Sometimes I feel I am too single specially when I woke up to a guy cuddling me instead of a girl. James who promised to not hug me is literally spooning me. There is a soft rule in our apartment and that is no one talks early in morning to each other. Talking only when there is an emergency like someone is dead. Damon specially told us that dying is the only emergency he will consider as emergency.
I shook James up but he just turned over and went back to sleep. I need a coffee.
Damon was already up, naturally. Sitting in the corner of the kitchen, sipping tea like he wasn't allergic to joy. His phone was playing lo-fi battle music again. Why? No one knows. He didn't look up as I walked past. Just nodded slightly.
That's his version of "good morning." I've learned to take what I can get.
The day passed mostly normal. Too normal.
Boring classes, boring lunch , boring people , boring tests. The only weird thing happened today was that cat . I saw him everywhere like literally everywhere. Window of classroom, in the bus, in library, near cafe where I ate lunch. That cat is definitely onto something.
It was sunset time when we all three came back to apartment.
We dumped our bags like responsible adults—aka flung them in random directions and immediately collapsed on the couch like three sacks of emotionally unstable potatoes.
James had somehow recovered from his horror-movie trauma and was now trying to convince Damon to watch "Possessed Forest, Part 7" with him.
Damon just stared at him. "I'd rather fight a velociraptor with a toothpick."
"That's a yes in Damon language," James grinned, throwing popcorn in the air and missing his mouth completely.
I didn't join them. I had something else to do. That cat… it was still outside.
Perched on the railing of the opposite building's fire escape, just sitting there like a tiny, fluffy omen. Staring. Judging. Possibly plotting my murder.
I don't know what possessed me, but I opened the window and yelled, "What do you want, you little goblin?"
It meowed.
Just one meow.
But I swear to God, it winked at me before jumping down and disappearing into the alley below.
Weird.
Anyway, dinner was ramen again. James added ketchup to his. Damon almost fainted. I didn't intervene. Some wars you let happen.
But that night… the sky looked wrong. Too many stars. A little too bright. Like the universe accidentally turned the saturation up to 200%.
And then, just as I was about to shut my eyes—
The ground shook.
Not like "oh no a truck passed by" kind of shake. I mean earthquake + subwoofer explosion + Michael Bay movie climax kind of shake.
James screamed. Damon ran straight to the balcony.
Me? I just stared out the window. It was dark outside. We all thought maybe it was just earthquake and went back to our room. Damon was little weird after this which was little shocking as nothing trouble him even if he is close to dying or getting burned because of James.
What made me worried was that black cat who is sitting in our balcony. I saw its eyes , yellow glowing in dark and in next second it was gone.
Like, sure—maybe I was being paranoid. Maybe cats just... teleport. That's a thing, right?
But when I walked into my room, I froze.
Sitting on my windowsill—again—was that cat. The same black cat with eyes too yellow to be legal. It blinked at me once. Real slow. Like it knew something. Like it had seen my browser history and wasn't impressed.
"Okay, no," I muttered. "Nope. Not today, demon furball."
I slammed the window shut.
The cat didn't even flinch. It just vanished. Not jumped, not ran—vanished.
I backed away slowly, grabbing the nearest weapon I could find. Which was, unfortunately, a pencil. A cute bunny pencil of James but for me in that moment was a damn dagger.
There was a flicker in light, I just ran outside. James who was clinging on damon suddenly sat straight.
"I wasn't scared. Not even a bit."
"Uh...okay."
Damon, of course, was completely unfazed. He just sipped his tea and said, "Power surge."
Except the power wasn't out. Every light was flickering except his room.
And that's when we all heard it—a soft, scratchy voice coming from the bathroom.
"I see you…"
We all froze. James clutched my arm like I was his emotional support human. Damon didn't move.
"…Don't turn around."
"NOPE," I said, grabbing my phone and googling "cheap exorcist near me."
James whispered, "Bro we're gonna die."
Damon finally spoke. "If we do, I call dibs on haunting the fridge."