The crash of the plate on the kitchen tile startled him so badly that the TV dinner slipped from his grip and dropped onto his pants. Salisbury steak and macaroni and cheese spilled onto his trousers. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCdCf5IiBI
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Jack cursed and bolted up into an unsure standing position. He grabbed his napkin and did the best he could to wipe the gravy and yellow cheese sauce off of his legs. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xxZkYupkR
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He hurried into the kitchen to see what had made the noise that had so rudely disturbed his peace. One of his green dinner plates had fallen off the drying rack and shattered into a hundred pieces. How the devil did that happen?867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡML1hHxZfS2
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This was not a fine way to start his night. Priorities he thought to himself. He took his pants off right there in his kitchen. Inappropriate? Perhaps, but he needed to get them in the wash at once before the gravy and cheese sat in and stained them. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIl8rrPP5g6
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Folding them over his arm he walked into his laundry room and threw them in the washer. He carefully measured out the proper amount of detergent and added a capful of a stain fighting formula he had picked up at the grocery store the month prior. He then turned on the washer and let it run. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡugfT9cWDD6
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Muttering under his breath, he made his way back to the kitchen and the broken plate. It was very unlike him to put a plate, or any dish for that matter, onto the drying rack improperly. Normally he was a very careful man. Being careful had kept his little secret for the last thirty years. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxab8giCgPL
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His little secret being his affinity for killing cats, of course. One cat a week. At least. If there was a way to take the life from them he had done it. He had sliced them. He had diced them. He had bludgeoned them. He had strangled them. He had electrified them. He had burned them. He had skinned them. He had dismembered them. He had buried them alive. He had drowned them. He had injected them with various household chemicals that acted as poisons. He had practiced Accupuncture on them. He had even put one in the microwave. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEoh2SLLYdr
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If there was a way to kill a cat Jack had more than likely tried it. But his favorite way was a good, old fashioned strangling. Was there anything better than choking the life out of a stray? Not that Jack had found. A malicious little grin washed over his face as he thought of all the felines that he had rid the world of over the years. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHEcvcM9yHg
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It all started when he was ten. His aunt had brought her pet cat, Cleopatra, with her during her Thanksgiving holiday stop at their house. Cleopatra acted like she owned the place.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi6JLEoczw6
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The filthy little creature lurked about the house and scratched on things that she wasn't supposed to. She pooped in the bark o mulch near the rhododendrons. She jumped up on the counter and ate right from the turkey. Oh how his father had fussed and fidgeted when the worthless animal did that. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSp3i7TLuep
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The final straw for Jack was when he went into his bedroom and found Cleopatra chewing and scratching on his favorite knit stocking cap. The one with the long tassels that his mother has worked so hard on. The mischievous creature had frayed it beyond repair. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7EULykZuE
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Young Jack shut his bedroom door and grabbed the Cleopatra by the back of her neck. He then began twisting until her neck snapped. The cat fought back. It had scratched his arms while he was twisting. Jack found the struggle exhilarating. He felt truly alive after the cat went limp. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUqNTqlv9Pa
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Yes his arms burned and itched from the scratches, but what a small price to pay it was for that blissful feeling of exhilaration. A small price to pay indeed. He wore long sleeves, so that his parents wouldn't see the scratches. He stuffed Cleopatra into his backpack and told his parents that he was going on a nature hike to fight the boredom of the holiday. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8adleB3jq
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Cleopatra’s final resting place was a shallow hole in the woods that sat behind the park that was a few blocks from his home. He pleasures himself on the cat’s grave before he left it there to rot. It was a ritual he competed after every kill from then on out. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡydLf1aNeMR
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When the next morning arrived Jack’s aunt was very distraught over the disappearance of Cleopatra. She accused Jack’s father of doing something with her precious feline and Jack’s mother and father asked her to leave not long after that. It was the last time he saw his aunt. She always brought him poor excuses for gifts during Christmas anyways, so never seeing her again wasn't much of a loss. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEU198JJjcU
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Since he didn't have any aunts to bring him cats to “play” with anymore, Jack took to the streets to find new feline friends. They were everywhere. He relieved his neighbors of the burdens of caring for their cats. He found and erased every stray in his suburb. And he was careful, so he had never been caught. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpHxqAbuGH
