"Are you sure you're going to be alright staying alone tonight?" Taichi asked his younger sister, worry plastered all over his face.

Earlier on in the afternoon, he received a call from his best friend Yamato, calling to remind of the sleepover the guys were having tonight at Jyou's place. They were going to have a movie marathon night. Everything was already planned out and prepared.

The only problem was with Hikari. She has never spent a night alone in their house before. That is until today. Their parents were overseas for the week, and with Taichi gone the whole night, he wasn't really too sure about leaving his sister alone at home.

The younger Yagami sibling however gave a slight chuckle in response, pushing him towards the door.

"Yes I will. Don't worry about me Oni-chan" Hikari replied. "And besides, I'm not home alone tonight. Meeko's got my back."

She points to the Yagami's family cat Meeko, who lets out a lazy purr as it stretch its entire body, heading towards her pet bowl to sip some milk.

"She will claw whoever the freak dares break into our house. So don't worry about me and just enjoy your time with the guys."

"Oh puh-lease." Taichi snorted. "Meeko? Clawing the shit out of someone? Sorry, but as much as I love her and as cute & adorable I find her to be, I find it a hard to believe that our cat can even do anything to hurt a fly. For goodness sake, she pissed herself whenever a roach is in the house."

Hikari gasped as she bent down to cover Meeko's fluffy ears. "Oni-chan! Shsss, she can hear you!"

Taichi laughed at how adorable his sister was acting. It had lightened his edgy-ness. Feeling a little more assured, he slipped on his shoes, ruffled Hikari and Meeko's head before heading out.

"If anything crops up in the middle of the night, just phone me alright? I'll be up the whole night anyways. And remember to lock the door." Taichi instructed.

Hikari nodded as she flashed her brother a smile. "You have a fun night with the guys. And tell Takeru I said hi."

"Why ask me to tell him when you call him every night?" Taichi teased, causing hikari to blush.

"G-Goodbye!" She said embarrassingly, shoving Taichi further out into the corridor

Heading back to her cat, she starts to pet her gently and affectionately.

"Looks like is just going to be you and me tonight, Meeko" Hikari smiled.

Hikari stifled a yawn as she stretched both her arms upwards into the air. She glanced over to the kitchen table where the clock rested.

The time was now 10.00pm

Yawning once more, Hikari reach for the remote control and switched off the television. She lifts herself up from the couch, heading towards the toilet to wash up, ready to call it a night. Meeko, who was lying beside her on the couch leaped off and made its way towards Taichi and Hikari's room.

Moments later, Hikari found herself lying on her bed, with her arm stretched out and nearly touching the surface of the floor. Her trusty cat companion, who was lying beneath the Yagami sibling's Double Decker bed licked Hikari's outstretched arm, a feat that has been going on every night before she went to bed since the family adopted her.

"Good girl." Hikari smiled, gradually falling into a wonderful sleep.

'Drip, Drip, Drip.'

Hikari found herself waking from her slumber, having been awoken to the sounds of water droplets. Letting out a lazy yawn, she sat up right rubbing her eyes as she shifted them towards her door. She listened intently once more to the sound.

'Drip, Drip, Drip.'

Scratching the back of her head, the fair skinned girl pushed her blankets aside as she headed out her room. The hallway was dark and empty, nothing unusual or out of the norm, she thought to herself, except for the dripping sound.

Where was it coming from?

Hikari headed towards the kitchen, checking the basins. Upon closer inspection, she realized that the lid of the tap was slightly tilted to the top, causing small fractions of water droplets to drip.

Strange.

Did she not close the tap properly? Dismissing it as her own careless mistake, the girl proceeds to right the minor problem. However, even after closing the tap, she could still hear the sounds of dripping.

Darn it

She was too tired to be bothered about it.

Hikari dragged her feet back to her room, falling face first to her bed upon reaching it. She adjusted herself, tucking the blanket over her as she made a glance over to the clock just hanging beside her door.

01.19am

"Thank goodness it's summer break." Hikari muttered under her breath thankfully, briefly shivering at the thought of having to wake up at 5am for school.

She felt Meeko shifting herself beneath her bed. Managing a smile once more, she placed her hand just slightly out the frame of the bed to allow her cat to lick it. When she did, she smiled.

"Good night Meeko."

Hikari found herself jolting awake from her sleep once more, this time due to a loud ringing sounding off from her phone. The young lady clumsily planted her feet on the floor; she walked up to her study table, placed her hands on it and started feeling for her phone.

"H-hello" she started.

"Hikari!"

Hikari squirmed her eyes, her facial expression turning sour as her brother's voice boomed over the line. The young lady took a quick look at the clock once more.

03.35am

Groaning into the phone, the young lady started.

"Oni-chan! It's freaking 3 plus in the morning. Why are you calling at such an ungodly hour?"

She heard Taichi grasp on the line.

"Wow, can't I call my little baby sister to check on her?" Taichi spoke, feigning a hurt expression in his voice.

Hikari rolled her eyes.

"I'm not a baby-"

'Drip, Drip, Drip.'

Hikari pause mid sentence. She scrounged her eyes as she adjusted her ears to the dripping sound. It was getting much audible to the ears.

Just where the heck was the dripping sound coming from? She wondered.

With her phone still in her hand, Hikari made her way out her room for another time.

