~~~~
"I think Old Lady Matilda up
the street is a necromancer," I told my friend. She laughed in my face.
"You're a riot you know
that," she slapped her knee, "no seriously what did you want to talk
about?"
"I'm serious," I replied plainly.
"Please, that little old lady a
necromancer," she responded, "she can barely use her mailbox."
"I've seen things okay," I
affirmed, "I'm fairly certain."
"Okay Mr. Private Eye," my
friend mocked me, "what 'dark secrets' have you seen?" She stifled
another laugh while I gathered my thoughts.
"Well, it all started last
month..."
~--~
I was on my way home from work when
I spotted Old Matilda out in her garden. It seemed normal, she planted a few
flowers, trimmed some hedges, but then she got to her vegetable garden. Her
potatoes had apparently died, so when she thought no one was looking she zapped
them back to life.
I could see the dead plants slowly
rise back up and return to normal. Matilda beamed with pride over her potatoes
for a minute and moved on. I snuck out of there before she noticed I had seen
her secret.
~--~
"Wait?" My friend stopped
me, "were you spying on her?"
"N-no," I defended myself,
"I was just in a convenient spot to witness the act, I snuck away because
I didn't want her to catch me."
"If your mom finds out you've
been spying on the neighbors again," she began to scold me.
"I never spied on the neighbors
that was a misunderstanding okay," I explained, "please, let me get
back on topic."
"Fine, but this better not get
creepy," she agreed with a glare.
~--~
I was ready to brush off that first
event and forget about it. I thought I had misinterpreted the situation, but
then I spotted her again one night. It was just out of the neighborhood, up the
road where the graveyard is. I was across the street at the convince store when
I saw the old lady on the path towards the graveyard. She carried a large bag,
it was kind of like a purse, but it was open and clearly empty. I saw her enter
the graveyard, which admittedly wasn't strange by itself, but it was fairly
late in the day. I still tried to ignore it though and went on with my day.
I spent a good hour or so at the convince
store, chatted with some friends and bought some snack. However, it just so
happened Old Lady Matilda left the graveyard the same time I left the store.
Her bag was closed this time, and obviously full. I couldn't tell what was
inside, but I could give you a few guesses now.
~--~
"Maybe she was picking flowers
or herbs?" My friend proposed.
"That bag was filled to the
brim and with something much more solid than plants," I replied,
"besides I'm not done yet. Remember her cat?"
"Which one?" My friend
replied flatly.
"The one that died last
month," I clarified.
"Oh yeah, I think his name was
Fluffy or something," she commented.
"I think she brought back to
life..."
~--~
About two weeks ago I heard her
talking with one of her neighbors. They were talking about Fluffy, and not in
the past tense. I didn't hear much, but I heard Old Matilda say, "little
Fluffy broke into the catnip again today." She and her neighbor laughed
about the cat and chatted about other things for a while. Then Matilda excused
herself because she had to go feed Fluffy.
~--~
"So, a scatterbrained old woman
is talking about her dead cat like he's alive, what's the big deal?" My
friend gave me a disappointed look, "Or maybe, and this might come as a
surprise to you, she got a new cat and named it Fluffy. It's also possible the
loopy, old woman thinks another one of her cats is Fluffy."
"I wasn't done yet," I
replied.
"Still?" My friend sighed,
"okay I'll bite."
~--~
I had shrugged it off to at first,
but then last week I walked by her house. It was a normal day and she was in
the garden again. As I walked past and did my best to not look directly at her
my vision drifted past a window on the house.
It was a fairly standard window in
her rickety old house, dusty and filled with sunbathing cats. Except one of the
cats was an odd one out, a lot thinner and smaller. The other cats gave it a
wide berth as it sat in the center of the window. It was, well it was-
~--~
"Spit it out," my friend
snapped at me.
"It was all bone," I
muttered.
"You mean skin and bone,
right?" She asked.
"No," I stated.
"Why didn't you lead with
that!" She yelled at me.
"Because you wouldn't have
believed me," I replied.
"I still don't know if I
believe you," my friend glared at me. "You know what we're going over
there right now and you're going to apologize to Old Lady Matilda for
this." She grabbed me by the ear and dragged me out of the house. It
wasn't long before we arrived at Matilda's house, it was only a few blocks
away.
"I'm not sure about this,"
I gave my opinion.
"No, you go up there and
apologize," she demanded.
"No, I mean look," I
pointed towards the window I spoke of earlier. Just like before it was full of
cats, and at the center was the skeletal Fluffy.
"Please, that may be
disgusting, but it's just a dead cat," my friend shrugged it off and
marched up to the window with me in tow. "See, dead bones," she
jabbed her finger at the window.
"Meow," we heard a cat.
Both of us looked for the source until we turned back towards Fluffy. The
skeleton turned its skull up to "look" at us with its nonexistent
eyes. It mouthed another, "meow," as it touched the window with a
skeletal paw.
"I warned you," is what I
wanted to say, but we both ran away before I could say it. The two of us
screamed our heads off all the way back home.
~--~
"Fluffy!" Old Lady Matilda
emerged from nowhere, "what did I tell you about troubling the
neighbors?" She continued to scold the skeletal cat but it only meowed in
response.
~~~~
I'd normally make a joke or comment about the story, but I can't think of anything witty. Hope you enjoyed the story at least.Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
~~~~
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