He was really sweet about it. He ran me a bath with candles, handed me a soft warm towel when I got out and gave me my night dress which he had laid on the radiator. Everything was pink. Pink is my favourite colour. He gave me hot strawberry milk after fishing out the skin from the surface. And handed me a plate filled with those little pink wafers and pink Fondant Fancies. I don’t know what he did with the yellow and white ones. 

Then he sat in the armchair holding my Mills & Boon, beckoning me onto his lap. I snuggled into his soft ginger fur, his claws only slightly digging into me. When he drew blood he licked it off with a smile. He read aloud to me about the Lady in medieval England who fell in love with the blacksmith in the local village, even though their love was forbidden. I sipped my hot milk and ate my treats. He told me I didn’t need to worry about brushing my teeth. 

When the chapter was over he told me that was enough and I begged him for one more. Just one more he said. When that was done I stayed on his lap while he brushed my hair, his claws catching my scalp and neck every now and again. Then he stopped and told me it was time for him to eat me now. I was no longer useful in the world, he was not sure I had ever been. That eating me was an act of love and was the best thing for me now. He began by licking me with his thick gravelly tongue until my skin came off. Next he started to scoop out my insides and slide them down his throat. He couldn’t get enough of me and ended up sticking his head through my rib cage to gorge himself, cracking a few ribs as he pulled me apart.

When I woke up I embodied a strong sense of peace that I had never before experienced. I blinked-in the hotel room that I had been living in for two months. I lay in the bed holding tightly to a very deep desire to stay there forever. There was no window but I had pinned up a poster of kittens to try to stem the dark molasses of my existence. I craved the hollowness of my dream. More than anything I wished that I had a cat.