Here, Kitty

Philip decided to stay in on Friday night which was also Halloween. He planned to catch up on some reading, do laundry and work on his paper. His roommate, Adam, had traveled with the college football varsity team for a game and would not be back until the next day. His dormitory was left empty due to the parties being held at all of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus.

Philip returned to his quad from the downstairs laundry area after transferring his laundry from the washer to the dryer. He grabbed the Introduction to Psychology book off of the desk in his room and plopped down on the tiny couch in the common area. After a while of reading, Philip’s eyes were becoming heavy.

A loud, scratchy noise broke his focus. He flicked the light switch on in the bathroom and peeked inside. Nothing. He heard the noise again in competition with the sound of the blowing wind. It was coming from his room. Philip entered his room and turned on the lamp on his desk. He looked around. The sound turned him back in the direction of the window.

A branch from the tall oak tree in the yard tapped and scratched the glass of the window. Philip peered beyond and saw a small figure on the branch. The darkness outside made whatever it was a mystery. He opened the window and moved his lamp closer to it. The light shone on a long-whiskered feline.

The cat’s back was arched, and it growled. It shook and moved its head about as it repeatedly made attempts to take a step, only to pull its paw back in place. It was a frightened, confused, helpless being, all alone, stuck in the tree.

Philip felt sorry for the cat. He did not want anything to happen to it. Though it was against dormitory policy to have pets, at that moment, Philip was ready to risk whatever consequences to save an animal in need.

I’ll just rescue it and safely send it on its way. Besides, who would find out?

“Here, kitty, kitty.” Philip stretched his arm towards the cat that was positioned more than an arm’s length away.

“Meow,” went the cat.

The branch was unsteady due to the wind. The cat went still and regarded Philip with a pair of cute, sad eyes.

“Meow.”

Philip climbed onto the window ledge. He held on to one side of the window as he leaned outward to get as close to the cat as he possibly could.

“Kitty,” Philip called out to the little animal.

He sucked his teeth repeatedly in a noise to lure the cat to him. He reached out his hand as far as he could.

“Meow.”

Another gust of wind nearly knocked Philip off his balance. His eyes grew. He regained focus.

“Come on, kitty. Come here.”

“Meow.”

The cat finally inched closer and closer until it reached Philip’s hand. Philip rubbed its furry little head before wrapping his arm around it. He kept his balance as he pulled the cat toward him. He lifted it from the branch and held it as he leaned safely back inside the window. He slid off the window ledge onto the floor with the cat in his arms and closed the window behind him.

Philip admired the cat. It was an American Shorthair. It was gray with black stripes. He turned the cat around and saw that it was female. As Philip looked closely at the cat’s fur, he noticed something odd on the upper part of her hind leg. Against the gray of her fur was a pattern formed by the black stripes which displayed the numbers 6 6 6. His brows furrowed.

The cat shifted in Philip’s arms. She rubbed her head along his forearms. Philip’s face softened.

“Meow.”

“You’re probably hungry. Let’s get you something to nibble on.”

Philip kept the cat nestled in his arms as he stroked her soft head. She purred at his touch.

They entered the common area of the quad. Philip sat the cat on the couch and opened the door of the mini fridge. Inside was a small container of leftover Chinese takeout, a couple of cans of beer, a barely wrapped up half-eaten sandwich, and an open little carton of milk. He grabbed the milk and closed the door. He poured what was left of the milk inside a plastic bowl and placed it on the floor near the couch. The cat leapt down and began drinking the milk.

Philip flipped open the pizza box that was sitting on the table. A single piece of crust was left. His mouth twisted to the side as he closed the box. He rubbed the cat’s coat as she continued lapping up the milk.

“You sure are hungry. There’s no pizza left. Do you like Chinese?” He laughed. “What’s your name?”

The cat finished the last of the milk and looked up at Philip. Philip did not notice until then that the cat was not wearing a collar.

A stray, he thought.

“You seem pretty friendly to be a stray.”

“Meow.”

The cat rubbed its body along Philip’s outstretched arm.

“Oh. The laundry. I’ll be right back.” Philip arose and headed down to the laundry area.

He opened the dryer and started pulling his warm, clean clothes out. The lights flickered. Philip paused and looked up. The flickering stopped. He continued gathering his clothes. The room went dark.

“What the . . .” Philip gasped.

There was the sound of a wicked laugh like the kind one would hear from a villain in an action film. Philip jumped. His heart started to race. He pulled out his cell phone and turned on the flashlight. He turned from the dryer and slowly shined the light around.

“Hello?”

Again, there was the wicked laughter.

“Who’s there?” Philip searched the laundry area and moved in the direction of where he heard the laughter.

And there it went again. It was coming from behind a closet door.

Philip swallowed hard before he yanked the door open. He shined the light on a laughing, Halloween witch mechanical doll. The lights in the laundry area came back on.

Philip sighed with relief and closed the closet door on the doll. He grabbed his laundry bag of freshly cleaned clothes and started back upstairs to his quad.

A dark figure appeared in the laundry area after Philip had turned his back and was headed out. He did not see the figure, yet it was watching him.

When he returned to his quad, Philip dropped his laundry bag in his room, took the leftover takeout from the fridge and popped it in the microwave.

Work on my paper or chill out with kitty? Philip thought.

“Here, Kitty,” he called out to the cat.

Something rubbed against his shins. His eyes went downward and he saw her. Kitty purred and relished in making contact with Philip.

The microwave beeped. Philip retrieved his food, scooped up Kitty and sat on the couch. He lifted the remote as she curled her body into a tight, furry ball on his lap.

