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Tabs’ bowl was still filled to the brim with kibble.
Devra tried to recall the last time she’d seen her pet feline. Tabs was an outdoor cat, yes, coming and going as she pleased. Devra used to try to lock her in, but this only ended with Devra covered in red welts. But Tabs always came home at regular intervals. To eat her food and drink her water and scratch the wall adjacent to her scratching post. Normally, Tabs was Devra’s alarm clock, pouncing on her chest first thing in the morning and hissing her need for breakfast. A need she fully expected Devra to meet within minutes or the claws would come out. Yet this morning, there had been no Tabs to wake her up. She hadn’t noticed because she hadn’t actually slept. Alarm bells rang between her ears.
Not Tabs. Please.
The curse had taken Dandelion, her pet turtle, and Betty, her pet bunny, but surely it wouldn’t take Tabs, would it? Tabs was simply too stubborn to perish in some tragic fashion. Too vicious to let the curse sneak up on her. There were times that Devra thought the little demon might have been sent by the curse itself, given the literal pain she inflicted. That perhaps the emotional bond they developed was an unexpected by-product. Which meant maybe the curse could make mistakes. Maybe she didn’t need to worry about Tabs the way she worried about absolutely everything else.
Or was she only fooling herself? Again. Like that fateful night when her father had clutched his chest before dropping to his knees.
My fault.
Devra began the search immediately. First she checked the multi-tier cat tree and window hammock, which took up as much room as Devra’s couch and TV. Then she went room by room calling Tabs’ name, checking under furniture and inside cupboards. When that failed, she put on her winter coat, took a steadying breath, and told herself to be brave for Tabs. She started in the backyard, where the sun reflected off the snow and temporarily blinded her. Once her eyes adjusted, she looked around, searching for dead things that might imply her lioness had been there, any indication she was alive and well and still her lovely little monster. Nothing. Devra rounded through the front gate. There was an eerie stillness about the city as she walked down lonely sidewalks calling Tabs’ name, her voice sharp and hanging in the cold air for beats longer than seemed normal. She veered toward the local park, marching through lumpy snow. An errant wind picked up the loose top layer and slashed it against her cheeks like tossing sand. She—
“Oof.” Her boot caught something, and she stumbled forward. She twirled around to see a giant rock protruding from a mound of snow.
A mound she could have sworn hadn’t been there a second ago.
Her heartbeat went wild, certain the curse had lured her out here for its nefarious purposes. She scanned the playground, called for Tabs one last time, and deemed the search hopeless.
Devra turned back toward home, deflated and teary eyed and treading carefully. Then she saw it. A sight that was a mallet straight to the gut.
Her neighbour, her tormentor, was sitting on his porch step with a grin on his face and Tabs in his lap.
Her lioness was…was…fraternizing with the enemy. The man was petting her. More than that, Tabs was letting him pet her.
Limbs heavy with disbelief, Devra forced herself closer, as if wading through a current. Tabs was making strange noises. Unusual, soft cooing sounds. It took Devra far too long to identify them as purrs because Tabs never made those pleasant, gentle noises for her. No. Devra received only hisses. Devra received scratches. Devra received dismissive meows and a wiggling butt as Tabs strutted by without a glance. Yet here the feline was, cuddled up to her next-door neighbour, rubbing her fur along the palm of his hand, her tail raised playfully.
That’s when Devra spotted the bowl in the man’s hands, Tabs licking clean what little remained.
She wanted to scream. This man had stolen her sleep, stolen her passion for her job, stolen the security of her home, and now he was stealing her one and only living companion during this most stressful month of a most stressful life.
It wasn’t fair.
Devra rushed forward as the man looked up. His smile abruptly turned into a shocked O as she snatched Tabs from his arms.
“How dare—”
She had a whole speech ready about human decency and neighbourly responsibilities but only got the first two words out before Tabs was clawing at her and demanding to be released.
“Ow!” Devra dropped the animal, who quickly scurried off, and clutched her arm where a two-inch streak was beaded with blood.
“Oh, shit.” The man rose to his feet. “That looks nasty. Come inside, and I’ll get you cleaned up.”
Devra whipped up her head and glared, hoping to claw into him with her eyes the way her beloved pet had just clawed into her arm. “First, you take over my lawn. Then, you ruin my other view with your possessed nut-Witcher—”
“My what?”
“Then you try and take my cat away from me?”
“I…I didn’t know she was yours.”
“You can’t have her, you hear me? I don’t care if it’s December—you are not taking her away from me. Do you understand?”
He didn’t appear to, not really, his expression resembling a deer in headlights.
Still clutching her wound, she spun around for her righteous exit but instead whacked into a massive candy cane lawn ornament. After righting herself, she dashed into her house and locked the door behind her. Three times. Just in case.
BRADLEY
