The Black Cat.

Some myths and legends of childhood, emerging from lips like considerations for sleep and food to the thought, play with the thought process of our adulthood and spiritual part of our life.
They said when the dice rolls, the probability of it falling on the side I want it to is one out of six.
I need to distrust my misfortune five times to have faith in my fortune.
It wasn't a myth though, not a legend as well. It was probability.
The legends were of that boy whose fortune failed the probability. One who would roll the dice six times and always get the favourable side.
Such were the myths and legends that reached me. About fortune and misfortune, forests and its guards, bloodthirsty creatures, witches and wizards. And about darkness and its penetration in the soul.
They told me that a Black Cat comes to you when you are alone at night. A Black Cat comes to bad children. Children who don't obey, and don't eat their food.
I was afraid of the Black Cat. I was afraid of being a bad child; of not finishing the food that was served to me, of disobeying the foolish rules they set for children.
But the fear of Black Cat couldn't eradicate the bad in me. My fear was of being a bad child, though I was one. I feared coming of the Black Cat. I always kept myself at a safe distance from it.
A safe distance from darkness, and loneliness, and nights' freedom.
But the distance couldn't be kept for long.
My old diaries tell me that I am in love with the loneliness and freedom of night.
But how could a bad child be free at night, wander in loneliness; and not fear the Black Cat.
This was happening when I was 11. A bad child keeping the lamps of his room ignited, fearing darkness; and the Black Cat. I kept my eyes open until I was too sleepy to resist longer. Then I would sleep with some verses, that my mother had made me to memorise from The Quran, on my lips.
Fear makes you obedient to the laws of nature and religion.
The Black Cat never came. Even after I learned to extinguish the lamps and sleep in darkness. The fear of it ceased to pick up my heart beats.
The Black Cat never came. That was what I believed. Always telling myself that it never came. Though, it could have.
And it might have. In some hours of some nights.
And it might still come. To bad children. In loneliness. And night's freedom.
A Black Cat that comes to remind about the bad child that we have become. And haunt our soul for the bad things we do.
And that Black Cat might be monstrous. A demon. Or incarnation of some black wizard.
But some myths believe that the Black Cat is an angel. That comes to bad children only to make them good. And haunts our soul to remind it of the bad.
We cannot hide from our deeds.
The Black Cat comes to those who regret their deeds. None can escape its lessons. None can escape the counting of his sins.
It comes to frighten the regret. Take away the evils of selfish sinning from heart. It fights you such that it empowers you.
The Black Cat returns when the time comes.

- Syed Rehan