Her name was Janet Leman, she lived alone in her home and had been here for a long time.On the outskirts of Salem and had watched the neighbourhood fading, towerblocks had taken over and her little home was the last one left for she refused to sell or to be forced out.
She lived with her cats, all twelve of them, her favourite was called Lucan, jet black and eyes that seemed to see into your head.
He had just appeared with her other cats one day, and had been with her many years, he never seemed to age.
No one believed she was one hundred and sixty years old, they called her the Secret Witch with the deepest of affection, but now she was the last one left in the neighbourhood.
Everyone had been forced to accept payment and move, but Janet never gave in to the Corporation run by James Lord.
He owned the police so they never interferred and he always got his own way, he had said she would go one way or the other as he had plans to build another towerblock.
Lucan was cuddled by her feet, she knew he was special for he had been with her sixty years, but she kept his secret.Outside six men were ready to do the bidding of their boss Mr Lord, if they could not get her to leave alive he wanted her out dead.
The men knew Janet was asleep, it was 3 am and there was no one in the neighbourhood who would ever see them.
They forced the front door and went in, the room looked like an anique shop, and shelves of books surrounded the room, mostly Pagan Rites and there was a gothic feel to the room.
Cats hissed and rushed out the broken door, and the men could tell this was a habitate for felines.
"God, smell of cat pi....." a short, fat man started to say.
"Who's there"? came a shout of anger from the door that led to the stairs, and Janet entered wearing a black dressing gown.
From behind her one of the men, tall with a goatee, evil looking, smashed a blue patterned vase of her head and Janet fell to the floor.
They poured petrol over the room and Janets' unconious body.
"Let's go" said the man with the goatee as he lit a match and flicked it, the room was engulfed in flames, cats trapped gave terrible sounds as flames found them.
The six men just walked down the street, thinking of the money they would get and did not even look back at the burning house.
The black cat called Lucan watched them from the shadows.No one remembered about the death of Janet, a long time time had passed since that night.
Thirteen years had passed, and a tower block of design and perfection had been built, only the most wealthy could afford the luxery it offered.
Thirty blocks high, each block home to some of the richest people, including an author, actress and rock star.
Outside the entrance had two tweny foot tall Leyland Cypress pine trees, flowers of all kinds decorated the gardens, so colour was all year around.
Daffodils and Snowdrops, Tulips, Butterfly Bushes, Fuscias but to name a few that were always on show through out the year, and the lawns were on the finest Fescue and Brown Top grass seeds.
Each block consisted of a thirty foot by twenty foot living room, it had its' own bath/shower combination , a huge kitchen and a bed room to equal the spacious living room.
A door man was always on duty and no one could get through the electonic doors with out a special key.
Even the two lifts were made of glass.
Dead animals had started to appear at the entrance, birds, rats and even squirrels and all had their heads missing.
A black cat had been seen, strange as no pets were allowed to be kept and the door man had tried to shoot it at it many times.
He could swear he had hit it, but it had just padded off with its' tail high in the air, he would get it one day.
Lucan had bided his time, he was ready to take his vengeance and it would begin with untold horror for the residents of this tower block.
It was one cold and damp morning the dying began.
An aging actress fell in the shower and straggled herself on the shower hose, her young lover tried to save her but was powerless to stop her falling to the shower base dead, he ran to get help and fell through the glass table and bled to death through a jaggered edge of glass stuck in his throat.
In another apartment, a well know guitarist was practising with his elictric guitar when suddenly a power surge caused him to be electricuted to death.
It caused the beginning of a fire, but due to the power surge all the alarms and sprinklers which would have stopped the fire were not working.
The double doors would refuse to open, all fire doors were locked and there was no way to escape.
In one apartment a writer witnessed a black cat watching him from the corner of the room, he felt his chest on fire and died of a heart attack.
The fire swept through the building and people would die as they were burnt alive, forever in pain for the heart and brain is the last thing to burn.
The security guard tried to smash the double door window glass, smoke succumbed him and the last thing he would ever see was a black cat outside and he never could figure out how could he hear that damned purring when it was sound proof.
No survivors were ever found, all died in the fire and as the fire fighters tacled the blaze they just ignored a black cat as it casually strolled away across the grass.The vengeance had now begun.
copyright Chris Smith 2007
