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Kidnapping the rat was a righteous crime. “I’m a humanitarian and a vegan! They’ll understand,” Matt muttered to himself as he crept out of the Weill Hall crypt. He patted the pocket of his pea coat as he slipped up the laboratory stairs, past the classrooms and out the front door. He could feel the flesh and fur buried between laces of fabric. The creature squirmed as it slowly awoke from drug induced slumber. It twisted and tumbled in the confines of his pea coat pocket as it explored its new environment.
“It may be smaller than your cage, but soon you’ll be thanking me,” Matt muttered into his collar. “It’s not right how they treat you. They fatten you up just to dissect you. I heard they even grind you into pulp and feed you to your brothers and sisters at the Agricultural School once they’re through.” Matt cooed and tickled the creature, gently massaging its coat until he felt it sigh and return to sleep.
Matt absconded from Weill Hall at the edge of central campus, where he was enrolled in a Biology practicum as part of his freshman studies in Zoology. All first year students across the sciences were forced to take it. While Matt’s classmates’ frustrations with the class were focused on the long hours spent in the lab and arguments with supervising upperclassmen about grades, his dissatisfaction rest solely with the grotesque coursework. To him the curriculum of dissection and vivisection were closer to Necromancy than Biology.
The sun had set by the time Matt arrived at the student dormitories. It was Friday night and he hoped that his roommate Richard had already run off with his latest girlfriend to spend the night at her dorm. It had been only two months since classes began, and he had already been through twice as many girlfriends. This time he won the favor of a paramour with her own private dorm room. Matt heard that she was lucky enough to secure a studio due to concerns about her deadly peanut allergy. If this were true, they would all share in the fortune. Richard and his partner would have privacy, and Matt would have the room to himself with his new pet.
Unfortunately when Matt entered his room, he found three unwanted guests. Richard was lying on his bed, and beside him curled up on the floor was a young blonde classmate. She cuddled a black tomcat with bright yellow eyes.
“Richard, weren’t you bragging this morning that you wouldn’t be spending any more Friday nights in our room this semester?” Matt asked with a sly grin. The blonde girl looked up at Richard and blushed before returning her attention back to the cat.
“We wanted to stop by my room first to introduce Eve’s new pet to the space,” Richard said. “Experts say it’s important to get a new cat comfortable with his surroundings. Once we wrap up here we’re going to introduce him to the dining hall and Eve’s room. By the end of the weekend we want to show him our entire campus!”
Matt smirked. “I think those ‘experts’ mean a cat has to be comfortable in his home environment. Taking him on a campus tour will leave him traumatized!”
But when Matt looked down at the cat, he appeared more alert than traumatized. The cat’s eyes did not blink as they met Matt’s own. His pupils were tall and narrow; they shone with the mistrust of an animal who had not been long socialized. Soon his gaze became fixed on a certain coat pocket.
With a horrific howl, the tomcat pounced from Eve’s lap and tore Matt’s pea coat pocket to tatters. His hind legs drew blood as they clawed the girl’s forearm which nestled the creature moments before. The rat came tumbling out of its nest against Matt’s chest and was swatted in midair towards the dorm room floor by the feline. The shrill shriek Eve made at the pain of the scratch magnified into screams of terror as she noticed the rat and witnessed the scene of anarchy unfolding in the dorm room. Despite its disorientation from its sudden awakening, the rat found its footing upon hitting the ground and made a frenzied dash towards the open door. But the cat dove towards the doorway to block the only means of escape. The rat then scurried away from the predator with great agility, diving behind dorm room furniture and hiding under piles of discarded shirts and socks.
For precious moments it was unclear who would emerge victorious. But the rat made a fatal mistake. The rodent climbed into Richard's bed and snuck into a crevice between the mattress and headboard. With a look of revulsion Richard surrendered his territory and jumped to the floor. He ripped the linens off his bed and threw them into the air. Once more the rat was wildly flung to the wind, but this time the cat had it cornered. With a grin, it batted the creature back and forth with its paws and gripped it in its mouth until the rat fell unconscious. After a few moments of play, the feline triumphantly walked back towards Eve and surrendered the prize at her feet.
Eve’s face grew pale as she stared at the wounded rodent. “Matt I know you have a fetish for animals, but this is too much!” she said. “It’s unsanitary! And look at what he did to me and my kitten!” She gestured at the cuts on her arm and the cat’s rapid breathing.
“It really is disgusting,” Richard said. “Where did you find that thing anyway? Is it another one of your rescues? Can’t you find a proper pet for once like Eve and I?”
