"Hello, lovely," he was surprised to find Ophelia waiting at the door for him. He could tell by the look on her face that she was not amused and wondered what took him so long. He checked her food and water. He was happy to say that she had eaten a noticeable amount, and she had drunk a little water while he was gone. He remembered when he had first gotten her she would refuse to eat if she wasn't in his presence, she had been getting better at eating if he was in the house and had started eating alone completely very recently.

He went to check the litter box knowing that today was the unfortunate day. Once a week he had to empty the box and clean it, today happened to be that day. He put on a mask and gloves and walked towards the trash can. He threw out the foul litter and started the process of cleaning.

Once the unfavorable job was complete, he kissed Ophelia on the head and entered the garage. He saw the complicated piece of machinery laid out on the table, its lid opened. What he had been struggling with for so long was the most crucial thing for testing, he needed sufficient enough power. He couldn't find anything that could deliver the immense power he required. He had considered hooking it up to his house's power, but if he did it, one test alone would cost him millions of dollars at least. He couldn't afford those high prices on his wage. But, if the test did work, he wouldn't need to worry about money for much longer. Millions would adore him. Everything would be worth it. No, it was too risky, only a mad man would think that way, or worse, a desperate man. But, if he did it, he would get the love he craved, the love that he deserved.

He wrestled with the moral and ethical implications that before long, his eyes were starting to close. His conscious slowly drifting. He would not sleep in his garage like some peasant. He determined that his questions would be solved another day, for now, he needed to rest. Fortunately, he didn't have to work the next day, and he could sleep as late as he wanted.

That night he had a dream. It came to him like a holy vision. He saw himself, a benevolent god among his kingdom. He had taught them genuine kindness, and they loved one another like family, but for all, he knew they were. Each person was perfect, not one member of the kingdom with ill intent. He dreamed of a utopia, his subjects creating exquisite pieces of art that would endure for centuries. Everyone acting with proper manners. Everything about this beautiful society was what he dreamed of.

Gilderoy knew that his mind had settled his queries, he needed to do whatever it took to achieve his dream, even if it meant he further his debt, even if it killed him. Gilderoy would-be prince, no matter the stakes.

Throughout the rest of the week, Gilderoy had to make plans. After his epiphany, he sped up his plans. He would perform one test and see how it went. It went against everything he believed in, but it had to be done. If he sat around forever doing this by the standard procedure, he would never get anything done. Standard procedure was had gotten him kicked out of MIT. Normality was a plague on society; he would ensure that it died in his world. He would never allow it to thrive.

Ophelia decided to greet him that morning by licking him on the face. Gilderoy wondered if she had been a dog in a past life with the way she acted. Her tongue was so rough that Gilderoy thought his skin was coming off. Gilderoy grabbed his phone from the nightstand beside him and checked the time. It was nine in the morning, and he knew he had to get up even if it was the last thing he wanted. Ophelia was adamant on him waking up, so he had no other option but to get out of bed.

Ophelia was determined on following him today and quite frankly Gilderoy was terrified. Ophelia had never acted this way before. It seemed that she had started caring for him, or at least it comforted him to think so. Deep down, Gilderoy thought that she just wanted attention.

Before Gilderoy could do anything he needed to eat, his stomach was ready to leave him and get some food. He poured the sugary cereal into his bowl and added the milk. He seemed to have gone on autopilot since it wasn't a complicated routine. It was simply getting a spoon and eating. Today, however, a new variable had been introduced, Ophelia's affection. He was not anticipating a furry gremlin creature to purr on his legs. He had almost thrown the cereal that he was ready to eat when Ophelia had done precisely that.

Gilderoy was glad that Ophelia was warming up to him, but he didn't want her to scare him like that either. Once Gilderoy was done eating, he left the bowl on the table and decided to give Ophelia the attention she desired. He picked up a laser pointer he had on the kitchen island. Ophelia looked up at him with wide eyes. She had a fixed gaze on where the laser would emerge. He pressed the button, sending the red light that she loved to the other side of the room. She ran at full speed across the room with the determination of a lioness on the hunt.

But of course, she couldn't catch it. He moved it too quickly. He put it right next to her and saw her pounce and try to catch the light. He shined the light onto the wall and watched as she jumped and tried to swat at the light. At one point she seemed to have given up, she meowed and strutted towards him, seemingly angry at Gilderoy for not letting her catch it.

