Nicks Adventure

For years Nick had been afraid of cats. He tried to hide it, honestly his fear embarrassed him. Somehow, though, people always managed to find out. And it bothered others that Nick was afraid of cats, they found it pathetic or assumed he was a bad person so cats didn't like him. The truth was that Nick had a very good reason to be afraid of cats, starting in December of 2011.

The Holidays are a fun time for creative gifters, especially for people with the love language of gift giving. Nick is one of these people, and he had to find the perfect Christmas gift for his girlfriend, Rhonda. Rhonda loved cats, she has 6 of her own and works at a local cat shelter, Nick had no cats at this point but had no problem with them yet. It may seem obvious that Nick should get Rhonda a cat related gift, however he thought that was too easy, he needed something original. So, he found an artist online doing commissions and paid her to paint Rhonda as a cat in an Art Nouveau style. Tuesday, 9am, Nick gets an email saying his painting is complete, and he can drop by the studio at any point to pick it up. “Perfect”, he thinks, this allows him a few days to have it framed and wrapped, ready for Christmas. 10am Nick is in his car on the way to the artists shop downtown. He parks in a lot a block up the road, gets out of his vehicle and notices a small orange cat. “Hey there lil fella” says Nick. The cat responds with a soft meow, not one of fear or anger but of acknowledgement. Nick notices a collar with a gold pendant on it, thinking the cat must be lost, Nick bends down and takes a look at the pendant. It reads “I show Humans reality, call (225) 423-6675 for questions” Hoping to return the peculiarly identified cat to it’s owner, Nick called the number on the collar but it went straight to voicemail. Now he’s alone in the parking lot, and this cat won’t leave his side. Not thinking much of it, Nick starts walking the block to the artist store. It is almost 11am by this point. The cat follows Nick very closely about half of the way, until suddenly it loudly starts crying, runs up the wall of the nearest building and disappears. The cry can still be heard though. This worries Nick, he thinks the cat could have injured itself during its parkour excursion. It just so happens that the building the cat chose to infiltrate was abandoned, but unlocked. Nick went inside and took the stairs to the roof, where he met the cat again. “Oh, you’re ok, Why are you crying then?” thinks Nick, and as this thought is crossing his mind, the cat stops crying, looks Nick directly in the eye, and gives a single punctuated meow. The cat then looks down at his paw, there is a clean slice on the cat’s wrist equivalent, right above the pads of its feet. Nick notices this and realizes that must be why the cat is crying. There isn’t much he can do about it on an abandoned roof though, so he tries to pick up the cat in order to take it to a veterinarian. He takes a step towards the cat and the cat immediately bolts away, running down the external stairs of the building, up the road, and into a dark alley once again out of sight. The crying begins again. “Well this cat clearly needs help” thought Nick. He immediately gets down and chases the cat, now on a mission to catch it and take it to the vet. Upon reaching the alley, Nick sees the back of the cat run out and up the street again, stopping once it reached the park entrance. “Yellow Slide Park” Nick reminisced, he had been to this park at least once a week with Rhonda since they started dating, they liked to eat lunch under the trees and were also fond of the swingset. Now that he thinks about it, Nick realizes he has seen this same cat hanging around the park before when he was with Rhonda. Nick didn’t ever point it out to her because he didn’t want his date to turn into a rescue mission. Ironic. Nevertheless, Nick approaches the cat and the park, reaches the cat and bends down to touch it. He pats it on the head and slowly starts walking through the park, stopping every few feet to check if Nick is still there. ‘Is this cat trying to tell me something?” Nick believed anything is possible, and thought animals are smarter than we give them credit for a lot of times. Satisfied with the conclusion that the cat had something to show Nick, he followed the cat with no further questions. He assumed the cat had kittens in trouble somewhere, and was happy to help this injured cat with whatever else it needed. The cat does not stop walking until they are on the other side of the park. It was the strangest thing, lots of birds and squirrels and children were in the park as it was 12:30 pm by now, but the cat was completely unbothered by them. It was clearly on a mission and had a destination in mind. From the other side of the park, Nick can see Rhonda's house. A sinister sinking feeling fills his body. They both stop, the cat looks right at the house, down at its cut paw, then right at Nick. Intrusive thoughts are something Nick struggles to control. They did not stop for long, the cat gracefully performs a rendition of the video game frogger, crossing four lanes of traffic while walking straight to Rhonda's street, Nick quickly follows though much less gracefully. It’s the second house on the street, Rhonda's house, that the cat finally stops at again. Nick is in complete disbelief that this cat has led him to his girlfriend's house completely by chance. Maybe it could smell Rhonda's cats inside? It didn’t matter why the cat did this, it only mattered that it happened. Blinded by loving excitement to see his girlfriend and tell her this fantastical tale of the adventure he had with this cat, he swoops down and scoops up the cat in his arms, and knocks on the door. The cat did not like that. He hissed, bit Nick in the wrist, and squirmed its way out of Nick's arms. Scurrying away back into the protection of park foliage, but losing its collar in the process. Nick is slightly disappointed but decides if the cat still doesn’t want his help after all of this then there is nothing he can do. It has been a while since he knocked on the door though, where is Rhonda? Her car is out front and the lights are on, she is definitely home. Nick knocks again but this time turns the door handle just on the off chance that it’s unlocked. Unfortunately for Nick it was. Nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to see. Sometimes when a pet owner dies, their pet will start consuming the body of the owner so it can survive until the body is found. Dogs will chew their dead owners face off. Rhonda had been depressed and Nick had known this, really it was a seasonal thing, some family drama she had. What Nick did not know was that his girlfriend was suicidal, and that she had finally chose to pursue that desire. Rhonda had slit her wrists that morning. When Nick opened that door, he was met with his girlfriend face down in a pool of her own blood on the living room floor, surrounded by six cats covered head to toe in his girlfriend's blood. A white cat with red whiskers is quite unsettling. Naturally, Nick was completely crushed. He called the artist he planned to meet and told her he would pay double to destroy the painting. To this day every time Nick sees a cat, he sees his girlfriend's body and her cats sustaining themselves on her skin. He never saw the mystery cat in that park again.