Chester woke to the whirring of a box fan, and nothing else. After all the commotion he had caused by simply returning home last night, it was too eerily quiet for his human to be around. He gave a big stretch and flexed his toes, claws digging into the cotton cloth beneath him. This place was disgusting. He was disgusting, and he kept getting worse, unable to comprehend why.

His short tabby fur had mostly dried, save for his underside and that one spot that seemed to be increasingly sticky each time he woke. Giving a full-body shake, his back leg twitched as he took a step. He told himself he had slept on it wrong and pushed on.

Righting himself, Chester got to work. He had learned a few things from his last attempt. Most importantly, the exits were sealed. Both the basement door and the small window over the utility sink were impenetrable. It was a waste of effort to give that any more thought. His time was better spent doing what came to him naturally.

Padding over to the fan, he knocked it over. With that taken care of, he hopped up onto the washing machine to rub his body along the detergent until it crashed to the concrete floor with a loud thump. Damn, he was hoping the contents would spill out. It was so hard to tell which containers would break or not.

Next, he traipsed over to the dryer and whacked the box of dryer sheets off.

This wasn't enough. He needed a real mess. Unfortunately, he didn't have much to work with, being stuck in this barren place.

Chester's back leg slipped out from under him as he jumped down from the large appliance, landing him in a heap. He was quick to recover, aside from the leg that was still asleep. He gave it another shake for good measure.

Moving to the other side of the basement, the tabby cat launched himself up onto the counter. He sent the first thing he came into contact with, a bar of soap, flying back in the direction he had come from. Then, a sponge limply toppled down only a few feet from where it started. Chester scowled, but continued on.

Every little thing felt his wrath, but none of it seemed to matter. None of this was going to aid him in his escape and surely, he was running out of time. He looked over his path of destruction with disappointment. There must be something more he could do.

From this angle, Chester noticed an area he had neglected to search due to its perpetually dusty state. As it was, comfort was no longer an option.

Trotting over to the washing machine, the lithe cat slipped behind the machinery to muzzle his way through the mass of cobwebs and spiderwebs as tiny creatures scurried away, their safe space successfully invaded by a determined force. Here, Chester discovered cords and tubes. Maybe he could-

"There you are." The voice that spoke was strained with sadness and fatigue as the human's long limbs reached in and grabbed for the cat.

Chester attempted to dart away, but he had essentially trapped himself in the bulk of the ductwork. He yowled as calloused fingers found purchase on his scruff. Captured, Chester hung suspended in the human's grasp. Those ugly eyes, red and swollen with dark circles rimming them, came into view as the man brought his catch up so that they were eye level. Chester was itching all the while to reach out and swipe at the human to give his pale skin a splash of color, misguided rage easily targeting the one person he could lash out at.

"All you had to do was stay buried, buddy. Can't you see it's time for you to move on? I don't want to say goodbye but I can't stand to see you like this."

Then his human sauntered across the room, the defenseless feline in tow. Pausing, the human righted the fan and retrieved the abandoned cloth, a sopping pillowcase, on the way back over to the utility sink. He put the plug in and turned the water on before giving Chester a hard stare. "How many lives you got left, Chester? I swear, if you come back after nine, well, I just don't know what I'll do."

Almost losing his grip, the human fumbled his hold, bits of fur falling from the feline as he tried to weasel away. He looked over the pitiful creature, and silently begged for this torment to cease for both their sakes. "I'm sorry," he said without luster. He had no more speeches to give, only prayers. Then he crammed what was left of his beloved pet into the pillowcase and lowered him into the sink for what he hoped was the last time.