Mistic Pets

Welcome to Issue 39
Created by The Mistic Pets Team

The Collar
Written By Kite

It was Lanturnacht night and Amy was sitting up in her bed, listening to the raging storm outside. She couldn’t sleep with the angry thunder roaring around her, or with the flashes of lightning every couple of minutes, so grudgingly, she got up. The floorboards felt cool beneath her bare feet, and as she padded downstairs towards the kitchen she glanced over to the side window. Rain hammered against the glass pane, seemingly desperate to try and break it. Amy shuddered, tried to shake off the disturbing thought, and made her way over to the fridge.

Wait…what was that noise?

She paused, her arm half extended towards a carton of milk. She could have sworn she’d heard an odd yowl. She glanced over to the kitchen window, but there was nothing. Thinking she’d imagined the noise, Amy gathered up the milk carton and shut the fridge door. She was just retrieving a tumbler from the cupboard when she heard the yowl again, louder this time. She nearly dropped her glass with the shock.

There it is! There’s definitely something outside!

Amy set her glass down and exchanged it for a rolling pin.

“Who’s there!?” She shouted at the kitchen window. The reply was another, louder screech. She gasped and took a step back. “Go away!” she tried to bellow, but her voice came out as a strangled whisper.

A shadow appeared across the windowpane; even in the darkness it was clear it was the silhouette of a large creature, and it was getting closer. A piercing screech filled Amy’s ears, as whatever it was began to scratch the glass in an attempt to get in. Amy screamed as the creature’s huge claws continued to assault the glass with such ferocity she feared it would shatter.

“Get back!” She finally found her voice, and brandished the rolling pin in front of her. The beast yowled again in reply, and this close, Amy thought it sounded very much like a cat. Cautiously, she took a step closer to the window, squinting against the ebony backdrop of rain outside to try and get a clearer image of her supposed attacker. It yowled at her again, and as the shadow moved she spied a pair of pointy ears atop its head. “It’s a pet of some sort,” Amy muttered as, gingerly, she curled her fingers around the window lock, took a deep breath, and clicked it open…

The vision before her was heartbreaking. Sat on the window ledge was a half drowned, soaked through, adorable little Blush Haruba. It mewed pathetically.

“You poor thing! Let me get a towel!” Amy rushed over to the kitchen drawer, fished out a large towel and went back to the window, where she wrapped it around the sodden Haruba and plucked it from the clutches of the vicious storm. She brought the skinny pet into the sitting room and hastily set about lighting a fire.

As the flames began to burn she looked at the small feline, as it lay curled, shivering in her towel on the hearth rug, and saw that it’s pink eyes were looking right back at her. They were huge, grateful eyes. It mewed at her weakly.

“Don’t worry, little one,” Amy smiled, “I have milk in the fridge. I’ll go get you a bowl. You stay here and warm up.” She returned to the kitchen and reached into the fridge for the second time that evening, and as she re-entered the sitting room and set the milk-filled bowl in front of the now purring Haruba, she noticed it was wearing a collar.

As the pet lapped happily, Amy reached under its neck and grasped the silver name tag that dangled from the collar:

“Spirit”
555-8876

“Spirit. That’s a pretty name,” Amy smiled. “I’m going to call your owner. Let them know that you’re safe.” She got up and went back into the kitchen,  picked up the telephone and dialed. As the dull ring sounded down the line, it dawned on her that it was incredibly late at night to be making a phone call. The clock on the wall was telling her that it was midnight exactly! Still, she hoped the owner wouldn’t be angry at her for waking them.

Just as she debated hanging up, the call was finally answered.

“Hello?” Came the sound of a woman’s voice. She sounded half asleep, and also, slightly fearful.

“Hello!” Amy began, “I’m so sorry for calling you this late but -“

“Who is this?!” The woman snapped.

“My name’s Amy,” Amy replied, “I just wanted to let you know that I have your Haruba, Spirit, here with me.”

There was a long pause on the other end.
“….My what?”

“Your Haruba. It says Spirit on her collar. I know it’s late, but I just found her outside in the stor-“

“Is this some kind of joke?” The woman interrupted, starting to sound very angry now.

“Umm… don’t you have a pet Haruba named Spirit then?” Amy asked.

“Child, my Haruba, Spirit, is dead. And has been for many years now.”

Suddenly Amy began to feel incredibly cold. Had she left the kitchen window open?

“W-What do you mean, she’s ‘dead’?”

“It was ten years ago now,” the woman began, “on Lanturnacht night, when she went missing. There was a terrible storm that Lanturnacht. I knew Spirit was frightened of storms, so when it started and I couldn’t find her in the house I began to panic. I ran outside and called for her, but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find her. It rained so hard and there was so much flooding, I couldn’t get far. I went to my neighbours and asked if they could help me find her, but not one person would help! I knew she would be howling and howling wherever she was, because she’d always liked people, and I hoped that if someone heard her, they would take her in. All night I searched, and by morning, the storm had gone. Then I found her.

She was curled up under the window ledge of a house. Drowned, the vet later said. She’d left scratch marks on the window, but they’d ignored her,” the woman’s voice began to crack, and she trailed off.

“B-but she’s here…” Amy whispered.

“Please child, leave me alone,” the woman sobbed, and the line crackled as she hung up.

Amy stood frozen to the spot for a few moments, the receiver still pressed to her ear, before finally putting the phone back and going back into the sitting room.

“Spirit?”

The Haruba was gone. All that lay on Amy's hearth rug was the kitchen towel and the bowl of milk.

Dazed, Amy picked up the towel. It was bone dry. She stared numbly at the lack of wet footprints on the rug and at the untouched bowl of milk.

“…Spirit?”
Outside, the storm had begun to ease off. The rain had finally stopped.

Without saying another word, Amy collected up the towel and bowl and took them back into the kitchen. After rinsing out the bowl she extinguished the fire in the sitting room and made her way back up to bed.

As she snuggled beneath the covers slumber found her surprisingly quickly, and just as she was drifting off, Amy could have sworn she could hear the sound of a Haruba purring somewhere, just as the sleep finally enveloped her.

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