By Paul Cwick

What time is it? That was the first thought to enter Greg’s mind as he groped toward consciousness, coming out of a deep sleep. He looked toward the clock with bleary eyes. 7:34. Saturday morning. Greg eased himself to the edge of the bed, stretching his legs out to the floor. He yawned & stretched. God, what a strange dream, he thought. Making love to an unseen creature, a ghost. What was it they called it in the Middle Ages? A succubus, that was it. A invisible spirit that came in the night and stole men’s souls while they slept. He chuckled; where the hell did that thought come from? Brother, what a night…

He shifted himself around, yawned again, looking for his slippers when he caught a glimpse of bright red hair out of the corner of his eye, and jolted out of his drowsiness, became instantly awake as realization hit him.

That was no dream.

He looked at the red hair of the sleeping figure in the bed beside him, and the events of the previous evening all came back to him. How his girlfriend Cathy had discovered a way to become invisible. How she had used that power to seduce him the night before. As the pounding of his heart gradually subsided, he struggled to think clearly. Okay, okay…so she’s visible again. Let’s see, last night she was invisible until, oh, well after midnight. So obviously that stuff she drank must’ve worn off during the night…

He drew in a deep breath and slowly released it in relief. Thank God he could see her again. Now maybe he could breathe easy for a while. It was a strange, creepy experience, the night before. It was weird and it was disturbing. Well, at least it’s over now, he thought… He reached over to Cat, touched her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. She opened her green eyes and smiled at him. "Good morning, cat-eyes!" he said to her.

"Good morning, little boy-toy!" she replied. "Did you enjoy last night?"

"Oh, it was interesting, no question about that."

"I’m glad you enjoyed it. I knew you would."

Greg went into the bathroom to wash up. As he shaved and brushed his teeth, he continued to ponder the strange events in his life during the last couple of weeks, ever since Cat revealed her little discovery to him. She was a woman of surprises, make no mistake about that. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she threw him a curve. And this invisibility thing was the biggest curve of them all…

He came out of the bathroom a short time later, and found Cat sitting up in bed, brushing her bright red hair. She wore a bathrobe that she had packed in a little overnight bag she had brought with her the day before. She offered to make Greg’s breakfast, but he said no thanks and suggested instead that they go out to breakfast at a nearby cafe. Cat kissed him on the cheek and readily agreed that that would be a fine idea. She turned and went into the bathroom with her hairbrush, comb and other items she had packed with her. She closed the bathroom door behind her.

Greg walked over to his closet, and was just about to open it when a thought occurred to him. Wait a minute, he thought. If she was already invisible by the time he came home last night, then she must have brought some of the stuff with her when she came here in the afternoon. Did she still have any left? Could he find it? Where would she keep it? She must have it hidden away someplace, but where? The overnight bag? It was worth a look... He tiptoed over to the corner where Cat had stashed her bag. He crouched down and unzipped the bag as quietly as he could and began to look through Cat’s belongings. Then he abruptly stopped. I really shouldn’t be doing this, he realized. I have no right to go rummaging through her things this way. True, it wasn’t fair of her not to share the potion with him, nor was it right for her to use her invisibility to invade his privacy the way she had. But that didn’t give him the right to invade her privacy either. He felt guilty. He was just about to zip the bag back up again and put it back in the corner, when a sudden, angry voice behind him made him jump:

"What the hell are you doing?!?"

Greg whipped his head around to find Cat standing right behind him. She had left the bathroom and he hadn’t even heard her. Her green eyes flashed in pure, cold fury, a look Greg had never seen before. He had seen Cat in moods that were playful, mischievous, irritable, and even angry, but never this; this was something new.

"I was just—I—uh…" he fumbled for an explanation.

"Yeah, I know what you were doing! You were after my potion, weren’t you! Damn you!" she cried, yanking the bag from his hands. She zipped up the bag, and strode away from him, stopping at the doorway. "Keep your hands off my stuff, dammit!!" She said. As she stormed out of the room, she muttered, "Damn you! I just knew I couldn’t trust you! I knew it!"

