A/N: Originally part of a multi-fandom drabble collection, but posted here sorted by fandom. The prompts are from Reddit's fanfiction subreddit. May 18: Why does it seem like that animal/creature knows more than it should? Seriously, someone should check that out. (300 Words) Early Edition fandom. To be honest, it's been years since I've seen the show, so no real timeline is set for this drabble!
Every morning it was the same. There was a meow at the door and a newspaper showed up. To anyone else, that would seem like a pretty routine morning, but Gary Hobson's life had changed forever when that first paper showed up at his door. The newspaper he received each morning was tomorrow's edition and had the ability to change depending on how Gary used the information within.
Even more mysterious than getting tomorrow's paper today, the paper was usually accompanied by an orange tabbie. He knew that the cat had something to do with the paper showing up every morning, but he had no idea what it was. Both Marissa and Chuck had their theories however.
"Maybe it's a familiar," Marissa suggested to him one day.
"A what?"
"A familiar spirit. I've been researching it and familiar spirits in folklore and pagan history are usually depicted as small animals like cats. According to everything I've read, they're supposed to guide new witches-"
"New witches? Do you really think Gary here's a witch?" Chuck chimed in and Marissa gave a little shrug.
"He gets a magical paper," She said dryly.
"It's not... I'm not a witch. And it's not magic. I don't know what it is. It's just a headache most days," Gary said to the pair.
"No no no, Gar, you're looking at this all wrong!" Chuck insisted, putting an arm around his friend.
"Oh yeah? And how is that?" Gary asked, willing to indulge whatever Chuck was about to say.
"If it is a magic cat, think of the merchandising opportunities! I mean, if we can't make money from the paper itself, maybe we could dress up the little wizard cat and..." Chuck launched into another harebrained idea to profit from the paper and the cat. Neither Gary nor Marissa had the heart to tell him that's not how any of it worked.