Chapter 2My Guardians are Three Disabled Cats

Honestly, the day I abandoned Leo and Luna was the first day in years I ate until I was full.

Barbecue ribs, buffalo wings, a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s. I ordered everything I’d been craving for months and ate until I had to lean against the wall to stand up. I fell asleep in a food coma, dreaming of flavors I had almost forgotten.

But the good life didn’t last long. The next morning, a frantic, scratching sound at my door jolted me awake.

I opened it, and there they were. Leo and Luna.

Leo had a fat trout dangling from his mouth, and Luna had a dead pigeon pinned under her paw. They sat there, looking up at me with those pleading, pathetic expressions they’d perfected. As soon as the door was open, they pushed the food toward me, an offering.

The wall I’d built around my heart overnight crumbled into dust. But then the memory of the constant hunger, the dizziness, the shame of my empty bank account returned. I swallowed hard.

“No,” I whispered, my voice thick. “I can’t afford you. You can’t come back.”

I shut the door in their faces, the click of the lock sounding like a gunshot.

On my side of the door, I was a mess, creeping to the peephole to watch them, tears streaming down my face.

The first day, they staged a hunger strike right on my doormat.

The second day, the hunger strike continued.

The third day, still nothing.

I watched through the peephole as the cats I’d worked so hard to nurse back to health grew thinner and thinner. On the outside, I was a monster of cold resolve. On the inside, I was dying with them.

After a week, Leo couldn’t take it anymore. He collapsed, retching up bile right in front of my door.

That was it. My resolve shattered. I threw the door open.

“Get in here,” I choked out.

I was resigned to my fate. I was born to be their servant.

To keep us all from starving, I descended further into the gig economy. I worked my 9-to-5, then spent my nights and weekends driving for Uber and delivering for DoorDash. My days stretched into sixteen-hour marathons of pure exhaustion.

The news spread through my old college friends. Anna’s lost it. She’s got some weird disease where she’ll die without her cats.

I didn’t care. All that mattered was keeping my little family together.

Over time, I even got used to the grueling pace. I was almost proud of my resilience.

And just when I thought I had it all figured out, Luna got pregnant. She gave birth to a single, tiny ball of fur, so white it was blinding.

A true demon, born into this world.