The Ties That Bind

“You may have lived on the streets,” Moriarty spoke, his voice echoing in the massive cathedral’s acoustics, “But it is long past time for you to grow up and leave those children behind.”

The cat would have reached for the clover now to use as a shield, the last seemingly indestructible item he’d possessed, but he took the crystal from around his neck and held it forward as Moriarty fired.  The crystal seemed to absorb the energy for a moment, but it exploded into glass-like shards, knocking the cat back once again landing on his paws roughly.

“That bauble held no special meaning to you.  Just another chain tying you to your self-inflicted woe,” Moriarty remarked, his left cheek melting away and exposing the bone of his jaw.  “Why must you all cling to your petty lies and oaths?  Can you not simply discard your last ties to this world and accept the ultimate truth?”

Moriarty stepped forward and reached over the burning pew, and aimed what was left of his hand at the small piece of Momoe’s cane and the bag.

The cat leapt forward and pulled the bag out of the way too late as lighting caught both it and the piece of Momoe’s cane.  The piece was destroyed instantly, and the bag burned as Arnold tried to bat at it and save it.

It had been burnt, thrown about, left behind in a pit, and water logged, but the bag held together somehow as tattered as it was.

“Your final ties,” Moriarty said, if he had even noticed destroying the piece he gave no sign, “Homeless children and cats.  Two more things where you have no place.”  

He backed into the corner growling hiding the bag behind him, “I have a place among them now.”

“Because they decided to declare you an ‘honorary’ urchin,” Moriarty seemed to smile despite his now missing cheek, which caused more of his face and lips to break away in chunks.  “What is an ‘honorary’ urchin?  The very idea is ludicrous.”

Arnold frowned, he had never been sure in his memories either.  At times he remembered thinking they pitied him, while others that they wanted to take in a stray and make it their pet.  But standing before Moriarty in the urchins garb he remembered the oath that Gilhooly had asked him to take when they had hidden him in the urchin hideouts from Dr. Dinosaur.

“I’ll never betray my urchin friends.  We’ll stick together till the world ends.”  The cat spoke, raising his right paw as he had when he had first made his oath.  “Good times or lean, scraps, or peace, lads an’ lasses together like a pod of peas.  No matter city or country or where we’re in…proud to be an urchin till the end.“

“So I swore,” the familiar added, which had been his own addition the first time he had bound himself to that promise, that oath, that contract.   “Those weren’t meaningless words, they became a part of who I am, and I won’t let you take that away from me.”

“An insipid sentiment,” Moriarty replied as he prepared the nub that had been his hand. “I too swore similar vows when I was a child, all children vow that they will never grow up and will be together forever, but they shall grow up someday or die.”

The cat prepared his claws and reached for his chest.  Moriarty had reminded the familiar of his oath, and that had reminded him of his nature that allowed him to be bound to such things.  He still had one thing besides the tie and bag:  Maddox’s string.

He roared as he leapt for Moriarty, who fired the energy which flowed into the familiar.  The cats body stiffened as he could feel himself being filled with the terrible, puissant force.  He crashed into the boy who took a step back to regain his balance, and the feline took the momentary surprise to recover from his shock and let out a hiss.  

The feline scratched at Moriarty’s face, tearing away his dead flesh and left eye, but the undead dark angel took his former hand and stabbed forward, impaling the cat in the abdomen with the bone, using his unnatural strength, and doubling the destruction that he was blasting into the cat, despite the flesh from his arm having nearly melted off completely. 

The cat leaned against the boys arm and scratched at his adversary, but the undead Moriarty continued despite his face being nothing but bone and both eyes having been ripped away.  The cat knew that he could only take so much energy before he lost control and he was already passing the point.  His movements were slowing as the energy began to make his body spasm, he had to send the energy somewhere else, anywhere else, or Moriarty would win and the cat would be obliterated.  

He tried to think about what he could do, wishing that there was a cloud angel, witch, or something that he could feed when he realized that Moriarty was the only person he could fuel.

Grabbing the boys shoulders, the cat let out one final screech as he opened himself to the wretched being before him and the energy flow into Moriarty.

The Soothsayer was surprised by the action as he was filled with more energy than his already decaying frame could handle.  He had kept the power in his body under his strict and precise control over how much energy he had drawn, but now his flesh and bones began to deteriorate and his body started to break apart rapidly.  The cat let himself fall to the ground as the dark angel broke apart.  He made one last effort, ignoring his protesting wound and gave the blackened creature one last push into the chasm they had fought beside. 

Moriarty plummeted into the nothingness, and a few moments later the cat gripped himself as the nightmarish ghoul exploded in the pit.