I held Cici gently to my chest as she cried, and I could feel her emotions running wild.
"Eli... I'm sorry... I... I had to kill them... I..." She mumbled, and I just responded by gently running a hand through her soft hair.
"I know. You did what you had to do." I told her, giving the top of her head a kiss.
"I just... when I heard the sounds... and I thought about what happened to me, I just... I couldn't control myself!" She sobbed as she rubbed her face into my chest, staining my shirt in snot and tears, not that I cared about that.
"You didn't do anything wrong. These people were awful. They got what they deserved." I said, unsure if that was the right thing to say to comfort her, but it was how I felt. People like this dying was a good thing in my opinion. Letting them live felt wrong.
"But... I acted like a monster! Like a beast!" She cried, and I pulled back, putting my hands on her cheeks as I made her look deep into my eyes.
"You are not a monster or a beast. You are my Cici, a beautiful and caring woman. I'm my eyes, and I'm sure the eyes of many of these girls, you are their savior. You are a hero, Cici." I said, gently wiping away her tears wifh my thumb, although my words caused more to fall, so the gesture was purely for emotional support, "You saw what those men did, right? That's why you did what you did. To save these women from a terrible fate. They are the monsters, and you are the one that stopped them. I'm so proud of you, my love." I said, then brought my lips to hers in a gentle kiss, and she kissed me back passionately, the taste of her lips mixing with the salt of her tears.
"Okay..." She said with a trembling voice, before saying, "I love you."
"Love you too." I replied immediately, continung running my hands through her hair.
Cici didn't say much after that, as she just let her head rest against my chest for another moment, but then she jerked her head up and looked past me.
"I almost forgot!" Cici said, which caused me to also turn my head around, and then curse as I was just now noticing a wide eyed Rachel with tear stains under her eyes tied to a bed. I didn't even realize she was in here due to the heat of the moment.
"Fuck." I muttered, standing up and walking over to the bed.
I elongated one of my fingernails, causing her eyes to widen even further as I used it to cut the bindings around her wrists and ankles. She rubbed at her wrists, and I thought about it for a second, but still held my hand out to her to help her stand.
"Come on. Time to go." I said, and she looked at my hand like it was a foreign object, before slowly reaching out and taking it.
I helped her up, and then she actually surprised me by tackling me, and hugging me tightly.
"I WAS SO SCARED!" She began to sob, and the urge to push her away from me was strong, but... I wasn't cruel. Even if I didn't like her anymore, she had been through something she did not deserve to experience.
"It's fine now." I said, hesitating for a moment, before reaching up and patting her head like a small puppy.
I looked at Cici, and I only got a look of understanding from her, and then she too surprised me by walking over and placing her hand on Rachel's shoulder. Rachel looked up at her in surprise.
"I haven't forgiven what you've done... but that doesn't mean I'd let you suffer like this." She said, and that caused Rachel's lips to tremble.
Rachel suddenly let go of me and slammed into Cici with enough force to actually make my wife startle. She looked unsure of how to react, and I didn't have an answer for her either.
"You don't ever have to forgive me... but you saved me... I'll never forget that, so... thank you." Rachel said through tears, and the earnest words from Rachel actually made Cici pause, before relaxing, a tiny hint of smile on her lips as she brought one hand around to rub Rachel's back.
"You're welcome." Cici said simply.
As much as I didn't want to admit it, Rachel's words and actions were helping Cici more than she knew. It was just more confirmation that Cici had acted selflessly, and did the right thing.
My thoughts became interrupted when the sounds of the others down here reached my ears again, and I looked towards Cici and Rachel.
"I'm going to help everyone. The police will be here soon, and we gotta be gone by then." I said, causing the girls to split apart.
"Sorry... you're right. This place is... awful..." Rachel said, choking up as she tried to speak.
"I know... I'm sorry this happened." I said.
"When I heard what happened... I decided I couldn't do nothing and feel okay about it..." Cici said softly, which made Rachel looked back at her, truly look her up and down.
Cici's tail and wears were present again, as well as her large green slitted eyes, her pupils no longer the round shape of a normal human. The oddity seemed to be catching up to her, especially considered what I walked into. At the same time, Rachel glanced at the shredded remains of the man who I assumed tried to violate her, before returning her eyes to Cici once more.
"What... are you?" Rachel asked, scanning my wife's fluffy appendages once more.
Cici's tail actually danced back and forth in amusement from that question, and Rachel's eyes tracked it like a hawk.
"What do I look like?" Cici asked, and I was happy to see that amused part of her again.
"Uh... like... a cat.. girl?" Rachel asked.
"Very smart guess." Cici said, a small giggle companying her words, "What gave it away?" Cici asked, and I had to give it to her, despite not being a big fan of Rachel, she was still trying to lighten her mood, even if it was through heavy teasing.
