Episode Details

The Cat Lady
by Renatan
I don't like cats. I'd even say I downright hate cats, after all that's happened. Okay, you know those urban legends people like to talk about? There's one that's popular where I live, which by the way, is almost the middle of nowhere. The legend has a few different versions and the name is always different, but the creature it focuses on is generally the same in each version. And honestly, the way it's described in the oral versions does no justice for how it looks in real life. I've seen the monster firsthand, as has my twin brother.
Let me tell you my own version of The Cat Lady.
So, my name is Catherine. I'm not really anything amazing, with dark blue eyes and straight blonde hair. The only noticeable thing about me is how many freckles I have on my face and arms, which is probably in the thousands. I don't care too much for appearance so my outfits are lacking in design, but I like it that way. My twin brother, Samuel, looks similar, but his hair is shorter and a bit darker. He's also significantly less speckled. We live in the country with our parents, but we don't really have many animals. We have two pigs, but that's it. We used to have a few horses but they got sold. Anyways, the trouble started on a Wednesday. It was afternoon approaching evening and school was over, my brother and I grateful to be off the cramped bus.
When we came through the house's front door we were greeted by our mother's irritated face. “We have an animal problem.” she said. Samuel exchanged glances with me, shrugging. It was a vague thing for our mom to say.
“What kind of animal problem?” I asked.
“Rats and mice. It would seem our barn cats abandoned us.”
Oh. The barn cats weren't exactly ours, but they did live on our property. They had for the last five years. Why would they leave? “Do you want us to set up traps?” Samuel offered.
Our mom paused, seeming to think about it. “Yes, but only on the upper level.”
I found that weird. Why not the ground floor? Mice were just as likely to hang around there. But I didn't want to argue, so I didn't, and within 10 minutes me and my twin were standing on the second floor of the barn, a fabric bag gripped in my hand. We kept our traps in it. Both of us carefully laid them out, setting them up with bait. The second floor was larger than I remembered, or maybe it just seemed like that because of all the junk piled up. It was like a bad maze of sorts, with crates and chairs and other stuff piled up above my head. I thought I heard the sniffling of a rodent nearby.
I'm not so sure it was a rodent anymore.
By the time we'd finished it was already 5:30 PM and we'd had enough of the cramped barn. When we got to the ground floor we noticed a clump of what looked like grass and cloth in the corner. Bits of hair stuck to it. “What's that?” Samuel asked.
“I dunno. Maybe it's stuff from upstairs. Junk.” I replied. I noticed the hair looked ginger. Funny; nobody here had ginger hair. Neither did any of our ex-barn cats. But then again, who knew how old the thing was?
“Come on, let's go. I don't wanna stand around a mucky barn.” I urged.
“The barn isn't mucky. There's no animals to make it that way.”
I was going to respond but got cut off by the door sliding open heavily. A tall, tanned man strode in, his clothes dirty and showed clear signs of being weather battered. “Sure we do. We got pigs. Pigs are animals, right?” he said with a small smile.
“Hi, dad.”
“What are you two doing here? I thought you guys found it boring.”
“Mom told us to set up traps. Mice.” I said, keeping it brief. I wanted to leave. Like he said, the barn was not only boring but at night it was also a bit creepy. Mice didn't help the situation, as even now I could hear them scuttling about. I wasn't scared of them, I just didn't want them chewing on my shoes or something. Thankfully, we only spoke for a bit longer before we