Greg sat stunned on the bed for several minutes. Good God, I really did it this time, he thought… Maybe I can explain. Maybe I can smooth things over somehow, he thought. He sat in silence for a while longer. Well…he would have to face her sooner or later, he might as well do it now and get it over with. Finally, when he mustered up the courage, he got up and walked into the other room.

Cat was sitting on the couch, simmering, with her overnight bag on her lap. Greg meekly walked over and sat in the chair opposite her. She regarded him with eyes that had only marginally cooled off from her earlier outburst. Greg was just about to speak when Cat beat him to it:

"Now look Greg," she said, trying to keep her anger under control. "Let’s get one thing straight right now. That potion is MINE, do you understand? It’s my discovery and I’m the only one who gets to use it, you got that? If you’ve got a problem with that, it’s just too damned bad. And before you give me the ‘That’s not fair’ BS again, let me just remind you that there are a lot of things in life that are unfair. We all have to get used to them. And the one thing you’ll have to get used to is that I’m the only one around here who gets to be invisible, and that’s that."

She was mad. But Greg was mad, too. Cat was being totally unfair about this whole thing. He was just about to respond, when Cat spoke again, more quietly.

"And if you don’t like it, well, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. Is there?"

Greg was silent. He was really steamed now. But he held his tongue. He thought it over, and decided that he really didn’t want to argue about it right now. Sooner or later, they’d have to get this out, but not now. He didn’t want a fight to ruin the rest of the weekend. So, taking a deep breath, holding his anger in check, he merely said, "All right. I’m sorry I went through your bag. I was wrong; I admit it."

"Good." Cat said, and her anger seemed to dissipate. "I accept your apology."

The two sat in silence for several minutes before Greg, in trying to re-build some bridges, gently renewed the suggestion about going out for breakfast. Cat agreed, though with considerably less enthusiasm than she’d shown earlier. Greg got up and returned to the bedroom to get dressed. Cat sat in silence for a minute or two. Then she unzipped her bag and reached inside.

A short time later, Greg emerged from the bedroom, wearing a fresh shirt, tie and jacket. He was surprised to find Cat still in her bathrobe, sitting on the couch. She held a small flask, like a tiny thermos, in her hand. Her mood was hard to read, but seemed to suggest anything other than happiness. Has she been drinking? Greg wondered. Good lord, she’s still sulking...

"What are you doing?" he asked. "Why aren’t you getting ready? Aren’t we going?"

She calmly placed the flask inside her bag and zipped it up. She then turned to face Greg with a strange look on her face. Her demeanor was difficult to discern, but the look in her eyes sent a chill down Greg’s spine. "You know Greg, what really hurts me is how little my words apparently mean to you," she said quietly. "I warned you what happens to bad boys. But you didn’t listen." Cat slowly rose from the couch, and only then did Greg notice that her face was fading away, becoming transparent. Greg felt his blood run cold and he began to back away. "I guess you’ll have to be punished." she said, approaching him, a chilling little smile on her face the last thing Greg saw before it faded into oblivion.

Cat had become invisible again. And what was worse, she was obviously not happy. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…" Greg repeated, almost as a mantra as he backed away from the empty bathrobe that approached him…

He continued to back away until he had backed into a corner. "N-now, w-wait a minute, Cathy," he said (he always called her by her real name when it was really serious.) "Let’s be reasonable. We-we can talk this over. You’re-you’re not still mad, are you? You said you accepted my apology, right? Right?"

The empty bathrobe continued to close in on Greg; finally it was right in front of him. An empty sleeve was raised and waved menacingly in Greg’s face. An unseen hand gently patted a cheek. "No, I’m not angry," Cat’s soft (though unconvincing) voice seemed to come from the empty collar of the robe. "And that’s a good thing. You should be grateful for that. I did accept your apology. But you still need to be punished. You need to be taught a lesson. I have to make sure that you don’t do this kind of thing again. You have to learn to respect other people’s personal property and their personal space."

