"Omg! Betony, have you heard about the lol-ings?!" A sing-song voice whistled into my ear.

"Oi, Tab! Quit talking in text-speak!" I dodged her hair-yank, and tried to elbow her in the stomach.

"Ow! Be-et!" Tab yelled, punching my arm.

"Come on!" I stuck out a pimple of my tongue to her.

"Where're we going?" Tab called, her blond hair whipping in the wind as she raced past me.

"Wait up!" I called, "And I'll tell you..." I stopped; she'd run out of earshot. I sprinted for about 5 minutes, then had to stop. I sat, with dizzy clumsiness, and tried to catch my breath. For ten minutes I sat, trying to breathe properly. As the world spun round my head, I couldn't help thinking where she was, why she hadn't come to see where I'd gotten to. I sat, taking faster and faster breaths, hyperventilating. As soon as the world had stopped spinning, and I felt I could stand without falling flat on me face, I stood. Slowly, placing my feet with slow, but determined steps, I headed in the direction she'd disappeared. My slow, careful steps soon became much more confident. I sped up, no longer needing to look where I put my feet, not allowing myself to think what could've happened. Even as I blocked the thoughts, I still caught glimpses; making me think of many, much more gruesome, things that could have happened. I shuddered, even in the hot, sunny, autumn afternoon. I tried to concentrate on running, looking at my feet again. I was concentrating so hard, that I didn't even notice the cat. Until I tripped on it that is. The cat stood still, not even moving after I'd tripped on it. It just stood, its eyes like bright yellow spots on a black hole. It didn't glare, or even give me a dirty look. Its eyes just bored into mine. No emotion lingered in them. Until it blinked. The blink was not normal, nor in anyway natural. Somehow its blink gave me a sense of pity. As if it was pitying me. The eyes, so yellow, and vast, so free of emotion, soon clouded over with huge grief, pain and guilt. As I read its eyes, I thought, how could I tell the feelings of this... this cat? Why was it giving me these looks? What did it know? The last seemed to burn an imprint on my eyelids; What did it know?As I gaped at it, it walked over. It came over to where I was lying. I felt it's nose in my ear, so soft, sort of damp, but not. This I forgot as it mewed in my ear. Its soft, warm mew turned suddenly to English.

"This way."

I gaped at it, then got up. My knees stung, I felt something dribble down my shin. I went to look down, but the cat leapt onto my shoulder, distracting me from my legs, as its claws dug into my shoulder. I bit my tongue and moved in the direction its muzzle pointed me in. It obviously knew where she was, or where something important was. After about ten minutes of me limping, it jumped down and walked in front of me. I followed, hoping that it wasn't a trap. Although I was sure it wasn't; was it? I stopped myself from thinking these stupid thoughts. It's a cat, I assured myself; it couldn't lead me into a trap. I tried to breathe deeper, fuller, slower breaths; filling my whole lungs before exhaling in a gush. I cleared my mind, and concentrated on following the cat. It was leading me to Tab.
We rounded many corners. It took me a while to realise that we where heading towards my house, the back way, the longer way, but still to my house. She'd obviously gotten there and was waiting for me. I was so relieved, I felt as if I could run again, and I did.

For two steps.

It was the cat that saved me; saved me by tripping me up. The fall carried me forward, so my head poked over a deep trench. At first I thought that the pipes were getting fixed. It was no secret that the water pressure was no good down here. But where were the signs, the glowing cones and barriers to stop people like me from falling in? I looked harder at the hole. The holes for plumbing were a lot rougher than this, hand dug, so as not to break the pipes. And it was no-where near deep enough. Just deep enough for some one to break their neck if the fell in.

Then I forced myself to look to the bottom, where my eyes were refusing to look. I forced them, and awoke screaming in horror, once again ignited by the dream. The same dream I had dreamt over the last five years. The realisation hit again, as it did every morning Tab was dead, and it was my fault. I was constantly told it wasn't, and I knew that I wasn't totally responsible, but I had played a part, she wouldn't have died if she hadn't been coming over my house, so how could I not be responsible?