Cardinal Feather

“No, really! It’s not that hard at all!” I hopped forward, looking for a more enlightened facial expression; I didn’t find what I was looking for.
“That’s easy for you to say, you’ve been doing it since you were, like, eight, or something stupid like that.” She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.
“Oh, come on Tessy, you’re a cat, catching birds should be in your blood,” I shoved my paws in my black hoodie pocket, letting out a negative groan to her stubborn behavior. “Whatever, I’ll just show you, I’ve gotta catch my mom a cardinal anyways.”
“A cardinal? What does she need a bird for? She’s in the hospital, isn’t she? Are birds even allowed in hospitals?” She turned around, letting her snow-white scarf flip in front of her and almost hit me in the face.
“I dunno, probably not,” I smirked. But it’s her favorite bird, she always keeps one of their feathers on the loop of her collar my dad got her.”
“Well you said you’d catch one in the forest path, right?” She said taking a step to the side and rising her jet-black, right paw, introducing me to the ever so familiar forest area. “Ladies first,” she teased. Normally I would come back with a snarky comment, however instead, I walked down the path a bit before making a stop. It was a sudden stop, and nothing was said between the two of us for a moment or two. There was a calm silence, far too calm to be innocent. My back paws rested against the soft grass while the sparkling greenery that over-grew the land whistled in the wind. Then I herd the click of a bird plucking a berry from the tree next to me. To my luck, it was a cardinal, so I quickly pounced, grabbing the bird and the stick, breaking the small flimsy wood and landing in the grass with my paws cupped together low to the ground. It was all one swift movement.
“Got it!” I turned around and smiled, releasing the bird’s head between my claws, feeling it’s tiny, racing heartbeat in my palm.
“Impressive, but that doesn’t mean I can do it. Besides, I have to stay after school for hockey, then go to the gym.” She examined the bird closely as if she were talking to it and not me. We had been taking this rout for a while; it led to my neighborhood, which led to the school where she usually always stayed after. We spend a lot of time together, don’t get the wrong idea; she’s my best friend! A lot of cats joke around and say that we’re married, I dunno, maybe I like her. But I’m not willing to risk the relationship we’ve had so far.
My neighborhood was as lively as ever. Many young cats were playing freely in the streets, most unsupervised. Open windows and friendly neighbors waving hello and working on their beautiful yards. Not many of these houses were unkempt with young cats my age offering to mow their yards for some extra money to spend. However, there was one house.
An eerie house we passed almost every day, about two streets from mine. The front yard was surrounded by a rusty, black, chain linked fence. The grass was a dark shade and grew over most of the decrepit building; weeds wrapped themselves around the weaves of the fence and up the outer walls. As we walked past it we saw a small group of kittens, mostly boys, throwing stones at the house. All the windows were already broken excluding the tiny circular one near the roof. This was nothing new.
“Hey! Stop that you little hooligans!” Tessy shouted at them, and they shuffled a few feet back startled by her presence.
“Whoa, Tessy calm down, it’s no big deal,” I slumped against the fence. “When I was little I did it all the time.”
“That doesn’t make it a good thing,” she scowled looking back at me, but I returned it with a toothy grin.
“You know there’s a legend about this house, right?” The kittens seemed more amused by this than Tessy, who crossed her arms and gave me a stare of distaste. I continued anyways. “They say a beast lives in this house, and that’s why nobody has ever torn it down,” I circled the group slowly. “Inside our city boarders, most cats have never even seen a predator, but this one is in a deep slumber on the top floor. They say that if you can hit that top window and break it, then the beast will visit you in the night. Depending on his mood, he will lead you onto a life of adventure… Or he’ll eat you.” Tessy still looked unamused, however the kittens gleamed in wonder at the legend.
“Will you stop being stupid now? I don’t want to be late, coach will kill me,” she said as she began walking towards my house, leaving me behind. I groaned.
“Why do you even play sports anyways? I mean, they’re fun every once and a while, but having practices just ruins your life.”
