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!
Damned Garvin, he didn’t tell me it was a gated community, she mentally groaned as she stared at the security checkpoint. But what impediment did it actually serve against her and her mighty bounces? As Angelica hop, hop, hopped her way over to the place, she’d gotten a good hold over her movement, and staring at the wall to the neighborhood, she was confident she could clear it. Maybe the Demon Growth System should go ahead and give her a bouncing skill.
The effort actually took a few jumps, letting herself squash back to the ground each time to build up momentum. She then went careening over the wall like a ball kicked too hard by a kid. Thankfully, she didn’t crash into any windows. And after that, she skipped her way to her destination, passing Garvin’s old house in the process, marking it and the mailbox on her mental map of where to return for her payment.
Angelica stared at the right address, a bit more anxiety welling up in her now since it was time to perform the deed. And she was a bit stumped at the first hurdle—well, probably closer to the sixth hurdle, at this point. But how was she going to get inside? Looking around, there were no open windows, nor was there a pet door that she could use to intrude. The house had a chimney, so as a last resort, she could jump her way to the top and slide down. But she’d prefer not to. The puffball had just gotten clean. She didn’t want to get covered in soot.
Before trying anything drastic, she chose to eliminate the easiest options first. There were no labels for alarm systems, so hopefully, it would be fine for her to tug at all the doors and windows, to see if one was haphazardly left unlocked. She started with the front door, and ended there, too. It swung open with the slightest jiggle of the handle, so the small puffball hurried inside, quietly closing it behind her.
Fortunately, since there were no pet doors, she didn’t expect a curious animal to come running over at the slightest noise. Since the man had gotten a target placed on him because of cruelty to animals, it would be ironic if he cared for one. But at the same time, she wouldn’t be surprised if the alleged meathead had a matching beefy dog with breathing issues. No such disturbance, but the house wasn’t quiet, either.
Angelica heard talking in the background, so while treading very carefully, she found the man assumed to be Mart Hucklebain himself in an office, spouting away at his computer while wearing a large headset. She couldn’t comprehend half of what he was saying, not because it was incoherent, but because he was jabbering in nonsense corporate speak. What the man did for a living became obvious immediately. He worked sales.
Somehow, the lucky little frits had managed to land a cushy work-from-home job, which made the unemployed hermit immediately envious. Yet at the same time, actually calling people constantly to pitch something sounded horrific to her. And whatever the man was selling, she wanted no part of it. Angelica could never quite deduce what it was, since it sounded like a service, but maybe there was an actual product component? It certainly didn’t help that every third word was a corporate buzzword designed to spruce up the pitch yet actually meant nothing.
And the tone of Mart’s voice irked her. He sounded so chummy with the faceless recipient, like the annoyingly friendly dudes she’d run into often at college. His tone was like all their overly zealous attitudes combined. On top of it all, he was sweaty, with his grubby shirt half-open, doing bicep curls while he continued his sales pitch. Mart was so stacked that his muscles looked downright disturbing and unpleasant. Angelica had never gotten such a level of ick from a man so quickly.
Well, maybe her former boss at her internship. He was slithering with slime in all possible understandings. The eager intern still did her best, never letting the man’s foul nature hamper her ambition. Sadly, it wasn’t wholly unexpected when he threw her under the bus. Actually, it felt worse, since she should have anticipated it and run when she had the chance. Never again would she let bastards such as these dictate her life. So with renewed vigor for her mission, Angelica absconded to the kitchen.
She opened the fridge, careful because of the inevitable clink of the items in the door. Her eyes lit up when she saw the inside. There was a pre-mixed protein shake already there. Perfect. The Demon’s wide mouth grew a ginormous grin that stretched across her entire body. It only took a few moments of searching cabinets for her to find several identical shakers. She then performed the careful procedure of dumping her own protein concoction into one of the cups.
Strangely, it didn’t have the foul smell she was expecting. The cheese covered most of it, making the odor something akin to what it should be, but with an absurd tang. Still, it should help hide the initial tell, staving the offputtingness until he hopefully had a few gulps. Angelica carefully swapped it out with the real one, making sure to put it at the exact right spot and angle so nothing looked amiss.
She then threw the real shake and her bottle into the garbage, not wanting to lug it around anymore—certainly never going to use it again. By all accounts, her first demonic deed was done. All there was left to do was wait. Out of sheer boredom, she dug through the rest of the cupboards, grimacing at the swaths of healthy flavorless snacks. But then she found a box of cookies, half-eaten, but still fresh. They were almost certainly his cheat treats.
Angelica took a sleeve, hopped onto the refrigerator, and dumped them all out, not wanting the fiddling with the wrapping to become a problem later. Perhaps the wide-mouthed small form had different tastebuds, or perhaps it was her impish nature resonating with having committed a wicked act, but the cookies tasted even better than she expected.
“Another day crushed by the Huckleboss!” It didn’t take long for Mart to come trouncing into the kitchen, literally pumping his arms with enthusiasm, undoubtedly having reached the end of his work shift. The man tossed open the fridge while the Demon loomed above, completely oblivious to her presence. He grabbed the shake and began trotting over to the front door. “Hope that hottie’s at the gym again. Maybe I can give her some of my tips, ehehe.”
Angelica’s skin shivered as she followed her target outside, but that was where her pursuit ended. She wasn’t going to head to the gym with him, since there was nothing she could do there. If he drank the shake and spat it up, or noticed if it was off immediately, she’d need to come up with a new plan entirely. And she didn’t want to go spend money at a pharmacy, or apothecary store, or something, without knowing it was needed. Well, she could probably just rob them with her innate invisibility, but the mostly law-abiding girl wasn’t ready to resort to full deviancy just yet.
All she could do now was wait for the Contract completion notice or for the gymrat to come skulking home, hopefully with at least a bitter taste in his mouth. In the meantime, she clambered up to the top of one of the nearby houses, nestling herself in a nook, within spying distance of both Mart’s front door and Garvin’s mailbox, so she’d see the end result one way or another.
While she waited, it was time to engage Scrying Eye once more and delve deeper into the Demon Growth System, to get a better understanding of the powers in her possession.