Matt was straightening up the living room when he heard knocking at the door. He quickly placed miscellaneous items in a nearby drawer and then hurried to let his new friend in. He had met Stella several weeks earlier in a local coffee shop and they immediately hit it off. She was a divorcee and had been single for a year. Matt was a widower. His wife Kate committed suicide two years earlier. He met Stella several more times at the coffee shop and they took a couple of walks together in a nearby park. Then, the previous Saturday, Stella invited Matt for homemade lasagna at her apartment.
It was now Friday evening, and Kate was going to spend the weekend with him at his house. Matt hadn’t dated or had sexual relations since his wife died and was both excited and anxious at the prospect. He really liked her and hoped that she would break him out of the funk he’d been in since he lost his wife. Matt opened the door and said, “Hi Stella, come on in.”
Stella stepped in with her cat in her arms. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought Felix along. My cat sitter is out of town, and you seemed good with him at my place.”
“That’s fine, he’s a great cat. No problem at all.”
Stella shut the door, put Felix down and gave Matt a hug. “You didn’t tell me how cool your house is, and these are great antiques. How old is this place?”
“It was built in 1902, so it’s around 125 years old. My wife…” Matt paused and regained his composure, “was into antiques. After we got married, we bought the house and she moved in with a bunch of family pieces, and then we outfitted the rest of the house together. I’ll give you the tour.”
Matt showed Stella around both floors and then they returned to the living room.
“Well, you guys did an excellent job with the house. It looks nice.”
“Thanks, it was mostly Kate’s doings. Hey, dinner is almost ready. Have a seat and I’ll get you a glass of wine.”
Matt felt a coldness, like a cool breeze. He confirmed that the air conditioner was off and knew the windows were shut. Weird, he thought.
They had a nice steak dinner and then cuddled together on the couch watching a movie on Matt’s large screen TV. Although he thought the evening was going well, something felt wrong, a little off. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. He figured that he was just nervous or felt a little guilty since it had been Kate’s house too. Then he felt Stella tremble.
“Are you cold?”
“No, it’s not cold in here. I don’t know what that shiver was about.”
They finished watching the movie and then Matt asked, “Are you getting tired? We could move upstairs.” He felt another chill and noticed that Stella must have felt it too.
They went upstairs to the master bedroom and Stella headed into the attached bathroom. She came back out wearing only underwear and then climbed onto the bed. Felix came into the room and jumped up onto the bed with her. “I guess we should have shut the door unless you don’t mind a cat on the bed.”
“No problem.” Matt said from the bathroom, feeling another cold chill. He looked over at the bathtub where he had found Kate’s body after a work trip and shuddered.
Suddenly Matt heard loud hissing, growls and then screams. He rushed out of the bathroom and found Stella clutching Felix close to her neck The cat was growling and thrashing with its teeth exposed. It appeared to be going for Stella’s throat. Blood covered her chest and stomach. Matt ran to the bed, grabbed the cat out of Stella’s hands, and tossed it out through the bedroom door. Then he slammed the door shut. Stella stopped screaming but was moaning and crying.
“What the hell was that? Felix is a great cat and loves me,” she said. “And damn, it hurts.”
They heard the cat growling and scratching at the door. Then the doorknob started to rattle so Matt hurried to the door and locked it.
“Are you okay?” He asked while grabbing a handful of Kleenexes from the bathroom.
“I think so. It probably looks worse than it is with all this blood. Thanks for grabbing Felix, I really thought he was going for my throat.
“Your cat went crazy. Like possessed or something.” Then Matt heard the cat meowing outside the door. He handed the Kleenexes to Stella and shivered, feeling another chill in the air.
Once the worst of the blood was wiped away, they could see long, deep scratches, still oozing blood. Stella carefully got off the bed, and they went into the bathroom to clean her wounds. Matt got out a bottle of rubbing alcohol from the medicine cabinet, wet Kleenexes with it, and handed them to Stella. She worked on the scratches while looking in the mirror.
“These are deep and will probably leave scars. What the hell? They form a big “K.” What was your wife’s name again?”