Vampcat

Feline vampire. Canines and mousies beware. Cat haters too.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

I last fed 3 nights ago; my need to hunt now urgent. One mammal shall die tonight, 2 if I make haste. Hemoglobin lights me like a match.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

My taste buds no longer give me pleasure yet I call prey delicious. Each blood drop: liquid fire. And I? Hollow, desert-dry, cold as bone.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

I wait in liminal spaces. I walk edges: Between now & when, light & night, breath & breath. Skirting boundaries can be like walking wires.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Day's hours slowly stretch for me like limbs long & sinuous. I listen despite my panting. I catch scents. I wait. The past fills my head.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

How hard it is to stay in the present as I write. I move forth & back, back & forth, without noticing: To my future hunt & my past living.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

They sleep out of the reach of ordinary nocturnal predators--owls & foxes. But they never expect the likes of me & therein lies my pleasure.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Tonight I will flush sleeping chipmunks out of their freshly expanded burrow. They rest easily now, not expecting to become prey by night.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

My kind, we are wasteless hunters: we stalk, we kill, we drain, we eat. We do not consume as you mean it; we return any remains to the soil.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Night hunting stirs me. My eyes don't glint when headlights catch them; my prey never sees me. I have come to relish surprise.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

True speed came to me with death: when I ceased to live, I learned to move so quickly no living eye could see me. Much better for hunting.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

When I was living I imagined myself fast. I darted, I thought, dashed. I could outrun any mouse, trap any bird. Fantasy too sometimes lies.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

I relax now that night has come. I stretch & grow longer. I reach one then another leg out, arch up, and pull the others straight behind.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Night time air slides in like oil. You likely haven't noticed, but night air moves more quickly, not having to contend with light matter.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

By day I pant; shallow breaths barely inflate my lungs. Yes, lungs, for though I am undead I still need to breath. Lore sometimes lies.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Were I a fish, I'd call night my water & sunlit hours my shallows. It isn't true that moonlight, too, makes me flinch. Only hot sun rays do.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Regardless of trends, I will start with now. Here. Lengthening spring days try my nerves, but as daylight fades I stretch in relief.

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Do most memoirs begin with childhood tales? First memories? Or do they move backwards from these 1st words, anchored in the present?

[Vampcat @vampcat]

Just call me Nif. No honorifics necessary. And please don't touch me. I haven't eaten and your hand is so tempting.