Verus

Content Warning: self-harm, insanity, mentions of abuse/harm, and death

Fluffy and her sister Penelope entered the florist shop.

Flowers were everywhere: on the shelves, hanging from the ceiling, and laid out in rows on the floor. The whole building smelled sweet.

There were many different kinds of flowers in the shop, but the cats needed only one.

In Catonia, flowers were everything. Red roses symbolized love and hyacinths were an apology.

Petunias, however, symbolized hatred. The anger they contained could destroy you.

When Fluffy and Penelope brought the petunias to the cashier, he recoiled. "Are you sure? Petunias are dangerous. They could corrupt you if you aren't careful."

"We've been nothing but careful," said Fluffy, an edge to her voice.

It was true. Everything had been meticulously planned out.

***

Eleven years ago, Fluffy and Penelope were happy-go-lucky kittens who loved everything about their world, which at their young age was their small, wooden house that smelled of lunchmeat and roses, their backyard with the treehouse, and the birds that sang in the branches of the oak tree that stood in the front yard. Everything was perfect until one clear night in May.

The day their world ended.

Fluffy and Penelope were laying in bed trying to fall asleep when they heard voices from outside their door.

"Do you think we were able to help them?" asked the kittens' mother.

"I hope so," said their father, his voice grim. "I worry if threatening to expose Verus's crimes was the right decision. That cat can be very spiteful if he needs to be."

"More importantly, he values his reputation more than anything else," said their mother. "Hopefully we've motivated him to give his servants better working conditions."

"We can only wait and see what happens," said their father.

Fluffy and Penelope were staring at each other from across the room, their blankets rising and falling with their rapid breathing. Penelope slid out of her bed and padded across the room, her black and white fur fluffed out. "What are they talking about?" she inquired in a loud whisper.

"Shh!" hissed Fluffy. She glanced at the closed door of their bedroom. "I don't know what's going on."

"Who's Verus? Why does he have servants? We don't have servants."

"That's because he's super rich," whispered Fluffy. "Mom says that he lives in a fancy house and orders people around. He owns the best flower delivery service in Staria City. He has so much money, he could probably buy our house if he wanted to."

Penelope shivered. "I don't want that to happen. But what was Mommy saying about his servants?"

"She said that Verus hurts them," replied Fluffy.

"But why would he do that?"

"Dad said it was because some cats are born mean."

"But how can—"

The door swung open, and the kittens' parents entered the room. "Children," began their father, "how much did you hear?"

Fluffy wanted to tell him that she had heard everything, wanted to ask him question after question about Verus. But she knew that it wasn't her concern.

That was what she thought until a knock on the door reverberated through the house.

"A delivery?" asked the kittens' mother. "At this hour? What could it be?"

"Do you think it's Cortis again?" asked their father. "He's still desperate to win you back."

"Cortis doesn't usually come this late, though." She turned to leave. "I'll go see what it is." She padded out the door.

Father picked up Penelope by the scruff and carried her to bed. Fluffy burrowed deep into her blankets and swiveled around so only her face was visible. "Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think it's actually Cortis?"

Her father shook his head, his whiskers glinting in the moonlight that streamed through the window. "I don't know, Fluffy, but whatever it is, there's nothing to worry about—"

A scream tore through the air, along with a shattering noise.

Fluffy, Penelope, and their father raced out of the room toward the front door, where their mother was standing perfectly still, gazing with wide eyes at the remains of a dark brown pot. Mixed in with the pieces were purple flowers.

Fluffy's heart seemed to stop.

Petunias.

The flower of anger.

Fluffy could feel the malevolent aura that had pervaded the room. The hatred from the flowers seeped into every fiber of her body, weaving itself into her thoughts, possessing her—

Another scream, much more shrill, filled the house.

Penelope buried herself in Fluffy's fur, trembling from head to foot. "Fluffy, I feel so angry—"

"It's just the flowers, Penelope, ignore it!" cried Fluffy. 

Father ran to Mother, crying, "Falcon? Falcon, answer me! Who sent these!?"

