CAT H: INTO THE VOID

"You’re done" His voice reverberated through Mr. H's head, like an endless echo chamber. With every passing second, the room seemed to get darker and darker.

"We can't have someone with a criminal record on our team" Each word hung in the air, slowly floating away, as he watched the last constant in his life do the same.

"You understand, right?" The walls of the pale office collapsed. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, he wanted to cry but it wouldn't come, he wanted to punch something but didn't have the strength to, it was just numbness.

And now he was here, on top of the building he couldn't bring himself to leave, because if he did, it would really be over.

Staring over the edge, the Fetid city looked back at him, tauntingly.

The once gentle breeze whipped through his tattered suit and dirty hair, like needles crawling through his skin. The darkness encapsulated his eyes, displaying the days deprived of sleep. His legs could go out at any moment, but maybe it was for the best.

"I'm sorry"

.

A flash of thought came to his head—the only thing his body had strength left to think about.

"goodbye" His quiet words blew away in the wind.

He took one last breath, closing his eyes and allowed himself to tilt over.

The few seconds of weightlessness felt almost blissful as he waited for the gravity to claim him.

....

Did I?

...

Well, I'm not cold anymore.

In fact, I'm warm.

But there is a familiar scent... the trash of the city.

Did I survive?

Couldn't have. Not from that distance.

He knew his question would be answered if he opened his eyes, but for some reason a feeling, one he has felt the most the past couple of months... fear.

What am I scared of? I'm the one who did this to myself anyway...

Damn it! Here we go.

His eyes slowly opened, revealing a cramped space between two tall buildings. The yellow paint on them barely noticeable from years of dirt buildup and maintenance neglect. You could see the road straight ahead, but between him and there was only garbage and bins.

I'm in an alleyway?

"Strange. Did I fall over here?"

"But I swear I was nowhere near the alley"

He looked around to find himself inside one of said bins.

"Did the garbage break my fall? No, impossible from that high up"

"I don’t feel any pain. Am I paralyzed? No, I can still feel my hands and feet, but... they feel... different."

He was perplexed as to what this strange feeling could mean, or why he was still feeling anything to begin with.

"I should at least get off this trash first, and then try to figure this it out"

He tried to stand on his feet, but the movement caused the garbage he was on to shift, throwing him off the pile of trash to the ground.

"Woah!" He yelled, but realised he couldn't stop himself from plunging into the puddle below

He instinctively pushed out his hands, hoping to break his fall.

And to his surprise, he landed on them, and his feet, the bottom of his feet. Only creating a slight splash in the water, less than any human should've produced from that fall.

"Was I always this athletic?" He mused.

He looked down at the puddle, as the water slowly settled.

Expecting to finally see the state of his body. It instead revealed a silky midnight black void, with green eyes looking at him.

"Yea yea, I already know I have bad luck. Now shoo cat" It stayed still, staring him back from the puddle without moving.

"Stupid cat." He got slightly irritated more at the situation than the cat. He looked up, trying to see where it was reflecting from but didn't see anything.

"Did it leave?" He looked back at the puddle; it was still there.

He did a double take again, only to still not see it in the reflection.

"Huh? Is that a ghost? Am I really dead?" He tried to get a closer look but so did the cat. Startling him in the process. He pulled away with catlike reflexes.

"I-I-It must be a ghost. So that means I did die after all. Wait that means I'm a ghost too, so I shouldn't be scared, should I?" He steeled his resolve and took another look, the cat seemed to be mimicking his every move.

"Hey! Quit doing that. Are you a copycat or something?"

"Tsk" He decided this thing, whatever it was, wasn't worth his time as he had bigger fish to fry. "I don't have time for this" He tried searching for his reflection in the puddle but still couldn't see himself.

Luckily a broken mirror was near the base of a trash bin. "Perfect" He exclaimed as he looked in its direction, crawling over.

But there it was again. "Damn it, you-!"

"Wait" A realization dawned on him.

"It moves as I move... this strange feeling in my hands and feet" He finally looked down expecting a human torso. Only to find two little furry feet.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!" His screech could possibly break windows.

"Don't tell me... I'm the fricking cat!?" He trembled in disbelief, shock and fear all at the same time.

Alright H calm down, this can't be, I must be dreaming. Yes yes, this must be a dream. HAhaha...ha...ha ....

Yep this is definitely not a dream, and I can’t keep calm what the heck am I going to do now? I don't know if I have the guts to do that twice.

"Oi! Who's out there screaming their heads off like this?" A voice boomed out the alleyways. Mr. H jumped at the sudden intrusion of another presence in the otherwise quiet alley.

"You’re gonna give away our location to the Aca's (pronounced Akas)."

They jumped up from the shadows behind a bin.

Mr. H expecting a person to come out from somewhere. His mind was racing, thinking about what they would do if they found him.

But instead, it was a cat. Fur white, blue eyes like the ocean was going to come spilling out. He leapt down onto one of the many cardboard boxes that littered the alley.

"I swear if..." He paused as he made eye contact with Mr. H.

"Ohhhh, looky what we got here" He began to stride closer. Mr. H didn't know what to do. Should he be more scared that a cat was talking to him, how cute it was, if it was going to try to attack him, or the fact he was a cat now himself?

The cat approached, striding confidently, but menacingly. Mr. H decided to accept his fate as there was nothing he could do anymore, besides he was trying to die anyway.

"Oi KG" The cat stopped inches away looking Mr. H, or Cat H at this point, up and down with a smirk.

"You don't look like you’re from the ground"

Mr. H confused as to what he was talking about stayed quiet.

"Hey you ignoring me!?" Realising he seemed to be getting annoyed with every second he didn't talk, Mr. H responded barely forming words from the fear.

"I-I don't understand what you mean?"

