The forest was quiet
But footsteps remained The black fur stood out from the bright white snow And no creature dared to utter her name Leaving the forest with silent snow The humans cold breath left smokey trails His eyes searched desperately He stepped carefully As to not wake anything in the silent snow Her icy blue eyes scanned the endless forest Her sensitive nose picking up the scent of a different creature Her stomach rumbled in hunger And disturbed the silent snow His hair prickled from the cold and from fear Two eyes stared at him from afar Something was coming from him His pace quickened in Leaving footsteps in the silent snow His footsteps stopped as she pounced His scream cut short by the knives in his neck The white stained to red And now red silent snow She stood back from what she had done An inhuman sound of a thousand voices left her mouth The forest was one you would never go A monster is what she was and what she would always be And she remains in silent snow
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Inspired by a real adventure of Dante the cat. My name is Dante. I am a cat. Sometimes I like to go on adventures. Well, not sometimes. I always like adventures. The problem is that I don’t get to have them very often. My favorite adventure was being adopted. I remember the day my daddy picked me up from my foster family’s house. I was sad to leave, but also excited to see my new home. As well as my daddy, I met my mommy, my human sister, and my big feline brother, Milo. They were all very nice, and I was happy to live with them.
As I got older, I grew accustomed to my new family and house. Soon, it was hard to think that I had ever lived somewhere else. As a result, I started to get bored with the house. The only times I had ever left it was to go to the vet (which, in my opinion, is worse than staying home) or to go on walks with a leash, and although this is always fun, I wish that I could roam around without the limits of my family. Which explains why I see open doors as opportunities. I don’t usually make it far. Someone always grabs me before I can get past the front porch. But it’s still worth a try. Oh, how I long to have freedom! Then I would be able to go wherever I want! I wish my family would take me with them when they go on vacation. That would satisfy my needs. Well, wants. Whatever. Even though it seems like I never get to go explore on my own, I did make it past the front of the house once. One day, a couple of years ago, my daddy had a friend over for the afternoon. After a little while, he needed to pick my sister up from school. His friend walked out the door to leave, and since Daddy wasn’t there to watch me, I made a run for it! I expected to get grabbed like I usually do, but for once I went unnoticed. I had made it! I was free at last! This was probably the most exciting day of my life. Where to go first? The possibilities were overwhelming. I eventually decided to go to the east. I couldn’t wait to explore places that I’d never seen. I always wondered what was beyond my home. I have been to the vet, as I mentioned earlier, but Daddy always puts my cage in an awkward spot that makes it very hard to see out the window. All I really knew was that there are a few houses near my own, which I had seen out the window or on walks, and that there were other buildings near the vet’s office. I think they are called “stores”, and I don’t think anyone lives in them. When I started walking, I saw some houses that I had never seen prior to that. I wondered if these houses had other cats living in them. I never found out if this was true, but I did find out that there were other cats living somewhere in my neighborhood, because a few minutes after I left my house, I ran into a white fluffy cat. It was a female, and she obviously was familiar with the area. “What are you doing in my territory?” She asked. “I..I’m just passing through,” I replied. “Oh, okay. You new to the neighborhood?” “No. I’m just an indoor cat. I snuck out today.” “Okay, then. I won’t get mad at you, since you didn’t know. By the way, I would avoid the bottom of the street. It gets really muddy down there, and it’s hard to clean off.” “Well, goodbye then.” “Bye.” I walked away from there quickly. I had heard stories about cats being territorial. There was no point in getting in a fight if I did not need to. I decided to do what I came there for: exploring! There were so many new sights and smells! There were squirrels and birds everywhere, and I even saw three deer in a meadow. There were dogs, too, but thankfully they were fenced into their yards. My favorite thing was the trees. I love climbing, but there aren’t enough things to climb in the house. I climbed up a small pine tree, and I could see so far! I could even see some of the town. There were a lot of “stores”, and more houses, too. I didn’t see the vet’s office. I had to stop myself from thinking about the vet. The idea of it kinda took away from the fun. So, I distracted myself. Running down the tree was this weird, sticky liquid. It looked like it tasted good, so I licked it. Ewww! This stuff was terrible! Not only did it taste bad, but some of it got stuck in my fur, and it wouldn’t come out. After that bad experience, I climbed out of the tree and decided to roll around in the dirt. I did that for about 15 minutes, but I got bored soon. Time for more exploring! I looked around the neighborhood some more. I didn’t want to go too far, at least not yet. I made plans for my future: I would live outside, but still visit my family from time to time. They would see that I was perfectly capable of living on my own, and let me do so. I would go on all sorts of crazy adventures and- Ooh! A hole! I love holes! I like to stick my whole arm in them to see if I can catch something. I did that with this hole, but while I was reaching in there, a male brown tabby appeared. “Here we go again,” I thought. “Hey! You can’t dig in holes here! This is my land!” he said. “Oh….. Well, oops..” Then he ran at me and tackled me. I used the skills I had gained from wrestling with Milo, and fought back. I clawed at his ankle, but he took advantage of my position and bit me on the leg. “Mrowwwawawoooooooowwwwwwwwwwww!” I screamed. I jumped about three feet in the air and tried to run away. He