Episode 13: Jinx

*Click, followed by sizzling*

Pip: Damn Owen.

Luca: What was that thing?

Voncid: I’m not entirely sure, perhaps I acted a bit hastily.

Pip: Are you kidding?  What were you going to do, ask it its name?  It looked like… *shivers* and those claws? 

Luca: did it have no eyes?

Voncid: I don’t think so, and unlike some creatures I’ve encountered that don’t have eyes I don’t think it could see. It may have been injured.  I believe it heard us entering and attacked.

Pip: and then you vaporized it.  Remind me not to piss you off… too much.

Voncid: I did not vaporize it. I simply utilized the same technique I employ to repair flesh, but, in the rapid reverse…

Luca: *calling from the other room*  Hey guys, there’s a body in here.

Voncid:  Damn, too late.  *sigh*  Well let's at least get some answers.  Let's prepare the deceased.  Check that pile of mail for a name.

*Click*

Voncid:  We begin the evening’s recalling.  We are actually first on the scene thanks to a successful demonstration of Phillpa’s ability to hone in on large amounts of otherworldly phenomenon.

Pip: Thank you. Thank you. Though I must also credit Luca’s ability to pick locks.

Luca: I keep being surprised by the things I need to learn for this job.

Voncid: We have discovered the body of Liam Mathers, age thirty five.  

Pip: Ugh, the blood… 

Pip: *exhales loudly* At least it’s not mine this time.

Voncid:  Mr. Mathers, appears to have died of severe trauma and blood loss, undoubtedly attacked by the creature we encountered upon entering the domicile.

Mr. Mathers was discovered in his bed covered in some quite vicious raking claw marks. It does not appear he was able to put up much of a struggle.  We were unable to positively identify the creature…

Pip: because you disintegrated it.

Voncid: I was startled.

Pip: Luca, I suggest we call off the surprise birthday party…

Voncid: *annoyed* We will inquire with the deceased and learn what transpired here before our arrival.

*Whispers and sounds of the reclaiming*

Liam: Jinx?

Voncid: Jinx?  Mr. Mathers, do you mean a jinx as in bad luck?

Liam:  No, my cat.  Jinx.  I’m not… I wasn’t superstitious.  I never knew it was true…

Voncid: what is true, Liam?

Liam: That black cats are unlucky, or,… that anything could be unlucky, or cursed, or whatever was happening.  I mean, the way I found him, obviously he wasn’t the luckiest thing.

The name was a joke.  It was ironic.  I named him Jinx, because I actually thought he was actually lucky.  Lucky I was there to find him that day.

Last month during our first big snowfall.

I was shoveling the front steps of my apartment when this really nice car, like old timey with silver trim, comes barreling down my street.  I really honed in on it and found myself watching it and then I realize why: it’s belching steam out of the side window, because the window’s open, and all the heat’s getting out and I’m standing there with my shovel like: “what the hell is this guy doing with his window down, it’s freezing, and then… woof, a black furry shape just, like this guy just wings it out the window and poof disappears into a snowbank.

I’d never seen anything like that.  You always hear about how people just huck cats they don’t want out of moving cars, but holy shit, you don’t expect to see it.

I… I shouldn’ta done what I did, I was just so mad… as this car passes in front of me, I hucked my shovel at them.  It kinda javelined in, you know, into the side door right under the window that was rolling up, man that was really dumb.  Sure I was mad but shit, what if my shovel broke his window… or went through his window and like chopped his throat or something, naw that’s stupid I guess, but still could've caused a real accident and that would have been really uh, disproportionate, right?  Anyways people are stupid, I’m definitely stupid.  You’ll get just more of how stupid I am later… 

So my shovel like danged a big ding into the car, which I’ll admit was pretty satisfying, but the car doesn’t stop, just keeps going, way too fast for how much snow was all over.

So I run over to see if this cat is ok.

“Hey, hey, you ok?” I’m asking like this cat’s gonna to talk back right?  Then I remember how my mom used to make these high pitched kissy sounds to get her cat, Geraldine Furr-Arro (I know, I know) to come to her, so I do like that:

*cat kissy sounds*

Over the snow, which was a few feet I guess, I see these two little black triangles pop up and sort of radio dish to the sounds I’m making.

Then I kissy sounds again 

*he makes more kissy sounds*

This time booop it’s little noggin pokes up and and I can just barely see these two big yellow-green eyes, pupils dilated, looking like a cartoon character in a ghibli film, locked onto me.

