Chapter 9: Changes 2

"Never heard of Koko Cat?"

"Never… Not once…"

The store clerk tilted her head, looking utterly puzzled.

"Maybe you mixed up the name, sir? We have a huge variety of plushies—if you can describe it, I'll see if we carry something similar!"

Elias paused, trying to steady his breathing. "It's a cat with this kind of expression…"

He contorted his own features, imitating the bright, playful face of Koko Cat.

"Oh—oh!"

The clerk's eyes lit up. "I think I know exactly what you mean! Right this way, sir."

He led Elias deeper into the shop, stopping at the largest, brightest display in the center.

"Take a look! We've got plenty here."

Lights glinted off an enormous shelf that rose at least ten tiers high, brimming with identical cat plushies.

"This is one of our bestsellers!" the clerk explained, beaming. "It's been wildly popular for centuries, but you must've gotten the name mixed up. This cat's called—"

"I can see," Elias said quietly, as though doused in ice water.

He was surrounded by hundreds of cat plushies that stared at him from the shelf. Two huge speakers blasted a jingle. A bright sign read:

"A Century-Long Bestseller! The All-Time Favorite—RHINE CAT!"

***

By the time Elias left the store, the summer-night plaza was deserted. All the shops had gone dark, their shutters closed. Moths and other insects buzzed around streetlamps, making the night feel both stifling and lonely.

Elias sank onto a bench, a single keychain in his hand—the only thing he could afford with his meager dream-world currency.

The cat figure was exactly the same shape as Koko Cat down to the smallest detail—but it bore the name Rhine Cat.

"Why did it change?" Elias whispered. He stared at the keychain, feeling a foreign sense of displacement wash over him. Fear? Not quite. But a sharp realization that he wasn't in full control.

He'd always believed he was the god of this dream, free to do anything while the dream adjusted around him. Now, it felt more like he was a caged participant in someone else's stage.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Right on time—00:42—the radiant white flash consumed everything, burning it all to cinders in an instant.

***

Huff…

Night air stirred the curtains. Elias opened his eyes, noticing the window he'd left ajar.

"Forgot to shut it again…" he mumbled, reflexively tugging the blanket tighter. But no amount of warmth could counter the chill he felt inside.

For a dream that never changed, change was the ultimate horror.

He grabbed his phone off the nightstand and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Gavin, something's wrong."

The voice on the other end instantly perked up. "What's going on?"

"My dream… it's different now."

A brief silence.

"That's great news!" Gavin exclaimed suddenly. "It means you're finally recovering! I told you that if you saw more sci-fi, read more novels, your dream world might evolve. Did you see, like, alien spaceships or something?"

"Not that sort of change," Elias muttered. He could hear blaring noise in the background on Gavin's side—some kind of rowdy crowd. "Where are you?"

"At a sports bar, man! Watching the World Cup—Qatar 2022, baby. Wanna join? It's not far from your place."

Elias checked the clock. It was after 1:00 a.m., but he was far too restless to fall back asleep. "Alright," he decided, "I'll be right over."

***

Elias stepped out of the taxi, following the roar of voices. Even before he entered, he could hear the bar's patrons exploding with cheers. The sign outside suggested it was normally a chill lounge, but tonight it was hosting a special watch party for the Qatar World Cup.

"Hey, Elias—over here!"

Gavin—stocky and beaming—pushed through the crowd to greet him. "I found us a table in the corner. Let's watch the match from there!"

"I'm not here for the game," Elias reminded him, trying to keep from being jostled.

"We can talk while we watch!" Gavin yelled back, then hurried off to grab more beer.

***

Gavin was Elias's oldest friend. Their parents worked in the same factory and lived in the same housing block. They'd basically grown up together—preschool, elementary, middle school, high school. As for college, Elias got into a decent arts program, while Gavin ended up in a different city. Now he worked as a car salesman in the same city as Elias.

Elias trusted Gavin more than anyone. Over the last two decades, he'd only ever confided in him about his bizarre repeating dream.

"Here we go!" Gavin returned, arms laden with cold beer. He popped a few caps and slid a bottle toward Elias.

"Drink up, man—take the edge off. So, what's going on?"

Elias took a bracing sip. The chill of the beer felt grounding. "Alright. It's kinda a long story…"

He proceeded to recount everything:

How he'd stumbled upon the cat-masked Claw and discovered the "Koko Cat" brand in the dream.

How in reality, he adapted the dream cat into Rhine Cat for Ms. Harrington's brand.

How, after naming it Rhine Cat in the real world, he returned to the dream and found all traces of "Koko Cat" erased. The entire dream-world now recognized the mascot as "Rhine Cat," as if Koko Cat never existed at all.

"Mmm, yeah," Gavin said, nodding along with a thoughtful expression.

"You follow?" Elias asked, hopeful.

Gavin set down his beer, eyes distant. "Sure, so basically… you designed a cat in the real world, and it replaced the dream cat, right?"

Elias frowned. "That's all you got from my entire explanation?! Did you listen to anything else?!"

Suddenly, Gavin jumped to his feet, roaring with the entire bar crowd:

"Aaaaaaahh!! Goal!! That's a goal!!"

"Messi for the win! Let's goooooo!"

Elias jerked back, startled. He noticed that everyone around them had erupted in cheers, pounding tables like a pack of wild gorillas. The replay on the projector showed Argentina scoring.

"You… you weren't listening at all," Elias groaned.

Laughing sheepishly, Gavin sat back down and poured another round. "I was listening. But c'mon, man, the World Cup is a big deal."

"Anyway, let's focus," Elias insisted. "The crucial part is that my dream never changed for twenty years. Now, suddenly, it's rewriting itself in real time. That's not normal, right?"

Gavin gulped his beer, then smacked the glass down with a flourish. He pointed a finger at Elias and said confidently, "It's actually pretty simple. Let me explain why it changed."