Thousands And Millions Of Him

Step.

Step.

Step.

Mateo's footstep seemed to resound in his mind. He was sweaty because of the heat of mid-day. His mind wandered off to places. He wasnt worrying anymore. He didnt feel like worrying.

"Of course, all this happens to me." Mateo blurted to himself. He was tired, dead tired.

He looked at the cars passing by. His thoughts were a mess. He kept sighing from time to time. He just wanted to sit and laugh and for some reason, he felt like he had won a war.

He seemed to forget something. But thought that it was purely his imagination. He was enjoying music on his smartwatch.

His heart had a still had some kind of lingering fear. But Mateo didnt know about that. He also didnt notice a girl behind him, who was blooming like a pretty flower a second before be consumed by a dark light. Then the dark light turn into a girl and then the girl turn into a cat. He didnt notice any of that.

Mateo continued walking. He was enjoying the music. He knew his playlist, his favourite song was next. He put all of negative thoughts outside his mind.

Mateo pulled his hair down ro check its length. Quite long. He would cut it. He thought.

Meow.

Suddenly a cat purred beside his leg.

Mateo looked down to see a cat. With its pure black fur, sharp lamp like eyes and a curly black tail.

The cat rubbed its body against Mateo. Mateo's eyes softened. He crouched up and rubbed the cats fur. The cat moved away and purred again.

"Meeeow"

'Does it not like to be petted?'Mateo secretly wondered. He tried to pet it again. Before he could touch the cat it turned back and pushed away Mateo's hand with her tail.

"Do you not like to be petted?" Mateo asked the cat. He felt the cat may reply. Cat were smart animals after all.

"Neow"The cat turned to him again.

No?

Did the cat just said no?

'No, that cant be, cats cant speak. Must be coincidence.'Mateo shrugged it off.

Mateo stood up and turned to leave. It was getting late.

He checked the time. 1:41.

Their schools final bell rang at 2:00, it would take Bella about 10 minutes to reach home.

Mateo did mental calculations. He still had roughly 30 minutes.

He was about a minutes walk away from his home. He decided to stay where he was for a little bit.

"Meow"the cat purred and jumped on Mateo's school shoes.

Mateo's attention returned to the cat. He had always liked cats. He couldn't help but want to pet it again.

His hand halted midway. He wouldn't like if a stranger kept touching him, he would hate it in fact so he refrained from petting the cat and instead stared right at its curious but sharp eyes.

The cat squinted and jumped magnificently. It rotated its body and hit Mateo's face with its soft tail yet again.

Mateo frowned this time. What was this cats problem? He didnt even touch it this time.

"What?"Mateo asked.

The cat bit his uniform pant and tried to pull him from the direction he already came from.

Mateo tilted his head. Why was this cat so persistent? Werent cats supposed to be lazy?

He understood the cat wanted to bring him somewhere.

"Where?"

The cats eyes flashed. Flashed brilliantly. Flashed too brightly. Even the mid day sunlight seemed suddenly dim. It was like two torch were staring right at Mateo's soul. Mateo unconsciously took a step back.

It was like a boy returning to his home after a long time of separation.

Mateo had that feeling. Mateo was feeling a lot today.

Click.

A abandoned garden.

Click.

Something called Icurcel.

Click.

The magical leaves .

Something clicked inside Mateo and he seemed to remember something, some memories. Or were they?

Mateo was extremely confused. Whose memories were they? If they were his why didnt he remember them?

A sense of fear flooded him. What was that creature? An Icurcel? What was that?

Deja-vú.

He suddenly had a flood of deja-vú. It felt as if he was returned something he lost. He had a terrible head ache. He suddenly felt light all over his body exactly like how a ghost might feel.

"What the-?"Mateo clutched his head. A passing pedestrian passed right through him and stepped on the cat, yet his legs passed through it.

Mateo's mouth went agape, his heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened. He was filled with disbelief.

The cat looked at him and tilted his head. The flashing brightness ended.

Mateo's memories returned to him.

