Catman Jack
It was a winter afternoon. Like most winter afternoons it was overcast, cloudy with a bit of rain, the wind blew and the leaves rustled on the sidewalk as Cassandra and her friend Taylor walked home from school.
"It was nice walking this way for a change." Cassandra said as the two strode along.
Taylor smiled "Thanks for joining me this way. I can't believe Briana didn't show again today. She didn't call or anything."
Cassandra rolled her eyes "She probably skipped and went to the lake with Gage."
Taylor laughed "You're probably right. Alright well I'll see you tomorrow."
The two parted ways and Cassandra continued. She had just a few more blocks till she was home. As she walked along she saw a small black cat pawing at something in the gutter.
"Hey little guy, whatcha after?" she crouched down and saw a large sewer rat.
Cassandra watched the cat snatched it up and darted away, toward the alley.
She tried to follow it almost out of town, but was stopped when she reached an old, abandoned, two-story house near some tall pine trees that formed a forest. She felt that she shouldn't be on the property that the cat was now currently in. So she left.
The next day, Cassandra came to the alley to see her friend Scott. When she rounded the corner he was sitting there on his milk crate. He looked up and saw her and he stood up and hugged her. They're obviously boyfriend and girlfriend. Scott was like one of those greasers you'd see on those 70's films. You'd expect him to ride a motorcycle or something cool. But he'd casually walk home as usual.
"Took ya long enough." He said with a smile.
"Sorry, my dad had me doing chores. Now lets go do something besides sit in this alley." Cassandra said as she blushed.
"What could we do?"
"Well I don't know. Anything is better than sitting here." Cassandra said pulling at Scott's sleeve. "I know, lets go to the park ."
Scott followed "Will Brock be there, you know I hate that bastard."
"If he is, will just walk the other way."
Brock was the school bully, the huge, fat tub of lard who's always angry, always pushing around someone who's smaller, skinnier, and weaker. He would degrade them as usual, and if they fought back with words, he'd beat them like red-headed stepchildren.
Suddenly, the same exact cat picked up the same rat (now dead) and chased after them. When the two arrived at the park it was full of people running about playing football, throwing frisbees and playing on the equipment. The two walked over to the swings.
"So yesterday after school, I followed a black cat to this weird house... Do you know anything about it?" Cassandra asked her lover.
"What house?"
"Well, it was behind some woods and stuff. And I think I-".
Scott interrupted her abruptly, "What? Behind some woods?"
Cassandra noticed Scott's eyes widening when she mentions the woods behind the abandoned house, "Yeah, it looked a little creepy, so I left and-"
Scott interrupted her again, this time, he sounded concerned. "Dude, you shouldn't go there, he could've hurt you."
"What do you mean?" Cassandra asked.
Hobo shook is head "Catman Jack."
As the two talked Cassandra looked up and noticed that the park was suddenly quiet after Scott mentioned the name, Catboy.
Scott looked around "We need to go."
"Are we still going to the fire pit tonight?"
"If that's what you'd like. I'll tell you about... You know who there."
At the firepit around 7:34pm, Scott, Brian, Billy, Natasha, and Taylor are sitting near the fire cooking marshmallows on sticks till Cassandra came around Scott's house to the backyard where her friends are at.
"Hey Cassandra." Brian said. Cassandra knew him too well, he was the starting quarterback of the school's football team. She always admired his rock-hard abs and his legion of biceps.
"Hi!" Said Taylor as she ran up to hug her best friend.
"Sup?" Said Billy, the obvious 'beer-swelling redneck' of the group, he also looks like he hasn't been exorcising since he was crawling.
"Hey." Said Natasha, she's the usual Valley Girl that's always texting and talking about certain things in life that really gets to her.
"Sooo... Are you gonna tell me who Catman Jack is?"
Everybody looked at each other. Natasha even looked up from her phone after the name was mentioned.
