As everyone trickled in that morning, I asked them about the cat. I wondered if somebody had come in even earlier just for a short while or had gotten there after I left late that night.
They all denied having anything to do with it or coming in at a time where they could have let the cat out. I knew it was a long shot, but I was just so baffled as to how a cat could have escaped from a kennel like that. Nothing looked amiss at all.
Days later, I learned the truth. It was no ordinary cat, he was special and so were his injuries. And it was no wonder that I had found him that night. I was being stalked by an entity I can’t quite describe. I’m an old man, but don’t think that my memory is failing me! The truth is that any description I could give would fail. Words fail to capture just what it was that Tux saved me from that night.
I had gone out for a walk. I needed to clear my head because at that time I felt the weight of every mistake I had made and everything I had failed to do. It was so sudden, but the feelings of guilt and shame continued to well up in my mind and my heart and it was through tears that I first saw them clashing.
A yowl caught my attention and shook me from my daze. Before me that cat was leaping back and forth in the air twisting all around, letting out the most ear piercing sounds I never heard from a cat. And the strangest thing was how he was being bashed about buy this murky shadow. That’s the best way I can describe it to you. It had some rough definition. It took up some amount of space, but I couldn’t really quantify it. The one thing that was clear were the marks that the little cat made. It clawed and scratched at this thing that wanted to make me its prey.
Just as I had decided to turn and run I saw the thing bat Tux away. He slammed hard into the ground and I stepped back, shocked, knowing that it would be coming for me next. I could do nothing. I felt icey darts pinning me in place as it’s stalked towards me.
10 minutes. 400 words.
MJ Muñoz 