Chapter 29: The Rat

KIX:

No wonder I didn’t feel good the moment I heard someone knock. There was a smelly creature from behind Jade’s bedroom door, and it was none other than filthy, sneaky rat named Liam Cruz!

The moment the door opened, the rat’s eyes widened in surprise at my presence. I wanted to growl at him and chase him away so that he wouldn’t dream of coming over to Jade’s room and disturbing us again like this, but Jade went over very quickly to my side. She hugged me by the neck as if stopping me from fulfilling my thoughts.

“Um, Liam, first of all, please do not report me to the landlady,” Jade begged the rat in a whisper. “I know it’s against the rules, but let me explain everything first…”

The rat darted his eyes between Jade and me. After a few more moments, he finally had the wits to close the door behind him as he entered.

“Ah, so, how did such a humongous wolf come to live inside your room,” Liam said, his eyes still dilated in shock.

I was angry beyond belief! How dare he mention the word ‘wolf’ in front of Jade? Did he already found out the truth about my identity?

“Let me clear this table so we could start with our research, just one second.”As she said this, Jade moved away from my side and started clearing away the articles on her dining table for two.

She continued to explain. “Well, first of all, he’s a dog, and second, he’s not mine… He stumbled accidentally into my balcony yesterday, but he left this morning, and he looks well-kept. I think he might be living somewhere near here.”

“Well, good thing he stumbled into your balcony. Just imagine if he stumbled into mine next door… I’m sure he wouldn’t have been able to come back like so if he did…”

I looked at the smile that was plastered on the rat’s face, and for a second, I saw the smile turn a bit sinister as he curved down the corners of his lips. It looked as if he was actually glaring at me…

I couldn’t help but growl quietly at him. Didn’t he just threaten to kill me if I made the mistake of landing in his balcony yesterday?

“Are you angry at me? I just meant to say that you could have been sent away yesterday since the landlady visited my room for a random inspection. Good thing she did not visit Jade the night before, right?...”

That Liam rat attempted to pat me on the head, but I barked so suddenly at him that Jade came rushing by my side once more.

“Bad dog, Kix! Don’t bark at Liam. He’s our friend.”

Good thing I was in Riley’s form! I swear my entire body must have turned as red as a stick of crayon if I was in my human form with the way my Jade had just called me!

“Kix? The name of this dog is Kix?”

“Uh well, it’s a temporary name… I don’t know what to call him since he didn’t have any name tags on him.”

“Oh, I think it’s good enough! If Kix was an animal, I think he’d really resemble this big thing right here,” the rat quipped, laughing incessantly at his own joke.

Riley and I bared our sharp fangs at him. His lame joke wasn’t funny at all…

As Liam and I continued to eye each other in silent hatred, Jade came back with a plate of left-over lasagna, which she heated from her microwave.

“Here you go, Kix. You haven’t had dinner, right?”

I whimpered knowing that Jade liked lasagna the best. She used to savor left-over lasagnas like this. She must have cherished me a lot for her to give me such a big helping.

“Why? Aren’t you hungry? Do you want me to cut it into smaller pieces for you,” Jade said while patting me on the neck.

Thinking that the reason I didn’t want to eat was because of the portion size, Jade went over to her small kitchen again and began looking for, I can only assume, was her knife.

It was taking a while for Jade to find her knife. Seemingly concerned, Liam stood up from his seat and was about to join her in her search.

“Let me give you a hand,” he said with his unbelievably-kind-that-it-was-almost-fake voice.

Unexpectedly, Jade found the knife and pulled it out from out of her cupboard. She turned around just in time as Liam got closer to her.

Everything seemed to play out in slow motion in front of my eyes. Jade was holding the knife forward perpendicularly in a dangerous angle towards Liam, and Liam was coming over to Jade’s aid. I saw them collide towards each other in a very slow manner that I thought I could almost stop them.

I barked despite of myself as I watched the blade of Jade’s knife come cleanly inside Liam’s stomach...

I heard a loud and blunt “chug” as the knife pierced his shirt and dived into his flesh.

Jade, in utter shock, stood frozen on the spot, her hands still on the knife’s handle. Liam, on the other hand, gazed down at where the knife was. He bent his arms and cradled the part where he was stuck with both hands.

For some weird reason, my eyes fell on Liam’s face. He was perpetually pale, and his face did not change at all. Apart from the slight widening of his eyes, it didn’t seem like he was much affected…

“Oh God, Liam!.. Liam,” Jade trembled as she cupped the rat’s face in her hand. She took several steps backwards from him, looking in horror at the protruding knife in his stomach.

“Liam… W-We’ve got to c-call a doctor… I-I’ll call a doctor!”

Jade began to run towards the other direction, but Liam caught her wrist just before she could escape.

“Jade, Jade… Don’t…”

“N-No, Liam… You need…Y-You need a d-doctor… Y-You need an ambulance!”

Jade started to get away from the rat’s grasp once more, but he was quicker. He pulled Jade back and held her tightly by the shoulders.

“No, Jade, listen to me… Listen, please. Don’t call a doctor…”

At that exact moment, my vision darted into the knife at Liam’s shirt. The knife was still perfectly stuck in the right side of his abdomen.

It wasn’t a mistake. I clearly heard the knife stab through something solid earlier…

It was high time for blood to spill though that opening or at least to spread at the cloth surrounding it, but why was there no sign of blood whatsoever?...