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The cat flinched. Alex could see the muscle groups contract. He told his body to run and it didn’t listen. Darren grabbed Samantha and or-dered her to go to Alex’s apartment. He reassured her that the cat would be fine. The girls headed off.

“You want to do it or should I?” he asked. Alex’s stomach sank.

“I’ll do it,” he said. “Not here. Someone sees us and they might not understand. We’d better move our cars out of the road, too.”

“Oh yeah,” said Darren. He took care of the car. The air was cool and the light from the moon washed over the cat’s white fur.

“Don’t worry,” Alex told the cat. “It won’t be long now.” He stroked him lightly between the ears. “We’re really sorry. We wish it didn’t have to be like this.” The cat purred.

When Darren returned, Alex picked the cat up. He didn’t scream. He kept purring. Alex held his arms out in front of him like a forklift. He could feel his broken body. There was no hope. They took him behind an apartment building and set him in the grass between the wall and the wooden fence. There were no windows on that side of the build-ing and no light from the streetlamps. The moon seemed very bright.

“How are we going to do it?” asked Darren.

“I’ve got something in my car.” Alex ran back and dug under the seat. He kept a club there, an old billy club, cut in half, drilled and filled with lead. A whack with that could take the bark off a tree. One shot is all it would take. He went back behind the building.

“You’re going to do it with that?”

“It’s all I’ve got.”

“Let’s get it over with,” said Darren. Alex looked at the cat. The chest still heaved, but not as steadily. Alex reached for its forehead and it tried to rub against his fingers.

“Let’s wait a second,” he said. “I need to get ready.” He didn’t want to screw it up. He would raise the club as high as possible and bring it down right on top of its skull. It had to be fast and hard and accurate. He raised the club.

Alex paused and found his mark. He stretched his arm as high as it would go, balanced the club for the greatest impact, and then brought it down as hard as he possibly could. There was a sickening clunk.