“I guess that’s why I’m better than you,” she said turning around and bopping me on the head with per paw. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Were we really at my house already? It seemed like such a short walk. I waved her off goodbye before unlocking my front door, stepping lightly into the hallway and peeking into my father’s room. He had his little black box on his lap, and was unaware I was home. I have seen this black box very often recently, and it’s very troublesome, especially considering that he would keep something like that away from me. I walked into my room and dropped my backpack on the floor loud enough for him to hear. The scrambling of two glass bottles hitting each other came from the other side of the walls before the box was closed with a thumping sound, and then clicked as it was locked. Finally he slid it under his bed like he did every day, and ventured into my room.
“You ready to go?” He said forcing a smile. My response was never different.
“Of course.”
The car ride wasn’t the longest, but I had taken it so many times that I might just be used to it. We drove on the side of a cliff, and I liked to look over it to the forest path I had just caught a cardinal in. The hospital wasn’t the largest, but it was still big. The only places I knew around it were my mother’s room and the cafeteria. I opened the door first, embracing my mother with a hug before handing her the plastic baggie of pills. She was always so great full for them. “It must be such a burden to come all the way out here every day for me,” she always said, but it really wasn’t. We were both very worried for her and tried to stay for as long as we could. My father said he was leaving for some food and gave us some alone time.
“I’m going to be heading off to bed soon Clyde,” she sounded weary.
“Early again, huh? Well that’s good. You need your strength.” She nodded in agreement. “Oh, but wait a second,” I said reaching into my hoodie pocket and pulling out three bright red feathers. “I got you a few more of these.”
It put a bright smile on her face. “Oh sweetie, you didn’t have to! I know how hard catching birds must be, well, I was never good at it at least.”
“It’s no problem, really.”
“Well you should be meeting up with your father right about now. Make sure you tell him I love the both of you, okay?”
“Alright,” I said as I opened the door and backed out, closing it silently. I went down to the food court and surveyed anything that was a dark blue, but didn’t see any trace of my father around. I wandered a bit before assuming he would just go back to the car; when I spotted him go into a room. It was strange, was one of his friends sick as well? I crept up to the door, so I would not intrude, and found myself speechless. My father’s arm was wrapped around another woman, and more importantly, so were his lips. “Dad.” I stated staring from the doorway. I was in disbelief. My dad’s ears lowered and he remained in a silent state of shock.
I turned around and ran, he might have called for me, but I couldn’t hear it. I ran straight out of the hospital and past the car, and down the street. I ran past my school and continued to run through the forest path until I reached the neighborhood. I fell to my knees and panted heavily, I hadn’t run that much in a long time. I looked up through my watery eyes, and whipped them away, pretending I wasn’t so upset. I looked over at the house I stopped by, the abandoned house. I picked up a sizeable brick and chucked it. It was a clean, straightforward throw that shattered the small circular window at the top of the building. It didn’t make things better, but it helped my calm down. I walked the rest of the way home so see my father had already arrived. I didn’t say a word to him for the rest of the night.
I was in a bad mood for a majority of the next day. I didn’t say much, and I dodged questions from Tessy such as, “Are you alright?” The walk home even seemed longer than usual, there was a lot of awkward silence between Tessy and I, but I think she was just giving me space. I reached my house, saying goodbye to Tessy before walking in to see my father sitting on the couch, waiting for me. I started to walk past him.
“I want to talk about what you saw yesterday.”
“I don’t,” I snapped back at him.
“I don’t want you to tell your mother,” he looked up at me with his pale, yellow eyes.
I could feel rage building up in my stomach; she deserved to know! My ears lowered, I could feel my fur stand on end as I was about to reply, but then something caught the corner of my eye. Out the window behind my father there was something large and black, was it flying? It looked like it was the size of a car. But slowly it got bigger until I realized it was headed straight for the window, so I dove out of the way, covering my head and eyes. I herd a loud crash of crumbling glass and drywall. I heard my father scream in a rather feminine tone.
