A/N: Kind of short, but really important for the plot.

The Curse of the Cat

071. Morgue

Zoe had never seen death up close, but if she had to attribute a smell to it, it would probably be the one that unexpectedly hit her.

For some reason, she registered that before anything else. Then her brain took in the sight.

It was like something out of a nightmare , like she'd watched a scary movie at six and fallen asleep to see her parents morphing into zombie-like monsters.

And then it was all gone, and she was sitting alone on the asphalt, one hand over her mouth and eyes wildly staring at nothing.

072. Space

A kindly woman pulled Zoe off the middle of the street and took her inside, giving her a cup of tea and trying to coax some reaction from her. Zoe's mind in the meantime scrambled for…something. She couldn't understand; where had that monster come from? How had it popped out from her nightmare and become alive.

In the mirror, her eyes looked slightly blank, like that slim moment wherein she froze before bursting into tears and rushing into her mother's lap.

But her mother wasn't here. Just a kind stranger who couldn't understand anything at all.

073. Whitewash

She had the Juzu beads in her hand, she realised. She didn't remember picking them up, but they were there, feeling coarse and stiff in her hold. They looked like the ones sold at the Buddhist temple, but the feeling was far from the innocent smooth plastic.

She half wondered why someone had painted them white. It seemed exceptionally cruel.

It was clear evidence that charms and magic and curses weren't a myth. It was funny how she'd never quite accepted that, even after seeing two boys suddenly transform into animals.

The Curse. The Curse of the Zodiac. Of the Cat.

A nightmare she could forget if she wanted, but he could never awake from.

She blinked suddenly, her vision clearing after a blur, and found three salty drops on a closed fist.

074. Alone

She took too long to look for him; the street was filling up as people went about for lunch, but the faces were all unfamiliar. In a way though, she was relieved because it allowed her to push through the crowds and search more easily…and it should be her, alone, because he had shown his other form to her for a reason…

She still shuddered at that, but she forced herself to continue moving until she stopped at the three where she had found him after his first transformation. He had fled from her then too, she mused, looking at the empty branch the black cat had curled himself on. Hiding a cat amongst the trees. It had been instinct then.

And now…

It suddenly clicked, and she was running again. To the cemetery this time. A place that was always empty at this time of the day. And the only place one could hide the smell of death.

Now she knew what she was thinking. And what she needed to do. There was still a lot she didn't know: about the Sohmas, about the curse. But all that was still in the background…and where it should be.

Nightmares, curses, unfortunate circumstances…they didn't change people. It just pushed them apart. Made them lonely.

075. Coma

Her resolve wavered as she crossed past the graves. She wasn't a naturally superstitious person, but somehow the air felt far heavier than the only other time she had walked that path. But still she pressed on, and it didn't take her long to catch the scent she was looking for and inch towards it.

Like in her nightmares…

And then she was there, standing at the foot of a grave while the grotesque figure curled around the head.

If she had been uncertain, that ocean behind blue eyes did it for her.

'You can't push me away,' she said quietly. 'I won't let you…because I know as well as you do you don't really want to.'

It wasn't a nightmare she could awake from, but it was one she could make into a dream.