My legs finally gave out when I reached my apartment building.

I leaned on the wall, chest burning, trying to convince myself I hadn’t lost my mind.

Maybe it was stress.

Maybe it was exhaustion.

Maybe it was all the life decisions that pushed me from Taiwan to Bratislava, piling up until my brain snapped a little.

But the memory of that warped street…

the way the world bent like broken glass…

that wasn’t something stress could explain.

I forced myself up the stairs, step by step.

My hands were shaking so badly I almost missed the railing.

Halfway up, something moved in the corner of my eye.

A shadow.

Small.

Low to the ground.

I froze again.

Every cell in my body remembered the creature from the street and immediately prepared to die.

The shadow stepped out.

It was a cat.

Just a cat.

But something about its timing—

the way it stared directly at me,

as if checking whether I was still functional—

sent a second wave of chills down my spine.

Its fur was dark, almost absorbing the hallway light.

Its eyes glowed faintly, like it reflected more light than existed around it.

It meowed once.

Not a normal meow.

More like a soft sound that vibrated through the air.

I swallowed.

“Don’t scare me like that,” I muttered, even though my voice barely came out.

The cat tilted its head.

Then the air behind it flickered.

Just for a second—

a ripple, thin and sharp,

like the same distortion I saw on the street,

but much weaker.

The cat stepped into it.

The ripple vanished.

The hallway returned to normal.

I stared at the empty spot where the distortion had been.

My skin crawled.

My brain screamed that none of this should be real.

And then—

the cat reappeared behind me with a soft thump.

I jumped so hard I hit the wall.

It calmly walked past my leg,

as if I was the one being weird.

“Why are you in my building…?” I whispered.

It didn’t answer, of course.

Just sat down on the next step and looked over its shoulder,

like it expected me to follow.

My heart was still racing,

but something about its presence…

felt stabilizing.

Grounding.

Like the world stopped shaking for a moment.

I let out a slow breath.

“Fine… you win.”

I followed the cat up the stairs.

I didn’t know what it wanted.

I didn’t know what it was.

I didn’t even know if it was actually a cat.

But one thing was certain:

The distortion on the street wasn’t a hallucination.

Something had crossed into this world.

Something was breaking.

And whatever that cat was…

It wasn’t part of normal reality either.

Not anymore.