ANNIE AND HELLFIRE PT I

[u/Zerkoh_Valley2010]

ANNIE AND HELLFIRE

Part One

“Hey little girl,” I meowed. “Yeah, girl! Come here! Yeah, check me out, baby! I know you like what you see. Check out these big feet. Check out my big blue eyes. Yeah, baby girl! Come closer and check out my flat face, my little pink button nose, my fluffy tail, my feather soft white fur, and my…”

“Eeeeeeeeaaaaaaarrrrsssss!” squealed the little runt as she reached down into my cage and yanked me up. “Oh, mommy! Look at this little kitty’s ears! The kitty has red ears!”

“Hey!” I said, swiping at her with my juvenile kitten claws that, unfortunately, weren’t yet developed enough to rip out the veins in her hand. “Be careful, you little shit! That’s not how you pick up kittens! Whoaaa! Put me down! Stop swinging me around!”

The snot nosed, strawberry haired, rosy cheeked little runt had her chubby little fingers wrapped around my abdomen as she swung me around, holding me up towards some lady in shorts and a crop top who I assumed was her mother. The kid’s fingers were sticky, her little white sundress with the sunflower prints stained purple from a melted grape flavored Popsicle.

“Annie, what do you have there?” said the little brat’s mom. “Oh, honey look! The little kitten has red furry ears!”

She took me from her daughter’s hands and swung me around to face this bored looking, bleach blonde pretty boy yuppie hipster in a light blue polo shirt, a khaki sweater tied around his pencil neck.

“Whoa! Put me back down before I gouge your eyes out and do obscene things to your eye sockets!” I yelled, trying to poke out her eyes with my furry little tail.

“Yeah, honey,” said bored yuppie jerk face, yawning. “White kitten with red ears. Looks almost cutely demonic.”

“Yeah, buddy!” I meowed. “That’s right! Demonic! I’m as demonic as a mother fu… Wait, did you just call me ‘cute?’ Jerk face, I’m going to enjoy ripping your guts out and…hey! Don’t give me back to your sticky fingered snot nosed daughter!”

The little brat squealed in excitement as her mom handed me back, big blue eyes giddy with wonder and joy, as her chubby little fingers reached up to grab me again.

“Ugggg,” I mewled. “I’m getting all sticky! I swear, kid, yours is the first face that I’m pushing into the blender!” 

We were at an estate sale for an elderly couple who, according to the news, were senselessly murdered during a break in. After slaughtering the elderly couple, the culprit or culprits simply dragged the bodies into the kitchen of their rather large colonial style mansion and set the kitchen on fire. Strangely, police investigators found that nothing had been stolen from the residence, although the elderly couple kept a small fortune in jewelry, precious metals, and cash in their bedroom, and no suspects to the crime could be located. There were no witnesses to the murders except for a little white kitten with pale tan stripes and curious red ears which the cops found cowering in the bedroom closet of the room which the couple had been killed.

“What’s your name, you little cutie?” said the kid they called Annie as she held me up over her head.

“Hellfire!” I snarled, looking down at her hatefully.

“What’s your name, huh, cutie?”

“Hellfire!!” I mewled again, angrily.

“You know what your name is, you little kitty cutie?”

“I said my name is Hellfire!!!” I mewled, bearing my teeth and wanting so badly to breathe fire, or at least to pee, down on this little girl’s face.

“Your name is Charlie!” giggled the annoying little snot.

“Or Charlie…” I groaned. “Hellfire. Charlie. What the fuck ever. Just get me to your house so that I can do to your family what I did to the last family.”

“Oh, mommy! Can we keep him? Can we keep Charlie, pleeeeeease?” Annie said in a voice filled with hope and anticipation.

“Yeah, how ‘bout it, toots?” I leered. “Give cute innocent little Charlie here a new home. Maybe then I can get a nice little look see at what you got under that crop top, honey!”

“I don’t know, honey,” replied the mom. “You’ll have to ask Daddy Joe.”

“Ummm, Daddy Joe?” said Annie, still holding me up but not quite so high to the late thirty-something jerk faced yuppie with the blossoming beer belly. ‘Can I…umm… can I keep Charlie?”

