Clowders

by Vanessa Morgan

  It didn't seem like the best idea to Jess. “On the dirty sidewalk. Okay--”

  One of the cats immediately started to lick off Eleonore's drawn-on whiskers. It was Romero, the ginger moggy from the baker next door. Jess remembered how Romero had scratched her the other day and feared he might lash out at her daughter, too, though they seemed to be getting along rather well. She needed something to distract Eleonore. She looked at a flyer she'd received earlier featuring cat portraits from artists such as Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Leonor Fini, Tsuguharu Foujita, and Nicholas Tarkhoff. “Eleonore? Apparently, there's an exhibition of cat paintings at the castle. Wanna go?”

  Eleonore instantly rose to her feet. “More cats!”

  “Okay. Let's go,” Aidan agreed.

  While they made their way through the crowd, Jess let the festive atmosphere sink in - the smell of the hamburgers and fried onions, the noise of the false-sounding brass band on the stage near the castle.

  Three giggling children caught Jess' attention. On their T-shirts was a black silhouette of a little girl with long hair, crouched in a cat-like position. It was the figure she'd seen all over the town these past few days: in the shops, on T-shirts, on mugs. Eleonore asked what it was and Aidan explained it was probably comparable to Almeria's Indalo. It was originally an ancient cave painting, found in the Indalo Caves near Vera Blanco in Almeria. It resembled a man holding a rainbow with outstretched arms, and over the years it had become a good luck charm. “I suppose this figure is very much like it,” Aidan added. “From what I know, it protects the cats here.”

  In the alley that wound its way around the castle of Clervaux, flag lines hung from one side of the street to the other. About 20 people have gathered in front of one of the houses at the beginning of the road. The gray roof had a slope on the right side, which ran down to the ground.

  Jess now noticed that there was a guide in front of the group. She was dressed all in black and wore a wig of long black hair on which she had positioned two cat ears. She had drawn two whiskers on each cheek.

  “It all started on a dark, stormy night,” the guide said in a low voice filled with exaggerated mystery and portent.

  “This looks cool,” Eleonore squealed.

  “Looks like we've found the ghost tour.” Jess approached but stayed at a distance so as not to disturb the group.

  “On a winter evening in 1789, all but one of the inhabitants of Clervaux disappeared without a trace. The weird thing was, there was a thick layer of snow, so there should have been footsteps everywhere. But nothing was there. What search teams did find, however, were dozens upon dozens of traces of cat paws,” the guide explained. “Only the mayor remained. He hanged himself on his patio as if he were part of the decorations. Rumors in the surrounding towns said he couldn't go on living realizing his entire town had died.”

  One of the participants let out a cry of dismay.

  “The only official, historical documentation of this disappearance surfaced 40 years later in the annals of the municipality of Vianden. We have that document in our archives. It blamed the abandonment of Clervaux on the weaker economic times after the plague.”

  They are just stories. Local folklore, Jess told herself. They aren't true. But even as she silently spoke the words to herself, a strange chill of apprehension ran through her.

  “With this disappearance, the story isn't over yet,” the guide said. “Over the years, new people started to settle in Clervaux once again, and some of what happened with them has been documented.

  “Do you see the house there? The one with the stairs?“ the guide asked. She gestured to the downward slope behind her.

  The participants nodded.

  “The year is 1893, and the house behind me is where the Benoit family used to live. They had moved here from Nancy in France, so they didn't yet know anything about the town’s past,” the guide pointed out. “A few days after they started living here, they adopted a white cat that came to their house for food. When a few weeks later that cat had four kittens, they didn't know what to do with them, and so they drowned the litter in the river Clerve behind their house. Unfortunately, that was what happened to unwanted kittens in that time.”

  The guide looked around and left a pause to build up suspense. “Many people died that month, including the entire Benoit family. No one ever explained the official reasons for their deaths, but we all knew.”

  “What happened?” someone from the group asked.