"...Well, um, it's kind of a long story... But, I guess all I can say is that he was something like, a deformed, abysmal being that lurks inside the house to this day, he's more of some riddle wrapped around an enigma, around a please and thank you. A nightmare that you can't wake up from, he's-"
A loud crash explodes from the clouds. It's so strong; it momentarily lit up the place, making it seem like day for a split second. .
"Another one?" Moaned Billy, "Shit, now how am I supposed to get waisted?"
"Yeah, like, I'm with Billy on this one." Natasha replied.
"Alright, alright, let me think." Scott replied, "We'll probably go inside and watch Monday Night Raw on my flat screen."
"Ugh, who wants to see some sweaty body-builders in underwear figh-"
"Oh, hell yeah!" Billy shouted in excitement and almost ran over Natasha on the process.
"Watch where your going, fat fuck!" Natasha said.
"Aw don't be like that Natash," Billy said, "you're just pissy about not playing with ya little Barbie's and playing dress up with Cassandra here." Billy chuckled at this as he sat down and watched Monday Night Raw on the WWE Network.
"Whatever, c'mon Cassandra. Let's leave King Louie with his monkey business."
"Oh, hey!" Billy called back, "Slap her ass for me!"
Natasha bitterly sighed as both Scott and Billy laughed and gave each other high-fives.
"Nice!" Grinned Scott.
"Oh, that's funny shit right there!" Billy slapped his knee.
In the other room, Natasha and Cassandra chatted about Catman Jack.
"Say, do you think Catman Jack used to be a human but was cursed by witches?"
"Nah, let's jus say that he's some ugly asshole who kills people. Like, total Jeffery Dahmer vibe."
"You still on that guy?"
"Who isn't?"
Cassandra looks from her phone and at Natasha.
"Yeah I guess you're right.
Cassandra looked out the window (rain began to pour down) and noticed something under the street light. It was the black cat. The same exact rat in it's mouth. It then went away, and as she stared out the window, Natasha got her attention.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"Y-yeah, I am. It's just that cat out there."
"A cat?" Natasha asked questioningly, "What are you babbling about?"
She got up and took a look out the window. Nothing.
"It's just a stray or something." She sat back down on the bed and typed away on her phone.
In the living room, Scott and Billy drank the cans of Budweiser and watched Randy Orton hit CM Punk with an RKO from the top of the ladder, shot up from their seats and shouted and cheered loudly, spilling their beers on the carpeted floor.
"Holy shit, did you see that?!" Billy smiles.
"You bet I did!" Scott answered, sipping his beer.
"Anyway Scotty boy, how did you know much about this Catman Jack fella to begin with?"
"Well, it's been so long since my first encounter with Catman Jack, but I remember bits of it."
Scott puts his beer down between his feet and leaned forward. Billy does the same.
"I was about six at the time, and remembered going around the property. Till, I saw him. He was in the basement, crawling around on the floor like that... Freaky, looking thing I'd see in horror films like that film I saw, uuh..." Scott snaps his fingers, "The Unborn, but it was as if he was a crooked spider. And when he saw me, I ran down the street and never told a soul to anyone. I did went back... But never found anything. But one thing I did notice during my time there... Was that there was an ass ton of cats surrounding the house. Just a legion of almond-shaped eyes and claws around me like vultures surrounding a dying animal."
"Jesus!" Billy shudders as he sips his beer.
"Yep. Never been back there since."
The two girls came out with their jackets on.
"Where ya going?" Scott asked.
"Cassandra and I thought about this 'Catman Jack' guy, so, we're going to see if the legend is true."
"What?!" The two boys said in unison. They both looked at each other in shock, and rushed to them.
"Ya can't go!" Billy pleaded, "There's a dangerous monster in that house!"
"Cassandra, you can't be serious! He'll kill you, I know it!"
"We don't know that for sure," Cassandra said, "it could be some Furry for all we know."
Scott starts to laugh nervously, "You don't understand, you won't be able to get out alive!"
