Infiltrating G.A.T.O.

G.A.T.O.

Sebastian forced himself to stand and tried to ignore the aches from his long day. Manufacturing work required a lot of physical exertion and his body felt it when he worked overtime. At least he got paid extra for the overtime. Now, all he had to do was clean up, cook and follow Danielle.

"Sebastian!" Danielle screamed. No doubt still on the couch. "What are you making for dinner? I'm starving!"

To think, he'd given up a full football scholarship for this. Maybe he wasn't as bright as everyone thought he was.

~~~~~

The book in front of him would have looked like gibberish to normal people, but to one with magical blood, the random letters formed words. Sebastian flipped through the book until he located a tracing spell. Holding a strand of Danielle's hair in his left hand and a piece of paper in his right, he spoke the spell, "Vestigium."

Instantly, a picture formed on the piece of paper depicting a diagram of the surrounding area and where both of them were. She was still in the house, so he waited and watched. Fifteen minutes later, she exited out of the backdoor and headed toward the street.

Sebastian jumped to his feet and muttered the spell, "Celavi." He rushed down the stairs and grabbed his keys. No one else was in the house to see the keys magically disappear when he touched them or to see the doors open and close without someone there. His mother was in bed where he had put her after dinner and she wouldn't leave there until he woke her in the morning.

He ran out the back door and into the rain. The image showed her moving towards the main road. He sprinted after her with the piece of paper in front of him. The dot on the now soggy map started moving at an impossible speed. Crap, she was in a car.

His body screamed at him for pushing it too far, but he didn't stop running until he reached his car. At that moment, he didn't care his car seats got wet. He put the paper on his dashboard and sped after the moving blip displayed.

When he finally reached where the car had stopped, a sense of foreboding washed over him. The window wipers screeching across his window increased the tension in the air. A brick wall ran around the property with statues of cats sitting on each post. The double wrought iron gate in front of him had a feline head hissing in the center of each.

As he slowed down his car in front of the gates, they opened sluggishly. The gravel driveway led to an illuminated brick mansion, but the scattered decorations in the yard drew his attention. The shrubberies were in the shapes of cats and random statues of cats stood in the yard; heck, even the fountain in front of the house had a cat in the center on its hind legs with water shooting out of its mouth.

What the hell was this place? Did some kind of cat worshiper live here? Sebastian parked his car in front of the door and stared up at the huge wooden French doors. At this point, he wasn't surprised to see the knocker was the head of a cat.

He grabbed the map and exited his car tentatively while glancing around the house. The rain no longer mattered to him as he approached the front door. When he raised his hand to knock, the door swung open to reveal no one. This place kept getting freakier and freakier. How did they know he was coming while he was still cloaked? He glanced down to ensure he was still hidden. A sudden chuckle escaped him. No wonder the people at the stoplights looked scared to death. Who wouldn't be afraid of a car driving its self?

The hallway in front of him would have been impressive if it didn't have cats all over it. A live feline lay curled up on the table in the center of the room, and pictures of cats decorated the walls along with more cat statues. Even the bouquet next to the cat on the table had cattails in it.