The eyes unsettled her most. Golden, unblinking, they followed movements with unsettling focus. Sometimes, late at night, she awoke to find them gleaming at the foot of her bed, glowing like twin lanterns. Comforting one moment, uncanny the next, they reminded her she had welcomed something wild into her home.
Elise couldn’t let go. It wasn’t just that it seemed ordained she should care for Shadow. She felt chosen, as though fate had delivered Shadow into her life. She lost her parents a year ago, and having lived alone, the kitten filled a void she’d stopped acknowledging. Whatever Shadow truly was, she couldn’t bear to imagine mornings without it.