The morning sunlight was far too bright for Ava's mood.
Her alarm had gone off twice, her coffee was weak, and Noir had somehow decided that her favorite scarf was the perfect place for a nap. By the time she pried it out from under his paw and rushed out the door, she was already twenty minutes late.
Now, she stood in the elevator of Reverie Communications, adjusting her blouse with one hand and clutching her half-empty thermos in the other. Her reflection in the mirrored walls looked… off.
Pale. Sleep-deprived. Maybe even haunted.
"Pull it together," she muttered to herself, forcing a smile as the elevator doors opened.
"Good morning, Ava!"
Emma's cheerful voice hit like sunlight through fog. She was perched on the edge of her desk, sipping a bright pink smoothie, her hair tied up in a loose bun that somehow still looked perfect.
"Morning," Ava managed, setting her bag down.
"You look…" Emma tilted her head. "Tired. Like, emotionally drained but still cute tired."
Ava groaned. "That's… specific."
"Rough night?"
"Let's call it… eventful."
Emma's grin widened. "Ooh, eventful as in romantic or existential crisis?"
Ava hesitated. "Somewhere in the middle."
Liam, who sat across from them, looked up from his laptop. "If it's both, that's impressive. You should teach a class."
"Ha-ha," Ava said dryly.
"Seriously," he continued, pushing his glasses up. "You've been zoning out a lot lately. Everything okay?"
Ava's first instinct was to brush it off, but she could feel Emma's concerned gaze and Liam's quiet curiosity pressing on her.
"I'm fine," she said with a small shrug. "Just not sleeping well, that's all."
Emma leaned forward. "Nightmares?"
Ava blinked. "Why would you assume nightmares?"
"Because you look like you've been through one," Emma said, matter-of-fact.
"Thanks for the confidence boost," Ava muttered.
Emma grinned, unfazed. "I'm just saying, if something's bothering you, you can talk to me. Or Liam. Or the office plants. They're great listeners."
Liam raised an eyebrow. "Are we comparing ourselves to ferns now?"
Emma winked. "Don't take it personally."
The morning rolled on in a haze of emails and design mock-ups. Ava worked in the creative department, handling digital ad concepts for everything from skincare brands to insurance campaigns. It was the kind of job that required constant imagination but offered little inspiration.
Normally, she found comfort in the rhythm the quiet hum of keyboards, the clink of coffee mugs, the occasional laughter from the marketing team.
But today, everything felt… distant.
At one point, she opened a file and found a sketch she didn't remember making a rough doodle of a black cat with golden eyes.
Her breath caught.
She must have drawn it absentmindedly, but the detail was eerie. The eyes seemed alive.
"Nice art," Liam said suddenly, peering over her shoulder.
Ava jumped, slamming the notebook shut. "It's nothing! Just… random."
Liam frowned slightly. "You've been drawing cats lately. Didn't peg you for an animal person."
"I'm not," she said quickly. "I just" She paused, catching herself. "They're… relaxing to draw."
He gave her a slow, skeptical nod. "Right."
Emma appeared beside them, munching on chips. "Are we gossiping? Because I'm available for that."
Liam smirked. "Ava's secretly an artist."
"Oooh," Emma said dramatically. "Mysterious, talented, and emotionally unavailable. A total WebNovel heroine."
Ava groaned. "Please stop reading those during work hours."
Emma grinned. "Can't. They're my fuel."
Around noon, everyone gathered in the break room for lunch.
The atmosphere was loud and warm a pleasant chaos of laughter, gossip, and microwaved leftovers. Ava sat with Emma and Liam at their usual corner table, sipping on instant ramen.
"So," Emma said between bites, "any updates on your romantic life?"
Ava blinked. "Still nonexistent."
"Tragic," Emma sighed. "You're too pretty to be lonely."
Liam smirked. "Maybe she's waiting for someone mysterious and… brooding."
"Like a vampire?" Emma said.
"Or a cursed prince," Liam added.
Ava almost choked on her noodles.
They both looked at her.
"Whoa," Emma said. "Did we hit a nerve?"
"No," Ava coughed, waving it off. "Just… hot soup."
