Menu

Prompts
DirectoryContestsMagazineFAQ
Stories
Studio
Apps

Hire professionals for your project

Advice, insights and news

Online publishing courses

Free publishing webinars

Launch your book in style

Bestseller PodcastBook Cover ArtSuccess Stories
Tools
Book Promotion SitesBook Review BlogsBooktube Channel GuideBook Title GeneratorCharacter Name GeneratorIndependent PublishersLiterary AgentsLiterary MagazinesPen Name GeneratorPlot GeneratorPublishers DirectoryShort Story IdeasWriting ContestsWriting ExercisesWriting Scholarships
Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start your story with a character being led somewhere by a black cat.

Posted in Dramatic on Nov 1, 2024

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 69 stories

Mountain Cat Meets the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Submitted to Contest #275

In the 1800s off the northwest coast of South America a dark, cat-like shadow padded up the steps from below deck on a sailing schooner.The head of the animal tilted and the eyes glowed in the dark. It watched a man on the wooden deck of the boat, who was looking upward at the star constellations. The animal peered at the two legged creature and sniffed the air. She was young, and she was new to experiencing the world on her own after living with her mother.Curiosity and intelligence showed in her expressions. She slinked along with eye...

45 likes 25 comments 25
Read story

THE GRUMPY HITCHHIKER

Submitted to Contest #275

I hate cats. There, I said it. They're furry, lazy, and think they're too good for the rest of us. And you know what? They get away with it because people think they're cute. I, however, am not so easily fooled. Cats are little emperors, rulers with invisible crowns who seem to think the world revolves around them. I can't stand them. So why, you ask, was I following one? Why did I skitter behind this black ball of arrogance, kicking up dust and muttering under my breath? Well, better late than never, right? Let me tell you how I ended up...

37 likes 43 comments 43
Read story

Neptune the Psychopomp

Submitted to Contest #275

Was it a coincidence it happened on All Souls’ Night? No. The old lady always had perfect timing, panache and style. Maybe the scene was a prophecy from the famous Yeats poem of the same name, or conversely; was the scene an inspiration for his beautiful poem. Life has a habit of deceiving order, like the debate over the sequencing of the chicken or the egg. Neptune’s role was the spirit handler leading the old lady’s spirit to the next realm. While others would be putting the old lady’s body to her final resting place, the candle lit a...

33 likes 26 comments 26
Read story

F#ck Off, Cat!

Submitted to Contest #275

I was a dog person, not a cat person.I had always been a dog guy my whole life, so I was a little disjointed when the feral black cat sauntered out of the alley by my apartment building that morning and just glanced at me with a saucy look on her face and then began leading me towards the entrance to the downtown 6 train. I knew where I was going. I grew up here, for fuck sake. What am I, some God damned tourist? I don’t need your help. Fuck off, Cat! You’re lucky if I don’t kick you out into traffic. I know how to get to the fuckin’ subway....

24 likes 29 comments 29
Read story

Sanctuary

Submitted to Contest #275

Penelope Now surrounded by strangers and completely alone, she muttered to herself, "Once again, I find that the darkness clings to me. I spent so long reaching for the light, but now it's gone out. I feel a chill deep in my bones no fire could banish."  Penelope needed help. Xanthos, her eldest son, had gone to his new room to rest up for his next shift, a thought that made her shudder. Kicked out of the inn for giving birth too loudly, she was left wandering the streets. As she ambled, her mind became lost in questions. Will I have to...

22 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

This Hallowed Night

Submitted to Contest #275

She made not a sound; still I immediately became acutely aware of her presence. The moonlight reflected in the chartreuse of her eyes, cast an illumination worthy of the candle lit Jack O’Lanterns adorning the front porch steps. All Hallows Eve; the veil continues to thin, having me believe she sauntered straight through without incident to be by my side. She tilts her head and sharply swishes her tail signaling for my undivided attention as she beckons me to the window, still silent, but with obvious intention. My instinct is to hold h...

22 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

Shadow Leads

Submitted to Contest #275

He led, I followed. It had ever been the way of things. The tiny slip of a feline slinked across the leaf-littered dirt. He wound his way beneath the tree cover, tracing a line along the hidden forest path without looking back. So confident was he that I would always trail behind. Golden leaves crunched under my feet, rocks shifted and wet mud slid, my clumsy advance spoiling his silent grace. The jet black, sleekness of his form moved with less impact than the light breeze that pressed itself to my skin. A musky smell of earthly life hung i...

