I stroked the purring black cat, and tried to radiate calming vibes. I couldn’t believe she had finally come to trust me. Enough to allow me close to her, to pat her, at least.
Her golden eyes shone with a warm light, and she leant into my hand, rubbing her face on it on all sides. I couldn’t help grinning, pleasure radiating from my heart.
Someone rapped loudly on the door, shocking both the cat and myself. It shot away into hiding, and I spun around in surprise.
That was when I woke up.
As the light hit my eyes, I realised, in dismay, that I’d left the lights on again while I slept. Which meant that I had probably been drinking last night. The headache sank in, confirming my suspicions. I had a bad habit of not switching the lights off whenever I got tipsy and fell asleep.
I rubbed my eyes, trying to swipe out the fog in my head. The memory of the cat made me sigh. I wished the dream had gone on a little longer. Things had been kind of shit, and it was one of the few good experiences I had had recently.
I forced myself out of bed, and headed straight to the kitchen for some much needed coffee, to douse the headache.
As I waited for the coffee to cool to a reasonable temperature, I checked my phone for any work messages. My phone unlocked, and my mouth unhinged as the wallpaper appeared. The black cat, the same one in my dream, was somehow on my phone as my wallpaper.
My brain blanked. I rubbed my eyes again. Was I still drunk? I swiped through the pages of apps on my phone, and the black cat stayed resolutely in the background, staring at me with its beautiful golden eyes. Did I take a photo of a black cat while I was drinking? Maybe I had somehow run across one. That would explain my dream. It was probably just a regurgitation of my memories.
But I didn’t leave my house at all, I was pretty sure. I checked the main door. It was locked shut. I looked around, and saw the empty bottle on the table. Fine, empty bottles. It was a tough night.
Did I black out and somehow go for a walk in my drunken state? Then come back and lock the doors before heading to bed?
A scratching sound startled me out of my befuddled musing. It came from behind the sofa. I crept towards it cautiously, my heart beginning to thump. It’s probably nothing. Or something completely mundane. Like a… My mind blanked as I tried to rationalise my fear away.
I carefully rounded past the sofa, and finally caught sight of what had made that noise. The culprit locked eyes with me. Beautiful golden eyes. I stared in disbelief as the black cat stared at me for a moment, then resumed scratching at the back of the sofa.
“What on earth…?” I blurted out. The cat stared at me again, then meowed.
Did I kidnap a cat? Did I just bring back a cat from the streets? How drunk was I? I had been drunk many a time before, but never had I done something that ridiculous. Bringing a stray cat home, taking its picture, making it my wallpaper and not remembering a thing?
The cat regarded me again, looked at the sofa, then seemed to make up her mind. She disengaged her claws from the fabric, and walked towards me, rubbing herself on my calves.
A text message popped up on my phone with the familiar chime.
It was Jeanie. Probably texting me about some Monday blues complaints.
I didn’t bother to read through her long message. The few words I saw had confirmed that it was a rant about work. I texted her, Dude, wth. I brought a cat home with me last night. I don’t remember a thing, but I now have a black cat. How drunk was I man.
LOL dude are you high? She texted back. I waited as the dots danced on the screen.
You mean Reaper? Her text appeared.
Reaper? What? I replied.
Your cat, Reaper? Dude man, seriously, are you drinking rn, on a Monday? I stared at her text, confused.
I don’t have a cat, stop messing w me. After this text, there was a pause, then Jeanie forwarded me a text message. A message I had apparently sent her before.
I’m so psyched for Reaper’s bday lol. Should I get her a party hat?
I frowned. I didn’t remember ever sending that. I tapped on the search button in our chat, and typed in Reaper. Once again, I found my mind reeling as dozens of messages appeared. All mentioning Reaper, beginning from 8 months ago. My brain could fathom what was happening. I couldn’t have been drunk all that time, could I?
I scrolled through my gallery, ignoring Jeanie’s texts. The cat was everywhere. I had at least a hundred photos in total of that cutie. All dating from 8 months ago, beginning with her looking like a tiny, scrawny kitten.
I sat down heavily on the sofa, feeling like I’d had the breath knocked out of me.
How the hell did I not remember this? Was I having some form of early onset dementia?
