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Jay didn’t really want to read The King in Yellow anyway. That honestly felt like a cursed storyline from a creepypasta or something, like he’d read it and something would happen to him that would make Hastur claim him. If that’s how he got the Sign, he didn’t want it.

He wanted to stay neutral; if Aunt Grace had all these Signs but hadn’t fallen under the sway of any one being, then hopefully, he could too.

And if Louis told him he had to read the book… well, he’d cross the bridge when he came to it.

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No nap, he decided. At this point, he wanted one of each Sign represented on the door before he went anywhere—or at least, as many of them as he could get his hands on. He still had time this afternoon and evening, assuming the world didn’t end before that; better to be as fully prepared as possible.

He’d been scritching Ulthar absently as he considered his options, and sighed, looking down at him. “I don’t suppose you can help find me any other Signs in this house?” he asked hopefully. “Like you found that last one.”

Ulthar yawned, then flopped out on his side, eyes closing, tail thumping lightly.

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As he parked at his house, Jay frowned up at the sky, stomach sinking. The clouds continued to seem wrong somehow, and as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t keep thinking of this as a coincidence based on his dream. Not when the dream was real, and not when Ashesh had warned him about the world ending soon.

He had to go back to the Library tonight, he decided. If eldritch terrors were attempting to push through the sky into this world, he needed information. Hopefully, he’d acquire the other two Signs first—and given that the remaining two were the Yellow Sign and Nyarlathotep’s symbol, there were very direct sources he could go to in order to get either, so at least there was that option as well. But even if he didn’t, having any Sign would allow him to get information from the Library. Without knowing why they were coming, the method they were using to do so, or how to stop them, he was essentially helpless.

And whatever was happening seemed like it might have been related to what Aunt Grace stole, and who she’d taken it for. So his first priority should be more research.

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Jay slowly pulled back the blanket, revealing the curled-up form of the small sand-colored tabby cat, who blinked up at him sleepily, then began to purr.

“Hey,” he said weakly. “Hi.”

Well, maybe this wasn’t so weird. Hannah had told him that dreamers could bring things out of dreams—or had she? Either way, either he’d figured out how to, or the cat had decided to come with him through its own accord. He wasn’t sure how that would work either, but… well, cats already had a reputation for weirdness, even back when he hadn’t thought any of this stuff was real.

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Jay held his breath until he was sure that he wasn’t going to hyperventilate. Don’t panic, he told himself. He’d never been to the Dreamlands before, so maybe ‘monstrosities in the stars trying to get in’ was normal here. Maybe it had always been this way.

And besides, he’d wanted to come to a safe place, so surely this was safe.