POE Prophecies: The Black Cat by P. Anastasia

Author:P. Anastasia [Anastasia, P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jackal Moon Press
Published: 2024-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

The front door slammed, and my bedroom windows rattled. Lenore looked up at me from her notes, and I shrugged.

We overheard Mom shouting at Bertrand to be more careful, but he immediately stomped down the hall and slammed his door, too.

Lenore stayed awhile on days when her mom worked late, and then mine would drive her home. Mom was in the kitchen making dinner, but my stomach was already growling.

I don’t think five minutes passed before my cousin came barging in on us.

“What were you doing in my room?” he growled as he passed the threshold with a threatening sneer wrinkling his face.

Lenore and I stared at him.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “We’ve been studying here since we got home.”

Bertrand approached my chair. He put a hand onto my shoulder and squeezed painfully hard. I winced but tried to hide it.

“Someone was rummaging through my stuff,” he said through clenched teeth. “You’re the only other someone here.”

“Let go. That hurts,” I said, using my other hand to try to pry his fingers away. He held on and my jaw tightened. “I haven’t been in your stupid room.”

“Why were you going through my stuff?” he repeated, as if my answer would suddenly change.

“I wasn’t!” I raised my voice.

“He wasn’t!” Lenore repeated, standing. Percival squawked in her defense.

Bertrand narrowed his eyes at me and then at her. He released me and snagged my satchel from behind my chair.

“Hey!” I lunged for it, but he yanked it away and quickly flipped it open. He dumped the contents onto my bedroom floor. “How do you like it!?” He shook the bag repeatedly until everything had fallen out.

My textbooks.

My pens.

My notes.

Yes. Those notes.

The notes I shouldn’t have been carrying around to begin with but made the poor decision to keep on me anyway—notes from my teaching Lenore new glyphs.

I should have thrown them away.

Burned them.

Shredded them.

ANYTHING but put them in my school bag.

Bertrand kicked the pile and snarled at me again. “I know you’ve been in my room, and I’ll…” He trailed off, his gaze now fixated on the pile of incriminating notes scattered around my bedroom floor.

“What are those?” he asked, tossing my bag and crouching to investigate.

Lenore swooped in and started scooping up the pages.

“Get lost,” she said.

Percival flapped his wings, causing Bertrand to lumber back.

“I’ve never seen those glyphs before,” Bertrand said. “Where did you learn those?” He glared.

Just as he reached down to try to take the stack from Lenore, Percival burst into a rage of manic cawing and flapping.

“What on earth is going on in here!?” Mom asked as she rushed into my room and scanned for danger like a mother bear.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Grey,” Lenore apologized. “Bertrand spooked Percival.”

My mom crossed her arms, glanced at my cousin, and then shook her head.

“Of course, he did,” she said with a tsk tsk tsk. “Please try to be more subtle, Bertrand. Maybe you could learn something from your friend, Vincent. He’s polite and quiet. Please act less like a wild animal in this house.

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