Shay

Shay sat on the window sill licking her paws, waiting for the neighborhood's children to come out. The wind outside was gusty and shook the tree limbs outside the windows, occasionally tapping on the glass, causing Shay to refocus her attention outside. A black cat walking across the road momentarily distracted Shay from her primping. She watched as it crossed the street and darted into several bushes lining the front porch of a neighboring house. Shay returned to cleaning her paws.

Had it just been the one black cat, or had it not been Halloween night, Shay may not have given a second thought to the black cat sighting. However, she noticed when a second black cat emerged, seemingly from the abyss. She may have just been a Persian calico, but even she knew something evil was afoot at the sighting of two black cats on Halloween.

Shay had already been uneasy at the presence of the elderly man who had moved in with her humans. They called him Papa Jerry. Luckily, he stayed in the basement most of the time. At first, he only appeared for food, but the longer he'd been there the more Shay found him roaming the kitchen and living room in the middle of the night. She hated it. The middle of the night was her alone time. It was her time to play and catch fuzz and roll around on her back without her humans seeing her. But now Papa Jerry was in the kitchen, giving Shay an uneasy feeling, and she had witnessed two black cats outside her home. She decided she had better secure the location and investigate any oddities.

She jumped from her window perch and sashayed through the living room until she reached the large doorway that opened into the kitchen. She found the lady of the house with a pumpkin on the kitchen island, and Papa Jerry was muttering nonsense again. Shay saw the lady set the knife she was using to carve the pumpkin down and walk the few steps to Papa Jerry. She gently ran the back of her hand along his face and whispered soft words to him. Shay could make out what the lady said, but it seemed to work. Papa Jerry calmed, and the lady was able to get him to sit at the breakfast bar that ran along the outside of the kitchen island. A plate of food sat in front of Papa Jerry, and he began to pick at it with his fingers.

The lady picked up the knife and continued to carve the pumpkin. Shay thought she would feel better when the man of the house came home. She knew he would be there soon. The hair on the back of Shay's neck pricked, so she slid to lay on her tummy, then rolled to her back. She wiggled and rubbed her back on the cool ceramic flooring until the prickly hair seemed to relent. The lady said something to Papa Jerry about using a fork for his food; she set the knife down again and walked over to him handing him his fork.

He gripped the fork with all five fingers wrapped tightly around it and stabbed at his meat angrily. The noise of the metal hitting the plate pierced Shay's sensitive ears, and she shook her head to ward off the hurtful sound. The lady calmly reprimanded him, warning him he could break the plate. She picked up the knife again and began to scrape the inside of the pumpkin. With the knife still in her right hand, she used her left hand to scoop out the guts of the pumpkin. Long veins of orange goop strung out as she lifted clumps of the pumpkin's guts out and set them on the newspaper next to the pumpkin. Papa Jerry watched quietly as the lady repeated the process.

Although he was quiet, Shay noticed his face looked distorted, almost pained, as he watched the lady pull the pumpkin's insides out. Shay wondered what he thought the lady was doing. His contorted face bothered Shay, so she looked away and sniffed at the ceramic tile floor. Shay noticed the energy in the room became cold and heavy. Her fur pricked at her neck and down her back again. Just then, Papa Jerry took his plate in both hands. He raised it over his head; peas rolled off the plate, and meat tumbled to the floor. He heaved the plate solidly to the ground, crashing it into pieces scattered across the ceramic tiles. Shay jumped to all four feet and raised her back. Her tail grew three sizes bigger. The lady jumped as well and dropped the knife on the kitchen island. She unintentionally let out a yelp and then yelled "Papa" to the man. Papa Jerry was standing with his arms back over his head and his hands clenched in fists. The lady left to retrieve a broom, and when she returned Papa Jerry had rounded the kitchen island and was gapping at the pumpkin the lady had been carving.

The lady said softly, "Papa, it's me, your granddaughter." She stepped towards him to embrace him in her arms as she whispered, "Come back to me, Papa. Where have you gone." She took him in her arms just as Papa Jerry raised the knife he had swiped from the kitchen Island and plunged it into her abdomen. Confused, Shay let out a questioning meow. The lady gasped and grabbed at her stomach. Blood ran down her apron and dripped on the ceramic tile, changing it from pretty, creamy white to a deep, dark red.

Shay darted under a kitchen chair and watched as Papa Jerry pulled the knife from his granddaughter's stomach and took a few steps to the back door. She emerged from under the chair and cautiously but purposely stepped toward the lady. She sniffed her forehead and stepped back. As she did so her paw smudged the blood on the floor. She shook her foot to remove the sticky substance, but it did not relent.

As Shay was contemplating how to clean her foot, the door opened, and the man of the house entered with his briefcase in hand. He was smiling as he held a small pot of mums in the other hand. He called out in a sing-song manner, greeting his family as he did every night. Once inside the kitchen, He stood solemnly still. Shay watched as confusion replaced his smile, then horror as his eyes fell on his wife lying on the kitchen floor, bleeding. The man called out, yelling, "No, No," as he fell to the floor and crawled to her side.

A short time later, an ambulance came and picked up the lady. The police came and picked up the man. Shay was once again left in the home alone. She wondered if they would ever know what happened that Halloween night. Did Papa Jerry even understand what had happened? All Shay knew was she would never tell.