20 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Sabastian

Submitted to Contest #275

I remember the day that changed my life forever. It was the day my cat led me to the truth. One I never expected to find in a million years. Sabastian was a black cat with green eyes and a no-nonsense attitude. He was what folks called an ally cat and most of them believed -BLACK CATS- were bad luck. But not me after all Sabastian was my furry baby boy. My husband found him in a discarded box near our trash can when he was 6-week-old. Sabastian was a helpless little thing that could barely open his eyes. He was so small that he fit in the pa...

17 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

The Reckoning

Submitted to Contest #275

As I followed down the street, the road wet beneath my feet,I crossed my heart and on the street I spat,For to follow behind a cat, A black one, at that,Was crazy, but then she looked at me and sat.  I met her eyes and they were green, the strangest I’d ever seen,She looked at me, right into my soul,And I knew that I must follow, That my pride, I must swallow,And face my past if I was to be whole. She lead to the garden of graves, and I knew that I must be brave,And face the demons that I held within,And so as she began to pur...

17 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Snowfall

Submitted to Contest #275

Though my sensors continually monitored the environment around us, that was an automatic process, so, treading onward, I focused most of my attention on following the big black cat and his smaller tawny brown sister as they dashed around like kittens in the snow, their paws sinking into the cold white stuff. Snowflakes adorned the long whiskers of the black cat. He paused and shook himself to dislodge some snow from his dark flank then ran after his playfellow, lumbering where she danced.I consistently monitored their energy expenditure...

14 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Following a Black Cat

Submitted to Contest #275

Here I am sitting in what once was my grandfather’s chair in the backyard, drinking coffee, eating a doughnut, but being totally alone, not even a  single squirrel in sight. It’s been a long time now that I have been alone. No wife – she died in a car crash five years ago. No son – he moved to Australia ten years ago, and won’t answer my calls. No brother, he is in ‘the home’ for the aged, and never speaks when I visit him. No pets in my life either, our last dog was in the car with my wife in the car crash.&nbs...

13 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Blackwood's Tomcat

Submitted to Contest #275

I'm sure all of you are familiar with that old superstition of black cats crossing your path being bad luck. For the majority of my lifetime, I would've dismissed that as complete and utter nonsense. An old wive's tale or something passed down from generations just to keep mundane people scared of mundane things. I ended up changing my mind on a still and lonely night while walking down a winding street bordered by a skeletal woodland in late October. Going for walks late at night had become a must for me at this point and about the only tim...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Listening to nothing.

Submitted to Contest #275

** This story contains references to road traffic accident***She sits uncomfortably perched on the wall at the top of the long garden of the Victorian semi. Beside her is the cat basket, and a tin of tuna fish, a spoon, a small cat dish and her book.Mostly, she just sits quietly, scanning the roof tops and bushes nearby for the little black cat. Periodically she tries to read a page of her book, unable to follow the story and rereading passages without understanding,but trying anyway.Sometimes she spoons a little tuna onto the dish, and gen...

12 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Vampire adolescence

Submitted to Contest #275

"There, kitty kitty kitty!" Jay called out to his pet animal. The black cat curled its tail and stretched out its body before looking at us meaningfully and meowed ever so softly telling us to follow it. It smartly led us to the club. It is said that black cats can sense the creatures of the dark. Which was not why Jay had one. He was not afraid of other creatures of the dark (himself being a vampire), he just wasn't adventurous enough to get into a fight or have an interesting meeting with the others. Better safe than sorry. I objected, b...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Fire Hill Farm and the Farmerette

Submitted to Contest #275

The witching hour is every minute for that worrisome rabbit. Upon dusk he worries about the carrots being stolen out of their beds , even if he is the primary culprit. The eggs from Miss Lily’s henhouse tend to disappear when Crow stops over with the pair of raccoons as they sit idle until after sunset. The farm dogs are consistently in heat nightly at all the wrong times of the hour and seasons. They are so stupid.Crow laughs. He is only seeking the friendship of his friend Warren, a brownish grey fluff of cuteness wolf pup. He really doesn...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story from the point of view of a witch, spirit, or corpse.

Short Story – 129 stories

Write a story about someone who’s running out of time.

Angst – 45 stories

Center your story around someone who’s being haunted — by what or whom is up to you.

Dramatic – 99 stories

Write a story that includes the line “Better late than never.”

Short Story – 40 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel