Harry swatted at a rat that had leaped too close to him. Roxanne’s face surfaced in his mind, giving him the courage to keep fighting. But as more rats clawed and bit and darted at him, he became overwhelmed, and the only thought racing through his head was escape.
“Orpheus!” Kip shouted, not for the first time and certainly not the last. “Orpheus, I know you’re there. Free us!”
Harry wanted to tell Kip that his pleas were useless, but he found he had no energy to do so. He was too focused on battling the rats.
Soon, however, the fighting became entirely defensive for Harry and Kip. The rats backed them into a corner, forcing the two cats to squeeze next to each other.
Harry gagged. The stench from the rats grew worse, and it felt as though it seeped through his fur and into his body. The rats’ squeaks intensified, drilling pain through his ears. Harry shook his head as if he could dispel the awful cacophony, but of course such an act proved useless. It only made the agony in his head worse.
Soon, Harry knew, there'd be no way to keep fighting. His legs trembled and his vision swam. He'd collapse to the floor in a ragged heap, and the rats would swarm his body and bore into it with their long yellow fangs. The grisly image forced Harry to scratch another rat, but his claws scarcely grazed the rat’s fur. Kip shouted for Harry to keep going, but the words sounded far away, and it required too much energy to fight the rats and listen to Kip at the same time.
As Harry lifted a paw that felt as if a heavy rock had been tied to it and weighed it down, a loud crack erupted from behind the cats. Light filtered into the room, causing the rats to scurry away. Harry blinked, too stunned to move, his vision growing blurrier. A heaviness shrouded his body, and he fell to the gritty floor. Before he even reached the floor, however, his eyes closed. His last conscious thought had been one of regret; he hadn’t been able to save Roxanne.
#
After Orpheus opened the door to his secret room, Roxanne scurried around him and stood between him and the wall. Roxanne spotted Harry’s muscular form in the shaft of light that spilled into the rat room. Harry hadn’t seen Roxanne, for he fell to the floor as soon as the door opened. A brown cat in the room also collapsed without uttering so much as a mew. Roxanne didn’t recognize the brown cat, and for a moment she wondered who he might be. But her curiosity vanished when she saw thousands of eyes glaring at her, ravenous to continue their attack.
Roxanne hadn’t noticed Orpheus dragging Harry’s limp body into the main room. With a flick of his tail, he dove into the rat room again to retrieve the other cat.
As Orpheus clamped his teeth on the cat’s tail, three rats dove toward him. Roxanne yowled, causing Orpheus to lift his head. He did so in enough time to bat the rats away with his paw as if they were mere flies. They flew out of the light and into the shadows, three soft thuds following. In one swift motion, Orpheus again grabbed the brown cat’s tail and pulled the cat into the main room. As he released the cat’s tail to close the door, the rest of the rats issued forth from their dark corners toward the small opening in the wall.
But Orpheus proved too fast. With his front paws, he slammed the door shut. The bang of the door echoed in the room, and complete silence followed it, so silent it made Roxanne’s ears ring.
Orpheus stood over the two comatose cats, his breathing raspy and fast. He stared at Roxanne, and she stared back, too stunned to speak.
Orpheus had known Harry was one of the cats in the rat room, Roxanne was sure of it. She didn’t know how, but she sensed that had certainly been true. That had been the reason why Orpheus made Roxanne promise to stay with him no matter which two cats were trapped.
With her ears flat, Roxanne lowered her gaze to her paws. Her heart ached for Orpheus. He’d never experienced love in any form until she’d stepped into his life as his pupil. Had Orpheus fallen in love with her before her lessons, or had he grown to love her during his tutelage to her? Roxanne supposed it didn’t matter. Regardless of how it happened, Orpheus had fallen in love with her.
But Roxanne wasn’t sure if she loved him. She pitied him, but that didn’t signify love. Was Orpheus meant to live without affection? Did any creature, no matter how ugly, deserve such an existence?
Roxanne bit her lip. Her eyes burned. Before she realized it, sobs shook her body. The world was cruel for letting a cat be born so hideous, forced to live alone. And the world was cruel for forcing one cat’s chance of happiness on Roxanne.
“Do you regret your decision?” Orpheus asked, his voice rising with each word.
Roxanne stifled her sobs. She couldn’t ignore the pleading tone Orpheus adopted. It made her realize that she did, indeed, want to stay, even if the primary reason was simply making a pitiful cat’s existence have some sort of meaning, some glimmer of happiness. She'd have to sacrifice her own existence for it, of course, and in a strange way, she felt it was the right thing to do.
Lifting her head, Roxanne said, “I do not regret my decision. I’m staying with you. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. I broke my first promise to you, to keep you a secret. This time I won’t break another.”
“Very well,” Orpheus said, turning around.
With wide eyes, Roxanne watched Orpheus drag Harry into the darkness. Roxanne’s vision swam from more tears. She wondered if a cat could die from a broken heart. By the time Orpheus had dragged the unfamiliar cat to the same spot he’d taken Harry, Roxanne’s tears had subsided a little.
Orpheus padded toward Roxanne. He sat next to her and watched her cry. “My dear lady, why do you still weep?” he asked.
Such an absurd question, Roxanne thought. She wondered if he truly did not understand why she cried. So much had happened to her; why shouldn’t she weep? She wiped the tears away with her paw. She took a shaky breath before speaking. “Orpheus, I must be honest with you for both our sakes. I hate you for the things you’ve done. They’re dreadful things, and I can’t help but think that, now and forever. But then I remember what you said about your past…” Roxanne paused, wondering how Orpheus would respond.
When Orpheus remained silent, Roxanne decided to continue. “I think about how you lived here, alone, always in the dark. You should have lived in the sunshine. You should have been surrounded by cats who cared about you, despite your appearance, or maybe because of it, I don’t know which. And I think about the Opera Cats…” Roxanne sniffled. “I think about the cats here and how they believe you are a ghost. Because of that, you can never be one of them. One of us. Because of your face.”
A raspy choke interrupted Roxanne’s words. She flicked her ears forward, and when she lifted her gaze to Orpheus, she wanted to cry more. The choking sound had been Orpheus’s own sobs. Filmy tears oozed from his eyes, sliding down his smooth skull face to the floor.
“I pity you, Orpheus,” Roxanne said, her voice low. “And maybe a tiny part of me loves you. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. But I could never love you the way you want me to. That’s why I’m staying with you. I want to try to know you better, and for you to experience what it is to be loved, not scorned. I want you to know what it is for someone to look upon your face without fear. I'm afraid that's all I can offer you.” Roxanne averted her gaze again, overcome with a plethora of emotions, some she understood, others she didn’t.
A flat, cold thing pressed itself against her head. Roxanne froze, not from fear but from astonishment. The thing resting itself on her was Orpheus’s head. His quiet sobs grew louder, rending Roxanne’s heart to pieces. She sat there, waiting for Orpheus to lift his head, waiting for him to speak, and waiting for the next strange chapter in her life to begin.