When Roxanne opened her eyes, cold fear spread throughout her entire body.
The strange smell of the dank room made her cough. The cushions she reclined on felt filmy with age. The crusty fabric of the blankets nestled around her seemed to suffocate her, keeping her trapped in their many folds. The old props loomed over her, sentries watching her in Orpheus’s realm. Hurriedly, Roxanne extricated herself out of the blankets. How had she ever slept in such a horrid place?
Within the span of a heartbeat, her escape plan materialized in her mind. Her eyes flicked from one corner of the room to the next, but she saw no doors. Did that mean there weren’t doors anywhere else in the room? She supposed there had to be doors somewhere, but not seeing them made her uncomfortable.
Roxanne sniffed the air for a sign of Orpheus. That rotting fish smell and the sickly-sweet odor that reminded her of decaying flowers hung in the room, along with a hint of cat. That had to be Orpheus. She couldn’t tell if the room smelled like him because he was present or if it smelled that way because of other reasons. Did the room cause his odor, or did his stench permeate every corner of the room? In the end, Roxanne supposed it didn’t matter; either way, she couldn’t use her sense of smell to determine her Orpheus’s presence.
For a moment Roxanne wondered why she’d never noticed Orpheus’s stench when he had given her lessons in Lady’s dressing room. Roxanne supposed it mattered no longer. The important issue at paw pertained to getting out of the room.
Roxanne crept to the edge of the lounge. She shifted her weight between her front paws, preparing to jump to the floor. She decided to wait and see if Orpheus lurked about the room, so she forced herself to count first to fifteen, then twenty, then thirty, and then sixty. A sigh escaped her lips. No sign of the terrifying cat.
Waiting no longer, Roxanne leaped to the floor. She padded across the thick carpet. Despite its thickness, the coldness from the floor still seeped through it, making her shiver.
From within the walls, a squeaky scratching noise pierced Roxanne’s ears. She froze. What had caused the noise? Could it have been more rats?
Perhaps a family of rats had made a nest in the room, with tiny hairless babies wiggling and squeaking in a bed of old rags. They could even be beneath the chaise lounge. Roxanne envisioned a rat and his mate watching her, waiting for the moment they could leap at her and pierce their sharp teeth into her skin.
Roxanne shuddered. It was too much to bear. Shrieking, she spun around so fast her vision swam.
Nothing but darkness from beneath the chaise lounge greeted her.
Roxanne waited for her breathing to resume a regular pace. Her eyes darted around her, but still Orpheus didn’t appear.
Get out, get out, get out, get out. The refrain grew louder in her mind as she tiptoed her way toward the shelves. For a second she wondered if rats were hiding behind the moldy books and yellowed music sheets, but she shoved such thoughts away. They only hindered her escape.
After what seemed like an eternity of creeping along the icy floor, Roxanne reached the shelves. She glanced to the right at complete darkness and then to the left at the floor lamp. It had been turned on, replacing the candles from before. Through the green silk shades, scant light illuminated the room. Roxanne wondered how Orpheus had managed to turn the lamp on, let alone light candles. There were many things about him that she’d never understand.
When Roxanne tore her eyes away from the lamp, she stared at the top of the bookshelf. Nothing had changed from when she’d entered the room before. Had that been yesterday? This morning? Last night? An hour ago? She had no clue. There was no way to gauge how much time had passed. There were no windows, so Roxanne couldn’t see if the sun shone or the moon glowed. There was no clock to strike the hour, not that Roxanne understood human methods for telling time, but she knew certain things happened when a specific number of chimes rang out. She could have counted the chimes to determine the time, although she wouldn’t be able to tell if the chimes corresponded with a day activity or a night one.
She figured she’d find out soon enough. She bunched her legs beneath her, preparing to jump.
Unsheathing her claws, Roxanne whizzed through the air toward the shelves. She hooked her claws on a moldy stack of music books. The books slid on the shelf and threatened to fall, so Roxanne leaped to the shelf above. This one held lyric sheets, tattered books, and a bust of some human Roxanne didn’t recognize. She clambered to the next shelf, then the next, until she reached the top shelf, where dusty props and ragged wigs sat.
Dust billowed around Roxanne, making her sneeze. She snaked her way behind the old wigs, shivering at the sight of the many webs festooning the items surrounding her. She placed her paws on the wall and pushed here, pushed there. No section of the wall gave way, and no door appeared. It was as if such a passage never existed.
“Come on,” Roxanne whispered to herself as she continued prodding the wall. “The door is here somewhere. There’s not much more wall left to search.”
With the hope that she’d soon find what she sought, she pressed on, albeit a little slower than before. She had a foot of wall left to go, and she dreaded the thought that no door would appear.
As if the wall knew her thoughts (If a wall could think, Roxanne thought with a nervous laugh), a section of the wall gave way behind her paw. A cool breeze sifted through the small opening she’d made. Roxanne gasped in relief. She’d found it!
Without giving it another thought, Roxanne pushed herself against the swiveling passage door. Grunting, she pushed harder. It hadn’t been so difficult the previous times to open the door. She wondered if a section of the ceiling had fallen and therefore blocked the door, or worse—perhaps Orpheus stood on the other side of the door, pushing it shut as she tried shoving it open.
Another shove and the door gave way. Roxanne blinked at the dark passageway. She sniffed the frigid air. No strong rat smell, thank goodness. She tiptoed in the passage, scurrying faster the farther she went in.
A section of the passage curved, and as she turned, she ran into something solid yet soft. A smell of fish and dead flowers invaded her nostrils, and she gagged. Looking up, she froze.
The white cat skull appeared in the gloom, the two yellow eyes blazing. Orpheus’s large body blocked off the passage, making it impossible for Roxanne to cram between him and the wall toward freedom.
“Roxanne, my dear, whatever are you doing in the passage? You know the passages are off-limits to you,” Orpheus crooned.
Roxanne thumped to the floor, a sob welling in her throat. Her escape had been thwarted.
“Come, darling. I’ve brought dinner,” Orpheus meowed. He nudged a rat carcass in front of Roxanne.
Roxanne recoiled from the rat. “I’m not hungry,” she whimpered.
“I doubt that,” Orpheus said, his eyes blazing brighter. “After all, escaping requires a lot of energy. I’m sure you’re exhausted.” The irritated tone in his voice sent a wave of fear through Roxanne.
Trembling, Roxanne cowered beneath the other cat’s angry gaze and stammered, “I was just—just searching for you. I—I was all alone, and I had no clue where you went—”
“You were scared because I had left you,” Orpheus declared. He nosed Roxanne to her paws. “Of course you were worried about me as well, wondering if I’d return safe and sound. Is that it?”
“Yes.” Roxanne stifled her tears with a sniff.
Orpheus stepped forward, forcing Roxanne to step back. “I’ve returned, though,” Orpheus meowed. “I won’t leave you for a long time, so you have nothing to fear.”
Roxanne turned and headed through the passage back to the dank room, Orpheus right behind her. She couldn’t bear looking at his gruesome head, but having his eyes bore into the back of her own head made her equally uncomfortable. She knew the passage she’d tried escaping through would be blocked as soon as possible, and she’d have to try harder and think faster for another method of escape. But when would another opportunity present itself if Orpheus planned on staying with her to ensure she remained there? When, when? She wondered if the other cats were searching for her. She wondered how Lady fared. Her poor human was probably distraught with worry. All the commotion Roxanne had caused by being naïve!
But soon, Roxanne told herself, someone had to barge into the room to rescue her. She wondered if Harry was looking for her…