Unknown Stalker

"Mom, why did grandpa have to leave so soon?"

"I'm sorry dear; I know it's been hard since our grandfather passed, and we don't have a summer home to take a vacation at. I'm sure your auntie's beach house will suffice more than grandpa's old house."

"But I like it here better! I love the cold on Christmas and the New Year, and the temple here feels very magical! I hope I can get my two friends to come here to spend the holiday camping out."

"Maybe in the future I'll pass down the temple for you to take care of when you get older. Your grandpa was apparently a magician, but I have only heard stories of his feats through his other old friends and grandma as I have never seen him use magic. Maybe when I was young, but maybe I have forgotten."

It had been a year since Mark's grandfather had passed and today was the day their family came to his old property to keep it tidy. Them and many visitors believed that his house and temple were blessed by holy spirits of all races as he had been a good man in his life. It was Mark, Mark's mom, and three sisters that were there since their father was working hard overseas to support their family. They were a group of 4 siblings, Martie, their eldest sibling, Erica, their second, Mark, was the third and only son, while their youngest was an adopted beast cat named Margaret. Margaret was adopted by their grandfather as she was the only child that had not been adopted in the orphanage due to her race. Margaret was 7 years old when she was adopted and she is now 10 years old this year.

"Mark, go sweep the outside while me and your sisters clean your grandfather's house. When you're done, see if you can dust off the statues and insides of the temple."

Mark reluctantly agreed even though their grandfather's house was quite big and filled with many rooms that would take a single person half a day to clean. It was the Fall season, so there were a good pile of leaves outside, but a giant rake nearby made easy work of them all. After half an hour, Mark was already done raking the leaves, but his family weren't finished cleaning the house and he still had to clean the temple. So he put the rake aside, found a bucket of water and a piece of cloth and got to cleaning. The temple was sizable, but a single person could actually clean it in a relatively short amount of time. The temple was also filled with little statues of different gods and spirits of luck and fortune, with some visitors even reporting that they saw ghosts late at night cherishing their figures of remembrance.

"This place always looked so creepy at night, but at least that cat beast statue looks pretty cute. And that dog and fox beast statue too!"

Ever since he was little, Mark was a bit afraid of his grandfather's temple, as the sight of still figures staring blankly was quite frightening, but now that he had grown, that fear had lessened to just being scared at night. After dusting and cleaning the multitude of statues in the temple, Mark was only down to the cute cat statue he had adored as a child and even felt a strange connection to it every time he touched it.

"I wonder if Margaret would ever grow to look as elegant as this statue. She's already quite cute, so I hope she'll get even cuter in the future."

As Mark was cleaning the statue, he noticed a small envelope behind it and picked it up.

"What's this? A letter to my grandson? Is this for me?"

Mark turned the envelope around and his full name had been written behind it, further solidifying that the envelope was for him. He opened the envelope and inside was a bit of money and a simple yet mysterious letter addressed to him.

"On the 16th, a friend will come. On the 21st, a friend will leave. Do not worry, as that friend will always be by your side."

Mark was stumped by the letter, but he knew it had to mean something as his grandfather loved to make riddles for them to solve before he would give them their birthday gifts. He flipped the note around and saw another short message for him.

"My grandson, take care of your favorite statue and it will take care of you on the 16th."

With the message at the back, Mark pieced together the entire meaning of the mysterious envelope.

"Actually… I still don't know… It's the 23rd of November, so whoever this friend is, I must have already been disappointed! Could it be Jeremy or Gab? Well, my birthday is today, so after cleaning up here, we'll go out and eat."

Mark's 16th birthday was today, which perfectly lined up with the mysterious message, but Mark did not consider this connection and left the note as just some weird unfinished letter that his grandfather had forgotten to send, but it was very much more than that. Mark eventually finished cleaning his favorite cat statue and left the temple, but before he did, he felt a soft voice call out to him.

"Mark."

"Huh?"

"Mark!"

"Who's there?"

"Mark!!!"

"Ahh!!!"

But before Mark turned around to see who was calling him, he quickly ran away in fright and hastily went inside his grandfather's house to tell his family about the strange voice.

"Guys, I heard a weird voice coming from the temple!"

"Are you sure it wasn't Margaret? You know she loves to walk around barefoot to scare us as her cat feet allow her to walk silently."

"I'm sure of it! Come on and take a look with me!"

Mark's mom was still busy on the second floor, so only Martie and Erica came with Mark to check out the temple.

"See? It's just Margaret! Margaret, where was the dust pan I told you to get?"

"Oh, it's at the front door!"

Martie and Erica left for the dustpan, while Margaret stayed with his brother to talk to him about the temple.

"Margaret, did you sneak up behind me and scared me earlier?"

"What? I just came here when I saw you running back into the house! When I went inside, I saw a pretty orange cat like me! She asked me to give you this envelope which you left behind."

"Where's the orange cat now?"

"She's right here! Oh, she's gone…"

Mark was visibly confused about what had just happened. A voice called out to him, and when he ran away from being frightened by it, his little sister went into the empty temple and met the voice which then asked her to give him the envelope which had the mysterious letter inside.

"What did she look like?"

"She looked just like that statue over there! She was also wearing a pretty kimono that I want to try on some day!"

After pointing to the cat statue, Margaret happily skipped away to play with the rake Mark had used to clean the leaves with. Mark approached the cat statue that his little sister had pointed to, but when he touched it, nothing felt out of the ordinary. He turned around and waited for the voice to call him again, but nothing seemed to have happened, so he left with a cold sweat along with the envelope in his hands. They eventually finished cleaning the property and before they left, they prayed at the temple and left candles and incense to pay respects to their grandfather and the lucky statues inside. As they left, Mark heard the voice again, but ignored it and walked back to their car with a brisk pace.

