The Pet (story)

It's just another day for Lya, in a time where life is so full of monotony and it seems as if the same day repeats itself over and over again, so much so that she doesn't remember what happened the day before, even if she does remember some of the nightmares she had on that night of such a heavy sleep. Everything seems so strange to Lya lately that she wonders herself if she is not trapped in a kind of endless loop, or if the line between reality and dreams becomes so thin, more and more, that maybe at a given moment she no longer distinguishes between what is real and what is not, even though usually Lya would rather think that she does not remember what happened the day before and instead consider that she has strange nightmares every night, nightmares in which she is turned into a balloon or into all kinds of inflatable objects, things and furniture. Despite the strangeness of the situation Lya still decides to be skeptical and go on with her everyday, repetitive life, over and over again.

This time today's surprise would not be long in coming as someone knocked on her door so early, at 8 AM. Lya would get up to see who was knocking at the door, yet when she came out of her room and peeked through the stairs to the door, she only saw a letter being slid under the door. Lya, bored and just woken up, went to the door of her house and opened it only to see that the person who had come had already left and had only left that letter under the door. Lya takes the letter and puts it away to go to the kitchen for breakfast, then reads the letter while drinking coffee.

It seems that the letter is sent by Lya's neighbor, something extremely curious since Lya didn't know she had a neighbor and, in fact, she thought that the house next door was abandoned (the only house she has nearby, since Lya lives on the edge of a block and the other side is just the street), although Lya begins to think that maybe the house is just neglected and not necessarily abandoned, especially since the letter apparently comes from the person who lives inside the house, yet Lya wonders why she has never seen the neighbor leave or enter the house, wondering if this is because Lya doesn't leave the house much, or maybe the other person doesn't leave the house much either.

Be that as it may, the letter Lya found below, which was apparently written by the neighbor next door (as that is her signature) says that she is on vacation and that when she left she forgot to leave enough food on the floor for her pet, so she asks Lya if she can please feed her pet, an orange cat that she describes as a very playful, hyperactive and cute cat and assures Lya that she will probably like him a lot, although the letter does not say where the cat food is kept, but states that Lya will soon find out where the cat food is as soon as she enters the house. .. Inside the letter also comes the keys to the neighbor's house and a small chibi drawing of a girl's face with silver hair and red eyes, Lya wonders if the neighbor looks like that or if it was just a cute detail that the neighbor thought it would be funny to put in the letter.

At least this situation will help Lya to overcome the monotony that has been affecting her lately and do something different, even though Lya can't stop thinking about how familiar the white-haired girl in the drawing in the letter looks to her, as if Lya has seen her somewhere, but she doesn't remember where, maybe Lya has seen the woman in the drawing in a dream before?

[Drawing 1]

Lya then, after finishing breakfast, goes to the neighbor's house, which is, as Lya remembers, neglected and full of uncut grass and with some broken glass and walls with paint falling off and some shingles coming off. Lya has a hunch that maybe it's not a good idea to go in there, but Lya, just thinking about that hungry cat, thinks that maybe it would be unfair to leave him without food locked up in that place. Also Lya thought at first that maybe the person who sent the letter does not live in that house and that maybe it is all a trap, but these doubts are unfounded for Lya when she opens the door of the house with the key that came in the letter (and well, if the person who sent the letter was not the owner of the house or there was some abnormality, probably the key would not have opened the door). Then Lya walked through the gloomy and dark house, so unkempt and damp inside that at some point Lya wondered how long her neighbor had been away or, on the contrary, wondering if her neighbor is some kind of witch to live in such a pigsty.

However Lya's thoughts stopped when, once she went further inside the house, she saw a strange large fluorescent orange tail moving suspiciously and slyly, as if it were the tail of an animal waiting for its prey. Then Lya is terrified to see a huge cat (almost like the size of a tiger or a lion) with a strange appearance (as if you were a big inflatable toy) and some strange anthropomorphic aspects (especially the head and the hair or what looked like hair even though it was part of the inflatable). Lya then thought that the creature might be one of those people in a furrysuit and since it made no sense for a person to be in such a place dressed like that, it seemed extremely strange and she thought it best to get out of there. However, the inflatable cat, which was alive and could move, began to chase Lya ferociously, hungry in search of its prey (who happened to be Lya). That's when Lya discovered that this creature is not a person, because a person can't move so fast and much less inside one of those suits, even though it was too late to realize it. Suddenly Lya has turned out to be the food of that strange creature that is the neighbor's pet, being the last thing Lya heard before losing consciousness a strange roar or meow coming from the cat.

[Drawing 2]

After a few minutes Lya finally regains consciousness, finding herself now in a very strange place, even more humid than the inside of the house, slimy and with orange walls. It would be a greater surprise for Lya that, as her eyesight becomes clearer, to discover that the walls of the place they are in are translucent and that she is now naked: Lya is now inside the cat and, no matter how hard she pushes on the walls inside the cat, they are so elastic that it is impossible to hurt them or break through them. It is here that Lya's neighbor arrives wearing a sun hat and dark glasses, as she has returned from her vacation and it turns out to be none other than Machiko who has returned with a lewd smile watching as Lya desperately struggles to get out of the trap, even though Lya would not even stop to see who has entered the place since she is too busy pushing against the plastic walls inside the inflatable cat.

[Drawing 3]

Then Machiko decides to help Lya a little and, while hugging the inflatable cat's butt, she asks the cat to spit on Lya in the only way the cat knows how, while the cat wags its tail and caresses it with Machiko's face. This is how a current of air attracts Lya to the cat's mouth and begins to be expelled through it, but not in the way she thought, being totally terrified and stupefied as her legs begin to come out of the cat's mouth as a kind of balloon or inflatable object of purple color, while Machiko watches with expectant fascination.

[Drawing 4]

Hours later, Machiko has finally been able to return to her beach vacation, now with a new purple inflatable that looks strangely familiar to Lya, hugging and cuddling her large inflatable pillows in the shape of breasts.

[Drawing 5]