-- Vivian POV, Apartment complex --

  She pressed the emergency button on her communicator and waited for the connection to be established. She was all alone, only the soft illumination of the corridor and the faint hum of the air conditioning gave her company.

  It didn't even take two seconds, "Police department delta five, how may I help you?"

  With Tom being busy, Frank had offered to pick her up and bring her back home after training. That all had been fine and dandy, but Frank was gone now and the apartment door refused to open for her.

  "My guardian isn't answering my calls and the door to our apartment doesn't open for me. I think in such a situation I'm supposed to call the police", she explained.

  "Let me look up your status and location", the officer informed her.

  There was a pause, "Right. Yes, you are supposed to call us in case you get separated from your guardian. I'll send someone over to help. Please stay right where you are, unless it's a crowded place. In that case please find a location where you can be alone."

  "I'm in front of the apartment door. No one's nearby. The neighbors know me", she tried to keep the panic out of her voice.

  "Sounds good. Just stay there. Might take five or ten minutes till the officers arrive to pick you up", the officers voice was calm.

  Her ears perked up, "What do you mean, pick me up?"

  "They will bring you to next police station where you'll be safe. Meanwhile we'll try to find out what happened to your guardian. His communicator is either offline or damaged, I cannot look him up", the officer explained.

  "Can't they just open the door for me? It's my home. You can open any door, right?" Now there was more panic in her voice.

  "I'll transfer this call to the team who is on the way to you so you can talk to them directly about the best way to help you. Stay calm. Help is on the way", the officer told her.

  "Alright." What a shitty situation once more.

  A new voice came from her communicator, apparently a woman's voice, "Hello Vivian, can you hear me?"

  So they had her ID, that was good.

  "Hello, yes I can hear you. I cannot reach my guardian and the apartment door is locked", she explained.

  "Are you inside?", the woman inquired.

  "No, I am outside of the apartment", she replied.

  There was some noise in the line, then the woman spoke up again, "Please stay there. We'll be there in a few minutes. Hold the line please."

  "I will. I don't want to be put in jail", her voice trembled.

  "You can't stay alone in the apartment Vivian. That's too dangerous. We'll try to find out where your guardian is and tell him where he can pick you up", the officers voice sounded reassuring.

  "I feel bad", barely contained panic in her voice.

  "I can understand that. Please, just stay there. We'll be there in a minute. Stay calm."

  "Officer?"

  "Yes, Vivian?" The woman sounded friendly.

  "What will happen if Tom is gone?" She asked.

  "Don't worry, we'll find him. We're the police."

  She didn't say anything, but didn't hang up either.

  A little later the officers voice sounded up again, "We've arrived at the complex. I have your location on the tracker. Just stay there, alright? Don't move, that just complicates things."

  "Yes", she really just wanted to cry now. Feline eyes didn't shed tears so she just curled up in front of the door.

  A bit later she heard foot steps. Heavy foot steps. Boots. Probably the cops. Then a voice, "That must be her. Stay here, let me talk."

  She looked up. There was a police officer who had a gun in their hands but pointed at the floor. Another, presumably the woman who had been talking to her was a few steps closer, and had now frozen mid step after she had risen her snout.

  "C'mon, I'm not that dangerous", she sat up and clutched her knees.

  "Your record says otherwise. Sorry. Don't try anything and let us bring you to the station", the woman had the arms lightly spread and her hands held open.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Can't you just open the door? It's my home", she tried her best puppy eyes impression.

  "You cannot stay here alone. But we'll take a look inside and let you fetch some personal items, in case you have to stay at the station for some days." The officers face didn't portray any emotions.

  She curled up again. She heard foot steps coming closer and resisted to hiss at the person. She really wanted to hiss now, but hissing at a police officer was probably a bad idea.

  "Please don't touch me, officer", she managed to say.

  There was a pause.

  "Vivian, I'll have to touch you."

  "I'm not safe to touch. You know if you saw my records. I've attacked an officer three times in the test, even if I didn't want to at all", her voice was trembling from anxiety.

  There was a longer pause. Did they look up her test results?

  "Thank you for the warning Vivian. First we'll open the door. Then we take a look inside. Then you go and fetch whatever you need. Alright?" The officer laid out the plan.

  She looked up again, "Yes officer."

  "Good. Now Vivian, stand up please and step away from the door. Stand so that my partner has a clear line of sight to you."

  She got up and lifted her hands towards her shoulders, "Where?"

  The man pointed to the wall besides the door, "There. With your back to the wall."

  She nodded. "Alright", and leaned lightly against the wall besides the door. The woman aimed a small device at the door and entered something on a touchscreen, "The door is not responding, that is strange."

  She typed again and this time the door opened with a light hiss. "Good. Vivian, you know the place best. Go in first, stay in sight."

