Tommy the cat had been struggling for what seemed like hours. He’d even blacked out a couple of times. The thing round his neck was tighter now and breathing was becoming more and more difficult. Perhaps if he stopped trying for a bit, the rope or wire, or whatever it was would loosen up and he could wriggle free.

A shadow detached itself from the background and moved in front of Tommy, and he lifted his head a bit to try and get a better look at whatever was there. His vision was a little blurry, but he could see it was a very large rat.

“Hello Tommy!” the blurry figure said to him. “There are two possible endings here. One, you are going to go on struggling until you die.” There was a pause. “And then we are going to eat you. Or…” There was another pause. “We eat you and then you die, your choice.”

Tommy had always been the scourge of the local rat population, but now it seemed the rats had had enough and wanted revenge, with Tommy being on the menu.