Rachel's face actually turned a bit red, but I did see a small hint of a smile on her face. Cici was ultimately too kind of person, but I wouldn't want her any other way. I left the girls to their own devices for a moment as I turned around and made my way back into the small corridor, where the three girls from the previous room had come in and handed out the cloaks to the four others that were already in this corridor. I immediately felt bad about leaving them all like this while I comforted Cici, but it was safe in here now, and Cici was always my top priority.
"H-hello sir. Thank you... for the coat." One of the girls said as she nervously stepped up to me.
It took me a moment, but I realized that she was the girl I had healed not to long ago. I smiled at her.
"You're welcome. You look like you're feeling much better." I said, and her nervous posture slackened a bit, and she straightened.
"My sister Mandy told me that you did something... weird... but that it fixed me." She said, and quickly added, "My name is Alicia, by the way."
"I'm glad I was here. I couldn't imagine you being in that kind of pain for much longer. I'm sorry you went through that." I said, and while she began to tear up, she smiled, even if it was a fragile thing, "Thanks to you... and from what my sister said, Miss Cat, we don't have to anymore."
I really felt for her. I felt for all of them, and while I couldn't relate to what they had been through, I was beyond sympathetic. Degenerate scum like this, forcing themselves on these poor girls, I'd say death was too easy for them, yet it's what they deserved. Since I did want to wrap this up faster, I looked at the girl again, to find her already looking at me.
"How are we going to get everyone else out?" The Alicia asked, "All of these doors are electronically locked, and no one knows the door codes. I think the guy in charge knew them."
"Yeah... he's not gonna able to tell us." I said, but then I smirked as I met her worried eyes, "You wanna see something weird?"
With that, my body began to radiate with black Abyssal energy which caused Alicia's eyes to widen as she took several steps back. The girls in the hallway squeaked and screamed, and I even heard a sharp gasp from behind me, and I was loathed to admit that I knew it was Rachel. I had heard that sound enough times in my life to never forget it.
The energy shot out of my body, where it began to spread over all of the doors in the corridor, and within seconds, they simply ceased to exist, as my Abyss swallowed them whole, rendering them into nothing. Silence met me for a moment, before screams of both joy and fear came from many of cells that no longer had doors. Many of the stunned women seemed to snap out of the magically induced trances, and decided that helping each other was still their primary focus.
I stepped by a few of the cells, holding my hand out to a few who were trying to get out on their own by themselves. One girl accepted my hand warrily, but thanked me when she realized I wasn't a threat. A couple girls backed away from me, but Rachel and Cici had come to help, and she took care of them instead. I heard a lot of stuff like "wow," "holy shit," and other words of disbelief regarding my wife. One girl thought it was a costume, until she grabbed my wife's tail, and it jerked out of her hand and coiled behind Cici as she hissed reflexively, her ears standing up straighter.
"SORRY!" The girl hurriedly said, and backed away slowly.
Cici took in a deep breath to calm herself, her ears dropping while her tail relaxed and swished in the air behind her as the other girl watched as if she was in a trance.
"It's fine. Just... please do not touch my tail." Cici said, and the girl nodded emphatically as she apologized again.
The sounds of a anguished cries met our ears, and that made Cici and I grimace, well aware that there were a couple of girls who were not lucky enough to make it. I'm glad these sick fuckers were dead but... there was nothing I could do about this. I lowered my head. The ones that were alive were fine, and I had used my power to heal a few cuts here, an infection there, and a couple of broken bones. However, death was a finality that even I couldn't effect. I understood a lot of things about myself, but what I truly was, and what I could truly do, I wasn't sure in the end.
"Miss Cat?" A girl suddenly asked, which caused me to look towards them, and I immediately recognized the girl that had Alicia's head in her map. This had to be Mandy, then.
The girl, Mandy, stared at Cici with wide brown eyes.
"You are freaking adorable!" Mandy suddenly blurted, and she also suddenly became one of my favorites. Truer words had never been spoken before.
For Cici's part, she blushed heavily, but tried her best to accept the compliment.
"Oh... um... thank you very much." Cici said, her tail swishing behind her back and forth rapidly. It was damn cute.
"Thanks to you, most of us will be okay... and Alicia is okay." Mandy said, turning to me, and giving me a smile as she began to tear up, "Thank you for fixing my sister. I don't know what you did... but thank you."
I gave her a smile as I nodded.
"Of course. Couldn't just leave her looking like that."
During all of this, I both felt and kept an eye on Rachel, was staring at Cici and myself with intense curiosity. It seemed now that the worst of the situation was over, she was very curious about just what the hell she saw. All of these girls had seen my literal cat girl wife slicing men apart already, so I really didn't see the need to hide my power to a bunch of girls I didn't know, nor would see again after today. It was also just more convenient.
