The Dream Thief

Introduction

This tale of tails is for Laura Pruett's "The Cat And The Machine" Challenge that you can read about here:

The music is "The Dream's Dream" by Television from their album "Adventure"

The Dream Thief

The seemingly stray cat had no owner, but every house thought he was theirs, but he was deemed a stray by those who did not like cats. Some fed him, some did not, and so when they didn't, he surreptitiously crept into their homes when they were sleeping and stole their dreams.

The stray cat was a dream thief, and the stolen dreams were the currency the cat used to take its revenge on those who did not indulge the vengeful creature.

The shopkeeper was a spiteful old man and saw a vile like mind in the cat.

Then that cat gave him a dream, and he gave it a snack that he cursed to give whoever ate it nightmares based on their dream. The snacks were always something that people liked, an after-dinner chocolate mint or chocolate biscuit, or something.

The cat would steal back to the house and slip the cursed snack into their shopping or next to where they made their tea or coffee. They would pick up and eat the cursed snack, and then that night they would have their nightmare.

The one they loved would hate them, their dream car would skid off the road and end up a wreck, their dream home would burn down, their favourite team would be relegated, and whatever would go wrong would go wrong.

Then the shopkeeper died, and he was so nasty and spiteful that heaven would not take him, and neither would hell. His spirit had no place to go, but then he remembered the vending machine at the front of his shop, and he found a home there.

When the cat came back, he found there was a new shopkeeper who shooed him away, but then he heard a familiar voice coming from the vending machine; it was his kindred spiteful spirit.

That cat gave the haunted vending machine its latest stolen dream, the haunted vending machine cursed a suitable snack and dispensed it to the vengeful kitty.

The was going to run for a long time, the people of this town would have many more nightmares for not feeding the cat treats.