Mimi's Demons

Chapter 96: The Tool Called Fear

"Did you catch that one killer?"

Duke looked up from the work on his desk to Mimi, who was on the floor playing with her kitten with little mouse toy puppets on her fingers. At first glance one would think it was just an older kitten. But it only took a second glance to see that this kitten looked far too big to have babyish features like that and paws too big for the rest of its body.

It had been his baby's first birthday with Papa. Of course he wasn't going to get her just a normal old cat. In fact, he could probably count on his hands how many kittens of this kind were in the world. After all, being able to cross breed a wild, endangered snow leopard with a large Maine Coon wasn't something anyone could do. And it wasn't like every kitten would come out with the Maine Coon's temperament.

A white and black speckled paw smacked a finger puppet.

"Papa."

"Hmm?"

"The killer. The one with the Satan marks."

A chill settled against his back, like an unwanted hand.

"Why you wondering about that, kitten?" he asked, looking back down at his laptop.

"Didn't he leave a body outside our mansion?"

He glanced back up, this time taking a closer look at his daughter rather than the big kitten. She'd gotten better at her acting, but she was only twelve, and he was far too experienced in sniffing out fear of other's voices like a shark to blood in the water.

"Mimi, no one is going to hurt you."

"They got to me once," she said, her words clashing with her forced nonchalance.

The kitten, as most animals could, sensed the tension in its master and turned it's big, yellow eyes from the mouse puppets to Mimi. It gave a low 'prrbt' and pawed the carpet.

Duke closed his laptop.

"Come here." He patted his lap.

"Why?" she wouldn't look at him, opting to pet her kitten instead, which tried to turn and nom a puppet off her finger and succeeded.

"Because this is a sit on Papa's lap moment."

She stuck out her tongue. "Ew, gross, I'm twelve now."

"And you'll be sitting on my lap till you're thirty-five if I have my way, so get over here before I make it more embarrassing."

Huffing, scowling, all the key characteristics of a Mimi playing tough, she stood up and came around his desk, leaving the kitten to it's furious attempts to disembowel the mouse puppet it had swiped. Duke turned and Mimi obediently sat across his lap. She'd grown since spring, but not enough to qualify in Duke's mind as an average, healthy twelve-year-old. He wondered if she'd always be small.

The thought of what life had in store for her made his arms around her tighten.

"Whoever is killing those people and leaving stupid marks on them is just trying to make me acknowledge them."

She frowned. "Acknowledge—what, like they want to work for you?"

"No. They want to be acknowledged as a threat. If so, they'd have a chance at frightening me and making demands. It's a kind of power play since they haven't been successful at getting at me directly, because now I know their trick with the demons so they can't sneak in. Which is why you can believe me when I say you're safe."

Mimi looked down at her hands, which she had clenched and started to knead the moment she sat in his lap. She rolled her lips between her teeth.

"What are you thinking, sweet?" he asked.