Meera Alasiad and her family owned a summer house on Golden Moon Beach, next to the Pacific Ocean. Meera was 15 at the time. She loved this house, and whenever she went there, she would spend as much time as she could in the ocean. This particular summer, the summer of 1998, was different.

When Meera got to the house, it was dark and gloomy. The house, named Happy Home, was full of cobwebs and old trash. When she stepped onto the front porch, it squeaked like a dying mouse. The front door was open, which was very unusual. As she stepped into the house to put down her luggage, her mother screamed. A scream so high-pitched that the birds in the trees out front flew away. An extra-large, extra hairy, Black Widow spider sat on the porch railing. Its beady little eyes followed Mrs. Alsiad’s frightened movements as she tried her very best to walk into the house. Mr. Alasiad cried out as the largest murder of crows the family had ever seen flew overhead. Meera didn’t notice any of this. She was busy staring with goggled eyes at the creature sitting right in her path.

It was a kitten! The kitten was the cutest thing she had ever seen. How could this poor creature be sitting here innocently in the house filled with horrible things?

“Mom, can we keep this adorable kitten, sitting here like nothing is happening?” Meera said in her sweetest voice.

“Y-y-yee-e-e-esss-s-s de-d-dea-r,” Mrs. Alasiad replied, still frightened of the spider.

“Dad, can I?” she asked in a tone that sounded like a puppy begging.

Still staring at the sky, Mr. Alasiad replied. The kitten was hers! She stooped over to grab the kitten, so she could pick him up and pull him close to her chest. All she wanted to do now was pet that cat’s soft looking fur, and pull him tight to her chest to give him a strong, loving hug.

But when she got her hands close to the cat, he dashed further into the house and up the rickety wood stairs. “Come back!” cried Meera as her hopes of cuddling the cat were dashed. Thump, thump, thump. Deep-sounding noises, too loud for a cat, passed above her head. Whatever in the world could that noise be? thought Meera. There it is again! she thought.

Thump. Thump. Thump. THUMP! The noise was getting louder, quicker, and closer. That was for sure not her tiny cat, who, when he had run up the stairs, had made hardly any noise at all. Thump. “What is that noise?” Meera thought as she heard a final thump. Then, all of a sudden, the noises stopped. Meera’s cat was softly treading down the stairs now.

Mr. and Mrs. Alsiad finally got over their fright when the crows and spider had suddenly taken off to who knows where. “Dear, what has happened to your new cat?” asked Mr. Alasiad. “And what in the world shall you name him? Or her? My oh my, do you even know what to do while taking care of a cat?” Meera was not listening. Who could while holding this cat? This cat held her attention for so long, because he was so sweet.

A week and a half later, after the house was all cleaned up, the cat still didn’t have a name. Meera was lying on her back, trying to think of names. “Puffy, Cheese Doodle, Evil Maniac, Cat.” She had thought of many names but was poo-pooing them all. And, somehow, her cat was able to understand her. The cat had made a head shaking motion to every name. “Happy?” Meera miserably shouted at her cat. “I am not allowed to go to the beach until I name you.” The cat nodded. “Happy? Is that the name you want?” Again, another nod. And it was decided, the cat was named Happy.

Meera picked her cat up and started dancing with him. Then, she walked out the door to her room. When she was closing the door, she saw a message. The message looked like it was written in a hurry, and the last letter of the last word went all the way to the floor. The message read: The Cat Is Evil.

Meera didn’t know what cat the sign meant, but she took a guess and thought that it meant her cat. But she knew, or at least thought, that her cat was the perfect one.

On the Friday of the very same week she named her cat, Meera was swimming at Clear Water Point, a calm, clear, secluded, well known area of the beach. Meera’s cat was at home, not even allowed out of the house for fear he would get rabies. Well, she was swimming with her friend, having so much fun, splashing and treading and just swimming laps. Then, all of a sudden, Meera’s friend fell into a drop off of the small current. Even though the current was small, a drop off at Clear Water Point feels like being caught in a net. Meera tried to dive under and save her friend, but all she found was the friendship bracelet Meera had made her. Rumors were true – the quickest way to drown was at a drop off in Clear Water Point.

Meera tried to swim away from her grief, like a racer would run away from their competitors. But it tailed her like a leash. I could have saved her if only if I had been looking, I could have saved her. I wish we hadn’t gone swimming in the first place. Then she wouldn’t have drowned. She will go to a better place, at least. Meera began to feel better.

At home, Meera couldn’t find her parents at all. She looked around for them, searching everywhere. She couldn’t seem to find them, or a note, or Happy. Meera went to do another check of the house when she saw it, another note. This was quickly scrawled in sharpie on the coffee table. This one ending in a dropped letter, and the sharpie lying there, uncapped. This note read: Kill the cat!

Again, Meera couldn’t understand the message. What cat? Why would this person want to kill a cat? Why is the pen uncapped? Where is the person? All of these thoughts ran through her head like a speeding locomotive rushing to its next destination. All of a sudden her thought train fell off a cliff as Happy sauntered into the room.

Meera ran at the cat and grabbed him in her hands before he ran away. She pulled him up to her face and for some reason smelled his fur. It smelled sort of like blood, and death. What is that smell? thought Meera uneasily, trying to identify it like she would guess a math problem, which was her worst subject. And why does Happy smell like that? Meera dropped Happy in surprise when he hissed in her direction. Probably just out hunting birds, Meera thought as she tried to make herself feel better.

