A Lost Cat

Chapter one

In a clearing in the middle of the forest, far away from a busy town, a young girl ran through the tall grass. As tears streamed down her face, she laid in the middle of the clearing and watched the clouds pass overhead. Her tears dried up as she stared upwards; the clouds dissipating to leave a bright blue sky above her. She stood up to look around the clearing and figure out where she was, and racked her brain trying to remember the direction she came from. But she was left confused as all she could see was a large forest surrounding her. Beginning to panic, she turned to see a building deeper in the woods, peeking out of the trees past the clearing.

The building looked decrepit from the outside; large and covered in plant matter, and the surrounding trees hid it from the naked eye that couldn't see the brown rusted metal and concrete that peeked out. The girl was nervous to approach it but began walking towards it; as it was the only hint of civilization for what looked like miles. She wandered through the front doorway into an area akin to a lobby; with long halls extending out from the back and left of the room, and a pair of doors on the right side. each of the hallways were interspersed with doors on both sides, as a school would normally have. The floor was tiled and had portions that were pushed upwards as roots broke through and grew inside.

She began to look around; walking down the left hallway and avoiding roots from tripping her, when she reached a secondary hallway to her right, she noticed an exit ahead leading back to the forest, covered up by hanging vines and thick greenery. When she turned away to go down the other hallways, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye: a figure standing by the trees through the exit.

The girl froze in fear and slowly began to step back until she saw the figure move to a structure that looked like a playground behind the school. It looked to be in better condition compared to the rest of the place as the metal had not been rusted nor broken apart. The figure; which the girl could see was a man with something on his head, sat down on one of the swings. She held her breath and nervously pushed some of the greenery out of the way to get a better view of the man, causing a pane of glass resting against the wall to fall over and shatter loudly.

The girl begun to hyperventilate as she saw the man look over from the swing set and get up. As the man started to walk over, she turned back to start running, before tripping over a large root, scraping her arm. She scrambled to get up and turned back to see the man behind her, as her foot slipped again and she fell backwards.

The girl laid there, shutting her eyes out of fear of what would happen to her. She muttered pleads not to hurt her in between rapid breaths, trembling until she realized nothing was happening. She hesitantly opened an eye and saw the man, kneeling down and holding his hand out, as if to try and help her up. The girl gazed up at him and shakily raised her hand to grab his, where the man silently pulled her up to her feet and brushed off some of the dirt that had gotten on her clothes.

She could see the man clearly as he stood over her: he was double the height of the girl but very thin, almost malnourished. He wore a dress shirt and pants which looked to have patches of fabric sewn all over to cover lots of wear and tear. But most odd of all was that his head was covered by a purple cat mascot head: with a permanent, toothy grin. The eyes of the head looked a mix of saddened and tired, with black string sewn into the fur under them to mimic rings under the eyes. The head looked old and worn for years, with dark red stains near the mouth and eyes and tattered fur on the ears.

She stared, awestruck as the man silently walked past her without so much as a glance back. He walked to the closed doors at the end of the hallway and pushed them open to enter. The girl had been freaked out enough and started to walk back through the building towards the exit, nervously checking behind her to make sure the man wasn't following her. When she was outside she picked a random direction and ran as fast as she could through the forest. After several minutes she reached an empty road leading towards the town and followed it to get home.