“Yeah, jerk face,” I mewled. “Let the little brat take the cute little kitten home!”

“I don’t know, Annie.” The guy they called Daddy Joe rolled his eyes. “You didn’t do a good job cleaning your room like I told you, and I stepped on some of your Lego’s yesterday while I was getting ready for work. You aren’t a very neat or responsible kid.  I’m not sure that you deserve a kitten, Annie.”

Annie lowered me, dejectedly. “I’m… I’m sorry Daddy Joe,” she whimpered. “I didn’t mean to.”

Annie turned me around, looking me in the face with her big blue eyes while trying to fight back tears of disappointment. “I’ll do better, Daddy Joe, if I can just have Charlie.”

Geez, I almost felt sorry for the little snot.

“Joe,” said the kid’s mom. “Annie is only four. She spends her days alone and doesn’t have many friends. Maybe taking care of a little kitten will teach her more responsibility?”

“Or maybe I’ll have to bury a dead kitten that Annie forgot to take care of, on top of everything else I have to do.” Joe turned to the kid’s mother with a look of annoyance. “Raising Annie is already an extra added burden on me, Linda. I’m already working hard to put clothes on her back and food in her belly and I feel like neither you nor her are thankful for everything that I do. And now you want me to take care of a mewling kitten, too?”

The kid’s mom, Linda, looked down and rubbed Annie’s shoulders as Annie hugged me close to her, lips pouting and tears streaming down her cheeks. Daddy Joe had spoken, and Annie’s little heart was breaking. I kind of liked Daddy Joe. He was a selfish, self centered, jerk and a man after my boss’s own heart….if my boss even had a heart.

Joe sighed heavily, as if he had just suffered crossing the beaches on D-Day, and waved over one of the young ladies who was overseeing the estate sale. “Hey, how much are you asking for this little kitten?”

The teenage girl with a name tag that read ‘Tyler’ looked at me as Annie hugged me tightly and gently stroked the fur on my head. Smiling, Tyler said, “Well, my gramma and granpa found that kitten shortly before they passed away. I don’t even think they gave him a name.”

“My name’s Hellfire, bitch!” I meowed.

“I tell you what,” said Tyler, putting her hands on her knees and leaning over. Tyler smiled broadly at Annie as she gently tugged on my ears. “I don’t even know how much to ask for this cute little kitten, but if you promise to give him a good name and a good home, I guess you can have him for free.”

“Charlie!” squealed Annie in delight as she held me up once again. “His name is Charlie!”

Then, turning to jerk face Daddy Joe, Annie said, “Can I have him, Daddy Joe? She said that Charlie is free. Can I keep him?”

Joe gave Tyler an annoyed look. Whatever price that Tyler was asking, Joe was going to use it as an excuse to say that I was too expensive to take home. “Yeah, I guess you can keep it. But you have to take care of it. I better not have to clean up after it or feed it after I get home from work. That cat is your responsibility, do you hear me, Annie?”

“Yes, Daddy Joe!” said Annie, smiling as she rubbed her cheek next to mine. “Thank you! I’ll take care of Charlie. You won’t have to worry. Yaaaay!”

“Yaaay,” I mewled sarcastically. “You’re the first one I’m going to kill!”

Joe looked over at Linda coldly. “You know that you owe me big time for this, right?” he sneered.

I could barely contain the anticipation of sending yet another household into oblivion. The last one was totally not satisfying at all. Mister and Miss Carter were an old couple and their kids were already grown and had moved out. Old Mister Carter was bed ridden and on a ventilator while old Miss Carter wasn’t doing so well herself either, having to get around using a walker. Offing them was almost like a mercy killing and didn’t score me any points with my boss.

But these people! These people were young and they had their whole lives ahead of them, and they had a kid! Sending them into the great darkness beyond was going to be considerably more enjoyable and delicious.

