The Cat in the Shadows

In the middle of the night, it started to rain. Rainfall that is so heavy and dense that it appears to soak through concrete and drips down every surface. The black cat is perched next to a dumpster, where she had been hiding out while she awaited light before slipping out into the night and staring out over a dark street.

Its slit eyes watch as the shadows loom on its victim and death follows in the wake of the victim. It watches as the man collapses onto the cobbled floor with an ominous crack. The shadows, with eyes blazing sapphire in the dimness, watched. With every step they take, the ground seems more saturated with blood until, when it finally comes to the end, there is just a pool of red left behind in their wake. The cat watches as they stalk off, leaving nothing but the sounds of sirens ringing from somewhere in the distance and the dead...forgotten.

The cat purrs and curls her ears against the sound, trying to block out the sounds that have plagued her dreams for months now.

She knows what's happening. Like every day, every single night a victim meets their doom and all the cat do is watch. It's been this way since the beginning - the victims get up early to jog along the streets, then stumble around like they're drunk at a party. And like every night, the cat hears their screams and the cat watches them fall to the ground in a pool of blood and the cat never does anything to stop it. Its only task is to wait. To be the eyes of those who have done this to people, whose blood was spilled upon these sidewalks because it was not enough. Because something else needs to happen, something that has nothing to do with the victim but is simply meant to serve as an example of what will soon happen to those who break the game's rules. Interfere. The outcome is death.

The cat licked its paws and then glanced up the clouded sky towards one particular star that finds its way out of the clouds, its eyes shining bright blue as it stared into the distance. The cat purred before it hopped off the dumpster into the shadows. The shadows welcomed it, and she snuggled deeper inside as the wind blew gently. The game wasn't finished. She had to keep moving on...