Purspective

For as long as I could remember, my mother let me sleep in her room. She even brought my bed into her bedroom. My days were filled with drinking milk and playing. Occasionally, my mother would bathe me which was the absolute worst. Other than that, life was grand. In the words of my mother, I was her precious little guy. Everything was going great until one fateful night.

I lay curled up in my bed while my mother slept in her bed next to mine. Though I was mostly asleep, an annoying noise kept threatening to pull me from the chains of unconsciousness. The sound was different from the noises of the city that usually wafted through the open window. Finally releasing the comfortable confines of sleep, I sluggishly opened my eyes a bit. From what I could see, everything in the room was still.

Nonetheless, every so often I heard a high-pitched groan. I stood up and looked in the bed, but my mother was still lightly snoring under the covers. Every time I heard the noise, it was closer than the last time. Looking under the bed, I could see the doorway. A shadow appeared in the doorway and my body immediately tensed up. I got as low as I could and crawled under my mother’s bed. As I watched, the shadow moved towards the bed I was hiding under. I could see the shadow’s legs and feet next to the bed. I felt my body trembling as the world went silent around me.

Suddenly, a loud popping sound echoed around the room. I freaked out and ran from under the bed. I was heading for the door, but another loud popping sound rang out. I skidded into the door frame. As I tried to get my feet back under me, I noticed small white feathers floating down from above.

As I finally got back to my feet, another loud pop went off. I ran forward and hit my forehead on something. Seeing the open window in front of me, I moved towards it. As a fourth pop sounded, I dove through it. I made it through the window and landed on hard cold metal outside. I was still in a daze as I tried to get my bearings. I had only taken two steps when my next step landed on open air. I felt myself falling through darkness.

I whipped my head around to see where I was landing. My body followed my head and turned as well. I braced myself as I crash landed into a cardboard box. I immediately lost consciousness from the impact. 

When I regained consciousness, I was looking up at a woman. This woman smelled and looked different. This was not my mother.

The new woman took care of me just like my mother did. I attempted to look for my original mother, but I was in a new location, and I was not allowed to leave. Plus, this woman was doing a decent job of taking care of me. Gradually, the image of my original mother faded from my mind. What didn’t fade was the scent of the shadow that attacked her. After the popping sounds began, a smoky sulfur smell lingered in the air for the short time I remained in the room. I guess in all the uproar, my nose picked out that one detail and hung on to it. Outside of that lingering memory, life returned mostly to a place of normalcy. I ate, I played, I slept, seasons changed. My new mother and father grew steadily older.

Eventually, they let me leave the place we lived. I slowly explored outwards, always making sure to return home within a day or two. Soon, I had a decent idea of the area around my home. If it was daytime, my mother would usually let me in. If it was at night, I would have to call out and let her know I was home. I was more than willing to live out the rest of my days in relative peace but something kept nagging at me.

On certain occasions, my father would return from wherever he went at night covered in a familiar scent. He would immediately go in the bathroom and shower and the smell would be gone but that smell bothered me for some reason.

I began asking to go out shortly after he went out and followed him. His legs were longer than mine so at first, I lost him altogether many times. Steadily, I began to learn his pattern and soon I was able to track him. More times than not, wherever he went initially, he ended up in a specific building. He let himself in with a key, but I had to figure out an alternative way in. Eventually, I discovered a broken window in an adjacent alley. I scrunched my body up as much as possible and squeezed through the cracked glass.

The interior of the building was so dark that I could barely see. I sniffed the air and almost gagged. I smelt a disgusting mix of mildew, rotting meat and ammonia. I almost vomited but managed to choke it back down. The sound of liquid dripping in the distance reached my ears along with an intermittent shuffling noise. Heading towards the shuffling sounds, I found a set of stone stairs. Making my way down the steps silently, I exited into an even darker area than the upper floor. All my vision could make out was blurry, dark shapes in front of me. I continued heading toward the shuffling noise.

Soon, I saw a dim light coming from around a corner. I crept up to the corner and peeked into the room. My father was dragging something across the floor. Whatever he was dragging was leaking. Something was very wrong here. Every hair on my body stood on end. Suddenly, a familiar popping sound rang out. As the familiar smell of smoky sulfur entered my nostrils, I froze in my tracks. Aside from my body trembling, I couldn’t make myself move. Three more popping sounds rang out in quick succession.

Finally, I forced myself to move and took a step backwards. My foot landed in something and slid out from under me. I noisily fell into the same thing I had slipped on. I quickly got back on my feet and ran as fast as I could. Approaching footsteps sounded behind me but I was already up the stairs before they reached me. By the time the footsteps reached the top of the stairs, I had already crammed myself back through the shattered window.

As the adrenaline running through my system began to wane, I realized that I had scraped my leg when I went back through the window. I limped up to the door and cried out with all my might. My mother eventually opened the door.

