The Blacklist: The Animal Savior [no 196]

Chapter 1

One fifteen-year-old and sixteen-year-old were walking down a street in the evening. They wanted to light fireworks that were left from January 1st. On the other side of the street a cat jumped off someone's fence.

"There's that stupid cat again. I bet it's coming our way to get food or something." Said the fifteen-year-old boy to the other boy.

"Yeah, I hate that cat too! It is always making noises in the middle of the night. And besides that, it comes at us for no reason when we're hanging out." There was a short pause. "Do you want to get rid of that cat?"

"Yeah of course!" Said the boy who started complaining about the cat. They knew the owner. She was a friend of their parents.

"We just throw a firework at it."

"Should we? What if someone sees us?"

"Oh, come on it is a joke. We're not going to kill the cat, right? Why are you always the lame brother?"

"Okay! Give me that firework." The brother gave him a firecracker. The boy lit up the firework and threw it right in front of the cat. It took a second before it blew up. The cat was scared as hell and jumped back on the fence.

"See! That was fun. It's not dangerous. We just taught him a lesson. Now it will definitely won't come back."

"Yes, you were right." Said the boy to its brother.

One year later...

"James! The kids, I can't find them." Said a mother who was desperately searching for their kids to her husband.

"Analise, take it easy. There probably playing somewhere." Said James to his wife.

"I've been calling them since two o'clock. They can never even stop looking at their phone. What makes you think they have been doing this for three hours."

"You know Lucas. He probably lost his phone like he lost his keys last week. Or his backpack last month."

"What about Jake?"

"He's probably with that girl he is always talking about."

"I'm not overreacting, James. Please help me search." They both went searching. James was walking to the front door. There was a package laying on the ground. There was nothing on it. James didn't see it at first because he was focused on searching for Jake and Lucas.

"Found anything?" Screamed Analise from Jake's room.

"Not yet." Answered James. Suddenly they both heard a loud meow coming from the front door. James went back to the front door and saw the package. "Honey? Did you see this package?" Asked James.

"What package?" Asked Analise.

"I think there's a cat noise coming from the package."

"Can you stop talking or hinting at the fact you want a cat? After that Agnes' cat died you told me you want one. It's not going to happen. I'm kind of worried about my kids right now. Maybe you should do the same."

"I was not hinting at that! There is a package."

"It can probably wait." James ignored Analise and opened the package. There was an old phone that was being called. Its ringtone sounded like a cat. The cat noise James referred to earlier. James answered the phone.

"Hello?" Said James. He only heard cat noises. He wanted to hang up but then he realized something. "Analise! I think I got something." Analise went running down the stairs that was right next to the front door.

"What? How did you get that phone?" Asked Analise.

"Listen." James was silent for a moment when the cat noises played. "Doesn't this sound like Jake impersonating that cat from Agnes?" Analise was shocked.

"It is." She grabbed the phone from James. "Who are you and how do you got this recording from Jake making a cat noise?" No one answered the phone. Analise lost her cool quickly. "If you don't tell me where my kids are, I'm going to let the police trace this call and you will be taken down very quickly! Did you hear that?" James lost its hope.

"I'm afraid no one is going to answer that."