The Black Cat

My mother only had two basic rules. Don't ever fall in love, and never summon a demon. I couldn't honour either.

"[Archangel Lucifer who had fallen from grace. Fallen angel Lucifer who became the king of Hell. Fallen angel and King of Hell Satan, I summon thee to ask for a wish!]"

In a dark, dingy room, the blinds are shut tight, not allowing in a single strand of light to penetrate the thick blanket of darkness. The door is also closed and locked as well, it can only be open from the inside. Only dimly lit candles brought light to the dingy room. The room seemed eerie and haunted with long shadows stretching across the room, as if the shadows were ghosts haunting the room.

Candles and a couple of books littered a table's top, next to the table was a bookshelf lined with strange yet marvelous books written in a strange language and symbols, along with a plethora of unusual objects placed in random spots on the bookshelf.

Standing in front of the bookshelf was a boy cloaked in black, in his hands is a black cat that he placed in the centre of the pentagram written in a blood-red coloured substance. The boy stands back up as he murmurs a chant. It's unknown what his facial expression is as a black hood covers his whole face, the shadow covering his face was far darker the room itself.

It is unknown whether the black cat was dead or alive; however suddenly, its front paw slightly twitched. The boy finally stopped chanting and now gazes thoughtfully at the black cat, unknown what the boy was thinking about. Carefully watching the cat, he saw the tail tremble then slowly started to swept up and down on the ground.

The boy bends down and lifts his hand towards the cat. He paused for a minute then poked the cat with his index finger. The cat gives no response.

The boy hesitated, as if he was deciding something. Then he reached out his hand again and poke the cat once, twice, tens of time.

Suddenly the cat moved and bit the boy until he starts bleeding.

"Can you stop? Meow! I'm up! I'm up! Meeow!!" the cat screamed.

"A-are you Satan?" the boy asked the talking black cat.

"Oh? Are you the one who summoned me? Well done, well done, I've been getting bored in my kingdom." Satan gracefully crawled on all fours and tried to stand up like a human, but fails and falls backwards. "What in Bloody Bell!? A damn black cat. Meow! You humans are so retarded! Why must you humans always sacrifice a poor black cat or a pitiful human being? MEOW!!"

"Aren't black cats the devil's messenger?" the boy asked, puzzled. He pulled down his hood and uncover his soft nest of hair, blacker than a night without the stars and moon. His dark eyes stared fixedly on the black cat. If one was to shine a light on the boy's eyes, they would find his eyes weren't pure black but a dark chocolate brown.

"Meow! Where did you humans get that idea from? Are you discriminating cats by its colour?! Stop killing black cats! Stupid humans! Meow!" Satan yowled.

The boy quickly covered his ears, then said, "No no no! I didn't kill any cats, I love cats. The body you're using is just a stuffed animal I bought from a toy store."

Apleased, Satan stop yowling but paused. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his body. He shakes his kitten head and shakes the thought away. Then he glanced up and down the boy, saying, "Human, what is it that you desire? Wealth? Revenge? Your own personal harem?"

"Er, you can call me William. The thing is. . ." William trailed off. "Someone stole my heart and I want theirs."

"Oh ho ho, revenge is it? Show me the target. Meow~."

"That's not exactly it. Just let me show you." William picks up the cat and walks over to the opposite wall. He open the blinds and points to something outside. "It's her, the employee with brown hair."

Once William set him down, Satan turns his head towards the direction William pointed and saw a girl holding a tray and placing coffee cups onto a table.

"Looks can be deceiving. To think an innocent looking girl like her stole your heart," the cat muttered to itself.

"You haven't fallen in love at first sight before, have you?" William voice lowered to a deep growl, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"What? I'm not interested in weak, short–lived humans," Satan looked uneasily at William.

"That is good then. Now um. . ." William's ears began to reddered, "a demon king like you must be experienced with women. C-c-could you help me steal her heart?"

"Meow? Sure, I'll take her heart out. Prepare a container with ice to put her heart into."

"What? No no no, not steal steal. I mean making her fall in love with me," the boy's voice got thinner and thinner making it difficult to hear him properly.

Satan, being a powerful being, easily heard William despite him speaking below a whisper.

"I, Satan, am a powerful being and I can kill millions of you weak humans at once! Destroy everything you have built and oblerirate the Earth if I wanted too!" Satan shamelessly boosted about himself.

"You're never fallen in love, have you?" William immediately saw through Satan's buff.

". . ."

William sighed, his mouth open as if to say something when he glanced outside, screaming, "Who is that guy? Who is that guy!"

"Meow?" Satan glanced outside and saw what William was talking about. A man about 1.9 metres tall stood beside the girl William likes, chatting casually as if they were old friends.

"Who is that scum being all chummy with my Emma!! Emma, why are you laughing? Don't entertain that buffon!" William screamed, his face and hands pressed against the window like he wanted to break it and use the shards to murder that man. A dangerous murderous look shines brightly in William's eyes.

