She smiled at me and held out a tray of cookies. Her white hair was exactly like I remember. I started to reach out for the tray, but stopped.
“My grandmother died when I was twenty five.”
“I know dear. Have a cookie.”
“How are you here?”
“I live here.”
“But you’re dead.”
“No dear, your grandmother is dead.”
“Why do you look like my grandmother?”
She smiled. “Have a cookie.”
“What happened to Kevin?”
She frowned. “Who?”
I pointed upstairs. “The boy that died.”
“Yes, I remember, he was once a nice boy. He fed my kitty and I gave him cookies. He was sad and later he was angry. Very angry.”
“How did he die?”
“He was angry. I am tired. Have a cookie so I can rest.”
I took a cookie off the sheet. It was warm and sweet. For a moment I felt like I was five years old again.
When I finished, I found myself standing next to my cruiser. I had no memory of climbing out of the house. Looking back at the house, I could no longer smell the scent of baking. As I approached the house again, the only thing I could smell was cat piss. A big fuzzy tomcat stood guard outside the rotten outside door. As I approached, the tom growled and hissed. I was not supposed to enter.
I tried to walk past but the tom latched onto my leg and I had to kick it off me. More cats lined up and blocked my path, each one hissing and growling. With a little bit of intimidation, they scattered.
The smell of cat piss burned my nose as I walked into the back hall. I suddenly knew why Ron had struggled for breath while looking for me. Coughing, I made my way to the kitchen, which I found in a similar state to the rest of the crumbling house.
I turned and went up the stairs. Cats were now following me and getting in my way, hissing and spitting.
At the top of the stairs, the twelve year old Kevin stood in my way. “Why?” he said.
“I need to know what happened.”
“I told you.”
“You said that he got angry. That doesn’t explain what happened.”
Something moved in my peripheral vision. It looked like someone was sneaking up to attack me. I instinctively flinched, but when I opened my eyes again, no one was there and Kevin was now gone.
I entered the cat food room, the tuna can I had brought was partially eaten, but there was no cat around.
My eyes were watering from the smell of cat piss. As I blinked away the tears, something moved in the back corner of the room. Shadows flickered up the walls and across the ceiling. I drew my pistol and pointed it at the motion.
I blinked hard to clear my vision again. For a moment, I was pointing my gun at my own chest but then it was pointed at the shadows that still moved in the back corner.
“He was angry.” I said.
There was no answer.
I put my pistol back in its holster. “And you used his anger against him.”
The shadows shrank and a white and black short hair stepped out of them and lay on the ground breathing heavily.
“You’re the cat lady.” I walked up and scratched its head. It was exhausted. “And this is the only way you could show me what happened.”
After that, the cats cleared out of the old cat house. The white and black short hair knew it couldn’t stay after it had been discovered.
We humans always fantasized that we would be the ones that developed abilities like telepathy and mind control. Would this cat’s special talents be passed down to her children or will this anomaly end with her? She knows to stay hidden. She’ll no doubt pass that inclination on to her children. We won’t know if they’re around, and even if we found them, they might be able to trick us into forgetting they exist.