached for the door handle and pulled the rickety thing open, turning so that his brother could step in first. 14

“Well, funny thing about that is, word on the street is that since this buildings been left, stray animals have been known to find their way inside. Mostly cats. This is actually the place most of the home owners found their cats,” Nathan explained, looking around him as he stepped into the building. 15

“And you didn’t think that that was another coincidence worth mentioning?” Connor said. “That seems like a pretty good link to me.” 16

“Ok, so I might have left that part out, whatever. The police didn’t even bother looking into that so… anyway, I don’t know where they’d be.” Nathan stepped up to a closed door and paused. When he tried the handle, it barely even turned. 17

“Locked,” he told Connor, who stepped forward and brushed him out of the way. 18

Lifting his leg, Con rammed it forward splintering the wood and ripping the door from its rusted hinges. 19

Nathan covered his mouth with his arm and tried to stop the laughter that spilled out of him. 20

“Man, shut up!”21

His brother stood with a scowl on his face, trying to shake his foot loose from the door it was stuck in.22

“Hey,” Nat said, “You’re the hot shot who felt the need to kick in the damn door.” 23

Riding himself of the it, Connor glared at the brunette and then boyishly punched him on the arm. 24

“What ever. Looks like we’re in trouble, huh? If that thing that set the fires is in here, it’s going to be pretty hard to find.” He punched him again for emphasis, knowing that Nat hated it. 25

“I swear if you keep doing that…” 26

Conner laughed at his brother and then turned to inspect the room they were in. The mold that climbed the walls made him sneer, and a glance up showed the water stains that had leaked through the ceiling. 27

“Why is it that we always end up in gross-ass places like these?” he asked.28

Nathan shook his head and then stepped around the blonde. He looked down the hallway and then sighed. 29

“Guess we have to go that way, huh?” Conner grunted. “Let’s just get this over with already.” 30

He pushed past Nathan and strode through the door and into the black. Behind him, his brother shook his head sending tendrils of brown hair flying around his face.31

“We can’t just go barreling off into the dark, Con. We don’t have any idea what’s down there,” he called after him. 32

“Yeah well, it beats standing around for it to come find us.” 33

Nat rolled his eyes. 34

There was no reasoning with Conner, never was, never would be. By now he was used to it though, just as he was used to these midnight strolls through old abandoned buildings. 35

They’d been hunting demons since they were fifteen. It wasn’t much of a life, but it was what they knew. Since they were little they’d been fighting off the things that go bump in the night with their dad and his best friend, Mike. Usually they fought with Mike’s daughter who was around the same age as them, but Veronica was off on another case somewhere in Vermont. 36

Conner had stopped up head, and reaching him, Nathan did the same. 37

The hall split into two now, a right and a left. 38

“Your call,” Conner said with a smirk. 39

“I got left,” Nat replied back. 40

“Well then I guess I’m right,” he chuckled at his own joke. “Get it?” 41

With another roll of the eyes, Nathan went left without answering. 42

The flashlight in his hand illuminated everything ahead of him. It also lit up the walls and floor, which were just as disgusting as the ones in the other room, if not more so. 43

“This is sick,” he whispered to himself as he stepped over a small pile of animal droppings. 44

They needed to find this thing and get out before the bacteria clearly growing in there got them sick. 45

To bad they didn’t have any idea what it was or what it looked like. What kind of creature went around burning down buildings to fry cats anyway? It could have nothing to do with cats even. The police could be right and it could be nothing more than a coincidence, but it was up to them to check every angle. 46

Besides, in the dark arts and what not, animal sacrifices were extremely common. It could be they were dealing with a psychotic demon worshiper or something like that. 47

He let the darkness engulf his back as he made his way further down the hall. There was a light that caught his attention to his right, and slowing, he came to a door. 48

It was cracked open slightly, a dim blue glow spilling from it. 49

He debated whether or not to call Conner for a second then decided against it and proceeded to inch the door open. 50

Any chance of surprise he had winked out when the hinges creaked, letting out a shrill grinding sound. 51

Cursing under his breath, Nat made his way into the room, keeping the gun he held in his right hand in front of him. In his left hand, he shone the flashlight, bathing the corners of the room in light first. 52

He heaved in annoyance when he saw that the blue light was coming from an open window in the back. The way the sky was darkening, it was making the light seem dim. There wasn’t anything else there but a rickety old oak desk. 53