Matt was fuming. If only they had given him a chance to explain! If he were more careful, he could have found a way to prepare so the rat didn’t cause such a commotion. If only Eve’s cat were not so wild.
“He is one of my rescues,” Matt said. “I saved him from my Biology lab at the end of classes this afternoon. Just like the goldfish I saved last month from that fraternity hazing ritual. A poor freshman was going to swallow him whole! I just want these creatures to have a better life!”
Matt gently picked up the rat and took off his coat. He bundled the rodent, careful not to restrict his labored breathing with too tight a swaddle. With his pocket destroyed, he would have to wrap him up in his jacket for now. The creature deserved a comfortable nest after the bedlam with the cat.
“If you want to be compassionate, you should adopt a cat,” Eve said. “This one was a stray before I saved him. And he’s a real pet! Not a monster!” Eve stormed out of the room, her cat over her shoulder, his sharp yellow eyes staring at Matt as she left.
“Eve is right,” Richard said as he followed her towards the door. “Let me know when you find a real pet. Until then, I’m not coming back here. And don’t let that rat touch any of my things. It’s unhygienic.”
Several hours after the couple left, Matt began to prepare for sleep. He took the rat out of his coat and placed it on his bed. He touched the creature’s chest to monitor its breathing. He could feel the lungs labor; its respiration felt irregular but he did not sense any permanent damage. Still, he was wary. This night would prove the most critical. If the creature made it to morning its chances of survival would be assured. Matt reasoned that the rat should take his bed while he found a way to make himself comfortable on the floor. Richard's bed was strictly off limits to him after all. One dorm-issue blanket would be all he would need.
He gently tucked the creature into his comforter and slid the top sheet out from underneath it. As he laid the sheet down on the floor and began to lower himself to the ground, he heard a faint whisper. Matt was not sure whether the sound was audible. It called to him from his unconscious mind.
Matt jolted out of bed when he realized that the rat may need an additional layer. The old Gothic buildings at his school got drafty at night, and temperatures were sure to drop as the hours pressed on. He ripped off his shirt and carefully layered it over the blankets and pillows the rat was already buried in. Once he was certain the creature was comfortable, Matt took a Melatonin tablet and drifted off to sleep as soon as he hit the floor.
––––––––
Matt dreamed of creatures that night. In his slumber, Matt visited all of his familiar campus haunts. First he visited the campus dairy bar which served fresh milk and ice cream. The treats were produced in house with the campus’s free range sheep and cows. The livestock were raised by the school’s animal husbandry program. Though Matt did not approve of the consumption of animal products, he did agree that eating the locally sourced milk, cheese, and ice cream from the dairy bar was the most ethical way to consume them. The sheep and cows were all familiar to Matt, as he often visited this part of campus during daylight hours. However, the animals did not react to him as he glided by their stables and observed them. Matt had to remind himself that he was dreaming and that the creatures could not perceive his presence, if they were anything other than apparitions themselves.
Next, he came across the botanical gardens which housed all of his favorite plants and wildlife. The willow trees and herbaceous perennials gave him a sense of freedom and oneness with nature whenever he felt the need to take a break from his hours in the lab and the libraries.
Matt approached the Koi pond at the center of the gardens. He was familiar with this site, as he released his goldfish in the pond after saving it from a hazing ritual earlier in the semester. He peered beneath the rippling surface of the water. It was translucent blue, and though the night was dark, there was a glow shining beneath the depths. The campus Koi fish, with scales of bright orange, were a stark contrast with the azure water. However, Matt noticed there were fewer Koi than when he first deposited his goldfish earlier in the season.
Eventually Matt spotted his old goldfish friend. The fish had grown enormous in size. One could mistake it for a bright orange basketball that had been abandoned in the water. Matt realized that the goldfish must be out competing the Koi. It was a small pond and goldfish were a hearty species. They could live for years if kept in proper conditions rather than a carnival bag or a freshman’s belly. He was proud to see it outlive the stunning but spoiled Koi. The common goldfish did not deserve anything less than the luxury of life inside the elegant campus pond.
As the goldfish continued to swim laps around the pond oblivious to Matt’s presence, it approached a shadow near the shore on the far side. He felt an ominous energy emanating from that edge of the pond. He tried to call out to the fish, but his voice could not be heard. When Matt tried to approach the shadow, he found himself petrified and unable to move. At the end of the pool, the shadow remained shapeless, but somehow Matt felt it turn towards his direction. The whites of Matt’s eyes expanded, his pupils dilated and he was unable to breathe. His neck turned to stone and he became a statue standing at the edge of the water. He could only stare whale-eyed as a pair of yellow crescents glared at him from amid the shadow.