"Meow! Haha, worry not!" Satan said, devising a plan to recover himself from the embarrassing situation. "I can kill that man instantly. He won't even know what hit him. Mehehe."

"No," William said, his hands crushing the blinds. "Death is too good for him. Satan, kidnap him and bring him here."

"Meow~," Satan meowed in agreement. He lifted one paw and stomp it on the table. At once, all movement stop at once, as if time was frozen. Then he lifted his paw again and tap the window. The man flies across the street and was about to smashed the window.

William, shocked, fall on his butt and scrambled backwards. But as if the window didn't exist, the man passed through and not a shard of glass fell.

"Amazing!" William praised the black cat.

Satan lifted his chin proudly and puffed out his fluffy black chest. Swaying his tail, he said, "Human, this is nothing. Meow."

Ignoring the prideful cat, William picks up the man and throws him onto a chair. Finding some rope, William ruthlessly tied up the man, making the man's wrist turned red. Making sure the rope is tight and secure so the man couldn't escape, William pulled his hood over his face, darkness blanketed his face once again.

Satan clicked his tongue when he saw William's outfit. 'It's people like you that give cults a bad name,' the cat thought to itself.

William, sure the man wouldn't see his face, gave a harsh slapped. The sound of the impact resounded in dingy room.

"Huh?" Startled, the man immediately jerked awake and saw a boy in a black cloak. "I was talking outside and now I'm inside a cult? Wait, what? What happened?"

"Shut up," the cloaked boy coldly said. "What's your relationship with Emma?"

"Emma. ." the man repeated, confused, "Oh Emma, I work with her-"

Before the man could finish his sentence, William give him another harsh slapped, worse than the one before.

"What the f*ck wrong with you?" the man cursed.

"Do you like Emma?" William asked, his hands giving a death grip to the man's shoulder.

"Huh? No, I don't like her."

"Lies!"

"It's the truth! I don't like women at all, I like men."

"Is that so? In that case, that's good!" William clapped his hands. He snaps his fingers and the rope falls on its own. "Would you like a cookie before you leave?" William asked, as if he's a doctor offering a kid lollipop after a vaccine shot.

The pitiful man: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ "Who the f*ck wants your cookie! F*ck you and your stupid cookie!!!"

"Wow, so angry. Don't cry over spilled milk," William calmly mocked the man. Forgetting that he, himself, was just about to kill a man just because the girl he likes was laughing at what the man said. No matter how one sees it, it was just a harmonious scene between co-workers.

The man scoffs and walks out the door; slamming it shut behind him. He wanders around trying to find the front door and avoided looking through any door that doesn't look like the front door. What would happen to him if he walked in a guy sacrificing a bloody goat, or worst, they needed a human sacrifice and he was conveniently there.

"See no evil, hear no evil. See no evil, hear no evil. See no evil, hear no evil," the man tried to brainwash himself as he hugs himself. He is still in shock with what had happened. One moment he was talking with his senior than the next he ended up in a stranger's room. The cherry on the cake was how the ropes moved on its own…

Eventually the man got home, however not back to his own house but instead his parents' house. The man's parents shook their heads at their son's childlike behavior, but in the end they didn't chase him out.

"Interesting, meow, you can do magic?" Satan asked, lying lazily on the table.

"Only small tricks like untying rope," William answered back. After shoving the cookie William tried to offer the pitiable man only to be rejected in his mouth, William walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

"Do fallen angels eat human food?" William turned from the fridge to look at the small black kitty crawling from the cult-like room.

"Do stuff animals eat human food? I have a body of a stuffed cat remember? Meow!" Satan retorted.

"Looks like I made the right call. I don't need to spend any money on cat food."

Right as William was about to chop vegetables for fried rice, the doorbell rings.

"Who could that be? I don't remember telling anyone where I live yet," William mumbled as he walks towards the door.

"Meow? Maybe that guy came back for revenge," Satan gave his two cent. William ponders about what Satan said but still open the door despite the possible danger. There was danger behind the door, but it wasn't physically danger. . .

"Hello~ you're William Wang right?" The brown haired woman asked. William's mouth gaped open due to the shock of the woman's identity.

"E-E-E-Emma???" William cried out.

"Oh, your mom must've told you about me already."

"Uhh," William's mouth was still wide open like a fish gasping for air.

'Looking like a buffoon,' Satan commented as he watched from the sidelines.

"Like me re-introduce myself in case you forget. I'm Emma Zhang, your mother's sister's daughter. In other words, your first cousin. Your mom asked me to come and check on you from time to time. We're about the same age so I hope we can get along with each other," Emma stretched out her hand towards William. However, William didn't respond. The moment he heard "first cousin", William's brain went offline and his heart cracked.

In the background, a cat could be heard laughing its gut out and a soft thud as the cat pounded the floor with its paw. William silently gave a sideways glared at the stuffed animal, thinking about a recipe that uses cat meat.