Read Online The Visitor by K. A. Applegate - Free Book Online Page B

knew—as
Rachel
— I knew I
should
be afraid. But I couldn’t be afraid. Everything here smelled like me. My scent glands had left their marks all over—on that door, on that cupboard, on that chair. It reassured me.
    The big dominant tomcat’s smell was not in here. No, there were no other cats in here at all. Only human smells, and those were not very important.
    I left the kitchen and paused at the corner between the hallway and the family room. Chapman was there, in the living room. I could smell him. Hewas just sitting on the couch. I glanced at him and walked on.
    But then I stopped. My human brain sensed something wrong with the picture. Chapman was just sitting on the couch. No TV. No music. He wasn’t reading a book or a newspaper. Just sitting.
    I turned back to the kitchen. I looked up at Ms. Chapman. She was doing something at the sink. Maybe washing dishes. No, she was cutting vegetables. But again, no TV. No music. She wasn’t humming to herself. She wasn’t talking to herself the way my mom does when she’s working in the kitchen.
    Not right. Something was not right with either of the Chapmans.
    I went back to the hallway. There were stairs leading up to the bedrooms. From the hallway I could hear Melissa more clearly. I concentrated, trying to ignore the fascinating sounds of the birds under the eaves. I focused on the human sounds of Melissa’s voice.
    â€œâ€¦ divided by the square root … no, wait. No, square root times … Is that right?”
    She was doing her homework. Her math homework, obviously.
    Like I
should
be doing, I thought. I had a pang of guilt. Instead of doing my homework, I was creepingaround my friend’s house spying on her and her parents.
    I tried to find a clock. I had to watch the time. At nine forty-five my two hours would be up. I wanted to be out of morph and back in my normal body long before then. Hopefully, I could still get home and do my math homework and at least do some of the reading for social studies class.
    I spotted a clock. It was over the mantel, between pictures of the Chapmans and Melissa. The clock said three minutes until eight. I had plenty of time.
    Sudden movement!
    Oh, just Chapman standing up.
    The cat part of me wasn’t interested in Chapman one way or the other. But I forced myself to pay attention. It was important to watch him. That was why I was here.
    Is he prey?
The cat brain seemed to be asking.
    Yes. Yes, I told the cat brain.
    Chapman is our prey.

I followed Chapman as he headed down the hallway. Either he didn’t notice me, or else he didn’t care.
    He opened a door that let loose a flood of smells. Dampness. Mildew. Bugs.
    
    I jerked in surprise. A very un-catlike movement. It was Tobias. He had to be fairly close for me to be able to hear his thought-speech. He must be on the roof or perched on a nearby tree branch. I strained my sensitive cat hearing. The birds under the eaves were silent. They were afraid of the big hawk.
     I said.
    
    
    
     I said. Somehow, Tobias’s human words were annoying me. He wanted me to pay attention to him and it was hard to do. The cat didn’t care about his words. The cat just wanted to go down and look around the basement. Fortunately, that’s what I wanted to do, too.
    I trotted down the rough wooden stairs after Chapman. Very weird, by the way. Going downstairs as a cat gave me a feeling of vertigo. I mean, I was going down headfirst. It’s strange.
    
    
     I waited. He said nothing.