Chapter 10: 10 - Your Worst Nightmare

As Ataz thought about how he could end up torturing Hector as he slept, he heard footsteps running up the stairs. He looked away.

"Why does the cat have to sleep in my room?" said Hector, his voice tired from running up the stairs, holding one hand on the handrail and the other hand on his knee.

"Now you can call our little friend Cutie; that's the name we gave him," said the old lady with a sweet smile on her face, looking at Hector.

Hector slowly straightened his spine, looked at Ataz and laughed, "HAHAHA, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" he said while placing his hand on his belly, "WHAT A HILARIOUS NAME, HAHAH... Hi Cutie, are you going to try to scratch me with your *widdle* claws? CUTIE... AHAHAH," he repeated, mispronouncing the word "little", while wiping his tears from laughing. The cat looked at him with disdain; he knew that Hector would soon deeply regret what he had said.

"Well, I'll fix Cutie's bed. I'll be right back," said Dona Rosa, heading towards the stairs to get the basket in which Ataz slept. "I'm going to lie down. Good night to you both," Sebastian said as he walked towards one of the closed doors. Hector turned and headed for the room where Ataz had dropped his backpack. As he was about to follow Hector into his room, the cat looked back and saw Sebastian entering the room and then quickly closing the door so that no one could see what was inside. Ataz stopped and stood for a while looking at the door, wondering if there was any way to get in, but soon left his thoughts when he heard Dona Rosa's footsteps coming up the stairs.

The cat then headed for Hector's bedroom where he noticed the old lady was already bending over to set up his basket for him.

"Why did these things fall? It doesn't even make sense! I remember leaving it right on the table..." the child's voice came out of the room.

"You must have left it more in the corner and you didn't notice, Hector. Then it started to fall little by little." Dona Rosa and Hector argued while the cat entered the room and sat beside the bed, waiting for the old lady to finish cleaning for him.

"Okay, now see to it that you don't sleep late because you have class tomorrow. Sleep well," said Dona Rosa, as she turned off the light in the room and carefully closed the door so it wouldn't make so much noise. Ataz, with the posture of a king, walked majestically towards Hector's bed, jumped on it, and lay down. "HEY HEY, you sleep there, ON THE FLOOR! This is MY bed," shouted Hector.

The cat looked up and down at Hector with contempt and turned to the side, snuggling against him. Hector then took the cat by the neck and lifted it close to his face. "You are going to sleep in your place, cat."

Hector went towards the basket that Dona Rosa had prepared, stamping his feet on the floor, and dropped Ataz on top of the basket. He turned his back on Ataz and went to his bed, stamping his feet again. He lay down on the bed in anger and covered himself with his light green blanket.

The room was not yet dark. In the corner of Hector's table, it was possible to see a small light from a mini lamp that Hector had, which illuminated a good part of the room, not being uncomfortable but not leaving everything pitch black. Apparently the boy was afraid of the dark. Ataz looked at Hector sleeping with his back to him, with an evil look. He knew he could not kill the boy, as he would be expelled from that house, but he could use Hector as his personal doormat. Ataz realized that even though Hector tried to look like he was strong and tough, Hector was just a boy like any other. Ataz wouldn't normally waste his time tormenting anyone, but life there was pretty quiet, in contrast to everything that had happened in his past life.

Ataz then decided to take a look around the room and do what he did best, terrorize others. He slowly left the basket and crawled to the end of the boy's bed. He just peeked his eyes up, watching if Hector was still awake and realized that the boy was already asleep, however, since it was recent, his sleep was still light.

To start his plan, the cat went towards the object that produced light and tried to understand how he was going to put out that 'fire' inside it. He put his paws on top, looking for where it would open to put out the fire, until he hit a type of button on the side, and the lamp went out. Ataz was confused looking at it, trying to understand how it worked, but he quickly accepted that it had simply happened, focusing again on his plan.

Ataz, realizing that Hector had collected all the things from the floor and placed them on the table, decided to drop them carefully, to only cause a small noise that only Hector could hear besides himself. He climbed on the table and before dropping something, he decided to open the boy's window. Since that night, the wind was strong, he probably would be able to make some noise that would scare him more.

He put his paw through the window latch and pushed it up. Because it was a very simple lock, he already understood how to use it. He slowly opened the window, causing it to make a creaking noise, and also, causing Hector to listen and look at the window immediately. Before Hector saw anything because of his sleepy vision, Ataz had already hidden behind the backpack, and stopped quietly. Since the cat was black, it was very difficult to see what was actually on the table. Hector, afraid of the darkness in the room, did not have the courage to close the window, and lay back on the bed, trying to distract himself. Ataz then, from behind the backpack, saw a small, white square object, almost smaller than his paw. The cat carefully pushed it to the floor and then immediately jumped back behind Ataz's bed, without making any telltale noise. Hector opened his eyes and looked away. He scanned his eyes around the room and saw nothing, so he put the blanket a little higher on his head, wanting to hide.

Ataz then waited a few minutes so that Hector's mind could imagine things without Ataz himself having to try too hard, and repeated the process again, dropping something a little bigger this time. Hector turned quickly, almost seeing Ataz jumping to the floor. He started to breathe harder and decided to sit on the bed, huddled, looking around to see if he could find anything. As he was sleepy and his light was no longer on, the boy could not see very well; his sight had not yet gotten used to the environment. Ataz then knew that he would have to act quickly in order to frighten the boy.

Hector curled up on the bed. Now more alert than ever. The wind howled through the window, making him shiver on the bed. Ataz knew it was difficult for Hector to see him in the dark because of his black fur. Hector was wide-eyed, looking at every corner of the room and at the same time not wanting to hear or see anything.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a black shadow...