Mittens

Mittens
It's very dark and you're lying in your bed wondering why you're awake. You don't usually wake up during the night, you usually sleep all the way through.

You turn over to your alarm clock. You see the illuminated digits displaying, "4:32 AM". You groan and roll onto your back and try to get comfortable so you can go back to sleep.

You're still wondering why you're awake- what could have woken you? You don't remember having a bad dream. In fact, you don't remember having any dreams. You listen but can only hear... silence.

Your eyes quickly scan the room, checking to see if anything's out of place, but it's not. Everything's just normal.You shrug it off and close your eyes, waiting for sleep to take you...

Your mind starts to drift, touching briefly upon random subjects, most of which have no relevence to the moment. You think about your friend who's just moved to Scotland, wondering when you'll be able to pay him a visit. You think about your old car and how it needs to go in for a service very soon. Your thoughts seem to become more and more abstract as you approach the edge of consciousness. You feel yourself becoming less and less aware of your surroundings and-

Just then you're jolted awake by the sound of an odd scratching noise coming from the hall. You hear it again briefly and then... nothing. You wait to hear something else, but nothing happens. You assume it must have been the pipes and drift off into thoughts once again.

You attention is soon stolen away when you hear, what sounds like, your door slowly creak open just a little. You turn your head to glance at the door. You're not someone who's scares easily so you just lie and wait to see what happens. Besides, it could have just been the pipes again. You didn't actually SEE your door open.

You then feel a light weight gently land on your bed near your feet. Before you know it- a huge black furry thing attacks your face! You pull away quickly and see... it's your cat Mittens, nuzzling your face. You smile, relaxing now completely and begin to run your fingers gently through the cat's soft dark fur. She lays on your chest and purs softly as you begin to doze again...

Quite soon, however, you suddenly get an unsettled feeling in your stomach. It starts off as just a small niggly feeling,  but very soon it grows into an incomprehensible, giant ball of fear and panic. You get chills racing down your spine and finally you feel your body freeze up completely. You're thoughts are tangled and you know it's impossible! Your eyes snap open as you realise... Mittens is dead. She was hit by a car 3 days ago...

Your eyes slowly shift to the now silent, cold cat form lying still on your chest...