Cat's Eyes - A Halloween Short Story

By Glenda Reynolds

I’ll never forget that Halloween at my Grandmother Mimi’s house. It left a lasting impression on me. There were three of us kids including me and my two siblings who lived with Mimi. I loved the fact that her house was built on a sloping hill just outside of some woods in the Tennessee country. Other than the television, the woods provided a good place for pre-teen kids to play. The dirt driveway was home to several dogs that were chained near their dog houses. I always wondered why there were so many dogs since they were not used for hunting.

       Just days before, her son - my Uncle Victor - came to visit. He just lived a few miles from Mimi’s house; his visit was not out of the ordinary. There was a stray tabby cat that just wouldn’t leave Mimi’s property. Why would it when there were children that gave it love and attention? I peered out of the kitchen window at Victor who was seated just outside the window. Across the driveway from him sat the tabby cat oblivious to my uncle’s intentions. Victor pulled a small pistol from his pocket and shot the cat. You can imagine that as a child, seeing an animal killed for the first time would have caused some distress. The cat was confused as it writhed on the ground before dying. My brother Sammy acted like a big boy as he volunteered to throw the cat’s body in the woods. My uncle wasn’t a mean man; he thought he was doing his mother a favor. After all, it was another mouth to feed. Who needs a cat, right?

       That image was burned in my brain.

       After school, I went into the woods to be alone with my thoughts. The autumn leaves crunched under my feet. The smell of fall was in the air as the leaves fell into brown and gold piles on the forest floor. There was a woody vine that we would swing on in the center of the woods. I blew off some pent up energy by swinging on the vine. On my second try, I slipped off and fell in a pile of leaves. I immediately felt a stinging sensation as a wasp stung my leg. After swiping it off, I rolled onto my knees. The sound of crushed leaves made me look behind me. A tabby cat lay there with its ears pinned down and large black eyes. It emitted a guttural growling and hissing as it edged toward me. It looked just like the cat that I had seen die just a few days before.

       It can’t be!

        I clawed my way up the slope. My eye caught the movement of a snake to my left going in and out of the leaves. I tripped over a thick tree root and landed on my face and stomach. There’s nothing like a black, hairy spider crawling towards your face to get you up and running again. I could have sworn I saw a pair of glowing eyes following me at a distance.Beautiful daylight greeted me as I ran out of the woods, down the small hill, and into the house. I crossed the den and sat at the kitchen table where my brother was putting the finishing touches on a Jack-O-Lantern. Sammy stuck his tongue out at me as if to say, don’t touch my pumpkin, or else! After the afternoon I had, I wouldn’t dream of it.

       After several minutes, I stood up from the kitchen table. I happened to glance out of the kitchen window. I took a quick intake of breath…for at the edge of the woods was a pair of glowing eyes.