Fireday, week 2, month 7, year 631:
I woke up in the middle of the night to a horrible screeching sound coming from the window. I looked over, and it was there again, its jade-green eyes staring at me unblinkingly as it scratched a circle in the glass with a single menacing claw. Over and over again. Tracing the same line, once, twice, thrice… I lost count in my panic. I thought I killed that thing two weeks ago when it did that, but it came back the previous Darkday night, and now again last night.
I only snapped out of my petrified state when the transparent circle separated from the rest of the pane, to fall and shatter against the stone tiles of my bedroom floor. Shards of glass flew everywhere, and I dumbly said “Oh shit. That’ll be a pain to get out of the rug” because I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t believe my situation. I… just couldn’t. Couldn’t… anything, except shake in my nightclothes, dry one moment, drenched with sweat and piss the next.
Then it came inside. I grabbed my sword and cut it in two, just as easily as the last two times. It wasn’t enough. Again, again, again, I sliced its corpse, praying this would be the end. For good measure, after I cut it into innumerable pieces, I gathered them up and doused them in holy water, then burned them until naught but ashes remained, which I separated into seven jars. Even the beast’s blood I gathered, purified, and buried in an alder’s wood box under the holly grove by the scant moonslight. This afternoon, I sent each of the seven jars with a different servant to throw into seven different rivers. Hopefully that beast will never rise again. Tonight I sleep in another room, as I wait for the glassmaker to replace my window yet again.
Fireday, week 3, month 7, year 631:
It returned. After slaying the beast with a thrust to the heart, I raced outside and dug up the box from the grove. Not a drop of blood was left. In my horror, I stayed out amongst the trees and wailed in despair until the sun rose above the walls. Defeated, I returned to my bedroom, to find the beast’s body was gone, even its blood had vanished. I spent the rest of the day interrogating every person who had been in my entire estate that night, and many who only came later. None had entered my bedroom. None had even seen the beast, let alone cleaned up its corpse.
Fireday, week 4, month 7, year 631:
I was prepared. Two servants stayed with me last night. The beast came, entered through last week’s hole, for I knew I would only have to replace the glass once more should I fix it, and I had my servants kill it. I had them cut its body into four, and each quarter is being watched by at least two servants at all times. Nothing has happened to them thus far - neither to the servants nor the body of the beast.
Waterday, week 4, month 7, year 631:
The beast’s body seemed to have become smaller, though nobody could say for sure. The servants watching did so flawlessly. I pray that it is only due to it drying out in the late Minorsummer heat.
Woodday, week 4, month 7, year 631:
It has begun to disappear, steadily working from the core of the beast to its paws. There is no doubt about it, but nobody has seen anything out of the ordinary. It must be a slow process, and yet there are no traces whatsoever.
Metalday, week 4, month 7, year 631:
I have asked five experts in various fields to examine the beast’s body for several hours each, to see what they can find. The first arrived just half an hour ago, and shall be observing tonight, Earthday morning, and into the afternoon if need be. The rest shall begin sometime tomorrow. If anything, the beast is vanishing faster than before.
Earthday, week 4, month 7, year 631:
The rate of decay has definitely increased. Two of the so-called experts couldn’t give me any information I couldn’t see with my own two eyes, a third, the first to arrive, merely was able to chart the rate of decay, by mass. That, at least, is somewhat useful, but still insufficient. The last two arrived late this afternoon and shall observe during the night.
Lightday, week 4, month 7, year 631:
Overnight, the beast fully vanished. The only thing the two remaining experts could glean was that the beast’s body turned into some special kind of spirit that couldn’t be confined by any means they tried. However, one of them noticed that there were some soul remnants in the beast’s body, but they couldn’t be extracted or interfered with at all.
Darkday, week 1, month 8, year 631:
With the beast's body gone, I knew it would surely appear for a fifth time. I will be making several knights stand guard in my room while I sleep tonight, alongside the experts who wanted a fresh sample.
Fireday, week 1, month 8, year 631:
It showed its whiskered face before being killed once more in short order, and the two truly useful experts were waiting, examining the beast from the moment it arrived and performing a dissection mere minutes after it died. Large amounts of information have been gained, but what will be useful remains to be seen. The beast’s remains, however, will not be seen, by me, at least. Not for the rest of this week.
Fireday, week 3, month 10, year 631:
Not again. This is driving me insane. What divine power did I offend, to send this thing to torment me until I die? How did I offend such a being? Why does it only appear on Darkday nights? How do I get rid of it?
Fireday, week 4, month 12, year 631:
I slept in the servants' quarters last night. The beast still found me, and while I definitely killed it, I fear I'm going insane.
Fireday, week 1, month 1, year 632:
I asked for asylum in the imperial castle for a night. Empress Tilaramine granted my request, though her expression seemed to be amused, if not mocking me, and I slept in a wing of the palace under heavy guard. Still, the beast found me, with no indication of how it entered, I simply woke to find it slowly climbing up my chest. I flung it off of me, and called the guards to kill it, as they had taken my weapons. I know not what happened to it, but I could not stay in the palace knowing it was no more safe than my own home.
Darkday, week 2, month 2, year 632:
I give up. If - no, when - it comes back tonight, I shall leave it alone. If it kills me, it kills me. If it just wants to talk, I’ll listen, I’ll answer, I’ll even beg on the floor if it will make it go away.
The rest of the diary was left blank. That’s not anything surprising, I killed him that very night, or rather, about half an hour ago. His corpse is still right over there, the only wound on his body a light scratch from three of my claws on his forehead, right between the eyes. I was asked to torment him as much as possible before killing him, and I did. You've never truly known fear until you've seen a cat with a kill order and far more than nine lives, staring at you in the middle of the night.
He deserved it too, having been fond of kidnapping young women from other territories, spending several months torturing them and breaking their minds, before tossing them onto the street, sometimes with swollen belly or even a newborn, and the child often would soon after die unloved by both parents. I relished the opportunity to punish that scum, and I elected to free any of the girls he had locked up if I was able to sneak them out, a number which amounted to almost a hundred, a mystery that was surely adding to his torment, though he never wrote anything about that dungeon or its inhabitants in this diary.
This diary is great, I can show it to my client and I’ll get a nice bonus, I think. I spent half a year on this job, and though I had plenty of free time between my weekly torment sessions, I should still get about a hundred times the normal rate for a simple assassination. How much fish will I be able to buy with that much money… or rather, what kind should I try this time?
Book 2: Book of Death
First Meow.
Welcome back.
Fear the kitty,
.