  “This happened.” The guide showed an illustration of a long-haired girl with razor-sharp teeth, sitting in a cat-like position. It was the same creature Jess had seen on T-shirts and coffee mugs at the fair, except that it looked much more demonic in this particular drawing.

  The crowd turned quiet. It looked as if one of the girls in the group was going to burst into tears.

  “Creepy, isn't it?” one of the participants said when she saw the dismay on Jess' face.

  Jess shuddered. Not because of the story, but because it couldn't be a coincidence that she kept catching glances of something that turned out to be a local demon. Could it be that--? No. As soon as the thought sprang to mind, she realized how ridiculous it sounded. She had been drunk when she first saw it, and the other times it had been too dark to see. Also, it wasn't impossible that she'd unconsciously noticed the amulets in town and that her subconscious mind had filled in the blanks when she caught sight of an animal she didn't know, just like what had happened with the wolf.

  But something still gnawed at Jess. What if--?

  Jess was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize Eleonore was tugging at her skirt.

  “Mom?” Her daughter was persistent.

  “What is it, E?”

  “Mom, that's the girl I've seen at home.”

  Jess instantly turned pale. She then turned to Aidan to tell him. “Aidan? Aidan, listen to me.”

  He turned to her.

  “You know what Eleonore just told me?”

  “Hush,” one of the bystanders said. “We're trying to listen.”

  Jess tried to push her thoughts aside for now, yet a flame of uneasiness still guttered inside her. They had to get out of this town.

  “Locals call this creature the Tengu, the protector of the cats,” the guide explained. “It's not just a ghost seen by schizophrenic children. Everyone in Clervaux sees her. She wanders the streets and forest like a vengeful demon. She observes us. Punishes us. She makes sure that no one will ever hurt the cats of Clervaux, and if it did happen, she would claim nine human lives instead. And there's something else. Something even weirder. It seems as if all the cats of the surrounding towns have gathered in Clervaux as if they knew something would protect them here.”

  The more the guide spoke, the more Jess became convinced that something was wrong in Clervaux. Was it a coincidence that David disappeared right after the accident? If something bad had indeed happened to him, then Eleonore and Aidan were in danger, and they had to leave this town as soon as possible. To tourists, the rumors were only an urban legend. To the locals, reality. Today, Jess suspected that what others only gossiped about could be true.

  “Before long, everyone in Clervaux worshiped cats out of fear that if something happened to them, they would have to suffer for it. Many have fled the town. Others have committed suicide because they couldn't stand the constant menace. For a long time, we have warned travelers and visitors to stay away from Clervaux, but since Animal Planet aired a documentary about our cats, we have become a popular tourist destination. However, the curse of the Tengu remains.”

  ***

  “Mom? Dad? I need to potty,” Eleonore whined.

  “Maybe we could go get lunch somewhere,” Aidan suggested.

  “Okay,” Jess said. Once again she was giving in while all she wanted to do was to scream out loud that they had to leave this town, that something was wrong here, and that the legend was true. Even a one percent chance meant that her daughter was in danger. But th
e fact that Aidan would never agree to leave immediately without a valid argument had made her decide to keep her mouth shut from for now. And what would be a good reason anyway? Because of that wolf, she had already proven to Aidan that she had an overactive imagination when it came to danger.

  Also, she liked the bittersweet idea of them being all together as a family today, although she feared it could be the last time.

  She let his gaze roam over the town square. “What do you prefer? Da Lonati or Rhino Steakhouse?

  “Um... It looks quite busy?” her husband said.

  He was right. All the tables seemed to have been taken, both inside and out. “It's not that there's a lot of choices. Clervaux is small.”

  After studying the menus in front of each restaurant, they opted for the much cheaper Rhino Steakhouse. They went inside in the hopes of securing a spot for three.

  No such luck. It was a pity because Jess thought it was cozy here with those dark-red walls and wooden tables.

  As they were heading back outside, a black-haired woman with a tailored suit came over and handed them two menus.