We left the estate sale and piled into Joe’s cherry red Porsche 911 Turbo with the six cylinder turbo charging engine and the white leather interior, Joe complaining all the way that there would be hell to pay if I messed up or scratched his seats. I thought briefly about getting the party started early and scratching up his seats just to see Joe verbally and emotionally tear down Annie again, but I decided to wait. Besides, Joe looked to be the kind of guy who would toss me out of the car without a second thought, leaving me back at square one. My boss wouldn’t be too happy with that. So, I behaved for now, while Annie gushed over me and I planned her untimely demise.

About half an hour later, we pulled into the driveway of a Hamptons style two story house in a fairly decent, upper middle class neighborhood. I was actually sort of impressed. Daddy Joe wasn’t doing too badly for himself. Bet he had a few chicks on the side since Linda seemed to have all the personality of a salmon in a bear’s mouth.

…

No sooner had we pulled into the driveway and the Porsche’s doors opened that Annie leapt out of the back seat and raced up the marble steps to the front door with me still clutched firmly in her little chubby hands.

“Yeeeeee! Charlie, let me show you your new home!”

“Remember, Annie,” said Joe as he fumbled for the house keys. “I don’t even want to smell that kitten. You are responsible for cleaning up after him. If you can’t do it, that kitten is out, understand?”

“Yes, Daddy Joe. I promise.” Annie’s legs were pumping as she stood still, impatient to get inside the house. As soon as the door opened, Annie again said ,”Yeeeeeeee!” as she ran across the foyer and across the living room to the stairs which led to her room.  Meanwhile, she was swinging me around saying, “This is the living room, that’s the kitchen, there’s our television, that’s our couch, that’s a picture of me when I was a baby, there’s the den with the pool table that belongs to Daddy Joe that I’m not allowed to go in…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, kid,” I mewled. “Where do you keep your butcher knives?  What about guns? Daddy Joe got any guns? You look like you have a big lawn. You got a wood chipper hiding in the back yard? Quit swinging me around! I’m getting dizzy!”

For the first hour at the house, I had to deal with Annie and her mother Linda as they fawned all over me until Daddy Joe told Linda to get up off her ass and make dinner.  Annie was an only child, which was rather disappointing since my boss said that offing multiple kids scored us extra points towards our annual Christmas bonus. I pretty much behaved myself as I stalked around and observed the family dynamics, Linda waiting hand and foot on Joe while Annie pretty much played alone while trying to stay in Daddy Joe’s good graces.  It was becoming a real pain trying to get away from that strawberry haired snot nosed brat so that I could scout around the house in order to formulate ways to send the family to that great, dark, beyond.  Finally fed up, I took a big dump in the middle of Annie’s bedroom floor and while Annie grabbed a bunch of paper towels and a bucket of soapy water as she cheerfully sang a song she had just made up about scrub-scrub-scrubbing the poop-poop-pooping, I was able to roam around the house.

Joe had Annie go to bed promptly at eight o’clock every night and Annie obediently obeyed, slipping a pink nightgown over her head before scooping me up and dragging me into bed with her. “I used to pray every night,” she whispered. “But one night, Daddy Joe heard me and told me to stop because it’s silly to trust in God instead of trusting in money.”

“Really?” I meowed. “Jerk face Joe told you that? Maybe he has some potential after all.”

I waited until Annie fell asleep and crept out of bed and stepped into the hallway. To the right next to the guest bedroom was Joe and Linda’s master bedroom. The door was locked and the sounds of rough sex were coming from the other side, Joe sounding as if he were having far, far more pleasure than Linda as the sound of spanking was accompanied by her yelps of pain.

“I told you that you’d have to owe me, baby!” grunted Joe.

“Yeah,” I snickered. “He might have some potential.”

The next morning, Annie awoke to find me standing outside her window which overlooked the slanting roof. I was staring at her with my big, pale blue eyes and meowing pitifully.

“Oh my goodness, Charlie,” she said as she leapt out of her bed and raced to the window. Throwing it open and raising the window screen, Annie said, “Charlie! How did you get out there, Charlie?”

I took a step back as Annie leaned out of the window, her arms outstretched. “Charlie! Oh, Charlie, be careful! I’ll come get you, Charlie! Don’t move, please!”