I looked up to see what had caused the damages. My estimate was a bit off, it was a bit smaller than a car, but it was black, jet-black. Its scales shined in the minimal light in our house, and had a long trail for green fur leading from the back of its neck to it’s tail. It’s large claws dug into the carpet as it raised it’s head, the green fur coming from the sides of it’s face and two long white horns that faded into black. Its eyes jolted open, their golden gaze pierced my soul. A creepy grin grew across his face, practically from horn to horn. It slithered towards me in one quick movement, it casted a dark shadow over my entire body as it looked down at me with its toothy grin. It chuckled, a deep chuckle, as it opened its mouth letting its large forked tongue droop out slightly. It didn’t have any teeth, however its mouth was jagged and sharp around the lip area.
“Hello,” his word rang through my head but out the other side. I gave no response but a terrified stare. He seemed unimpressed and opened his mouth once again. I assumed it was to speak, but then I felt a warm radiation from it on my face, it began to light up a bright green before my father broke me from my trance by hitting the monster with a lamp. When doing so, he was forced to turn his massive head and shoot out the bright flame, hitting the wall, breaking it apart and leaving a deep black charred mark. However no fire was left behind.
“Run,” I herd my father chant, but I was focused on the black figure. “Run!” I herd again before I snapped back into reality. I looked over to my father, when he was hit in the stomach by the long serpent-like tail and knocked across the room. I scrambled to my paws, panicked, I shot for the door but our new guest blocked my path. I quickly changed my path and crashed through the window, rolling across the yard before sprinting away on all fours. I turned around to see him float from my house without my father. He didn’t have wings, but he was flying.
“A dragon?” I muttered to myself as I looked back at my approaching foe. Children and neighbors cowered around. Some had left their houses to see what the commotion was about, but quickly retreated back into their homes, it looked like he was alone for this one.
I was two streets away from my house when I passed what used to be a house. A house that was standing only yesterday, but remained only charred bits and a mangled, rusty fence. It was the abandoned house from the other day; I could feel my heart sink into my stomach. Not only that, but he was floating much faster than I could run, and he appeared very leisurely about it. Before I knew it he was next to me, floating at the pace I ran, he just looked at me until I noticed. When I had, I came to a screeching halt. “It looks like there’s some fight in you!” The dragon seemed very pleased as he circled me, “I like that.”
“W-what the hell do you want?” My voice was shaky and cracked; it made me feel pathetic.
“Isn’t it obvious?” He got close to my face and gave me a bright smile. “I’m going to eat you!” Well that’s pleasant, at least he seemed to think so. I needed to get somewhere safe, but my mind was racing and I still needed to deliver my mother’s medication that I hadn’t even picked up from the pharmacy yet. I was so frustrated with my father that I simply went straight home and assumed he would get it on the way there.
“Well that doesn’t sound very fun,” I pulled on my collar, sweating a bit.
“Well maybe you can impress me,” he lifted a claw and stroked under my chin, but I quickly swatted it away with my own claws. There was no visible damage, but I felt how hard his scales were, so it wasn’t too surprising. “If you can put up a fight and resist me long enough, maybe I’ll let you live, but I sure haven’t eaten in a while.” He chucked again. He seemed awfully happy about this. “After all, you did break my window, right?” I didn’t offer a response. “Well all right, if that’s how it’s going down,” he licked his lip and put his back feet on the ground, ready to lunge.
I took a step back, but nearly had a heart attack when a blue blur collided with the chuckling nightmare in front of me. It screeched with the sound of clashing metal, it was my dad! “Get in the car! Hurry!” I was quick with it, and buckled my seat belt as my father slammed on the gas and skidded off. My heartbeat was still racing.
“Listen, it’s not safe here, we need to get you somewhere where there’s security.”
“Mom still needs her medicine though, dad. I’m sure there’s some sort so security at the hospital.”
