[1.17] Imp (Part 3)

The cat’s eyes were on Angelica immediately. Or… they sort of were. Cherub had glanced over in the direction of the opening door, since its creak caused by the hinges she still needed to oil had roused him from his fourth or fifth catnap of the afternoon. He continued to glance in her general direction, but not right at her. Yet the sleepy feline squinted, as if he was expecting something to be there.

So it was like with the dog and the Malignant, her pet couldn’t quite see her, but it could sense a presence. “Cherub,” she called to the creature, deciding it best to get the confrontation over with, sounding more like a creature herself. Her voice was a fair bit lower than normal, sounding hoarse and strained, vocal chords that she was not used to using. But at the same time, it sounded almost blubbery, like a toddler trying to speak their first words.

That perked the cat’s ears, hearing his name. Cherub leapt down from his perch by the window and meandered in her direction. As he drew closer, he became more cautious, undeniably able to sense the presence right in front of them. His tail twitched, his eyes widened, as if he was hunting something.

“Cherub, it’s me,” the Imp repeated. She held out her tiny hand in his direction while he sniffed the air, and he was immediately drawn to it. The cat sniffed away, perplexed, like he couldn’t believe it. Angelica took advantage of this, placing her own paw on his head. He hissed immediately, but stopped when she gave it a light scritch. To her surprise, the orange tabby sat down, happily welcoming the pets, but his face still looked stumped.

It was Cherub’s turn to raise his arm, and he bopped it down onto the small Demon’s head. His fluffy visage drew into the most astonished look yet. He backed away, wide-eyed, but immediately darted forward. The cat then circled around her perfectly, sniffing her madly the entire time. It was as if he could see her now.

No, he could definitely see her now. When she moved her hand toward him again, he could definitely see it, following her movements. Maybe because they’d touched, she’d become visible? Or perhaps because she was willing him to see her that he was allowed to do so.

Cherub pounced at the puffball frantically. But it wasn’t any sort of attack. No, he was, he was, hugging her? The cat began to cry incessantly, a pained cry that made her own eyes want to water. He backed away, more howling wails, as if he was yelling at her. But then he jumped forward again, rubbing his body all over hers. He wasn’t scared of the Demon at all. Rather, it was like he was suddenly reunited with his long-lost owner.

Maybe to him, he practically was. Angelica remembered her terrible stench for the past week. She wouldn’t have smelled like herself. Maybe he thought she was some imposter in her owner’s body. It would certainly explain how wary he’d been. And now that she was essentially just a walking ball of hair, she would be exuding pheremones like crazy.

Cherub pounced at her again, knocking her over as he climbed onto her round belly. She began to scritch his chin just as he liked while he restlessly sort of rolled the two of them around on the floor, unable to contain his excitement and energy. Angelica was quite glad that her pet had taken the transition well. It meant she wouldn’t need to be wary about being in this state around him.

And before she headed off, Angelica went ahead and decided to feed him, once she was freed as his captive, not knowing when she would return from her caper. Rather than changing back into her human body, she chose to complete the task as an Imp, thinking it best to get used to doing things as a Demon. Maybe she’d take on the form routinely at home, at least when it wasn’t a problem, since she’d need to at least change to it once a day for the rest of her life for bathtime.

While she found her walk to be more of a waddle, she quickly learned that the form was unexpectedly bouncy, perhaps because of its rotund nature. With a little bit of a swooping gesture, she was able to hop up from the floor onto the counter in a single bound. It also almost felt like she hovered in the air for a second before falling back down. Maybe her nubby little wings provided a bit of artificial flight assistance rather than proper physical lift.

She then found it pretty easy to get the can open, her stubby fingers proving surprisingly dextrous. Perhaps she just had finer motor control in general from her tenure as an artist. Then, when it was ready, she hopped back down to the floor with the bowl of food. Just before impact, which probably would have made some of the kitty wets spill onto the floor, her body caught itself for just a hair, making her lose almost all momentum and land gently. Once again, she had to attribute it to her underdeveloped wings.

With the task done, she got ready for her much bigger one. After a good bit of deliberation, Angelica decided to depart as her human self. Since, supposedly, she would be invisible, she considered just sneaking onto the bus to take her close to her destination. But why bother when she could just simply do so for free already? And it’d be faster, at least for now, preferring to take steady long strides rather than bouncing the whole way while carrying a bottle of putrid poison.

Cherub didn’t even notice at all when the Demon turned human once more, or just didn’t care, since he was so enthralled with his dinner. She got dressed again, finding it annoying that the clothes didn’t persist between transformations, but supposed she’d get used to it. Angelica then tucked the container filled with chicken, moldy cheese, and other unpleastantries into her workout bag that she hadn’t touched in some time, looking like she was heading to the gym. And that was exactly where she went.

After riding the bus for about half an hour, she made the short walk to a government-subsidized gym, another thing she got for free thanks to her mother’s connections. Angelica went to the locker room, disrobed again, and stored everything but the bottle away securely. She quickly hopped into one of the showers and released Transfiguration once more.

It was time to test the acuteness of her invisibility as a Demon. And what better place than a room where those attending would be on high alert for anything strange? She wandered directly in front of one of the patrons, who was sitting on a bench and tying her shoes. The woman didn’t notice Angelica even when she got right up by her feet. She even went so far as to hold up the bottle and wag it in front of the patron’s eyes, but that wasn’t witnessed, either. So, apparently, anything she held also shared that same invisibility. Good to know.

She sort of wanted to find out what would happen if she set down the bottle, but didn’t want to test it with her precious concoction. It would be a pain if someone was freaked out by the magically appearing container and either kicked it or nabbed it. With bold confidence, Angelica made her way out the door and into the wide world. Well, with one hiccup. The automatic door didn’t register her, so she had to wait until someone else exited with her. But then, all restraints were gone, a Demon unleashed to… give someone very bad food poisoning!

Stolen novel; please report.