Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, graphic violence, child abuse, death, physical abuse, and racism.

The narrator is a finalist for the Scariest Story Ever Award and needs a new story to win. The narrator visits Uncle Mike, the nephew of Irena Tobacco, whose stories the narrator uses to reach the finals. Mike’s son is facing jail time for dealing drugs, so Mike is now preparing to raise a grandchild alone. The narrator offers to pay Mike for Irena’s scariest story, and Mike agrees. He says that Irena often told “How the Cat Came to Be” to the local children. In this story, a flood drives all of the animals away from their homes to a small island. Cat is the nicest and beloved, but when the water recedes, the animals trade Cat to the Devil for safe passage back to their homes. However, the Devil tricks them and turns Cat into a distrustful animal.

Mike explains that the children believed Irena was withholding her scariest story. The children begged to hear this story, and Irena agreed on the condition that the children complete three tasks. The first was to clean their rooms and the second to clean up their yards.