Kitty Made the Cookie Crumble solo

The back door slammed as Margo rushed into the garden, her eyes frantically combing the long grass. Anxiety had been creeping up on her all day, whispering in her ears and nipping at her heels. It hadn’t taken much to cause her breath to quicken. The mere absence of a flicking tail, the nonexistent itch on her ankle where whiskers usually scratched her skin... and it was only getting worse. The string of coincidences was slowly becoming a string of truth. And, for the first time in her life, Margo didn’t want the truth.

She stepped into the grass, holding her breath and hoping with all her heart that there would be no more coincidences. But she wasn’t quite so lucky. Margo’s heartbeat stuttered as no feline form rushed to greet her and no meow answered the rattling cat food in her hand. She hadn’t seen her cat for two whole days. That was the truth. No furry form had kept her company at night, and no padded paws had been around to smudge her homework. Hades liked to adventure, of course, but he was a loyal cat. A hungry cat. There hadn’t been a day in the last six months that she hadn’t listened to him yowl for food. All excepting the last two.

But Margo was not one to give up. She was stubborn, and she that knew her cat was too. If—her breath hitched—wherever he was out there, she would make him come home.

“Hades!” She called, trying to keep her voice from cracking. “Hades!”

Any second a hungry cat would launch himself through the grass, sharp claws reaching to scratch her ankles. Any second now...

Margo waited. And waited some more. Maybe her kitten had just taken up residence with their neighbours during the storm last night. Or maybe he had taken shelter under a thick bush with a nice lady cat. There were endless explanations, really. Unfortunately, not all of them were quite so positive. Whispers of fear flooded Margo’s mind and dread took up a residence in her slightly nauseas stomach. What if Hades was beside the road in pain, meowing for his Margo to save him? What if he was no longer a part of this world at all?

Margo’s eyes burned.

It was pollen, she told herself. Just pollen. It didn’t matter that she had never before experienced hay fever, or that it had rained for the past two days and therefore there wouldn’t be much pollen in the air in the first place. She strode forwards to the fence, determined to search far and wide for her missing kitten, emotions be damned. But a root came out of nowhere and the slight blur in her eyes stopped her from seeing it. Margo tripped, spilling cat food all over the ground. She fell with a resounding thump and a small yelp slipping out of her mouth. The wind rushed out of her chest and she let her head fall back onto the grass.

Streaks of red crossed the sky above, scarily close to the colour of blood. Unbidden, an image of Hades limp in a ditch crossed her mind. A sob threatened to emerge from her chest. Suddenly, getting back on her feet didn’t seem so easy anymore.

Margo pushed herself upwards anyway.

“Hades!” She screamed. “Hades, please!” A howl tore itself from her lips.

“Come back.” she whispered, closing her eyes to try and quell the tears. She thought of Hades with Apollo, playing deviously in the courtyard. Hades watching over her four-poster bed at night, defending his lady from the dark. Hades sleeping in her arms after she bought him from Diagon Alley, trusting her to shield him from the world. It seemed like he’d jump out from behind a bush any second, wrapping himself around her legs and meowing at her puffy eyes.

But the grass remained empty and her tears were not licked away.