Day 1

Oh dear, seems to me that I am quite dead! Poor little Mittens will need someone to take care of them! I suppose I’ll still have to do it in death! 

I can’t see much in this tiny little apartment and why is it so filled with things? Papers, papers everywhere! Did I really live like this? Oh well, seems like there’s not much I can do about it now. 

Dear, sweet, Mittens is cuddled up on my body, poor thing. She’s purring along, quite happy, but she keeps batting her little white paws at my face hoping for pets. I can still see the color of her orange fur but most of the world has gone gray. She seems to be quite bright with life! 

What will everyone think now that I’m gone? Oh no, I was supposed to go on a date tonight! I wonder what they’ll think of me when I don’t show… I can’t even remember his name now. Oh and work, oh no, I was supposed to present a paper in a month, what will happen? How long will it take for them to find me? 

But I can’t very well leave Mittens. She’s here and I need to care for her and that empty, empty food bowl. Someone will come, surely, but she needs to be fed at 7pm sharp!  

Oh but I am tired, this is too much for me in this ghostly form. I can see the darkness and so I shall sleep! 

Mittens is growing restless! I see her jump upon all my furniture, even the ones she wasn’t allowed on. I know she can hear me because when I scolded her she jumped off straight away! She meowed at me and proceeded to ignore me as I called to her. I remember how she used to turn her back away from me when she was angry. But she would always come back to me. 

She turned around and started to meow at me again and I cooed and talked to her. She seems content now and has curled up to sleep on the couch. 

Mittens is now scratching away at her post! I love watching her little claws dig into the tick ropes instead of my furniture. She used to scratch away at my poor arm and I remember having to spend hours upon hours teaching her how to use her post instead. She got quite cross with me when I brought out the spray bottle but she eventually learned! 

I was so happy I could finally bring my friends over without them leaving with scratches. Natalia was even able to pick up Mittens without getting scratched! We had progressed so much! I hope the memory of my death doesn't upset her too much. 

I float over to Mittens and tell her how much of a good kitty she is! She meows back at me and we have a “conversation” together for a little while. 

Mittens is purring on my body again and I remember the times she would sleep with me. I want to touch her so much, so I reach out my hand and it passes right through her tiny body. 

This wakes her with a start and she jumps before hissing at me and running under the couch. My ghostly form must be quite cold to her and I sigh before sinking to the floor. 

I reach out with my hand and try as hard as I can to move the small ball with the bell across the floor. To my surprise it works and I nudge it just enough for it to catch her attention and she skitters across to bat it back to me. I try again and just barely manage to poke it enough to move it. We play like this for an hour until she flops onto her slide and takes a nap. 

Mittens is screaming again. She’s on top of my body, meowing and biting at my face. She hasn’t decided to devour me yet, but she’s angry at me. She had done this before when I wouldn’t wake up. I remember once she lunged at my face and bit my nose because I had slept in on a weekend. 

I had reached out in my sleep and shoved her off the bed, she hit the bedside drawers on the way down and avoided me the rest of the day. I try to comfort her now but she’s still scratching at my body. She is ignoring me completely in favor of my corpse which she continues to screech at. 

Mittens has decided to, once again, explore places she does not belong. She has jumped upon the shelf above the fireplace and has knocked over one of my favorite pictures. The glass in the frame breaks but does not shatter and the picture remains intact. 

I remember the day it was taken fondly. Me and my close friends were at the newly-renovated beach! It had just opened for the public after the King imported more the soft sands of the desert to line the craigy rocks that were starting to poke through the old sand. We spent the entire day in the sun and the waves. 

I call out to Mittens and she responds back in a meow. I don’t feel like scolding her now and she is at eye level with me on the mantle. We talk again, one of our favorite past times, and she begins to purr. 

I reach out with my cold dead fingers and waggle them in front of Mittens. She seems delighted by them and swipes at them with her living paws before bolting through me and knocking over a lamp. 

I remember when I bought it. I brought it home and Elma was furious. She scolded me and told me that I was always spending her money without telling her. We got into an argument, one of many, and it ended with me sleeping on the couch next to my new lamp. In the end I kept the lamp but not her. 

I cry out in frustration at Mittens and I begin to wail like the ghosts of the forests. Mittens puffs up and hisses at me before darting into another room. I cry more for having scared my poor kitten. 