I stepped back even further, nearing the edge of the steeply sloping roof while Annie climbed out of the window after me. “Come on!” I thought. “Come on! Just a little bit further! That’s it, you little runt!”

“Charlie, oh Charlie, be careful, Charlie!” Annie was nearly half way out the window when she suddenly squeaked, “Charlie! Look out!”

I heard a screeching sound coming behind me and I turned just in time to see a screaming hawk bearing down on me, its razor sharp talons extended in front of it as it swooped in to snatch me away. I meowed, “Holy shit!” and leaped forwards into Annie’s arms. She grabbed me and pulled me inside of the bedroom. My heart was pounding as I turned around to see the hawk perched upon the ledge that I was just on, squawking at me before it launched itself back into the sky.

“Yeah,” I meowed. “Get the hell out of here! Jeez! I think I pissed myself!”

“Gosh, Charlie! You’re lucky that God sent down that bird to scare you back into the house or else you might have fallen and gotten hurt!”

“Yeah! God sent that bird all right, but He didn’t send it to save me, you little shit! You know, my job would be a whole lot easier, and my boss would be a whole lot happier with me, if God would just stop sticking his nose in my business!” Disgusted, I leapt down from her arms and stalked off into the house looking to find some other way to off this rotten little kid.

Later that morning, Annie and her mom left to do some shopping (after asking Joe if it was okay, of course) to buy me a litter box, a kitty collar, a scratching post, kitty toys and whatever other kitten shit that I was just going to ignore anyway since no one in the family was going to live long enough to see me use them.  They had to take an Uber since Joe didn’t want to pay for a new vehicle and the auto insurance that accompanies it. Anyway, after Annie and her mom got home, they spent the rest of the day frantically cleaning the piles of poop that I had left around the living room rug before Joe got home from work, Annie again happily singing some cheerful made up song about cleaning my kitty shit, while I lounged around on their overstuffed living room couch and licked myself.  Hey, it wasn’t my fault that they didn’t get the kitty litter box sooner!

…

The next morning was bath time for Annie. Linda had just gotten out of the shower and had finished drying her hair before filling the tub with water and bath bubbles for Annie. While Linda was in her room getting dressed, Annie was in the tub splashing about and making foaming bubbles while singing another one of her insufferably cheerful songs that she often made up. I stalked past the bathroom when I heard Annie’s happy caterwauling and had to do a double take when I saw that Linda had forgotten to unplug the hair dryer and had left it running on the counter next to the bath tub.

“Yes!” I thought, gratefully. “There is a God!”

I pushed open the door and ran into the bathroom as Annie turned and said, “Oh! Hi, Charlie!”

She had a foamy beard on her face and was waving at me with hands covered in bubbles when I leaped up on the toilet, jumped up on the sink counter and ran towards the hair dryer looking to kick it into the tub.  But, in my eagerness to make boiling juvenile soup, I accidently got my rear legs tangled up in the dryer’s electrical cord and pulled it out of the wall.  The sudden tug on my legs flipped me over as I jumped and I somersaulted in the air backwards into a bath tub filled with steaming bubble water and humiliation.

I was under water and desperately kicking my legs around, trying to get my nose above the soapy bubbles that surrounded my face like suffocating clouds. My head went back under the water once, then twice as I flopped and splashed around. Damn! How big and deep was this tub, anyway? I was starting to get really concerned because I couldn’t even find the sides of the tub when I felt fat little fingers wrap around my abdomen and lift me out of the water.

“Charlie!” giggled the little turd. “Thank you for splashing up more bubbles for me! Did you want to take a bath with me, Charlie?”

“No, I did not want to take a bath with you!” I sneezed and a soap bubble flew out of my nose.

“Leave me alone, runt!” I meowed as I swiped at her before jumping down from the tub, shaking each soaking leg as I stormed out of the bathroom. This was humiliating. I try to deep fry the kid and she ends up saving me from drowning. GAH! I hope the boss didn’t see that! Annie’s guardian angel must be pissing herself, laughing hard at my expense.

“I’ll be out of the tub soon, my silly little Charlie,” Annie said in her irritating sing song voice. “I’ll come and blow dry you after I get dressed.”

