Otis slowly recovered from his illness. He eventually regained his strength and started to feel better. He knew he wasn't taking proper care of himself, but he was doing the best he could with what he had.
Scavenging for food one night, he heard a soft mewing behind him. His heart panged, thinking to a time before when a kitten had come wandering up to him.
He was walking along the neighborhood, kicking a rock and toying with a stick. His parents had beaten him early that day- he already had a fat lip and a bruised eye. He tried not to cry. Crying only made it hurt worse.
He heard a soft mewing and looked all around. He had never seen a kitty before!
Then it came out from behind a trashcan. A snow white little puff ball with red eyes, just like his! It was albino! Just like him!
He smiled hugely and ran up to the kitten, who didn't seem to flinch at all as he scooped it up into his arms, nuzzling his face into its soft fur. It purred loudly, rubbing on his face.
He had made the mistake of taking the kitten home. He tried to hide it from his parents, but they had inevitably discovered the animal.
"This your little friend, huh?" His father smiled cruelly back at him.
Otis begged and begged for his father not to hurt the kitten, to just set it free.
He watched in horror as his father split the baby with his knife like he was gutting a deer.
"Here, you fuckin' freak! It's a fuckin' freakshow just like you! It belongs with you, always!" He pulled the entrails out of the animal and shoved them into Otis's mouth.
He couldn't remember when he had stopped vomiting that night, or when he had stopped crying. But he knew immediately after he was punished.
Otis shuddered, coming back to reality. He heard the kitten mewling again, and looked down at his feet. It was encircling him, rubbing against his legs.
It wasn't white this time- it was a black and orange striped cat with a white belly. It was just a kitten, too, and it was hungry.
"Hey, little guy." Otis began to crouch down. The kitten skittered away and turned back and looked at him. Otis sat down on the ground and extended his hand. "I ain't gonna hurt ya." He kissed at it and clicked his tongue in the back of his throat, trying to attract it back to him once more.
The kitten slowly approached him again, hopping onto his shin and walking the length of his legs.
Otis chuckled, shaking his head. "You're a ballsy little thing, ain't cha?" He gently scratched behind the kitten's ear. It mewed at him in response. "You're hungry, huh?" He sighed. "Me too..." He stroked the kitten, finding himself forgetting about his problems for a moment and just enjoying the sweet animal's presence. He sat and played with the animal for a while, finally able to smile for the first time in a while. "Wish I could take you...But I ain't able to even take care of myself, let alone a little guy like you..." He stood, careful not to step on the little creature. "I'll come and visit you though, yeah? That sound okay?" He chuckled as the baby mewled back at him. "Okay." He ventured home once more to sit alone in his apartment.
He found that when he visited the kitten, the nights weren't as hard, so he tried to visit as much as he could. The kitten grew quickly, though it didn't have much food. He would sit for a few hours at a time, playing with it and petting it, letting his stress and pain fall away into the eyes of that sweet animal.
This animal couldn't hurt him like people had. It couldn't say the hurtful things he expected to always hear, it couldn't beat him or worse...It couldn't insult him. It only provided him with a smile and went on its way, just trying to survive itself.
He had heard somewhere along the line that animals were good for the soul. Well, now he believed it. He truly felt better when he saw that little thing. Whether it was just because it made him smile and forget what had happened to him for a moment, or if it gave him a connection he longed for but never had he wasn't sure, but he was sure there was no harm in visiting the little fluff ball.
One day when he was wandering back from the shop, he stepped into the alley where the kitten resided. His heart sunk when he saw blood.
"Hey, little guy? You okay? Here kitty kitty kitty..." He called. No mewling. It always answered him when he called.
He shifted the boxes around in the alley and came across what he was afraid of.
There lay the little kitten. It had been attacked by something, blood still pouring out of its neck where it had been bitten.
Otis sighed.
Poor thing...Didn't even have a chance. He thought as he gently placed the body in a small box he found in the alley.
He carried it to a field he had found when he was out exploring and dug a hole, placing the box inside and burying the kitten.
He sighed once more and turned to go home. Alone, once again.