Chapter 1
Please, you have to believe me. I’m not making this up. I just woke up and I’m still shaking—I feel so unsettled.
The start of the dream was in the third person, like I was watching it happen. I was sitting on a recliner in a small room, I think it was a room in a cabin. The room had faint light coming from somewhere but I couldn't see where and I swear I heard a music box was playing in the background.
Then, a black cat crawls in through a window and sits in the middle of the room. It looked just like an ordinary cat. I don’t remember fully what I said to it but I think I said something like, "Hello, sweet kitty. You're free to come and go as much as you like." I think I said a few more things to it. It was a relatively calm and sweet dream.
Then everything shifted.
Suddenly I’m in my own body—first person. Everything went dead silent. The music just... cut. I’m looking down at my lap and the cat is already there, staring at me. It didn't move like an animal. It turned its head so slowly, so unnaturally, looking straight into my eyes.
Then it spoke. In this horrible, distorted voice, it asked:
"Do you worship me?"
I immediately woke up. I don't know why, but the moment I opened my eyes, I was filled with a feeling of existential dread and deep anxiety
I just lay there, staring into the dark.
For a moment, everything was still and silent.
Then mattress dipped slightly, like something had climbed onto it.
Right next to my ear, it breathed, a voice familiar, wrong, like it had always been there:
“I'm still waiting. Answer me.”