She deduced that it was probably coming from the water piping in her house. She inspected every piping thoroughly, finding no faults in them. The girl scratched the back of her head. Her face peeved for an expression, having no idea of what to do.

"Hikari!"

Hikari snap back to reality, she had been in such a daze that she forgotten that she was talking to her brother.

"H-Hi!" She replied, her voice tainted with a little bit of annoyance, something that didn't go unnoticed by the older sibling.

"Hey, are you alright?" Taichi asked, his voice gentle this time, laced with concern.

Hikari sighed.

"It's nothing Oni-chan" she replied. "It's just that something is leaking in our house. And I can't seem to find the source of what's making the dripping sounds."

"Have you checked the kitchen sink?" he asked.

"I have. It's not it. Don't worry Oni-chan, if it persists, I'll call the plumber first thing in the morning" Hikari replied, yawning once more. "Anyways Oni-chan, I'm heading back to bed. Well whatever that is left of it."

"Alright, remember to lock the door to our room once you're in alright? You know for safety purposes."

"Yea okay." She said, wishing her brother goodnight before ending the call. Hikari closed her door shut, locking it before diving into her bed once more, letting Meeko licked her hand. She fell asleep easily.

It wasn't long before she was awoken again to the damn sound at 4.28am. It was much, MUCH audible now.

"OH I HAD IT!" the girl said, fuming mad. She decided that she had to plug her ears with ear plugs.

She headed to the bathroom to collect her ear plugs (why her parents ever placed it there was still a mystery to her.), she reached for the ear plugs that rested on the compartment of space behind her mirror wall. As she was doing that, she finally realized something.

'Drip, Drip, Drip.'

The dripping sound was coming from the bath tub! The curtains were draped across it.

"So there's where the darn sound is coming from." She thought to herself.

Hikari made her way towards the bathtub; she grabbed onto the shower curtains and with one mighty pull, swatted it aside.

At that very moment, she wished she hadn't done so.

Fear began to creep into her heart.

Fear, Disgust, Horror. This were the mixture of feelings going through her entire being.

Hikari felt her stomach churned upside down, her body about to galgutate her dinner from earlier.

The thing that has been bugging her along the whole night.

The thing that was causing the dripping sounds.

The foul smell that suddenly started becoming so apparent started making its way through Hikari's nose.

It was none other than her pet cat, Meeko.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed.

Her pet cat has been murdered and skinned, hooked onto the ceiling of the bathroom.

Then another sudden ghastly realization hit her.

If Meeko had been dead this entire time then,

Who has been licking her hand the whole time?

As she soon as she thought that, she heard the door to her room clicked. What came shortly after that caused Hikari's blood to turn cold as ice.

A demonic like chuckle began to resonate.

Thinking fast, she immediately raced to the bathroom room door, slamming it shut and locking it, but not before she saw a pair of evil eyes grinning at her.

"NO! PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP! SOMEONE'S TRYING TO KILL ME" Hikari began to scream at the top of her lungs, hoping that her neighbors would wake. Neighboring apartments began to light up one after another.

BANG!

The killer was trying to break in!

"AHHHHHH!" she jumped backwards, extremely frightened. Her body began to shiver in cold sweat out of fear. Her heart rate palpitated, her chest compressing. She felt her heartbeat in her throat.

Was she going to die?

It was moments like this she wished her partner digimon, Tailmon was there to protect her.

It wasn't long till she heard something that sounded a lot like someone barging into her house, and a loud thud on the floor. Her eyes begin to widen.

Was there more than 1 intruder?

Beads of sweat started forming on the poor girl's head as she back away further from the door. She began listening intently to the sounds. Something was shuffling against the floor. What was happening?

"HIKARI!"

That voice!

"O-ONI-CHAN!"

"You are one darn lucky kid you know that?" the police officer spoke as Takeru draped a towel over hikari, holding her closely in his arms.

Earlier on during the most frightening night Hikari has ever experienced in her entire life, her brother had came back along with Yamato and Takeru to check up on her. While she was still trying to decipher everything that had occurred, she was thankful that they made it in time to save her from the mad man.

Turns out that the dripping sounds were due to Meeko being killed and hung salvage-ly in the bathroom, the thing that was licking Hikari's hand the whole time was none other than the killer, who was toying with her until he felt like killing her.

Taichi had decided to come back along with Yamato and Takeru for her to make sure she was alright after hearing from Koushirou the news that was on the previous day. Apparently the intruder was a psychotic mental patient who had escape from the mental institution. Viewers were advised that should they ever come across him or spot him, to call the police immediately.

"T-Thanks officer." She said as she grab the water bottle that was offered to her.

"Sorry about Meeko Hikari-Chan." Takeru said after the police officer left them, planting a sweet kiss on the poor girl's head. She nuzzled in his arms.

"Me too." She said tearily.

"Hey, what's more important is that you are safe." Yamato spoke, trying to affirm her. Taichi nodded in response.

"That's right. It's a tragedy that Meeko had to die. But I'm just glad I came back in time to save you."

Hikari only nodded.

From that day onwards, Hikari told herself she was never allowed to be left alone in the house ever again.

So this is based on the urban legend "Humans can lick too". There are many variations to this one. But nonetheless, the plot stays the same. In some versions the owners are killed. But I couldn't kill off Hikari right? Stay tuned for the next chapter.