Abiectio

Mrs. Crowley was the "special" lady on the block. "Special",
meaning senile.  Age certainly hadn't
been kind to her; there were sunspots all over her face and arms, making her
look like a peach-colored Dalmatian.  Her
half moon glasses hung over her crooked nose and her skin dangled loosely from
her face. What hair the chemo didn't take away from her was slicked back,
trying to cover the bald spots.
Her house was the oldest one on the block. Her two-story
house was made of wood that had slowly turned brown and then turned yellow and
started to rot. There were no windows at her house, only smoke that continually
floated out of the chimney.
Her only child had died from food poisoning when he was young,
and when her husband disappeared, there was no one to take care of her anymore.
So she started adopting cats.
Those things were infamous in my neighborhood. They all
slept at Crowley's house, but she let them out during the day. Everyone hated
them. They killed birds and brought them to people's doorsteps, they stared in
through people's windows with their yellow eyes, and they sometimes found their
way into people's houses and shed fur everywhere.
When I was about fourteen, I was looking for a job. The only
real job back then was at the grocery store, but they didn't have any open
spaces. My mother happened to come into my room one evening while I was looking
through the classifieds.
"I just spoke with Mrs. Crowley at the grocery store."
"Yeah?"
"She'll be out of town this weekend and she needs
someone to house sit."
"Cool." I said. "How much is she going to pay
me?"
"You ask her. She said the price was negotiable."
The following morning I walked to Mrs. Crowley's house. She
was letting all of her cats out the front door. All of them eyed me
suspiciously.
"Why, hello there, Edmund." She cooed.
"Hi, Mrs. Crowley."
"I suppose you're here on account of that job I offered
you."
"Yes ma'am. How much are you willing to pay me?"
Crowley raised a white eyebrow and then smiled toothlessly.
"Straight to the point, are we? I can respect that. For
two nights, I'll give you 40 dollars. I just need you to let out my cats and
fill their bowls every morning. Make sure they all get home by 9:00, and make
sure they all get to bed by 12:00. Understand?"
I nodded.
She went inside her house and came back out with a notebook.
"Here's a list of all the cat's names. "
There were about fifty names in the notebook, all of them
with a Polaroid picture of a different cat pasted beside them. There were names
like Oliver and there were names like Constantinople.
Behind Mrs. Crowley was an old cat with graying fur that
wasn't in the notebook.
"What's that cat's name?" I asked.
"Oh, him? Honey, you don't need to worry about
Abiectio. He can take care of himself."
Abiectio sat up and stared at me. He perked up his ears and
swished his tail. Mrs. Crowley picked him up and threw him into the yard with
the other cats, who apparently didn't like him. The other cats had found a dead
bird and were sharing it together, and when Abiectio came anywhere close, they
would hiss and snap at him.
The day had come when Mrs. Crowley left, so I walked out to
her house and let her cats. They seemed to ignore me, which was fine, because I
was checking them all off of the list. They all seemed to be gone, so I was
about to close the door when I remembered Abiectio. I opened the door and
looked into the house, where I saw Abiectio shivering in the corner of the
living room.  His eyes darted around the
room, terrified of demons that simply weren't there.
He saw me and ran over to the front door frantically. He
scratched at my legs, as if trying to tell me something. I picked him up and
placed him in the front yard. He ran away and i yelled after him "Be back
by nine!" As if that did anything.
9:00 came around and all of Crowley's cats came back into
the house one by one. I checked them all off of the list. Crowley had trained
them well. But once again, Abiectio was absent. I knew Crowley told me to not
worry about him, but I didn't want to lock him out for the night. Deciding to
follow Crowley's advice out of laziness, I closed the door and locked it.
The next day, I went back to the house and opened the door.
The cats filed out one by one, yawning and scratching their ears.  I didn't bother using the checklist and just
closed the door when it seemed all of them had left.  Abiectio was nowhere to be seen.
At nine, the cats were waiting for me at Crowley's house.
They were all crowded in a circle on the front lawn, looking at something. They
disbanded when I approached, revealing Abiectio.
He was bleeding badly, with cuts all over his body and a
gash on his stomach. He was making a sound that I could only distinguish as
screaming. With what energy he had left, his eyes were darting around. He was
having a bad case of hyperesthesia and was twitching horribly. I ran over and
bent down, trying to comfort him or do something. He only looked scared of me.
He died shortly after that.
I knew immediately that the other cats had done this to him.
I opened the door for them, and they walked into the house, as happy as could
be. I didn't know what to do with Abiectio, so eventually I ended up finding a
shoebox and put him in it. I left it on Crowley's porch, planning on explaining
what happened the next morning.
When I woke up, I went to Crowley's house. She hadn't made
it home yet, so I just sat on the front porch next to the shoebox. After thirty
minutes, she pulled into the driveway.
"Why, hello Edmund. Why are you here so early?"
"Mrs. Crowley, I'm so sorry. The other cats killed
Abiectio." I handed her the shoebox.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"The bastard had it coming to him."
With that, she went inside her house without another word. I
was in such shock I left without asking for my money.
Days passed and summer ended, and I was actually kind of
excited to go back to school. I met my friends Chad and Michael in between
classes and told them I house sat for Crowley.
"I heard she's, like, a witch or something."
"What makes you say that?" I asked.
"I heard her husband accidentally killed their kid and
that's why he disappeared. She killed him."
"Oh, yeah I heard that. The guy had a funny name, too.
What was it?"