The cat's paw

‘Beyond the mountains at the horizon, it is said that a cat deliberately walks into the snare set by poachers to capture a bear or a tiger. And unable to bear the pain, it bites off its own paw and walks away three legged. The remnant paw is considered to be a lucky charm, but it still holds in it, the trials and tribulations of the cat when in captivity’

Human beings are need driven creatures, the need to live life, luxuriously. It can make them do anything, even if it means to make a deal with the devil. I was in dire need of money, the money I lost in poker, horse-races; I need to earn that back. Much beyond that I needed a factor called luck.

After emptying four pints of lager and some whiskey, I was well away at the party. And then I started to drive back home. The road down the hill was extremely dark. I was cruising along the treacherous serpentine course.

And suddenly the car started to shake as if it were going down a rough track. Before I could realize what happened and braked, I have driven off the road by a few kilometers. Still reeling between a state of consciousness and inebriated ecstasy, I opened the door and staggered along the gravelly path.

The clouds engulfed the moon. The cold wind cut through my skin and the surroundings chilled me to the marrow for there was no flora in the vicinity. All I could see was an old dead tree with the branches spread out from its trunk.

But what swept me off my feet was a body hanging from one of its branches. Somebody came this far to commit suicide? I better investigate, I thought as I ambled towards the tree.

The sounds of the creatures of the dark, the absence of any human soul dint deter me from going to the tree. I slowly walked to the person and examined him. The body was half rotten. I could see the folds on his exposed parts. The skin on his face was green in colour and it shrunk completely almost exposing his skull. One part of his body was crushed as if it were run over by some truck.

He presented a frightening look that would scare even the most seasoned horror buffs. Suddenly my eye caught the attention of a crumpled paper he was holding onto. Must be a suicidal note. I broke a twig from the branch and tried to free that paper from his grip. After a while, I was successful.

Folded in the paper was perhaps the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. It looked like the paw of some animal. I immediately dropped it to the ground before I was reminded of a local legend, about the lucky charm of the cat’s paw. I unfolded the paper and had gooseflesh when I read the few words written on it.

“I would rather die a thousand times than living one more life”

I couldn’t understand a word, but I saw the pain cos of which he committed suicide. I slowly bent down to pick the cat’s paw from the ground when I heard the creaking of the branch behind me. I raised my head and what I saw almost stopped my heartbeat.

My blood ran cold for a while. The intoxication, all of a sudden, wore off completely.

He woke up. There were no eyes in the eye socket. He held the rope and started to shake, probably trying to get off the rope. And he was screaming in an unknown language. I took the cat’s paw in my hand and started to run towards my car, holding onto my dear life.

I tried to run as fast as my feet could carry me, before I tripped over something and fell down. I was hurt very badly after my ankle hit a stone. Lucky enough, it wasn’t paining though. Haven’t broken any bones. Still lying on the ground I turned around to see the thing that caused me to fall down.

It was a bag. I was a little circumspect about opening the bag, but fear is the last thing, a man would be worried about when he has problems, my problem being bankruptcy and desperation to get out of that situation.

I opened the zip and was aghast to see a huge amount of money, all in denominations of five hundred rupees. I valued the entire stash at more than a crore. My lucky day, I thought looking at the cat’s paw.

I made my way to the car and drove back. After reaching home, I ran a search for the cat’s paw. The legend was indeed true. “Let me see how my luck’s gonna change from tomorrow on,” I told myself.

I couldn’t get a wink of sleep. ‘So much money, let me win more in horse-race’, I told myself. I held the cat’s paw in one hand for I feared that I might lose it. I slowly slipped into sleep.

A few hours later, I was woken up by a purring sound. A cat? Gripping onto a vase, I slowly started to walk in the direction of the sound. A few feet ahead of me, I saw a huge Cat, with eyes red and claws drawn-out, standing on its hind legs and screaming in a callous voice ‘my paw, my paw’ to the man on the ground, the very same man whom I had seen hanging from the tree.

Then the man pointed his finger to me as the cat lifted its head and threw a furious look at me. With a sudden jerk, I woke up. A terrifying nightmare.

I held onto the paw. I was soft and cold. For a while, I felt frightened and then sorry for the animal, but nevertheless happy to have it for the luck factor, it brought along.

The following day, I travelled to the nearby town to invest in horse racing. As anticipated, I tripled, quadrupled my finances. It had been a wonderful day. I had all the money to pay debts, in fact I was be left behind with a decent amount. All cos of this lucky charm, I kissed the cat’s paw.

It was almost dusk and I had to travel back home before it gets dark.

I felt my leg too heavy when I looked down. The ankle was swollen as if it were sprained. But there was no pain, surprisingly. So I couldn’t drive my car faster, for the fear of hurting my ankle even more.

Within an hour, it was dark. The country road was almost deserted with no sign of any vehicle in the vicinity. It’s dangerous to travel with a lot of money, in these areas. And so I was a bit tensed.

I slowly stepped up the gas, before I heard a bursting sound. The car swerved like a snake before I maneuvered it to one side of the road. I got down from the car to see that I was running on a flat tyre.

Damn, I kicked the tyre, I don’t even have a spare tyre. The entire place was dark. There is every possibility of me being robbed and hence I decided to hide the money in some place.

I slowly walked into the nearby sparse vegetation and started to dig the loose sand with my hands. I then placed the bag into the pit and covered it up, before I felt someone watching me from behind.

I turned behind and saw a big cat growling, must be a panther. I looked into its eyes, they were same as the cat’s, I saw in my dream. I sprang to my feet and ran towards the car. The panther chased me.

I was almost nearing the road when I looked behind to see the panther. It was nowhere. I then turned to my front when I saw a beam of light and a loud honk. Something dashed me real hard and I fell to the ground. Before I could realize that I had been hit by a lorry, one of its rear tyres ran over me.

I was shell shocked when I realized that I was not under any kind of pain, and that I am alive too. I looked at the portion of the body over which the truck ran over. My left leg was completely crushed and I was bled profusely. I managed to crawl to the car when I heard the growl again.
The big cat appeared again and this time, he caught hold of my other leg with his jaws and dragged me into the woods, as I watched helplessly.

After dragging me for some distance, he stopped and walked over to my head. He slowly bent down sniffing all over my body and without alarm caught hold of my neck and plucked it brute force.

The blood splattered all over his face and he drank it with great relish. Surprisingly I had no pain at this juncture too, and I was able to watch all this happen to me.

The tiger left in some time, leaving behind a petrified me and a gaping wound on my neck. I touched my own body when a chill ran down my spine. There was no temperature. The body was totally cold. I tried to feel my pulse. There wasn’t any either.

All the things that happened since yesterday flashed through my mind. And then I realized. That I am not alive any more. But, why aint I dead either?

I slowly pulled a piece of paper and started to write something. After that I lifted a huge boulder and dropped it onto my own head. I could feel the crushing of the brain and the splatter. My hands were dead and lay motionless, but I could still feel and hear.

I don’t know for how long I lay in that position, hours, may be days, when I heard the footsteps of somebody walk towards me. Definitely a human, I thought. I could feel his hands run over my body. He seemed to be searching for something.

And then I realized that he pulled the cat’s paw outta my pocket as he read the paper, I wrote.

“I would rather die a thousand deaths than living one more life”

No, no… I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. With all my strength I jerked my body, hoping that he wouldn’t get away with the cat’s paw.

But the man screamed in fright and all I could hear was the sound of fading footsteps …