When the police inspect the house looking for the missing wife, the narrator acts very carefree and unapologetic; in front of the police, he hits the wall behind which his wife is resting. At that moment, guilt finally returns with powerful vengeance for justice. There is “…a scream, at first muffled…and a continuous cry, totally unnatural and inhuman – a howl – a wailing cry, half of horror and half of triumph…” (724). The narrator compares this cry to demons in eternal damnation, and it marks the culmination of guilt. The officers quickly took down the wall and the black cat stood atop the corpse's head. The narrator faces its inevitable consequences with the final words: "...the hideous beast...had seduced me to murder, and whose informative voice had sent me to the executioner." I had locked the monster in the grave! (724). Guilt finally got the punishment it had craved for so long. The second black cat acts as a symbol of guilt in “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe. The cat helps express the theme that guilt is inescapable and that shame and conviction will always follow a person until justice is reconciled. Even though guilt requires retribution, guilt still gives the narrator two choices: ; he might continue to live in sin or repent of his bad deeds. The narrator decides to remain in his wickedness,