Greg couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was SHE lecturing HIM about respecting other people’s space? She, who had stolen his house key and made a duplicate without his knowledge? Unbelievable…

"I really hate to do this," Cat said, as the empty sleeves busied themselves about the front of the bathrobe as the sash was untied. "I really do. But you leave me no choice. I simply have to teach you a lesson."

The sash was untied, the sleeves of the robe reached up and the top of the robe came loose from the unseen form beneath it and fell to the floor. Greg blinked and stood stock still, waiting. It seemed like an eternity, yet it was mere moments. He seemed to be alone…yet he was not alone. "C-Cathy?" he said. "Cathy? W-where are you? What-What are you going to do?"

Silence.

Then it started. Unseen fingers reached out to poke and prod him, tweaking and pinching, unseen hands slapped his face. Greg tried to shield himself as best he could, but it was useless; the attack seemed to come from all directions at once. No matter which way he ducked, the unseen hands seemed to be everywhere. He pleaded with Cat to stop, he tried to run away, to escape to another room, but it was useless; there was no escaping, no hiding from his unseen attacker.

The attack itself was not that severe, even the slaps were not especially painful. Yet for Greg, it was every bit as frightening as if he were being beaten with clubs. What made it even worse was Cat’s response as Greg begged her to stop: she simply laughed! Good God, she was enjoying this! Greg continued to run, to try to get away from Cat’s vengeance, and finally ran out the front door. He ran blindly down the street, running just to try to get away. Eventually he ended up, ironically, at the very same cafe where he and Cat were supposed to have breakfast. He ran inside and ducked into a corner, leaning against a wall. He gasped for breath, and struggled to collect his thoughts. Okay…okay…okay, relax, he told himself. Calm down. I think you’re all right now….I think you’ve given her the slip. You’re safe now… His breathing began to slow and he wiped away the sweat from his face. Then he was suddenly jolted by a familiar voice right next to him.

"You didn’t really think you could get away from me that easily, did you?" It was Cat, and she had been standing right next to him the whole time.

"Cathy, please!" Greg pleaded. "Please stop this!"

"I’m sorry," Cat said. "But this is for your own good. Believe me, this hurts me more than it does you." she said. Suddenly Greg’s jacket was pulled up over his head from behind and ripped from bottom to top, neatly in half, and the remainder torn from his shoulders. His tie was pulled loose and his shirt was yanked off, the popped buttons flying in all directions. The shirt continued to rip itself to shreds in mid-air while Greg stood frozen in his undershirt and watched, too stunned to move. The other restaurant patrons watched in mute amazement as this entire display took place.

Finally, the torn shreds of the shirt, jacket and tie lifted themselves up and tossed themselves at Greg’s chest; they fell to the floor. "There now. That’s that," Cat’s voice said, out of breath. "Now then. Shall we go home now? While you’ve still got your pants? Or do you want some more?"

Greg simply stood staring, completely in shock, shaking with rage, almost on the verge of tears.

Cat gave him a shove "Well?" she inquired. "Have you learned your lesson?"

"Yes! Yes, I’ve learned my lesson, all right?!?" he cried.

"Good." Cat said. "Now we understand each other." Cat paused and gave him another shove. "Come on," she said. "Snap out of it. Don’t take it so hard. You screwed up and I slapped you down. That’s all. Just be glad I wasn’t REALLY angry…this time."

With a cracking, barely audible voice, Greg asked, "Why are you doing this to me?"

Cat reached over, unseen, and whispered quietly in Greg’s ear: "Because I can." She kissed his cheek. "That’s why. Remember that."

She took hold of his hand and led him out of the restaurant. He flinched at her touch, but did not resist. "Come on now, let’s go." she said. Greg followed in a shocked daze, oblivious to everything around him, including the silent, open-mouthed stares of the restaurant patrons.

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