It’d been 5 days since Kat hadn’t seen the cat. All her neighbours were loud as usual, except that they were loud 24/7, day and night, not just at a day time. There was nowhere Kat could be alone. She just wanted to be in a room with warm indirect light and soft smells of grass and pine from outside, and most importantly, no human noises. (That was not possible in this city except she got 30,000 M of passive income.) Maybe she would let the cat in because he had always been quiet and his presence was quite peaceful. Despite the weird dream, Kat had that late afternoon. She still favoured the cat, yes, because he was a cat. She even left the door open wishing the cat would sneak in, but she gave up that attempt quickly as the corridor was complete chaos.

In reality, it was just another hot and humid day. The sky was vivid cobalt blue. The clouds were scattered in small spots looking like a flock of sheep. The sunlight was too bright it gave her migraines just looking out the window. She would love to spend some time outside, but like we all know that the space that would not kill her might as well bankrupt her instead. The public parks were not safe and the malls were expensive. Kat sighed. Someone was yelling on a phone, she couldn’t really locate which room they were in. There were too many noises coming from every direction, and it sounded closer than it’s supposed to be. She felt like there were dozens of people in her room. Kat tried to think of what she could do to forget all of these, but then she realised she didn’t even know what did she do for a living. Did she study or work?

Her train of thoughts stopped after she looked at the window. Time had stopped. The air seemed to be solid matter again. Kat was getting anxious. Would it happen again? But this time it was different. She wasn’t sure what was the factor. The street next to her apartment looked dead. Like all the living things had gone. Not a single fly could be found. Though she could still smell some fermented vegetable or was it just rubbish?

It’s definitely not the same as the last time. All the buildings emitted light. The glare was unbearable. She couldn’t tell what made them so sinister. It’s just unrealistically bright. All the edges and corners were as sharp as if the world had made of vector files. The colours were simplified and limited. There were no gradient or many shades of hues.

Then Kat realised, there was also no shadow. The world outside her room was fake. It didn’t make sense but her room was the only thing that made her feel safe. The dark corners in her room sat quietly. Kat wanted to touch them to feel as if they were soft like how they looked. The cat was still nowhere to be found. She was hoping every dark corner would have glowing black beads staring back at her.

Her room was decorated in many black objects, black clothes, black backpacks, black kitchenware, but not black furniture because she could not afford them. She only had secondhand furniture, that came with the room when she rented it. Kat was glad she invested some of her money in them and not using whatever left for her when she got this room. It gave her so much comfort to be surrounded by these static dark things. She stared at them and wondered if they would bloom out of them as it happened with the cat before. Nothing happened.

Kat tried to peak at the window to see if things had been normal yet. It’s still very much the same as before, except for a white cat sitting in a middle of a street. She’d never seen them before. They must have been new to this neighbourhood. Suddenly, the white cat turned in her direction. Her room was only on the 2nd floor so it’s not difficult to see the white cat clearly. They were now staring back at her. She felt a sharp feeling in her lower abdomen like when she was standing on a very high suspension bridge.

Nausea hit her like a storm surge. Kat really needed to vomit but she couldn’t get up to a bathroom. Her body was so heavy as if the gravitation was 7 times stronger. The noodles she had at lunch was now in her oesophagus. Kat grabbed the nearest thing she could reach and vomited into it. Then she realised it was a box of tissue paper. She felt like fainting and her face dropped into her own vomit. The last thing that came into her mind was the white cat and the glare of the buildings and blinded her in white.

Kat woke up at night. The sky was dark. The street was normal. The white cat had gone and the black cat still couldn’t be found.