A chill always settled over the small town when darkness fell, as though night itself carried secrets in its clawed hands. On such a night, under a moon as thin as a raven’s whisper, I first saw the black cat. It came from the alleyway behind the boarded-up bookstore, its luminous green eyes fixed on mine as I hurried past. There was something unsettling in the way it watched me—an intelligence that went beyond what any ordinary feline should possess. Its fur was sleek, dark as the deepest sh...