Death Day

A Story by cocoapeebles3

I sat down on the frigid steel chair, my legs went numb. I could feel his piercing stare on me. Looking up, I realized what I should have already known. A jagged sharp object cut through my chest wh

I sat down on the frigid steel chair, my legs went numb. I could feel his piercing stare on me. Looking up, I realized what I should have already known. A jagged sharp object cut through my chest while his glowing green eyes unnaturally shone through the darkness. My life was flashing before my eyes. I remember how it all began.

A decrepit van lumbered into the driveway of the house next to me. The door creaked open and a sleek black cat with neon green eyes looked straight at me. An old man emerged from the truck holding only one box near his head- almost as if he were trying to hide his face. He went up the rickety porch steps and shut the door behind him. Days passed and nothing stirred in the old house. It seemed as if the house were abandoned. After about a week, I managed to stop stalking the old man and his cat. Why was I so engrossed in what he was doing? I knew nothing interesting would happen. Besides, it was an old man’s house, he wasn’t going to have a rave party…

Going up to my room, the floor steps creaked and groaned. I was about to hop onto my bed, but stopped short when I noticed that my diary was missing. It was there before I played stalker. I threw back my covers and ruffled through my drawers, to no avail. Who could have gone into my room? Mom and Dad knew they weren’t allowed in there. I went down to the kitchen and saw a trail of muddy cat paws on the mahogany wood floors. This made no sense because there was only one trail that ended in the middle of the room. Feeling frustrated, I went back to my room and tried to rest for a while. I must be seeing things! I wondered if my neighbor’s cat took my diary… wow, maybe Mom was right. Maybe I’m thinking like a cheerleader right now. The thing is, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about who had taken my diary. I lay on my bed thinking, until fell asleep.

Every day, I thought about the diary less and less. Every day until my dad came in the house complaining that the shears were missing, I went to the shed and I saw the paw prints leading to the spot where the shears had been. Gasping, I felt a cold chill running up my spine. “I’m going to the store to buy more shears!” I yelled to dad while running to my car- but I stopped short. There were more paw prints that lead the car. That wasn’t all. When I opened the car door, a package was sitting on the passenger seat. I tore open the wrapping paper- which caused several paper cuts and found only one object. My diary. I flipped the diary open and found that on every page of it, there was only one word- besides my own- that had been added. The word was “death”.

I flew from the car, away from the monstrosity before me. Then, I heard a gasp and two bellowing screams- that of a man and a woman. I entered the living room and wished I had looked away. “Mom, Dad…” I whispered. There was no response from the dead corpses. I ran to the phone and dialed 911 as quick as my shaky fingers could. “My mom and dad! They’re… they’re dead…” I dropped the phone. The realization hit me. “THEY’RE DEAD!!”

I was in the interrogation room with the cop that had come to my house, taken the bodies, and offered to bring me to the station. The weird thing was that the police was here in two minutes- literally- his excuse was that he was a block away from my house, patrolling the town. I got goose bumps when he asked me a particular question.

“Any suspicious characters?” I hesitated. Should I tell my suspicions? “No, not that I know of…” I replied. “Please tell me all you know. It’s for your own good.” The cop urged. I decided I should just tell the truth. It wouldn’t do me any bad. “Well, there is something strange about my neighbors cat…” “A cat? What does a cat have to do with a murder?” the cop replied. I informed him about the two robberies and the cat paws. I stopped at the diary though because I was still shaky and couldn’t stand to think about it. The peculiar thing was that any other police man would have thought I was crazy, blaming a cat on the accounts of robbery and murder. But the old police just looked at me. He asked me where I was prior to the burglaries. Hesitating, I lied and told him that I had been at cheerleading practice. I was really stalking the neighbors, but if I would have told him that, he would’ve known that I was completely loony. Reconfirming, he said “so… a cheerleader…” I nodded. At least that much was true. Five minutes passed- it seemed like hours- while the police man just wrote on his pad. Finally he spoke. “Interesting story. Too bad I caused it.”

Looking up, I realized what I already knew. The man sighed. “You know I have been watching you. It’s ALL I’ve been doing.” I tried to stand up, but I was frozen. “Do you think I wouldn’t find you?” he asked, a smirk on his face. “Look around us! Is this a NORMAL interrogation room?!” I looked around the room, surprised by the nailed shut windows and cemented doors. “No…” I squeaked. I sprang up and ran to the window. I tried to pry off the boards, to no avail. The old man just sat down so still that I wished he was dead. I began to hyperventilate.

“Why me?!” “You know, I asked my cat the same thing.” he responded. I thought he was crazy. But then the man, cop, burglar- whatever you want to call him! - said “ But he was so persistent that it was you.” Now I knew he wasn’t crazy. I suddenly remembered the one day I had killed a black cat. Was it the same one? I had backed up my car and heard a shallow, meow- type scream.

I mumbled so low that I was almost sure he didn’t hear me.” I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any harm and-“ “NO HARM!” he cut me off. “PLENTY OF HARM!!” he raged. “It wasn’t on purpose…” I whimpered. “Maybe not, but you KNOW it did harm. Now, harm will be done to you…” he said nastily. “Cats get run over every day.” I said wearily. I hoped I sounded more persistent and brave than I felt. There was utter silence. Suddenly, the lights turned off and a second later, they turned on again. I screamed. The old man was standing and closer to me now. Ni could hear his feet slowly coming towards me. Coming to kill me.

I could only think of two things. One was the fact that this was it, I was to be killed. Another was, my parents. Their death, it was all my fault! I would die with guilt in my heart. I remembered the times we spent together. When I was little and we went to the park together, when I was older and we watched movies together, and last week, when I had come home shortly after running over a cat to go to the cheerleading game with them.

“And I can’t believe you didn’t notice the signs…” he said. “what signs?” I asked. “The diary said you would die, the cat prints signaled that it was me and that it was revenge, the shears were a symbol saying that you would be killed with a sharp object, and-“ I cut him off mid-sentence. “You were telling me my death day…” “Yes I was.” He replied. “But you weren’t smart enough to realize it.” He laughed greedily. I remembered how my mom always said I was such a cheerleader- dumb, not able to see what was right in front of me. “Enough chit-chat.” I started crying. Then, I felt it. The cold stab in my chest. It was over.

© 2016 cocoapeebles3

Author's Note

This is my first attempt at a short story. I would really appreciate it if you could leave me some notes or comments on my strengths and weaknesses and anything I could fix or add, thank you!

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Featured Review

Mik Mak

So good, really intriguing, your introduction hooked me right away, I couldn't stop reading. The one problem that I noticed was your diolouge was sort of confusing to understand who was talking. Usually when a new person talks you would add that in a brand new paragraph. But other than that is was very good.