Reaper meowed then. I realised she had trotted over to her food bowl. Her food bowl? When did I…My mind gave up its struggle to understand. I walked over to the cupboard and retrieved her food, without thinking. How did I know it was there? It had felt so…familiar. Like I had done it hundreds of times before.
I emptied a can of her favourite into her bowl. How did I know it was her favourite? I reached down and scratched her behind the ears, her preferred spot. How did I know that?
As I kept giving her scritches, she began to feel familiar. Very familiar. I felt a warm love swell up within me. How could I have forgotten her?
But I knew too, that she had not been in my life before that day. Not really. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I’d figure it out. I hoped.
The next couple of days, weird things happened. Weird things that finally gave me a clue as to where Reaper had come from. Things started materialising in my home, things I had dreamt of. The day after Reaper appeared in my life, I woke up to find an old analogue radio by my bedside, same as the one I had seen in a dream. Another day, I woke up with a massive bruise from falling off the top of a bus that I was balancing on in my dream. By the time a bicycle I had been riding in my dream appeared in real life, I had figured it out. I know, it’s a little slow, but you got to understand how difficult it is to admit to yourself something that ludicrous. That things in your dreams are appearing in your reality. I mean, it’s almost like my dreams were coming true, in a way. And every time something appeared, there was always a background that came with it, something that explained why it was in my life. According to my photo gallery and a friend, I had bought the old radio a couple days back, from a thrift store. The memory slowly came to me as I scrolled through the pictures, inserting itself neatly into my mind. The bicycle was apparently something I’ve had for years. And so on, and so forth.
I had no idea what to do about this odd little turn of events. What if I had a bad dream? What if I dreamt of monsters? Of evil spirits? What if I died in my sleep or broke something? Could I possibly have any say as to what follows me back to reality?
I couldn’t ask anyone either, I didn’t want to be locked up in a psych ward. I Googled it, but most results just talked about precognitive dreams, which wasn’t the case. I wasn’t predicting anything, just having things magically pop up in my life.
I kept thinking back to when it all began, with Reaper, and what could possibly have happened to cause it. But I hadn’t picked up any pretty trinket, bought any weird woo woo stuff, insulted an old lady, or any of the usual tropes I could think of. I tried buying protection amulets, stuff like that, but nothing helped, and stuff from my dreams kept popping up. I had avoided any weird, creepy stuff popping up in my life for a while, but I knew my luck would not hold.
Then, about a week or two since Reaper’s appearance in my life, the inevitable happened. I went to sleep one night desperately thinking of happy things, intent on having a good dream, none of the nightmare stuff. But it was like trying not to think of a pink hippo. Dark thoughts kept creeping into my mind, horrifying creatures kept floating into my consciousness. As I slipped into sleep, I was wondering about the darkness in my mind, about why I could conjure up so many terrifying creatures and ideas.
I found myself in my childhood bedroom, with its yellow walls and pale green furniture. Someone was sleeping in my bed. For some reason, the scene was imbued with an aura of dread. I crept towards the sleeping form, trying to be as quiet as possible. I noticed a change in the quality of the light as I walked towards the figure. The sunlight seemed to fade. I gulped silently, and forced myself forward. It’s that silly dream mentality. In real life, I would have turned tail and fled, called the police, whatever. But somehow, in that dream, I felt compelled to behave like an idiot in a horror movie. I kept moving forward, until I was right by the side of the sleeping form. It hadn’t moved. Sucking in a shaky breath, I reached out to pull down the covers.
I flinched and stepped back the moment I pulled it down, expecting whatever was in the bed to jump up and lunge at me.
I saw a girl in the bed. A girl with long black hair, a girl who looked familiar. The girl turned over, looked at me, and smiled coldly. A chill dripped down my spine. It was me. It was me, but somehow different. It took me a while to spot what was different.
Every flaw I had once scrutinised on my face, was magnified on hers. My asymmetrical chin was all the more tilted on hers. My left eye, which is slightly smaller than my right, was exaggeratedly smaller on hers. Her skin was in a bad state, her body was unfit, to say the least. And she seemed evil. It seemed evil. Its gaze, its smirk, the way it moved its body, all reeked of evil.
“What’s going on, you my evil twin or something?” I asked, my voice sounding out of place in this nightmare.
It merely smiled at me again. The smile brought me no comfort, but raised my hairs on end.
