By Paul Cwick

Greg pulled his BMW onto the highway and stepped on the gas. It was good to get out and have some fun & relaxation again for a change. The last few weeks had been sheer hell for him. He really truly felt as though his nerves were at the breaking point. A night out was just what he needed.

It was probably what Cat needed too, come to think of it. He looked at her now, on the car seat beside him and she smiled back at him. Damn, she looked hot! She was all dressed up in what she called her "Biker Babe" outfit (although she had never been on a motorcycle in her life, a fact that amused Greg to no end whenever she used the phrase.) It was a sexy outfit though, there was no question about that: skin-tight black leather pants, a black-leather bustier, topped off with a leather jacket. On her feet, underneath the pants, she wore knee-high zippered black boots. When she was dressed in this outfit, and with that glorious mane of flame-red hair, she looked ready to take on the world and probably could.

But even apart from the outfit, Greg was just plain glad to actually SEE Cat for a change. Ever since she had told him about her discovery of invisibility several weeks ago, he seemed to actually SEE her less and less as time went on, yet she was always there, constantly underfoot. She kept doing what she called her ‘little disappearing act,’ after which Greg could never be quite sure exactly WHERE she was or WHAT she would do next. Sometimes she could be very nice, playing little games of ‘hide and seek,’ as she called them ("If you catch me, I’ll give you a little reward!"), or performing what she called her ‘invisible seductions,’ in which her unseen hands would slowly undress him, often when he least expected it. These took a little getting used to at first, but eventually Greg grew to enjoy them. But there were also other times when she wasn’t so nice. She was very unpredictable, and Greg never really knew quite what to expect from her from day to day. She had always been somewhat capricious by nature; in fact, it was part of what had once made her so appealing to him. But when she was invisible, this capriciousness made Greg feel very uncomfortable. Moreover, he could never be entirely sure that he was really alone. Cat had made no secret of the fact that, while invisible, she liked to spy on Greg without his knowledge, a fact that still made his flesh crawl whenever he thought about it. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand what compelled her to do such a bizarre thing.

Nor could he understand what made her do some of the other strange things she did while invisible. In the beginning, it seemed harmless; annoying, but harmless, the little tricks and pranks she played on him. Pulling his shirt out, giving him ‘wedgies,’ pulling drinks or books or newspapers out of his hands and then laughing about it. Little things that, under normal circumstances would only be minor annoyances, but which, when done by an invisible person, could be extremely unnerving. It just didn’t seem right somehow for her to take advantage that way. He tried to talk to her about it, but she would just laugh it off and pay no attention. Which annoyed him even more. And over a period of several weeks, those pranks really started to get old…

And the pranks themselves seemed to be getting more perverse too, even downright cruel at times. Often she would ‘pounce’ on him unexpectedly while invisible, scaring the daylights out of him. Sometimes she would pinch and poke him with her invisible fingers, or tickle him unmercifully, or suddenly pull his pants down or rip his shirt off without warning. It was bad enough when she did these things to him in private; it was even worse when she occasionally did them in public, when people were watching. Then he was totally humiliated. She did it on one occasion, and even though she promised never to do it again, she soon did it a second time. Then a third. Soon, it became a favorite prank of hers. And when Greg would get upset about it and ask her not to do it anymore (sometimes almost pleading), she would again only laugh and say, "What are you going to do about it, tough guy?" and proceed to taunt him even more. And, of course, she was right; there was nothing he could do about it.

Of course, her pranks were minor compared with her occasional rages. She didn’t lose her temper very often, but when she did, it was really something, especially if she happened to be invisible at the time. If that were the case, she could be downright dangerous. Greg had on more than one occasion experienced firsthand results of Cat’s temper combined with her invisibility. A shiver ran down his back as he recalled one such incident, absentmindedly running a finger over a tiny scar on his cheek near his left eye, and tried to put the incident out of his mind…

But that was in the past; they had since kissed and made up. Greg felt confident that things would be better between them from now on. He had tried to be patient with Cat. He tried to put up with her bizarre pranks and her tempestuous moods. He really did love her, and he felt that, with patience and love, sooner or later she would get bored with invisibility and then their life could get back to normal. So he was patient. They’d had their difficulties in the past, it was true, but things would be different now. Things would be better, he just knew they would..

Greg’s patience seemed to be paying off, too. It had now been almost three weeks since Cat had last become invisible, and Greg was relieved; she seemed to have lost interest in it. Now maybe things could settle down between them and get back to normal. There was a lot of work to do in that regard, but this night out (at Cat’s suggestion, no less) was at least a good start, a step in the right direction.

Greg pulled into the driveway of the nightclub and pulled into a parking space. The two got out, and Greg reached, tentatively at first, towards Cat, putting his arm around her waist. Cat responded in kind, and the two entered the building with arms around each others’ waists. The place was packed with the usual Saturday-nighters, the air filled with an effusive cacophony of loud voices, beer glasses clinking, and of course, the ever-present music, the pulsating rhythms of the live band. Cat & Greg weaved their way through the crowd to one of the few empty tables remaining and sat down. It was warm & humid inside, and Cat took off her jacket as she took her seat. They ordered beers and although the music was loud and there was still a bit of tension between them at first, they soon loosened up and began to converse in the kind of light, casual chit-chat that had been so lacking in their relationship in recent weeks. The beers were brought, they each took a drink, before hitting the dance floor.

