The loud echoes of a few dogs foul barking fades from a small city ally way, making the entire block go completely still. The echoing sound had been enough to awaken Smokey. Smokey was a dark grey she cat with long spindly light grey swirls in her dark fur. Her yellow eyes shined with a deep annoyance as she slipped out of the cat door and out into the lawn beyond the house she lived in. The she cat sighed as she looked around franticly before mumbling "are those dogs really coming to bother us at this ungodly hour?" She sighs before turning and stomping her way back to her home.
Smokey made an attempt at slipping through the cat door without doing something stupid, but she fails. She ends up getting her bristled tail caught in the door, again. Smokey huffs before attacking the door frame, she then slips through the door. She only takes one more step before tripping over a mouse toy and falling head first into the hard wooden rocking chair her human keeps. "Well my day is just going lovely so far" She says sarcastically to herself before lying back down.
"Is it never too late for those dogs to be a nescience to me and my sleep?" she questions to no one in particular as she stretches out along her bed. Smokey lets a small yawn escape her mouth before closing her eyes, as she Starts to drift into sleeps warm arms. Sleep drops Smokey on the ground as her eyes shoot back open at the sound of loud and excited barking. Smokey sits up and walks out her door, only tripping once along the way. "Those stupid rats better hope they've already left by the time I get over there!" She hisses to herself as she Starts to head down the street, setting a brisk pace.
Smokey Starts to slow down after a minute or two because her brain suddenly decided to join her in this walk. The obvious question slithers into Smokeys head. "what if its more than one dog and I get ripped into dog chow." She asks herself. Whelp, it's a bit too late for backsies now" Smokey says in response to the little voice in her head. "So hopefully...they'll be gone already" she says to the air as she slowly unsheathes her claws and Starts to cautiously make her way down the side walk. Smokey looks around as she reaches the end of the street. "Nothing here" she says with a small relieved sigh, feeling safe once again. Her mouth clamps shut as her eyes widen, she had spoken to soon. An unfamiliar scent had just hit her nose like a bite to the face. Her yellow eyes seemed to glow with fear but, sadly she needed to be sure that this was real. She slowly opened her jaws and smelt again, hoping it had been her imagination and there was nothing to be smelt here and she could just go home ...but that wasn't the case. Her ears flatten, according to her nose, at the minimum there had been at least three dogs standing where she was standing currently. She cringes and stamps one paw onto the ground, like a human child who was throwing a fit. "Really? I mean come on more mutts is just ridiculous!" She whines to herself out loud.
She sighed and thought to herself about how many of the others had had been complaining none stop about the racket and how she should just get her human to just put the suckers down, but Smokey hated having to see any animal die, it made her want to barf out her insides. Smokeys thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a small call from her house
"Oh smokes, Smokey where are you darling?" it was Smokeys human, who just happened to be a short elderly woman who wore a pink floral night gown.
She purred before making her way to her owner as quickly as she could. Smokey then slipped back into her house before rubbing against her humans' leg, a small smile on her face. She purred because she knew that as long as she was here she was safe.
Smokey amused her human with silly little tricks even though her human was hugging a shotgun to her side like it was nothing. Smokey tried not to look at the shiny gun her human treated like a child as she chased a small fake mouse across the floor. She watched as her human put the gun back into its beautiful glass case, which was lined in fake gold trimming. Smokey sighed as her human wiped the case off with Windex and a rag to make it shine, like she did every couple of hours.
Smokey squirmed with a bit of discomfort as her human threw the rag and Windex down onto the coffee table and plucked her off the ground without any type of warning. Smokeys eyes scanned the walls and there gentle pink color. She smiled before looking to the table in the hall way, which was scattered with expensive flower pots with cheap houseplants in them. Smokey let out a calm sigh as she smelt the browning leaves of the plants. Smokey loved everything in the house; she couldn't and wouldn't deny it, not ever.
Smokeys attention was dragged away from her homey thought by a sickly cough. Smokey Stared at her human curiously, wondering why she was coughing in mid-summer. Smokey just shrugged off the cough as a one-time thing while her human dropped her onto the cold wooden floor.
She then leisurely padded to her own bed with a tired but happy glow in her eyes as she began curling up. It was only a matter of moments before Smokey drifted into a deep sleep...
"HONK" "HONK" Smokey woke with a Start and jumped out of her bed, her fur bristled and her eyes widened in fear. She looked around franticly as she heard the same honk. Smokey slowly gathered her wits and walks to her door. She slinks out of her house, fur still bristled, and her claws now unsheathed as she stalks towards the sound. Her ears flatten against her head and a hiss escapes her jaws as she sees the animal control van cruise by. Smokey sighed and sat up, rubbing her paw against her collar, silently thanking her owner for it.
