Night Owls

Jerry glanced down at the photograph in his hand, then back up again at the woman sitting alone at the back of the cafe.

He felt it, first as a tingling at the tips of his fingertips, then as the scent of an old, damp room.

All at once a blinding light coursed through the space. Jerry and the woman froze. And then a creature appeared, seemingly from the air itself.

Jerry crumpled the photo in his fist and put it in his mouth. He tried to swallow it. He woke, choking, while as his cat Kutus was lying down to take a nap on his neck.