The cat began circling the pond slowly and did not take his eyes off of Matt. The cat dipped its paw into the water and began to bat it back and forth, splashing fluid carelessly onto the ground as the Koi fish beneath scurried away in a frenzy. It continued its approach towards Matt with its yellow eyes locked onto his. Once it neared the ground beneath his feet, it stopped, gave Matt one last look, and dove into the pond. Matt’s gaze was still frozen, but he could see the shadow’s movement in the water at the edges of his vision. He never saw a cat, or any wild land animal, swim through a body of water with such grace and poise. Eventually it fully submerged itself into the pond, and for a moment there was peace. No shadow, no gleaming yellow eyes. Just Matt, the creeping darkness, and a body of water.
With a crash the creature reemerged and jumped upon the shore. Its face was turned away from Matt’s, but he could still see the outline of a bright and brilliant color at the corners of the cat’s silhouette. Matt prayed that the prize in the hunter’s jaws was one of the remaining Koi fish, and not the goldfish that Matt had rescued. The cat turned towards the boy, taunting him with his golden prize, and began to tear at the flesh of his catch.
Matt’s fish began screaming in an eerily familiar tenor. It shrieked with Matt’s own voice as the shadowy predator tore him to shreds. But it was not the sound of Matt’s inner monologue. It was the voice he could only hear when he watched himself in a recording; it was his true voice as only others heard it. Matt opened his mouth as the paralysis slowly wore off his face, but still no words would leave his lips. Matt silently screamed and the words came out of the fish several yards from where he was standing like a feat of prodigious ventriloquism. Eventually the screams died as the fish expired in the cat’s jaws, and Matt lost his voice once again. Once the cat was finished with his meal, he turned towards Matt once more. It crawled towards him and patted his feet to ensure that he truly was as immobile as a sculpture. It then climbed up his body, past his shoulders and upon his head. Its eyes peered upside down in front of Matt’s until his vision was only a pool of yellow with a dark black vertical pupil splitting it down the middle. Matt grew lost in those eyes and drifted off to sleep once more, this time awakening in his makeshift bed upon the dorm room floor.
––––––––
It was late at night when Matt awoke from the nightmare. A puddle had collected around him as he slept, and Matt swore it was the same shade of azure he had observed at the scene by the campus pond. Suddenly Matt shrieked, waking the rat sleeping upon his bed and startling even himself. It was unlike him to carry the burdens of a nightmare into the next morning. But it was not yet morning, and dreams often felt too vivid after a dose of Melatonin.
Matt looked over at the bed and saw that the rat was now looking at him curiously. He was relieved that the sound of the scream came from his own throat, and not from the creature in his bed.
As he lowered himself back to his plot on the ground, he felt a whisper tickling the back of his skull. It was not communicated in words, but in an extrasensory feeling. A feeling of hunger. At first he ignored it, but it grew louder and louder, hungrier and hungrier. Suddenly he realized that the rat had not eaten since its escape from the lab.
Matt drifted to the mini fridge where he kept all of his dorm room snacks. Resting upon the fridge was a small basket filled with an assortment of various vegan snacks – raisins, pretzels, and goldfish crackers. The sight of the goldfish made his heart pound in his chest. He recalled the scene at the pond and found himself losing his taste for his once favorite snack. He began to wonder if his dreams were real or if his goldfish friend was still safe.
He brought a handful of the food over to the creature in his bed. First he dropped a few raisins on the bedspread, then he crumbled up a couple of pretzels into bite size pieces of dust. The rat ate each of them eagerly and began to nestle against Matt’s fingers in appreciation. The rodent was ravenous, and soon all of the raisins and pretzels in his hand were depleted. His pet looked at him expectantly. After a moment of apprehension, Matt fed the rat the goldfish. With a gleeful squeak, it tore through the cracker’s flesh and ate each and every crumb with a passion it did not show for the raisins and the pretzels. It looked up at Matt and gave him a wink and rubbed its stomach. Matt could see the creature was still hungry, so he grabbed several more goldfish and dumped them on the bed. The rat eagerly ate them all until it got to the very last piece in the pile. The rat again looked at Matt with a smile, and then passed the final goldfish in his direction.
