Rise of the Feline Society Chapter 16 - Devastating News
William was awoken by his sister Sophie.
"Come on sleepy head," she said looking a little annoyed. "Just one more day before the weekend. You can make it."
"Five more minutes," He groggily said as he turned over but Sophie didn't want to deal with him on the last day so she just took his pillow from out underneath his head and started to smack him with it.
"Agh, agh, alright alright," William protested as he blocked her last few of her pillow attacks before sitting up on his bed.
Sophie stopped hitting William with the pillow placing it back on his bed and leaving the room. William yawned before he got up getting a set of new clothes. He left his room and was greeted by the ladies in his family who were eating breakfast.
"You going to eat with us Will?" His mother Grace asked.
William looked at the time noticing that it was 7:30 and his school started at 8.
"No mom," William replied. "I have to take a shower."
"Ok, honey," his mom answered as William went into the bathroom to take a quick shower.
When he got out, he looked at his appearance in the mirror. His scrawny body and his orange hair. He combed it a little but he had to go.
I should probably dye it to a different color before one of the Shadowfire gang members notices me. He kept thinking about what he truly was after he acquired the system and he thought that the only person who might know would be his best friend, Jack. Jack played a lot of video games and was even more knowledgeable in the Animorph world than he was. If anyone that he could trust knew what he was, the best it would be was his friend Jack.
William pulled out his phone and texted Jack.
Hey Jack, let's meet up as usual I would like to discuss something important with you.
He placed his phone back in his pocket. William was wearing jeans, a jet-black shirt, and a black hoodie so he could hide his hair whenever he had too. He didn't want to risk it when he went into the wrong territory.
He left the bathroom going into his room grabbing his backpack. When he left his room his three sisters were waiting for him.
"Just in time," his older sister Miranda said who was just slightly taller than him.
"Have a good day at school," their mother said just as they were leaving.
"Bye mom," all four of them said as they left the apartment going down the four flights of stairs heading towards Evergreen Highschool.
The four walked toward school. If they walked at their current pace they will get there just seven minutes before school started.
"Midnight has passed," the system randomly chimed in. "Your two daily quests have been reset."
William smiled seeing this notification. All he had to do was complete one of them and he would level up to level 3.
He pulled out his phone from his pocket to check and see if his friend jack had responded. He opened his phone and the message showed delivered.
That's weird, William thought getting slightly nervous. Jack is always on his phone. He's probably just busy heading over to school, he told himself as he placed his phone back in his pocket.
Several minutes later the Carter family arrived outside of the school. The first to leave the group was Miranda who went with her group of friends. Lily was the next to leave as her friend group pulled her away. When William looked at Sophie she was no longer there. Sophie was like William and had like three friends so she had gone off to go look for them.
Then it was me, William thought as he went searching for Jack.
He went around groups upon groups of people but he couldn't find him anywhere. He texted Jack a couple of times but he hadn't even read the message.
Where could he be? Jack never misses school. William was getting more nervous about his friend but after another minute went by, he had to head to his classroom.
He walked the path going into his school down the long hallway which led into his classroom. Everyone was already sitting down in their seats but Jack's seat was empty.
Maybe he finally slept through his alarm clock he thought as he sat in his usual seat.
Mrs. Bell started to take attendance and when she noticed that Jack was missing, she looked at William for an explanation because she knew that the two were close. William just shrugged and she marked Jack absent. As soon as she began to teach William immediately placed his head on his desk pulling out his phone onto his lap and looked at his messages. It still said delivered. He decided to text Jack again.
Where are you? Did you sleep through your alarm?
After he was done, he just pulled up the social media app Chealy on his phone and watched muted clips of Animorph fights to try and keep himself calm.
The truth was that this is something that Jack has never done in the course of their friendship. Even when he didn't answer right away, he always answered in a reasonable amount of time. He never skipped school because he liked it and never seemed to get sick. It was just something that he wouldn't do and it was starting to drive William on edge because technically he was on the run and the fact that he was also worrying about his friend.
Hours went by and it was noon so when the bells rang, he had to eat so he rushed out of the room to try and get the amount of chicken tenders he needed. He got in the line, ordered, paid, and went to where he usually sat. Sitting at the table was his two sisters but no Jack in sight. William sat down next to his sister and asked the question.
"Is Jack here?"
"Jack isn't here?" Sophie asked confused. "I think that's a first."
"He isn't answering his phone either," William said with worry in his voice. "He definitely should be awake now. I mean…it's noon."
"Ok first calm down William," Sophie said. "There could be multiple explanations. Like for one he could have gotten grounded and since he likes going to school that is his punishment. Now that I'm thinking about it I feel like that punishment would hinder him."
William's frown that he had on his face deepened which caused Sophie to come up with more plausible explanations.
