I was awoken by the sound of screaming. Looking up, I saw Taylor sitting on the edge of the cot, her eyes full of fright. I tried to move closer to her, only for her to move away.

            “Who….what are you, and where are we?” She asked, doing her best to get away from me. I sat up with a sigh and looked at her twitching my tail as I did my best to get comfortable.

            “It is me, Michael from the party,” I said as I tried again to get close to her to stop her from freaking out. She moved again. With a sigh, I stayed where I was.

            “After that freakish storm, I woke up like this. We were talking about how your sister acted like she was better than everyone because you all had money.” I said, hoping that this would make her see that I was telling the truth. I watched as she slowly began to relax. Grabbing my tail, I started running my fingers through it feeling every single strand that I touched. This thing was undoubtedly sensitive. I heard a giggle escape her as I did.

            “OH my gosh, you are so cute. Like a little puppy. But how did a storm cause all this?” Taylor asked. I wished I had an answer for her, but I was just as much in the dark as she was. We both jumped as we heard an explosion somewhere near us. Ever since that storm came through, there was a lot of chaos. I watched cops fighting with people who had changed. It was something I did not think I would ever see.

            “Why are we in jail, by the way.” She asked without saying anything. I pointed to her ears and tail. As she reached up to her head, she screamed again. Then as she looked behind her, her eyes lit up. I never thought that someone could be so happy to have things protruding from their body that was not supposed to be there.

            “OH MY GOD. I can’t believe this. I have a tail. And cat ears. I can’t believe this. I have always wanted to be a nekomata. I just never thought it would be possible.” She said. She seemed to be taking this in better than I did. With a sigh, I stretched my wings out, which gave me a weird sensation. I hadn’t really thought about them in the time from waking up this way to coming here. Now that I did, it was a weird but relieving feeling, like I had been waiting for this my entire life.

            “Um Michael, you…..do realize your completely naked, right?” Taylor said. I had forgotten I no longer had my clothes with everything that had gone on, though I wondered where they went.

            “Crap, I forgot. And it’s Angel now. Being a girl with the name Michael isn’t really going to work.” I said. That statement was greeted with a giggle. Going to the bars, I hoped I could get someone’s attention.

            “Guard, guard,” I said, hoping there was someone there. With luck, I heard the cell gate open. A woman came in. To my surprise, she looked like something out of World of Warcraft. She had pointed ears, and her skin was a deep blue. But what was really weird was her tattoos. They looked tribal and covered most over her visible skin.

            “What seems to be the problem, miss?” she asked. Before I could say anything, she looked at me and sighed.

            “They didn’t give you any clothes. I am so sorry, dear. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I guess I can understand with all that’s happening. Although, I don’t know if I have anything that you can fit over those.” She said, pointing to my wings. As if hearing what was said, I felt my wings get smaller until there was nothing left. Taylor gasped.

            “Oh my God, you should see your back. Where your wings were, there are markings of what would be your wings. It’s soooo cute.” She said a little too enthusiastically. The cop seemed to be just as surprised as we were.

            “I will be right back. I will see what I can find you.” The woman said before walking off. It was then that I noticed her tail. It was skin like the rest of her body with a point at the tip like what you would see on a devil image.

            It was about ten minutes before she returned with what looked like a prom dress. As she handed it to me, I realized it was a prom dress—a blue prom dress with sequin around the collar.

            “I hope this dress fits. This was all I could find that would cover you and have room for that huge tail.” She said, handing me the dress. I looked at her warily as I held it.

            “Don’t worry, it was my daughters. She’s been gone for some time, and I’ve meant to get rid of it anyway. She didn’t really like it, but it’s what I could afford at the time. Now she’s married to a doctor and gets a lot of expensive dresses.” She said, sighing. With her confirmation, I slipped the dress on. Surprisingly it fit, except for the bust. My boobs were a bit smaller, but for the most part, I was covered. With a smile, the woman left, leaving Taylor and me alone again.

             It seemed like hours had gone by since the woman came in when the sound of an explosion made Taylor, and I jump. It sounded close. We looked at each other when the sound of the cell gate opened. A male cop ran in and came to our cell gate.

              “I’m sorry to do this, but you two are going to have to leave. It’s not safe here. A guy is threatening to blow the station up.” He said as he unlocked the cell door. Taylor and I ran out of the cell as he led us through the gate into the station’s main part. He took us to the back and opened the door, which leads to an alley.

            “I am sorry that I have to put you out like this, but I can’t in good conscience let you stay there with the possibility of you dying in there.” He said before shutting the door. Somewhere in the street, you could hear people shouting. As we walked around to the front, we saw a man surrounded by cops. He looked normal other than that his skin was pitch black like one of those charcoal bricks.

            “You release my brother, or I will blow this place up, I swear on my dead mother’s grave.” The man said. One of the officers tried to reason with him and stepped forward. With a snap of his fingers, the cop exploded into a million pieces. The other cops watched in horror before stepping back. Another cop tried to sneak up behind the guy but met the same fate.

            Something inside me seemed to snap because the next thing I knew, I was running toward the guy, my body moving faster than I thought I ever could. As if by instinct, I jumped into the air and opened my wings as the dress I had been wearing ripped off. My wings caught a draft as I flew right to him, closing my wings just before I was right over the top of him. The next thing I knew, I was on top of him, a feeling of rage sweeping over me. The man tried to lift his hand as he did with the cops, but something happened at that moment. One minute he was moving, the next, it was as if he was a statue. There was a glow around him. As I followed it, I saw that it was coming from Taylor. The cops took advantage of this moment and moved in. one of the cops brought some zip ties and zip-tied his fingers together.

            “Miss, could you please release him so that we can take him in.” one of the cops asked. Taylor blinked before lowering her hand and looking at it as if it were something foreign. The man began screaming as the cops lifted him and put him in handcuffs. When he was safely in the jailhouse, the other cops clapped and hollered at Taylor and me.

            “We must thank you two. If you had not come along, who knows what the guy would have done. You two are heroes. If there are more people like you, who knows, maybe having people who are different won’t be so bad,” one of the cops said. Taylor and I looked at each other and grinned. The cops had called us heroes. With a sigh, I walked back over to Taylor.

            “It looks like it’s time to go home. I’m sure our parents are worried about us.” I told Taylor. There was a look of dread on her face. I knew what was wrong. She was worried about what her parents were going to think when they saw her, let alone what her sister would say when we were back in school. Wrapping an arm around her, I ushered her in the direction of home.

            “Don’t worry, Taylor, we will face this together,” I said, though I did not know if that was going to do any good. After all, we were just high-school students. There were still sounds of gunfire and explosions as we walked home. Who would have thought that the world would go from somewhat quiet to on the brink of destruction in the amount of four hours?  Kansas City, Missouri, was big but growing up here made it easy to find our way back home. As we came to my house, we stopped outside the front door.

            “Well, this is it. I hope that I will see you at school on Monday.” She said, a little hesitant. I wondered why she seemed so worried, but then remembered that she now had ears and tail like a cat. It was bound to be a shock to her parents. Cautiously I reached out for a hug, which to my surprise, she took. It felt like minutes that we stood there holding each other. We released each other, and she waved goodbye before walking down the street. When I could no longer see her, I opened the door to my house.