“What have you gotten into this time?” she asked as she looked past me to see if anyone was behind me.

She picked me up and took me in the house. In the light, she discovers that I’m covered in a sticky liquid. It must have come from when I fell back in that building. I’m not sure what I saw but I knew it was something bad. I tried to tell her what I saw but I couldn’t find the words.

Instead of trying to listen to me, she drew me a bath. I tried to fight back but after my ordeal, I was too weak. Eventually, the worst part was over. As she dried me with a towel, I calmed down. When she returned to bed, I sat down and tried to figure out how I could get her to listen to me.

The next morning, my father showed no signs of knowing that I saw him yesterday. He even gave me some of his bacon. The rest of my day proceeded normally. Eventually, my father left the house and I put my plan into action. As soon as he left, I went to my mother and begged to be let out.

When she opened the door, I stepped onto the porch and sniffed the air. I caught a familiar scent and took off. As I ran, I chanced a glance behind me and saw that my mother was following me. I made sure to go slow enough that she could keep up with me. As I passed the door that my father usually went through, I saw a set of chains and a lock lying in front of it. Either way, I couldn’t open the door. Luckily, I had a different entrance in mind. I carefully crawled back through the window. The last thing I needed was to cut my leg again. After a couple minutes, I heard the door open and saw my mother step inside. She smelled the air and looked like she was also going to vomit. She held it back and began looking for me. I stepped out making just enough noise for her to hear me. I led her down the stairs towards the room I was outside of yesterday. At one point, she fell behind and lost track of me. Her vision must have declined in her advanced age. I moved back towards her, startling her temporarily. She finally noticed me and made a quiet snicker sound.

A shuffle sound like the ones from yesterday cut her giggle short.

“Who’s there?” my mother asked into the darkness.

The shuffling sound stopped abruptly.

“Come on girl,” my mother whispers. “Get a grip.”

I looked around the area but besides my mother’s silhouette, every other shadow melded together. As I stepped back towards my mother. she turned and tripped over something behind her. Before I could make it to her, she jumped up and ran up the stairs. I chased after her, but she got through the door which slammed shut behind her. I was about to return to the broken window when I heard the shuffling sound again.

Taking my mother to the scene didn’t work but maybe taking the scene to her was the solution. I needed something small enough for me to bring back. I snuck back down the stairs to find my father again in the room. He was trying to clean something up. I found a hiding spot and waited patiently for him to leave.

After a while, I heard a weird whining sound approaching from the distance. Soon, he gathered up some items and darted past me. I heard his footsteps go up the stairs and across the upper floor. The door opened and slammed shut as his footsteps faded.

After a couple minutes, the whining arrived and then stopped. The door above opened again and a bunch of footsteps flooded into the area. I curled up in my hiding spot hoping to not be seen. A bunch of new people entered my father’s room and stayed there for a long time. Eventually, they took six large black bags out of the room. Finally, the people left the building. When I was certain that they were gone and not coming back, I crawled out of my hiding spot. An acrid bleach smell hung heavy in the air. My father’s room was dark, but I could tell that it was empty now. Everything was gone.

So much for me getting some evidence to bring back.

I made my way back to the window and slipped back outside. As I made my way home, I noted that I again had sticky liquid all over me.

Ugh, this means another bath.

I reach the door of my house and tiredly call out. Soon, my mother comes to the door. She looks both relieved and terrified in equal measure. As I stood in the doorway, I noted that the smell of sulfur was here as well. I followed it to a metallic object on the kitchen floor. Somehow, the evidence I needed had found its way here without my help.

My mother and I both turned towards the bathroom door as my father stepped out. He looked down at the object and his entire demeanor changed. As he lunged at my mother, I pounced. I clasped myself around his right thigh and tried to bite him. He stopped going after my mother and tried to peel me off his leg. I tried to hang on, but he was stronger than me. He tossed me into the living room as he continued going after my mother. She backed up against the kitchen sink as my father dove at her and missed. He stood up with the object in his hand pointed at my mother.

I tried to reach them, but my body wouldn’t move. Waves of pain radiated through me as I tried to breathe. Something bad was going to happen and there was nothing I could do about it. Suddenly, a series of loud pops echoed through the kitchen. Everything seemed to freeze as I looked quickly between the two of them.

After a second, my father fell over and a liquid began seeping out from under him. Some of the people that were in the building earlier entered the kitchen.

“Are you OK, ma’am,” one of the people asked my mother.

She was shaking badly but she nodded her head.

“I’m just glad we got here in time,” the person said. “We got a call from one of your neighbors.”

My mother was almost too frantic to speak. I tried again to move and made a little more progress. I managed to move my leg a little but as soon as I did the wave of pain intensified. A howl of anguish erupted from my mouth. The pain was so intense that I felt myself blacking out. The last thing I heard her say as I passed out was:

“My cat saved my life…Is he…is my precious little guy, OK?”