Stranger at the Window

I wake a scream on my lips, cold sweat on my brow. It’s dark with the moon behind the clouds. The blankets have woven themselves tightly around my legs and I feel trapped. The magic is gone. I’m back in my bed clothed in blue shorts and a black tank top. I struggle free of the blankets and sit up, leaning back against the rough white wall of my room. My heart races like the horses on my neighbor’s farm. I breathe deep but still it won’t slow. I close my eyes. ‘A dream, just a dream, sadly just a dream’. I can barely see the beast’s face in my mind and I can’t remember his eyes. ‘Why can’t I remember his eyes?!’ I can feel tears coming and am about to rest my head in my hands when I notice something. I raise my closed fist to eye level and open it. Holding my breath I don’t dare hope but there it is the key. I gasp and my free hand comes up to cover my mouth. ‘Real. It was all real.’ I smile as happy tears start to fall. ‘But how? I don’t understand how it could be real.’ I examine the key. Though in the dark it’s not quite as beautiful it looks just as it had in my dream. Smooth silver and gold with the sun, the moon and an eerie smiling face. I clutch it to me and close my eyes. “I’ll be waiting for you Lilith…” The words replay in my mind again. “You say you’re waiting, but where?” I whisper under my breath. Scritch, scritch, scratch! The noise drags me from my thoughts. Scritch, scritch, scratch! It comes again and I turn trying to locate where the noise is coming from. As my eyes better adjust to the dark I gaze around my room. My eyes come to rest on an odd shaped shadow in my window. Slowly the clouds release the moon from their hold and the figure is revealed. A cat, but not a normal cat, is sitting outside my window. Scritch, scritch, scratch! It glares at me impatiently and I slide out of bed. Scritch, scritch, scratch! I move towards the window. Scritch, scritch, scratch! The cat paws the window again. “God you’re an impatient little beast.” I open the window and the wind rushes in. The cat smiles a wide toothy grin which reminds me of the key. It twitches it’s tail then falls. I gasp as the tiny creature leans back and freefalls downward, I’m on the second floor. Right before impact it unfurls tiny… wings? and corrects itself. Landing on four feet the cat turns, sits and looks up at me. The tip of its long fluffy tail twitches again as it looks up at me, waiting. I look down at it and consider my options. I stare at the key in my hand then take one end of the chord in each hand and tie it around my neck. Then I slide out my window, down the roof and land, my feet on the ground. For a moment I feel kind of epic, like a ninja, but then I fall forward flat on my face. The cat chuckles and I glare at him as I rise to my feet brushing the dirt off my legs. I walk up to him and he smiles his creepy wide grin. His teeth are long, pointed and sharp. He stands and shakes himself then turns around and trots towards the woods behind my house. I follow.