I've had Tommy ever since he was a kitten. A cute little white cat with brown blotches of fur here and there. I decided to adopt a pet because the loneliness was starting to get to me, and his fur coloring reminded me of this old family cat my grandparents used to have when I was little. So, after getting all the necessary things to raise a cat, I adopted him and whisked him away to his forever home.

Fast forward a year or two, and Tommy was acting like any other cat. Clawing at the carpet, knocking things off the table, and sleeping anywhere but the cat bed I got for him. Over all, being a lovable furball acting like he owns the house. I was in the living room watching TV, watching the Hallmark channel because they released their upteenth Christmas movie and I was bored. By my feet was Tommy, sleeping under the coffee table. I don't remember why, but I got up to do something outside. When I was getting my shoes on, I started to hear meowing from the living room. Just a few short ones before going quiet, so I went to see what happened. Coming back, I see him still under the table, rubbing his face into the carpet before going back to sleep.

I think back to this day sometimes, because that might have been the first time I remember him meow. Sure, he made other noises. Sneezing, hissing, and on rare occasions, let out a small noise when he yawned. But never a full blown meow. Thinking about it now, I guess that's where it might have started...

Nothing really exciting happened after the next few years. I continued to live my life as a cat owner, and Tommy would make a ruckus for one reason or another. Though, throughout this whole time, a thought would always pop up every so often, and you could probably make a guess from the title. I have not once SEEN him meow in front of me. I would always hear it from the other room he's in or when I'm not looking at him for too long. I never gave it too much attention at the time, I just thought it was weird.

A year ago is when... well, IT started happening. I was in the living room and staying up late binge watching a show, sleep demanding I finally go to bed. When I noticed Tommy walk by me. I just scooped him up on the spot and sat him on my lap. For once, he didn't immediately jump off and just got into a more comfortable position. A few minutes later, I started to hear meowing coming from my kitchen. I thought nothing of it, and chalked it up to a stray cat outside a window I might have left open.

Not long after, the meowing soon turned into screeching, like something was in a fight or giving birth. Either way, that woke me right up and almost made me toss Tommy off me as I got off the couch. I immediately went to the kitchen and switched on the lights, practically stumbling across the tile floor as I made my way to the windows.  As I got the counter where the windows were, I noticed two things. It was now dead quiet in the kitchen, save for the sound coming from the TV. Also, all the windows were shut.

My heart was pounding from how loud and sudden that was, but I started to calm down and convinced myself it was probably just my sleep deprived brain tricking me. Still, that scare definitely kept me up all night till the morning. I finished the show, and moved on with my life. Before I left the kitchen, I heard yet another meow coming from the living room, where Tommy was still on the couch, looking confused as to what the hell I'm doing.

A few days later, I was on the second floor of my house, going through the bathroom closet to look for a towel to replace another. All the while, I think about Tommy, who was chilling at the bottom of the staircase for whatever reason, and think about annoying him in some way. When I found the towel I wanted, I heard yet another meow coming from right outside the bathroom. Deciding to play with him out of boredom, I went out and jostled the towel close to the ground to get Tommy's attention. He wasn't anywhere near the bathroom.

I looked around the hallway from the bathroom, but didn't see any sign of him. Curious, I went over to the stairs and looked down. At the bottom is Tommy, still sitting at the foot of the stairs, tail flopping on the floor lazily. I'll be honest, this weirded me out, and I started to make sure my cat was in the same room as me to see what happened. This resulted in me not hearing a single meow for a couple of hours. This weirded me out even more, yet I never knew why.

After a week, the whole experience was beginning to leave my mind, and it would have been another weird memory in my life. One night, Tommy was sleeping on my legs as I scrolled on my phone in bed. At some point, when a video I was watching came to an end, I heard it. The faint sound of that damn meow, this time sounding like it was coming from down the hall leading from my room. Frozen in shock, I turned my phone around, the glowing screen barely illuminating my dark room. Door wide open leading to more darkness, and my cat still sleeping on my legs.

Another meow came from the hall. This time, I turned on the phone's flashlight and, to Tommy's annoyance, moved my cat off me as I quickly got out of bed and rushed to my bedroom door. The light illuminated the the hallway in a bright glow and revealed everything I've seen down this hall for several years. A light-brown carpet, a handful of pictures of family on the walls, door to the bathroom on the left, guestroom on the right, and a set of stairs leading to the bottom floor at the far end.

