Having a kitten is like taking care upon a babe. A whiny, needy sort. Roman is clingy. Ever so often as I went about in the castle there was my little shadow. Tripping over his pinky-sized tail, not worried about my well-being but more worried about his health. To think I would ever hurt him on accident. Upon further days, Roman would hide under my skirt from Catherine. It's as though Catherine was correct. The fact that Roman is my 'familiar', and he senses something off with Catherine Valeria. Possibly, Roman can sense her illness and that is what freaks him out, hopefully, unless there is a dark presence within her.

  By nightfall, I was stowed away in my room. Further submerged in my bedsheets under a thick red comforter. Roman was hidden under blankets as well, his purrs were muffled as he crept up to my face. He grew exponentially in the few weeks I have taken care of him. When he initially came to me, he would spin into a ball the size of my palm. Now, Roman fitted both palms of my hands. His medium-sized fluff has grown to a full puff like his mother.

  Preparing Catherine's and Roman's meals, and creating a small wooden crate full of a mixture of sand and loose dirt to use as Roman's lavatory has left me in more of an over-worked state. I would not dare complain. Complaining would consecrate Roman's dismissal from the castle. However, Catherine on the other hand was her normal self. Wash her sheets and clothes, fetch her medicine, try to cook a half-decent meal once in a while. To her, she would not give a shit if cleaning was done. Before I arrived the dust was thicker than the rugs. However, I lived here too so the thought of living in filth repulsed me.

  I tossed in the fairly large mattress alone. Not solely alone that is, as Roman lay near my head, his purring subsiding into a frail snore. I often cannot fathom that a mere creature like him can choose someone such as myself. Why me? The mama only met me briefly, bestowed her only son to me. How ironic. I deny a human woman's only son, only to be handed the only son of a cat. However, Roman is the only male that will accost me.

  In the blink of an eye, Roman disappeared. Usually, I would find his body slinking around. He was still small but grew long. I rolled back to the door to see if maybe I had kept the door open. I in fact did, though, it does not appear his body stirred along the hall. I emerged my head from my pillow, my untamable hair poofed up behind my head. I could feel my curls fall slowly against my skin. Until I felt a curl lift above my head. I shot my head back to see Roman balancing his body on my headboard, his arm reached out with one claw caught in my hair.

  "Mew!" He belted out retracking his claw out of my hair. "What is it, Rom? What hm?..." He balanced his little paws across my headboard to leap off onto the ground. He sat himself down in front of my door with a quiet meow. "Hm? What? Do you need to use your box?" I struggled to get out of bed under the warmth of my covers. I creaked the door wider as my little black mass scurried out. I followed him to the bathroom where I halted to find Roman nowhere to be found. Catherine allowed me to place his toilet box near the sink as long as it did not get in her way. He mewed again near the edge of the stairs. "What? What is wrong with you? You are not to fed. It is late." I must be stark raving mad. Speaking to a cat as if he could understand. His eyes blinked fiercely bright. He dashed up the forbidden stairs of the west wing. I followed once again at the bottom of the stairs as I noticed the well-lit candles along the castle. Roman waited for me to step up. "Roman. No! Get down this instant." He purred shutting his eyes slowly. "No..no more games. Come down. We can't be up there." I held one foot up the step not to create a sound in fear that Catherine would hear me. Not a creak in the stair, I led myself up the flight to the top of the stairs to meet Roman. I bent down to grab him but he slipped my grasp. I watched his fur bounce down the darkest hallway in the castle. Not a candle hung, the only light that shone was the moon in the lancet windows standing side by side. The hall stretched on for what seemed as an eternity. As if I am walking in circles.

  Roman halted in a fairly lit room. It was nothing in comparison to this castle. Set in a dim and macabre setting, and yet this room, this room was full of pink. Porcelain white pillars, white tusk vanity, and a blush pink bed with the same colour canopy. The fire blazed in a white fireplace with a copper metal cage. To the corner of the room, away from the window, was a bright white piano. Catherine sat, her fingers touching the ivories lightly. Either she was checking if it was out of tune or she was rusty. Roman on the other hand had other plans. He helped himself by hopping on the pink bed making it his own.

  Catherine held herself up in high regard. However, she seemed to be in tears. Stifling her whines with her hand. I wanted to walk close. I hate when she's angry with me, but deep down in the pit of my stomach, seeing her sob I hate more. Her sobs grew loud. I knew what this room once was as I stepped foot in.

