EDGAR ALLAN POE BLACK CAT

 I know you are not going to believe this story. I don’t expect you to believe me. Only a crazy person could think that you would believe … And I am not crazy.  But it is a true story, as true as I will die tomorrow morning. Yes, tomorrow I will die and before my execution I need to unburden myself. I want to write and tell the world about how I have been destroyed.  Maybe someday, someone can explain what really happened. Because it is not an ordinary and a “natural” story.

Since my birth I have always been a peaceful and kind person. This goodness led me to love animals. My parents knew my love for them and spoiled me with a lot of pets. Animals were always part of my family and I grew up surrounded by a variety of different species. I spent most of my time with animals and was happy as while feeding and petting them. The years went by, I grew into a quiet man and my love for animals became stronger. They have always been my best friends. I discovered they were more friendly and honest than most men.

I got married quite young. I was lucky. Because my wife loved animals as much as I did. You can understand the joy I felt in these days. She gave me many amazing animals as presents. We had different sorts of birds, fish, rabbits, a fine dog and… a cat.

This cat was a special and beautiful animal. He was unusually large, all over black and also very smart. In speaking of his intelligence my wife often joked about what some people believed that all black cats are evil in disguise.  She was not superstitious and never really serious about it.

I named it Pluto. It was the pet I liked most. I fed and showed my deep love for him all the time. I did everything for him myself and never let my wife take care of him. It was fond of me too and followed me wherever I went. Even he wanted to follow me through the streets when I go out and I would stop it with difficulty.

For years we had been best friends and lived happily together. However my character and attitude slowly changed during those years.  I started to drink too much. This evil enemy and worst illness of man made me nervous and cruel to every living creature. I was not a gentle and good-hearted person as before and began to get angry about even the smallest things. I hit my loving wife several times and used bad language with her. My pets felt the change in my character too. I neglected and maltreated them if they got in my way… Except Pluto. But my addiction grew worse and worse. Soon I did horrible things to my dear Pluto too.

One night, I returned home very late from the inn where I spent my time drinking. I was heavily drunk. When I entered the home Pluto ran away from me. I wanted him to come near me but he kept staying away.  This action made me angry. I grabbed him by his neck, picked him up and shook. In his fright at my violence he bit my hand. At once I completely lost my mind.  As if someone else possessed my body! I was not myself anymore. I took a knife out of my pocket. Then I held the poor animal by his neck and cut out one of his eyes from its socket. Today, I am shaking and blushing while I am writing down this terrible event.

The next morning I was deeply sorry what I had done. I couldn’t understand how I had committed such an evil thing. But I couldn’t change my life and continued to drink. Soon I forgot what I had done.

As the days passed Pluto slowly got well. Now there was only a frightful hole where its eye once had been. But at least he no longer appeared to suffer any pain.  However, not surprisingly, he ran away from me in fear whenever I went too close. At first I felt sad about this cat which had once loved me so much now hated me. Then, slowly, I began to feel angry. The human heart is strange and there is no way to understand it. We have a strong desire to do forbidden acts.  Haven’t we all done something silly or evil just because we know that we should not do it? Finally this feeling seized me and I did another terrible thing to this innocent animal.

One day, I found a strong rope and tied it around Pluto’s neck in cold blood. Then I hung it to the limp of a tree and left it until he was dead. Tears were streaming from my eyes while I was doing this terrible thing. There was an awful sadness in my heart. But I did… I couldn’t stop myself.. I killed it. I killed it because I knew that it had loved me… I did because I knew that I was committing a sin.

That same night I heard through the window people outside shouting “Fire! Fire!” and woke up suddenly. Our house was on fire and the flames had already reached the bedroom.  My wife and I jumped from the bed and escaped with great difficulty. We were lucky but the house and everything we have burned down to the ground.

On the morning of the fire there was nothing left of the building. All but one inner wall fell down. This still standing part was one of my bedroom walls where head of my bed rested. I thought the fire hadn’t damaged this part because there was a new and wet plaster on it. A crowd of people were looking at this wall and talking about something. When I came closer I heard someone saying “How Strange!” and another person “That’s weird”. So I looked at the wall that they are talking about. There was a shape of a cat with a rope around its neck.

The moment I saw the shape I couldn’t move and stood there in horror. Several minutes passed until I started to think clearly. I had to think, I had to explain why it was there. After thinking about it for a while I remembered that I had left the cat hanging from a tree in the garden next to my house. When the neighbors noticed the fire they must have come to the garden. Probably one of them cut the dead cat from the tree and threw it through my bedroom’s open window to wake me up. The falling walls must have pressed its body into the fresh and soft plaster. After the cat burned completely, this black shape had been left there. Yes, that was what happened.