“You’re the evil one. There’s nothing. Nothing. Good. About. You.” My twisted doppelganger said. The sneer in its voice was mixed with something that made me intensely scared, and ashamed. Somehow, I believed every word it said. I felt my heart turn heavy.
I began to back out of the room. It lunged forward and grabbed my arms. “You can’t shake me. You’re a horrible person and you deserve me.” I began to scream and flail my arms, trying to shake it off.
“LET GO OF ME!!!” I screamed, and opened my eyes, back in my bed, covered in cold sweat.
I was alone. In the dark. It was a dream. I breathed out a long sigh of relief, trying to shake the image of that doppelganger from my mind.
“Oh but I’m still here.” That dreaded voice slithered towards me.
No. No fucking way. I grabbed my phone off my bed and used it to light up the room. No one.
“Oh, yes one.” The voice continued.
I swivelled in terror, shining my phone’s light everywhere. It lit up different parts of my room, then swept over a black thing in the corner of the room. By the door. By my escape route.
I felt the fear within shoot up, squeezing my throat, suffocating me. I tried to move, but I seemed paralysed. I couldn’t make any part of my body move.
I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t grab anything to defend myself with. I just stared ahead, mute.
That thing in the corner stood up slowly. It took one step forward, making me almost vomit with fear.
“You’ve brought me with you. Thank you, evil thing,” it said to me, lips curling in that terrible smile.
She…It took another step forward. I tried to shrink back, but couldn’t do it. I stared at it, transfixed.
It took yet another step forward, staring into my eyes with its soulless ones, still smiling. It began to climb onto the bed. It was nearly right in front of me.
The door handle began to pivot. Then it rotated and the door opened with a click. I kept staring at it, unable to shift my eyes away. I wondered who could possibly be in the house with me. Another thing from my dream? I didn’t remember any other creature there besides it.
The door opened a little bit more and I saw, from the corner of my eye, a small furry black form walk in. The glowing eyes were unmistakable.
The doppelganger turned, and looked at Reaper in shock. Reaper stared right at it, then hissed, her hackles up. Then, Reaper leapt between us. It started, and moved back, away from me and from Reaper.
Reaper sat down right by my side, and my doppelganger crept back to a corner of the room. I didn’t dare to leave the room, not with it there. I considered grabbing Reaper and holding her out as we made our way past the doppelganger, but I was too chicken to do it. We stayed that way the entire night, Reaper standing guard between us, me curled up behind my furry guardian, and the doppelganger by the door.
When the sun streamed in from the slit between my curtains, it didn’t disappear. I was beyond tired. Reaper had stayed up all night as well. I hugged her furry warm body tightly, grateful for her protection.
The Dop was still there. Waiting. Emboldened by the sunlight, I crept towards the edge of the bed. Reaper leapt down first, before me, keeping herself between the Dop and I.
The Dop shifted cautiously away, snarling. I dared not reach for the door. Reaper nudged the door with her nose, and it swung open, blocking the Dop from my view. We hastily made our way out of the room, and I hurried right toward the front door, with Reaper by my side, holding only my phone. The Dop didn’t follow me out. I left the house to get as far away as possible from that thing, but Reaper didn’t follow along. She stayed in the doorway, and stared at me. Go ahead, I’ll stay here, her eyes seemed to say. Or I was going crazy and imagining a whole tonne of nonsense. I looked back at her as I walked timidly away, worried for both her and myself, but she seemed calm, nonchalant. She stayed in the doorway, grooming herself. I got in the lift, and headed out. The Dop didn’t follow. Reaper was keeping her indoors, I realised. I didn’t know what to do, who to get help from, so I just got breakfast. I texted Jeanie, asking to stay over for the night. She was quick to agree and didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong. I stayed over often, anyway.
When I got back, Reaper was napping by the door. I needed to pack and leave the house. I needed to find a permanent new place to stay as well. I brought Reaper with me to Jeanie’s. That was when I found out that the Dop could follow me out of the house. It simply sidled along next to us as we made our way to Jeanie’s, then sat at the corner of the room there, watching us. It seemed it had only been unable to leave the house when Reaper was lying right in the doorway, blocking its path. Jeanie couldn’t see the Dop though. In the past, my dream objects and cat had been visible to others, with backstories in place to explain their existence in my life. But I guessed even the universe, or whatever magical force had been making my dreams come true, had been unable to create a backstory to explain away the existence of this evil lookalike.