hung on to my back half, and I struggled to wriggle free. I sprayed urine at him in self defense, but he did not let go. Suddenly, he stopped to lick himself, and I was able to take off! He was close at my heels. We ran all over the place. In my opinion, it was totally ridiculous, since we weren’t even on his property anymore, so he didn’t really have a motive anymore. But he kept chasing me, so I kept running. It was similar to play fights that I had had with Milo, except that Milo was never really mad at me! Then, I heard the cat suddenly stop. “Look to your right! Run!” He yelled. At first I thought he was playing a trick on me, but I knew I was wrong when he took off in the other direction. I finally looked to my right, and there was this huge dog standing not a foot away from me! Boy, did I run like the wind! I wasn’t even positive that it was chasing me, but at that point I didn’t care. I ran right to the bottom of the street, and I fell in the mud. I remembered what the white cat had said, and I ran back up the hill to my next door neighbor’s house. The house is on stilts, so I could shelter myself under there. I have a sensitive stomach, so I threw up from all that running. I was just about to lie down and rest when I heard something, and...yes! It was my mommy and my sister talking! I started walking towards them, and I meowed to get their attention. I was so happy when I got back inside my house! Still, the experience didn’t ruin adventures for me. I promised Milo that if I ever got the chance, I would escape again and take him with me. We would return later, of course. But the one thing that I will be careful about next time is wandering into the wrong places! The new girl. Walking through the halls, looking at people you think you know, but you just hit the surface. People are instead talking about YOU behind YOUR back. The new girl. People around her, some she just met, treating her like a friend. Inside jokes she wouldn't know. Not knowing who to talk to. Forever and always - The new girl. People start to see her as annoying, but she's just reaching out for people to talk to. Feels like you're in a pool of quick sand drowning, people watching, but not helping. All of a sudden your friends, you thought you knew, ignore you. All alone. Drowning. Now she will always be known as - The new girl. They sat across from each other in a small bus station waiting room. Each one firmly planted on a hard wooden bench sitting parallel to each other. Nothing stood between them, only the painful memories hanging in the morning air.
Her finger tapped wildly against the bench as she waited for him to say something. Nothing. She finally looked up and their eyes met. She noticed that his fingers that had once cradled the curve of her neck were now also tapping on the bench. His knee began to bounce. She wondered if he felt uneasy or scared. Why was he tapping his knee? Why won’t he say anything? She began to feel urgently upset about this tragic goodbye. Wishing that she could know what he was thinking, she watched him stand up and leave without muttering a thing. After everything that they had been through all she got was a longing look as a goodbye. Does he even care? Did he ever care? Her fingers move from the bench to her face to wipe away the tears. Stricken with pain and sudden loneliness her back collapses against the bench and she weeps. Drowning in memories, longing to go back to the day when they first said I love you, she cries. ______________________________________________________________ An icy shiver runs down my spine when I hear the excruciatingly familiar voice. How is he here, how is it even possible? He should still be in jail. How could they let him go just because he did community service. Every time I see his face, the features that I once fell in love with, I suffer. Looking down, I examine the beautiful face of my two year old daughter gazing back at me. I forgot how much she looks like him, only her face is innocent and beautiful and his brings pain. “Who's that, mommy?”, she says. My face burns with indignation and anxiety as I hold back tears. I clench my jaw so hard my teeth ache. I cannot bring myself to tell her so instead I scoop her precious little body into my arms and turn to him. “Why would you show up here without telling me first? Please leave us alone.” I say in the calmest voice I can muster, trying not to scare my daughter. As I scamper down the street, away from him, I can't help think of the day, two years ago, when my life was altered forever. The terror and hatred I felt on that day all rushes back to me like it was just yesterday. Dropping to my knees I can't take it anymore. Most people think I should be over it by now but I will never be over it. I fell in love with his eyes and his laugh and he used me. I have just begun to get my life back and move on and now here he is. My parents disowned me because of him. Alone at 18, scared, confused, hurt, and still he comes here with enough nerve to find me. My poor daughter, helpless and scared, sits beside me on the sidewalk while I sob. My breath catches consistently while I remember the day. All the pain and horror and confusion that I felt for so long comes out in tears and screams as I lay in a heap on the sidewalk. A little finger that belongs to my two year old, pokes my shoulder. I remind myself that my daughter even though she came from that monster is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I wipe away my tears, stand up, and take my daughter home. The hands grabbed my bare legs.
I felt the world going black slowly. Helplessly screaming at the top of my lungs, I got pulled down to the ground sobbing. It started pulling me away into the woods. I blacked out. I woke up in the forest ground Not daring to open my eyes, I listened Just silence A velvet black surrounded me The eerie stillness creeped me out Slowly I summoned the courage to stand up Hesitantly, I took a step. It made an echoing crunching sound all through the woods. Without thinking, I started to run. I could've sworn I heard extra footsteps behind me. I abruptly stopped and, right then, I heard an ear splitting scream. |
MSMS Literary Magazine
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February 2018
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