  “C'est pour manger?” she asked, though it sounded more like an instruction instead of a question.

  “Pour manger, s'il vous plait,” Aidan replied. Jess could see his eyes were still going over the restaurant in the hopes of seeing someone about to leave.

  The waitress clicked her tongue. “On est complet. Vous devrez attendre au moins vingt minutes.”

  “She says we have to wait at least 20 minutes,” Aidan told Jess. She could hear the waitress letting out a sigh.

  “It's not that we have much choice,” Jess replied. “I'll take Eleonore to the bathroom. We'll be right back.”

  “They can sit with us.” The voice came from the left. A boy in his late twenties turned in their direction from a table near the window where he sat with an older man. “We've still got some room.”

  The waitress looked at her again and shrugged. “It's the only option if you don't want to wait,” she said with a strong French accent.

  “Great!” Aidan pulled off his jeans jacket and walked up to them. He sat down right away.

  The two men looked at them, grinning. “Hello,” they said in unison.

  “Hi, I'm Aidan. Thank you so much for helping us out.”

  When Jess and Eleonore arrived, Jess didn't quite know how to react and looked a little restrained. She was always shy around strangers, hated the small talk.

  “Take a seat.” The eldest of the two men stood up and gestured for Jess to sit next to him. He had gray eyes and a beautiful smile. She tried to estimate his age. Probably around 60.

  Jess hesitated. “It's kind of you to offer us a seat, but we don't want to disturb you.”

  “We don't mind to share the table with some fellow cat lovers.” He stuck out his hand to greet her. “I’m Theo.”

  “Jess. And this is our daughter Eleonore.”

  “Jess and Eleonore,” both men said in unison. It sounded as if they were recording the names in their memories.

  “This is my son, Jasper.” Theo pointed to the guy who sat across from him at the table. Despite his young age, he had some gray hairs.

  Jess nodded politely, took a seat, and then focused on the bowl of salted popcorn in front of her. Eleonore did the same, but it was evident from the face she made that she wasn't a fan of those corn kernels.

  “Is this your first time in Clervaux?” Jasper asked while he served both of them a glass of Riesling.

  “Indeed, but we live here now. We arrived last month,” Aidan said.

  “How awesome! Where do you come from?” Theo looked at Jess for an answer, though the airplane model that hung above the entrance distracted her. She didn't immediately realize Theo was talking to her.

  “Oh. Uhm... Connecticut.”

  Theo nodded.

  “You?”

  “Rotterdam.”

  “Where is that?”

  “In the Netherlands,” Theo said. “But each month we're here for work.”

  “What business are you in?” Aidan asked.

  “We represent an organic pet food brand,” Jasper explained. “I'll be following up my father soon. I'm in training now, so my dad is my mentor to shadow in the field before striking out on my own; hence, we travel together.”

  “Must be nice to go on work trips with your dad. Are you often going on business trips together?” Aidan asked.

  “Once a month, we go to Luxembourg and Belgium. For the rest of the time, we're driving around our own country.”

  “It wouldn't surprise me you're doing good business in Clervaux, considering all the cats here,” Aidan said.

  Jasper took a sip from his wine. “It's crazy. We sell more in Clervaux than in the rest of Luxembourg together.”

  “The three of you came here for the cats, I presume,” Theo asked, though it sounded more like a statement than as a question.

  “More or less,” Jess said. “Aidan came here to work in the veterinary clinic.”

  “Oh, you must know Simon and David then?” Both men asked the question at the same time.

  “Indeed.”

  “Yeah, we always leave some samples at the clinic for patients to try. Simon's not the easiest, isn't he?” Jasper said.

  Aidan smiled.

  The waitress arrived with two plates of food and put them on the table. Jasper had ordered a hamburger with fries and Theo a pizza. She then took two menus out of the front pocket of her overall, handed them over to Aidan and Jess, and left.

  Eleonore gave a few pieces of leftover fish from the starters to a passing cat.

