Read Online The Bleeding Man by Craig Strete - Free Book Online Page B

head would not grow. I do
not understand why they do these things. Nappi was very nice and gentle. She had had a real
mother and she seemed so alive.
    I sleep a lot
because that helps pass the time. I'm really not hungry much anymore and my fur is falling out
more and more. I eat when they bring me food but my heart is not in it. I call out to the other
animals sometimes at night and they answer, but it does not help very much. I cannot see them and
the comfortable sounds they make only make it seem worse.
    I did not mean to
kill that man. I did not know who he was. He shouldn't have been here. Perhaps I did mean to kill
him. He frightened me. Yes, he did, and I guess that is why I killed him. There was something not
right that night when he came to my cage. All the other animals sensed it, too. They were pacing
rest­lessly in their cages, moaning and growling. Some of the big cats threw themselves against
the bars, roar­ing.
    The man smelled
strange. He smelled like the ani­mals that get. sick and are taken away to the white building
after they stop moving. Sometimes the animals would lay there all night sick like that and not
moving before the attendants found them. The smell would get very strong then. That was the kind
of smell the man had.
    It was dark, I was
awake in my tree, huddled against the trunk, missing the comforting warmth of Nappi, when he came
over the wall. He fell to this side of the wall. He was very clumsy. It was frightening the way
he fell. Like he did not have any bones. He just col­lapsed like jelly, rolled and then slowly
got to his feet. He frightened me.
    I hid in the tree.
I did not want him to see me. He walked very stiffly. Every step he took, it seemed like he was
going to fall over. His eyes were closed, I could see that in the full light of the moon, and he
reminded me of some of the animals who move their legs and make noises in their sleep.
    I hid behind my
tree trunk and I thought he would not find me. But I was wrong. He was coming for me. He came to
the door of my cage and his hands brushed over the locks. The animals in the cages next to mine
were in a rage. Their screams and catcalls filled the air. The man did not seem
disturbed.
    I was getting
frightened. I get angry when I get frightened, and I do things. I do not like to do things, but
when I am frightened I lose control. The man was tearing at the hinges of the door to my cage. I
did not want him to come in. His smell frightened me.
    He forced the door
open. I bared my teeth and growled. I didn't want him in my cage. I don't like it when people
come into my cage. His eyes opened, but his eyes were glassy. I do not think he could see me. I
growled.
    His mouth twitched
and his lips moved. He reached up through the branches and his hand touched my leg. His hand was
cold and damp and I couldn't stand the smell. I jumped down at him. I bit his face and tore at
his eyes and jumped up and down on his chest when he fell over. He fell over very easily and he
did not make a sound or fight back. That made me even mad­der and I tore away at him with my
sharp white teeth.
    He came apart. The
other animals in the cages next to mine were roaring and throwing themselves against the bars of
their cages in frenzy. I went wild, too. I was frightened and I lost control. I bit the
bad-smelling thing's head off. I sank my teeth again and again into its soft white neck and it
fell off and I worried the bloody thing across the floor. I clawed its foul-smelling clothes off,
ripping it into shreds, and stamped furiously on the soft white body. I was frightened and
angry.
    Then I ran up the
tree and hugged the branches until my arms hurt, and then I rested and calmed down. I was tired
and frightened and I wanted to go away from there and not see that man anymore. I looked down and
the man had not gone away so I stayed up there in the tree and hugged the branches.
    All the man's arms
and legs had come off