The game of the white cat ...

The game of the white cat ...

"Hey ... Heey! Leave ... me! That hurts!"
Suki tries desperately to wriggle out of the iron grips of the guards who have mercilessly clasped her upper arms, but she just doesn't want to succeed. The harder she defends herself and strikes, the more roughly she is pushed towards the door. She puts all her strength into her right arm and blindly hits one of the guys with her fist, but instead of her tormentor leaving her as hoped, she feels a stabbing pain through her fingers as her knuckles hit the metal The barrel of a handgun attached to the uniformed man's chest armor hits. With a mumbled curse, she looks down at her aching hand. The knuckles are showing the first signs of a bruise, and a few tiny drops of blood stick out from a small scratch on her skin. Finally she gives up and allows them to accompany her into the hallway without resistance. Sey appears behind her, accompanied by two other armed uniformed men.
"Don't be afraid, Suki. They won't hurt you ... until the council has decided otherwise ..."
She throws him a horrified look that tells him that this remark doesn't exactly make her feel better ... The guards lead her straight ahead through the endless corridor until she finally stands in front of a plain, dark wooden door stop. One of the soldiers steps forward without a word and pushes the door open with all his weight before letting Suki go first with a wave of his arm. When she lets her eyes wander through the small room in front of her, Suki can't help but look disappointed at first. After all the incredible things she's heard and seen in the past few hours, this bare room seems like a joke to her. There is just enough space for the four guards, Sey, and herself to stand in it. Like in an elevator. On the walls there are two round, bricked windows, which, however, have been provided with completely black panes. Suki is not surprised, after all, they are still in the basement of the headquarters, which basically makes windows superfluous anyway. She throws Sey a questioning look, but he only grins knowingly at her and inconspicuously points up. When Suki drops her head and her eyes wander upwards, she catches her breath for a moment. She had expected a dreary, gray masonry, like the rest of the room, but what she saw there, she probably could not even have imagined. At first glance it looks as if you are below an incredibly clear starry sky, an infinite blue-black window through which a sea of ​​shining silver stars shines towards you.But when she takes a closer look, she can see that the avoidable stars are moving in gentle orbits like tiny, living beings. Some seem to wander so close to them that all she has to do is reach out her hand to touch them. A pleasant warmth, almost like on a clear summer day, emanates from the gliding lights. Suki feels like a feeling of deep satisfaction floods her whole body. She can't help but close her eyes and concentrate on that one indescribable feeling ... Suddenly she wishes with all her heart that she could just stay like this forever ... drifting like this forever ... never again wake up....
She feels a hand close around hers and bring her back down to earth. The numbing, pleasant feeling slowly disappears from her head and she opens her eyes, slightly dazed. She struggles with a slight dizziness and is glad that Sey holds her hand a little tighter before she finally loses her balance. He gives her a slightly amused smile.
"You know, when I saw her for the first time, I stared up for more than ten minutes before I just fell over ..."
Suki looks at him, still a little wobbly on his feet.
"What are you?"
Sey throws an almost dreamy look upwards.
"They are souls. But not just any souls ... they have already been purified and therefore basically consist only of the good memories and positive feelings of the people they belonged to ... Purified souls tend to get rid of theirs as soon as they are dark part are free to collect in this intermediate world ... Nobody knows why they are doing this. It's almost as if they are looking for each other ... "
Suki looks thoughtfully at the bright lights above, but this time careful not to be overwhelmed by their appearance.
"All the best that is in a person ..? Then they are like ... like angels ..."
Sey looks at her in astonishment, but does not contradict her. Suki's gaze falls by chance on her injured hand, with which she had previously blindly hit one of the uniformed men. The redness has disappeared and she no longer feels any pain. The few drops of blood can simply be wiped away from your skin, while nothing can be seen of the actual scratch wound. One of the soldiers whispers something into his headset before turning to his colleagues.
"We now have permission to convert."