I guess the cold was more motivating than its fear because it hops over the snow towards me and then poof disappears again into another drift.  Then it does it again, and again.  Hopping up and vanishing under the snow over and over and over again and I have forgotten all about how mad I was at the car and just seeing this big hopeful face and saucer eyes popping up and over again out of the snow coming over to me.

I was a goner.

I never stood a chance… by the time I scooped it up in my arms and it tried to crawl into my parka it was my cat.

So was Jinx lucky or unlucky, and I found it, but found this cat, shivering, abandoned, 

How do you take that?  You can look at it either way.

If I hadn’t been outside, it probably would have frozen to death, but, because I was outside it was saved. Lucky. However, somehow it wound up with the kind of person who would chuck it out a car window in the first place, which is pretty unlucky.

Maybe lucky for the cat, and unlucky for me.  If I hadn’t been outside, seen the cat, taken it in… I’d be alive.

I’m not really mad.  Isn’t that weird?  Even after everything that happened I think he’s a good cat.  I’m not even mad at Jinx even after what happened… even though I think it killed me? Or was cursed and that killed me.

Pip: seriously? really? That’s awfully easygoing.  Did the cat brainwash you?

Voncid: *grumble*

Luca: *taking Pip aside and trying to talk in a way that won’t distract Cid.* Phillipa, typically we let the dead tell their story uninterrupted.  

Pip: *talking under her breath taking her cue form Luca* Well that’s… I’m sorry but isn’t that kind of, you know, dumb? You’re trying to solve a murder!  Shouldn’t you ask questions so they get to the point?

Voncid: this is their very last chance to be heard, I’m not interested in rushing them.

Pip: that’s not what I meant. Just so they focus on the pertinent information, you know, don’t leave out details you want to know?

Luca: The dead speak using the reclaimers mind.  Their own is no longer firing.  He’s sort of loaning his synapses out for them to use.  During this process he can steer them and filter  all the information we need.

The dead will have their say is the reclaimers’ motto.

Pip: *Under her breath* Super crappy motto

Voncid: another motto is “this is incredibly difficult to do and distractions and errors in the process can cause brain damage, so let that be the last of the distractions please.”

Please continue Liam, there won’t be any further interruptions.

Liam:  No problem, you should have seen me and my dad try and keep me and my sister in line.

Voncid: They… they are not my children

Pip: **interupting** Hush father, you promised no more interruptions.

Liam: So yeah, like I said, I pretty much loved this cat right away. I hadn’t been living in my new place long, first time being on my own.  I had been sleeping really really badly and right away I was grateful for the company.  

I called the vet, but they were going to close pretty soon so I got him an appointment to be seen. The lady on the line was all sighs and gasps when I told her what happened.  She said I could feed him some turkey or ham or something for the night until I could get to the pet store, what with the snow, and instructed me on how to use shredded newspaper or birdseed as litter, the birdseed I found gross for some reason, and use any box with a trashbag lining and I got him through the night. 

I tried feeding him everything she said would be ok in my fridge to feed him, but he was not having it.  I figured he should be hungry, but guessed he was just only used to cat food and didn’t think about it again.  

Little guy was stuck to me like glue all night.  Always wanted to see what I was up to and crawled into every cupboard I opened to check out the interior, never wanted to let me be alone.  Stood sentinel outside the bathroom and he’d sneak inside if he could and sit on the sink or hide inside the bathtub and peek out.

As I was checking my emails for work the next day he got up in my business, which I’ve heard cats do, but he wasn’t interested in tapping on the keyboard, he was watching the screen.  Even after I stopped typing and the cursor stopped moving across his little head was still scanning back and forth across the screen.  I laughed to myself, but it really did look like he was reading my emails.

Then I got on the phone with my friend, former roommate, Jinx got right up on my shoulder and shoved his head in, like he was listening to the call.

I laughed and told Ray that my new cat was snoopier than my ex and we laughed.

“What kind of cat is it?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, I don’t know cats had kinds.

“Like what’s it look like?”

“Oh, it’s all black, small, with big eyes.  I almost named him Studio Ghibli cause he looks like the cat in Kiki’s.”

“Oooo, all black?”

“Yeah, all black, what’s “oooo”?”

“Witch’s familiar dude,” Ray said.

“Witch’s familiar with what?” I said. (And, see what I mean about me being stupid?  There’s more than that.)

“Yeah, it’s probably Lexi’s evil familiar sent to spy on you.”

As possessive and invasive as Lexi was I didn’t like him talking like that.  “Dude,” I said, letting the incredibly versatile word do its work.