"Oh, so you’re from those two-legged freaks’ domain, aren’t you?"

Two-legged wha-? Does he mean, was I a human? Must be right?

"Uhh... yea I am"

The white cat smiled, showing teeth, Mr. H couldn't tell if he was happy or was about to eat him, or both.

"I'm Shiro, nice to meet you" The cat exclaimed proudly

Huh?

"Uhhh... I-I'm H, nice to meet you too" Mr. H responded, not too sure who he is right now himself.

"Come on, I'll show you how we do things down here" He turned, walking away expecting Mr. H to follow "If you don't wanna starve that is."

Mr. H was still confused as to what was going on, but he had a feeling he had better get used to it soon if he didn’t want to end up in an even worse situation.

They walked, exiting the alley into another one.

Shiro stopped in front of a side door to a building. Mr. H followed suit.

"And now we wait" Shiro said, looking confident as usual.

What could he possibly be waiting on? That was the question that came to Mr. H's head.

...

They were maybe there for over 30 minutes, leaving Mr. H to wonder if he was actually insane and just imagining all this. But then the door popped open.

"Haha, show time" Shiro pranced up to the door, doing something that I didn't think was possible from this majestic confident cat. His demeanour totally changed, he looked up at the guy coming out of the side door of the shop and did the cutest kitty eyes I'd seen while meowing softly.

"Awww" The guy at the door couldn't contain his submission to the feline. He was holding a pizza box. "Don't worry kitty I've been saving these just for you" He looked to the side and saw Mr. H patiently observing the scene in front of him. "Oh you brought a friend? Don't worry there is enough for both of you in here." He opened the box, placing it down, and went back in as quickly as he came out.

"Heh, works every time" Shiro again with the knowing smirk.

"Dig in H, this is the best food you'll get around here"

Mr. H walked closer and looked down at what Shiro was so quickly putting down.

"Fish? On pizza?" Mr. H responded

"I know, awesome right?"

"That's terrible, how are you even eating that?"

"Oh, look at this two-legged minion over here. What were they feeding you in there? You’re the first cat I've heard of that doesn’t like fish pizza"

"But Shiro I'm not even a cat, I'm a human."

"Puuphhh hahahaah" Shiro laughed so much he spat out his pizza.

"I didn't know you got jokes like that H"

"I'm serious, I really am" Mr. H adamantly interjected

"Yea? Then how did you get here?" Shiro, still not believing, decided to go along for his enjoyment

"Idk I was trying to... then I was here, as a cat."

"Why" Shiro mused curiously

"I was at the end of my rope, I had nothing left but to exit with my last shred of dignity." Mr. H spoke solemnly.

Shiro looked on, waiting for Mr. H to continue the story, still eating the fish pizza, like he was at a movie theatre.

"Sigh" Mr. H let out a tired breath

"Fine. If you want my full story, here it is."

"It all started 4 years ago, things were going good I had a good paying job and when I went home my family was always there to greet me. But when I lost my job, things took a turn"

"The wife I thought loved me, didn't even look my way until the divorce papers were signed, she took almost everything, including majority custody of our daughter as I didn't even have a job I couldn't even fight it. Ever since then I was only able to see her once a week, while the rest was spent breaking my back for minimum wage and dealing with yelling bosses every day, but it was all worth it because I would get to see my daughter every weekend. The money was tight, but I still wanted to do something nice for my daughter's birthday, I couldn’t afford anything too expensive, but some good food at a cheap restaurant should do. However it proved to be my undoing. I left the table for one second to get another drink, that’s when I saw a guy I didn't know touching my daughter's head, it was as if my brain turned off in that moment, I punched him so hard I broke my hand. He fell and hit his head on the way down. He ended up in the hospital, my daughter hated me and I was sent to jail. I only found out after that he was just putting back the bow that fell. When I got out, I tried reaching out to the guy to apologize, but the only response I got was a summons and the court took away the time I could see my daughter.

My boss fired me from my new job, as having a criminal record is against their policies.

It’s like I've been running on empty for a long while and as soon as I got a little gas, it only added fuel for an explosive fire.

"So now here I am with nothing, and without my daughter's love there was nothing holding me to the world anymore. She's better off without a good-for-nothing dad like me anyway, I just kept making her life worse"

"And who decided that?"

"Huh?"

"Who decided that your daughter was better off without you?"

"You made a mistake. That doesn't mean you don't deserve happiness."

"And you’re really stupid for thinking she would want you dead, for making that mistake."

"But there is nothing I can do now, it’s too late for me"

"Follow me"

H followed Shiro through the busy city streets, arriving at a tall white building. Shiro took him through some weird spaces, and alleyways they were climbing on top of various things.

They eventually got to a window on the mid-section of the building.

H, confused as to why they are there, was about to ask, when it came into view.

A scene that would make the strongest of them break down in tears.

It was a little girl in a chair, to the side of a hospital bed, looking over someone. No, not just a girl, it was his daughter.

He was excited that he got to see her again, even if just one last time.

But that excitement turned sour fast.

As he got to take a look at her face, her eyes, looking just as he did, at the end of his rope.

He didn’t know he could sink any lower until his supposed broken heart shattered into the void.

He wanted to cry but the tears couldn’t come.

“Please, someone…”

The quiet hum of the ac, the beeps of the machine, the sound of distant traffic.

He opened his eyes. The white ceiling was bland and unwelcoming, the hospital bed hard and uncomfortable, but small hands were soft and warm, his grieving daughter’s hands in his. He wanted to speak, but his words were lost. He reached out a hand onto her head, lying on the bed. The movement woke her up as well, but instead of crying more, it was as if she understood what he needed in that moment, flashing a toothy smile.

At that moment he realised, the freedom of a cat was never worth the tears of an angel, and he would do whatever it took to make sure his angel always smiled.