He didn't want to leave her upset, so he got one of her favorite toys. As stupid as it seemed she loved to play around with ice cubes. He grabbed one from the freezer and gently put it down. As if by magic Ophelia could sense the cube and jumped onto it without hesitation, this was one prey that she could catch. She started to push it around and mess around with it. She would swat in the other direction. It left a mess, but she enjoyed it, so he was fine with it.

"I'm sorry, Ophelia, but I-" A thought struck him. He couldn't believe how stupid he was to have never thought of it before. What was he going to do with Ophelia? Shrinking her wasn't something he was willing to risk. If something went wrong, he could never forgive himself. As much as it pained him, he had to give Ophelia to someone else. That seemed to be the one downside to not knowing many people. He refused to give her back to the pound, and he didn't want to think about what would happen then. He couldn't trust anyone on Craigslist. He had to ask around at work. It was the only way he could ensure Ophelia got in a safe home.

But that was for another day. For now, he had to work on the machine. Today was the first day of testing, after all. But before he could do any testing, he needed to buy a test subject, a watermelon. And maybe a pack of raspberries.

Returning from the grocery store with a watermelon and half-eaten pack of raspberries Gilderoy felt content, happy even. Everything he had been working for was finally coming to fruition. All the failures and humiliation. He would be the one laughing now. He couldn't wait until he could rub it in Isabella's face. Isabella.

She was the reason he continued. Her arrogance and her taunting. He needed to prove her wrong. Because if she was right. If she was right about him, then he would be nothing more than a broken man who acted like a child. And he didn't want to be that person. He couldn't think like that, not now. Not when he was so close to everything he had ever wanted. Dark thoughts lead to dark places.

He jumped out of the car and opened its trunk. He grabbed the watermelon he had stored there, his arms feeling unusually tired. He felt like carrying the watermelon was killing him. He swore he heard his bones cracking just by lifting the watermelon. He felt sick. The intense Missouri heat started to get to him. He felt like the entire world was watching him. Everyone was judging him. Look at that twenty-year-old man. He can't even lift a watermelon. He could hear all their laughs. The mocking. He tasted a bitter flavor in his throat. He could feel it slowly crawling up his throat without his consent. It erupted from his mouth; he vomited all over his driveway. His throat burned like it was filled with acid. Here he was, weak, nowhere near the God he was supposed to be. He knew there was nothing left in his stomach, but his body refused to stop his suffering. He kept dry heaving. He could feel tears rolling down his face. He felt disgusting. He felt weak. He was a sniveling monster who knew nothing of life, he thought he was a savior, but how could he rule a kingdom when he couldn't even pick himself up. He was a shattered mess.

He left the watermelon where it was and went back to his home. He just wanted to rest for now.

Tomorrow had come, and he had work to do. Very little of it involved what he wanted to do. And he didn't feel like going to work. He had woken up with a pounding headache. He slowly lifted himself out of bed. Every muscle sore, his legs were shaking so hard he found it difficult to stand. He needed something to help him, and he couldn't continue his day if he was in this state. He went on his hands and knees and crawled across his room. He looked utterly ridiculous, but he couldn't care, he had to find them. Gilderoy knew he had them somewhere in his room.

He started to dig through the mountains of trash and useless objects he owned. He found things he had bought from infomercials at three in the morning while crying himself to sleep. He could see old machines when he was determined to have a home gym, where he could become stronger and faster. He thought it would impress her, but Isabella never cared. She was just mad that he was spending so much money. The machines were cloaked in dust.

He smiled when he saw an old ice cream machine. That had been such a great afternoon. He wished every day could have been like that. The sunlit the room and gave it a beautiful golden color. She was still there. They had been happy once. They had been fighting for the past month. They had rarely spoken to each other if they weren't yelling. He wanted to make things better. He wanted to show her that he truly cared. She loved chocolate ice cream; he knew it would be a great gift.

He presented it to her, he could see the light in her eyes, but she tried to present herself cooly. He pulled out the ingredients to make chocolate ice cream. She seemed absolutely delighted. She slowly loosened up and started smiling and laughing with him. He wanted that day back. It was one of the last times they had fun together.