  It's a child's room.

  Not a small child, there was makeup and perfume. Pearls and fabric dresses that I could fit in. A teenage girl? Or a young woman? A daughter. The way Catherine's sobs howled through the room was not a pain I had ever experienced. A loss of a child. Her hand stroked the ivories, as her other caressed a run-down brown stuffed bear. Her fingers finally played a tune. A sombre tune. A chill ran throughout my body. It was the same eerie chill I once felt when I arrived. The first day I stepped upon these forbidden steps. This was the farthest I have ventured without the feeling. Finally, I realized it was there all along. Following me. Catherine sniffled singing a tune that matched the song on the piano.

  "If this world is wearing thin, and you're thinking of escape. I'll go anywhere with you. Just wrap me up in chains, but if you try to go alone. Don't think I'll understand."

  The sombre tune played. The sinister chill became life-like. Cascading from a white whirlpool into a blue apparition.

  I only thought 'ghosts' were fictional in mere horror novels. Nothing I would ever think I would see in my lifetime. A beauty, a caramel blonde. An off-the-shoulder white laced dress danced across the floor to sit next to Catherine. A daughter. Her daughter. She possessed Catherine's beautiful features. She had Catherine's eyes and her prominent nose. Her smile resembled her mother's. It was touching. I almost shed a tear. To see a mother's love even after death. I ponder every day if the role was reversed. If my mother watches over me. Pitying herself she could not raise me. Would she have forced me to marry Arthur Thomas? Would I know how to read? Would she have searched for me with father? Does she still love her only daughter?

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  "Stay with me..." Catherine's voice shrieked as her cries cut through her song. The ghostly figure reached out a hand to Catherine's shoulder. Catherine's voice stopped as the blonde's voice echoed throughout the room. "Stay with me." The blonde's voice was beautifully quiet. I could hear her voice but it was less powerful than Catherine's. The blonde took a breath in peering over her shoulder. She saw me. Me wiping a singular tear away. She shrieked flashing away from the piano.

  Catherine slammed her hands down with the noise of the piano startling me. I jumped letting out a gasp. "What. The hell. Are you doing here Bella?" I sniffled back my tears trying to stand my ground. "Um...I'm so sorry. Roman snuck out. I followed." Catherine arose from the piano seat.

  "I told you not to keep that fucking cat, didn't I? You are not supposed to be here!!" She turned, her face reddened to match her eyes. The anger she felt was reasonable, I broke the rules and scared away something pure. "I-I know...and I apologize...I knew I shouldn't have come up here..." At this moment, Catherine truly scared me. She ran up to me latching her hand around my arm dragging me out. She pinned me against the wall breaking the wood behind me. It stung briefly until I felt the firey anger rush throughout Catherine. "Apologizing will not bring her back! It will not bring no one back!"

  "I don't know what to do!" I shouted back unleashing all of my tears. "I felt horrible when I found you upset! Why in the hell do you always think it's my fault! You did not have to let me live with you!" I pushed my body forward making Catherine's hands release me.

  "Sometimes I regret that decision, Bella.." She growled under her breath as she wiped away tears in her sleeve. My tears burst out running all over my face. The insult made my face burn. I am surely going to burst.

  "F-fuck you!" I stuttered. "If I was to leave, you would suffer without me. Sitting here drunk on your ass in your vomit!"

  "You are such a child! A stupid child! You think everything is about you!" She barked back as I marched down the hall to my room. "Me! Stupid? When only two people are living in this fucking castle then it's either about me or you. Most of the time you! Frankly, I think you are the jerk here!" I turned my head as my hand rode the railing down.

  "Me? How in the fuck am I a jerk?! You are the stupid little bitch who disobeyed my rules and came to the west wing! You had to come up and fuck everything up for me!" She chased after me, her heels deafening. I swore every stride she took she would puncture the floorboards. I stopped at the bottom of the stares to finally look into Catherine's eyes. Her cries halted, now with a burning red anger that filled her head to toe. I soon realized I was the one more upset. My whole being felt like I just bathed, through, I was drenched in tears. My eyes became puffy hindering my vision entirely, while Catherine's voice was the only thing I heard.