The many individual lights above them suddenly seem inexorably closer. Suki feels slightly uncomfortable and holds onto the sleeve of Sey's shirt with her free hand. Just as he whispers a soft "Don't worry .." to her, the sky lights up above them and bathes them all in a bright, silvery veil.Suki feels her feet loosen from the ground, but unlike before, she can only make out a slight breath of the incredible presence of the purified souls. It's like being wrapped in an impenetrable ball of light that shields you from everything that happens around you.
Just as quickly as the light came, it disappears again. Suki's eyes take a moment to get used to the new surroundings. All that she initially perceives is a colorless emptiness around her. It is a circular room, snow-white from top to bottom and completely deserted. The four guards have also disappeared. Sey looks restlessly in all directions.
"Something is wrong here ... this is not the room the council usually receives people in ... this is ..."
Suki lets out a sharp scream when she suddenly feels that something is brushing past her leg. When she looks down, she sees a white cat with gray paws that elegantly leaps past her and Sey.
"What are you doing here, Chitori?"
Suki turns to Sey, amazed at his suddenly aggressive tone. The cat sits down a few meters away and looks at them with its glowing red eyes. Suki has the strange feeling as if the animal is smiling at her ...
"So you remember me? Well, I admit, I didn't choose this figure for today by chance, meow ... I just ask myself one thing ..."
The cat's eyes narrow to slits, and this time Suki is sure to see an insidious grin on her features.
"... How do you think you know my name?"
For a moment, Sey seems run over. He opens his mouth, but closes it again without a word.
"You don't know, am I right? It is only natural that you know the name of your owner, meow ..."
"Shut up, bastards!"
"Oho ... that's not nice ... meow ..."
"Don't tell me what's nice, you'd better spit out what you're doing here!"
The cat starts to leap, but before its paws touch the ground again, its shape has changed into that of a young woman. Her hair and the wide dress she wears are white and her skin shines in a light shade of sand. Suki can feel her bright red eyes fixate on her and can't help but take a shuddering step back. Something on this pretty woman's face causes an unfounded fear to rise in her. With a single flowing movement she covers the few meters that have separated her from Sey and lets her fingertips gently stroke his cheek and rest on his neck. Chitori looks slightly smiling over his shoulder at Suki, who suddenly feels an uncomfortable pulling in her chest. Sey stands there completely motionless, as if frozen to ice. Even when Chitori sneaks around him with her cat-like movements, there is no reaction from him ... He just keeps staring straight ahead."... Sey?"
Suki is getting nervous and is about to walk up to him to find out what is wrong with him when Chitori gets in her way.
"Just leave him there ... you are the one I want to talk to ..."
"What did you do to him?"
The young woman, giggling, wraps a strand of her long, white hair around her index finger.
"Oh, don't worry, I just frozen time for him ..."
"Then please keep it again!"
"Sure ... in a moment. First of all, I would like to have a little chat with you ... - in private ..."
Suki feels more and more uncomfortable. She just can't imagine what this stranger should have to talk to her about ... Chitori seems more than amused by her insecurity.
"Suki ... have you ever been afraid that your life might be too short ... that you might miss something? ... If you are immortal like me, the individual years start to lose importance over time. .. The decades go by, you watch how generations are born and die, how wars break out and battles are lost, and how this cycle starts again, over and over again ... It's not just boring, it's unbearable! "
For a moment Suki is sure to see an angry flash of Chitori's red eyes and takes a step away from her. Chitori catches himself up immediately and puts on that strange artificial smile again, which is almost reminiscent of the laugh of a porcelain doll.
"That's why I decided some time ago to do something about boredom ... If you don't know what to do with yourself, you look for a hobby, am I right?"
While she is still speaking, Chitori blurs in front of Suki's eyes, only to reappear in the next moment in the form of a little girl. While Suki can hardly hide her amazement, she continues speaking as if nothing had happened.
"You know, Suki, I've been watching your friend Sey for quite a while now ... almost a century to be exact ... it's quite entertaining ... well, I admit, every now and then I had my fingers in the game but that's what the fun is, after all, or am I wrong? "
"By fun I mean something else ..."
Surprised at her own words, Suki winces a little ... She hadn't intended to be cheeky in view of this ... being ... However, she does not want to be able to relax her fisted hands either. The little Chitori looks up at her, amused.
"You