Nathan was turning to leave when he heard his name yelled from the other side of the building. 54

Bolting in the opposite direction his heavy boots banged against the tiled floor.55

Less than a minute later he swung his arm out to catch the frame of a door and stop his momentum.56

Nathan’s eyes widened when he looked in and his eyes caught onto what his older brother had been yelling about. 57

A girl stood in front of a window, legs spread apart, with her hands out before her held with the fingers bent in like claws. It wasn’t until he peered closer that he realized that she actually had claw like nails. Her eyes were a vibrant green, and very much cat eyes with the way the pupils dilated into large round black discs in the fading light, taking up most of the eyes so that the green was nothing more than a thin rim. She opened her mouth and hissed at them. 58

“What the,” 59

“My thoughts exactly,” Connor added. “Thing jumped me from behind a minute ago. I thought it was an actual girl for a second there. Until she hissed at me at least.” 60

“Mean like she just did?” Nathan asked as the cat woman creature bared her fangs at them. 61

“Yeah, pretty much. Took a chunk outta my arm to.” He held up his left arm so that Nathan could see the deep puncture wounds there, and the blood that still oozed from it. 62

Taking a deep breath, Nathan moved a step forward. “Who are you? Do you speak?” he asked the woman. 63

Her eyes narrowed at him, but she said nothing back. 64

“Well she definitely understood you.” Connor licked his lips and started moving the opposite side of Nathan, so that the two of them were slowly blocking her in and pushing her further back against the wall with the window. 65

“Ok, so you can understand us, does that mean that you can talk and just don’t want to or….” Nathan inched forward. “Are you the one who’s been setting all the houses on fire?” he tried a different approach. 66

Something like guilt leapt into her eyes for a second, and she moved away from them. She looked just like a normal person would, wearing jeans and a red blouse. Her head snapped around to glare at Connor when he got to close. 67

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back the hell up,” she growled at him. 68

“So the kitty cat can speak,” he said back with a smirk, outwardly taunting her. He’d dealt with far worse things than this. 69

“Look, we’re just trying to figure out who’s attacking all those people, that’s all, if you know something,” 70

“Attacking?!” she cut Nathan off and snapped her gaze to him. “It wasn’t an attack! None of them were attacks. They were accidents!” 71

“As in you did do it?” Connor filled in. 72

“I just want a home, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I can’t help it,” she explained bitterly. 73

“A home? What are you talking about? People actually take you in looking like that? I mean, you a person, your just a little… different,” Nathan said with a frown. 74

“Stay away from me,” she hissed at them, leaning into a wooden create that was underneath the window. “And I’ll do the same for you.” 75

Before they could say anything back, she leapt into the air, changing forms mid turn. She landed on all fours onto the crate, and cocked her head at their shocked faces. 76

“Shit,” Connor whispered. 77

The woman had turned into an actual cat, with rich orange fur. Her eyes had stayed the same, and was still glaring at them as they looked back. 78

Nathan took a step forward. 79

Without warning, the cats hair stood on end, and she snarled at them viciously. Before their eyes, she caught fire. 80

“Oh my God we have to,” the words save her didn’t even have a chance to come out before Nathan realized that she wasn’t in any pain. 81

At all.82

In fact, she was perfectly fine, it was them who were in trouble. The crate had caught fire and was spreading it around the room quickly. 83

Connor aimed the shot gun at the cat, but before he could fire she leapt for the window, shattering the glass into a million pieces as she disappeared on the other side. 84

Nathan grabbed his brothers arm, yanking him towards the door. “We gotta go! The whole place is going up!” 85

It wasn’t hard to get out, the fire was luckily enough behind them, so that they didn’t need to worry about running into it on the trek to the door. And once outside and to their car, they turned and watched as the whole building was consumed by the flames. 86

“Where the hell do you think the thing went?” Connor asked, out of breath from the run. 87

Nathan shook his head. “No idea, but it’s long gone by now. We’re going to have to find it, you know?” 88

“Well duh. We can’t let it just roam around lighting the world on fire now can we?” 89

The two of them got back into the car and drove off down the road. 90

Connor dialed the fire house to come put the building out, and Nathan was so lost in thought about what had just happened that neither of them noticed the orange cat lying in the back seat, gazing at them with calm green eyes. 91