Chapter Four: Penny Lee

Ever since I was a kid, Penny Lee, a beautiful black cat, was there to see me grow up from a happy, rambunctious kid, to the solemn and lonely man I am now.

My parents had died in a house fire when I was thirteen. I was at school at the time, and I didn't have any friends since we had just moved there. Penny Lee was the only one that listened to me. Her golden eyes slowly blinked as she gazed at me. Maybe it was for food, but I like to think it's because of a connection we have.

She was a very smart cat, opening doors and hissing at suspicious strangers. I never questioned her intuition, and I lived to see more days for it.

The day Jopp came, she wasn't scared, but her eyes seemed to warn me. Jopp wasn't insane, but he could be incredibly cruel. The three witches were eaten: barbecued, deli-sliced, and churned into ice cream.

I wish I could blot out the gory details, but Jopp wasn't selfish.

He held out the human thigh that was slathered with sweet sauce. "What do you call this one? Thighlicious?"

"Stop it!" I groaned. "That's beyond disgusting!"

"Come on!" Jopp urged. "They deserved every second of this." He munched into the juicy flesh and grinned. "Tastes a bit spicy."

"I like spicy," I mumbled.

Jopp licked his lips and heaved a great sigh. Penny Lee meowed at him, and her tail was twitching. Jopp glared at her. "Don't act innocent with me, Penny Lee." She seemed to be studying him for any kind of weakness.

"She's not a demon," I muttered. "She's not a demon. She's my friend. She's a cute little furry black ball with glowing . . . yellow . . ." When I glanced at her, she meowed at me. It was an impatient sound. "Oh, she's just hungry."

Jopp held out a charred foot to her. She responded with an angry growl.

"She's not a demon," I sighed with relief. "Don't feed her that! She eats the best meat in the house, the elk seasoned with her favorite ghost sauce."

Jopp chomped on the foot and swallowed it whole. "You don't say." He opened up the fridge and sniffed the pet food container. "She eats this crap? It smells like dead fish stuffed up Hitler's ass."

I stared at him for a minute. "You know about Hitler?"

Jopp frowned. "I haven't been sleeping all these centuries. I've been watching from the shadows."

I glared at him. "Watching who? Where were you?"

Jopp shrugged. "Here and there. Places rampant with fear and sorrow filled our bellies."

"Our bellies?" I reiterated.

Jopp grinned. "You didn't think there was just one of us, did you?"

Penny Lee meowed louder, and that spurned me into action.

Jopp growled as I cooked her meal.

The small moments where my undying love for my cat drove Jopp to the backseat couldn't make me happier.