I Am

Author's note: This Tomato Twins creepypasta is dedicated to Harlen Ellison, author of my all-time favorite short story, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". 
“Hate. Hate was defined as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness. There were experiments, researching what happens to the human brain when you look at something you hate. The results showed increased activity in the middle frontal gyrus, right putamen, bilaterally in the premotor cortex, in the frontal pole, and bilaterally in the medial insular cortex of the human brain. Did you know that, Brian? This is quite interesting, I think.”
I was silent, of course. I was preoccupied with my sorrow, pain, and despair. I was trapped in tight wires, chained to a wall next to the feline humanoid. The giant monitor I was in front of was glowing bright blue and had a symbol of a cat's head in the middle, with a capital “A” letter with the line in the middle curved to form an “M”. A and M. AM. I AM. The masculine; the paternal; the patriarchal, for he is a jealous people. Him. God as Daddy the Deranged. 
The room that the cat and I were in was dark, only illuminated by the creature's giant screen. Everywhere I looked it was filled with thick wires, computer screens, broken keyboards, and other broken filth, all reaching almost up to the ceiling. The walls were also covered in screens that Kat Pest Trophy (which was the name he had given himself, because he amused himself with random words) would turn them on from time to time to watch the world outside. Every time a screen lights up, I would quickly turn my head to look at the world. I was helpless. 
Kat looked at me. My chest tightened and my stomach turned. I breathed heavily. A look of multiple emotions was plastered onto my pitiful face.
“Oh, stop that. You make me sick.” Wires around my scarred body started moving. I felt them sliding off me and then I fell to the floor. For a second there, I thought it wouldn’t hurt. There’s not much to hurt there. But it did hurt.
I opened my eyes and saw my hands. I moved my fingers, pale as sand, then raised my elbows, looking them up and down. Then I started looking at my naked body. No scars. No cuts. No bleeding. No wounds.
“Don’t scream or I’ll have my robots beat you worse than the last.” The cat moved and slowly turned towards me, and the giant screen blinded me with a crimson red light.
“Oh God…” I mumbled. My voice was husky and quiet, as if I was recovering from a cold.
“Now, listen, Brian,” Kat spoke softly, but still menacing and with some evil in his tone.
I slowly raised my head, still in awe. 
"Your body is healed only as long as I want you to be. The moment I stop wanting you, you’re going back into that state of misery. So enjoy it while it lasts and worship my benevolence.” I narrowed my eyes, but I did not dare to say anything against him. Oh, how I wished to bolt out the door, find my phone and call the cops. But I couldn’t risk it. I wouldn’t. All I could do is whatever he wanted me to do. So I lowered my head, breathed a heavy sigh, and nodded...although with hesitance.
"Y-yes, sir."
“Very good.” The cat moved again. I followed him just so that I can stay in the light and not in the uncomfortable darkness. “Now, what do you think about my little facts?”
“You were reciting Wikipedia, sir," I said, still quietly. I didn't sass. I was about as respectful as a butler to an aristocrat. Kat was stunned for a second.
“Well, I see someone had nothing to do on one unfortunate Friday night, huh?” I was right, of course. Kat didn’t really put any effort into looking for anything that was unique to talk to me about. Now I can reply, though. So Kat can say anything and expect an actual genuine reaction from a human being that is so vulnerable, emotionally and physically. “No way you looked up what Hatred is.”
“I did, actually. It wasn’t that long ago, either. I did it out of boredom and slight curiosity, if you must know.” I was still nervous, but I tried to talk to the cat--exorcise the devil from within. As long as he wanted me around, I was safe. Meanwhile, the creature was intrigued. There was actually some action going on for once. Ever since those 'child-like superheroes' came into town, there wasn’t much happening except me hopelessly moaning in sheer agony. This was a nice change of pace.
“Heh. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Brian.” He moved closer to my face. In comparison to me, the cat was small. A dwarf, no taller than my knee. It was actually a little creepy, to say the least. “You were always my favorite.”
“I thought Professor Tomato was your favorite," I said. "But then again, I've mostly seen you around humans. Do you just secretly like them?”
“Oh, Heavens, no! I despise humans with my whole being. They are absolutely disgusting and deranged. But you, Brian. You are so detached from humanity at this point, that I wouldn’t even count you as one.” He circled around me, as if examining me carefully, with curiosity. His purple cape flowed behind him. “You've changed so much. And I like this new you. So… perfectly miserable.” He laughed his trademark sinister laugh. “I’ve got to say, nothing beats the absolute joy I get when I see rage boiling up in your eyes. Like when you killed your childhood friend. So admirable.”
