A Night Stroll

So this is what it was like to go batshit crazy. Catie always assumed it would be more dramatic. Like running up to people saying you're the president, or hearing voices in your head that seeded your mind with ideas of hurting people. Or building a spaceship out of parts you find in the trash. The thoughts scrolled across her mind like a parade of text written in comic sans, mocking her. But, nope, that wasn’t the case for her. Instead, she was walking down the most dangerous alleys of her city following a cat. Granted, it wasn't every day that cats left behind blue glowing footprints as they walked. Hence, her current little stroll. It wasn't just the fact that she was seeing blue footprints on the dirty sidewalks that made her crazy; it was that she was following the cat that was taking them through parts of the city her mother told her a lady should never go. Alone. And definitely not at night like it was now. She checked her watch. A quarter to midnight. 

"You'd better know where you're going because I'd like to go home and call a shrink as soon as possible." She said to the cat, a sigh escaping her lips unbidden. It didn't pause or look back in response. Of course not. Her eyes rolled and she sighed again. To no one else but herself. In all fairness, it wasn't like she had a whole lot to do these days. She was fired from yet another retail job only two days ago and she only had a place to live because of the good graces of her very controlling and violent roommate. Several memories flashed in her mind like a favorite’s reel that she did not, in fact, enjoy. Another reason that this little excursion wasn't exactly interrupting anything important. 

Catie side-stepped a mysterious substance on the concrete as they walked. Lord only knew what that could be. Spilled drink? Vomit? Blood? Anything was possible these days. Either way, none of those things were easy to get off shoes and she needed hers to last a while. Her eyes scanned the rest of the alley as her feet seemed to keep her almost perfectly in step with the cat. The brick and concrete tiled walls of the downtown buildings were like a faded sepia in the night, along with the older homeless man hunched over some dumpster find. The food sat on an upturned cardboard box that doubled as his dining table. His head tilted upward at her smoothly then back down to his food again, completely uninterested in her or the cat. Could he not see the footprints?

After following the black and gray cat for a few more minutes, it stopped at a random door in the alley, turned around, and sat, settling it's piercing blue eyes right on hers. And, of course, they were glowing the same as its footprints. Catie stared back at it for a moment as it continued to sit there, unmoving.

"You live here or something?" No response, as expected. She really had no idea what she was going to do when the cat stopped and now that it had she was growing uncomfortable. Maybe its owners had some answers? The thought came to her as she glimpsed the glint of a metal pet ID tag on it's chest.

She stepped up to the door and knocked. No answer came from inside and she squirmed a bit as she realized the cat was still staring at her like one of those light up Halloween decorations, giving her an eerie feeling. Still, no answer came so she knocked again. "Hey! I have your cat here! Is anyone home?" Again, nothing. She looked down at her feline friend. "Maybe you have a phone number on that tag?" Crouching down next to it, she gingerly pulled the tag from the cat's fur. Luckily for her, it didn’t scratch or bite her as she feared it would. The tag only had two words etched on one side: "Go In". Catie blinked. What? Her eyes flicked to the cat again, who was continuing to stand perfectly still, then back up to the door. 

The door itself was completely uninteresting. Worn wood frame and matching door, slightly grayed from the grime of the alley. It looked a bit old but nothing notable at all. Just a plain wood door. She reached out and grabbed the equally uninteresting metal handle. It was cool to the touch. No, not just cool but cold. Like she was grabbing a soda from the cooler at a convenience store. It was July. There should be no way a metal handle in the summer could be this cold. Catie closed her eyes and let out a breath, turning the handle. It was unlocked so she opened one eye and pushed it open to find an almost perfectly black space inside. She opened her other eye and poked her head inside. The lights from the city couldn’t even enter into the space enough to reflect off any objects or walls. It looked like a complete and utter abyss. "What the--'' A flash of movement caught her attention at her feet and the cat slipped inside at a trot. Its bright blue prints splattered on the blackness as if it was stepping on bioluminescent water, remaining behind for only a moment or two as it moved further inside. After a few feet in, it stopped and turned around to look at her again. Was it seriously waiting for her to join it? Inside the room that light couldn’t penetrate? The black room that, let’s face it, proved yet again that she was losing her mind?

This strangely felt like a big moment. She'd seen stuff like this on tv before. Read about it in fantasy and sci-fi novels. Was she going to be some chosen one for some big adventure? Or did she really just lose her mind and was currently standing in someone's home, trespassing and about to be arrested? Her thoughts were interrupted as the door started to slowly close. She grabbed at it quickly to pull it back open but it became obvious that it was useless. The thing had become like a bank vault door all of a sudden, heavy and solid and closing whether she wanted it to or not. She had to choose now. She was running out of time. Would she throw caution to the wind and embrace insanity? Or stay behind and continue living her pathetic life where no one loved her and she had no future?

In the end, it was curiosity that won. A snort escaped her mouth and echoed back at her inside the infinite space of blackness as if she were in a room made of metal. "How appropriate. Curiosity killed the cat, right? Though, I feel like I need to worry more about the cat this time." Her words trailed off as the cat turned back away from her and continued walking further into the dark, seemingly satisfied with her choice. Her feet continued to move of their own accord to follow as the door behind her softly clicked shut, barely heard over her own footsteps. If it weren't for the cat and its glowing prints, Catie was sure she would have gone blind. Another film reel of a memory flashed before her of when she took a tour of a cave for a school field trip. At one point they had turned the path lights off to show the tourists how perfect the darkness was. They explained how a person's eyes would keep trying to find the tiniest bit of light to focus on until eventually you’d go blind from the futile effort. The thought gave her another shiver as the darkness around her pressed against her skin the same as it did in that cave years ago. 

Suddenly, the cat stopped and sat down, facing the empty dark room and Catie, so she stopped next to it. "Now what?", her eyes stayed on the cat, waiting. 

The cat looked back up at her. Showing, for the first time, intelligence. "Now. We go home." It spoke without opening its mouth, the words coming directly into her head. 

Catie didn't have the chance to respond, beyond gaping at the tiny animal, before a section of the blackness slid open from the bottom, leaving a doorway big enough to walk through. Beyond it was light so bright that she had to cover her eyes with her arm and squint against it. 

"Come, child. Your real adventure starts now." the cat purred, stepping through the threshold.

Without hesitation this time, Catie followed through the doorway, pulling her arm away to force her eyes to adjust to the light. As they did, she looked around her. For miles beyond her was a bright green, lush landscape full of strange trees and bushes, marking the edge of a massive forest in the distance. A field of brightly colored flowers among knee-high tall grass spread out around her legs for as far as she could see. In the distance was a gray mountain range in one direction, and a sandy beach leading to a vast ocean in the other. Where in the world had she ended up? What adventure had she started on?

The words “Life Remade: II” written in an elaborate lettering appeared in the air in front of her, starkly black among the bright colors of the landscape. Underneath, two black outlined boxes appeared beneath it. Inside, one had the word “Continue” written in it. The other said “Start New Game”. 

Catlyn grinned from ear to ear and pulled the vr headset off her head and lightly chucked it on the desk in front of her. She turned around and pumped a fist into the air and the room full of programers, tech specialists and artists erupted in a cheer. Behind her was a massive, wall-sized tv showing a disheveled woman standing next to a black and gray cat. The woman’s clothes and the cat’s fur gently swayed in the gentle wind that was programmed into the opening sequence of her newest game. A sequel to one of the most popular games on the market. Now that they had just worked out the last bug, it was time to start getting those pre-orders filled.