"I swear there's a spirit living in the temple!"

"Then you must be really lucky!"

"No I'm not! What if it's an evil spirit? What if it curses me? What are we gonna do?!"

"You'll be fine! I'm sure the only spirits that reside in grandfather's temple are all good spirits."

Mark expressed his concern once again about the disembodied voice that had called him, but all his siblings laughed at his story except for his mother who really believed in the supernatural. Having had enough of being doubted, Mark went to listen to some music to pass the time while they rode towards the restaurant they were going to eat in, but as he stared outside to watch the view, he saw the same cat that Margaret had described.

"Did you see that? There was a cat over there!"

"Where?"

But when one of his sisters took a look, they had already passed the spot where Mark saw the spirit.

"Are you just tricking us? There clearly wasn't anyone there and we're in the middle of a forest, so there's no way someone would be walking around here all alone!"

Erica said in an annoyed manner, but Mark was sure to the bottom of his heart that he saw someone waving at them as they passed by on the side. Mark eventually let the creepy thoughts go and closed his eyes to rest so that when he woke up, they would already be at the restaurant to eat. After an hour's drive, they finally made it to the city where they were going to eat at a pizza parlor that Mark enjoys. They ordered Mark's two favorite flavors of pizza while also ordering different flavors of milkshake.

"I heard from somewhere that ancient beasts were allergic to chocolate and would die if they ate them!"

"What? But I love chocolate!"

"Margaret, it's okay to eat chocolate. You know that almost every beast in the world isn't allergic to chocolate anymore. Some are special cases like humans, but you can keep enjoying as much chocolate as you want. Just brush your teeth, okay?"

Martie reassured Margaret with kindness, while Mark was lightly scolded for scaring their little cat sister. Their food eventually arrived and they all had a great time eating, but while eating, Mark saw the cat with a kimono looking at him through the restaurant's glass window. He quickly rubbed his eyes to take a better look, but when he did, the cat on the window suddenly vanished. Mark knew that his sisters would not believe him if he told them about the cat spirit that had been following them, so he just shut his mouth and continued eating. They eventually finished their birthday meal and cake and left for home. It was a Sunday, so Mark and Margaret had to wake up early, while Martie and Erica were both college students that had mixed school times.

"Just… forget about that weird ghost, I'm sure it's nothing."

Tomorrow was a busy day for Mark as it was their flag ceremony tomorrow, so he had to rest properly as he was one of the co-hosts for the morning event. Mark and his family had their own separate rooms, but his three sisters slept together in two combined beds, while he slept in his own room with privacy. Mark eventually drifted to sleep, but someone had suddenly entered his room who he thought was Margaret looking to cuddle.

"Margaret, is that you?"

"Mark, why have you been ignoring me? You're really disappointing your grandfather!"

Mark was confused as to who had really entered his bedroom, so he quickly looked for his lamp's lightswitch to see who it was, but when he turned it on, the figure that was in his room suddenly disappeared.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Are you scared? I'm really pretty, you know?"

"What? I'm not scared of you!"

But Mark uttered those confident words with a tremble, which the intruder immediately pointed out.

"Hmm… Yeah, you're scared of me alright."

"Whoever you are, stop hiding!"

"Sure, I'll show myself."

The lamp beside Mark's bed suddenly turned off and the hidden intruder reappeared which revealed itself to be the orange cat wearing a kimono that had been stalking him all afternoon. Mark was obviously terrified that an intruder made their way in his bedroom, so he quickly ran around the cat to try and call for help, but the door was quickly shut and locked by some mysterious force.

"Mom! Sis! Help! There's someone in he-"

But before Mark could continue making noise, the orange cat suddenly produced a hot pork bun which it stuffed into his mouth to stop him from shouting.

"Now, chew it for me!"

Mark was scared for his life, so not wanting to die, he followed the cat's strange request to eat the hot bun that was shoved into his mouth. He didn't expect this bun out of nowhere to taste so good, so he carefully kept chewing on it, but he found himself growing weaker with every bite until he eventually got sleepy and fell asleep leaning on the door.

"I didn't expect gramps' grandson to be so lively! He did say that Mark was a bit timid, so I guess that's why he would be scared of such a pretty sight like me. I thought he would be just like his little cat sister, but to each their own."

Mark had fallen soundly asleep thanks to the weird bun he was fed. The mysterious force that had shut the door suddenly came back with it floating Mark back to his bed where the mysterious cat gently covered him with his blankets.

"There we go! All tucked up and ready for tomorrow. Now, to strengthen our bond for the rest of our lives…"

The cat suddenly produced a small scroll with its contents being about making a contract with a guardian spirit. Mark's grandfather and other kind spirits had already approved of what the cat was going to do, so it drew a bit of blood from Mark's thumb by pricking it with its claws and used his blood as a sort of ink for Mark's signature on the scroll. After Mark signed the waiver in his sleep, the scroll disappeared and the cat spirit rejoiced at being bound to this human teenager for the foreseeable future.

"Now we'll be best buddies forever!"

The cat then got in bed with Mark while sucking and gently licking on his thumb to stop the bleeding.

"What a nice rest last night. Wait, where did the cat go? And why does my thumb feel so wet?"

"Mmmm! Oh! Mark, are you ready to get up for today?"