Halloween scary movie marathons dominated the television stations. Philip chose one while he enjoyed his leftovers and the company of Kitty.

Later in the night, Philip’s eyes grew heavy. He was no longer watching the television, but the television was watching him. Only the light from the television illuminated the room.

Philip opened his eyes.

The dark figure from the laundry area stood in front of him. It was like a gigantic, blurry chess piece devoid of details, towering over him.

The wind was knocked out of Philip. He stared with his mouth open. He blinked, and the figure was gone.

Philip let out a hard breath. He rubbed his eyes.

Nothing was there.

Philip looked from left to right as he scratched his head. He noticed the television was still playing. Somehow, the noise had gotten drowned out during the strange incident. Kitty was no longer in the room.

“Kitty. Here, Kitty, Kitty.”

Kitty gave a guttural growl from the other room.

Philip’s brows furrowed. He pursed his lips.

The sound of someone clearing their throat came from the television and stole his attention. A large mouth full of grimy, rotten, crooked teeth was smiling on the screen. Philip’s face squinched at the sight of it.

“Happy Halloween, Philip. Have you gone trick-or-treating?” The mouth looked even more hideous with every word it spoke. “Do you have something for me?”

Goosebumps began to form on Philip’s arms. His eyes and ears were locked into the monstrosity coming from the tube.

“What is this?” Philip whispered. He snatched the remote to change the channel. It grew hot in his hand and he dropped it.

“Ouch!”

The voice changed to a deep and chilling inhuman tone. “You have something of mine, Philip. And I want something of yours.”

“I want your soul!” it yelled at Philip.

The television shut off.

“Ahhhh!” Philip jumped in the dark. His heart raced. He ran to his bed and dove in under the covers.

It was completely silent in the quad except for Kitty’s tiny steps navigating in the dark toward Philip. She reached the bed and leapt up onto it. Philip was shaking, which almost caused Kitty to lose her balance on top of him. Kitty picked a spot and stretched her body along Philip’s and fell asleep. He soon calmed down and drifted off to sleep as well.

While cloaked in the darkness of his room, Philip reached the point in his slumber where the door to his subconscious cracked open.

He found himself in a long, gloomy hallway. The sound of fabric being ripped filled the atmosphere. Philip walked down the hallway, but he could not hear his own footsteps. Only the noise of fabric being destroyed filled his ears. It grew louder with each step he took.

Philip stopped when he saw Kitty at his feet. With a hump in her back and her little body extended, Kitty dug her tiny claws into a blanket. She moved with speed in scratching at it and forming multiple rips, ruining the material.

Philip could see that the destroyed blanket was covering something underneath it. Kitty’s paws continued working at the blanket. Philip tugged at it and revealed himself balled up into the fetal position while asleep.

As Philip slept in his bed, Kitty crept on top of his body and placed her paw on his mouth.

In the dream, Philip remained focused, staring at himself sleeping. He felt pressure on his mouth. He wanted to say something, but could not. It felt like sleep paralysis, except it affected his mouth and not his legs.

His eyes moved to Kitty, who had stopped clawing at the blanket. She grew in size, reaching a height taller than Philip. Philip looked up at Kitty as she faded to black. Her figure changed into the cylinder-shaped, dark figure that loomed over him earlier that night.

Philip started choking. He placed his hands around his neck.

The figure shapeshifted into a huge, muscular body with a pair of spiky horns at the top of its head. A little leather cloth covered its groin.

Philip kept his eyes on it as he struggled for air. Demon, he thought.

The demon extended its neck so its head reached down toward Philip. Its face met Philip’s within inches. The demon’s hideous face bore steaming, hot, red eyes and the sinister, rotten teeth smile Philip saw on the television.

Philip wheezed and shook where he stood. He wanted to run, but his feet were stuck.

The mouth of the demon opened, extending wider than the size of a pool.

Philip saw fiery flames inside it. He felt the heat as the flames drew closer to him.

The mouth closed down on Philip, devouring him.

Philip awoke in a sweat. Kitty still had her paw on his mouth.

He put his hands around her body and flung her off of him. She landed on all fours on the floor and scurried away.

Philip sat up. His chest went up and down as he sucked in air while trying to steady his breathing. He rubbed his face and picked up his cell phone. It read 3:00 a.m. He laid back down and stared up into the darkness of his room. He propped himself up on his elbows.

“Kitty, I’m sorry,” he called out to the cat.

Silence.

He laid back down and soon drifted to sleep.

The next day, Philip was at his desk working on his paper. He thought the events of last night were strange, but he chalked it up to his imagination. He was tired and when one is exhausted, they tend to have very weird dreams. His explanation for why Kitty almost suffocated him was that she was nervous. Speaking of Kitty, he had not seen her since last night when he threw her off of him.

“Here, Kitty, Kitty.”

A door opened, slammed shut, and opened again.

“Adam? Are you back?” Philip left his desk and went to the front entrance of the quad. “There was this cat stuck in the tree. I rescued it and . . .”

Philip stopped. There was no one in sight. The door leading into the dormitory hallway was left open. He stuck his head out into the hallway and looked left and then right. No one was in the hallway. Most of the students who had partied hard the night before were probably still hungover. He leaned back into his quad and closed the door.

“Meow.”

“Kitty!” Philip’s eyes lit up as he turned back around.

Kitty pranced from the bathroom, through the common area and into Philip’s room. He followed her.

“Here, Kitty.”

He turned the corner and entered his room. He found the demon from his dream towering over him. Its crimson eyes plunged into Philip’s soul. Its evil, yucky mouth opened wide and sucked Philip inside of a hot, bottomless pit of darkness.

End