Smokeys thoughts are blown away as she hears frightened yips from the van. Smokey can't help herself as she curiously stalks onto the sidewalk who and what had been caught. Her face lit up as she notices the three dogs that had been bothering her and the others on her block for many weeks now.
"Serves them right" She squeaked out happily.
She watches the dogs silently, the smile on her face made it look like she had caught the dogs herself.
Then like fate had planned it himself, the car hits a bump, pushing one of cages up; the dog hops up in a panic, when his eyes meet with Smokeys. Smokey could feel her heart racing as she Stared at the pure terror in the dogs eyes.
The dog barked weakly, as though this would be his final breath "Run while you still can kitty! She's going to get us! All of us! ALL OF US!" Smokeys soften as the dog collapses, his bite covered body finally giving in.
Smokey opens her mouth to scream and shout, she waves her paw and flaps it about, but she couldn't scream and she couldn't shout, because the words were coming from her mouth. "All of us" seemed to echo through Smokeys thoughts and through her mouth as she whispered it to herself, but she was frozen in fear.
After a long minute, she pulled herself together and looked up to question any of the dogs at all. But she was seconds too late as the van skids before turning the corner. Smokey takes one step back, then another, then another, then she sprang up and bolted back into her house.
Smokey was shaking with fear as she stumbled into her house. She didn't understand any of it at all. She sits there tongue tied twisted stutter, she Starts to mutter" H-H-Heaven help me"
She pinches herself, trying to check if this was a horrible nightmare, but the small pain in her arm isn't the only thing that tells her it's not. As she collects herself, she also silently acknowledges the realization that if you put two and two together... it's not a very big stretch to say it could've been the strange dogs she had smelt last night that attacked the mutts.
She sighs and looks around, she Starts to walk back to her bed, in an attempt to just go back to sleep and pretend this day never even happened. Smokey was so close to her bed when the bigger voice in her head piped up and said "Stay focused Smokey; we have a real problem to take care of". Smokey shook her head a few times, hoping it would help her get rid of the voice, but it didn't. She let out one last whine about how it isn't fair before getting over herself and quickly grooming her fur to like it was at least slightly cared about it. She sighed and looked at herself in her human's large antique mirror.
"Put on your confident face if you want to win" she told herself as she forced her face to contort to look confident. Smokey quickly made her way back outside before climbing a large oak picket and yowling for the block to gather. Many different animals flooded out from under fences, while some jumped over their fence. Then there were the few who would just walk right out of their house before gathering around the picket and making small talk.
Smokey smiled with the fake confidence of three lions as she announced to the crowd bellow her. "I am happy to tell you all that the mutts who have been bothering us are gone!"
She almost falls off the fence as a mix of cheers erupt around her. Smokey quickly put a serious face on as she looked down at the others.
"I also have some... more news, after investigating the barking of a few nights ago, I have found the new scent of three dogs. So I would like everyone to keep watch and send them straight to me if you find them".
The animals look up at her with a confused look in their eyes, but as if they were one being, decide not to question her further on the subject.
She purrs contently as the animals say nothing to her before saying "Meeting is over" and jumping down from her picket. Smokey sighs as she quietly makes her way back over to her cat door before slipping inside her house dropping her mask of confidence.
Smokey silently asks herself "How can they not tell how scared I am?" before trotting to the kitchen and Starting to eat her cat food. She quickly finishes the disgusting mushy food telling herself "When you eat trash, take big bites, best not to nibble"
Smokey then proceeds to make her way to her large black cat bed. She is fixing to curl up when she sees a large shadow race across the wall and floor, Smokey, being too busy in her own mind to process the possible threat, brushes it off to her imagination. She then lays down and goes to sleep, happy to have a break after such an eventful day.
Smokey sees the two familiar yet strange bright yellow lights coming towards her, as if they were chasing her. But she couldn't run, in fact she could barely even move. She struggled only to find that she was being carried in some unknown creature's jaws. Then the creature engulfed her, she could move, but she couldn't. She tried to scream but all she did was flail her paws. Then she felt something collide into the creature, sending it and Smokey flying. The creature landed with a sickening splat along with the crack of bones breaking that sent chills down Smokeys spine. Smokey felt the warm draining fast from whatever was huddling her, when a loud creaky groan of a voice shrieked angrily. Smokey had barely even gotten up, when another large creature lifts her up. Smokey awoke with a yelp; she had been having this nightmare a lot lately, and no matter how much she wanted to stay asleep and finish the nightmare, just to see where she was. It would always end before she found out what had picked her up.