And there he found them, at the very bottom of the pile were his crutches. He grabbed them and slowly hobbled out of his room. He could already feel the crutches putting pressure on his armpits. His full body weight was on crutches, so his arms were starting to hurt like hell. But, they helped him walk a little. Ophelia tilted her head and meowed at Gilderoy. She ran up to him and backed away. It seemed like she could sense that something was different. He sat down at the dining table, he knew he had to eat, but he felt like he could barely move. How was he supposed to get to work in this state? He couldn't drive, and there was no way he was going to go take a bus. He supposed he could get an Uber.

He grabbed a granola bar from the kitchen countertop and waited for his Uber.

Lunch came around, and it was time for the only reason Gilderoy had been stupid enough to risk his health and go to his job. He needed to have Ophelia in a safe home for when he was gone. His subjects would despise Ophelia the second they saw her. She wouldn't make his rise to godhood any easier, and he was already expecting quite the challenge.

When he had entered the break room in the morning, he stapled a flyer telling anyone who would want a cat to see him during lunch. He had been pleasantly surprised to find 10 or so people waiting for him. He was sure that he could find the perfect home for Ophelia.

First up was, Regina Collins. She was one of the top cashiers at the store, but he had heard that she could have anger issues, and that was the exact opposite of what Ophelia needed.

"So," he said, clearing his throat, "Regina. Tell me, why do you want my cat?"

"Well, you see, I thought it would be good for the kids."

"Oh, you have children," he was shocked. He had never really imagined workers having their own lives.

"Yeah, three actually. My oldest is seven, and then it's two twins who are three years old. I thought Carly would love to have a cat for her birthday."

"Oh, and Carly is the seven-year-old?"

"Yeah, she's officially seven in a week."

"Interesting. And how much time will be dedicated to taking care of Ophelia." He already knew that she wouldn't be winning the grand prize of Ophelia. Within a month they would try to return Ophelia. And the twins would end up tugging at Ophelia's tail.

"Oh, Probably for two hours.

"Two hours?!" Gilderoy was outraged. He tried to spend as much time with Ophelia as possible and other than this past week he spent four hours a day with her, at least!

"Yeah, is that too much?"

"I think this interview is over. Thank you very much."

He sent her out, and the next person sat in front of him. He recognized the man, he worked in the warehouse, Gilderoy couldn't quite pin his name down, but he believed that his last name was Henderson.

He quickly scanned the man and spotted the name tag, "So, Jim, why would you like to have Ophelia?"

"Who?"

"The cat, Jim."

"Ohhhhh," Jim Henderson despite looking like it sounded like your stereotypical California surfer bro, "Well yeah, you see me, and my bro Tim would super love to have a new little pal."

"Tim?"

"Tim's my roommate."

"And what does Tim do?"

"Ah yeah, he's like a wicked genius. He makes apps and does technology stuff, man."

"And how much time will you and Tim spend taking care of Ophelia?"

"Dude, we'll be with her all the time."

"All of the time?"

"Yeah man, we're going to make sure that the little lass knows she's loved."

The man was insane. No cat wanted to be surrounded by people all the time, even before he had said that Gilderoy had a gut feeling that Jim and Tim were not a good match with Ophelia.

"Thank you Ti- Jim, you will be considered."

He interviewed every last person, and he couldn't stand a single one of them. He couldn't believe he worked with them. He was giving up all hope before one last person showed up. He didn't recognize her, but she had long black hair and was wearing overalls.

"Um, hello. Are you here for the cat?"

"Yeah." Her voice was completely monotone; it was like everything was a deadpan to her.

"Welcome then..." His voice trailed off he had no idea who she was. Frankly, he had never seen her before. She looked close to his age, so he would have noticed her.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" She said as she slowly covered her name tag, covering all but the first letter.

"Of course I do... Daphne?"

"Nope."

"Daisy?"

"Nu-uh."

"Dominica."

"That's a country." She said while pushing up her glasses

"And your name." He was determined to discover her real name, and it didn't seem like she was going to give it up quite so easily

"I'm going to hit you."

"Alright fine, Denise?"

"Lucky guess."

"So why would you like to have Ophelia?"

"Cats are cool."
"How much time can you dedicate to her?"

"As much as she needs."

Her answers were both perfect and flawed. He couldn't decide if she could be chosen. He liked her; he could sense she had a good personality. "Do you have any experiences with cats?"

"I had two as a kid."

He still wasn't sure if she could be a good choice, but in the end, the choice wasn't up to him. It was up to Ophelia.

"Would you mind coming to my house another day?"

"Are you going to murder me?"

"No."

"I'll consider your offer."