Justice Is Served

This story is by Sara Pehrsson and was part of our 2025 Fall Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

Dusk was falling on the quiet, well-kept suburban street. A black cat was sitting on a block wall bordering the front yard of a recently sold house. She watched as the new occupant bustled back and forth, unpacking boxes and arranging furniture. The cat, Moonshadow, moved to different vantage points to see through the windows as the woman worked in different rooms. Light from the house occasionally glinted on a small green pendant hanging from the cat’s collar.

Moonshadow already knew who the woman was thanks to the neighborhood grapevine. Barbara Henderson, an executive at a national company, lived alone. Some of the neighbors found her title impressive. Others had reason to find her presence unwelcome.

Eventually, Barbara took a break. She opened the front door and stepped out, taking in the perfectly landscaped flowerbeds in her front yard with proprietary pride. Then something caught her eye. It was the black cat sitting primly on the wall that separated the property from its neighbor. Barbara frowned.

“Get away, you horrible cat! Get off! Shoo!” Barbara ran at Moonshadow, clapping her hands. “Go away!”

The cat waited until the last second, then jumped down to the other side of the wall.

A few minutes later, three houses away, Mariah opened her back door and entered the kitchen, fingering the small green pendant that hung from a chain around her neck. A tall woman of advanced years, she greeted the cats who were lounging nearby and headed straight to her office. “Barbara Henderson,” she murmured as she opened her laptop and began typing in the search bar. “Let’s just make sure it’s the same person, shall we?” A plump tabby cat with white paws hopped into her lap and settled, purring, as Mariah became absorbed in her search.

Results appeared quickly. “Aha. I thought so!” Mariah’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the news items. She’d found a professional photo, definitely the same Barbara Henderson, and read:

Barbara Henderson, found guilty of animal neglect and cruelty charges, was sentenced today to a fine of $500 and community service. Ms. Henderson is a vice president at a national retail company. The judge used her standing in the community to justify leniency in the sentence.

Real estate agent Nicky Hernandez says she still feels traumatized after finding the decaying body of a pet cat in a condo listed for sale by owner Barbara Henderson. “It was awful,” she states tearfully. “To think that anyone could just abandon a pet that way. It must have died of starvation. The condo had been empty for weeks.” Ms. Henderson insisted at trial that her actions, or inaction, was excusable. “Can I help it if I lost track of it during the move? Getting that cat was a mistake in the first place. It never did anything but ruin my furniture.”

“Convicted, but no prison sentence.” Mariah made a disgusted sound.

The cat in her lap reacted by giving a shivering stretch and then going back to sleep with one arm over his eyes. Mariah stroked his fur and made plans.

The next evening, Moonshadow was again sitting on the wall bordering Barbara’s front yard. She was waiting for the woman to come home from work. The moment Barbara’s car approached, Moonshadow jumped down and strolled across the yard. As Barbara pulled into her driveway, Moonshadow made sure to make eye contact before stepping into the perfect flower bed and beginning a vigorous excavation. As Barbara’s screams came, first faintly from inside the car, then ear-splittingly as she parked and struggled out of the vehicle, Moonshadow squatted, did her business, and flung a few sprays of dirt over before bounding away out of Barbara’s infuriated reach.

The next few evenings and mornings were a version of the same event. Soon Barbara could be seen peering from the windows of her house at all hours, her expression increasingly angry. Her efforts to attack the cat were always foiled when Moonshadow leaped over a wall or disappeared through a hedge where Barbara could not follow.

On Saturday evening, however, it appeared that Moonshadow’s luck had run out. Barbara burst from her front door when she saw the cat standing in the front yard, eyeing the flowerbed again. “I’ve got you now!” the woman snarled. Moonshadow jumped away, but this time she made the mistake of running down the sidewalk where Barbara could easily follow.

The street was quiet, though a passerby may have observed that the cat seemed to rate its speed so that the woman could stay close. In this way, they came upon Mariah’s house. Moonshadow darted down the side of the house and through the open gate into Mariah’s back yard. Barbara followed with murder on her mind.

The cat trotted to an open storm cellar door concealed behind some shrubbery in the far corner of the yard. A glance over her shoulder, then she flowed down the steep stairs.

By the time Barbara had clattered down the stairs and entered the well-lit vault, Moonshadow was calmly waiting on a shelf at the back of the room. Barbara saw her and stopped inside the entrance.

Moonshadow made a happy trill and batted at the object she was sitting next to. Barbara focused on it, her anger changing to puzzlement. “What the hell?” As Barbara came closer to better see the framed photo and news article Moonshadow was touching with her paw, the cat hissed and jumped away. Barbara was engrossed in identifying the framed article, which was the one that described Barbara’s sentence for killing her cat.

“Ahem.” The sound came from the doorway. Barbara spun around, the framed article in her hand.

“What is this? Who are you?” Barbara demanded of the woman standing there.

“My name is Mariah.” She smiled, and the jewel at her throat flashed. “They call me the cat lady in the neighborhood.”

Barbara sneered. “It must be your cat who’s been digging up my garden. Guess what, you owe me damages for that. And what’s this all about?” She lifted the picture frame.

In response, Mariah stepped back through the door. Barbara surged forward, sensing danger too late. The heavy door thudded shut in her face.

Mariah’s voice now came through an intercom. “I left the article there for you to find so you’d know exactly why you’re here. I ensure justice for animals who are abused by humans. Since you are guilty of letting your cat die of neglect, a cat who was your responsibility to care for, you will now suffer the same fate. There is no way to escape this vault, and no one can hear you. You aren’t carrying a phone. I saw that you left it in your car. Very convenient! You are untraceable.”

“Let me out!” Barbara demanded, her voice shrill with fear.

“There’s no food or water for you in there. You’ll get thirstier and thirstier, and hungry. But the thirst will kill you first. Just a few days! Then you’ll join the other scumbags who thought they could get away with abusing animals. They’re buried beneath your feet. Goodbye.”

“I’ll give you money! Just say how much!”

Mariah scoffed. “Your money is useless. You should have given your cat the attention and compassion it needed. Instead, you abandoned it. So now you get to feel what your cat did at the end of its life. Alone. Frightened to know it couldn’t get out or find food.  In pain as its little body ate itself because you failed to provide for it. I want you to feel every moment of that same fear and pain and abandonment. No one is coming for you. I’ll make sure of that.”

With that, Mariah turned off the intercom and the sound of Barbara’s screaming protests. She touched the pendant on her necklace, and a moment later Moonshadow was trotting up the stairs to continue her nightly prowl.

A week later, police were canvassing the neighborhood, looking for clues to Barbara Henderson’s disappearance. Mariah answered the knock at her door.

“Hello, Detective Berg!”

“Hi, Aunt Mariah. Mind if I come in?”

Detective Patty Berg, a stern-looking woman in her 40s, entered and was immediately greeted by several cats, tails in the air, vying for her attention. Mariah shut the door as Patty bent to distribute pets.

“I’m sure you know why I’m here,” Patty said, straightening.

Mariah nodded. “You’re looking for that woman who moved in down the street and then disappeared.”

“Right.” Patty hesitated. “Aunt Mariah, you didn’t have anything to do with this, did you?”

“With what, dear?” Mariah’s eyes met Patty’s with a blank stare.

Patty was silent. After a moment, she gave the cats a final pat. “Okay, then. Glad to see everyone here is well. If you find out anything you’d like to share, just let me know, okay?”

“Will do!” Aunt and niece shared a hug, and the detective departed, both fully aware that justice had been served.