text: James awakens and sits straight up, “Fuck.” Sprinting straight to the garage, he can already hear the small sad meowing echoing throughout the house. “Well if you wouldn’t always try sneaking into the garage every chance you get, you wouldn't be freezing your tail off in the middle of the night.” “Meow” “Well I didn't think I had to tell you that you wouldn't be able to get back in. If you can't get out, you can't get in. Clown.” “Meow” “Get inside.” Cat prints covered James’s Ford Explorer in the garage. Windom must have been running a 5K on the vehicle from that amount of prints that were trailing in every way imaginable, like the opening scene to an old detective movie from the 80s. Once inside, Windom scurried across the house out of sight, out of mind. James crawled back into bed and looked at the time. 3 AM. Great. Let's hope we can get some more sleep before work. James glanced at the bedroom door to see a shadow quickly fade away from the slight crack that is left open for the cats to enter and leave the room at will. What was that? Naw, I must just be seeing things. I’m the only one home. That kind of looked like someone standing there though. It has to just be my eyes playing tricks on me. Windom came into the bedroom and curled up on the end of the bed falling asleep instantly, followed by James shortly after. The next day, James came home from work back to his empty house only to find dirty footprints all around the house. The tracks started outside of James' bedroom facing the door, turned around and continued down the hallway, up the stairs stopping outside of James’s roommate Alex’s room. James could see cat prints leave from there and disappear. “What is happening?” “Meow” Windom said with almost a tone of pride. “Who was in the house?” “Meow” “Why am I talking to a cat expecting a response? I really am losing it.” James turned around and started down the stairs to get the broom, “Because you’re the next on my list.” James stopped mid stride, heart racing, the hair on the back of his neck was on end. Turning back only to see Windom sitting near the door staring at James, James walks towards Alex's door knocking. Maybe Alex came home, maybe he's sick today. No answer as James feared. He opened the door to an empty room consisting of only a dresser, bed, and night stand. I need to get out of this house. Lets get downstairs, throw my shoes on, and just leave. I must not have gotten enough sleep last night. As James was returning home from his walk the sun was starting to set. The shadows from the trees started to stretch across the front yard and driveway. It was nice and warm. Your typical cul-de-sac scene playing out, kids screaming with laughter in the backyard of one of the houses, the smell of meat grilling behind another house. When Rachel approaches James. “Hey James.” “What's goin on Rachel? How have you been?” “Great, well, could be better. Have you heard or seen from Francis? Francis is James’s immediate neighbor to the left of his house, who had been off the grid for a couple of days which was slightly strange for Francis as James would see him once a day, on the odd occurrence every other day. “I haven't seen him for a couple of days now. Why what did you need?” “Well he invited me over for dinner tonight but never answered the door. His car isn't in his driveway either.” “Well maybe he ran to the store. I mean, to be fair, he is slightly elderly, maybe he forgot and went to visit family. “James, he's 50. I wouldn't count that as elderly.” “I mean, kinda. How about this, I’ll keep an eye out and reach out to you if I see him. If it gets to be a few more days without seeing him, I'll reach out to the Sheriffs and report him missing.” Rachel departed nervously without saying bye or see you later as she normally did. James wasn't too sure why Rachel was so nervous, they must have been closer than James remembered. James came through the front door and Alex was home. Alex usually came home from work and went straight to his room to sleep and wake up stupid early for work. James knocked on Alex’s door. “Bro you awake?” Alex must be asleep. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. James ate some leftover sloppy joes that had been in the fridge, then went to shower and get ready for bed. James hopped into the shower and started washing his hair, he could sense something was off and opened his eyes to find Francis standing in his bathroom. “Uh Francis, what are you doing here?” A deep scratchy voice that did not belong to Francis answered “This is what I wanted the whole time.” James remembered this voice, it was the same voice from the hallway. “Francis, this really isn't funny. ALEX COME DOWN HERE NOW!” “Alex has already been taken care of. He won’t be coming to your rescue.” “How did you get in the house? The security system is armed.” “James, YOU let me in the house. “I...... No, I would've remembered letting you in my house Francis.” Francis reached for the light switch and turned the light off in the bathroom. James, panicking, turned the light back on to only find Windom sitting there. “Meow,” “Fuck no.” James snags a towel off of the floor and attempts to exit the bathroom. Before he can exit the bathroom, Francis reappears grabbing James by the arm and pulling him back into the bathroom. Now James isn’t anything close to a fighter by any means, but he tried to be one tonight. James threw the hardest right hook that he could but made contact with the threshold feeling a pop in his knuckle followed by immense pain. Francis with a youth and strength that hasn’t been seen in a long time picked up James with no effort and threw him to the ground. Francis proceeded to punch James in the face and upper body with force that James could only imagine Apollo felt from Rocky. James was pinned and unable to get out from under the boulder that was Francis. He could feel the consciousness start to fade, when he heard “FRONT DOOR, DISARM SYSTEM NOW” followed by the loud obnoxious beeping that he has heard when he forgets to disarm the security system when he takes the trash out. Someone was in his house, but who? No one else lived here and Alex was, as Francis said, “Taken care of.” A grunt was heard followed by a dull thud and a shriek, as the weight was lifted off of James and suddenly he could breathe and sit up with ease. Rachel had struck Francis with a baseball bat that James kept near the front door. “Holy shit, James are you ok?” “Who... who is that?” James asked as his sight was starting to come into focus. “I’m glad I got here when I did. I heard yelling from the cul-de-sac and knew something was wrong.” Rachel said with a slight chuckle. “Francis must have been some..... Creature. A shapshifter maybe? I dont know, all I know is it was just Windom and I in the bathroom, then Francis appeared. Speaking of which, where did he go?” “I hit him and he took off towards the door. I am not sure where he went. Are you ok?” “Nothing some whiskey can't fix. Thank you.” Windom and Francis were never seen after that night. There were some reports that the County Sheriff had received for what seemed like years, of a man assaulting people in their houses and places of business after they had let a stray cat in to feed it and give it water. No one is really sure if the Francis and Windom duo had left town or someone had finally put an end to their rampage. All James knew was he was happy that he didnt have to worry about a elderly man staring at him while he slept.