The Cat’s Crawl
Though no lightning cracked the sky, electricity still hung heavily over the city’s residents. Snowflakes drifted lazily to join their fallen brethren covering everything in sight. Atop a freshly blanketed rooftop crouched a cat with long, dampening fur that stood starkly against the white of the snow.
It began padding along, leaving soft indents in its wake. Leg after trembling leg inched forward. Violent shivers wracked its large frame.
Soon, it came upon a house whose chimney was belching out smoke. Its trail led the cat’s eyes up to the moon. Tonight, it was full. The face looked down upon the pitiful creature. Light seemed to bleed out of the moon’s edges, bathing the house in more light than seemed natural. The cat inched closer to the warmth from the fire below and curled up near the chimney. Trying to assuage itself, it began to purr. Sleep crept in.
Hardly a second had seemed to pass before a grating shouting match summoned the cat back into consciousness. Garbled shrieks pierced its ears and made its frozen fur stand on end. Thud after thud after thud resounded throughout the house’s walls. Together with the yelling and the wind that had suddenly swept in, it created a cacophony that set the cat hissing and bolting as fast as its chilled legs would let it. After it, a burst of flame erupted from the building.
The cat followed where its paws went, hardly paying any mind along the way. Exhausted, it collapsed next to several mounds of snow. Gazing up, it saw the pitch-black sky, with light from neither moon nor stars. The darkness permeated the cat’s surroundings and converged at a single window. Curious, it limped forward. It jumped for the ledge, but had to scrabble up, shaking with the effort. Above, icicles dangled threateningly.
A family sat silently around a dining table. Two young children sat with their hands folded demurely in their laps. An elderly man wheezed, his eyes glazed over. Beside him was a woman, watching him with a bored expression smoothing over her features. She began to speak as the man’s chest began to rise shallower and shallower. It was a low, chilling, monotonous inflection. And though the voice was next to inaudible, the cat’s ears flattened.
As she breathed out her final world, the children looked up at her and the man, their breath bated as his chest stopped its movements. The woman rose to her feet and shut his glazed eyes. Still holding their breath, the children began to turn blue, matching their surroundings. The woman sighed and turned to scold them. As she turned, she caught sight of the cat crouched upon her window sill. The woman’s eyes narrowed and her spiteful stare sent shivers down the cat’s spine. It turned and fled into the night once again.
After what seemed to be hours, the cat crawled to a stop. Overhead, the moon was half-full and, together with the stars, softly lit the falling snow. Drowsiness overtook the cat. After a blanket of snow covered it, a door creaked open, followed by heavy stomps through the freezing precipitate. One foot trudged on the cat’s whiskers. Stirring, it meowed pathetically. The lead-footed being made gentle coos before bending down to wipe away the cat’s blanket. Shushing its feeble protests, the being cradled the dying animal in its arms before turning back, its original purpose forgotten or discarded.
Inside, the cat was placed beside a fire. The ice in its fur began to melt, seeping down into its skin. Beside it, a saucer plating a syringe, a woolen rag, and two pairs of eyes rested. Out of its field of vision, the cat could feel one of the beings’ hands wicking water away. The other extended its palm as a friendly greeting. Still exhausted, the cat took a quick breath and closed its eyes.
Waking up once again, one pair of eyes had left, as had the rag. The remaining pair’s owner was scratching behind the cat’s ears, murmuring in a serene voice. Hesitantly, it grasped the syringe and brought it to the cat’s mouth. It accepted the liquid food. The being helped it swallow by stroking the cat’s throat.
Outside, the snow continued its lazy barrage of the city, though it was no longer joined by the static cat soul that had been by its side. Inside, a fire injected warmth back into the feline watchers’ bones. Content at last, the cat slipped into a long-delayed dream. Bouts of insanity plagued its visions before it crawled into a deep sleep.
Brittany Teodorski