Liam leaned back, studying her. "You've been acting strange since last week. You sure everything's okay at home?"
Ava hesitated. If only you knew, she thought.
At that moment, her phone buzzed. A text.
She checked it under the table.
Noir: "The neighbor's cat is challenging me. Send reinforcements."
Ava's face twitched.
Emma noticed immediately. "Ohhh, is that him?"
"Him who?" Ava said quickly.
"Your mystery guy," Emma said with a grin. "You smiled at your phone."
"I didn't smile," Ava lied.
Liam chuckled. "You totally did."
Ava sighed and shoved her phone back into her pocket. "It's not a guy, it's… complicated."
Emma gasped theatrically. "Even better."
When Ava returned to her desk, she found herself staring at her phone again.
Noir never texted unless something strange was happening.
Last week, he somehow figured out how to message her using her laptop's voice command. She still had no idea how.
Ava: "Stop texting me during work."
Noir: "I'm bored."
Ava: "Read a book."
Noir: "I tried. It was about humans. Deeply disappointing."
Ava bit her lip, trying not to laugh. Emma and Liam would never believe this her roommate was a talking cat with opinions about literature.
She typed back quickly:
Ava: "Don't burn the apartment down."
Noir: "No promises."
By midafternoon, she managed to focus again. The lull of typing and distant chatter was oddly soothing, and for a few precious minutes, the world felt normal.
Until the lights flickered.
Once. Twice. Then steadied.
No one seemed to notice except Ava.
A strange chill ran through her. Her reflection in the computer screen looked… off again. The faintest glimmer of gold shimmered in her pupils before vanishing.
She blinked hard. Lack of sleep, she told herself. Just lack of sleep.
But deep inside, something was shifting.
By two-thirty, the office had settled into that quiet, post-lunch trance where time seemed to move slower than gravity.
The rhythmic clacking of keyboards was interrupted only by the occasional yawn or the distant whir of the coffee machine. Ava tried to focus on the client brief glowing on her screen, but her eyes kept drifting to the edge of her desk where her phone buzzed again.
Noir: "Emergency. Neighbor cat brought backup."
Ava: "Not my problem."
Noir: "Your curtains are at risk."
Ava: "Handle it like an adult."
Noir: "I'm a cat."
She bit the inside of her cheek, suppressing a laugh. Emma glanced over suspiciously from her cubicle.
"You're smiling again," Emma said. "That's, like, the fourth time today."
"I'm… reading a funny email," Ava lied.
Emma snorted. "Yeah, sure. From your mystery 'email sender.'"
Liam looked up from his monitor. "If she starts blushing, we'll have confirmation."
Ava threw a crumpled post-it at him. "You two are insufferable."
Emma caught the post-it midair. "And you're adorable when flustered. Win-win."
Ava rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth betrayed a small smile.
At three, the sound of heels clicking sharply against the polished floor signaled the arrival of Mr. Han, their division manager.
Every conversation died instantly.
He was tall, impeccably dressed, and radiated the kind of quiet authority that made even the printers stop mid-task. His hair was peppered with gray, his glasses clean enough to reflect your sins back at you.
"Team," he said in his usual clipped tone, "meeting room. Ten minutes."
Emma mouthed 'rip us' dramatically.
Liam closed his laptop. "Someone's getting scolded."
Ava sighed. "Probably me. My campaign pitch isn't finished yet."
Emma patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. You're his favorite. He's emotionally constipated but secretly fond of you."
"Comforting," Ava said flatly.
The meeting room was glass-walled and sterile, its whiteboard covered with half-erased ideas and coffee smudges.
Mr. Han stood at the front, flipping through a stack of reports. The team about eight of them sat around the table, fidgeting.
Ava tried not to yawn.
"Alright," he began, voice even but sharp. "We're behind schedule on the Crescent skincare campaign. Our client wants fresh visuals by Friday. Ava, you're leading the design, correct?"
She nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll have the final draft ready by Thursday evening."
"Good. I trust your work, but I need something different this time. More emotional. Something that tells a story."
Ava scribbled notes. "Understood."
Emma leaned toward her, whispering, "Emotional skincare. Got it. Cry while moisturizing."