Still, Rachel had known me for a long time, so the sight of me using dark power to make metal doors vanish into thin air right after my wife slaughtered a bunch of rapists was probably the thing dominating her mind right now. I was surprised I hadn't heard signs of the police yet, although it was only a matter of time. Even still, the response time disappointed me.
"Eli." Rachel asked me, having walked up to my side, "Can we talk?"
"Do we have to?" I asked, sighing as I turned to face her.
"I have so many questions... and I wanted to tell you about Kieth..." She said.
"He's dead. I know, I saw him." I said, waving that off.
She looked apalled for a second, before she calmed, "He tried to protect me... but he did bring those people there to scare you... he just didn't expect me to still be there. Thought you'd kick me out too."
"Yeah, because you definitely had somewhere else to go." I said, and then winced when I saw the look on her face, "I'm sorry."
Her parents had died while on a vacation about 5 years ago. A semi had lost control on the highway, and they couldn't brake in time before slamming into the trailer at high speeds. I remember when she cried in my arms for hours because someone had told her, "If it helps, their died instantly."
"It's... fine. I know you enough to know you didn't mean it that way." She said, and she was about to say more when my perception finally caught what I wanted to hear. Sirens.
"The police are here." I said, and that everyone perk up, and many of the girls began scrambling towards the stairs finally.
The girl that was ahead of everyone else yelped as I was suddenly in front of her, and she began to fall backwards. I grabbed her and stablized her, and she just stared at me with wide eyes as I let her go a moment later. I projected mana into my vocal cords to project it.
"Ladies, I'm glad you are all safe... and I'm sorry for the ones who are not." I said, saying nothing for a few seconds before I continued. These girls were used to me enough by now to know that I meant no harm, "You're all free, and you owe me nothing. My wife and I were more than happy to help."
Many of the girls cheered as as Cici made her way through them to make it to me, her cheeks red as girls cheered, "Miss Cat," repeatedly. She deserved the praise.
"The only thing I ask of you all is that you don't say anything about us. You can probably tell, but we aren't normal. We don't want recognition, or anything like that. We just want you all to go home to your families. Just, I'd appreciate it if you kept this a secret." I added, and many of the girls present nodded fiercely as they kept thanking Cici and I for their help.
While I wasn't truly sure if they would keep their word, ultimately, it didn't matter. I never planned on coming back here after today. And even if I somehow needed to, I could always disguise and hide myself. Plus, no cameras actually caught what happened, so it was mainly personal accounts against hard evidence. Even Cici's work would probably be attributed to a lost animal or something that got loose and then escaped after conveniently killing a bunch of criminals. Making shit up when no one understands what actually happened it what humanity does best, after all.
I could actually just tell though that these girls would not say anything. At least, not for a while. People could always change their minds.
"Cici, it's time to go." I said, holding out my hand to her.
She gave one finally goodbye to the girls, gave Mandy a pat on the head, and walked over to me, grabbing my hand.
"Wait!" Rachel suddenly said, stopping in front of me, "I still have so much I want to know."
"You really don't." I said, getting ready to activate my power.
"Please, Eli... I know I don't deserve that... and I am fully aware that nothing will ever be between us again... I've kinda learned somethings about myself recently, and I don't think I want that anyways, but..." She said, and looked at me with tear filled and pleading eyes, "I have nothing, Eli, and no one... but what I saw today was like a fantasy story. It was the first thing in a long time to make my heart race, and I want to know more. I want to see more..."
Once she finished, my eyebrows rose as the implied suggestion.
"Are you asking me to take you with me?" I asked, and she hesitated for a long moment, before nodding.
I wanted to immediately tell her "fuck no" on reflex, but I also didn't control what she did, and she was also being truthful when she said that something with me would never happen again. I didn't want that either obviously, but it was good to know that she had moved on herself as well. She was right, as she truly didn't have anything here, and I did feel pretty bad about what happened to her.
I looked at Cici, who merely just smiled and shrugged.
"I don't care. Although, if you even think about trying anything with Eli..." Cici warned, and Rachel held up her hands.
"Of course not!! I..." She said, suddenly looking a tad embarrassed, "I don't really think... I like men in that way..." She muttered that last part, and my eyebrows rose as once again, she was telling the truth.
Well, this surely just keeps getting interesting. So, with a heavy sighed, I wrapped us up in a cloak making us invisible, and yes, I included Rachel, and I gestured for her to follow. The girls yelped as we disappeared, but besides a few more "thank yous" and "goodbyes," that was it. We traveled back out and up the stairs, and had to actually back against a wall briefly as police started storming inside. I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed most of them were pretty good natured, with what I would say were balanced souls. The girls would be fine.
As we finally made our way outside, I looked up at the sky, the sun just beginning to set, and I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief as I began leading them to go and get my mother. It was finally time to go the fuck home.