Matt stared at the treat. All he could see when he looked at it was the rescue goldfish that may or may not be alive in the campus Koi pond. The rat began to pat the goldfish, causing it to wiggle like a defenseless fish out of water. The rat then looked at Matt with his head cocked, waiting for him to join in on the banquet. After a moment where it seemed they were at an impasse, the rat picked up the cracker with its spindly hands, bowed its head, and lifted it in the air in Matt’s direction. With a sigh Matt took the cracker, and bit into its fin before swallowing it whole. Matt began to lick the residue off of his fingers, savoring the cheddar cheese flavor. The rat squealed with excitement and also began to lick Matt’s fingers. Once the meal was done, the creature let out a sigh of contentment before it climbed up Matt’s shirt, tickling Matt’s skin with its toes as it went. The creature then settled into a nap in Matt’s front pocket.
––––––––
All weekend Matt and the rat stayed in his dorm room. Unlike the first night when the rat slept in Matt’s bed alone, from Saturday morning onward Matt and the rat slept in bed together. For hours, Matt lay cuddling with the creature, whispering secrets and praises into its ear. Eventually, the rat began to do the same. Its whiskers tickled Matt’s cheeks and ears as it whispered back. It thanked him for rescuing it from the laboratory, and it told him that it would be forever in his debt. “You’re not like other humans,” the rat told Matt. “We will be companions for life.”
Matt wanted to continue whiling away the hours in bed with his companion, but the two ran out of goldfish and other snacks by Sunday evening. He had not left his dorm room to get food, or even to wash his clothes or to bathe. Matt’s hair had grown into greasy curls and his cuticles had gone brown with stains. He knew that he would have to leave his hovel to find a new source of nourishment for himself and the rat. Matt resolved to begin foraging late that night, long after the other students had put themselves to bed. He reasoned it would be best to avoid prying eyes and judgmental glares in the late hour. He hoped to avoid a commotion similar to the one Richard and Eve displayed before their departure on Friday.
Matt stuffed the rat in his front shirt pocket and exited the dorm room. He tiptoed past the bedrooms of neighboring classmates and into the quiet darkness of the campus. It was after 4:00am and the only sources of light were the full moon overhead and the blue shimmer of public safety lamps that dotted the path from his residence hall to the dining hall, Oak-and-Shields. Oak-and-Shields was an ugly fortress of a building in the Gothic style at the top of a hill on the edge of campus. It was Matt’s intended target since it was the least trafficked dining hall at his university. He knew it would be a secluded spot for a solitary meal with his pet.
When he reached Oak-and-Shields, Matt climbed into the building through an unlocked window by the front entrance. The interior of the dining hall was pitch black at this hour. The only light came from the electronic displays on various vending machines lining the cafeteria walls. Matt slowly stepped through the dark, careful to climb over hazards such as haphazardly placed chairs and abandoned drinking glasses as he made his way to the kitchens at the back of the building. Once inside, Matt turned on one of the overhead lights. He was deep enough inside the interior of the building that one solitary light bulb was not likely to arouse attention.
As he began to forage for food, he noticed a cellar beneath a trapdoor at the back of the kitchen. Matt figured that most of the fresh, perishable foods were stored below the surface where the temperature was naturally cool. It had been days since he tasted anything that required cooking heat or refrigeration.
As Matt lowered himself into the cellar, the rat peered out of his pocket and began to stir. It seemed to be apprehensive of the new secluded location below the surface. In response, Matt placed the rat on the ground so it would no longer be restrained. The rat followed Matt as he explored the dark dungeon searching for food. Towards the back of the cellar, in the corner furthest from the ladder, Matt found a refrigerator filled with milk from the university dairy bar. He shuddered as the packaging reminded him of his nightmarish visit to the campus’s cows, sheep, and fish earlier that weekend.
Though he was a vegan, he understood that some animals in nature were omnivores or even obligate carnivores. Just this once, Matt resolved to feed milk to his rat. After all, it deserved a tasty treat that was more nutritious than those crackers and goldfish he had been feeding it all weekend.
First Matt tried feeding the rat straight out of the bottle, but the spout was not properly shaped for the narrow snout of a rodent’s mouth. There were no bowls in sight in this part of the storage room, so Matt poured a few tablespoons of milk directly onto the floor. The rat eagerly began to drink its meal. After a few slurps, it looked up at Matt and gave him a gracious smile and a wink. Once the rat finished its portion, it pushed against Matt’s boot and gestured at the milk bottle. Matt acquiesced and poured a few more drops of milk onto the floor.
“Careful. Any more milk and you might get a stomach ache,” Matt told the rat. But once these drops of milk were poured onto the floor, he realized that the rat was no longer drinking. Instead, like it once did with the goldfish, the rat began to paw at the puddle of milk, gesturing for Matt to join him at his meal.
The thought of consuming any animal product made him want to wretch, but he knew that all living beings built relationships through shared meals. It was a rite of companionship. Matt got on his knees and began to slurp the slop alongside his pet.
