Sarelle Brown's lips trembled as tears pooled in her eyes which made Griffin Heathcliff, her new landlord, look away so nothing could persuade him to change his mind. Not even a septuagenarian's tears.
He walked to the window and looked out, admiring the land surrounding the houses he inherited from his great uncle and imagining how he would turn the properties into a lucrative one. He planned to cut down a major part of the surrounding forest as well and turn the whole place into a tourist resort.
"Son, don't do this please." Sarelle's soft voice interrupted his reverie, pleading. "I have enjoyed living here for the past twenty-one years and your great uncle promised me I could stay for as long as I like. We had a deal!"
Griffin turned and arched a brow, his face impassive but within he was irritated and wanted the tenants on his great uncle's properties gone. This woman especially, with her numerous cats.
With his hands in his pockets, he moved closer to Sarelle. "I am Mr. Heathcliff to you. Don't call me son. You and my great uncle did not have a signed document to evidence this deal and as such I cannot take your word for it. More so, how do you have these many cats?!"
Griffin counted fifteen cats of the same colour - gold and cinnamon stripes like a tiger - lounging around the living room just as a small one drew close and wrapped itself around his leg. He gently extracted his leg and stepped away.
"S-Mr. Heathcliff, you do not understand. The next full moon is almost here. These cats are for our protection in this part of the woods."
"Full moon? Protection?" Griffin stared incredulously at Sarelle. "Ms Brown, out of respect I'm giving you till the end of the week to move out and take your cats with you."
He shook his head and walked towards the front door thinking, these old women and their superstitions!
Sarelle was speechless that her pleas fell on deaf ears. Griffin opened the front door, stopped and looked back at her. "Don't make me have to throw you out, please." He shut the door behind him.
A week later… on a full moon night…
Griffin Heathcliff and his friends who doubled as his architects and engineers moved into Ms. Brown's former apartment that evening to commence preparation for the building project.
"Alright guys. Let's settle in and work commences tomorrow morning at first light." Griffin said.
It was almost midnight. The young men converged in the living room with two packs of beer, drinking and chatting. The full moon had risen high in the sky, spilling its light into the room and casting shadows around them.
Then a very loud howling sound from within the forest filled the air. The men froze, looked at each other for like seconds then burst into laughter.
"Look at your face! What do you think that was?" Griffin asked his friend, Morris. Morris laughed and took a long drag from his cigarette though his hand shook a little.
"I have no idea but that sounds like a wolf. I hope this forest is safe."
"Nah. It's nothing." Griffin said with some confidence.
Another long howling sound, followed by growling shut the men up and put them at alert. They could feel the grounds tremble from trotting and galloping, like big animals running towards the house.
"Shit!" The men cussed, confused. Griffin and his men were in full panic mood. They dispersed to grab anything they could lay their hands on. Morris pulled out his 9mm hand pistol from his holster.
"You said this place was safe!" He turned fearful, accusing eyes at Griffin.
"It is! I don't know. I've never lived here before." Griffin shouted back. Then his mind flashed back to Sarelle's words - The next full moon is almost here. These cats are for our protection in this part of the woods.
As the growling grew louder and closer, the men looked out from the window to find the source of their terror. A pack of giant-sized wolves surrounded the house. Not only were these wolves bigger than normal wolves in size, they had glowing red eyes that popped goose pimples all over the young men's skins.
The strange thing was the wolves did not move like normal wolves but faster. The alpha wolf stopped, raised its head and locked eyes with Griffin at the window. It's fur was a mixture of silver and grey, glossy and thick. It had an aggressive look that caused tremors to run through the men.
Griffin turned to find his gun when the alpha wolf burst through the window into the room. Griffin fell down, breathing fast from fear as sweat ran down his face.
Then a more terrible roaring sound filled the air as a ginormous weretiger filled the front door. It roared powerfully such that the house and the forest shook, making the alpha wolf to cower and step back from Griffin in doubt.
Griffin felt a kind of familiarity with the weretiger somehow. But the whole scene seemed like a nightmare. This could not be happening, he thought.
Then he remembered - Ms Sarelle Brown cats had the exact colouring as the weretiger! Everything added up together. Could this be what Ms. Brown meant when she referred to the cats as protectors?
The alpha wolf and its pack began to step back out of the house upon seeing the weretiger. Another roar and the wolves turned and ran fast into the forest. The ground shook as the weretiger chased after them, leaving the men unscathed. Two had fainted out of fear. They must have peed their pants. The smell of urine, sweat, beer and fear filled the air.
"You know we can't go out there now?" Morris whispered in fear. "Come morning, Griff, I'm outta here! I'm never coming back!"
The rest nodded in agreement. Griffin decided it was best to let Sarelle keep the house.
This story was inspired by the logline from the 50 Loglines which says -
An old woman who is evicted from her home by her landlord for keeping dozens of cats, warns him that terrible things will happen when the clock strikes midnight on the next full moon night.