A Witchy Inheritance

Chapter 2

I was so glad, even though it meant ducking out of work fifteen minutes early, that I was able to get to the local pet food store before they closed. I had inherited my aunt’s black cat almost a week ago and was just now getting around to buying him pet food.  In her instructions to me my aunt Cadence stated not to worry about buying him pet food because her beloved Cicero would be perfectly fine eating a little portion of whatever I made for myself. To me that seemed frankly unhealthy for the cat since their dietary needs were different than us humans and at first I was perfectly fine acquiescing to her request, mostly because I was too lazy to go to a pet store, but the more I thought about it the more I felt I was doing the cat a disservice by not seeing to his actual dietary needs.

My mother's sister had always been a bit of an odd duck but it still surprised me that she had left her cat to me instead of one of her own two daughters. It made the most sense that one of her children would get him.

Yesterday I finally accepted the fact that if I was going to be the owner of this poor cat I was at least going to give him the healthiest life I could. I had already been googling local veterinarians to get him in for a checkup because I was pretty sure that was something my aunt never did, she was more of a holistic and no Western medicine type of lady.

I parked my dark blue Ford focus on the tiny parking pad that accompanied my side of the small duplex I lived in. Grabbing both my purse and the cat food I was grateful that I had not inherited a large dog so I wouldn't be having to lug around a thirty pound bag of food. I could pass for five-foot-two on a good day, so one of those bags would have dwarfed me. As I juggled everything, reaching the front door, so that I could pull out my keys I noticed there were two large shipping boxes off to the side of my front porch. I remembered the executor emailing me telling me to expect the rest of Cicero's things to arrive sometime this week. I had honestly expected maybe at cat tree or something to that effect, so I couldn't understand why I wouldn't just be picking those things up from my aunt's house. But looking at the two large boxes made me wonder what exactly at cat could possibly need that would fill boxes that large. Shaking my head at yet another family idiosyncrasy I unlocked the door and walked into the dark living room that made up the front of my home.

Adrenaline shot through my system before my eyes even adjusted and let my brain know what I was looking at. Across the dark room from me stood a full grown man, n***d, leaning against the banister that led upstairs as if he owned the place. The shriek I let out as I dropped the cat food bag and purse to grip the pepper spray attached to my keys was high and louder than I would've liked. But then maybe I would get my neighbors attention so I wouldn't be alone in fighting this n***d intruder. Instead of trying to fight him off my instincts took hold and I backed out the front door shutting it behind me only then cursing myself and remembering I'd left my purse inside, which held my cell phone. Dashing down the steps of my front porch I looked around at the neighbors on either side of me, knowing full well that neither set would be home as the neighbors I shared a wall with both worked night shifts in the woman detached from my house was on vacation. I was on my own with a stranger in my house and nothing on me but my keys. The only thing I could think of was to drive to the police station and have the police escort me back home. Surely by that point the crazy man in my house would have cleared out and hopefully not have stolen anything that I couldn't replace. My heart was pounding in my ears and adrenaline made my hands shake as I ran back towards the driver side of my car. I had a split second of worry for the cat but realized he could fit into incredibly small spaces and he would probably be able to take care of himself.