/)_/)

You would avoid your nightly walk if you could. With murders around this city climbing, your boss surely knows it’s not okay for you to be out here alone. Not that he would care. Your car is in the shop, someone or something snipped every last wire inside. And you can’t take a ride off an app, you have no way of knowing if the person driving is safe. Truly, all you can do is stay under the streetlights as you walk.

But you feel like you’re being watched. Maybe you can even hear breathing. Anxious, waiting panting. Or maybe you’re just paranoid. It’s a possibility someone is targeting you for something, what else could explain the cut wires? Police weren’t much help.

The streetlights dim as you continue to walk. Your walk begins to quicken, until you come to dead stop. There’s something in the bush ahead of you. You can make out two, wide red eyes with black sclera. You also hear something akin to a faint purr coming from the bush. Hopefully it’s just a cat.

But the dread in the pit of your stomach tells you otherwise. You take a step back, causing the creature to lean forward and rustle the shrubbery. It refrains from showing itself though.