I tried hard to convince myself about this idea.  For months, I couldn’t manage to forget that shape … and Pluto. In time, I began to feel regret about losing him. Even in my dreams I saw it. So I decided to find another cat similar to Pluto. I searched around the streets looking at all the cats but I couldn’t find one like him.

One night, I was drinking in the inn, as usual. Suddenly I noticed a dark object on top of a large barrel in the corner. I was surprised because I was looking at this point just a few minutes ago but I hadn’t seen it. In surprise, I got up and went over to see what it was. I touched it and found that it was a cat. It was as large as Pluto had been. It was almost exactly like Pluto. Except for one thing. Pluto was black all over and didn’t have even one white hair but this cat had a big white shape on his chest. As soon as I touched it, cat arose and pressed softly his back against my hand. At that moment I realized that this was the cat I had been looking for. I offered the innkeeper some money to buy it from him. But he said that the cat didn’t belong to him. In fact he had never seen it before and didn’t know where it had come from.

When I left the inn, the cat followed me into street and came home after me. From that day it stayed with us. My wife loved him too and soon the cat became her favorite pet. But, as the days passed, I found myself disliking him. In the beginning I didn’t know the reason for my hatred. Later, I understood that this annoyance came from the way he loved me. Although I hated him, I was careful about not to harm. I tried to keep away from him as possible.

I know one reason why I hated this cat. First morning after he came home I discovered that, like Pluto, his one eye was missing. At the moment I found it, I terrified. I started to think how was it possible? My dear wife loved him more because of this fact. However, the cat didn’t love my wife. It just loved me. It seemed the more I hated him, the more he loved me.

It always followed me wherever I went. When I sat down he jumped onto my knees or lay down under my chair. When I got up to walk he get between my feet and nearly made me fall. I wanted to kill it at such times but I didn’t. I stopped myself because I was afraid. I am ashamed to tell it. But yes, I was afraid of a cat.

As I mentioned before, the cat had a white mark on his chest. At first this mark was unclear. But slowly changed and turned to a clear shape of something… Something I fear to say. It was the shape of that terrible instrument of fear, of pain, of agony and of death- the gallows!

Every passing day my fear grew and grew. I turned into a different person.  I couldn’t rest or sleep. Every night fearful nightmares woke me up and I would be covered in sweat. When I opened my eyes I found the cat sitting next to me.  With this fear, the smallest piece of goodness within me disappeared. I hated everything and everybody.

One day my wife came with me into the cellar to get some wood. The cat, running under my feet as always, nearly made me fall. In sudden anger I took an axe and swung it toward the cat. But my wife held my arm to stop me. This interference made me angrier. I turned and buried the axe deep into her head. She fell dead on the floor, without making a sound.

After this hideous murder, I made plans to hide the body. I have to do something quickly.  I couldn’t take it out of the house without the risk of being seen. I thought of cutting it very small pieces and burn them. I thought of burying it in the floor of the cellar. I thought of throwing it into the well in the garden. I thought of packing it in a wooden box and carrying it away. Finally, I noted a place in the walls of the cellar. I decided to hide the body there.

Walls of the cellar were quite old. Also there was a place where stones had recently been added to cover an old fireplace. I knew behind the wall there was enough space to put the body. I began to work without delay.

I easily took off some plaster, took out the bricks and put my wife in the middle of the wall. Then I put back the bricks and covered them with new plaster. The new plaster couldn’t be distinguished from the old. I cleaned everything carefully. It was impossible for anyone to understand that this was a new wall.

I decided to kill the cat, too. He was bringing me bad luck. I looked around everywhere but it was gone. I thought it was scared of me and ran away. I didn’t see it during the night either. That night I, who had just killed her wife, slept with a happy sense of relief.

Three days passed and the cat still didn’t show up. Feeling much better without the cat I was a happy and free man as before.  I wasn’t worried by what I had done.   A few people came and asked about my wife. I answered these questions easily. On the fourth day, police visited and searched my house but I was sure that nothing would be found. They looked everywhere, all the rooms and then went down into the cellar. They asked me to come with them. I was sure of myself and calmly watched them as they searched the cellar. As I expected, nothing was discovered.  Soon they decided to leave. I was so happy that something inside me forced me to talk. I wanted to show the police, how totally innocent I am.

“Good day to you gentlemen” I said. “Let me show you something before you left. Do you see how well-built these walls. This house is old but very well-constructed.  As I spoke, I knocked with a cane on the wall where I had hidden the body of my wife.

At that moment a horrible cry came from within the wall.   At first, the voice was soft like a baby crying. Then it grew into a long scream of pain and horror such as rising from hell.

For a moment, policemen stood with their mouths open in terror. They looked at each other, then at me. All ran to the wall and began pulling out bricks. In a short time the wall broke down and the body of my wife appeared. On her head there was cat with red open mouth and one burning eye shining like fire. I had put this monster into the wall alive. I became a murderer because of him, and now he was sending me to the gallows.

-THE END-