A Trap for a Thought-Form. 21. Warning, Cat

A TRAP for a THOUGHT-FORM

a novel in the series
"PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY"

Chapter 21. WARNING: CAT!

“Will you introduce us the Puss in Boots today?” the Guardian grinned as he put my furs on the hanger. “What an intriguing title for a book ‘Warning: Cat!’, especially since there is not a cat on the cover, but a cheetah… Or who is it?”

“In fact, the author is a ‘Dog’, perhaps already barefoot. He’s crazy about dogs. And he has a dog at home, not a cat. However, at work, the tax office has pressed him so hard that…”

“He was left without boots,” the Guardian laughed.

“Anyway, cats today are well sold without boots, meanwhile dogs cannot be sold even in boots.”

“Hmm… It’s a great idea to put our Cat up for auction! To sell him for a billion. Why not? He’s not a simple Puss, he is from the Haunted Mansion!.. And then to leave here. Where would you like to live, my little Queen?” the Guardian leaned towards me and switched to a whisper. “Share your dreams with me! You have them, don’t you?”

I took a step back to regain my personal space and found myself in the room with the fireplace, where the Portal was located. Apparently the door was unlocked. There was no light there, except perhaps Mrs. the Moon looking through the same Blizzard in the uncurtained window…

The Guardian followed me. He smiled, but there were devilish lights in his eyes.

“Why do you hate me?” I asked, stepping back further and further.

“Me? Hate? You? You are practically registered in my Mansion for 40 nights!” the Guardian raved, continuing to pursue me, “It’s all yours here! Everything is for you only! A magical gothic Mansion with Impurities! Haven’t you been dreaming of getting here for so long? The Haunted House — Meow!!! With mirrors without your reflection — Oh-oh-oh-oh!!! And the most important is the real working PORTAL to the Other Worlds — Wow!!!”

I felt my back against the fireplace, located in the corner of the room.

“Don’t you like it here, Alice?” the Guardian touched my hair. “What do you miss to be completely happy? Well, tell me, tell me! And I’ll get it for you!” he took another step and…

“MEOW!!!” yelled the Cat, whose tail had just been stepped on.

The Guardian swore and reluctantly stepped back.

I left the room and on my way to the stage, I replayed his words in my head.

***

“The Guardian knows that I’m not reflected in mirrors,” I told Roman in my mind as I sat down next to him at the break. “Is it possible that the mirrors here are specific, and no one is reflected under any circumstances? I just don’t know the way to check it now, everything is so confused! I can’t understand what I am, and what I’m doing here.”

Roman looked at me and smiled.

“And what are you, Alice? And what are you doing here?”

I got afraid of his words. I couldn’t understand why. Roman felt my fear and immediately took my hand.

“I don’t wish you any harm, Alice. Trust me.”

I looked into Roman’s eyes distrustfully and found in them a whole bunch of feelings. It was difficult to isolate each one separately, but all together, they had a hypnotic effect on me. I shifted my gaze to the coffee cup.

“Remember the beginning,” suggested Roman.

I thought back.

“There is a functioning Portal in the Mansion, and I began to hold literary parties here in order to leave for the Other Reality on the 40th night,” I summarized.

“Why, Alice? What’s the purpose?” Roman stroked my arm, encouraging my musings.

The countdown shots flashed before my eyes, “39 nights, and I’m free! 38 nights and…”

“To become free…”

“And today,” Roman asked, nodding in agreement, “haven’t your plans been changed?”

“Well, if we’re already ghosts, then…”

“And if we are not?” he interrupted.

Of course, Roman read me like an open book. His rhetorical question didn’t require my answer. Roman’s appearance in the Mansion at the very first night was equal to a glitch in the Matrix, but a wonderful and magical one, the real little miracle and unexpected joy, the ray of the Sun in the incessant Blizzard of my fate. However, sooner or later the parties in the Mansion would end as well as our breaks with Roman, patiently listening to my revelations, and magic tasks for the beginners in wizard practice.