Needless to say, the next few days were horrid. The Dop hung around me whenever possible, though always keeping a safe distance when Reaper was around. I could only leave the house with Reaper in the doorway, which made me feel like a horrible pawrent.
I wasn’t getting much sleep. The Dop could follow me anywhere I went, and even with Reaper there, it was hard to fall asleep with it staring at me, waiting.
I didn’t tell anyone about it. I mean, who would believe me? In the meantime, more stuff appeared from my dreams, but no more monsters appeared, thankfully. I wasn’t sure if future new monsters would be frightened of Reaper, the way the Dop was. I didn’t even know why the Dop was so afraid of Reaper.
One night, I was so tired that I fell into a deep sleep, despite the Dop’s presence. Reaper was in my dream. I rubbed its soft furry ears and lay down next to her.
“Do you not remember the first dream you had of me?” She purred, shocking me upright.
“You speak?” I asked, incredulous.
Reaper licked her paw, then responded, “In the dream world, I do.”
“How did you come into my life? What happened?”
Reaper looked at me with her glowing golden eyes, then a scene flitted into my mind.
It was that first dream I’d had of Reaper, when I’d been stroking her, happy that she had trusted me enough for me to do so.
This time, I experienced another part of the dream that I’d forgotten upon waking.
“Is this a dream?” I had asked. It seemed my dream had morphed into a lucid dream. Reaper had nodded. I had sighed in response, then said, “Wish you could follow me to reality! I’ve always wanted a void cat.”
The scene ended. “So this all started because I wished you would follow me to reality?” Reaper nodded, then said, “I didn’t realise it would cause a crack in the dream/reality barrier. It seems other stuff are seeping through. I’ve been trying to close it, but…”
Reaper regarded me for a while. “I’m going to head back. Take all these other things from the dream world with me. Plus that creature.”
I felt my heart sink. “Isn’t there another way?”
Reaper seemed almost to smile, a sad smile. “No.”
I stared at her, trying to imagine my life without her furry, safe presence. “Why is it scared of you?” I asked.
“In my world, I’m not a regular cat. We’ll leave it at that,” she said.
I wanted to ask Reaper to stay, tell her that I didn’t mind if the Dop stayed, if more creatures came, as long as she was there to protect me. But I couldn’t. My mental state had been greatly destabilised over the past weeks, with that Dop staring at me the moment I got back from work, no matter where I stayed. I also didn’t dare to stay any place where there were back doors or alternative exits to the main door, where Reaper would stay. I would be eating dinner, watching TV, and it would be there, sneering, occasionally mocking me with words that somehow seemed to land straight in my gut. It would only shut up when Reaper had enough and snarled at it.
I didn’t think I could deal with a second malicious entity in my life. Or a third.A fourth.
So I kept quiet, and simply continued to pat Reaper. Reaper purred, stretched, then said, in a fond tone, “It has been really good, staying with you.” I tried to respond, but the dream ended.
When I woke up, the Dop was gone. So was the bike, the radio, the sock, mobile phone and other knick knacks that had popped up from my dreams. And so was Reaper.
The first few days felt incredibly empty. It had been a little less than a month, but I had grown incredibly attached to Reaper. Her presence comforted me and despite all the stress from the Dop’s existence, hanging out with Reaper had brought me so much joy. She was cute AF, for one, and had an awesome personality. She was more like a dog than a cat. Plus, I had always wanted a void cat.
The Dop being gone was an incredible weight off my mind, though. So it was a mixed bag of feelings I had to deal with. The shitty thing was that I couldn’t grieve, not around my friends. I couldn’t talk about Reaper. Because all that history and background had disappeared with Reaper, and it was as if she had never existed.
I couldn’t stop missing Reaper.
So one day, I went out and finally got myself a void cat. Lucky me, shelters are full of them. These majestic, beautiful creatures, who don’t often get adopted just because of silly superstitions. This void cat came right up to me once I entered the pen, and he meowed, rubbing his face on my pants. His golden eyes reminded me of Reaper’s.
I adopted him, and named him Grim. He’s strangely like Reaper, in many ways. But then again, maybe void cats just share certain traits. One of which was that Grim made me feel safe.
I still dream of Reaper sometimes, but we keep our friendship to the dream world. She approves of Grim, of course. And when I had told Grim all about Reaper, his eyes seemed almost to speak his approval.