Chapter 3: Dead Cute

Mira hadn't slept yet.

Not because of grief. Not entirely.

It was 3:42 AM, and she was refreshing the NecreoNet profile of her late cat, Dr. Meow. Who was supposed to be in his eternal sleep suddenly became a celebrity and started posting photos, videos and even hosting podcasts!?

After refreshing the page once more, she found an image that was grainy, probably a low-res spectral selfie and what was the caption?

"furball of regret 🐾 #stillpurring"

At first, she thought it was a glitch or maybe a leftover post from her old backup cloud.

But soon her doubts became clear, and it didn't take long as her cat, Dr. Meow, started posting again and again.

What was the result? He has touched another milestone and has reached over 84000+ followers.

🪦 @Meows_the_eternal

"still using your charger. hope u don't mind 😼🔌 #hauntcore"

🧼 Sponsored by: Catacomb & Co. — "The Only Cat Shampoo That Works in the Afterlife"

Mira stared at her phone's screen, her eyes twitching. When she saw the comments, she felt it was more like a warzone.

@ghostgirl420: wait he DIED and still looks better than me 😭

@cryptokaren: is this ethical?? is this PET NECROMANCY???

@daddypharaoh: yo how much for him to haunt my landlord?

She sat back and blinked at the ceiling, seemingly in deep thought. Suddenly, her phone buzzed. A message came.

It was a message from SoulSpire, a trendy influencer agency:

"Hey Mira! We LOVE Dr. Meow. Would you be open to letting him collab with our Undead skincare line? Our tagline: 'Glow Like You've Been Reborn.'"

She thought and typed, typed and thought and in this way she deleted a dozen replies before finally settling on:

"Sure. Although he's dead, rent still requires money."

She still remembers the moments when Dr. Meow was alive, no one cared about her posts. Most of her posts got 12 likes, that too mostly by pity hearts from her aunt and a bot called "DogGuy57."

She had tried everything -- mukbangs, yoga with crystals, pretending to have a baby goat.

Still, nothing worked.

Until the cat died and he started posting memes about it.

That night, Mira reluctantly set up a "ghost brand account" under her name.

Handle: @Meows_mom

Bio: he died, I manage his DMs. no refunds.

She posted a reel: a montage of old footage, overlaid with ethereal trap music and captions like:

"He crossed the rainbow bridge. Then he came back with Wi-Fi."

And as she expected, it hit over 2.3 million views before dawn.

By sunrise, NecreoNet had auto-verified Dr. Meow.

He had even been granted the Spectral Silver Paw, an elite badge reserved for "hauntfluencers with Meaningful Engagement."

Mira had been through so much in such a short time that she started feeling normal about all this.

A while later she went to the kitchen. She made herself a cup of instant regret and stared at the toaster. It had a scratch down one side. She was 80% sure it hadn't been there yesterday.

While she was busy thinking about the toaster, the lights in the kitchen flickered and her phone buzzed again.

🐾 New NecreoNet Notification: Dr. Meow tagged you in a reel.

Caption: "she's coping poorly. pls send tuna."

Mira dropped the phone. She chuckled at the post—clearly; the cat was coping better than she was.

Then she thought, "Am I being cyberbullied by my own ghost cat?".

But she wasn't mad. In fact, she was already drafting her next post in her head…

🐾 Sample Post: @meow_the_eternal

"9 lives was a scam. but the clout? eternal. 💀😼"

💀 Sponsored by: AfterWhiskers™ – The Only Litter That Absorbs Regret

And that's how a week ended and at the end of the week, Mira's follower count had tripled. But with the followers came emails from various brands like spectral pet food companies, séance streamers, and one suspiciously upbeat mortuary brand named "Forever Home™."

Grief is a natural emotional response to loss, which can arise from various situations such as the death of a loved one, right? Well it should be like that. But as always reality proved to be more absurd than imagination. And grief has now become a growth strategy.

Comment Highlight – @necrotrendz:

"We're calling it now: Dead Pet Influencers are the future. You can't cancel what's already decomposing."

Mira's heart should be broken by her cat's demise, but no, in the dark and absurd part of her heart, Mira realized something terrifying.

She was… happy, she had gone viral.

Her cat was famous, her dream became real and she was finally being seen.

Even if it was through a litter-scented veil of the afterlife.

Every time she clicked "Post."

The likes flowed like crazy.