"He could still be sleeping," Sophie continued. "Playing a prank on you. Or maybe his phone is broken and he really wanted to fix it."
William's fear eased a bit after hearing a couple of the explanations that Sophie provided.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he pranked you," his sister Lily said. "He never pranks you so this could be his first one that he is doing to you."
William smiled slightly hearing his sister say that as he opened his bag of chicken tenders.
"Ok," Sophie said pointing at the bag, "There is no way that you're somehow leeching off of that kid in bets.
William paused for a moment before he remembered his excuse last time so he decided to put a devious grin on his face like he had stolen the winning lottery ticket from a baby.
Sophie rolled her eyes as she placed her head on the table like she had given up her pursuit on where William was getting his money. She then suddenly lifted her head off the table looking at William.
"Well," she began. "If you're leeching can pay the bills than I guess it works out."
William laughed as he continued eating his lunch. Forty minutes later lunch ended and William went back to the classroom going on the app Chealy again to watch some more fights. There was still no response from Jack. One hour and fifty-five minutes later the bell rang but just as he was about to leave his phone buzzed in his hand.
Immediately his heart began to race thinking that Jack had finally responded. Damn he took forever, William thought. It's exactly 3pm so hopefully Sophie's suggestion of him pulling a prank was it.
He opened his phone but it wasn't a text from Jack. No, it was a video message from…Amos.
William's heart immediately began to beat wildly in his chest. He was not expecting a message from Amos who was the leader of the Shadowfire gang.
Why did Amos text me at exactly 3pm, William was thinking hard. What happened, what changed. The video was there but did he dare to watch it? Did he really want to know what Amos wanted? Like…he already knows that there is a bounty on his head so reminding him won't do anything but what could he possibly…
William's thought was interrupted by a theory that he hoped to whatever god that was watching over him for it to not be true. What were the chances that on the day when Jack seemed to disappear Amos would send him a video message that was delivered to his phone at exactly when his school ended.
He hesitated for a moment dreading what the message was but he had decided to hit play and unmuted the audio.
When the video started to play it showed a very dark room. Hanging from the ceiling was a single light that was shining down on the individual tied up on the chair. The video was slightly blurry but it started to zoom in and when it stopped it was unblurred showing a heavily beaten-up Jack.
William's heart momentarily froze as he stared at his best friend then his heart beat picked up at a speed it hadn't gone before.
The system jumped in. "Your heart rate has jumped above 200 BPM. You have reached the second threshold of the skill: Agile Reflexes: Temporary boosts dodge chance and speed for a short time, allowing the cat to evade attacks effortlessly. Second Threshold of Agile reflexes includes the bonus of: All stats double for 1 minute. Cooldown: 5 minutes. If your heart rate is still above 200 BPM after the 5-minute cooldown then the second threshold skill will activate again. Note that the bonus skill can only be activated by reaching 200 BPM."
William had completely ignored the system as his emotions had reached a threshold. He kept watching the video looking at Jack's beaten-up face and body. Jack was tightly tied to a chair; his head being held up by a hand that came out from the side. His face was all swollen and purple. He had two fingers missing along with all of his nails getting pulled out. He had a nail imbedded in his left arm.
William seeing Jack in this condition broke him as he raised his arm in the air bringing it down smashing the desk next to him to pieces not realizing that for the rest of this minute all of his stats were doubled which brought it into the upper teens which was stronger than any normal human.
That's when Amos stepped into the video looking at the camera.
"You like what you see William?" Amos asked as he began to laugh like the psychopath he was. "I found out where you go to school and where your friend lived.
He looked back at Jack then punched him in the face. William reacted in anger seeing his already pitiful friend getting punched and the side of his desk shattered under his hand. His eyes glowed bright orange and his face transformed into an orange furred angry catlike face. He hissed aggressively as he was still watching the video. Luckily for him nobody was in the classroom or nearby to hear the rage that William was letting out.
Amos began to laugh wildly and William almost crushed his phone in rage.
"Turn yourself in William," Amos said with a sinister smile as he looked back at the camera. You have no idea who you pissed off. You think that what you stole is mine, Will? No, I was just the transporter and you pissed off someone bigger than me and they want their property back."
That's when Jack was able to sputter out the words. "Don't…do it…Will."
Amos immediately turned around smashing his fist into his face almost causing the chair to fall backwards and two teeth flew out of his mouth. "Shut up!" He roared at Jack.
"STOP IT!" William roared in anger and heartbreak as he smashed his foot against the desk sending it flying into the back of the classroom wall.
Amos turned back to face the camera and continued. "I'll let this video sink in for you. At 7pm which was the same starting time as the transporter mission that I gave you. I will text you the coordinates and you can try your luck at saving him."
Amos laughed wildly as he slammed his fist on Jack's hand ending the video there.
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