"I highly doubt it."
"Like, are we going or not?" Natasha asked impatiently.
There was a long sigh from both Billy and Scott, till they agreed. Brian, throughout all of this, had gone back home before the storm started. Obviously going home to lift some weights and gulp down protein drinks.
Later, they brought flashlights and drove up to Brian's house to pick up Brian, and went down the road to the abandoned house. Just as Scott described, cats were everywhere, almost to the amount of eighty-nine cats covered the lawn, the picket fence around the backyard, and up in the trees staring down at them. They got out and looked around, it was cats galore.
"Guess someone's a cat lover..." Replied Cassandra.
They walked up to the front door and slowly opened the door. They crept all over the house, the inside of the house was dark, run-down, and really, really messy. Garbage was everywhere; a chair was knocked over, furniture was torn to shreds, and debris was scattered all over the floor and the walls. The air inside was overwhelmed with this putrid stench. A stench so horrible, the gang almost had to swallow down the rising bile in their necks. They planned to split up into two groups: Brian, Billy, and Natasha goes around downstairs, as Cassandra and Scott goes upstairs. Cassandra and Scott walk down the halls and found something inside one of the rooms. It was a large hole replacing the floorboards of the room. The floor must've caved in or something. They looked down and saw that it leads to the den (or how they call it now and days, The Man Cave). Cassandra and Scott just looked down the hole and decided to jump down.
They shined their flashlight around the room, and saw something that made their hearts sink to their stomachs. Multiple newspaper articles about teenage children going missing, human remains scattered all over the floor, and the most damning... a birth record of someone by the name of Jack Samson Todd. Suddenly, they heard skittering upstairs.
"SShh. Did you hear that...?" Scott said quietly.
"Yeah..." Cassandra said quietly as well.
They decided to check it out, but not without Scott grabbing a piece of wooden debris as a weapon. They saw nothing.
Back downstairs, Brian, Billy, and Natasha checked out the kitchen, the living room, and now, the basement. They looked up at the basement window, and saw the cats looking a them, staring into their souls. Mixed with the flash of lightning and the claps of thunder, this begins to become unsettling a bit. Billy looked at them closely, and shakes his head.
"When are we going to leave?" Billy asked.
"Just as we find out if Catman Jack is real." replied Brian.
They found a large hole under the stairs, which held a blanket and a pillow. It was like someone had been sleeping there since this place became vacant.
"Maybe Catman Jack was a hobo or shit." Billy suggested.
"Looks like." Brian responded.
They go down to the living room again, armed with flashlights. They look at the clock. Danm! It's 12:35am already!
"Should I call mom? I think she's really worried about me." Natasha asks.
A sudden feeling comes to them. They want to leave.
But maybe Catman Jack's near. He must be walking outside. Should they just stay?
They rush to the front door, open it, and see a dark sky looming above them. I look around. No monster. All I see is a vast space filled with wet grass and some trees (mostly cats). The road is on the left. Icy wind chills their bodies, and the cold seeps through their bones.
They saw something during the flashes of lightning, or someone, standing between the trees. They looked harder, foolishly using their flashlights as if its weak light would help them see through the vast darkness.
Another bright flash of lightning.
They looked between the trees again and they see it. It's somebody else. And he's running towards them fast. He runs like hell. He runs like he just got out of prison.
Their hearts begins to thump as their minds goes blank. He's getting closer. What should they do?
They see a gleam in his hand and I realize what he's holding. It was a big, deadly knife.
They scream as they regain control of their bodies. Billy slams the door shut as he was inches away from the porch and quickly locked it.
They don't know what to do next.
He kicks the door hard. The sound reminds them of thunder.
What should they do?
He kicks again.
Nothing's gonna happen if they just stand here, waiting to be impaled.
They run upstairs. They look around frantically for Scott and Cassandra.
They don't even know who they're looking for.
They hear it again. He wants to get in. He's hungry for a kill.
