"Will you die already?" Heather screams. "Will you just fricking die! You are the most abominable thing I have ever met. Just go in a hole and die!"

I cower in a corner on the other side of the room. I know if I go anywhere near her, she'll attack me savagely as she did before. I stroke my cheek, remembering how her foot came down on my head with anger and fury. I'm fast enough to escape her but her words have frozen me in this corner. She is like my mother, and she doesn't even realize it. She leaves her leftovers for me to eat. She sometimes leaves water for me to drink. Her house has been my shelter since my mother died all those years ago. the only problem is she hates me. Absolutely hates me. She has tried to kill me so many times, yet I stay because I know she has no one.

When I was young, I remember her songs. She used to sing of broken homes, shattered hearts, and lifeless babies. They became my lullabies. I knew she needed me even if she didn't want me here. She had no one. Just me, her friend in the night who watches out from her from afar. Lately, she has changed. She doesn't leave food out like she used to. She spends her nights out singing in bars and comes home with strange men. Some days, she doesn't come home, and I anxiously wait up for her. This time, she came home and saw me in the middle of her floor. She screamed and chucked a shoe at me.

"Goddamn vermin!" she spat as she chucked another stiletto. "I knew you were the little bastard in here eating my food! Get out of here! Die!"

I weaved through the stilettos she'd hurled and dove under her bed she followed me, clawing for my tail. She sunk her teeth into my back and I yelped and bit her. I heard her scream but didn't wait up. Diving into a little hole in her bedroom wall, I scurried up the beam and into her attic. Below me, I could hear her bellowing in pain. My heart hurt. I wanted to console her, but I knew she didn't want me here. Now she sits by the hole she's found in the kitchen, the hole my mother died in, and shouts into it. She curses me for living. She blames me for her relationships, her uncleanliness, her rage. She throws poison into my hole, hoping I'll take the bait. I watch her from afar. I've blown our friendship. I've destroyed her life. All because I'm a rat.