  The waitress stopped her. “Please don't give any leftovers to the cats,” she said. “They'll get enough food after closing time. They won't starve.”

  “I'm sure this little bit won't do any harm, will it?” Jess said.

  “It might. He wouldn't be the first cat to die choking on a fish bone,” the waitress stated matter-of-factly.

  Aidan shook his head. “What's going on with all the cats here anyway?”

  “What do you know?”

  “We heard something about a curse, about a feline demon who protects cats and takes revenge when someone hurts them.”

  “That's about it,” Jasper said. “The locals here live in fear, so they take care of the cats as well as they can.”

  “I have the impression people here believe in this creature.”

  “I've seen her. She's real,” Jasper said.

  Aidan laughed heartily. He was joking, right?

  “The first time I saw her, I turned away, because I wanted to know if she'd disappear as soon as you blinked your eyes, like in the movies,” Jasper continued. “But she was still there.”

  “Wouldn't you stay away from this place if this creature were real?” Aidan asked.

  “She doesn't do anything. She's only checking if we're respecting her cats, I suppose,” Jasper said.

  “Let's imagine she's real, and tourists saw her; they'd freak out for sure, no?” Aidan didn't like where this conversation was going, especially with Eleonore around, though she wasn't listening but leafing through the cat book she'd received at the fair earlier that morning.

  “Tourists think it's an actress, that she's part of the festivities. But if you come here often or have lived here for a while, you know better,” Theo said. “I saw her too. Multiple times. Sometimes it's only a vague shape on the roof. But one night, I entered my hotel room, and she was sitting on the drawer-dresser, crouched in her typical feline position. After a while, she jumped out of the window as if she were a cat herself.”

  “Oh, come on,” Aidan said, scornful.

  “So you think it's a ghost?” Jess asked.

  “Not really.” Jasper took his iPhone and searched for something. He then pushed the phone under her nose. “Look, there are even YouTube videos about her.”

  Jess took the phone and turned the angle a little so Aidan could look too. Most of these videos weren't impre
ssive. They were like Bigfoot images, so out of focus that you didn't have a clue what it was you'd seen.

  “Groups of people come here for expeditions. They go camping in the forest and take their GoPros, hoping to catch a glimpse of the monster and put it on camera,” Jasper said in between two videos. “But she isn't just a harmless echo from the past,” he explained. “Those kids from the last video I showed you, they went on a Tengu hunt, or whatever you'd like to call it. They had taken a cat into the forest around Clervaux and killed it to see what effect it would have. They never left this town.”

  “All of them died soon after,” Theo said. “Heart attack, accident, acute cerebral hemorrhage. Things like that.”

  “Caused by extreme anxiety because they believed in it,” Aidan said. “I have to admit the curse has been getting to me as well, but the more I think about it, the more I find rational explanations for everything that happened here. It's your typical case of collective paranoia.”

  “I read somewhere that Hollywood is interested in making a movie about the legend of the Tengu,” Jasper said in between two YouTube movies. “Apparently, it'll be in the vein of The Blair Witch Project.”

  “Did someone try to get rid of her? Like, with an exorcist or something?” Jess asked.

  “Been there, done that,” Theo said. “The townspeople must have tried everything: witches, priests, shamans, the army. It led to nothing.”

  “Of course not. You can't get rid of something that doesn't exist,” Aidan said.

  “Or they were too scared of what they found here.”

  “Why is no one moving out if it's so dangerous here?” Aidan asked.

  “Many have lived here all their lives. They don't know anything else,” Theo said. “They're not going to leave their families behind and never come back.”

  “They can still come over to visit,” Aidan rebutted.

  “That would help only partially because they'd still be in danger whenever they visited,” Theo explained. “And people are strange creatures. They will always choose to stay in a situation or a place they know, even if it makes them unhappy or puts them in danger. And these things are only happening to others, right? We all know that hamburgers and cigarettes can kill us, yet we continue to consume them.”