Recently I landed a new job which required me to move to a new area. After weeks of searching I found what I thought to be the perfect home, a small ranch style two bed room house set back in a lightly wooded area. There were neighbors but still a great deal of privacy.
Work kept me busy, leaving very little time for a social life which made it difficult to meet anyone. After getting the house settled, I decided adopting a kitten would break up the loneliness of living alone, plus cats were typically independent so a busy work schedule would not affect its care.
The weekend rolled around, and I took a trip down to the local shelter a trip that proved to be majorly unsuccessful. Disappointed I headed back home. As I pulled into my drive way I noticed a black speck dash across my line of vision. A KITTEN? I tried, unsuccessfully, to lure the cat to me. It was getting dark, and I needed to get inside to start dinner. I left some scraps of food on the porch in case the cat decided to return.
A few hours later I heard a soft meowing outside the door. Overjoyed I opened the door to find the tiny tuxedo kitten nibbling on the bits of of food I left on the door step. Taking this as a sign of fate I brought him inside to give him a warm place to sleep. I got an old blanket and made him a makeshift bed on the couch. The next morning I woke up to find him rejected the soft couch arrangement, as cats do, and found him sleeping on the dining room table chair opposite from where I sit.
Whenever I was home the cat would follow me through the house without fail. Fittingly, I named him Shadow. Where ever I went, Shadow went. When I woke up in the morning I would find him curled up in front of my door sleeping. He would sit on the toilet while I showered. When I got home from work, he would be at the door to greet me. All through the house wherever I went, Shadow followed. The only time he was not following me, was when I was in the kitchen. There he would sit in what became “his chair” and just stare at me.
As things at work began to settle down, I began to have more time for a social life. Family visited, friends visited. Everyone who entered the house received a warm welcome from Shadow - which was strange, as growing up all previous cats had always been apprehensive, if not terrified of any guests that came into the house. Around this time I also met a nice man named Scott. He worked in the office next to mine, we hit things off and started seeing each other. After a few weeks of getting lunches and coffee together I invited him over for dinner. Shadow greeted the new guest with an unexpected aggressive growl.
The entire dinner Shadow sat on top of the refrigerator starring Scott down. I jokingly said, "He's upset you took his seat". When he got up to help clear the table Shadow arched his back hissing, and darted off the refrigerator and out of the room. I explained to him how strange this was, as Shadow is usually a very friendly cat. Scott laughed, said not to worry. I walked him to the door and we said Good Night. Shadow was nowhere to be found the rest of the night.
The next morning, our usual routine of shadow cat returned. I continued to see Scott, and our relationship progressed deeper. However, every time Scott entered the house Shadow had the same aggressive hostile reaction. I told a coworker about this and she joked about the cat sensing Scott was a serial killer.
Around Christmas we both had a few days off for the holiday - we made plans during that time to visit both our families for the holiday because we had yet to all meet each other. A few days before Christmas Scott and I made plans to have a relaxing evening at my place before the craziness of meeting families and holidays began. We planned to spend the night together, then wake up early the next morning and make a take a trip to our families.
At some point in the night I felt Scott get out of bed, and heard him go into the bathroom - when he returned he left the bedroom door cracked open. In the morning I woke up to a tapping sound, lying in bed I tried to determine what this sound. This was not a tapping, it was a dripping sound... I thought it must have stormed during the night and the roof was leaking? Was the water left on?
I rolled over to wake Scott and see Shadow siting on Scott's chest, in a puddle of blood, purring.
Submitted October 30, 2014 at 11:40PM by poprocksandcola http://www.reddit.com/r/ShortStoriesCritique/comments/2ksxr6/shadow/ ShortStoriesCritique
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