Scattered

12

Embers

'That stupid son of a... arrg, the nerve of that guy!'

Olivia huffed and puffed her way up the stairs to her studio room. She struggled to keep in a roar of frustration building up in her chest because the last thing she wants is Mrs. Reed coming out of her room in her baggy nightdress and yelling at her for disturbing her cats.

So she silently seethed as she dug her bag for the key and turning the lock to her room.

'Meow?'

She turned to her side to find a white furry cat staring at her with its soulful blue eyes. It had its head tilted to a side as it observed her from the railing of the stairs. Olivia couldn't help but stop and smile at the adorable cat.

'What is it Mr. Fluffington? What do you want now?' She cooed at the curious cat.

'Meow.'

'Oh, really? Why don't you come inside so that we can talk?'

Olivia winked at the huge cat perched on the rails before clicking opening the door. Mr. Fluffington wasted no time in jumping down gracefully and jogging into her room with the tinkle of bell on his collar accompanying his steps.

Mr. Fluffington was the only cat Olivia tolerated among the herd of others that Mrs. Reed had. In fact, the dislike Olivia had for other cats were eagerly returned by the cats. Except Mr. Fluffington, of course. He would sneak inside Olivia's room to scourge the place for any treats and he was a gentleman enough to wait till she arrived to thank her.

At least that's what she thinks he is saying.

So once that idea stuck inside her mind, she had started enjoying her conversations with the obese cat. Natasha and Lee would tease her about this and tells her that she was showing first signs of becoming a cat-lady like Mrs. Reed.

But after Mr. Fluffington, Olivia finally understood why Mrs. Reed was obsessed.

She switched on the lights and dropped the keys on the table top along with her bag and phone. She then shrugged out of her coat and moved to the kitchen to have a glass of water. Meanwhile, Mr. Fluffington made his home atop her white blanket on her bed. Olivia microwaved some pizza for her and grabbed yesterday's chicken for Mr. Fluffington before heading out to the hall.

'You know, I am sort of glad you came. It would have been awfully lonely for me to eat my dinner with no one and no TV.' Olivia chuckled as she set the bowl near the cat. He wasted no time in diving into his food.

'Meow?'

'Yeah, the TV exploded yesterday. I don't know why it happened, it must be something wrong with it. Anyway, I threw it out.'

'Mee-ow.'

'I know right.'

And then with silent companionship, both ate their dinner and lay down comfortably on the bed to sleep. Mr. Fluffington rested himself on the foot of the bed as Olivia tucked herself in, the last night sleeplessness catching up to her. Soon enough her eyes closed and her mind slowly sunk into the whirlpool of unconsciousness.

Wow-wow-wow-wow...

Drifting through her sleep, she could hear a loud rhythmic sound somewhere far off. It felt calming. But soon it started becoming louder as another sound added into the mix.

Meow... meow...meow...

This one was familiar... it was Mr. Fluffington's voice.  She could faintly feel his soft paws on her face but she just couldn't open her eyes to ask him to stop.

The sleep was all consuming.

She felt as if something heavy was sitting on her chest, grow heavier by the passing second and slowly cutting off her air supply. Her limbs were numb. Suddenly, the blaring noise was deafening and she could hear the strangled meow's of Mr. Fluffington.

Olivia gasped and she tasted smoke.

This set off warning bells in her head and she pried open her eyes with difficulty. Thick black smoke surrounded her everywhere. Mr. Fluffington was meowing from below her bed. She wanted to get up and do something but her limbs were paralyzed. She coughed and clawed her throat in a futile attempt to get off the suffocating smoke that surrounded her.

The building was on fire.

The howl of the fire alarm did nothing but panic her. She felt Mr. Fluffington jump back on her, as panicked as she was.

All of a sudden there was shadow of a man among the cloud of smoke. The relief that flooded through Olivia's system was immeasurable.

The firemen are here.

Mr. Fluffington and her weren't going to die tonight.

But as she watched the figure in the last vestige of her consciousness that was dwindling away due to lack of oxygen; she felt fear.  There was something behind him that was moving as he approached her. She could hear Mr. Fluffington hiss with what was left of his breath while he retreated back.

That something behind the silhouette of the man kept growing.

Until it unfurled.

'Olivia...'

NEXT UPDATE: 28 June 2019