Something in the pond of a unknown garden. A cat who could give you memories. People passing through Mateo's body. What in the world was happening?

The cat wasnt ordinary. He even returned Mateo's forgotten memories.

"What are you?"Mateo wanted to say but no words came out. He wanted to touch his throat but when he saw his hands he wanted to scream.

Transparent.

Waving and intervinding.

Expanding and shrinking.

What was going on? His hand was practically gas.

Churning and Waving.

Mateo tried feel his legs, his head, his neck. He could feel them. He could use them. But when he tried to touch his chest his hand passed right through.

His legs were the same. Transparent. Waving and intervinding. He was even floating. He started doubting that he was dreaming. He wanted to pinch himself but to no avail. Maybe he was lucid dreaming.

Mateo looked around. He saw himself standing looking at the cat. But he wasnt Mateo. He himself was. Yet he could clearly see himself working normally and trying to pet the cat, but the cat turned back and hit 'Mateo' with its tail.

Didnt it happen to him too?

Or did it happen to his body?

Wasnt he the body?

How was he thinking?

Did he still have his brain?

'Arghh. Stop thinking about it!'He told himself.

He looked at his body. The same events that happened with him repeated.

The cats eyes flashed again.

Even though Mateo had transparent eyes. The flash blinded him for a second.

Click. Mateo heard a clicking sound.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was floating higher than he was and where he was, a perfectly similar replica of the current him was standing. Looking quite flabbergasted.

Mateo screamed internally. 'Wait, if... He is Mateo. Then who am i?'

A thought crossed Mateo. He looked behind him.

'No way...'He tried to deny what he was seeing.

Thousands.

Millions.

There were Millions of Mateo floating. The sky was filled with Mateo's. The closest one to him waved his hand and was trying to say something but no words came out of his mouth.

Mateo was dumbstruck. He wanted to cry. He was only 13 after all.

He raised his hand or what was left of it towards the closest replica of him. The replica also tried approaching Mateo. All the other replicas looked at them and did what could be defined as a sigh.

Since they were practically gas and had no physical body, Mateo and his replicas had no control of their body.

They were barely moving towards each other but soon their fingers touched or what felt like it touched.

Crack.

'What?'Mateo was flabbergasted.

Mateo's replica suddenly widened its eyes. It tilted its head and whispered something to mateo and finally smiled. Then it shattered into millions of pieces.

Just like a fragile piece of glass. Just like a gem that no one protected.

The replicas or Mateos were unable to speak. Yet, Mateo felt, this one said somthing before shattering.

'Live...?'

'What do you mean, Live? You..You just died!'Mateo felt his heart, if he currently had one, beat steadfast. His head was filled with guilt.

Even though he just touched the replicas hand, he felt as he was familiar with it. He felt as if it was a part of himself.

'Am...am i not real?'

Mateo looked at himself. Just gas. Churning and intervinding. Curling and waving.

Then he looked at the other replicas. They smiled back. They looked extremely broken. Some were facing each other and trying to communicate.

Mateo felt his body raising a little bit higher. He frowned

He looked down and saw two replicas of him and his body facing the black cat.

'All because of the black cat. It must be.' Mateo registered a grudge in his soul against the cat.

The process continued to repeat. Mateo didnt dare to touch anybody. He didnt want anybody or himself to get destroyed like the replica of him.

He was almost a 100 meters above the ground. There were about 80 replicas of him below him.

Suddenly a change occured. He was observing the cats movement when suddenly the cat didnt interact with Mateo after hitting him.

'Huh? Wasnt the same scene repeating itself? What happened?'

Mateo was confused but happy nonetheless. He was slowly going crazy after seeing the same scene repeat from different heights.

Joy.

Mateo felt joy suddenly. He still felt sad about the replica of him but his heart was forcefully elevated and filled with joy.

'What is going on...' Mateo scanned the situation. He didnt know how many things were happening, and that was messing with his already tampered sanity.

Mateo was following the cats movements when suddenly his eyes widened beyond belief. His jaw dropped.

'What in the world...'