“No, I’ll take care of that, I just need you to be safe.”
“No, I still have to tell mom about what I saw yesterday!” There was a silence; I noticed we were next to the forest path.
“Listen Clyde…” He sounded upset. “I know your mother is not well, and what I did was wrong but.” He was quiet. “I’ve been talking to some people, and I’m going to be on medication soon for depression. I know it was wrong, but I just… I don’t have faith anymore Clyde. And if you tell her, well, I’m afraid the news wouldn’t be good for her already declining health.”
I already assumed he was depressed, but this? He believes mom isn’t going to make it out of this alive? My heartbeat picked up again, and I just looked at him with a horrified face. Just how much trouble was mom in? I didn’t dare ask, but I felt the tears well up in my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I felt myself say under my breath. It was enough for him to hear, because I saw a soft smile creep up on his face.
This fairly touching moment, however, was violently interrupted by the screeching of tires. Our tires. I looked forward through the windshield to see my new nightmare had returned to me, unfortunately the breaks weren’t enough and we collided. Everything went in slow motion for a second. His horns dug into the front of the car, stopping it immediately, jerking us forward, then he lifted it, his horns ripped through the metal as the vehicle came off the ground and was thrown into the air above him. I could see the road looking forward, now we were upside down, it all turned so slowly. The road seemingly came down on the car; gravity was in the wrong direction as the top of the car hit the pavement. It then became apparent that my father was not wearing his seatbelt.
Everything went black for a minuet or two, maybe more, I couldn’t tell. Everything was bright and blurred when I opened my eyes, my ears ringing. My head hurt, my arm hurt, my everything hurt. I managed to claw my way out of the metal contraption and looked around dazed and confused. I finally came to when I spotted what looked like a dull, dark blue rug. It was dad. I shouted for him but got no reply, there were blood streaks around him, and they made my knees weak.
“I never got a chance to introduce myself,” the worst thing ever to reach my eyes floated down effortlessly between my father and I. “The name is Dimitri,” he chanted with a bright smile, but I just held my arm and stared at him with an upset expression.
“Clyde…” I muttered to him. “My name is Clyde.”
“It looks like your injured, Clyde.” He snickered.
I didn’t say anything; I simply darted to the right. The cliff was steep, but there were trees, and I made the leap. I wasn’t afraid of the jump, I wasn’t afraid of Dimitri at that moment. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but I felt like I could take on the world as I fell. This feeling was short lived as I felt something tug my hood back, swinging my body in 180 degrees. Dimitri had caught up with me, and got a firm grip on my injured arm. “Here, let my help you with that,” his eyes widened, his sharp, zigzag maw opened wide and clamped down on my wrist. Flesh was torn, I felt my own bones crunch, sending a shock through my whole body. The crimson red blood shot from my sleeve as I let out a blood-curdling scream before hitting a branch of a tree and falling to the ground with a thud. It knocked the wind out of me.
Tears rolled from my eyes as I lie there in the soft grass. I couldn’t feel my paw, but what I could feel felt like a thousand needles that were on fire were piercing my skin. I don’t know how long I was lying there, but when I got up, my stomach expelled itself on the grass below me. Tears still rolled down my eyes but I forced myself to my feet, tying my hoodie sleeve around my wrist. I don’t know how much good it was doing, but there was less blood. I limped through the forest, one paw clamped on my arm as hard as I could, when my mind triggered something familiar. It was really quiet, too quiet. I stopped. I was not about to go out like this.
I let go of my arm, placing a paw on the branch next to me and stopped moving, barely breathing. I herd a bird land a few branches away from me, but more importantly I herd some bushes rustle as Dimitri leaped from it at me. I was ready, I snapped the branch from the tree and swung it quick. It made a whipping sound as it raced through the air and nailed the dragon right in his bloodthirsty golden eye. I spent no time listening to his wails of pain and simply started running until I was out of the forest. I went into the pharmacy and many moved out of my way due to the blood. I denied any help and simply snatched up my mother’s medication before leaving the building. I had to make sure I made it there alive. However, the black figure did not head his direction, instead it headed towards his school. “Tessy!” I shouted before running once again. It probably wasn’t safe, but I already saw one person I’m close to harmed by this hell I unleashed.