"I—I—" Mother stammered. She sifted through the broken remnants of the pot, pushing aside the pieces to reveal a logo on the rim: Verus Technologies.

Mother collapsed to the ground, sobbing. Father soon joined her.

"Mommy!" cried Penelope. "Daddy!" She ran to her parents. Fluffy pulled her back by the scruff, yanking so hard that some of her fur became caught in Fluffy's mouth. She spluttered, accidentally dropping her sister.

Penelope pressed her nose against her mother's shoulder, wailing, "Mommy! Mommy!"

“We never should have tried to help those servants!” cried Mother, ignoring her daughter’s cries. “What did they matter, anyway!? We could’ve minded our own business, but no! We had to put our noses where they didn’t belong!”

“Stop talking!” yelled Father.

Fluffy and Penelope jumped. They had never heard their father speak so sharply before.

"Do you know what this means!?" he demanded. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!? Our lives are ruined, RUINED!" He burst into maniacal laughter.

"Let's go," Fluffy whispered to her sister.

“But—”

“I said, let’s go!” She dragged Penelope away, opening the door as Father’s crazed laughter and Mother’s sobs filled the space between them. The last thing the sisters saw was their parents curled up on the floor, gripping their faces with their paws, blood streaming from their unsheathed claws.

The wail of sirens pierced the night air as a group of police cats with flashing lights strapped to their backs raced up to the house, a hovercar gliding behind them.

“What are they doing here?” whimpered Penelope. “Are they going to take Mommy and Daddy away?”

Fluffy nodded, unable to speak.

She and her sister would never see their parents again.

By the night's end, they would be rotting away in an asylum.

It was at that moment Fluffy vowed to take revenge.

Even if it killed her.

“Are you two ready?” asked Aunt Callie.

“Yeah,” answered Penelope. She turned to her sister. “Where are we working again?”

Fluffy sighed. “I can’t believe you forgot. We’re going to apply for a job at Hagan’s Floral Delivery.”

“You’re going to work at Hagan’s?” asked Callie, smiling. “That was my first job before I became a cook. Maybe you’ll be in the pickup department like I was.”

“I hope so,” said Fluffy. “I want to follow in your pawsteps.” The lie soured her tongue, but it didn’t give her a bad feeling in her stomach like before. She had gotten used to lying. Convincing her aunt that she and her sister were perfectly all right gave her good practice.

Callie licked Fluffy and Penelope from head to toe, her pink tongue smoothing down stray tufts of fur. Fluffy tolerated the process with minimal wriggling while Penelope did not react at all.

The black and white cat had changed much ever since that fateful petunia delivery. She was no longer the cheerful, naive kitten that Fluffy had played with day after day. She was a quiet, reflective cat who seldom smiled or laughed. She was still a bit scatterbrained, though, and Fluffy was glad there was some of the old Penelope in the new one.

Penelope wasn’t the only one who had changed, though. Fluffy had become skilled at building a figurative wall around her innermost thoughts and feelings. To an outside observer, she appeared to be polite, charming, and wiser than her two years of age suggested, and no one except her sister could tell what she was really thinking about: vengeance.

“I’m so proud of both of you,” said Callie, nuzzling the two cats. “You’ll do great at the interview.” She licked their faces, flattening their cheek fur. “You remember what to do, right? Act confident, and the job is yours.”

“I know, I know,” said Fluffy with a smile. “Don’t worry, Aunt Callie. We’ll be wearing the Hagan’s uniform before you know it.”

Callie gave her nieces a reassuring smile before looking at the clock on the wall and pushing them out the door, saying, “Oh my goodness, it’s almost time. Good luck!”

 Fluffy and Penelope headed down the street in the direction of Hagan’s Floral Delivery. All around them, the roads bustled with cats in hovercars and on foot traveling to work.

The floral delivery and pickup business was the most important industry in Catonia. Staria City was lucky enough to host two companies: Hagan’s Floral Delivery and Verus Technologies.

Fluffy and Penelope were secretly heading to the latter.