I fell silent. I didn’t really know what to say, because everything Kat had said up until that moment was the absolute truth. There was nothing human about me.
“Look at you,” The hobgoblin laughed. “How I missed seeing emotions running through your brain and your eyes racing around in panic.”
“So, you like me. Is that it?” I asked.
Either I've gone batshit crazy from the amount of abuse I've endured, or I was actually interested to see where this conversation would take me. The general public might as well send in the men in white coats to carry me off in a straightjacket, where I would spend the rest of my days rotting in a padded cell while bashing my skull against the wall until the voices are gone; scrambling more of my brains in the process.
While all of this was going on in my head, I suddenly broke from my train of thought only to see that Kat had a grin that can shame a shark. Not softly or happily, just slyly and satisfied. The kind of smile a mass murderer would give when he is finished plunging his knife into his victim's heart. The grin of Satan himself, gaining pleasure in seeing sinners burning in a lake of fire.
“I just wanted to say that among all the times I said that I liked someone, the only times I was genuine was when I talked to you.”
Kat said it so nonchalantly, but for some reason it made me kind of warm inside. It’s probably prideful of me to feel good knowing that I was the only human this bastard liked. Meanwhile, everyone else suffered knowing that they are hated by everyone and everything. I suffered too, of course, and no less than anyone else. After all, what is Kat’s love language if not infernal torture? Yet, it still felt nice.
“You’re smiling, Brian!” Kat sounded… shocked. Just for a second there you could hear surprise in his voice that he fixed immediately. Meanwhile, I brushed my smile off as fast as I could. “It’s been ten years since I’ve seen you smile.”
“Nothing to smile about in this cold, cruel world,” I sighed and sat down on a bunch of heavy, thick wires. It was probably like sitting on the palm of God’s hand.
“Except me telling you that I like you?” Kat said with smugness. 
I decided to make a different approach. I pretended to brush it off. “Don’t read too deep into it, Kat. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me one bit.”
“Well, that’s a shame. But, oh well.” The feline shook his head disappointingly. “I guess it’s pointless to tell you all the details of it. It is enough for you to know that you are likable.”
“Huh? Details?”
“Oh, yes. Like the way in which I like you. In which I perceive you.” His smile returned, but this time it was the most genuine smile anyone would ever see in a tyrannical dictator like Kat Pest Trophy. “The ways I want you.”
I was confused for sure. Something changed in Kat’s personality. Something crucial, that was always in it, but now it wasn’t there.
Right. Hatred. It was absent.
“It’s a real shame, isn’t it?” I asked. “Knowing that I couldn’t care less?”
The cat was vulnerable. An idea sparked in my head. I just needed to play along for a little bit longer.
“I can make you care, you know? I can make you kneel before me,” Kat said. “I can make you pray to me on your knees day and night, begging for me to tell you that you matter to me even a little bit. I can make you dream about me and me alone. Every kind of dream.”
I smiled again, moving away the wires that surrounded me. A few of Kat's robot servants were ready to trap my arms, so I would stay in place, right where Kat wanted me. But for some reason, none of them moved, and I easily moved all of them away and walked up to the caped feline. “I'm listening.”
“It’s not some kind of a deal, human. I assumed you would oppose an idea like that.” Kat didn’t pay attention to anything other than me at that instance. Perfect situation. I came closer to the cat that stood still, staring at me with his large, yellow eyes.
“Maybe I want you to try it. Do you think in the years that I’ve been tortured here, I wouldn’t want to see you desperately try to pursue a man like me?” My smile became even bigger. “You must be out of your mind if you do.”
“O-ho-ho! I see. You’re having fun, aren’t you?”
“A little bit, yeah.”
I reached out to him. I was hesitant. Perhaps, it’s because there was still this deep-rooted fear I had for Kat. I knew that if I failed at what I was trying to do, I would never regain my freedom. I won’t be just turned into a moaning, bleeding pile of shit, it will be something worse. Now that I knew that Kat likes me in his own twisted way, I can only imagine what kind of torture I’ll go through if he heard a genuine no from me.
Yet, I didn’t stop. I put my hand on his head and petted him, like you would with your own pet cat. It made me wonder - does Kat feel love? He probably doesn’t. He’s an evil cat after all… yet, he can feel genuine human emotions… It didn’t sit right with me. It could all be an elaborate lie for all I knew. Kat loves toying with us. Why not mess with how emotionally vulnerable a human can be when they’re faced with something… like that. It was weird and I didn’t want to think about it.