Another faint meow came from what sounded like the bottom of the stairs. I quickly closed the door and stayed up all night until the sun came up. Throughout the night, it sounded like a cat was vocalizing to be let in just on the other side of the door. All the while, Tommy was just sleeping on my bed like I wasn't cowering in the far corner as I stared at my door, while something was meowing just outside.

The meowing finally stopped around seven in the morning, Tommy wanted to leave my bedroom, and I had finally built enough courage to open my door. My cat simply walked past me as I stared down an empty, and quiet, hallway. I quickly followed him, honestly afraid to be alone. I'm a grown adult, and I'm now scared of being alone with a sound that I am slowly realizing might have never came from my own cat.

That was the last day I had any rational thoughts. For the whole day, I thought maybe, MAYBE, there was another cat in my house that somehow got in. That it was living in the walls or roof this whole time, and I'm just acting like a paranoid baby. So, I searched. For the entire day, I checked my house from top to bottom. Every corner, nook, cranny, and gap that looked like a cat could fit, I checked. The whole time, listening carefully for any sounds that might give away this other cat's location. Even waiting for that damned meowing that'd now haunted me.

I never found anything. Any gap I found was either too small or didn't lead far into the wall to go anywhere. The entire time, the mystery cat practically taunting me whenever I feel like I've came close. Meowing from a different part of the house from wherever I was. This time, however, after intentionally listening, I discovered something that made me from scared of a hiding cat to terrified of something unknown. Every meow was clear enough to sound like it's coming from another room, not muffled by any foundation besides doors.

So, the hiding-in-the-walls theory just got thrown out the window, and I am beyond scared. Over the next few days, I've been leaving my TV, radios, and phone on playing anything to drown out the meowing. It worked for a time, but I could always hear that sound within the sea of noise. So I came up with a new plan to somehow ease my fear riddled mind. Evidence. I turned off everything and started carrying my phone with me throughout the house, constantly recording anything I heard.

It didn't take long for that meowing to echo from across the house, and if my phone could be able to pick up the neighbor's dog barking, it could definitely record this.

Well it didn't. All the things my phone was able to record was me talking to myself, my footsteps, and the neighbor's dog. But not a single cat sound. I made sure the phone was recording the whole time, and even knew when the meowing picked up because of the dog barking not long after.

I went with my next idea. That being to have witnesses. So, I invited my parents over for the weekend. I made up some excuse that I missed them and wanted to spend some time together. They came, and were happy to see me and Tommy. Well, mostly mom, as she didn't leave him alone for a minute, while dad and I took the piss out of whatever political figure he didn't agree with.

All while.... nothing happened. Throughout the entire three days they stayed, that meowing never came up. To say I was upset is an understatement, but honestly, those were the best nights of sleep I've had since this whole thing started. After they left, it took less then a day for the nightmare to start back up. I had to go back to the background noise to get close to ignoring that sound. It barely helped, but helped nonetheless.

Three months ago, Tommy died from kidney failure at the age of fourteen. Understandably, I was devastated. Who wouldn't after losing what was essentially a close friend for a good chunk of your life. However, there was a small part of me that, to this day, I still hate myself for thinking. For a moment I was happy he died, thinking that it was his fault that this thing had been haunting me for the past few years, and that him dying would finally get rid of it.

Well I know better now, because that meowing came back a few days after I returned home. And this time it felt worse now that I didn't have Tommy to help me through this. This whole thing finally came to a head last week, after the meows started sounding like they were coming from the same room I'm in whenever I'm not paying attention, or going to sleep.

I moved back in with my parents soon after, saying that I don't feel okay being by myself in that empty house. That was partially true, so I didn't have to go too far with a lie. They understood and took me in without hesitation. After settling back in for a few days, I started writing this. It's safe to say that whatever 'that' was didn't follow me. I've known this in the past from vacations and holidays, but this is the first time I've committed to staying away. I plan on selling the house later, let someone else deal with whatever might be there.

This whole experience has honestly given me a fear of hearing but not seeing cats. I honestly don't know how to feel about that, and I don't care. All I know is I come close to a panic attack every time I hear a meow outside late at night, and I pray to God hoping that there's an actual cat this time.

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A/N: Take a shot every time you read meow.