Melancholia

Remnants 21 - The Cats and the Micemen

"Meow," the cat called out, sitting on the window sill in front of me. "Meow~"

I am a writer, sitting in a bungalow I bought with the money from my successful works. A wonderful holiday I had, enjoying life, but now it's time to get back to writing.

"Scribble, scribble, scribble," the pencil went.

"Meow~ Meow~"

I felt that it was time for the cat to go, so I shooed it away. Back to writing, I thought.

"Scribble, scribble, meow~"

"Meow!?" I looked out side the closed window again and the same white cat was still sitting there, sitting upright.

I tried to shoo it once more, and it reciprocated. It held up it's left paw, and waved it front and back, tempting me to follow it. I had never seen such a thing before, nor have I ever heard of a cat with that trick; well, this one didn't have a collar either. Who could have taught it that?

In immense fascination I found myself, so I went out to get the cat. The cat, upon seeing me, began to run away. Fortunately, I could keep up with it, as it ran all the way through the neighborhood, and even into the city. It was hard, but I was sure that it was worth it.

I followed it all around, until it stopped, at a dark alley at the back of some buildings. It walked inside in a casual manner, or so it seemed to me, as it was no longer running. I saw it went into the darkness, fading away into the shadows. Disappointed I was, and turned around to leave.

"Meow," it appeared again, once again upright, waving. It seemed that it wanted me to follow it more, so I did. It was quite dark in the alley, with lots of trash cans and litter. Some cats I also saw, hiding in the cans, hiding in the hard, black shadows of the back alley.

After walking a while, it stopped and stood upright, not waving, but had its paw up. It soon left, and I waited. As expected, it came back, with a small body in its mouth.

Approaching me, it dropped, placed gently the body onto the ground and pushed it towards me. I looked down upon the cat, who was just sitting there, and then upon the body. From afar, I was sure it was dead, a dead mouse. Yet, something felt odd.

I bent down, aiming to get a closer look. I eventually squatted down in front of the body. As expected, or more rather unexpected, it was not quite a mouse. It was humanoid.

The body of a human it had, the head and face of a human and the arms, hands and legs of a human. Yet, it wasn't completely human. Its ears, gray and furry were on its head, like a mouse. A tail it had, and with feet of a mouse. Covered in blood stained gray fur, only exposing the face, hands, leg and tail, it was uncanny.

It was, certainly, dead. Curious I was, and I asked the cat, where did it get it from. The cat pointed at a tainted green back door, and I went to it.

"Squeak! Squeal!" I heard, feeling something run by my feet.

A cat ran too, seemingly chasing after the previous entity. I chased after the cat, and the white cat followed me too. Soon, I found a dead end, with the previous entity hiding atop an air conditioning unit. I shooed the cat away, it just walked away. The white cat arrived, and just sat there, looking at me.

"Help me..." cried out the entity. I looked closer at it and it seemed to be another of those weird mice, this time a brown one.

"What are you?" I asked, curious.

"What, oh sir, what!? I may as well have you know I am a 'who'."

"Alright, who are you?"

"I am Ben Harvard, fellow miceman of the Southern Alleyway."

"Miceman?"

"Yes. I am heading back home but the cats won't let me."

"I'll help you," I said, extending a hand. I was curious of the micemen, and wanted to see more. "Climb into my pocket."

He slid easily into my pocket and stood there, only his head popped out from the pocket. The white cat saw what had happened, but just walked away, ignoring me.

Ben, the miceman guided me throughout the journey to reach his home. To my surprise, it was not far from my house.

Once we arrived there, he showed me his huge family. There were so many, I couldn't count them all.

Then, he showed me his room, a cardboard crate. He asked me to stay and sit anywhere I'd like, but I couldn't find a chair, so I squatted down.

He told me about his life, and about finding his wife. However, about his life before, it was blurry, and he was not sure about it. Then, he told me how happy he was, living with his wife and children.

Soon, it was time for me to leave, and he wished for me to visit him regularly.

"Meow~" the white cat meowed while swaying its tail. It sat there, with a face that looked like a grinning one. "Meow!"

A destruction of cats appeared suddenly and pounced towards the mice. Together, they slayed and killed all the mice, leaving blood scattered everywhere. Only a few mice managed to escape and hide away.

"It's not my fault, okay? They followed me!" I shouted as I ran away from that horrendous scene, leaving them to their own demise.

"Meow~"

"What now?" I asked the cat. "You killed the micemen and what now?"

"Meow," the cat pointed at me.

Suddenly, I was covered in cats, a whole lot of them. So much fur... Achoo!

The next thing I knew, I was back in front of my house. Just now, was that all just a dream? No, it could not have been one. I have to write it down, have to record it. I have to try find Ben and explain. I am going back.