Bogleech.com's 2014 Horror Write-off:
" Companion "
Submitted by
Izzy Winchester
Perhaps you have a cat.It’s probably an indoor cat, or an indoor-outdoor cat if you have a nice yard. Either way, you’re probably
very used to it. The two of you are undoubtedly companionable, comfortable in each other’s presence.
It certainly blends in when you’re engaged in other things, and perhaps you’re even so used to it that
you notice only briefly when it jumps in your lap, just enough to start petting it and accept it into the calm
of the moment.
Perhaps you leave your door open at night, and your cat sleeps beside you. Perhaps it even sleeps on
you, rumbling softly on your stomach, both of you contented.
Perhaps your cat doesn’t have a face.
You’re in bed with your eyes closed, and the cat is there, but do you know it has a face? It’s been a long
time, hasn’t it?
Perhaps you have only to this point imagined your cat has a face. Perhaps your memory has blurred
a blank and rubbery expanse into something meant to be there, the way you can stare into a mirror long
enough and perceive features disappearing, sloughing into a hole of flesh that disappears with a
shake of the head.
Perhaps you should check? Perhaps you should open your eyes and examine your cat, to see if there
are features or a rounded ball without teeth and eyes.
Perhaps you should turn on the light.