It was good to see Cat on the dance floor again. Although she had never had any lessons in her life, she was what you’d call a ‘natural.’ The music transformed her, she became a different person, a different creature. She was no longer mere flesh and bone, but pure movement, a whirlwind of light and energy in human form. Watching her dance now, Greg recalled that energy, that vitality that had once made him fall in love with her.

The song ended, and the couple returned to their table, laughing. Greg felt better than he had in months, and Cat seemed happier too, free of the dark, perverse tendencies that Greg had noticed in her lately. They sat down and took fresh glasses of beer.

The evening wore on, with more dancing and more drinking. Both Cat and Greg were beginning to get a little tight, and Greg realized that driving home would be out of the question. He suggested to Cat that they’d better start thinking of leaving pretty soon if they had any chance of getting a cab, and Cat readily agreed.

"But first," she said, "One last dance. For me." Greg agreed as he finished the last of his beer and Cat did likewise. Had Greg been more observant (or more sober) he would have noticed Cat retrieve a tiny vial of gray-green liquid from her pants pocket, open it, and deposit its contents into her beer immediately before she drank it….

The music boomed out in a new song, and Cat & Greg hit the dance floor one last time, Cat with even more energy than earlier. Something about her had completely cut loose, and she literally flew around the floor, with greater abandon than Greg had ever seen in her before. She was like a wild animal suddenly released from a cage. Around and around the floor she went, until finally, she jumped up onto a table to continue her dance! By now the crowd had begun to notice the fiery redhead in black leather, and began to clap and cheer her on. She danced with even greater energy, greater abandon. Her movements became more sensual and the crowd became even more excited.

And it was at this point that Greg began to notice… No, no, it couldn’t be. He must’ve had more to drink than he thought. Either that or the stress of the last couple of months was finally catching up with him. Because he almost thought that Cat was disappearing again.

Wait a minute...! She WAS disappearing! Right there, in front of everyone, dancing on that table, Cat was rapidly fading away! Greg couldn’t believe it but Cat was becoming invisible again! Her arms, her shoulders, her face and that flying mane of red hair were all becoming more and more transparent! Soon, he could barely see them at all. Sobering up more rapidly than he had planned, he shouted out to Cat, but between the music and the noise of the crowd, she never heard him. The music pounded out louder and faster and as Cat continued to fade, her movements became more sinuous and sensual. When at last she became completely invisible, she began to do what Greg had feared most: she began to strip. Right there in front of all these people, Cat was doing a strip-tease! Keeping perfect time with the music, she began to remove her leather garments. The leather bustier unzipped itself and peeled itself away from Cat’s unseen torso. The tight leather pants pranced around the table a bit longer before they unzipped and peeled themselves from unseen legs. Soon all that remained were a pair of panties floating and bobbing in the air above a pair of high black leather boots that continued to kick and dance by themselves. Eventually, the panties curled away and fell to the floor and the boots unzipped themselves from unseen feet and tossed themselves to the floor just as the song ended.

The crowd went absolutely wild while all this was happening. Reactions varied: there were some gasps, some screams, some shouts, a few people fainted, some simply stood in open-mouthed amazement but many turned over tables and chairs heading for the exits. A couple of braver souls tried to rush the table where Cat had been dancing and received bloody noses for their trouble. And there were other reactions too. A large group of jocks at the bar were either very drunk or else they thought Cat’s disappearance was all part of some elaborate special-effects show (one of the jocks loudly proclaimed that it "must’ve all been done with lasers & holograms & all that stuff.") or both. Either way, when Cat removed the last of her garments and disappeared completely, the jocks erupted into cheers and applause with the same volume level and enthusiasm as at the winning touchdown of a football game. Equally unfazed by both Cat’s disappearance and the ensuing chaos that erupted was the band, which continued to play throughout the commotion without even missing a beat (when asked about it afterward, one band member replied, "Oh, this is nothing! You should have seen SOME of the gigs we’ve played!")

Meanwhile, in the midst of all the pandemonium, Greg merely stood like a statue, in complete stunned shock. He was trembling all over, almost on the verge of tears, and only stirred when what appeared to be a very faint bubble in a vaguely female shape, followed by a floating paper napkin, approached him. It was invisible Cat, covered in sweat and wiping herself with the napkin.

"Well, what did you think?" she cried, delighted, as she approached him. "Did you like my little surprise?"

"How did you do that?" Greg asked, his voice almost breaking. "You didn’t drink any of that stuff of yours; you didn’t drink ANYTHING but beer all night long!"

"That’s the big surprise!" Cat said, as she continued to wipe herself (literally) away to nothing. "I’ve been working on refining my little potion for the last three weeks, and I finally perfected it! I made a much more portable, concentrated version of it, something I can take with me anywhere. Now I can become invisible whenever and wherever I want! All I needed was a chance to test it, to see if it works, and it did! It’s a success! Isn’t that great? Aren’t you happy for me?"

"Thrilled," said Greg, as he watched the paper napkin wipe away the last remaining traces of his girlfriend.

**********

The following Monday, residents of the city opened their newspapers to read the following story:

                                                                                        Newspaper article provided by Mike B.

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