Mittens has found her way into the cupboards! The naughty girl knocked some of the beans out of the bag and onto the floor. She scattered them around and is now playing with them as they tumble all around under the furniture. I remember going to the market and buying those beans with Elma. She told me I was never going to use them, and though she ended up being right, I had every intention of doing so. She was always insulting me and my decisions. I wonder why I even went out with her to the market in the first place. 

I remember my first night alone without her. I feel as though I could finally breathe without someone judging me. My apartment was mine once again and was rid of her and her stench. Perhaps she’ll be the one to find my body; I hope it gives her a good fright. 

Mittens is still at it with the beans. I decided to play with her by flicking them across the floor and watching her chase them. She is having a delightful time, pouncing around and skittering them across the floor. 

Mittens has made an error in her bean chasing and pounced straight through my ghost! The poor kitty got quite a shock and a poofed up all her little fur. She darted around and ran straight for the bedroom where she went right under the bed. 

I followed her, since I am no longer bound by the limits of space and stayed with her for quite a while. I remember as a child I used to hide under the bed and scare my sister. It was all good fun but she hated every second of it. I remember the last time I saw her. It was after Elma and I broke up

We had a small party, just the two of us, in my apartment. There was cake and champagne and we danced the whole night to terrible music on the radio. 

Mittens eventually came out from under the bed. She jumped straight up onto my pillow and peed on it! I am lucky that I can’t smell it or need to sleep in a bed anymore, but still! 

I remember bringing her home when she was but a tiny little thing. She was all fluffy and bones and she would pee on just about anything! Luckily as she settled she started to use her box more and more and eventually stopped having accidents around the house. 

She looks up at me from on top of my bed and meows at me, squinting her little eyes as opens her mouth as wide as she can. I can’t stay mad at her and I coo back at her. We “talk” for a bit more before I begin to exhaust myself for the day. My presence starts to fade and I fall back into my ghost sleep as my sweet kitty meows at me incessantly. 

I am able to topple over all the kitty kibble onto the floor! It mixed in with all the beans, but Mittens is able to pick through the lot of them and eat which ones she pleases! I remember when I spilled the kibble before with a previous cat when I was a child. 

My parents were furious with me and I had to spend hours cleaning up all the food that had scattered under all the furniture. They screamed and I cried as I had to pick up every last piece. 

I remember when I was finally able to move out of the home. The day I turned 18 I left and never went back. I suppose that treatment is why I found someone like Elma, but I got out of that situation too, so things were looking up in the end. 

My memories surrounded me and I am unable to act. The voices of my parents rang in my head over and over screaming at me, demanding to know what the hell was wrong with me. I remember crying each night in my bedroom and I sink into the floor. 

I try to think back to some happier parts of my childhood. I watch as Mittens batts around the beans and kibble on the floor and I remember my first kitten, Socks. He was a scrawny little cat who never grew much larger than when he was a kitten. He lived to be about 12, a good age for a cat. I took him with me when I left my parent’s house. 

I remember when he passed. I had come home from work and there he was lying on the floor. I scream at this memory and begin to shake. Mittens ignores me and I begin to wail louder than the ghosts in the forest. 

I think long and hard about my relationship with Elma. I was young, stupid, and desperate for love. She ignored me, controlled me, and took advantage of me at every turn. I didn’t know better since this was how I was treated at home. I didn't know that love wasn’t supposed to be brutal. She was all I had and I would have done anything for her. 

I scream, louder and louder until Mittens sees me. She puffs up again, larger than I’ve ever seen her and hisses at my wailing ghost. I cry and cry and the only sound I hear is the neighbor banging on the wall. I don’t care if they hear, I don't care if I disturb them, they haven’t checked on me, they don’t care. I don’t care and my world turns to black. 

I awoke staring at the floor. Mittens is in front of me, her paws tucked under her in her favorite loaf position. I thought about the animal shelter I worked at. It was after Elma and I split. I needed money and all I could think about was how sad and desperate all the animals were and how I too, was sad and desperate. I had to help the poor little things. 

They had me clean the cages and all sorts of menial tasks but it was enough to get my mind off of things. There was something nice about being able to see the difference I was making in their lives. As I helped them I helped myself too. 

