"Maybe I forgot to close it. I don't remember if I forgot to or not."
Larisa, unfazed by the door commotion, shifted the focus to the cat. "Woooooo, behold its cuteness!" she exclaimed. "It's like, sooooo adorable! I just want to squish its little cheeks and give it all the cuddles in the world!"
The cat... ghost cat... catto started to walk on two feet, swishing its hips like a catwalk model. It engaged in funny poses, twisting its hips and extending its paws forward. It stopped and held each pose with a sense of feline finesse.
All three of us couldn't take our eyes off the cute cat. It was clearly trying to impress us. We clapped our hands at the performance it gave us, as it was super captivating and adorable!
"Is there any food we can give it?" I asked.
Larisa said, "Let me check the cupboards."
"Don't... don't," both Eliza and I said. But it was too late; she was already gone, searching the cupboards for whatever sub-food was in this messy, disorganised, mucky place.
"Larisa, come back. We need protection... in case a threat comes. And we're still not sure if this cat is an evil entity."
We continued to observe the ghost cat as it strutted around, assuming numerous poses, such as a duck-cat pose and a regal feline stretch.
Eliza smiled and remarked, "It definitely doesn't want food... I think..." She glanced at the cat, now striking an S-curve pose and locking eyes with Eliza. "It wants its photo taken. Just look at it. It's pretty obvious it wants its photo taken."
I said, "I'm quite glad it isn't shy."
"It must remember me, and it is used to people coming to record and take photos of it for their eBunnee pages."
Eliza eagerly positioned herself to capture the cat's various poses, exclaiming, "Zip it! Unless you're planning to record as well."
"Oh, I'll let you have this one. I don't want to swipe your content ideas."
Switching to the camera, Eliza greeted her audience enthusiastically: "Hey there, all 300 of you tuning in at this late hour today! Just like yesterday, and thanks to your popular demand, cat fanatics unite! I'm bringing you more! More kitty action! Presenting the star of the show, the ghost kitty of the haunted house!"
Lillian patted the cat on its head as it posed, and it purred, brushing its face against her hand and starting to lick it. Is this the ghost cat? It's clearly very physical, and your hand doesn't go through it like when trying to make contact with Larisa. She had to ask, "How and why is this a ghost cat?"
"Because it lives in a haunted house. Duh!"
"So it can just leave, and then it will no longer be a haunted house? I don't think there is anything else that lives here... ghosts or whatnot."
Eliza, still holding her camera, stopped looking through the viewfinder. The camera drooped downwards, accidentally pointing at her feet in ankle-strap heels. Her viewership increased dramatically, and she exclaimed, obliviously unaware of where the camera was pointing, "A house is still a haunted house even if there isn't a ghost here... jeez, Lillian, stop saying stupid things; you're embarrassing me in front of my viewers!"
Eliza carried on, saying, "Okay, back to cation! Meowie!" She looked and noticed her viewers had tripled, but was unsure why. She smiled and resumed aiming the camera at the cat, only to see her views dip back down to 300 instantly. Eliza sighed. "My bad, I guess... So, let's meet the legendary..." Then it hit her: she had forgotten the name of the cat for a moment. She grinned when she remembered, "Whisker-Nyan-Nyan, the cat beloved by many!" Excitement lit up her face as she shared the rediscovered name with her audience. The cat was still posing, which was unusual for a cat, but it oozed cuteness overload! Despite this, her viewers remained stagnant at 300, and she was unsure why. She didn't want to read the comments in case somebody said something bad about her or Kai, but she knew a way to attract more viewers—Operation Cuteness Overload!
Larisa returned, exclaiming, "Nothing in the cupboards! I've searched every nook and cranny in the house, even the secret ones."
I gasped with happiness and relief upon seeing Larisa return, never wanting her to leave me again, especially not in a spooky, scary place like this. I said with a sense of desperation, "Please don't leave me again; this is a scary place." I tried to get close to Larisa to feel safer and more protected, even though I couldn't physically touch her; she could feel electric static from being near her.
Larisa's eyes sparkled like glittering stars. "Oh, it's not that bad at all... just a smidgen misunderstood. It's... What's that mega-word with three whole syllables? Hmmm..." Pausing, she struck a super kawaii pose, looking all confused. "Oh, exqui-what? Let me think... Egg... ummm... exquisite! It's of the exquisitely taste-tastic kind!"
Not having a clue what she was yapping about, I didn't even want to ask. Instead, I questioned Larisa with curiosity, "Larisa! Would you ever live here or haunt a place like this?"
She shook her head dramatically, her ghostly form swaying eerily. "Nuh-uh, my haunt is the bomb! The only problem is the poor Wi-Fi there."
"Maybe a bomb testing site," I muttered to myself.