  "You want me to go in first?" She wondered.

  "Yes. We'll be right behind you."

  "Ok?" She looked at the man with the gun who nodded to her, "Alright. I'll go first."

  She entered the apartment and noticed immediately that the picture displays on the walls were shut down, also the infotainment system. A bit hesitantly she took a few more steps so that the police officers could follow her into the room, "Tom has turned off the picture displays. They never were turned off since I live with Tom."

  "Vivian, what are the other rooms?" The female officer asked her.

  "Ahead is Tom's office. Left is the kitchen. Further ahead the bedroom. Left from there the bathroom."

  "You don't have a room of your own?" The woman asked her.

  "No, we shared all rooms. My clothes and items are in the bedroom. Tom didn't mind shed fur", she explained.

  Now the man was speaking, "No life signatures in the rooms ahead. Vivian's guardian isn't here."

  Her shoulders slumped and her ears drooped, "I don't know what to do without Tom."

  "We'll find him. Let's go to ... you said your clothes and item are in the bedroom?" The woman's voice sounded friendlier now than before.

  "Yes" She was walking towards the next door which refused to open for her, much like the entrance door had. Her records must have been removed from the system and it didn't recognize her as authorized anymore.

  She was looking at the closed door when she heard an order, "Vivian, let us open the doors. Stand to the wall again, left of the door."

  She nodded lightly, stood at the wall and faced the man with the gun again, "Is that a stun gun?"

  "Currently set to stun. We're here to help you, even if might not look like that right now", he explained.

  "Just don't startle me. I don't want to hurt you by accident", she tried to smile, without showing her fangs.

  "We'll do it slow and calm. Just out of curiosity, why did you chose that body? You could have a much easier time", he asked her.

  Besides her the woman tried to open the door. Apparently this door also refused to open in response to police codes as it was supposed to.

  "Tom chose that body for me. I only had the choice to stay in storage or take this body. I was in storage four hundred years already. I just wanted to have a body again."

  He nodded to her and stood a bit more relaxed, "Sounds like a shit contract then. But I can understand you wanted to be back to life."

  The woman frowned, "The door is not responding. Neither police nor fire fighter codes."

  "Shall I try to break it? The door isn't very strong", she looked at her and then at him. "My body might be useful for something for once, instead of just scaring people."

  The woman took a step back, "I don't like the idea but this is your apartment."

  "Don't get scared please", she positioned herself about two paces from the door and took a few deep breaths. If she was put into a cell, this might be her last chance for using her abilities.

  A step, spin, backwards kick. The door crashed into Tom's office.

  The two stared at her.

  "Door's open. Shall I go in first?" She kept her hands raised again.

  The man took a few steps back and held the gun a bit higher.

  "Hey man, it's not like I want to attack you. If I wanted, one of you was dead now and the other has either stunned me or is dead too."

  He lowered the gun again, "Go in, keep your hands up. We'll follow."

  Tom's office equipment was gone. The picture display turned off. Her couch was still there.

  "You said this is your guardians office?" The woman asked.

  She nodded, "Yes, he used to work at the desk. I often watched him from the couch. But now his equipment is gone."

  "Vivian, see if the next door reacts to you", the woman asked her.

  She walked up to the door and actually it slid open with a light hiss. The bedroom looked all normal, nothing seemed to be missing. She walked towards the bed and stood at the side of the bed which was hers before she turned to see the two police officers come in as well.

  "I don't smell anyone else but Tom and me here. I don't think anyone was in this room", she let them know.

  "How good is your sense of smell?" The male officer asked.

  "Not as good as a dog's. I can't follow a trail like them. But I can tell if someone was in a room for a while", she replied.

  "Alright. Pack items for a week Vivian. With the doors unresponsive and your guardian's equipment missing, something's certainly not right here", the woman told her.

  She didn't really have a lot of things. Her communicator, five sets of clothing, some hygiene items and her sunglasses, which she didn't need indoors. Her sports bag was big enough to hold all of that.

  While she had been packing, the woman had been talking to the central station and was addressing her now, "Got everything, Vivian?"

  She nodded, "Yeah, I don't have a lot of things at all."

  "Good. We'll bring you to a safe place where you can stay for a while. Police in town is informed that your guardian is missing and will try to find out where he is and what happened to him."

  "Can we agree on no handcuffs?" She tried a puppy eye impression once more.

  "Guess we can. Means though you'll be stunned if you startle us."

  She nodded.

  "I don't mind. I'm just sad and also a bit scared. Didn't think I'd miss Tom this much", she explained with the little hiss that used to be a sigh.

  The walk to the police car had been weird, her ahead of two officers with their guns at ready behind her, but luckily they made the way without accident. The police car had a safety compartment where she was now, and she watched the city pass by while they drove to the police station.