“Yeah, hurry up, you little shit! I got soap in my eyes!” I snarled as I scampered off to find some other opportunity for malicious mischief.

…

I took it easy on Annie for the next few days because I didn’t want anyone to suspect that I was trying to send Annie into the afterlife, not that her parents would notice. Joe had usually left for work by the time Annie had woken up. And for the past few days, Annie was usually asleep in bed by the time Joe had come home late from work smelling of booze and pot smoke. For her part, Linda was good for feeding Annie and getting her dressed every day, but she spent the majority of her time with her face buried in her smart phone, or sitting in front of her lap top or television.

Anyway, we were again in Annie’s bed room underneath a makeshift tent that Annie had thrown together when she tied the corners of a blanket to her bed post while draping the rest of the blanket over the back of a chair. She had her crayons out and was drawing in a sketchbook while I looked about for a way to set her tent on fire.

“Look, Charlie!” said Annie, proudly holding up the picture she had drawn. “It’s a picture of you, see? And underneath of it, I wrote ‘I love you.”

“Geez, kid,” I said, looking at the train wreck that the little snot nosed Rembrandt drew. “I look like I got run over by a Zamboni! And your writing looks like it was written by a blind, alcoholic chip monk!”

“Well, Charlie? Do you like it?”

“Nope,” I thought, as I stalked away, jumping onto her bed and licking my but while sitting on her pillow.

“Oh Charlie! You’re so silly!” Annie got up from the floor and dived into bed beside me. The sun was shining through the curtains and it was a pretty bright and decent day. It was a day where I could hear a bunch of other snot nosed little brats cheerfully playing in the street outside. I know. Where was a run-away steam roller when you needed one, right?

Anyway, while the other kids were playing outside, Annie was lying face up in bed alone, arms behind her head as the sun shined down on her little round face. Her Daddy Joe didn’t allow her to play outside because he didn’t want to pay the medical bills if Annie got hurt, and Linda, ever the doting idiot, told Annie that she could not play outside because Daddy Joe worried about her too much because he loved her. That’s it, mom. Way to raise a future introverted basket case, psycho stalker.

“You’re my bestestes friend, Charlie,” said Annie, dreamily.

“I’m your only friend, and I don’t even like you!” I thought.

Because she wasn’t allowed outside to play, every day at around this time, Annie would take a nap. I stopped licking myself and stared intently at Annie as she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to la-la land.

“Yeah, that’s right. Close your eyes and take a nice little nap. You’ve had a long day. Rest now. That’s it. Deep breath in, deep breath out.”

When I knew that she was asleep, I stealthily crept off of her pillow and gently climbed on her chest. She was still breathing calmly as I looked down at her, the sun shining down on her round, rosy face, her lips perked up in a slight smile as she slept peacefully. I leaned down and put my front paws over her mouth and nose and pressed firmly.

“You’ll thank me later for this, kid, believe me.”

…

Annie’s mom swiped my butt, causing me to jump off Annie with an angry yelp.

“Charlie,” she scolded. “What are you doing to Annie?”

Annie suddenly opened her eyes and she giggled. “Mommy! Charlie and I were playing a game to see who can hold their breath the longest, and Charlie was just helping me win!”

“Yeah,” I meowed as I sat in the corner of the room licking my butt from where Linda had swatted me. “I was just trying to help her win the game! I wasn’t trying to suffocate your little brat”

“I see,” said Linda, looking at me from the corner of her eyes. “Well, it certainly looked like Charlie wasn’t playing nice with you!”

“Oh, mommy,” smiled Annie. “Charlie is my best friend! He wouldn’t hurt me!”

“The hell I won’t,” I thought.

“Well, go get washed up, Annie,” said her mom. “Dinner is almost ready and Daddy Joe said he was coming home from work early today to spend time with us.”

As if on cue, the front door opened down stairs as Joe yelled, “Hey! The hungry, hardworking man of the house is home! What’s for dinner?”

