A Scary Night: Attack of Wild Cat

When I felt paws with sharp claws on the sole of my foot, I was half awake but not entirely sleeping. Initially, I ignored it as it seemed like an annoying bug bite. But as the sensation lingered and the pressure on my foot increased, I knew there was more to it than I had imagined.

Something alive with four legs was trying to get on my cot. Panicked, I let out a wild shriek, but it didn’t help because the unpleasant grip of sleep paralysis had locked me up. The wild cat approached, its sharp claws dangerously close to my ankle, and I couldn’t move.

I was shaking so badly that I couldn’t adequately describe how horrified I was. My heart was racing like a pack of dogs was looking for me, and I felt shivers all over my body. I was alone in this scary position.

Surprisingly, I found the strength to open my eyes in the middle of this horrible event. I soon discovered that it had all been a dream, to my great relief. I sighed deeply, grateful for the reserve.

But then, in a confusing turn of events, the very next second, a big white wild cat, almost the size of a human child five years old, showed up by poking its paws through my knees.

The line between dream and reality blurred, and I found myself in a state of disoriented confusion. Frantically, I cried out for help. My aunt, who had been sleeping beside me, had been staying at our home to provide spiritual and moral support as we had recently lost our father.

Surprised by my sudden and loud, fearful tone, she quickly woke up and chased the cat away by hitting her with a shoe, understanding the danger I was facing. My aunt said, 'You go to sleep calmly; you've already had a tough time crying; I'm awake now; the cat won't come again.

However, my relief was short-lived. A few minutes later, the cat came back, persistently chasing me, this time teasing me with its sharp teeth and claws. My aunt stayed watchful all night, observing the cat’s constant drive to get to my cot.

There were seven cots on our veranda, so it was strange and curious why the cat focused only on my cot and continuously tried to attack my neck. We had not seen that cat before in our home and the nearby area.

The night was long and scary, and it became harder to tell the difference between thoughts and reality as the night went on.

The next day, my aunt told me that the cat had come almost seven times, and each time, it headed towards only your cot. She got up to chase it away because she didn't want to wake my mom, and all the other kids were asleep. Especially her youngest son, a year old, would cry all night if he woke up.

That's why she stayed up for quite a while, walking around to keep the cat from entering the house. She said it wasn't an ordinary cat, and it disappeared with the morning light, so she could not sleep all night.

But that was not the end of her thrill. The cat kept coming for the next few days, but instead of climbing onto my cot and making me scared, it would sit peacefully beside the foot area. And as morning approached, it would vanish on its own, retracing its steps back down the stairs.

I could not solve this puzzle of why the cat kept returning, especially to my cot, and why it preferred to stay the whole night. The only thing my aunt could do when she saw that the cat had stopped hitting and disturbing me was to permit her to sit but to remain vigilant.

Note: I had previously published this story on Medium. After making further revisions, I resubmitted it on Vocal.