Verus Technologies was a huge establishment that loomed above all the other buildings in Staria, named after its ruthless and spiteful owner. Fluffy shivered, suddenly having second thoughts. 

She pushed them away. She and her sister had been planning this scheme for months.

Fluffy and Penelope entered through the revolving doors of Verus Technologies and were greeted by a cheerful employee, who asked them, “How can I help you?”

“We’d like to talk to Oreo,” said Fluffy, naming Verus’s secretary and the one who had promised to interview them.

The employee nodded. “Do you have an appointment?”

Fluffy nodded. “9:30 AM.” It was 9:10 right now.

The employee turned on her computer and searched the database, swiping her orange paw across the screen. “Ah, yes, here you are. Fluffy and Penelope, right?”

The two cats nodded their heads.

“Let’s see… Mr. Oreo is waiting for you in room 232, up the stairs, first door on your right.”

Fluffy thanked the employee, and she and Penelope raced up the staircase and entered the room.

Oreo, a white cat with black splotches on his chest and hind legs, was lounging in a large basket near the back wall. He stood up when the sisters arrived.

“Welcome,” he said, his deep voice filling the air. “Are you Fluffy and Penelope, here for the job interview?”

“Yes,” said Penelope, already making her way to a smaller basket in the middle of the room. Fluffy sat down in the one adjacent.

Oreo made himself comfortable again and asked, “Why do you two want to work at Verus Technologies?”

Fluffy and Penelope looked at each other and nodded, and Fluffy spoke.

“Our aunt worked at Hagan’s Floral Delivery. We wanted to follow in her paw steps, but then we remembered Verus Technologies's brilliance and decided to apply there. It’s unfortunate we even thought about working at Hagan’s.” Fluffy felt a little bad about dissing Hagan’s. From what she had heard, Hagan himself was a nice cat, exceedingly generous, and fun to be around.

She pushed her guilt away. She needed to look convincing.

Oreo was smiling. “Yes, I agree. Hagan is too pleasant for his own good. Another question: didn’t my master send your parents some petunias?”

“Yes, he did,” answered Fluffy, trying to push away the memories that had begun to rise to the surface. “They were trying to convince everyone that he mistreated his servants. The fools.”

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” said Penelope. “Verus is a kind cat. Perhaps our parents were jealous of his success.”

“Yes, perhaps,” responded Oreo. “My master is very rich and owns the most successful flower industry this side of Catonia. It’s no wonder that they wanted to thwart him. Did you at any point share their ambitions?”

Fluffy and Penelope shook their heads. “Of course not,” said Fluffy, making sure she sounded appalled. 

“As my sister said, our parents were fools,” said Penelope. “They should’ve understood the consequences of messing with Mr. Verus.”

Oreo chuckled. “I’ve never seen such ruthless young cats before. You’re quite devoted, too. You’ll do nicely here.”

“If you’ll have us, of course,” said Fluffy, respectfully inclining her head.

“Polite, too,” said Oreo, smiling. “I might as well give you the job right here.”

Fluffy and Penelope tried their best not to look too hopeful.

“However, as is standard procedure, I need to show your application to my master, and his decision might not be the same as mine. He’s very critical about who is working in his company. You should expect to receive an answer in the mail at 6:00 tomorrow night. Good luck!”

Fluffy and Penelope stood outside the glass doors of Verus Technologies, energy buzzing through their veins.

They had hidden in the bushes outside their aunt’s house and accosted the mail carrier as soon as she arrived, taking the letters and packages out of her pouch and sifting through them, feeling a sinister joy when an envelope stamped with the Verus Technologies emblem had appeared.

Lying to their aunt that they had been accepted at Hagan’s proved difficult, but they had managed to convince her by saying that the interviewer had given the job on the spot. Fluffy was disturbed by how easily the falsehoods flowed from her mouth, but she shoved it away, like all the other unwanted feelings.

An employee exited the building and said, “Fluffy and Penelope, right? Follow me. I have your uniforms.”

Fluffy and Penelope let the employee lead them into the greenhouse where all the unwanted flowers were kept. Destroying a flower was considered a crime in Catonia.