I busted through the front doors; it appeared abandoned. I herd a crash and headed in that direction, “Tessy?” I called out, but locked eyes with Dimitri once again. He smiled, then flew towards me with incredible speeds, but was cut short by something thin and wooden. A hockey stick, and the agile black cat following it was just who I was looking for. I didn’t get a chance to say anything before she grabbed me and dragged me into a room; it was a janitor’s closet.
“Shhh!” she put her paw over my mouth, but gasped when she saw me bleeding. She reached around the closet before finding a first aid kid and began bandaging up my arm without saying a word. She looked terrified.
“Tessy this is all my fault, I let him here.” She just looked at me, concerned but gave no reply. “I came here to make sure you were safe, but I still have to get my mother’s medication to he-“ My rambling was cut short as she lunged forward and planted a kiss on me. I sure was happy that my face was covered in fur; otherwise it’d be bright pink! “I- I-“
“Shut up.” She said before finishing with the wrappings around my arm. They already looked like they were bleeding through. “I’ll take care of block head, you get to a hospital you idiot.”
“No, Tessy, you don’t understand! He’s no normal predator!” But I couldn’t convince her before she kicked the closet open, getting Dimitri’s attention.
“Clyde, run.” It was all too familiar of a phrase today.
“Tessy, no, I-“
“Run!” She said as she raced towards Dimitri, spinning her hockey stick. Dimitri appeared confused and didn’t move much, but took a blow to the face. She spun it around her, then delivered a jab to his neck, then another blow to the head. It was elegant and forceful. I was awe-struck as she effortlessly avoided Dimitri’s counter attack and delivered another blow to the head, shattering her stick. “Go!” She shouted again. It was obvious she had everything under control.
I scrambled to my feet and ran the opposite direction; Dimitri seemed displeased and shot a ball of bright green fire at me, charring a door to an English classroom. I made it out of the school; it wasn’t that far away from the hospital.
The rest of my journey was undisturbed externally; internally however, I was fading. The loss of blood was well out of his ability to count and the rags were soaked. I made it to the hospital weaving back and forth. I reached into my pocket for the medicine, but struggled to get it out. I limped in, causing a bit of panic, but couldn’t walk the full distance and tripped in the middle of one of the halls. I was exhausted, but determined, but then a nurse came to my aid. I looked up to see whom had come to my aid. It was the very woman my father kissed yesterday. “It must be my lucky day,” I muttered before fading out, hearing muffled speech and scuffling before everything went black.
Hungry… My eyes lazily shifted open and I looked around at my surroundings before sitting up. There was a cast on my left arm and a bandage around my head. I was in a hospital robe and I spotted my freshly cleaned hoodie across the room. I herd a gasp of air to my right and looked quickly, spotting Tessy rushing over to my bed.
“Clyde are you okay?” she was in my face and it was really bothersome.
“Ugh, just really hungry,” I muttered.
“Well that makes sense, you’ve been out for two days!”
“Two days?” My heart sank. “How’s my mom? My dad?” She looked away from me. It was bad news. My heartbeat rose. “Tessy?”
“She didn’t make it, Clyde,” she muttered almost under her breath. I couldn’t believe my ears. All my effort, all my pain I went through and she’s gone. I felt a mixture of emotions, extreme sadness and rage. I felt tears roll down my cheeks. “And your father.” She was hesitant. I looked up at her with hopeless eyes. “He’s in the ER. He broke a lot of bones, Clyde, but he’s still breathing.”
I leaned back in my bed, and rested against the pillows. Was this really how my life was meant to play out? Did it really need to come to this? “I’m sorry,” I herd her mutter, she looked very upset for me. It made me feel bad, worse than I already did.