  "You don't get it, do you? You said it yourself! No one comes up this mountain! I wish someone warned me what awaited me here! Not this castle, not the fucking weather, but you! You solely Catherine Valeria! Perhaps I am idiotic! An idiot to think you would actually like my goddamn note!" I turned my back to her down the hall to my room.

  "Wait...Bella...you wrote me that?" Her heels stopped behind me. Silencing her furious tone. I did not cast my gaze behind. I concentrated on my hand rolling the doorknob. Feeding the knob through my hand to open my door. "Bare me your fake sympathies. I work for you remember. You don't care about me. Goodnight, I will you leave in the morn." I banged the door shut behind me. Not a sound from Catherine came out. No protest, no more anger. Nothing. Just dead silence. My forehead rested against the door.

  Am I an idiot. An idiot for telling Catherine. For snapping at her. She is right. I disobeyed. Damn you Roman.

  ?───? ??? ?───?

  My breaths shook as I regained my composure. I tapped my head gently on the wood cursing myself and god. For why was it his decision to make me this way in particular? To denounce men and religion. To find women more palatable than the opposite sex. Potentially, this is my in fact my hell on earth. Not in the sense of pain, or burning in brimstone as said in the bible. Little devils poking you with pitchforks, but in the sense that I, will never be seen as a female love interest to any woman. A much beautiful woman the likes of Catherine Valeria. A sick woman yes, but still in her frail ailing state, she's still a woman. A very alluring and mysterious beauty.

  I pivoted the soles of my bare feet to my bed. Where I should have stayed initially. If had to change anything about tonight. I would stay in bed.

  Finally able to be at rest and configure my new life tomorrow. I let out a high-pitched noise perking up on my tip-toes. A dark figure sat on my bed. Not moving an inch. I briskly attained a box of matches to light the candle on my tiny cabinet beside my bed. The candlelit with the orange hue illuminated the room. There sat Catherine on my bed. Silent. Her eyes welled in tears with the red tint fades from a lush rose tinge. How in the hell did she get in? Her whines softened under her sleeve. Her hair scattered hiding her face.

  "P-p-please Bella...don't go."

  "Why should I? You do not seem to want me." I wiped away my tears stretching my face back roughly. "I-I do. I really do Bell. I just do not know-..." She sniffled. "Do not know what Catherine?!"

  "How to show it!" She screamed. Her sobs grew loud. She buried her face in her lap. I stepped close to my weeping employer on my bed. "C-Catherine...please...if you do not want me to go, then I will stay. You say the word." I knelt down petting her hair. Her long hair was the sensation of silk. Her cries ceased, her eyes puff red. She appeared to be tired, more tired than her usual exhausted expression. "I want you to stay. Please, stay. I am sorry Bell." Her hands moved from her lap to my shoulders. Each finger moved simultaneously together. Stroking my collarbone under my nightgown. "It is alright Catherine, we can speak more of this tomorrow. You are tired, as am I. Maybe it's high time you sleep in the nighttime instead of the day." I dropped my hands from her head to her jaw softly raising it to meet our eyes. Catherine's red fatigued eyes cleared back to her hazel shade.

  "Mm..perhaps so..." Catherine's jaw unclenched belting out a yawn. Her arms arose over her head as she stood to her feet. "On that note, I will bid you goodnight Bella. I have embarrassed myself enough for your own enjoyment."

  "I did not enjoy this Catherine. I do not like when you are upset." I got up off my knees to sit on my bed. "I know...your heart it beat..so loud. When you are sad or excited. It rings in ears." She coughed as her thick Romanian accent flourished. "You can hear my heartbeat?"

  "Of course. It is like thunder in my ears. Your heart is not the only thing I can sense Bella." She smirked creaking the door open.

  "Whatever do you mean Catherine Valeria?" I was intrigued. The fact her senses were heightened fascinated me but she never truly enlightened me on how heightened her other senses were. "Your other excitements darling. Your how you say um...pl?cut?...in English? Ah! Pleasurable excitement." She trailed on intentionally. She knew what she was saying. She wanted to withhold me in suspense. "And what pleasurable excitements do I bare hm?" I bent all of my weight on one of my hands on the mattress.

  "The kind whenever I am around you, your heartthrobs. Amongst other things that throb in the night." Her smile persisted and she left my bedroom. I was aghast. To think this woman would have the nerve to say I became hot and bothered in her presence. "Buona notte Bella, sleep well."

  "Goodnight Valeria."