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He was a very careful man. And that is why his putting the plate on the drying rack improperly made no sense to him. In fact, he distinctly remembered putting the plate on the rack and double checking its position after he washed the remnants of his bacon and eggs from it. It made no sense at all. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4W6Wtodbeg
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The broom he grabbed from his pantry had barely touched the broken plate when the long, drawn out yowl. Jack turned his head this way and that to try. There was a cat in his kitchen. Jack smiled. He knew he hadn't put the dish in danger of falling. It must have been the cat that did it. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMhc1CTgTp
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The cat must have slipped in the door while Jack had opened it after he heard the knocking, he figured. Jack rose from his kneeling position and sat his broom and dustpan aside. The plate could wait. There was a filthy creature roaming free in his kitchen and it had to be dealt with. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvCIzRYEzt
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“Here, kitty kitty,” Jack said gently, as he tried to coax the cat out from its hiding space. He walked slowly to his cooking utensil drawer. He pulled the out a meat tenderizing hammer that he had bought at a kitchen store sometime last year. He hadn't used it on a cat yet. It would be his trick and his treat for this Halloween.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0j485hoDnH
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After searching every nook and cranny in the kitchen, Jack seemed puzzled that he couldn't find the feline invader. Then he heard a chewing and smacking sound from his living room. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡToIWA7d6Nv
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Carefully stepping around the broken plate, he slowly and quietly walked from the kitchen and peered into the living room. His comfy recliner blocked his view, but he could hear the sounds coming from the other side. Where he had spilled his Hungry Man dinner. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbgu9RNURb
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As he quietly made his way to get a better view of what was on the other side of the chair. There, in front of his wonderfully comfortable recliner, was a black cat savagely gnawing the Salisbury steak that had tumbled from the black plastic tray. He watched as it licked the gravy and cheese that sat staining his carpet. Oh the scrubbing it would take to get that stain off.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo72G70qEd2
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The scrubbing wasn't something that Jack was looking forward to. The thought of it irritated him. He had spent a long, hard day at work and now he had to get on his hands and knees to scrub for who knew how long. This cat would pay dearly for this inconvenience.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIhpWH9DgwK
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He took a soft step towards the cat. A howl of warning emitted from the creature and Jack stopped and smiled. This one had spirit. He took another step towards the black beast and the warning yowl turned into a vicious hiss. The cat bunched itself up and turned towards Jack.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBrrM0dO8k
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Looking straight into Jack’s brown eyes with his golden ones, the cat hissed again and bared it’s teeth. It's fur was standing up on end. It was ready for a fight. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvac5i5943
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Jack gripped the meat tenderizing hammer and leaned slowly down towards his prey. As he was leaning down with such bad intentions Jack noticed something curious about the mouser.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPX1okeCGNc
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The cat that he had strangled the life out of the previous night had one wispy little patch of white right under it’s chin, which made it look somewhat like a soul patch. It stuck Jack as funny as his hands tightened around the creatures neck the night before because he thought to himself that it looked like he was choking a tiny hipster. He had actually started laughing about the thought of him killing a soul patch wearing hipster right there in his kitchen.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrK0jA9dsc
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Oddly enough, this cat had the very same white soul patch. The rest of it’s body was completely black save for that little triangular white patch of hair. Could it have been the same cat? It was a very odd coincidence. Or was it a coincidence at all? Perhaps this was the same cat. Perhaps, just perhaps, Jack hadn't finished the job last night. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmLn0Gw5y6
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No. That was inconceivable. When Jack tossed last night’s cat into the trash that morning it had been stiff as a board. This must have been one of it’s offspring. Unneutered cats were the gift that kept on giving. 867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ009G2wrOx
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Raising the hammer into the air a snail’s pace, Jack muttered, “Here, kitty kitty. Good kitty. He still now.”867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjtTrINVwXR
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The cat’s eyes narrowed. It hissed once again and then lunged forward.867Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dbfRFB0tN
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Before Jack could react the cat was on his face scratching and biting. Jack screamed out as he dropped the hammer, gripped the cat in both hands and flung it across the room. The cat made a horrid sound as it landed with a thud. There was a commotion for a moment and then the cat sprinted into the hallway and out of sight.