“Well, at least you’re fine,” I reassured her, drying my face. “I never got to thank you for buying me time, I might not be as well of as I am without you.” It made her smile.
“No problem, someone’s gotta be around when you go messin’ things up, man.” But she pondered something. “He got away. Dimitri, I think his name was? I don’t know where he went. I stayed here for the past few days to make sure you were safe.”
I was no longer feeling feelings of sadness and anger; it was something else, rising from my belly. It felt like butterflies. “Well, that’s a little weird don’t you think? I mean it might be normal if you were my girlfriend.” I looked away from her; I must have sounded so stupid.
“Well, I guess if it means keeping you safe, then I suppose I can settle for such a clueless cat,” she said ruffling my head. “But I’ve got to go now, school starts soon and I was just checking up on you. I’ll get your homework, kay?”
“Okay,” I waved as she left the room, and then slammed the back of my head into the pillows. I finally get a girlfriend and I don’t even have any parents to tell about it. Something irritated my neck, so I felt around it to see what it was, and I grabbed hold of a collar. A light blue collar, it was his mothers. The thing that was irritating him was what was attached to it; a bright red cardinal feather.
I wasn’t supposed to leave, but I put on my hoodie and unplugged myself from the contraptions. It took me a little while to find the strength and balance, but I managed to walk. I felt so old as I walked through the forest, everything ached and I was practically limping. I finally made it to my house; it looked like it was in ruins. I opened the front door and let myself in, like it really mattered and shut the door behind me. It was still cold so I put my only good paw inside my hoodie pocket and bumped the small package he worked so hard for. They didn’t even get it out of his pocket.
The house was dark and damp. Most everything in the main room was ruined or ruining from rainwater that got in. I walked to my parent’s bedroom door and pushed it open lightly to find their empty bed. I got down on my knees. And reached under the bed, pulling out a wooden black box. I sat up on the bed as I clicked it open to reveal its contents. Hard liquor, three bottles. It didn’t surprise me that my father came in here to drink away his problems, it seemed logical enough. I went ahead and lifted a bright golden liquid that got darker near the base. Jack Daniels. It reminded me of Dimitri’s eyes. I took a swig of it; it burnt a lot, tasted horrid, and refused to stay down. It made my eyes water and I looked down, coughing. Through my watery eyes I saw something else in the black box beneath the liquor.
A gun. A shining black hand gun. Tears fell on it. My tears. I was completely blind to how close to the edge my father really was. I took hold of it, checking the clip to find a single bullet. My suspicions were correct, but I could hardly believe them. I fell backwards pointing the gun straight behind me, my paw on the trigger and with a click the safety was off. At the end of the gun was a jagged toothy-grin, ironic for something without teeth. “Oh, you’re home already?” He was smiling. “I’m surprised you haven’t done yourself in yet.” He chuckled at my agony, I could feel that he knew every piece of information that circled the situation.
“This is your fault.”
“Yes, yes it is, but that’s how the legend goes right?” He appeared satisfied with his accomplishments thus far. “I have removed your attachments to a normal life, am I wrong? You can now live a life of adventure, you’ve proven that you have the willpower. Or,” he pressed his snout against the gun. “Are you going to let your emotions get the better of you and finish your agony? Become the clump of meat I’ve been working so hard for?”
I wanted to pull the trigger more than anything in my entire life, and my chance was right in front of me. “No.” I said demandingly. There was no more fear in my heart. “I will not succumb to these emotions, and I will not lead a life of adventure with the likes of you!” I got up from my lying down position and stood on the bed, towering over him, holding the gun with pride. “If anything I will be dedicating this day forward to making sure you don’t see the light of day! Making sure that I am the last thing you see before your lights go out!”
Dimitri looked up at me with an emotionless expression. “Then what are you waiting for? Your finger is on the trigger.” It trembled in my paw. I squeezed the trigger slowly. Click. I forgot to put the bullet back in.

-End-