BLACK CAT

"Are you ready?" came a question from nothingness. He hesitated in answering the question that came from pitch-black darkness. Before responding, he felt a shiver run through his fur. Then, he opened his eyes, which were neither green nor brown, and stared into the void. "Ready for what?" he asked. The voice in the void answered without delay, "Are you ready to go to the world?"

The body, which had just gained its consciousness, suddenly trembled. Despite feeling no enthusiasm, he gave an unwilling "Yes," and the journey began. He felt like he was inside a living being. Gradually, his senses returned, but he remembered nothing. "How did I get here?" he kept asking himself. "What happened? What was the reason?"

His eyes closed again. Strange feelings, all connected to the world, filled him. The body carrying him kept moving constantly, and he couldn't make sense of it. He was in discomfort all the time. During the long stretch he spent like this, his thoughts remained the same. He couldn't foresee what was to come. And then the day arrived. He found himself on the place they called "the world." He looked around and couldn't accept it. Feeling like he didn’t belong here, he wanted to go back. But where would he return to? Death felt as close as a breath. His eyes closed, and he struggled to breathe. A voice inside told him he had to belong to this place for a while. He stopped resisting and accepted it. The consciousness he had gained already felt like a heavy burden. How was he going to live in this world? Was this place they called the world worth living in? He began questioning it all too soon. The more he observed, the emptier he felt inside. "This isn’t a birth," he thought to himself. "This is a return. Maybe that's why I feel so unwilling inside," he muttered.

In this journey, what was he going to learn? He grew curious…

There was a path before him, and he walked. It was a path lined with trees, its center covered in green. Suddenly, the duties of this world came to his mind again. "What am I going to do?" he asked, feeling a wave of frustration. "What am I supposed to do?"

He continued walking. He approached a spring by the roadside and washed his face. Just as he raised his head, he saw a black cat. The cat stared at him with piercing eyes and said, "The journey has just begun." He was unsure whether to be shocked by the cat’s speech or the fact that he had received an answer to his internal thoughts. His hands and entire body trembled. Struggling to speak, he asked, "How has my journey just begun?"

The cat gave him one last glance and said, "You’ll see," before disappearing. Trembling, he kept walking. The words echoed in his mind like a refrain: How was he supposed to accept this situation? "How? How? How?" he muttered.

His mind was in chaos, as if he was getting lost in spirals formed by intricate patterns inside his brain. He felt exhausted. Up ahead, he found a place where he could lie down and sleep. Without a second thought, he went over and slept. He still had a long way to go before reaching his destination. A little rest wouldn't hurt. He woke up feeling refreshed, with a strange smile on his face. His eyes were glowing. "It's time to continue the journey," he said, and set off again.

In the warm evening, he sat with people around him. He felt like voices were coming from every direction. "Everyone is talking just to solve their own problems," he thought. He watched, watched, and watched... Then a voice addressed him, "Why are you so silent?"

He turned to the source of the voice and said, "I’m not in a state where I can turn my thoughts into words." When asked "Why?" he replied, "I don’t know," and brushed it off. "Should I tell them what I experienced today?" he thought. But if he did, who would believe him? Who could believe such a thing? Besides, the conversations were so mundane that he had grown increasingly bored. He excused himself and went to his room. Lying on the bed, he stared at the ceiling. "Was what I experienced today real? Was that voice real? What did it mean when it said my journey was just beginning?"

All these questions swirled in his mind in a state of uncertainty. "What is my purpose in this world? What am I meant to achieve or serve?" he wondered. "It's hard enough to even think about it, let alone explain it," he said. "Where will this path take us? We will see," he muttered to himself and let himself drift into the sweet comfort of sleep.