Smokey sat on the bed, still silent even though her thoughts were racing about everything in her nightmare. The one thing that seemed to pick at Smokey inside her head was that why throughout all of the nightmares did she feel safe with the creature that was holding her, even after it surrounded her? Why could this creature make her feel safe in the hellish world inside her head but she couldn't make herself feel safe now in her own home?
She sat on the bed for a moment longer, just pondering before deciding to take a walk around the block to check on a few of the others. Her mind moved all her trouble away in a vain hope that this would help to get her mind off her troubles. Smokey hops off the bed and pads to the door before trotting outside. She stops and gives her eyes a moment to adjust to the summer sunlight before she Starts to make her way down the street towards the first house. Smokey effortlessly climbs over the fence and drops into the vibrant green yard before calling out "Rocky are you here?" into the yard.
She only has to wait a few seconds before a gruff voice responds "Where else would I be?" which makes Smokey smile. Smokey smiles at the large German Shepard she has been proud to call her friend for a year. She stands for a moment thinking of what to say before smiling brightly and saying
"Hey Rocky, how are things here?" Before waiting for a response.
"Everything is great here, and I assume you happen to be doing just as well if not better?" Rocky said with a smile at his friend. Smokey purred happily
"Just as well as I always am Rocky, well it was great seeing you, but I have many others to check on today, but I will come back if I have time" She said before climbing back over the fence, not waiting for a response.
Smokey silently began to make her way towards the next house when she saw what seemed to be a shadow shoot past her and into a bush.
She shakes her head and thinks to herself "you crazy old cat, seeing things" but she Started to feel like she was being watched as she Started to walk again. She decided to ignore the strange feeling of eyes following her when she heard rustling from the bush again.
Her eyes widened with fear as she felt the strange eyes burning through her fur and into her skin. She stood still for a moment before turning towards the bush fast as lighting, her fur fluffed up as she slowly walked to the bush. She silently unsheathed her claws before jumping into the bush with a snarl. Smokey quickly backed up as she saw the young kitten beneath her paw. The kitten Stared at Smokey with striking blue eyes. Smokey Stared at the kittens golden fur and she quickly got lost in the dark orange swirls seeming to spiral endlessly on the kittens fur. Smokey then Stared into the kittens amber eyes, before realizing they were glazed with fear, that's when reality slapped Smokey in the face.
She squealed "ohmygoshimsosorry" as she went to help the kitten up but she was a bit too late, as the kitten bolted away faster than a shooting Star could disappear from the sky. Smokey sighed as she watched the small kitten's tail disappear from the corner of the street. Smokey hissed at herself "how did I get scared by a kitten and scare that kitten in a matter of minutes?" before remembering what she had been doing only a matter of moments before.
She began walking over to the next house again, a dumb look plastered onto her mouth and eyes as she walked. Smokey quickly made her way to the next house before making a shaky climb to the top of the fence before jumping into the yard. Her face shriveled as she landed on the dry yellow grass but she still called out "Quartz? Are you here?" before trying to find a softer spot in the crusty grass that seemed to plague this yard. She sat there a moment before a voice that was sweet like honey, but also sticky and easy to get trapped in answered her question with
"Yeah, but I won't be out for long darling." Smokey smiled at Quartz, a newer addition to the neighborhood who had never tried to cross Smokey once, in fact, Quartz had been a fantastic companion to everyone in the neighborhood, not just Smokey.
Smokey smiled and watched as Quartz gracefully pulled herself up from the dry ground and trotted to her. "So Smokey, what brings you to my humble abode on a hot day like this?" Quartz asked as she licked her shoulder fur back down.
Smokey shook a few pieces of dry grass out of her fur before saying "just wondering how everything's going here with you is all"
Quartz looked around at the grass before responding "Oh well, everything but this disgusting grass is just splendid here darling, and I imagine you're doing very nicely as well?" she said with a sugary smile on her face.
Smokey smiled at Quartz, who was patiently awaiting Smokeys response. "I'm doing good, but I must be on my way." before jumping back over the fence.
Smokeys good mood changes faster than she ever thought possible as a hiss escapes her mouth. The bright sunset was glaring at Smokey, as if telling her she had run out of time. She knew her owner would be upset if she didn't get back into the house soon, so she scampered back to the house and slipped into her house through the small cat door. She looked up and saw her owner holding her shotgun. "Just in time" Smokey told herself as she purred at her human.
"Oh thank goodness, there you are Smokey. I thought for a second I was going to need to shoot down some ratty mutt that got you" Her owner said as she picked up Smokey and laid her on the couch gently, not being strong enough to set Smokey down any quicker. Smokeys head. "Aww thanks for worrying" she said in a sarcastic tone of voice, knowing that her owner couldn't really understand any of what Smokey said. Smokey sighed and stretched out along the couch until she was comfy before slowly falling into the depths of an uneasy sleep.
