Avalie walked into her small apartment and locked the door immediately after. She hung her coat on the coat stand.

"Meow." A ball of soft fur rubbed itself on her leg, and she crouched down to pat the small black cat.

"Kali," she called with a smile and picked up the small black cat. "You missed mommy?"

"Yes, of course you did." She held it in her arms and was about to walk to her room when she saw the shattered flowerpot by the window side. The wet sand was all over the place, and the poor plant was torn into shreds.

"Jemisha!" She groaned in annoyance and glared at the bigger cat, who was lying lazily on the black couch.

The cat merely purred lightly and turned to the other side. Kali and Jemisha were female cats that Avalie had adopted to keep her company and warm. Every day she came home to meet a cold empty house, it took an ounce of joy from her heart. But having these two bundles of joy made her happy, even though Jemisha was one to destroy everything she laid her hands on, and Kali just acted cute every day.

"What did I tell you about the flowerpots? Bad girl." Avalie scolded the black cat, who replied with a simple uninterested meow.

Avalie sighed and picked up the broom and dustpan. She cleaned up the place first, but just as she was about to put the cleaning equipment away...

-Thud-

-Shatter-

A loud thud was heard followed by the resounding sound of shattering things from the other room.

"Jemis-" Avalie was about to begin another round of scolding, but she quickly caught sight of the two cats by her side. If both of them were sitting still here, then who made that sound?

Her eyes widened in fear, and she tightened her grip on the broom. She slowly walked into the other room and pushed the door open. With her pretty good eyesight, she deduced that the bed was empty, but there were signs that someone had once been there. She turned on the lights and saw a broken nightstand lamp lying on the floor. She looked around the room, her heart pounding in insecurity, before she slowly made her way toward the nightstand lamp. But at that moment, something hovered behind her, large arms wrapped around her neck, and a glass shard was pressed to her neck. She flinched and let out a small yell, but the person only tightened his grip on her neck. A hand covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming.

"Who are you?" The cold, hoarse masculine voice asked. Avalie was scared out of her wits.

*

On one rainy night, the clouds were dark and blocking out the ethereal glow of the moon. The wind was chilly, and it rained heavily, but it seemed to be the perfect day for Jemisha to go missing. Since they were just a few months old, Avalie immediately went out in the rain after having a hectic day at the office. She picked up Kali and held her in one arm while she held the umbrella with the other.

She searched around the apartment building. Coupled with the fact that she lived on the outskirts of the city, the green field near her apartment was the first place she searched. The tall grass obstructed her view, and the rain slightly blurred her vision, but she could not leave the cat out in the cold.

She searched for a black cat on that dark night; it was an almost impossible feat. But Jemisha being Jemisha did not stay quiet. She cried so loudly that she was found within a few hours. Avalie pointed her flashlight at her and called, "Come on, Jemisha. Come here, girl." She patted her lap for the cat to jump in, like it always did. But it simply sat still on the large rock and kept crying loudly.

Avalie pressed her lips into a thin line and walked to the cat. She picked up the black ball of soft fur, but her fingers grazed a wet cloth. The 'rock' that Jemisha was sitting on wasn't a rock; it was a person laying dead on the ground. The statue was masculine, and his black hair was wet. Not only that, but the rain was also washing red liquid from his body.

Avalie jerked back at this discovery. She held Kali even tighter, then picked up a rock and threw it at the body. But it still lay unmoving. She gathered more courage, walked toward the body, and turned him over. His face was pale but strikingly handsome, with a large bump on his forehead and the upper side of his face covered in blood. She was about to run away, but the slight heaving of his chest caught her attention. She wanted to call an ambulance or the cops. She took out her phone from her pocket, but it was quickly snatched away. The half-dead man laying on the ground had her phone in his hand. His eyes were still closed, but his lips quivered slightly. He seemed to have used his last bit of strength to snatch the phone out of her hand.

"You, give me back my phone. You'd die if you don't get help." Avalie almost yelled. She could easily snatch back her phone, but she refrained when she noticed him silently wincing from the pain.

"-olice."

"Huh?" She moved closer to him to hear his words clearly.

"No police."

"What? What about an ambulance?"

"No."

"I'd take you to the hospital then."

"No... please." He groaned.

Avalie's eyes widened in realization. Maybe he's a criminal on the run, or he's in some kind of organization. She remembered clearly that her father would come back injured every now and then, and he'd refuse to go to a hospital. She then found out that he was a criminal, and she only found out when the police captured him. Her mom was so hurt and broken that she died of heart failure after a few months of his arrest. Avalie never wanted to help anybody like her father, but he loved her a lot, and she loved him too. She turned away from the man on the ground with tears in her eyes. "Dammit. Fine!"

*

And that was it. The man she saved and kept hidden in this room, she treated and watched over him for almost one year while he was still in a coma. But now, he has woken up and had a glass shard pressed to her neck.