Stalker

I watched her from the shadows, unseen, unnoticed. She has grown up in the four years since we first met. Then she was a skinny twelve year old with braces, now a beautiful young adult.

Four years ago I was homeless, sleeping on park benches and begging for handouts. Unless you have been homeless yourself you have no idea how demoralizing it is. Dirty and hungry all the time, people either ignore you or are openly hostile. You become a non-entity, at the time when you are most in need of a friend you are the most alone.

She was one of the few people who had shown me kindness during that awful year I lived on the streets, a twelve year old girl had shown more compassion and had more empathy for a disheveled, grimy homeless dude than almost anyone else. And for that I love her.

She would speak to me kindly and share her lunch with me, I know her parents disproved but she did it anyway. I have red hair, did you know there was such a thing as kick a ginger day? When the other kids were cruel to me she would defend me.

So now that I have a home and small children of my own I should probably not be spending so much time obsessing about her but I can't stop myself. I often watch her from the shadows or follow her discreetly through the dark. Sometimes I watch her sleep through her window and listen to her breathe. Just being near her, seeing her, satisfies some deep need inside me. Once on a sweltering summer night I crept through her bedroom window to be closer to her and spent the night with my face only inches from hers. I left at dawn before her father could catch me.

Tonight she is out later than usual, hurrying home alone. I am across the street, lurking in the shadow of a tree when I notice the van again. This is the second time it has driven by and the driver seems very interested in the girl. I watch with growing concern as the van parks under a burned out street light a block ahead of the girl.

Silently I merge with the night and keep pace with the girl, she doesn't seem to be aware of the van and walks quickly towards it. I can see the driver, he is watching the girl's reflection intently through his mirror and adjusts it to get a better view. The girl is oblivious.

The hair on the back of me neck stands on end as the girl reaches the van and I feel dread knot up in my gut, something is not right, I know it. Just as the girl is about to pass the van the driver gets out and asks the girl a question, I creep closer, invisible and silent. As the girl shakes her head and starts to walk on the driver grabs her from behind. She has time to scream only a moment before the driver pokes her in the neck with something that crackles and sparks. The girl's body goes stiff and then slumps to the ground.

The driver opened the side door of his van but before he can drag her in I launched myself at him with an incandescent rage that consumed me like an exploding star. I became a tornado of sharp claws while my jaws clench on his nose, my fangs gripped deep and I scratched his face with all my strength. Screaming now, the driver tried to fling me away only to cause my teeth to rip more viciously into his nose, I scratched at his eyes with my front claws and his mouth and neck with my bottom. Staggering forward the driver finally got free of my grip as my reflex to land on my feet overrode my desire to stay attached to his face. He landed on the sidewalk and attempted to rise when I pounced on the back of his neck, the diver screeched in horror and covered his head and neck with his arms and began yelling for help. Help? He wants help? I will help. I circle him angrily, snarling and growling whenever he tried to get up.

By this time the girl was back on her feet and was calling for the neighbours, now out in the street, to call the police. No one approached me or the driver, I imagine I was a little scary. When the sirens arrived I escaped into the shadows to listen and cleans my fur of the drivers blood.

At first the driver seemed relieved that I was gone but then panicked when he realized he was blind and part of his nose was missing, quite a tasty snack actually. He then began telling the police that he had been attacked by a rabid animal, the girl contradicted him and he soon left in an ambulance, handcuffed.

The police were quite concerned about a cat the was as viscous as me and wanted animal control to come and deal with such a dangerous animal, the girl, ever my friend, gave a false description, the neighbours were no help at all and gave wildly contradictory descriptions.

"Cuddles, Cuuuddles! I hear my name called from across the neighbourhood and now quite bored by the whole sordid affair I decided to go home to lap milk from a saucer and sleep atop a heating register.