Hungry Kitties

Jane sighed as she pushed open the front door, groceries in hand and cats swarming about her feet, mewling for attention and food.

“I know babies, hang on!” She says tiredly, moving across the room, dropping her keys on the table as she unloads her armful of foodstuffs onto the counter, rubbing her aching back with one hand idly as she leans back, a series of pops eliciting a sigh of happiness. She looks at her feet at her newest cat and smiles. “Hello Lucy!”

Lucy looked up at her with the same icy stare she always seemed to have, merely sitting on her haunches in silence, waiting for Jane to do... something. She’d found the cat on her doorstep in a carrier some two weeks ago, a note on the top merely bearing the word “Lucy” in a hasty scribble. Since then she’d tried to get the cat to open up, maybe allow her to pet it.

But Lucy wasn’t interested it seemed.

She never seemed to eat or drink and Jane never saw her go to the bathroom or sleep like the rest of her twenty odd pets. No, Lucy merely stared.

She stared while Jane ate her dinner.

She stared while Jane fed the other cats.

She stared while Jane showered and got ready for bed.

She just stared.

“What’s the matter Lucy, are you not hungry?” Jane said to the cat as she reached into the grocery bag, fishing out a small stack of canned cat food.

Lucy merely blinked owlishly in response as the other cats surged past her, all yowling loudly as Jane began to dump the wet food into empty pie tins, dropping them to the ground one at a time with a loud clang.

The cats swarmed and hissed, growled and chewed as they lunged over each other to get globs of the sickening mess, all slithering about Jane’s feet as she continued to try and feed them. Jane yelled out as one of her larger cats, a particularly fat Maine Coon by the name of Merlin, leapt into the back of her knee, sending her toppling to the ground with a sickening crack and a screech of pain, her knee broken.

Screaming, Jane reached for the table, crawling as cats ran around and over her to get at the food. If she could just get to the table where the phone was…

She felt four paws land on her back, the claws digging through her thin shirt into her back for purchase, before her furry passenger chose to sit down on the small of her back instead of moving on for food.

“I taught him that you know,” Came a rich baritone, causing Jane to twist her head from side to side to see who was talking, her voice going hoarse from her panicked screams, “He finally did it right. He’s been trying for the last week to get you just right.”

“Who- who’s there?” She cried, rolling to the side to try and shake the cat from its perch, looking for whoever was in her home. The cats were yowling as they knocked the pie tins about the floor, angry at how quickly the food had disappeared.

She’d only been able to feed them half of their usual amount.

“The natives are restless, it would seem. And with your injury… oh my, what should we do?” The voice asked, heavy with malice. “Ladies! Gentlemen! Please, try and remain calm. Mommy isn’t feeling that well, are you Mommy?”

“Who are you?” Jane cried, her knee throbbing in agony as she tried to push the cat from her back, the annoying beast moving up between her shoulder blades, somehow pinning her to the ground with its weight. “What do you want?”

“Just a decent meal Mommy, just a decent meal. I’m used to my food being a bit more… natural. Raw. Bloody even.”

Jane sobbed, looking up to see that the path to the table was no blocked off by a wall of cats, their ears flat against their head as they all stared at her with unwavering attention. Several were licking their lips as she felt a paw rest on the back of her head, pushing her face into the floor.

“Dinner time!” The voice cried, and in a flurry of yowls and fur they were upon her, teeth and claws digging into her skin as she continued to scream. As she rolled over to try and get her babies off of her, she looked up, eyes blurry from the blood streaming down her face, to see Lucy.

Just as she pounced down onto Jane’s throat, a look of hunger flashing in her eyes for the first, and last, time for Jane to see.