Cat and Mouse

You feel a sharp prick in your neck and liquid flow into your blood. You rise from your hard wooden desk chair hitting your legs hard on the wooden, paper covered, desk in front of you and whip your head around in time to see a dark silhouette holding a shiny silver needle in hand disappear round the corner of the door.

You take a step to follow them when you feel your muscles start to tighten. Your breaths becoming hard. Your muscles continue to tighten. Your clothes seemed to grow on your body going from normal size to one size to big to four sizes to big. Pain rips through your body causing you to release high pitched scream. Your legs collapse from beneath you leaving you sprawled across the floor in a pile of fabric.

After laying engulfed in clothes for a few long minutes you dig your way through to the surface of the pile. You glance around take in your surroundings.

The chair you sat on moments before now towers above your head. Your bed is a mountain of blankets and pillows and various stuffed toys. The toys, even the smallest of them, now seem to be at least four times larger than you. The room is dark except for the moons pale glow shining through the open window and the occasional flash from your mobile phone. The white power switch is now looks to be meters above your head so turning on the light is not an option.

You glance down at your naked shivering body standing in a pile of massively oversized clothing. You bend over finding a lose seam on the sleeve of your t-shirt and rip off a large enough section of material to wrap around your body. Throwing it around your body you tie the ends together creating a makeshift dress. The ice breeze blowing through the the window goes right through you.

You step on the normally squeaky floorboards of your room and find you are so light you do not make a sound. You walk over to the side of your bed and grab an old lollipop stick from the ground and hold it like a sword. You then proceed to find a soft drink lid or something similar to hold as a shield.

A growl sound from the end of the hallway by the front door. The cat must be about to come in as it always does at this time. Holding your lolly stick and bottle top at ready you allow your feet carry you silently to the other side of your bedroom, through the slightly ajar door and into the darkened hallway.

The hallway is practically empty. All that is in sight is a large, muddy, red pair of gumboots laying near the front door, a small (or rather large from your size) phone table coated in layers of dust, and a bright red coat hanging from a sad looking hook (sad meaning hanging half off the wall).

You adjust your grip on the lollipop stick sword in a sweaty hand and hug your plastic shield closer to your chest as the low growling grows louder. Sweat trickles down the back of your cold neck. You know you should run and hide but you also know you can't. Fear turns your legs slowly to jelly. You swallow the lump building at the back of your throat and force yourself to take another step toward the door.

A sour taste fills your mouth as the cat flap starts edging forwards. A cat, your cat, comes into view. She is black with white feet that make her look like she's wearing socks. She also has three small white patches on her, one of them over her right eye, one on her back and the other on her long tail. Her yellow eyes gleam with hunger and her cat mouth appears to be grinning.

You take a shaky breath and point you make-shift sword towards your hungry cat. Your heart seams to be trying to break through your chest. To the cat you guess you look somewhat like a mouse. "Please, please don't hurt me." You say in a pleading voice little more than a whisper. "I'm not food, I'm your friend." You take a few staggered steps backwards.

The cats paws moved her closer and closer. You are consumed by fear. The lolly stick slides from your trembling hand and you lose your grip upon the bottle top shield. You wipe your sweat covered hands on your dress and turn on your jelly like legs to run, but the cat is to fast. It pounces a catches your ankle with a sharp claw leaving a gushing cut.

Your eyes widen in fear as you lay unmoving on the floor with warm thick blood oozing over your left ankle. Mouse like squeaky screams escape your burning lungs and you bite down hard on your tongue to bring them to a close. Instantly, the bitter taste of blood fills your mouth. You try and move but there is a paw upon your back holding you down. The claws are slowly easing there way into your skin.

You can smell the cats fishy breath behind you, feel its purrs vibrating through you, it's warm breaths on the back of your neck, hear the constant growls. You feel the roughness of its tongue as it licks your leg.

Black dots lace the edges of your vision threatening to take away your conciseness. Your hear pounds heavily through your body, continuously pumping blood to the gushing wounds on your legs and ankles and back. It feels like you not only have the heart that keeps you alive but also a mini heart pounding at the opening of each cut. You can feel the sticky wet blood leaving your body. It makes you dizzy. You can feel the warm pool growing and your body getting cold, your life flowing out.

Your will your body to stay alive, tell yourself this can't be real, send the massage through your aching brain over and over again. But as far as you can tell this is a lie, a lie created to keep yourself alive, a lie told to keep you hoping. This feel like the most real thing you have ever experienced.

Tears well in your eyes causing what little vision you still have to blur, casing your life to leave you faster.

Your body is ice though you lay in a warm pool of blood, the metallic smell of blood fills your nostrils and your salty tear now mix with the bitter taste in your mouth.

There can't be much life left in you now but you hold on. Your visions gone, it's as if pins and needles are stabbing your lungs with every struggled breath. Your legs have gone completely numb now and you can hardly lift your head from the ground so you let it drop.

You feel a sharp pain as the cats teeth close around your rib cage crushing them to pieces. You have no hope now so you stop holding on, you let go of the rope holding you and fall away from life. You are left as a limp body held between the cats, your cats, sharp teeth.

* * *

Red light flash across the screen and you throw your headset and controller onto the scruffy green couch. You burry your head in your hands frustrated.

Why does this keep happening? Your voice echoes through your head. You get past the other levels with ease, spent 10 minutes maximum won each level, but have been stuck on this one for days. You read the red flashing lights over and over again. The word imprint themselves into your brain.

Your sick of this. Your have to pass. You pick the controller up from the couch, place the headset back upon your head, and hit the start button. This time you will win the fight, remember what to do. You won't let you legs turn to jelly or you grip to loosen your sword. You will avoid the cat and find the person who staged you with the needle. You won't run out of lives, not this time.

You will not get GAME  OVER again.