skeleton

I'm sitting on a couch in my grandmother's old house. Next to me is a boy I feel a faint familiarity towards, and at least a dozen cats. There are cats everywhere, and they can talk. The boy is talking at me and I acknowledge what he's saying with nods and gestures, but I don't engage in conversation, I'm more focused on this house full of talking cats. Their ability to harness the English language is normal to me. There is one cat in particular im talking to, and she's telling me that my grandmother had left all of them here and that they were starving. It's been years since my grandmother had lived there, so I feel incredibly guilty. I ask the cat why they didn't just leave, but I forget what she said in response.

I start walking to the cats' food bowl and a mastiff-looking dog appears from behind me, who can also talk. I fill up both the dogs and the cats food bowls and sit back on the couch with the boy. As I look out the window into the backyard, I see the shadow of a man walking along the hedges. Everyone in the house quietens. The cats seem to know what this is, but I don't. Then, a small jack russell appears from around the corner of the house where the man seems to be standing, and starts sniffing along the hedgeline. Strapped to the jack russell is a backpack seemingly loaded with gadgets, similar to a crude bomb in appearance.

Seeing this, a deep primal fear is now seated within me. I shakily ask the cat who the two are, and then I woke up.