Chapter 1
I never liked it, the little room at the end of my house. We called it “The little room of the cats” because when we first moved to the house and opened it, hundreds of cats escaped from it. I had never smell something so gross and, since that time, we didn’t opened it again. And the years passed, many of them, lots of them.
During that time, a lot of things happened to my family, for example, my mom left us without notice; i didn’t care that much though, she wasn’t the best. She used to get a little aggressive with my younger siblings, not with me, she used to say that i make her feel uncomfortable, mostly when i kept staring at her in the middle of the nights; it reminded her of the cats in the little room. Every so often i miss her.
Time passed and my siblings moved out… we no longer talk like we used to, i think they too feel a little uncomfortable around me. I don’t do it on purpose. At the end the only ones left were the house and me. Me and the house.
It occurred in one of the worst summers i have ever lived. In the streets, you could feel the skin cancer flying in the air. It was around that time that i heard it. The first time was during the night, around nine PM; i was already in bed. I shared one of my bedroom’s walls with the little room, and in that moment i heard it. At the beggining a frenetic strumming, like if an army of rats were trying to climb the wall, then it came the moaning, short but deep. The last one was the silence. I didn’t hear anything more and i couldn’t sleep at all… Was it rats? Did the cats enter again in the little room? I lied when i said that i couldn’t sleep at all, with time a fell asleep as a log. The night is my favorite moment, where i can feel peace and silence, with the exception of that moment, of course.
During the next three days i didn’t hear anything. Not a strumming, not a moan, only silence. I checked if the door was still under key and as a matter of fact, it was. I laughed of myself, of course it was closed, no one comes to my house and i’m the only one living here. I laughed a little more of myself.
But that night, while i was eating in the company of silence, the noises returned. The strummings were now in every wall and the moan was long and horrendous. But it ended and the silence returned as well.
Yes, it should be rats and if it weren’t rats then it were cats, and if it weren’t cats then it was something bigger.
That night i went to sleep more late than usual. The noises came back and didn’t stop until early morning. I woke up at five, the sun was it down but you could already feel the heat. My body was completely wet. Everything was in silence. My white roof stared at me. Did i heard it in my dreams? The noises… The phone rang. It was in my bedside table and i quickly answered.
“Hello?” my voice echoed. No one answered, only the sound of interference and silence.
“Hello? I asked again. The call ended.
I stared the roof until dawn.
Since that phone call, everything went for worse. You could hear the strummings and moans all day long, the phone rang constantly and when i answered only the silence was heard. Many times i ran to the little room and knocked on the door, shouting so it would stop.
“Enough! I had have enough, i will call the… the fumigators – and the noises stopped – Ha! That’s right.
But the answer that i received was an incessant crackle that twisted the beams of the entire house. That night i didn’t sleep well, and for the first time i dreamed of my mother, didn’t know why.
The annoying crackle woke me up. It was still night. I sat on my bed and stared at my feet for a while. The blue of my veins stood out on the white of my skin. I went to the corridor. The door of my room was almost at the end of it, and next to it was the little room. It’s door was ajar.
“Could you stop?” My voice didn’t echoed in the corridor and a cold blast reached my feet.
“Please…” The door shut.
I went to sleep.
During the day the phone rang again. I answered quickly.
“Hello!” I didn’t mean to scream, i don’t like it.
“Hello… Carmen?” it was a female voice.
“Mom? It’s that you?”
The call ended.
That night i stood up in the corridor, staring at the door. When my eyes were beaten by tiredness and closed, i heard the sound of its hinges.
Next morning my mom called again, she told me that she was lost, didn’t had any money and asked for my help. I asked why she hasn’t returned home so we could fix everything. The call always ended in that momento.
That same night she called again. The noises were unbearable. She was crying and didn’t know where she was, she was scared.
The door of the little room opened and closed with such force that i swear that the house was about to fall apart.
I went to sleep again.
The next day my mom didn’t call. I spend all day in front of the little room’s door. I approached her, i touched the door’s handle and stroked the key that kept it closed. The phone rang.
I ran to pick it up.
“Mom?!”
“Why did you do something like that, Carmen? Why did you do something like that to me? What did i do to you?” She was crying.
“Mom…”
“Why?”
I didn’t answered instantly. I wanted her to feel the same silence that she had made me feel before. The strummings, the moans and the cracks began to rumble all around me. Inside me. It was making me crazy.
“Because… Mom, Do you like cats?
“No… i hate them… I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! I HATE THEM! I HATE EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!” Her screams drilled my head. I covered my ears but it was in vane, it was in all the house. The house was screaming. I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Enough! Enough! Enough!” I went back to the little room of cats and stopped in front of it. “Enough! Enough!”
The weeping that escaped from inside was distressing. I turned the key with anger and entered. The smell was so gross. “Enough! Enough! Enough!”
It was hard to move among all those little feline bodies, but i made it. She was staring at me, i could tell all the hate that still lived in them. I squeezed her neck with all my force until the house went silent again.
The door of the little room of cats shut and, in the floor, a phone where you could hear interference.
