Chapter 1
531 Words
"Apocalypse countdown: 24 hours. Pets will transform into guardians and protect their owners. Each person may keep up to three pets."
The moment the system announcement rang out, the entire world erupted into chaos.
Pampered little pets were abandoned all over the streets, while aggressive dogs that people usually avoided became the first animals everyone fought over.
My landlord, Griffin Keller, quickly converted my rental apartment and the surrounding units into a makeshift shelter. Then he declared himself the shelter leader.
My boyfriend, Ryan Brooks, rushed over as soon as he heard the news.
He stuffed my three sleeping cats into a carrier, opened the window, and clearly meant to get rid of them.
I reacted just in time and darted in front of him, blocking his way.
"Ryan, what are you doing? I raised them myself!"
Ryan exploded. "Didn't you hear the announcement? The apocalypse starts in 24 hours. Do you really expect these half-blind, limping cats to protect you?"
I stood in front of the window and blocked it completely. When Ryan realized force wouldn't work, he softened his voice and tried to coax me.
"Sophie, listen to me. Get rid of these useless things, and the two of us will have six slots between us. Then we can raise a few more predators and be completely safe."
I refused to move. I lifted my chin and tried to sound braver than I felt.
"Who says they can't protect me? Max doesn't have a bad leg, and Molly isn't blind. They're good cats. Anyway, if you dare touch them today, I'll never let this go."
Ryan stared at me with wide eyes, as if he were looking at a lunatic.
He slammed the carrier onto the floor and cursed at me. "They aren't blind. I was the blind one for ever getting together with an i***t like you! We're breaking up right now. When the apocalypse comes, don't come crawling back to me."
The door slammed shut. After Ryan left, I hurried to let the cats out and finally released the breath I had been holding.
This wasn't the first time someone had called me a bleeding heart. Ever since graduation, that label had followed me everywhere.
All because I was, in every sense of the word, a cat mom.
After college, I took in two stray cats. But those two strays were different. They ate an unbelievable amount, and they were unbelievably picky.
They emptied my already thin wallet in no time.
To keep us from starving, I started working even harder.
I worked three part-time jobs a day and ran myself ragged. Some days, I worked as long as 16 hours.
After that, the rumor spread among my old classmates that I had lost my mind, that I had some disease that would kill me if I had to live without cats.
I didn't care. All I wanted was to stay with my two fur babies.
After a while, I somehow adjusted to that exhausting routine.
Just when I started feeling proud of myself for managing it, Molly got pregnant and gave birth to a snow-white puff of a kitten.
A true little demon had been born.
- Writer
