Wrong Way Charlie

Sammy Fowler remembers being four years old, awake in the dark while his cat Midnight gives birth in the closet at the end of the hall. He wants the kittens for himself, but his parents send him back to bed, and he waits until morning to meet them.

One kitten is different: black like the rest, but with white front paws and a white speck on his nose. Sammy names him Charlie. Charlie is sweet, clumsy, and always turned around, crawling away from his mother when he should be nursing.

As the litter grows, Charlie keeps escaping the cardboard box. The family starts calling him Wrong Way Charlie, and the hallway becomes his little world, a safe strip of carpet between the closet, the bedroom, and the bathroom.

A tragedy short story by Kristopher Mallory, first published on r/nosleep in 2013.