I awoke that morning on the same rooftop that I had fallen asleep on last night, already off to a better start. More often than not, I would fall asleep on some random building and the next morning I would wake up several blocks away. Luckily, for once, I seemed to be in the same place that I had ended up the previous day.

The place was nothing too special, just another crappy building swimming in the forest of books are crappy mason work. It wasn’t like I could design or even put together a better building, but that didn’t change how awful looking this building was. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

It was either here, a gutter, and alley, or some other free space that wouldn’t draw too much attention. Most would say I could just go to an orphanage or homeless shelter or something, but considering how I was and everything that had happened, I couldn’t risk it. Especially not with him potentially popping up any time.

I blinked a few times. Even through the blurry I could see one unmistakable fact. The world was upside-down. However, the world was not flipped, I was the one who was upside-down. I had fallen asleep or somehow found myself with my head planted firmly in the roof. Cement was not an ideal pillow. My ears were killing me. I’d definitely been on my head the whole night. They hurt way too much.

I righted myself and then looked around. Thankfully, the roof was grey, so a dark brown blob of color stuck out pretty well against the rest of the gravel and cement. I reached out and grabbed the beat-up brown glasses laying in front of me and slipped them on to my head. I adjusted the nose piece to make sure that they would stay in place. Normal ears would usually help with that, but I didn’t really have that luxury.

As soon as the world came in to full view, I was greeted with a newspaper smacking me directly in the face. I pried it off and the second I saw the date, my stomach sank. October 23rd. Most people got pretty excited about their birthday, but I was not most people. October 23rd marked the anniversary of two things for me and as little as I really wanted to go there, I should. Maybe I could get some flowers.

I made my way to the edge of the building and looked out across the city. Most of it was still shadowy, the dawn just now breaking. It was still early. I tried to focus in on anything specific in the city, but to me all the buildings looked the same. Everything just blended together. A mesh of greys and reds swirling in my vision. There were very few things that actually stood out in the city.

One thing that actually did was the giant clock tower in the center of town. It was massive, but from this distance I could see it all. It was very well made, probably some kind of granite for the looks of it, but it was all painted with a golden shine that radiate light even when there was none. It stood in the center of the city like a beacon. I’d always liked the tower and had even tried sleeping inside of it once, but unfortunately there wasn’t much room on the inside.

My eyes drifted from the golden tower of the clock to the clock itself. The massive hands were solid black and contrasted well against the quartz face of the clock. As I watched the minutes tick by I marveled at how beautiful the clock was.

Then I realized what time it was and found that I didn’t really have time to be sitting here and daydreaming. It was 6:43. Mrs. Hackinson would be home from work in just over 45 minutes. I picked myself up and looked down at the street to find a sign and get my bearings for where exactly I was right now. I was currently at the corner of 5th and 12th Street. Mrs. Hackinson lived on 23rd Street, so I had a pretty good distance to cover, but it still wouldn’t take that long.

I backed myself up before bolting forward and hopped to the next rooftop. Now that I had some decent momentum built up, the next jumps would be a lot easier. The, just as I knew I would, I came to McGregor Square. The jump to the next closest building was at least fifty feet and despite my abilities, that was just too far. Thankfully, in the middle of the square, there was a large statue of some old dude whose name I’d never cared to figure out.

I backed up a bit before rushing forward and jumping off the building on to the statue. From there it was simple to get to the pole connected to the street lights and to get from there to the windowsill of the building across from the statue. I climbed my way up the building and continued my journey along the rooftops until finally reaching 23rd Street.

I made my way over to the west side of the roof and then made my way down three floors before coming to the correct window. I pushed it upwards and slid inside. Thankfully I was skinny enough that I could easily slide through with almost no trouble. I skimmed the top of my head with the bottom of the window. I reached my hands up to check if my ears were bleeding. Thankfully they weren’t, just a bit sore.

“Cutting it a bit close, aren’t we, Avien?” said a voice from behind me.

I turned around to see several cats approaching me in what probably looked like a menacing pack to most, but to me, it just looked like a group of friends. The one in front was orange with a yellow streak across her back that looked like a comet, just like her name might suggest. Behind her were two other smaller black cats, James and Courtney. They were twins, but you could tell who was who because James has a splotch of white just around his left eye. The final cat standing next to James was Jesper, the oldest of the cats. She was primarily grey with little streaks of black here and there so she looked like someone has tossed her in a fire.

“Yeah... sorry about that guys. I slept in a bit late,” I said dipping my head.

“You’re always sleeping in late, Avien, but as long as you get here, it’s fine,” meowed James.