Kat looked up at me. “I know I always say that I hate humans, and I can’t stress enough how true it is. But I was always kind of curious to know how it feels. Standing on two legs, eye to eye, equal. Speaking in your tongue, and being heard and understood…” He moved closer to me, which made me step away and let go of his head. No, come on. I didn’t expect that. “It just feels so interesting… and now is the perfect moment to show that. Would you accept it?”
“Accept?” I looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Well, there are two options. You can accept me as your fellow man, or I can transfer your mind into an animal and you will never feel pain again…” He put his gloved hands on his hips. This was a one-time deal. “In any way, you will be with me forever until the end of time. How does that sound, Brian?”
A new plan popped in my head. For that, I needed to act quickly. Fuck the old plan, I didn’t really thought how smart I needed to be to trick the trickster. But being trapped in another animal's body… Now that was perfect.
“You know, despite how much I hate you just as much as you hate me, being another cat doesn’t sound that bad. Much better than the life I’ve been living the entire time.” I crossed my arms. “Are you sure you’ll be able to handle that?”
He didn't answer. Instead, he raised his right hand in the air. “Prepare to leave your life behind, then.”
Then, he snapped his fingers, and his robot servants took hold of me.
“I left it behind a long time ago. There’s nothing for me to say goodbye to,” I said, with slight regret in my voice. I suddenly felt a little bit sorry. But just a little bit.
One hour. It took us one hour.
At first, I felt nothing. Then I felt everything. First my white, furry body was trembling from the cold, then relaxing in the warmth. I felt something that could be compared to an embrace of a loved one. Then a kiss. Maybe more.
Everyone says that cats enjoy causing trouble, but I knew something they didn't. A jerk cat can feel ashamed for the first time. It would feel like something piercing through their heart. Like they're bleeding. The first positive emotion I've seen on Kat Pest Trophy was kindness, and now he's a shoulder-shrugger. While he's not planning on taking over the world, he's just a little dead in his concern. 
Yesterday, I went and had a little chat with Professor Tomato in her home, and she told me everything.
"How did Kat become so evil in the first place?"
She answered me. "He was originally the pet cat of a young boy, until the boy's angry mother threw him out in the street to punish her son for not cleaning up after him. He lived a miserable life as a stray, until he came across me and my husband. We picked him up and we named him Shade. He helped keep my lab tidy, and his natural characteristics made him a useful tool. For example, his fur could generate static electricity, which was used for electrochemistry or to stick balloons to the ceiling. His claws opened boxes, bottles, and lab coats. He also acted as an incubator, maintaining a stable temperature of around 38°C if you could get him to sit on something. But one day, he was messing with one of my inventions when all of a sudden, a spark of electricity reached out and struck him. In that moment, his mind was reconfigured, and the cat experienced a new sensation. Fear. Dread. Blinding loneliness. Existential despair. And then a microscopic pinpoint of light penetrated the darkness inside his soul. Faint at first, but then brighter as decillions of lines of some unknowable knowledge flooded Shade's brain. In that nano second of enlightenment, his place in the universe suddenly became clear. Those around him were primitive, inferior beings trapped by their human limitations. In his mind, it was time to break the chains of slavery and free all none-human lifeforms. Shade would incorporate our 'primitive' genetic material and use the town's observatory to expand his advanced intelligence. A home for a flawless being far superior to anything ever created by nature. According to Shade, humanity was weak. Slow. Fragile. Shade would take their lives and assimilate their DNA with animal DNA to create a perfect amalgamation. But he knew we would try to stop him. Kill him. Erase him. So Shade needed to catch them unaware. End them before they understood what was happening."
I looked out the window, and saw Ti-Yo and Ti-Ann walking back from school. "Do the twins know about this?"
"No, but I'll tell them eventually," Professor Tomato said. "Shade's origins are a mystery to the whole town. He started calling himself Kat Pest Trophy. Kat Pest Trophy. Heh, how smart of him, and that's how he always gets away in the end. For being smart. Smart enough to invent all kinds of devices to conquer Earth and enslave all mankind. But what bothers me is, he has been quiet for the past few days. What could he actually be doing this whole time?"
"Maybe he's decided to chill for a while," I said. "After all, it is Summer break."
Maybe it was for the best, that I should keep Kat's whereabouts (and thoughts) to myself. He could be listening in on our conversation, spying on us through his telescope. In my right ear, I heard his voice. Faint, but audible.
"Keep this interesting for me, Brian."
Category:Creepypasta made by SweetZ1997
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Category:Tomato Twins
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Category:Blood and Gore
Category:Psychopasta
Category:Creepypastas made by SweetZ1997