Dream of the Whisker

Article ID: 12*

I scratched my paws on my face and whiskers—it hurts a bit, but I know I’ll be healed soon. It’s yet another morning, in my beautifully-decorated cage—full of bright lights, gleaming gold, and endless piles of canned food. The steel bars on the sides have became exceedingly cold. I looked outside, into a rather warm living room, by the creatures who called themselves, Homo sapiens. Their laughter comes into my left ear and out the right. Laughter—something that I would never be able to experience with confidence. Crawling back to my comfortable enclosure, I waited.

Usually, around this time the humans would deliver me water and milk, along with opening some canned food for me to enjoy in my warm and fluffy bed. ``Children'', namely young humans, would come and play with me, often taking weird photos of me with what they call a ``phone'', saying that I’m ``cute''. I honestly have no idea what these mean, but I guess it’s nice that I could bring them some fun. Now it’s been a while and they still haven’t came. My intuition tells me that something has changed. Only now did I realize, that what I feared has been true, all along.

Humans do not care about me—as a cat—as a fellow conscious creature. I gazed off into the distant field, out side of their windows. Warm, green, and endless. I imagined having a friend, a real friend, to enjoy my last moments in this world, in the warm sunshine. I imagined freedom, the freedom to walk outside this prison.

I was in my dreams when a cold hand grabbed me by the leg. I leaned forward, trying to escape the iron grip. But all was futile. Everything blurred into a point, full of misery, and full of pain. Screaming, I was taken to a room. Blinded by the fluorescent lights atop the ceiling, I have chosen to accept my fate. I turned away, twisting my paws strapped onto the chair, my whiskers embedded in the soft cotton. I did not want to witness it.

My heart begins to slow down. My heart beats the last beat, and my neurons fire the last impulse. As I fall into the singularity of entropy, time ceases to exist. The laws of physics have always been eternal, but the universe—my universe—has became static and never-changing. I now do not fear, I won’t fear I cannot fear.

I just wonder, what I have left behind.