Ava stifled a laugh.
Mr. Han's eyes flicked up. "Something funny, Miss Lee?"
Emma sat up straighter. "No, sir. Just appreciating Ava's… emotional depth."
"Right," he said dryly, moving on.
The meeting dragged for another thirty minutes. Charts, deadlines, budget cuts the usual.
But near the end, something strange happened.
As Mr. Han spoke, Ava's vision blurred for a moment. The light above the table flickered just like earlier and for a split second, she saw something impossible.
Mr. Han's reflection in the glass wall didn't move in sync with him.
While he turned to point at a graph, his reflection stayed facing her.
Her breath caught. She blinked rapidly, and everything snapped back to normal.
He was still talking, calm as ever, as if nothing had happened.
"Miss Carter," he said suddenly. "Your thoughts on the campaign's color palette?"
Ava froze. "Uh...right. I think the palette needs… warmth. Something soft, like muted pinks and gold undertones. It evokes comfort and trust."
He nodded. "Good. Proceed with that."
She exhaled in relief.
When the meeting finally ended, Emma grabbed her arm. "You okay? You spaced out for a full minute there."
Ava forced a smile. "Just tired. I think the lights are messing with my eyes."
Emma frowned. "Or you're seeing ghosts. Either way, you need coffee."
They stopped by the break room again, the comforting hiss of the espresso machine filling the air.
Emma scrolled through her phone while Ava stirred her drink absentmindedly.
"Hey," Emma said suddenly. "This is weird there was a power surge downtown today. Whole block flickered off for a few seconds around ten a.m."
Ava looked up sharply. "At ten?"
"Yeah. Why?"
Ava hesitated. "Nothing. Just… coincidence."
But it wasn't. She remembered the flicker in her apartment that morning the brief, almost imperceptible pulse of light that made Noir's fur stand on end.
Her pulse quickened.
Emma, oblivious, kept scrolling. "You know what I think? Mercury's in retrograde or something. Always is."
Ava chuckled softly. "Yeah, maybe."
Back at her desk, Ava dove into work, trying to shake off the unease. She opened her design program, layering textures and soft gradients, trying to focus on the task at hand.
But her mind wandered.
Noir's words from last night echoed faintly in her memory:
"The past doesn't stay buried, Ava. Especially when the living start digging."
She glanced around the office the familiar faces, the hum of modern life and suddenly felt like she was watching it all through a thin veil.
Something was off. Subtle, but real.
When the lights flickered again at 4:12 p.m., she didn't even flinch.
That evening, as she packed up to leave, Mr. Han stopped by her desk.
"Miss Carter," he said, voice even. "You've been distracted lately. Everything alright?"
"Yes, sir," she said quickly. "Just… tired."
He studied her for a moment longer than necessary. "You remind me of someone," he said quietly.
Ava blinked. "Someone?"
"A woman I met years ago," he continued. "She had the same look in her eyes like she was seeing something no one else could."
The air seemed to still between them.
Before Ava could respond, he adjusted his tie and turned away. "Goodnight, Miss Carter."
"Goodnight," she whispered.
As he walked off, Ava noticed his reflection again just for an instant smile faintly, even though his real face did not.
Her hands trembled.
The evening air was cool and heavy when Ava stepped off the bus.
The sky was fading into indigo, city lights blinking awake one by one.
She tugged her coat tighter around herself and tried to shake off the day.
The reflection. The lights.
Mr. Han's strange words.
It all sat at the edge of her mind like a splinter she couldn't pull out.
By the time she reached her apartment building, the streets were quiet. A cat darted across the sidewalk not Noir, but close enough to make her heart skip.
Inside, the faint scent of coffee and lavender greeted her. Noir was curled up on the windowsill, tail flicking lazily as if he'd been waiting all day.
"You're late," he said, not even bothering to look at her.
Ava dropped her bag onto the couch. "Oh, I'm sorry, your majesty. My manager didn't think I should leave early to entertain a housecat."
He turned his head slightly. "Correction. An extraordinary housecat."
"Extraordinarily annoying," she muttered.