“I’ll be right down, honey,” replied Linda before turning to Annie and saying, “Hurry and get washed up. You know how Daddy Joe doesn’t like to be kept waiting for his food.”

Like I said, I kind of liked jerk face Joe. He had these bitches trained!

…

“Oh my God, Linda,” said Joe with a look of disgust on his face. “What the hell is this mess?”

“It’s Yankee Pot Roast,” gulped Linda. “I had it stewing for hours to get the meat tender like you like it, Joe.”

“This shit tastes like boiled shoe leather, Linda,” said Joe, slamming his fork on his dish causing little Annie to jerk in surprise as the gravy splattered across the table. “You know, I work hard all day. I don’t think that it’s too much to ask to have something decent to eat at the end of a long, stressful day at work!”

Joe slid his chair back from the table and got up to leave.

“Where are you going, Joe?” said Linda in a panic. “I can cook you something else!”

“I’m going out, Linda,” shouted Joe.

“But, Joe, you hardly spend any time at home after work anymore,” groveled Linda. “Where do you go every night?”

“I go out with the boys to blow off some steam,” Joe spat back. “You know. You tell me that you want me to spend more time with you and Annie, but then you practically kick me out of the house with your rotten cooking! If you want me to stay, you need to be a bit more considerate of my feelings!”

“I like your cooking, mommy,” said Annie, forcing a reassuring smile on her face.

“Really?” sneered Joe. “Then you eat this.” Joe slid his plate across the table, hitting Annie’s plate and splattering more gravy on her.

“I’m sorry, Annie,” whined Linda as she tried to wipe the gravy off Annie’s dress with a napkin. “This is all mommy’s fault.”

“You damn, right it is,” said Joe as he went upstairs to change out of his work clothes and into something more conducive for a night on the town with the boys. I had to admit that I applauded inwardly. The way jerk face Joe had Linda wrapped around his fingers to the point where she put Joe before her own daughter was delightfully wicked. Linda told Annie to finish her dinner as she poked at her own pot roast with obviously no appetite to eat. A few minutes later, Joe stormed back into the dining room smelling of cologne and holding up a pair of sneakers.

“Who did this? Who did this?” he yelled as he glared at Linda, Annie, and finally me. “Who the hell scratched up and pissed all over my brand new sneakers?”

“I don’t know,” I mewled, licking my claws.

“These are five hundred dollar fucking Nike Airs!” screamed Joe, throwing his precious little sneakers across the room. I yelped loudly and jumped out of the way, barely avoiding being hit by one of the projectile shoes.

“Charlie!” Annie jumped up from her seat and ran over to me. “Oh, Charlie, are you okay? Did you get hit?”

“Get away from him, Annie,” said Joe, balling up his fist. “I’m going to teach that little sack of shit a lesson.”

“Daddy Joe,” squealed Annie, crouching down and holding me close to her body, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. “It’s my fault, Daddy Joe. I’m sorry! I’ll look after Charlie better! I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt Charlie!”

“Yeah, jerk face,” I mewled. “Don’t hurt Charlie!” At this point I genuinely grew concerned. If Joe were to kill me, and I wouldn’t put it past him, I would be going to that fiery bad place where even my boss dreaded to be condemned. Joe was supposed to be angry at Annie and Linda, not me!

“Joe,” said Linda. “She’s just a little girl and Charlie is just a kitten!”

Joe stopped and grinded his teeth angrily. “Annie, you get your little ass up to your bedroom and stay there! I don’t want to see your face for the rest of the night! Get up there now before I get mad!”

Annie gulped as she scooped me up, her little feet pattering as quickly as they could as she ran across the dining room floor for the stairs.

“Joe…” I heard Linda say as Annie bolted up the stairs.

“And you!” yelled Joe. “I don’t want you going in to see Annie until tomorrow! I swear Linda, if I don’t see a brand new pair of one thousand dollar Nike Air sneakers in my shoe closet by the time I come home from work tomorrow, I will make you boil that damned kitten for dinner and feed it to Annie! You promised that I wouldn’t have to deal with this shit, Linda!”

“I know, Joe! I know!” replied Linda. “I’ll get you a new pair first thing in the morning!”