I nodded. “Please tell me she at least got you food?”

Comet nodded and looked towards the cupboard. I followed her gaze and walked over to it. The kitchen, as per usual was a complete mess. Old pizza boxes and crusty pots littered the what little counter space there was. I opened up the cupboard and pulled out a can of tuna. It looked a bit old, but it wasn’t expired and that was all that really mattered.

“Is this it?” I said holding up the container for them all to see. I was met with a series of nods ranging from bland to highly excited. Kittens. I grabbed a bowl from one of the adjacent cabinets and then scooped the tuna out in to it. “Now, try to share as fairly as you can, guys...” They would often skimp on the kittens because they were so small, even though they needed it the most.

I set the bowl down and watched as they attacked it. I returned to the cabinet to get another bowl. I then made my way over to the sink and filled it up with water. When I returned to them, they had completely eaten the tuna. They all seemed happy enough, so I chose not to lecture them on being nice. I place the bowl with water down while picking up the empty tuna bowl. Returning to the sink, I grabbed a sponge and cleaned off the bowl before placing it back in the cupboard.

“Avien, we almost forgot!” I heard Courtney’s voice coming from behind.

I turned around to face them. “Forgot what?”

“Happy Birthday!” they all said together.

I smiled a bit. It didn’t seem as grim when it came from them, but it still wasn’t happy.

Jesper stared at me intently while drinking her water. When she finished, she did the closest thing that a cat could do to clearing its throat that equated to something like a cough. Finally, she spoke. “I suppose it wouldn’t be too wrong to point out that you’re not exactly beaming at the idea of your birthday, so I must ask. What is wrong?”

I sighed. “Just some personal stuff that I’d rather not talk about. Let’s just say that I have a cemetery to visit after I leave here...”

The cats looked at each other before looking down. “I know people usually get gifts on their birthday, but I’m sorry to say that we didn’t get you anything,” James said.

I walked over and ruffled his head. “Don’t worry buddy, I don’t mind. It’s been a while since I got a birthday present, so I’m used to it at this point.”

I could tell he was about to respond, but then we all her something and our attention turned to the hall. Coming from behind the door we could hear the sounds of heavy breathing and stomping. Mrs. Hackinson was coming.

I grabbed the bowl of water and quickly poured it out in to the sink before returning it to the cabinet. I dashed to the window and gave the cats a little two finger salute before hopping through the window and closing it. Ducking down, I made sure that I couldn’t be seen by her as she entered the apartment. I jumped off the ledge and down in to the alley in between the buildings.

I was about to head off to the cemetery, but before I could, I was stopped by a grumbling stomach. I decided that first I would have to go get some food. Luckily for me, there was a bakery around here that left out food that was really easy to steal. The owner never really noticed, so it was pretty nice. Heading down the street, I quickly made a left and towards the bakery.

It was a few blocks away, but still pretty close, so I’d have some time to just experience the fresh morning air. Unfortunately, as I continued to walk along, I realized that I was attracting some odd looks from people. Some children even pointed fingers at me, but I couldn’t really figure out what they were looking at. At least until a young girl came up to me with a big grin and said, “I like your kitty ears, mister.”

She walked off and I backed up in terror finding my way to alley that I rushed in to. In my haste, I lost my footing and fell to the ground back-first into a puddle. When I got up, I found that my jacket was completely covered in dirt. I’d have to go get it cleaned after I went to the bakery.

I went over to one of the windows in the alley and looked in the reflection. Just as the girl had hinted at, my ears were fully visible to the world. Green cat ears sprouted right out of the top of my head to match my pale green hair. As if to compliment my almost guaranteed ostracizing features, I had two strange looking eyes. The left red with a rounded golden cross, the left purple with little black stiches circling the tiny pupil.

I fished around in the top pocket of my jacket to find a roll of medical tape I’d found in a trash can. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was certainly more comfortable than duct tape. I plastered down the ears and then moved my hair to above it. They were now almost complete hidden, save for two small bumps of hair just above them.

After making my way to the bakery and talking my way in to some lemon cookies, I headed for the laundromat. I hated lemon cookies, but when it came to food, I couldn’t really be too picky.

I entered the laundromat and after scrounging on the floor for several minutes, I found enough quarters to use a machine. I took my jacket off. The gold trim was a bit torn in places and the usual green of the rest of it had faded quite a bit and was now covered in dirt. I tossed it in to the machine and inserted my money. It would be quite a while till it was done, so I decided to take a nap. I climbed atop the machine and closed my eyes, the world of reality fading in to inky darkness.