“You’re right you’re right,” Ray said.  “Practicing magic probably takes a little smarts so, definitely not Lexi.”

“Dude!” I said again.

“Ok, sorry, but seriously, don’t let the cat sleep with you until you get it to the vet. It could have parasites and shit,” he said.

Jinx seemed clean enough to me, but it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

So that night when I went to bed, I made up a pile of blankets for Jinx and laid him in it and headed to my bedroom.  Jinx was trotting along behind me, a second little shadow, before I even made it halfway to my room.

He looked absolutely betrayed when I went to close him out.

I put on my nose strips, turned on my humidifier and pondered my table full of sleeping pills trying to think of which one’s side effects were most tolerable with when I heard this sound.

Jinx: *noooooo*

Liam: So I practically jumped out of my skin.  That sound was crazy… I looked at my door and saw the dark spot under the door, then Jinx scrabbling under the door.  Reaching and reeeacching with his cat arms.

I shook it off.  Cats make weird sounds.  I laid down, and was just starting to feel the sleep aid kick in when I heard it again.

Jinx: *nooooo.  Leeeeet meeee Iiiin*

Liam: A chill ran down my spine and shook me right awake.  It was nuts.  

I went groggily to the door and opened it.  Jinx mrrowed at me like a normal cat and pranced right in.

“Jeeze ok, you win man,” I said to him.  He was already curled up on the warm spot on my bed.

I scooted him over a little bit and laid down.  Jinx laid his head on my arm and stared at me super intently.

As I was falling asleep I would open my eyes and he was always staring at me, not blinking.

I remember thinking, right before I fell asleep, something seemed off about his eyes.

I had the same nightmare I’d been having every night since I started sleeping on my own.

I woke up in bed, but the blankets were made of something soft, warm like skin and pulled so tight I couldn’t move.

I’d look to the doorway and something was standing in it, but looking away from me, but then it would start walking towards me while still looking away and I’d realize that it’s head was on backwards.

That’s when I’d wake up, with it staggering towards me, but tonight it got to the end of my bed and started crawling up when I woke up.

I was sweating.

Jinx had scooted up and was staring right into my eyes.

My heart was already racing from the nightmare, but seeing jinx like that made it do a double jump.

“Jeeeeze, what are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?”

It was like that every night for a week.  Jinx was the best buddy I could hope for during the day, following me around, always interested in what I was doing.  He watched me play video games, or watched movies with me, and, like actually watched them, stared at the screen practically the whole time.

Then at night, when I would go to sleep things would get weird.

I came in one night and found all my sleep aids were gone. I found them under a pile of clothes in my closet. And I guessed they rattled around, Jinx could think they were fun to play with but it was still weird.

He refused to do anything but stare at me as I fell asleep which was really unnerving, but if I’d try to put him out, he’d make those ungodly person noises until I let him back in.

It’s so strange to start to become afraid of something that the vet said weighed 10 and a half pounds.

My nightmares were getting worse.  The twisted head things in my dreams had started in my hallways making it into my bedroom, now it was in the doorway making it onto my bed… then one night it was on top of me… I could hear a snapping and stretching and I realized it was its head was turning around and also I just knew, the way you know in dreams, that if I saw into its eyes it would suck all the life out of me.  I couldn't breathe, or maybe I was too scared to breathe.

I jerked awake and found Jinx nestled on my chest staring into my eyes, digging his claws into my chest.

His mouth was pressed against mine… like it was breathing my breath in.

I panicked and tossed Jinx away, but his hooked claws took a chunk of me.

I bled all over the shirt I'd worn to bed and hurried to the bathroom to get bandages.

I hadn’t been in there a minute before Jinx was scrabbling at the door.

Jinx: “Leeeeet meeee iiiiiin.” 

Liam: I hadn’t imagined it that time.  It sounded like a person.

I was so scared.

So tired.

I thought about the black car and how it had thrown Jinx out.

Why had it done that?

Had they been haunted by a twisted head thing in their dreams?  Was Jinx howling in an almost person voice for them to let it in?

Was Jinx causing it?  Was the cat causing it, or was it cursed, or… I couldn’t think straight.

I’d bought a cat carrier for the vet visit.

I had to sleep.  I had to.

I opened the door and the inhuman sounds immediately turned to cat ones.  I picked Jinx up and he immediately began to purr.

I gave him some treats and while he was eating got the carrier and ambushed him, stuffed him in it.

