[pshrynk]

"Come...in!" said Montsnmags, as he adjusted the diamond cufflinks on his tuxedo shirt. He yanked at the too tight collar of his shirt and once again vowed to cut back a bit on the French pastries. Nothing from the door where the insistent knocking was coming from.

"I...said, come in!" Nothing.

He went to the door and jerked it open. There was no one in the hallway of the cheap hotel they had checked into. He looked up and down the hallway. Nothing. He heard a noise at his feet and jumped back in alarm as a cat sauntered his way into the room.

"You're a fine little... pussycat," muttered the doctor, looking once more into the hallway. Maybe the knocking was coming from another time continuum. But he had solved that problem, he thought. I just required rapid shifting in and out of the time stream quickly enough to avoid getting sucked into the void.

That and having Adrian hanging around most of the time. He really got annoyed sometimes when he thought that his childhood imaginary friend had more friends than he did. But that was the price one pays for living "life" in a multi-temporal phase shift all the time.

The cat jumped up on the dresser and sat staring at him. Like he was expecting something.

"What... do you want?"

More stares.

"Would you... like to be a talking cat?" One never knew. Some day he would have an actual volunteer, rather than "volunteers."

The cat look disdainful and managed to convey that mere speech was far beneath him. More staring.

"Look, you... will have to take that up with the director. He... is the one who has been spending all the budget filming butterflies and hummingbirds lately. All i want... is to get the story over so I can move on to Mexico City for a... while."

The cat rolled his eyes and jumped down off the dresser and walked disgustedly out the open door.

"Well, that... was strange." Montsnmags grabbed his jacket and headed out the door for his appointment with destiny. Or at least $50,000 worth of it.