Rapid short breaths, sweat dripping down her back and off her nose and vision blurred by matted hair, she bolted upright in bed. Disoriented in the darkness, she scanned the shadows surrounding her. A curtain drifted on a late fall breeze as it filtered moonlight diffused by overcast skies. What was that noise? And the slight creak that followed? Where was the cat? Cat?
There had been no cat in her dream. The dark terror of sleep began to fade into the dark reality of early morning. The deep indigo shadows began to take familiar shapes. The coat rack where her robe hung, her gramma's rocking chair and the Suessian stack of books by her dresser seemed less sinister as she slowly woke. A scent both familiar and wrong blew in on the damp breeze. Wet dog.
She flew out of bed to the window desperately scanning the ground outside for signs of paw prints. All of her fears player her nerves like a poorly tuned violin. Visions of childhood campfire stories and the menace in her dreams flooded her mind. It was too dark to see anything. But her nose told her all she needed to know. The scent was strong enough she could have tasted it in the pea soup fog rolling by. Realizing that hanging out the window was suicide if the snarling dream were real, she pushed off the sill to retreat to the safety of her room. She pushed to hard and smasked her head on the undierside of the sash.
"Shit! Damn and..." she clutched her head. No blood.
Meoooow?
She turned on the cat that had leapt to the center of the bed. "By Riker's beard!"
She heard a snortling chuckle so soft she thought she'd imagined it. Stiffening, she glanced over her shoulder while pretending that she had not heard what she heard. "Is that better Princess Better than People?"
Muwow.
"Glad to hear it." She spun to close the window. The shash fell with a bang. She jumped back. The phone in the hall began to ring. She jumped again.
Meew
"The unflappable Molly Brown." She said to the cat. "One of these days you're going to lose that calm demeanor and I'm going to pee my pants laughing.
"Hey,