The two cats donned their uniforms, which consisted of a cap and apron decorated with an ornate VT, and let the employee guide them through the standard procedure. They were E-rank right now, which meant they could only handle harmless flowers like daisies and roses. S-ranks could pick up more dangerous flowers, like petunias.

It was Fluffy and Penelope’s goal to become S-rank.

After orientation, while the other employees were heading to the cafeteria, Fluffy and Penelope snuck away to the computer room, where information on past pickups and deliveries was kept. 

“Did you get it?” Fluffy asked her sister. 

Penelope nodded, holding up an employee keycard. She slid it into a panel next to one of the computers and the screen lit up. 

It didn’t take long to find what they were looking for. Fluffy pulled up a tab that listed all the petunia pickups in the past year. She grinned. This was more than enough. Verus had sent petunias to 64 cats so far. 

And it would be his undoing. 

“How are we going to become S-rank quickly?” wondered Penelope. “That takes years.”

“Exactly,” said Fluffy. “Revenge takes time. It’d be suspicious if we found a way to change ranks right after we joined the company.” 

“But—”

“We’ll have our vengeance, Penelope, just not now. We need to get in Verus’s good graces first, and based on the kind of cat he is, I don’t think that will be in a matter of days.”

Penelope sighed. “You’re right.” She turned toward the door. “Let’s get cracking.” 

“It’s been six years since Fluffy and Penelope were hired, and ever since then, they’ve done nothing but work hard and set an example for everyone here. We’re proud to have them in Verus Technologies as our newest S-rank employees!” 

The other cats in the room drummed their paws against the floor as Oreo stepped down from the podium and welcomed the two sisters onto the stage. 

Fluffy took Oreo’s place and said, her voice amplified by the microphone, “My sister and I are extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work at such a wonderful place. We’ll make this company proud!”

Loud cheering filled the room as Fluffy and Penelope looked at each other, grinning. One step closer. 

The most recent person whose life had been ruined by Verus requested a petunia pickup later that day. Not surprising.

“It’s your first job as S-ranks,” said Spice, a fellow S-rank. “Are you excited?”

Fluffy and Penelope nodded, smiling. They were excited, but not for the reasons Spice thought of. Now it was time for the plan to begin. 

3 years passed.

Fluffy and Penelope chose a clear night in May to exact their revenge.

“Your room is ready, sir,” said Penelope, guiding Verus to his bedroom. She opened the door and let Verus step inside.

Verus opened his pantry to get a snack and was greeted by a pile of vases that contained bunches of purple flowers. 

Petunias. 

Hyperventilating, he opened his medicine cabinet. 

More petunias. 

There were petunias under the bed, in the blankets, and on the windowsill. They were everywhere, filling the room with their smell of hatred. 

The anger seeped into his mind, twisting his thoughts. “No!” he cried, collapsing. “Who—who could do this!? Oreo! Come here!”

No answer. 

“Oreo? OREO!!!”

“He won’t come,” said Fluffy, appearing from the shadows along with her sister. “He’s dead. Isn’t poison amazing?”

Verus screamed. “You cruel—”

“We’re not the cruel ones,” said Penelope. “Do you remember Falcon and Gray?” 

“No, why should I!?”

“THEY WENT INSANE BECAUSE OF YOU!!!”

“I DON’T CARE!!” 

“Oh, I think you should,” Fluffy growled. “THEY WERE OUR PARENTS!!!”

The two sisters stepped forward, their anger stronger than that of the petunias. Verus clawed at his eyes, making them bleed. “HAVE MERCY!!!”

Sirens wailed in the distance.

“Here is your mercy,” Fluffy said coldly. 

She and Penelope left him there.

***

The funeral was formal, with everyone leaving flowers for him. The sister waited until everyone left before taking out a bouquet of petunias. They moved to place it on his casket, but Fluffy stopped. She and Penelope gazed at each other. 

Then, they smiled, went outside, and cast the flowers into the air, letting them be carried away by the wind.