What if they tell him they're gonna call the police? Would that scare him? Maybe it's too late. They begin panicking. They should stick to my plan.
They see the perfect weapon. A crowbar. Brian picks it up. Should he go back to the living room and wait for him to break the door? No. that's suicide. They'll just hide here. Besides, it's not easy to break down that door.
Suddenly, he stops trying to break it. Why did he stop? Has he given up? Maybe. Wait. No. the back door!
Brian dashed back downstairs, hoping it's not too late. He hold his weapon tightly. Whatever comes, Brian's ready. At least, that's what he told myself. Brian ran past the living room and into the kitchen. The rain keeps getting more horrible as the wind dominates his hearing.
And Brian notices something. He wasn't coming through the backdoor... But around the house.
"The fuck...?" Brian asked himself quietly.
Scott and Cassandra ran quickly and silently made their way back downstairs to the kitchen where Brian was and took out large knives off the knife rack. As they crept out of the kitchen into the living room, they had a ominous feeling of dread as if they were being watched. They could barely see in the dark of the night and they couldn't locate the house's light switches, the only source of light they had was their flashlights. As they scanned all entrances to the living room, something moving caught Cassandra's eye. There was soft thudding that accompanied the squeaking of old wood. As Cassandra looked around to make out another vague shape in the flashlight, she saw what made those thumping noises.
It was crawling on the ceiling like a large, twisted spider. He gripped the ceiling and watch them with his eyes that burn like fire. Cassandra screamed at the top of her lungs at the very sight of it. He undug his fingers from the ceiling and landed on the floor in front of them with a crash, mere inches away from Cassandra.
It was a large beast with grey fur, and the only differences between his appearance and that of a human being, was his short snout, feline eyes, and a long tail that moved in every which way. He wore a dark shirt with jeans and shoes, more like a human than any old regular beast. His head resembled that of a domestic cat, although, it looked as if the head didn't belong to the body.
No doubt that this was Catman Jack himself.
Cassandra turned and ran behind Scott, hiding from the abomination. Scott and Brian lunged at the creature, but he moved around the room with such speed that they were caught off guard, and fell as Catman Jack struck them with a clothesline maneuver. Cassandra ran upstairs and locked the door behind her. Only to hear a thunderous crash of broken glass as Catman Jack leapt through the window.
"Please don't hurt me!" She cried out to the monster.
He studied her for a moment. He tilted his head questioningly, like most cats do. "Who are you?" I heard it say in a quiet, raspy voice. A shiver ran up her spine as he spoke. Her mouth went dry. It took several tries before she could speak.
"Cassandra Miles..."
"Why here?"
"I don't know..."
Cassandra's heart thudded against the inside of her chest.
The monster spoke again. "Why?"
"Because I've heard the stories about you, and I wanted to know if they were true."
Catman Jack licked his lips, again, like a cat would. "Those stories are complete bullshit."
"What...?"
"They always make rumors about me, just because of my appearance. But. They're wrong. They don't know the usual tale; The kid get's pushed around, the kid is bullied, everyone always picked on the kid with the unusual appearance. I wasn't born a monster who eats people... I was just troubled."
"This is impossible... People asked, people wondered: the police, the hospitals, the people in the neighborhood! And... And your telling me that they're-"
"Liars... They've forgotten. They only remembered what they wanted them to. Like you."
Cassandra can feel his hot breath in her face now as her back was against the door. And it smelled like the crypt. "Will I at least tell someone about it...?"
"You can try. But your mind will fail you. Now that everything I was. Is lost in memory."
"If I won't remember any of this," she said, calming down, "then why tell me?"
"Because... an innocent soul like you should know. You're lucky to be alive... Now go... Before I change my mind."
And then she and her friends went home.
As she walked home from school the next day, she found the cat again, it is now known to her as a reminder about the danger she faced.
The cat, still watches Cassandra, to this day.
Credited to Pyschopasta
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