Chapter 1

Heavy rain poured down from above the dark clouds up in the sky, filling the sky with little droplets that splatter on the muddy ground of a narrow road. Thunder and purple lightning roar resound ed over the clouds, the brief lighting illuminated a black-cloaked silhouette creeping through the mud in a hurry.

Flashing once more, the purple lighting made the features of the black-cloaked silhouette much clearer. It seemed to be a young man of 23years old, within the age of adulthood.

The young man gradually slow down his stride before he suddenly stopped. His black eyes were slightly bloodshot, and his rough black hair hinted at the very rough night. The young man gradually bent downward as his hands, splashed around in the mud as if he was looking for something before he stopped.

"Damn it, Bernard, where did you drop your glasses again, finally I found the damn glasses." Bernard huffed a bit in frustration before sulking his little rants.

The feeling of not being able to see, without his glasses had become a daily occurrence for him, especially at nights when he was almost like a bat seeing a flashlight. But still, it bothered him just as it did every single day of his damn life, but at this moment he was too tired to care about it for today.

He softly pushed his glasses back up onto the ridge of his nose however they slipped a bit forward from being wet. Just from looking through the glasses, he felt as if he had been given a new list to life, making him breathe in a sigh of relief.

Even though he needed a new pair, he had decided against it since it was anything but close to being completely dismantled or losing its minimum usefulness. Even though he could tell it was badly mutilated at first glance, since the glasses and the temple looked crooked after he wore it, he thought it was still better than nothing.

"Meow....!"

Just then as Bernard was about to hasten his stride, he heard something let a sound around him he felt was odd. He would have sworn it was his old phone which was on the verge of dying making a weird sound whenever he received a phone call.

But then the let sound, insisted repeatedly it wasn't his old phone, nor was he with or beside a pet owner carrying a cat.

He turned his head around only, to realize something in his line of sight. Lowering his line of view he could see a little kitten, it was black, chubby, furry most especially it was quite wet and was almost fidgeting as it tug his pants with wet paws.

Even though it was fidgeting, Bernard thought it seemed quite friendly compared to the most lunatic stray cat he had helped, as its hugged his leg showing off it was both cute and cold.

There was quite some distance to his house, and most especially Bernard was contemplating whether he should keep it or not, besides that he also had two thoughts running in his head.

Firstly, he was just a poor orphan who had no money and wasn't rich, taking care of himself with three square meals a day was already an issue, secondly what if the cat had an owner who was probably worried and was searching for it?

After a while of contemplating, Bernard finally decided taking care of the kitten would likely do more harm than good, and since there was no shelter around or within sight due to the rain he would only take it to his house for today and the next day take it to the home of lost pets.

"It's not like your owner would be too worried, that you were gone for just a single night right little guy?" Bernard muttered, without expecting much before picking up the little kitten who turned around to glance at him with its green emerald eyes, before its let out a 'meow.'

Bernard didn't know what it meant, but he assumed it's should be a 'thank you' which he gladly accepted by nodding at its.

After he was done he began to hasten his stride towards his house. After a few minutes of walking, he finally arrived home, immediately he went to attend to the little kitten before he decided to do a few old works. Living in a single bedroom apartment after his graduation, with noisy neighbors and enough space to fit his bed and a few chairs was more than enough for him at least for now since he didn't have a wife, kids, or even a girlfriend.

In overview, an old TV was placed close to the wall, but Bernard would merely use it as a means of entertaining his depression or seeping away from his troublesome life drama and didn't watch anything else but today he was quite anxious and as well anticipated.

The apartment was barely rented after sorting his monthly bills, since he was quite poor he had to work off his a*sses every single day just so he could take care of himself, and sometimes he wouldn't even come home and would sleep at his place of work.

When his colleagues, were busy having their meals or chitchatting among their circles, however, Bernard wouldn't be a part of that not that he didn't like it but he preferred staying on his own.

If it wasn't for his little properties, and security documents being unsafe at his workplace. He wouldn't even bother wasting precious money to rent an apartment, on top of his bed were a few files he had yet to submit.

He walked towards a cabinet, immediately pulling an old wooden drawer that accommodated his old TV remote, as it made a ghostly sound when pulled over.

"Phew, finally away from work. Hmm, let's see if there is anything new today," Bernard said to himself, as he lifted the old remote and pressed a worn-out green button at the tip of the remote.

He then quickly went to his "Kitchen", which he formed from the extra space that remained after arranging his beds and other stuff.

"No, junk food today. I don't want the boss cursing me for being a cheap stake if Michelle was aliv... I guess she would surely have been nagging how lanky or fat less I have become." He chuckled to himself reminiscing on a memory briefly, before he shook his head as he took out a few vegetables out of a small cabinet on the ground, by the side of an old rusty gas cylinder. And he proceeded to chop them into bits and pieces.

