by EM Lebarre
originally published on the podcast, Alone in a Room with Invisible People.
Gremmie strode toward the gate, easily navigating the silvery mists. This excursion would be the same as countless others taken at Pearl’s behest. The holiday was in ten days, and each would be used to the utmost advantage. Pearl had provided some details of the area but her knowledge was gathered secondhand and, therefore, thin. She could not tend to these matters herself so she entrusted her oldest friend with the solemn task.
Silently, Gremmie’s small, dark shape emerged from a patch of fog on the suburban street. It was dark and silent. Gremmie felt the familiar sense of loss as the mists withdrew, but focused instead on the chill in the air.
Deep breath in… and out…
The air tasted of autumn… sweet, tangy, earthy. Warmth carried on the crisp chill. Something else under it, too, and that was tonight’s target. A silent shadow gliding through the night, tracing the scent back to a freshly mulched hedgerow. Toes wriggling, Gremmie’s senses reached into the earth. Always hoping Pearl was wrong. She never was. Gremmie reached out to the other bushes in the row and let out a small growl. Each planting was a marker, a monument.
Gremmie spent the next day watching from a secluded perch.
Not the curmudgeonly old man… Not the young androgyne…
The woman. Hiss!
Perfect, hair to shoes. Exactly what’s expected in a place like this, but Gremmie could see the darkness rolling off her like toxic fumes. Dusk drew near and Gremmie locked on.
Let the game begin.
A female cat, all black with a tipped ear, advanced upon the yard from the shadows. The woman paused at an open window and stiffened at the sound of a long, plaintive meow. She scanned the yard for the source but saw nothing. She stormed to the closet and pulled a long black oilcloth coat from the back, checking the pockets for her supplies before heading out into the darkness.
Another meow, this time from behind the privacy screen by the trash bins. She smiled triumphantly, confident that her quarry was cornered. The woman slipped into position with practiced stealth, pulling the stun gun from her pocket, focusing all of her awareness on taking aim at the furry rump.
As she was about to pull the trigger, a single hair tickled across her neck, breaking her concentration. She blinked and the cat was gone. Vanished. Suddenly there was mist so thick she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face, and just as suddenly the mist lifted. She hadn’t moved, but she wasn’t in the same place she’d been when the mist rose.
There was a strange smell on the air. She blinked and her tail twitched. She looked down at her body, now covered in black fur. Paws? Whiskers??
A shadow gathered nearby, forming into a shape that she’d seen in the mirror every day. The shadow-shape pulled keys from her coat pocket, got in the car and drove into the night.
Meeeooooooooowwww…
©2020