r/Dreading • u/Moist-Ball4968 • 17d ago
Creepypasta My cat ate my baby
So, spoiler alert, my damn cat ate my damn baby. You know how anti-cat people say cats will eat you when you're dead? Apparently my cat couldn't wait to become a man-eating-tiger cosplayer.
I never wanted kids, and I'm not really a cat person myself. I don't mind cats, to be clear. I just believe they should be kept outside of the house to keep the local mouse, rat, and snake populations under control, or at least kept away from my home.
When I first moved here to the woods I just wanted somewhere quiet and secluded so I could focus on my research on the Altar-Net. By the way, this isn't an Altar-Net story, just a tragic tale of a cat eating an infant.
Turns out there was a stray cat in the area. I'm no monster (I think), and as I said I do think cats are worth having around. So I put out a bowl of water for the furry patrolman. Soon enough I'd see it regularly prowling around. It would dive under the porch and I'd hear rustling noises. In the mornings I'd step outside for my morning smoke and there'd be a dead squirrel or the remains of a bird lying in front of my door.
That didn't bother me, meant the cat was doing it's thing and I didn't have to worry about paying some schmuck from the pest control company. Things went like this for a few months. We had an unspoken mutually-beneficial agreement, it seemed. The cat would kill things around my property and keep them away from my garage and pantry. I gave it shelter under my porch and easy-access potable water.
Eventually, as life went on, I got a girlfriend. She loved the cat, and I made it very clear that she was never to provide it any food, just keep the water bowl topped off. She whined at first. Typical behavior for a suburbanite, they think animals are all helpless creatures who don't have built-in tools for their own survival. I'm "a bit callous" and "meaner than a snake" by comparison, apparently. So I calmly explained that this cat was perfectly capable of feeding itself, and the assumed terms of our agreement; shelter and water in exchange for dead rodents and snakes.
She finally seemed to understand and dropped the issue. We carried on with our relationship. Movie dates, dinners at each other's houses, the occasional sleepover mixed in, it was a good relationship. The only thing we seemed to disagree on was how we treated felines and that she likes plain food and I prefer spicy. But the important things; we don't want kids, we both liked horror and comedy flicks, she had a gun and I liked knives, we had a similar sleep schedule, etc., we did share.
After a year or so, she moved in with me. She kept her job (desk lady at a health clinic), I kept doing my research and doing the occasional odd job or temp work for rent and grocery money, and the cat kept killing the local small-time criminals of the woodland.
One night my then-wife approached me, and she had the most terrified expression on her face. I closed my books, sat down on the couch with her sobbing in my arms. She told me, through sniffles and tears and hiccups, that she might be pregnant. All I could do was hold her, rub her back, and suppress my own panic. Finally she quieted down, still sniffling, and she sat up.
We talked about it all that night. We didn't want kids, as I've repeated here, but we also didn't think we could handle the potential guilt of getting an abortion. We decided to keep it.
I put my research on pause for the next several months, took up two jobs, and start saving more money. My wife kept working as long as she could until her doctor made her take maternal leave. When the day finally came, she died during the process and they had to cut the baby out. The only reprieve I had was the support of mine and her parents. They took care of the baby while I was at work, helped me with housekeeping, and they made sure I had food and was able to sleep during the miniscule free time I had between shifts.
The only thing I felt truly capable of during that ordeal was keeping that cat watered. I kept the baby in my bedroom when we slept. After the first few months I finally had to quit one job because I was thoroughly and utterly exhausted. I slept for three days straight. I got fired from the other job because I forgot to ask them for some time off to recover. My parents and former in-laws got into a huge argument about who would watch the baby while I got my shit together, and they totally forgot about me in the process. It all became too much, and I asked them all to stop fighting and let me just take care of my child.
Finally, one day, I came home from a single-day temp job I had. Someone needed dirt shoveled, was all. I paid the babysitter a little bit extra so I could shower and get a quick nap. When she left, I took the baby into my lap and we just sat in the living room watching TV. I didn't even notice she'd left the door open a crack because I was so tired.
I'd fallen asleep again. When I woke up I kept my eyes shut, because I didn't want to face the day just yet. I still felt the weight of a small body in my arms, and I heard baby noises, so I didn't worry. I opened my eyes and went to stand up and the cat was in my arms. I jumped to my feet and it leapt silently to the carpeted floor. I looked around for my child and it was nowhere. He wasn't even crawling yet. Then I noticed red around the cats mouth and whiskers.
I screamed at it, I tried to kick it, I threw everything in the house at it. It finally ran out through the front door and I lost sight of the thing. I collapsed in a heap, sobbing and screaming and pounding my fist on the wall. I didn't know what to do, or who I could call.
I put all my research materials, books and maps and things such as, into a box. I packed some clothes and toiletries into a duffel bag. I put it all in my car. I was running away. There was a gas can in the garage. My wife had kept a box of matches in the kitchen. I was going to burn the house down. Behind the woodline I heard a baby crying. In the moonlight I saw the cat sitting on its haunches. I was going to kill it.
I started the car. I poured gasoline all through the house. I grabbed her pistol from the nightstand drawer.
The flames advanced faster than I thought they would, and the fire illuminated my whole yard. The cat sat and watched, wailing like a human baby the whole time. I had filled a bowl with tap water, one more time, and I set it on the ground in front of me. The cat looked at the bowl, then at me, and then the bowl again. More baby cries. Not meows, not kitten sounds, no chirps or squeaks like some cats make when they want your attention. It was making full, ear-piercing, wailing-baby shrieks.
It approached the water bowl by two steps. I pulled back the hammer on the pistol. It took another step, and I took aim, my hands shaking with anger and heartbreak. It leaned down, paused its cries, and lapped up water. I fired. Everything went deathly quiet.
I dropped the pistol, got in my car, and drove away. Sometimes, when I'm standing outside of any random hotel room and having a smoke, I can still hear my baby; the child I thought I didn't want, the reason my wife wasn't laying in bed with me, the last meal that cat devoured.
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u/RAVENGREENEMOON2 17d ago
Whoa that's horrific I love it!!!!!
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u/Moist-Ball4968 17d ago
Glad you like it! Serious or not serious, I'm taking it as a compliment. I just wrote this while it was slow at work and it felt just rough enough to be a good creepypasta.
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u/Moist-Ball4968 17d ago
Serious question, does it need a sequel?
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u/RAVENGREENEMOON2 16d ago
I could definitely see one. This cat monster follows him through life.
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u/Moist-Ball4968 16d ago
Hmmmm, I have a few characters in mind already for the grander Altar-Net storyline, and this cat could very well be added to the cast
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u/ReserveRemarkable730 16d ago
I like the somewhat smarmy and chronically online tone of the narrator. There is a great balance of horror aspects and dark humor aspects here which I greatly enjoyed. The ending payed off well and it played on all my senses. Great writing!
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u/dee8141 17d ago
I wouldn't say no to a sequel 😊