He had gone in his carrier so easily before, but this time he fought, smashed against the cage door.  I’d never seen him like that.

Jinx: “nooooooo”

Liam: oh my god.

Jinx:  “diiiieeeee, you dieeeee…”

Liam: oh my god what are you?  I asked, but Jinx was just pulling on the carrier door trying to open it.

I stuffed him in a closet and shut it trying to ignore the sounds Jinx was making and went back to bed.

I couldn’t believe how quickly I felt tired again.  Was it the sleeping pills?  It was hard to imagine feeling like I could fall asleep again so soon.

All adrenaline was draining out of my body so quickly.

*Liam’s voice, but echoing* “It’s fine,” a voice in my head said, “Just get some sleep, you’ve got a lot to do tomorrow, you need your sleep…”

The second I dozed off the dream started, but it was different.  The twisted head thing came sprinting through the door and leapt on top of me.  A dream I had had never heard before.  The things arms had hooked claws at the end they wrenched into my chest and stomach.

*Laughing*

I could hear the other side of its head laughing, creaking, *creaking* slowly turning around.

I heard a crash from the hallway.

*crash, glass breaking*

The thing’s head twisted around.

Its face wasn’t at all what I was expecting…

Then a small black shape launched up onto my bed and latched onto the side of the thing that was killing me.

Jinx’s claws dug into the black suns of its eyes.

The thing screeched and reared back, trying to tear the cat loose.

Jinx screamed and hung on.  The creature’s claws dug into Jinx’s back but it couldn’t pry him off.

Something in the thing's eyes… I don’t know…broke?  It’s hard to describe, but when it happened it howled and ran out of sight.  

That’s when Jinx finally let go.

I don’t know when I woke up, or if I did.  

I hurt everywhere… I was gushing blood.

Jinx jumped up on the corner of my bed and stared at me, gasping through its little  mouth and crawled over to me.

I don’t know if my dream attacked me, or the cat did while I dreamed or both… 

I’m still so tired.

Voncid: well you will get as much sleep as you need before you dream again.  I believe your next dreams are likely to be much sweeter.

Liam: Is Jinx ok?  Was he hurt or was that just in my dream?

Voncid: I am sure it was injured, I am unsure how badly.  Liam, the animal never meant to harm you.  You said you had not been sleeping well since you moved into your new apartment, that is because you had contracted a… let us call it a terminal nightmare.  Sometimes they lay dormant in a location for years waiting for a compatible mind, which it seems you have. Or perhaps you had contracted it somewhere else and it simply waited for you to be vulnerable. 

Your friend Jinx could sense this infestation, which is why it never wanted to leave you alone, why it scratched you awake.

And the night you found it “breathing your breath?” I believe it was trying to draw the evil out.

Liam: That’s really good to hear.  I knew he was a good cat.

Voncid: Good indeed.  He managed to blind you murderer.  I imagine that’s why it was still here when we arrived rather than having fled off into the darkness to cause more havoc.  We dispatched it.  Your friend saw you avenged.

Pip: I found the cat, it’s under the bed.

Liam: Take care of him, will you?  He’s lucky.  Lucky after all.

Voncid:  I promise.  You can get that sleep now Liam.

*we hear the spirit departing*

Pip: Cat won’t come out, it’s freaked, understandably.

Voncid:  Hmmm.

Luca: What is it?

Voncid: I was just thinking about how wrong we mortals almost always are about thigs…

Voncid: although his friend Ray who he spoke to on the phone was right about one thing.

Luca: what is that?

Voncid:  the cat is indeed a witch’s familiar.

Luca: no kidding?

Voncid: No kidding.  Likely its patron died without passing it down, very irresponsible, but it happens.  Then I imagine whatever party came to care for it and abandoned it out the car window had no idea how precious it was.

*voncid makes kissy sounds and we here the cat mrrowing and hurrying out from under the bed.*

Pip: rude.  Of course it goes right to you.  I am more of a dog person.

*We hear sounds of Jinx purring.  The recording starts to go a bit fuzzy.  The fuzz cuts but the purring continues*

Luca: woah, did you hear that?

Voncid:  I’m sorry your friend did not survive, but you made a valiant effort to save him and helped us get a good kill in proper vengeance.

Voncid: Well, my small furry friend, it just so happens I am in the market for a new familiar.

Pip: You already have Luca.

Luca: You can have lots of familiars.  I… I am not one though.

Voncid: We can discuss terms and details once we have to patched you up.  What shall I call you?

*purring*

Voncid: Allright.  Jinx it is.

*Click*