Noir yawned, stretching his paws. "You say that now, but you always come back."
"That's because I live here," she shot back, kicking off her shoes.
He finally looked at her properly, golden eyes glinting under the lamplight. "You look shaken."
"I'm fine," she said too quickly.
Noir tilted his head. "You've never been good at lying."
Ava sighed, sitting down. "It was just… a weird day."
"Weird how?"
She hesitated. "You wouldn't understand."
He leapt down from the windowsill, landing gracefully beside her. "Try me."
Ava hesitated. "At work, I saw something. My boss his reflection didn't move right. It looked straight at me when he wasn't. Just for a second."
Noir didn't reply immediately. His tail froze mid-swing.
Ava frowned. "Don't tell me I'm losing it."
"You're not," Noir said quietly.
"Then what?"
"Sometimes," he interrupted softly, "the world bends. It shows you things it normally hides. Especially to those who are… connected."
"Connected?" she repeated. "To what?"
He looked away. "To me."
Her heart skipped. "That's not funny."
"I wasn't joking."
They sat in silence for a long moment. The only sound was the hum of the refrigerator and the soft ticking of the clock on the wall.
Ava leaned back, rubbing her face. "You always say creepy things right before bedtime, you know that?"
"It's the only time you listen," he said simply.
She groaned. "You're impossible."
Noir jumped onto the arm of the couch, curling beside her shoulder. "And yet, here we are. A strange human and a stranger cat, pretending everything's normal."
"'Pretending' being the keyword," Ava muttered.
He looked at her then, eyes softer. "Tell me, Ava. What do you dream about?"
She frowned. "What kind of question is that?"
"A simple one."
She hesitated. "Sometimes I dream about my mom. Or… places I don't recognize. Forests. Old buildings. It's all blurry."
"Do you ever see… faces?"
Ava blinked. "Sometimes. Why?"
Noir's gaze didn't waver. "And what color are their eyes?"
Her stomach tightened. "Gold," she whispered. "Always gold."
He said nothing.
Ava gave a shaky laugh. "You know what? I'm done talking about this. I'm going to shower, then sleep, and tomorrow I'll pretend I didn't just have the world's creepiest therapy session with a cat."
"Fair," Noir said, curling up again. "But dreams don't care what you believe."
She rolled her eyes. "Goodnight, philosopher."
"Goodnight, skeptic."
The shower washed away the day, but not the unease.
By the time Ava crawled into bed, the city had gone quiet. A few cars passed outside, distant and ghostly.
Noir had settled on the rug near the door, unusually silent.
"Are you staying there tonight?" she mumbled sleepily.
"I need to watch something," he replied.
"Creepy again," she muttered, drifting off.
He didn't respond.
It started with wind.
A soft, steady whisper through trees that shouldn't exist.
Ava found herself standing barefoot in a forest. The air was thick and blue, mist curling around her ankles like living smoke. The moon above was enormous silver and low, like it could fall at any second.
She turned slowly. In the distance, something gleamed. A flicker of gold.
Her heart pounded as she walked toward it, branches crunching underfoot. The forest grew quieter with each step until all she could hear was her own breath.
Then, a voice calm, deep, familiar.
"You found me again."
She froze. "Who's there?"
From the shadows, a figure emerged tall, broad-shouldered, cloaked in black. His face was hidden, but his eyes burned like molten metal.
"I told you not to come back," he said.
Her voice trembled. "I don't know you."
"You always say that."
He stepped closer, the golden light from his eyes illuminating her face.
The air grew heavy, pressing against her chest.
"The curse is never gentle," he whispered. "And neither is time."
Before she could move, he raised a hand gloved, ancient-looking and touched her forehead.
The world shattered into white.
Ava woke with a gasp.
Her heart was pounding, sheets tangled around her legs. The clock on her nightstand read 3:03 AM.
The room was dark, still, except for Noir sitting upright by the window eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
He looked at her, expression unreadable. "You saw him."
Her throat went dry. "Saw who?"
Noir's tail twitched once. "The man with my eyes."
She stared at him, too stunned to speak.
For a long moment, neither moved. Then Noir looked away, his voice barely a whisper.
"It's starting again."