Hours later, her parents still weren’t home. Meera plopped on the couch began to shiver. She shivered like it was sub-arctic, then like someone was running her nails down a blackboard. But her shivers were always partly caused by the feeling that someone was watching her.

Eventually, Meera fell into a sleep full of nightmares and shivers. In her dream, Meera was running from something. But every step she took made it harder to take another step, until finally her feet were stuck fast, like a fly in honey or a spoon in molasses. When the beast was about to catch her, her dream changed to all of her friends and family drowning in the drop off, and then the rest of people on Earth. Nobody was left and it was just Meera standing there, when Happy popped out of the water and dragged her down into the depths of the ocean. But Meera couldn’t drown, so she was just watching everybody dying. All of a sudden she started to choke on water. Her dream ended as abruptly as a wall begins.

Meera looked up and saw her mother pouring water into a glass, her father making coffee, and Happy sleeping. Everything was as it should be, and, wait, how did her parents get here? Mr. and Mrs. Alsiad were alright, in front of her. When did they get back, from where?

“Mom, Dad. Where were you? When did you get back? Why didn’t you leave a note? Dad, why didn’t you take me up to bed, or at least cover me with a blanket? What is for breakfast? I am starving. Is it French toast? Or cinnamon buns? Perhaps crepes, or chocolate pancakes? Blueberry pancakes or just regular ones? Tell me, tell me, tell meee!!!” Meera rushed all of her sentences, so they sounded like one continuous one.

Instead of answering any of her questions, Meera’s parents just stood there. They seemed a little like they were paralyzed, or frozen, or wax statues. Meera’s mind ran through all of the possible things that could have happened to them.

“Mom! Dad!” Meera screamed on the top of her lungs, like she was trying to break glass.

Finally they moved. It was so sudden. It was like the end of the book that you had been reading for so long that it seemed like a miracle that it had ended. They jerked from their “freezing” poses into more natural positions. Meera sighed, inhaled, then sighed again. She threw herself off the couch and rushed at them. She hugged both of them, trying to fit her arms around their stomachs.

“Honey, no need for this madness. You just went to the beach, for a couple of hours. It isn’t even breakfast time, more like time for snack,” Meera’s mother stated matter of factly. “We didn’t go anywhere; we were here the whole time. I don’t know when you got back, and I didn’t even realize you had laid down and taken a nap. You are a snorer. And you must have put that blanket on yourself, because I did not touch it.” Meera’s father laughed.

“But when I got home, you weren’t here. When I went to sleep, there was no blanket on me. You left no note and nothing for dinner. The cat smells like blood. My best friend drowned. And, I had nightmares. You are making coffee, Mom – how does that not signify it is morning? By the way, who let the cat out?” Meera angrily retorted.

“Well I never. Who knew? Last thing I was holding was air. And that cat ain’t allowed outside. You must be smelling things.”

Meera was very worried. Her parents had gone missing, came back, and didn’t even remember it. Her cat had killed something, and something was moving other things. There was something wrong with Happy Home.

Meera was up in her room bouncing a ball a couple hours later. Her mind could only hear and see the ball. Boing. “Three hundred fifty nine.” Boing. “Three hundred sixty.” She kept counting and bouncing the ball. Nothing eventful had happened since the morning. Her parents still hadn’t remembered anything about last night. Boing. “Three hundred sixty one.” Meera paused, thinking she had heard commotion from downstairs.

Meera raised her arm to toss the ball against the wall again. She was about to throw when she froze. Chills began to run down her back like water in a shower. She heard the click-clack of her mother’s high heel shoes, but instead of the leisurely sounding noise her mother usually made, they were hurried, and sounded like they were running.

Thump! A human-sounding thump flew up from the downstairs. More like a Meera’s Mom sound. Meera eyes widened. Her Mom had fallen, and most likely wouldn’t be able to get back up. She was kind-of chubby, and always had a hard time of getting back up. Better help her, Meera’s mind called to her.

Meera rushed down the stairs, and when she was halfway there, she stopped short. She saw a hideous beast that somewhat resembled Happy.

It had its long, sharp fangs dripping blood on her mother. The teeth were as long and sharp as knives, and would be able to rip through flesh in a second. The eyes were as red as tomatoes. Its claws were long, pointy, and as sharp as swords. These would be able to pierce stone. And her mother’s chest. The fur on the beast’s back was streaked with blood. It was a peachy-white color which looked soft to the touch. It was almost Happy. But with all of the qualities that made it beast-like.

Suddenly, it hit her. The blood smells in his fur when he wasn’t allowed outside; the messages about Happy, always ending abruptly, with no one there to have written it; the strange thumping sound that Meera had first heard from him; and the times when he was missing. Maybe this cat was also connected to the drowning of her friend; the disappearance of her parents; their return, which was so sudden; and the things at the beginning of the summer, the things that had terrified her parents. This cat was a monster, and it would stop at nothing to reach its goal. Though Meera did not know what it was.

Thankfully, the cat had not noticed her yet. It was about to claw her mother’s neck, when Meera ran out of luck. She whimpered like a sick puppy, echoing around the almost silent room, making it sound as loud as a clap of thunder.

Happy looked up. He saw her and narrowed his eyes. He got into a crouching position and pounced.

THE CONCLUSION HAS COME.