(January 30, 2025)

Where did all these cats come from? A second ago, this room had been empty, but suddenly there were five cats prowling around Tashwrites’s feet.

She frowned at the closed front door, at the locked window.

A fluffy little white kitten brushed up against Tashwrites’s pantleg, turning the black fabric grey, and she frowned at the furball. “Thank you so much.”

The cat mewed and padded over to the chair in the corner. Then fell right through.

Tashwrites raised an eyebrow. Illusions?

Oh no.

She turned towards the door and braced for the source of the magic to burst its way in.

(February 28, 2025)

When the burst didn’t come, Tashwrites took a hesitant step towards the door. She reached for the handle, her fingers shaking in apprehension. Or anticipation?

Before she made contact, the magic came. It pierced the gaps around the door and filled the room with a blinding pink light that turned the cats into wisps of air and transformed her ceiling light into a giant squid.

She screamed and darted out of the way before it fell, but as it dropped through the air, it too disappeared, leaving the room dark.

Breaths coming in panting gasps, Tashwrites turned towards the now-open doorway.

(January 26, 2026)

The world outside her door was not how she remembered it. There should have been a street. A driveway. A car in the driveway. Instead, it was forest. Thick, lush, green forest. And before she could think this was also an illusion, she was struck by the foresty smells that told her all too clearly that this was real.

“What on earth?”

With careful steps, she poked her head outside, ready to duck back in if anyone tried to strike it off. But there was no one. Aside from the trees, there seemed to be nothing.

“Okay.”

She gave a last look around her home, then went outside. Perhaps the wise move would have been to stay in, but she’d never been accused to being wise. She was curious. Much as those cat illusions had been. Whether it would end in her death remained to be seen.

The ground was soft under her feet, adding more evidence that this was more than her mind playing tricks on her. What had happened? Had someone… transported her house to the middle of nowhere? Created a portal right outside her door?

Either way, if someone wanted her here, it meant they had to be here as well, right?

“Hello?” she called.

Nothing responded, not even the chirping of birds or the ruffle of wind in the trees.

She walked farther into the woods, wishing she’d thought to bring something with her by way of a weapon. Magic churned in her blood, but without a way to channel it, it would be next to useless.

When a scream pierced the silence, she considered turning around and running right back inside, but her feet moved without her permission, dragging her towards the sound. The trees thinned, the world opened up, and in front of her was an ogre looming over a young woman on the ground.

“I will have my way with you!” he bellowed.

“Oh hell no,” Tashwrites said, ready to charge forward weapon or no weapon.

But when she broke through the clearing, the ogre stumbled back and glanced off beyond the woman. “Is she supposed to be here? I thought we weren’t interrupted for another few minutes. What’s my line?”

Tashwrites stumbled to a halt and looked around. “What the hell?”