"But I enjoy... your place. I, um, really, really like it a lot and you being there and all," she stammered, blushing nervously, before a wild Eliza appeared and broke the flow of her sentence. Eliza hesitated, extending her hand cautiously, clutching her phone as though it was a hazardous object emitting electric jolts. The screen flickered wildly, and she exclaimed, "What have you done to my phone?! Your rapid movements caused a surge of static, and now both my phone and live stream are spiralling out of control!" Once more, the phone, determined to be the reigning champion of mischief, jolted her with an even mightier electric shock, prompting an amusing "Ouch!" from her startled lips. She promptly set the defiant-devious-device down on the floor, as it was the cleanest part of the house.
"No need to lay blame on poor Larisa... perhaps, just perhaps, it was your doing with all those silly, unnecessary metallic rhinestone ornaments on the front," I pondered to myself.
Eliza glanced at Larisa and then at me. Larisa, adorned with a sweet and cute smile, casually tucked her arms behind her back, gently swaying her hips from side to side in a relaxed and endearing pose. I stood there, aware that Eliza wanted to say something, so I waited for the inevitable, saying nothing. "Humpty!! Well, it looks like I'll never outshine CatnipCapers123Whisker. She's got her own Whisker-Nyan-Nyan Cat dressed as Baby Master Yoga, and the views are rolling in by the thousands! Why did I not think of that!? You two are no help at all!"
I pictured Master Yoda in yoga pants. His green, firm butt was in the air, stretching on a mat. A wave of queasiness washed over me.
Eliza looked at me like it was time to leave. Maybe it was time to leave. It was making me feel a bit unwell being in here, as well.
The catto was now just staring at us, its eyes alternating between the phone and us, no longer in a pose and giving us a judgemental, disapproving stare.
"I...I don't trust this mog any more..." I muttered.
"Is it true that you have to say goodbye to ghost cats for him, or else they might just decide to follow you home? Urban legend or something?"
Larisa giggled, "I dunno about this rule, maybe it's a thing. I was probably daydreaming or something, not paying attention when they said I should follow people if they didn't say goodbye to me."
Eliza nervously asked, "And 'they' would be?!"
Before she could respond, Ashlyn strode into the haunted house. She instantly seized everyone's attention and blurted something out.
"Oh my starrs! Must you truly bid adieu for the nuisance to desist? Quite the exasperation, I find myself having to utter farewell before the bothersome presence finally absconds."
With an air of disdain, Ashlyn gazed at the cat, her expression one of refined disgust. Pushing her palms forward with an elegant gesture, she uttered, "Begone!" in a posh, yet commanding tone. Swiftly turning around, she frantically began to fiddle with her phone, instantly dismissing any semblance of sophistication she had mere seconds ago—a metamorphosis into a tapping fiend, with her mouth agape, drool dripping, and eyes wide like a golem.
"At least Ashlyn took her focus off her phone for five seconds and engaged in conversation with us," I said to Eliza. Maybe all phones and handheld devices should give you electric jolts like Eliza's currently did; then a person might actually put them down for once. She was doing something more, like... I was about to finish my thought when Eliza interrupted me. "Pssst," Eliza went, trying to get my attention.
"'Pssst?' Not here," I muttered.
"Watch this!" Eliza gracefully lowered herself into a squatting position, and I found myself thinking, "Oh no," but I couldn't tear my eyes away. Isn't she going to do what I think she's going to do?
Eliza let out a soft "ptttfff!" In an instant, Ashlyn's phone came alive with alerts from her assistant bot: "Moo Moo MOOO! Do you need assistance with toilet paper? Should I place an order right away? Beep boop! Please confirm with a yes or no."
Undeterred, Ashlyn retorted, "No! Begone, you foolish bot!" Despite her firm response, the persistent bot added, "Toilet paper order proceeding to the coordinates of your location, which are: 123 Spooky Street, Haunted Smelly Ghost House."
When Eliza was crouching down, I half-expected her to do something drastic, perhaps attempting to alleviate the static or whatever it was by relieving herself over her phone. I was genuinely relieved that she didn't. There was no possible way that could have ended well.
The ghost cat fixated on us with a long and judgemental stare, as though the moment had come for our sins to be reckoned. Its slow approach cast an ominous, foreboding atmosphere throughout the room, sending shivers down my spine. Meanwhile, Ashlyn remained engrossed in her phone, attempting to rid us of the nuisance bot. And then... everything went black.
A collective gasp escaped us as Ashlyn's device succumbed to a 100% battery depletion, leaving her in the abyss of a pitch-black screen.
From the spectral echoes of Larisa's voice, a haunting question lingered: "Why did she not harness the power of the gulp-ball?"