Deplorable (Darker Places Book 2) by Nicole Cypher

Author:Nicole Cypher [Cypher, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

Mid-afternoon rolled around slower than I thought possible. I’d watched three different chick flicks in that time, and I was already bored out of my mind. Still, Mason wasn’t home, and Chess’s claws raking against the wood frame of the front door made me glad to have to get up.

I hopped from the couch and sauntered toward the door. “Do you have to go potty, buddy?” I asked Chess as I looked through the peephole. He replied with a whine and scratched more.

I cracked the door open a few inches, and Chess squeezed through, opening the door further. For a moment I froze. Mason had insisted I not go outside. I didn’t care much about what he thought, but what if one of the people he worked with stopped by?

I stood at the door contemplating whether or not I should just wait for Chess to do his business, but then I heard laughter. I pulled the door open further and took a step outside. About twenty feet away a young girl, probably ten-years-old, chased Chess in a circle playfully.

Once she’d finally caught him, she hugged him to her and caressed his fur. The beaming smile the girl displayed quirked my own lips into a grin, and I closed the apartment door behind me.

“Hi,” I said, walking up to the little girl.

“Hi!” she beamed, waving her free hand. Chess took the opportunity to wiggle from her grasp and came up to hide behind me.

The girl looked heartbroken, and that beautiful smile vanished from her face. I didn’t enjoy sharing Chess with many people. It was probably a trust thing. He was my best friend, and I’d been the one responsible for taking care of him since he was a kitten. Seeing the girl’s crushed face made me wish I had integrated him socially a little more.

I bent down and scooped Chess into my arms. We walked the few feet to the girl and sat in the grass beside her.

“Scratch behind his ears,” I said. “He loves that.”

The girl peered up at me before reaching her hand out to Chess. “Is he your cat?” she asked, the smile returning as a purr erupted from the orange ball of fur.

“Yeah,” I said, a happy smile coming across my own face. “His name’s Chess.”

“Chess,” she repeated, still stroking his fur. “Like the game?”

“No, like ‘Cheshire Cat’. I’m a big Alice in Wonderland fan.”

“Oh, I love Alice!” the little girl exclaimed. She then proceeded to tell me all about the “new” Disney movies she thought I’d like. I smiled and nodded as she rambled. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I most certainly would not be watching Frozen or the one with the girl on an island. Nothing could beat the Disney classics, but she was adorable trying to convince me.

My eyes surveyed the deserted courtyard, and I wondered where the little girl’s parents were and why she wasn’t in school. A snowflake hitting my nose answered my second question. Oh, right. It was almost Christmas.

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