(“Can true magicians create worlds? Yes, definitely. But these worlds are worthy absolutely nothing if there is neither Love in them, nor the one for whom you create them, with whom you wander there, discovering something new and wonderful — feelings, emotions, knowledge, with whom you share joys and sorrows… If the Magician’s world belongs only to himself and doesn’t intersect at any point with the world of a kindred soul, it is doomed to destruction…”)

I got deeply lost in my thoughts, then looked at Roman again.

“If you disappear forever, somewhere in that world of yours, where there is no place for me even on the edge, everything will return to the beginning, and this ominous Blizzard…”

The bell ringing interrupted my saddest thoughts.

“Let me remind you,” Roman said aloud and lightly patted me on the shoulder, “yesterday we launched the Wish Program. What’s next, Master?”

“Do you still believe we are not ghosts?”

Task No. 21. TRANSIT ZONES

…The reality of one’s Tomorrow has many options, each subsequent Option is formed by one’s reaction onto certain events / phenomena / information / people in sensitive points of one’s Matrix of the current Option (“here and now”)…

The Magician daily listens to the Wind of Change, carefully monitors the signs sent from Above to check the travel map when the boarders shift and he gets into the so-called Transit Zones, or Portals — places of transition from one scenario to another. Transit Zones belong simultaneously to several Options of Tomorrow. Sometimes the Magician can get lost, so it’s important to catch in time the signal about hitting the Transit Zone that leads to the unwanted Option of Tomorrow in order to take a step back and not get trapped. Any, even the slightest, glitch in the Matrix of the current Option is a sign of displacement, or change in the standard scenario of the current Option, i.e. a sign of getting into the Transit Zone. To begin with, make it a habit to catch everything non-standard “here and now”. Purposefully monitor your reality, taking maximum actions during the day consciously, not as automatic machine and not in the state of the dormant Consciousness. Before going to bed, analyze the glitches discovered during the day, identifying their correlations with the previous ones and supposing possible future chains of events to adjust your next steps.

***

I returned home and, opening my notes, refreshed in my mind the glitches (or just oddities) of the Matrix.

GENERAL

Almost completely erased memory.

Blurred pictures, no shadow and no reflection in the Mirror.

Exit in the Blizzard with instant transgression home.

The King of Swords walked me through the Blizzard, but he didn’t see the church.

The city in the Blizzard seems puppet-like.

Guests in the Mansion are like Tarot cards.

I don’t remember what I eat (except coffee in the Mansion).

Do I eat anything?

No weekends…

Limited space: Mansion and my apartment at night. However, I was able to wake up in the morning and go to church!

The GUARDIAN and related

Doll’s room. The Doll itself, looking like me.

Drawings of the Doll (or me?).

Dresses (for the Doll?) with blood (or wine?) in the dressing room of the Theater.

My paintings of the Girl with the Cat in the Guardian’s room (but they are at the same time in my flat).

His story about my gloves, in which I (?) am the Guardian’s secret daughter (!), and he has an oh-oh what a forbidden story with me (?)! and I am older (!) than the Guardian.

The Guardian was surprised that I prefer winter to spring.

He didn’t want me to communicate with the Witch.

Inadequacy in his feelings towards me. At the same time, being jealous, for some reason he doesn’t touch Roman, while it would have been logical to cut off our communication at the root.

Guardian’s words, “And yes, by the way! Death has already defeated you!”

He knows I’m not reflected in mirrors.

Perhaps he is even aware of Pasha, his words about Greece and Germany sounded ominously defiant.

MISCELLANEOUS

Roman’s words, “whether ghosts need to learn magic… Should they die again, stepping into the Portal on the 40th night?”

Actually, the appearance of Roman himself. And of Pasha. As well as of the Wanderer. Ray seemed to appear several times.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Too many glitches. Where to start? And is it worth starting if I have to hold on here just a little bit? If I am a ghost, there is nothing to be surprised at, because all is possible in the Other World, such glitches are valid according to the earthly standards only.”

However, I set myself to wake up early in the morning in order to start unraveling the tangle, at least from one of the threads, with a fresh look.