But the two were not alone in the cellar. As they crawled on the floor, drinking their portion of milk, a pair of yellow eyes peered at them from a dark corner of the dimly lit room. Matt and the rat each stared in horror as a black cat approached from the shadows. Whether it was the cat of Matt’s dreams or one more of the campus strays, he could not say. The cat advanced towards the pair slowly, and Matt felt he could no longer move his body. He was trapped in a waking nightmare. The rat, still able to move, climbed into the safety of the back of his coat, beyond the reach of prying yellow eyes and talons.
The cat began to meow a soothing melody, and Matt felt his body relax. The cat then sipped on the milk that Matt had poured onto the floor, joining him at his meal. Matt pulled himself into a cross-legged position as he examined the creature. Its fur was sleek and shiny, far cleaner than the tangled mat on Matt’s head or hidden in his coat pocket. It purred and crowed in appreciation of the milk that Matt was able to provide; he could see that visible ribs poked through the cat’s belly. Living a life as a stray within the campus’s shadows must have been difficult. Soon the cat finished all of the milk on the floor, and it began to brush itself against Matt’s legs, begging for more. Matt poured the rest of the bottle upon the floor, and the cat soon finished that too.
Its eyes gazed into Matt’s own and he felt himself growing transfixed by the creature. He could see that it was still famished. It was craving sustenance that simple milk could not provide. The cat crawled upon Matt’s lap and continued to purr. It whispered into Matt’s ear. “Feed me, and I can be your friend.” the cat said. “Feed me what I desire, and I will be your companion for life.” Matt sat motionless, unable to grasp what was being said to him. He began to groan.
“Hush now,” the black cat said. It crawled up Matt’s jacket and grabbed the rat from its enclosure within his pockets.
The rat wailed for mercy as the cat held it by the tail. The cat cocked its head and stared into Matt’s eyes as it held the rat up high. Matt realized it would not make another move until he consented. He closed his eyes and with tears streaming down his face he exclaimed “Yes! You can have it if that’s what you want!”
With a smile, the cat began to devour the creature, and its shrieks and screams began to fade into nothingness. When Matt finally opened his eyes, only a mangled mound of flesh was waiting for him.
“For you,” said the cat as it pushed the carcass towards the boy. Matt closed his eyes and swallowed the corpse whole, his first taste of flesh since he was a child.
With the deed done, a contract had been signed between man and beast. Matt cradled the cat as he crept out of the dusky cellar and into the bright lights of the campus sunrise. He no longer felt a need to keep his pet concealed; he proudly carried the creature in his arms as he walked through campus and back to his dorm under the bright light of day. When he was back in his bedroom, he let the cat wander in the open, unafraid of any scares or trauma that it might give his fellow students. Matt bathed for the first time in days, clearing out his tangled and greasy curls, and cleaning out his mouth with antiseptic mouthwash. He tossed the bedding that the revolting rat slept in into a laundry load with extra bleach.
That afternoon, Richard and Eve returned to the dorm room with their own cat in tow. When Eve saw Matt’s new companion, she squealed in excitement.
“You should have told us you adopted a cat this weekend!” Eve said. She let her pet jump out of her arms and onto the dorm room floor. Her cat started playfully tussling with Matt’s cat, their form a bundle of black fur with four yellow eyes. “I think the two of them will become best friends! Look at them go, they could even be twins!”
“I’m proud of you buddy,” Richard added. “All you needed was a real pet! There was no need to be a total recluse with that gross rodent all weekend. Eve and I were about to pay a visit to the pet store to get a squeaky toy for our boy. You should join us!”
“Of course I’ll join you!” Matt said with a smile. “I can’t wait to spoil the precious creatures.”
After a quick drive to the pet store, Matt and the others began to explore the aisles, looking for the perfect gifts for their new clowder. Matt smirked as the couple examined the bright pink and yellow squeaky toys shaped like cartoonish imitations of mice and birds and fish. Those toys would be a fine purchase for Richard and Eve, but it would not keep his carnivorous companion content for long.
Matt took his cat and began to wander to the other section of the pet store. As they passed by cages of parakeets, lizards, and guinea pigs, the cat stuck out his paw and lazily tapped the bars of each of their enclosures. The creatures fled to the corners of their little boxes, but they had nowhere to go.
“I wonder which one is tastiest?” Matt whispered to his pet as he continued his stroll. The cat licked its lips and looked up at him, its bright yellow eyes glimmering with anticipation. That night, long after Richard and his other classmates had fallen asleep, Matt and his cat would return to the pet store. And together they would capture their prey.