Clay Nicolai June 6th 2034

I was cycling over to an old supermarket to get water bottles because my foster family had dropped me to the curb the second food had gotten harder to come by.

I heard a weird gurgling sound coming from an alley to my left and before I knew it, I was in the slimy tentacles of a mutant. I shrieked, and then clamped my mouth shut, remembering that there were probably captors around. The greasy tendrils started to tighten around my arms and waist, preventing me from bolting, and the only weapon I had.

So this is how I die, I thought.

I thrashed in my slippery bonds, refusing to accept the fact that I was about to die. I struggled to unclip the sheath on my belt. Dear god, why did it have to have a clasp?

The sheath finally opened with a click and I slid out my knife, to realize that a tiny dagger was useless against the monster that had captured me. The thing was gigantic! Hundreds of tentacles as black and slimy as oil protruded from a huge black ball in the back of the alley.

“Oh yikes! Yikes, yikes, yikes!” As you can tell, I have a way with words.

I hoped the orb in the center wasn’t what I thought it was. But, it turned out, my assumption was correct, it was the eyeball of the stupid thing. The cracked, gooey eyelids opened, showing a bloodshot, watery eyeball above a fang-filled mouth dripping with blood and saliva.

The area surrounding the eye looked like armor so that probably wouldn’t be a way to hurt it, and I probably couldn't get any hits to its mouth without getting my limbs chopped off. But the eye looked fleshy enough to pierce and it didn't seem to have any spikes I could impale myself on, so that was good. The only problems were the eyelids. I could find a way around them, right?

Eh, it's the best shot I've got, so far anyways.

I started maniacally stabbing at the tentacles woven around my torso, trying to break free to at least buy me some time. I’d probably be eaten if I tried to wait until I was brought close enough, so I had to get out of these tendrils before I did anything.

Instead of blood, thick, blue puss oozed out of the cuts I'd made. My legs started tingling from lack of circulation, I needed to hurry up, but it seemed like nothing I did worked. I stabbed and slashed frantically at my bonds, but the mutant started to pull its tentacle in, pulling me along with it.

I was out of time. I closed my eyes, waiting for the slimy teeth to close around me, but it didn't happen.

I peeked one eye open, and saw a blur of black fly towards the mutant’s eye. The blur started to slash at the eyeball and the mutant immediately dropped me. As soon as the monster let go of me, both the blur and the mutant disappeared.

I sat, frozen in shock, it felt like I stayed there for a million years, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.

Before I gathered the sense to run away, a single, amber eye with a light gray pupil materialized from the shadows. As it came closer, I realized it was the eye of a giant panther over 2 meters tall! Its thick, dark coat shimmered in purple, and blue, and all shades of black and gray. I shuffled back, realizing I'd just backed into a corner. I held up my pocket knife that I somehow still had in my hand, weakly trying to protect my face from the panter. The beast shifted its weight, getting ready to tear me to shreds. Without warning, it pounced. I tensed up, expecting the worst, but instead, something that felt like wet sandpaper rubbing against my cheek. I opened one eye and saw that the panther had started licking my face and purring about as loud as a diesel truck. Slowly, it shrunk down to the size of a house cat and hopped into my arms, rubbing its face against mine. “Wha-? Who’s cat are you?” yeah, after everything, THAT was my question. I guess the shock finally hit me, because I burst into tears as soon as the words left my mouth. Realizing I was upset, the cat rubbed its cheek against my face, trying to cheer me up. Gosh, that cat is incredible.

Ever since then, we’ve been inseparable