The King of Cats

[shadowknows69]

The King of cats gathered his subjects to himself one final time.

The strange, high pitched language fluttered from his withered and cracked lips with an elegance that almost betrayed the otherworldly quality of the sounds. James had heard it used before, this amalgam of Pentecostal speaking in tongues, guttural noises that no man should make and sentences from dead languages that only forbidden scholars know. As the words flowed into existence and hung above The King as an almost real object of pure thought the reaction came in nearly an instant.
It started with the feeling of energy in the air as The King increased his chanting in volume. Then simultaneously the house started to vibrate and the maddening sounds of the claws and feet on hardwood floors and digging from unseen places began. Then the eyes of a man I had called friend finally lost their last light of anything human, and it began.



I first met Christopher Stone at the age of 17. I was in the process of trying to re-assimilate myself into my lost circle of friends. They actually weren’t the ones who were lost to me so much as I was the friend they had misplaced. My group of long time childhood buddies numbered only about four and we all lived in small enough hamlets close enough to each other that familiarity shouldn’t have been compromised but it had been.

Nearly inseparable until late in our freshman year in high school, the middle of tenth grade found me in a rather intense relationship with a girl who, for whatever reason, never broke into that circle and I think that was the way I liked it. Granted the fault lies completely on my shoulders, but given the option of hanging out with the guys or continuing my experiments into my budding sexual education with Jill, well, it was no contest. This was strengthened by the fact that a group of my good buddies nearly ruined my first fevered fumblings with her while on a camping trip that we both lied to our parents to sneak to one Memorial Day weekend. Possibly the oldest burn in the book, my main group of friends from childhood happened to be camping nearby and took it upon themselves to surprise us in our tent during one of the private sessions we had snuck away for. As far as I know the only thing they might have caught a glimpse of was my naked ass throwing on a pair of pants to give chase and hopefully introduce someone to a cold lake dunking. Despite their best efforts Jill and I “sealed the deal” that weekend and they mercifully ceased their assault on us after the first attempt.

As often happens with high school romance mine ended abruptly as Jill, who was a year ahead of me, graduated in the spring of my Junior year and moved out of state to pursue school and future career opportunities. We briefly went through the motions and mirage of a long distance relationship but reality had different ideas and we officially called it quits soon after her arrival in her new world.

[shadowknows69]

1. KOC's rough continued

My faith, as it was at the time, died along with my relationship with Jill it seemed. Mother made sure my sister and I were properly indoctrinated, regular, church goers in our little village because not to be would be too conspicuous to bear. My family was Methodist because my parents said we were and it was a good church with plenty of the familiar neighborhood children present to make it an equally fun and terrifying environment.

Sunday school taught us the basics like "Jesus loves you this I know" and any number of other silly children's hymns, and how hell was bad but they never seemed to make us think it was too hard to stay out of there. Just be good and believe in God. The Christmas pageants were fun and I enjoyed the skits although I never seemed to rise above the rank of shepard and the loathing I felt for the various "Josephs" was surely the sin of vanity infecting my young mind.

[petgoat]

2. Have you finished this or are you just starting?

I'm confused by it. You seem to start three or four times, different
stories. You abandon each for the next and I have no idea where
you're going with this.

I've read several of your non-fiction accounts. They're very well written,
with a beginning, middle, and end.

[shadowknows69]

3. They all just be works in progress

When the spirit moves I'll add. Just using DU as a worksheet kind of right now.

[shadowknows69]

4. the stuff in italics is meant to be a teaser of the climax of the story

n/t