Some had a familiar look to him, some he didn't even know why he bought them except he remembered how Michelle would constantly bug him to eat healthy food with vegetables.

While he just listened and wrote the list of the vegetables like a little kid.

The idea of having such a dinner made Bernard to almost cry, but he consoles himself with the barbecue fish he always bought by the roadside.

Even though he hated cooking, he couldn't deny he was a good cook as he shoved all the vegetables he chopped into an oiled frying pan. And with the help of the automatic gas lighter, he lighted up the fire quickly.

After that, he proceeded to make little arrangements for the little kitten meal as well, since he's watching hours would be from 7 pm to 9 pm, with the time being 6 pm it could be said he had a bit of time on his side.

Bernard dedicated a few minutes to do a variety of preparations, that made him appear to be like a real chef pro in the kitchen. After an extra ten plus minutes, he could smell the sweet aroma which signifies the food was ready.

After a while, he was lying on his bed, with a plate of fried jollof rice and grilled barbecue fish in front of him, turning his head to the side he gave some to the kitten who seemed to be enjoying it by how it was salivating over the food making Bernard laugh from its actions, then he turned on the TV but not for its usual purpose of entertaining his boredom or seeping away from his troublesome life drama. But the big news he was awaiting.

As he switched to the channel on the TV, it took a few seconds as he felt a little anxious. And then the TV displayed an ongoing News showed.

However, just as the big news was about to be announced, the whole room suddenly seemed to experience a power outage making everywhere immediately dark, quickly he kept his food in search of his old phone.

As Bernard was rummaging through his things, he suddenly felt like something was on him, however, the weird thing was he could feel a soft and wet tongue lick his hand.

He turned around only to see a pair of green emerald eyes staring at him he also could feel its was hugging his arm, he couldn't help but chuckled as he thought to himself, the little kitten must have been afraid.

"Meow...!"

Bernard then patted the little kitten on the head, trying to get out of his bed blindly, he started sauntering towards where his phone could be, as he tried to piece together memories of where it could be.

Unfortunately, in the process, he stumbled upon something which seemed to have pierced his skin a little, and he let out a soft groan of pain.

After a while, he calmed down and realized if he kept rummaging through his stuff like that, he might really hurt himself in such darkness.

So he decided to wait until the power was back probably within a few minutes, after all this was probably the first time he had experienced a power outage, even if the apartment wasn't expensive he was confident they wouldn't take the light before it was the usual time.

After a while of futile search, Bernard sat down where he was, at that moment he could hear the little kitten meowing as it seemed like it had moved closed to him.

He could feel that the little kitten wasn't looking at him but rather something else, while he was pondering what it could be staring at, he felt the little kitten on his palm, and then its began to lick his palm to be precise where he felt something had stabbed him earlier.

"What are you doing, little fella? Are you worried that I got myself hurt?"

Bernard muttered, in surprise as he realized the little kitten wouldn't stop licking where he got wounded.

Amid his surprise and wondering when the power would be back, he suddenly noticed something odd, for some reason he couldn't lift his hand nor move it after the little kitten sat on top of it, it was as if his hand had become very heavy and numb at the same time.

When the kitten finally stopped licking where he was injured, its started to let out strange meowing sounds.

Even though he thought this was strange, Bernard didn't think much as he guess this was probably one of the kitten's odd habits and it was probably missing his own, after thinking for a moment he thought he should at least comfort it.

Without wasting a moment, he looked at the kitten but then suddenly widened his eyes and turned around only to be hit by something, making his eyes spin around.

For a moment he was completely bewildered, ridiculously enough he felt like he had just been slapped on the face but he couldn't understand how that was possible.

Could he be daydreaming again? He thought to himself, as he tried his usual way of waking himself up, however, the same thing repeated itself, he was hit on his cheek by something again, shading his vision black and white at the same time, and his eyes spun inwardly and his head buzz, and he felt dizzy.

However, this didn't stop it was like there was a mechanism behind every slap he received making his eyes blurry with tears, his expression became pitiful every time he was hit, and gradually he noticed his body began to turn weak, he didn't know if it was from hunger or the unceasing slap but his vision of black and white began to darken further, and with that, his vision shut themselves.

But just before he could fully pass out, just at that moment the power came back, and at the right corner of his vision, to his momentary surprise, he could see a big black cat slowly licking its paw.

Suddenly, the big black cat raised it's head as if its had sensed something widening its beady eyes, before raising his paw again and striking at him fiercely.

"Go down, Meowf*cker!"

Finally, making him lose his consciousness.