This is a story I recall happening to me when my parents and I were living in Austin, Texas. Till now, it gives me chills when I think about it.

When I was younger, my parents were avid pet lovers. We had all kinds of pets in our house, such that it was more of a petting zoo at the same time. My siblings and I grew up surrounded by the animals, domestic and exotic, both indoors and outdoors in our dad's special ranch. We had cockatiels, parrots, two lovely German Shepherd dogs, a lonesome bat who hung out outside, rabbits, fish, gerbils, hamsters and many others, but the highlight of the posse was a cat we called Slyvy.

Slyvy was a beautiful male cat with pure white fur, pale blue eyes and a long bushy tail that always flicked up high when he greeted us. Slyvy had been found by my older sister and I as an abandoned kitten at school. We couldn't find his mother anywhere, so we took him in and raised him. He loved following us around and was an avid traveller for a cat. In fact, he was one of the few pets in our household whom we went on road trips with and he enjoyed every moment. Slyvy was especially close to me, so it was no surprise that he followed me everywhere.

One day, Slyvy went missing. We didn't know where he'd gone. Slyvy usually left for an hour after dark to go hunting, but he always came back for food. I was distraught. We put up posters asking if anyone had seen Slyvy, but no one had seen him anywhere at all. It was like he'd just vanished into thin air.

Eventually, most of my family forgot about Slyvy and we adopted another cat, a jet-black female we named Midnight, and took good care of her just as we had with Slyvy. I eventually forgot about Slyvy too, and soon took to Midnight.

Years passed, and I moved to Houston due to work matters. I brought Midnight with me as well, and since it was just the two of us, I converted one of the extra rooms in my new house into a room for her, with cat towers, toys and a bed. Her food bowl, water bowl and litter box were left in the back portion of the kitchen on account of the smell. I started work a few days after moving and settled into life with Midnight. That is, until one night when I saw something I wished I hadn't seen and is the reason I don't let Midnight out after dark anymore.

One night, I was working late and didn't realise time had passed until I heard Midnight yowling and screeching somewhere at the back of the house, where the forest was. I got up from the computer and went to see what the hell was going on back there. I opened the door leading out to the dimly lit backyard and saw Midnight standing with her hackles raised, hissing and spitting at something I couldn't see clearly. I grabbed a flashlight and turned it on, then pointed it at the dark shape Midnight was hissing at, and what I saw almost made me upchuck on the spot.

It was a male humanoid being of sorts with what looked like white fur covering his whole body. A long white tail wagged behind him and in place of nails, there were claws. The thing was feasting on a carcass of sorts, it was so brutally ripped apart I couldn't tell of it was an animal or a human, and there was blood splashed everywhere around it.

Then, it turned to look at me.

I felt my legs from the knee downward go numb with shock as I recognised the familiar pale blue eyes, felinoid mouth and red collar that had once belonged to Slyvy. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing right now.

"Slyvy"? I mouthed, too shocked to even breathe.

In response, the creature that had once been my cat ran off, carrying the carcass it had been feeding on with it in its mouth. I took a few minutes to compose myself, then shined my flashlight to where it had been standing.

On the ground was a message written in blood, and it said:

DO NOT COME LOOKING FOR ME AGAIN. TAKE GOOD CARE OF MIDNIGHT.

To this day, I've never let Midnight leave the house after dark, which isn't too hard considering she's mostly an indoor cat. I still have no idea what actually happened to Slyvy to turn him from an innocent house cat to some man-eating creature, but one thing is certain and that is, from now on, I am never leaving the house after dark.