Cindy

The night was so dark that the moon and stars looked like they didn’t belong to our world. There were no silhouettes or shadows. The world was made out of whatever my outstretched arms bumped into and the wet splashing sounds the muddy grass made whenever I lifted my foot, preparing my body for the next blind step.

“Icy!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I could barely hear my own voice. It was as if the cold winter air had muffled all sounds. Or maybe it was the darkness pushing away everything that tried to exist.

A soft meow was returned from the distance, but I couldn’t pinpoint what direction it was coming from. I started to run faster, scratching my skin on invisible trees and bushes. “Icy!” I screamed again. Her reply was still distant, but slightly louder this time. I looked up at the sky again. Most stars had been swallowed by the demon already. The light of the moon started to fade.

“Icy! Here! Please!” My tears were so cold they hurt. My voice was getting raw. This time the meow came from right behind me. I got onto my knees and started crawling towards the sound. I didn’t care if my pants got soaked with freezing water. Icy was here. It would all be over soon.

I couldn’t hold back a sight of relief as my hand touched her warm fur. I picked Icy up and held her in my arms. She purred softly. That’s when I noticed something was off. The fur in my hands was too long. The cat I was holding was lighter than Icy should be. I froze. This couldn’t be. This cat had to be Icy, there was no other way. Maybe I remembered her wrong. Maybe she had lost weight because of the cold. There was no way a stray cat would let me hold her like that, right? I knew I was telling myself lies to deny the crushing truth for just one more minute. I needed to feel like everything would be okay one final time. But my racing hart and clenching stomach betrayed me. I knew I had lost it all.

I took one final look at the sky. There were no stars. The moon was a pale, dark grey spot in a world made of black. “How are you doing, miss?” An amused voice flew through the fields, as a breeze of wind, rustling through the trees. His words crawled into my head as if it were my own thoughts. “Have you found your cat yet? I surely hope so. Time is running out.”

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The voice faded and was replaced by a choir of meowing cats, coming from all directions. There must be hundreds of them. I let the cat slip from my arms.

“You can’t do this,” I screamed at the sky, “that’s unfair!”

“People call me many names, I don’t mind that. But don’t call me unfair. If you make bets you can’t win, that’s not my responsibility.”

I crawled around on my knees, my arms mowing around, pulling every cat I could lay my hands on towards me. There were so many suddenly. Where did they all come from? And they all felt so similar. I checked out their ears, tails, and paws, but none of the cats felt like Icy.

“Icy! Over here!” I screamed one last time in despair. I felt an army of cats push against my legs, all trying to be the chosen one. There were too many to check out.

I looked up at the sky again. I could see the faintest speckle of light if I squinted my eyes, but it melted away in the darkness within seconds.

“I’m afraid your time is up, miss. Have you found your cat?” I grabbed a random cat and pulled it closer to my chest. “Yes, I’ve found her,” I said. I didn’t feel anything that would prove that the cat in my arms wasn’t Icy, but it was still a guess.

“Very well. Let’s have a look, shall we?” the voice said. The night sky reappeared, brighter than ever. The grass glimmerd in a pale, white light, as if the moon had turned into a giant flashlight. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the light. But when they did, I felt my heart fill with dread and terror. The cat I was holding was grey.

“That looks like a game over to me,” the voice smirked, “it was fun playing with you. Enjoy your night.”

The white light faded quickly. My eyes roamed over the army of cats in front of me. They all stared at me with eyes full of fear as the moonlight was fading. There were only around twenty of them. Not hundreds like I had thought at first. Icy was amongst them, trying to get closer, but was pushed to the side by the other cats trying to do the same. I reached over to pet her, but as soon as my hand reached her fur, all the cats scattered, fleeing in every direction.

That’s when the last light disappeared. I was alone again. Everything was dark. “Icy!” I cried a final time, but the only response this time was the howling wind.