Another day another haunting, and I’m here alone with poor Mittens, who has decided she’s going to stare out the window all day. I look out too onto the streets and remember moving all of my things up here after I left Elma. It was hard, having to lug all the furniture up those stairs and I even broke the leg off of one of my favorite chairs. 

I sigh and frost gathers around the window above Mitten’s head. She is still content and sleeping. I try to reach out and draw something fun on the pane of glass, like what me and my sister did when we were little, but my hand goes straight through it. 

I breathe again on the glass, hoping to create more of the frost, thinking perhaps someone from below would see it, but the only thing I manage to do is frighten Mittens. Her head snaps up and her ears flick back and she stares wide-eyed at me before rushing away under the couch. 

I remember the winter we lost my brother. He had been coming home from work in the dead of night when he was attacked and robbed. He was stabbed once, but it was enough to make him collapse and freeze.  I sink back to the floor and stare under the couch at Mittens for a long while. 

Mittens eventually emerges and flops down next to me. She purrs violently and tucks her paws under her belly and closes her eyes in a perfect cat-shaped loaf. 

Card: King of Hearts A friend, WHat is your relationship to them? What made it change?

I want to pet her so much but I know I mustn't touch her again. I remember the first time she emerged from hiding around my friend. Pyotr was there; we were laughing and having drinks. Elma was in a good mood for once and it was nice to have friends around her. Things were good and Mittens needed to to be a part of the joy. 

She poked her face out from the bedroom and meowed and meowed until I picked her up and placed her on his lap. She didn’t run or hiss but settled in nicely and he was able to pet her. This was before Elma became vicious towards me. Pyotr was the first to leave after she turned. I wasn’t able to re-connect with him and I wonder if he will find out that I am gone. 

Mittens has flopped over onto her side and has begun meowing at me again. I meow back to her and we have another conversation. How I wish I could hold her in my arms and I forget that I can’t as I reach out to scoop her up, only to have my icy arms pass through her. She screeches at the cold touch and her fur extens so she appears twice her size. She hisses at me and climbs high on top of the bookshelf away from me. 

In her haste she knocks down one of the porcelain figures on the shelf. It falls to the ground with a loud thud and shatters. From below the neighbor bangs their broom against the ceiling. I remember each and every night they would bang and bang and bang then come to my door and bang some more. It was a small red-faced man who screeched at me about respecting his space even though I hardly made a noise. 

I wonder if he would be the one to find my corpse. 

I hear banging on the door as I come to after my darkened haze. There is someone at my door but I cannot see their face. I hear them as they speak and I know the voice but it shakes me to my core that I should know who this person is but I cannot remember them. They stand outside for a long time, calling my name, tapping their foot, and then eventually leaving. I want to follow this stranger who I know but I cannot leave my kitty. 

I return inside and sink into my couch in the most literal fashion. I am between the cushions and the floor and I see it, wedged deep inside, a wallet that I thought I had lost. I begin to laugh, thinking about the money and the ID’s that I had lost and replaced but it was right there in my own apartment the entire time. I should have known to look but the fool I am, would never have considered it. 

I laugh and laugh until I am crying again. I remember the panic that I was in. I thought I had left it at Elma’s. I vowed never to return to her, especially after I had fled so abruptly to a place I thought she could never find me. I cried and cried over this wallet, knowing she could still use it to control me. I feel burning hot at all the needless frustration and I lash out, flinging the cushions across the room; one flies into the bookshelf, knocking it over, and the other towards a window where it bounces off onto the floor. 

Mittens is playing with all the broken pieces on the floor.  I watch her play for an hour before she meows at me expectantly. I do not know what she wants. 

I see her swipe away at ..something, I cannot remember what it is, something I should know, something I cared enough about to place on the shelf.  She batts another thing under the something. The thing in the middle of my room--the place where people sit. I do not know what it is. 

I am loosing myself and my surroundings. I do not know where I am. All around me are shapes and my cat, a bright shining light of life and around me are things I can no longer recognize. I circle her over and over and over and she is all I have and there is nothing else. 

I watch as Mittens screeches at me one last time before I watch her trod over to my corpse. She has been out of food for days and she is hungry. I cannot look as she jumps up to my face and sinks her teeth into my flesh. 

I feel the world around me growing cold and when I open my eyes I can see Nothing. All around me it embraces me and I feel myself gently pulled apart and consumed in my entirety.