Friday’s Final 13

Sir-Luke -Wagner @ Twitter-X continues my series revolving around social media. He is an influencer who doesn’t believe in bad luck. Follow along with me to see what happens to a man on Friday the 13th, and who names his cat Vengie. Sounds like revenge to me 🤔

Large amber eyes watched a man on a balcony moving objects around. Certain he was far enough away, the feline jumped up on the man’s bedroom dresser and pushed photos of him to the floor. Her black paw swatted each one down, but her focus remained on him.

To Luke Wagner, Friday the 13th wasn’t a day of superstition; it was a content goldmine. While others tried to avoid bad luck on this day, Luke invited it into his home. With ten thousand followers, he planned to live-stream content he called ‘Breaking Friday The 13^th Curse Challenge.’

As he checked hardware for the live stream, Vengie, his Bombay black cat, knocked framed photos off his bedroom dresser. This was the third time he heard the now familiar muted thunk and soft rattle of glass photo frames falling. Vengie watched Luke with a feline awareness, waiting to see his reaction.  

“Damn cat, scat!” he yelled from the living room. Removing his shoes and socks, he hurled quarter socks at the cat. She quickly jumped away before the projectiles reached her or the dresser. The throwing motion caused a recent shoulder injury to flare up. Luke winced in pain.

“Next time I’ll put cans in my socks before I toss them, you big black fur ball,” he promised, vowing to trap the cat in the bedroom without food as punishment. 

Vengie watched Luke put the picture frames back in place on the dresser from a safe distance in the apartment’s small kitchen.

With his mind back on social media, Luke moved a small velour ottoman onto the balcony. He placed a mirror, a salt shaker, and several US $ 2 bills on top. A tripod holding his phone and ring light was placed on the opposite side of glass sliding doors, with a polarizer filter to reduce glare.   

‘This looks good,’ he decided.

“Breaking the mirror represents bad luck, spilling salt is a bad omen, and shopping with a real 2-dollar bill is a jinx,” he proclaimed, remembering the look on the bank teller’s face when he requested 5 of the rare bills.

“I wanted to walk across Vengie to debunk a cat causing bad luck, but she is unpredictable on camera. It’s better to use her birdie cat toy during the stream. That’s much safer. Later, I’ll have her put down,” he surmised. She’s really gonna have bad luck after I upload my content,” he said with menace while starting the live feed.

Amber eyes followed the man with an intense stare. Her rear end wiggled slightly to test the carpet footing as her body froze, back legs preparing for a powerful leap. ‘Bad Luck, by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ played from Luke’s Spotify account as the stream members tuned in.

Luke envisioned his page Sir-Luke -Wagner @ Twitter-X going viral by downplaying the public’s fear of bad luck and ignoring the sense of doom he felt deep within his soul. It was a nervousness that happened just before streaming like any other day, he convinced himself.

“What’s up, guys!

Last week I debunked ‘The Tighty-Whitie Challenge,’ with a pair of black boxers!” Luke smiled triumphantly while holding a 3-pack set of black boxer shorts. The merchandise sold well on Facebook after that challenge.  

“Today I’m proving that luck is a mindset,” he suggested. “To validate this, I’ll give the first five members who call me on WhatsApp a crisp new 2 dollar bill to use for shopping. On my channel, it’s first-come, first-served.”

Next, he reached into a side pouch on the ottoman, showing viewers a hammer. Luke smashed the mirror on the ottoman with such force that shards of glass flew everywhere on the balcony floor.

“13 years bad luck, right here, right now. Do you still believe that myth folks?” he asked. Then he grabbed Vengie’s floppy bird toy and sprinkled salt on it. He poured the remaining salt on the balcony floor.

“Pouring salt on the ground is a bad omen,” he said, laughing as he tossed the bird toy and salt shaker off the twelfth-story balcony. “Let’s hope the toy can flap away,” he joked to an audience of fifteen thousand. Just then, Vengie leaped from her crouched position, gliding in the air. She landed on Luke’s chest, hissing and scratching ferociously at his face.

Luke screamed as bare feet stepped on broken glass. He flailed wildly as his body leaned against the balcony’s faulty guard rail, which he reported last week. It gave way from his body’s impact with it, sending him over the edge.

Vengie jumped away before Luke fell over the edge. She sniffed the air and crouched slowly towards the broken rail. She saw Luke holding on to what was left with both hands. His face was severely scratched and bleeding. Grabbing the rail awkwardly dislocated his shoulder. The injury caused a visible deformity and intense pain. He yelled for help with each breath, causing a hot stabbing pain around his upper body. He was losing his grip on the rail.

“Meow, meow, meow,” he heard the cry just above his head. Adrenaline and hope gave Luke the strength to hold on longer.

“Vengie! Go get help!” He cried out, then realized the absurdity of the request. ‘She’s not the rescue dog Lassie from TV. That was just a show,’ he thought. The meow abruptly turned into the hiss Luke heard moments earlier. The feline reverted to ‘hunting mode’ as she crept closer to her owner. Unlike the framed photos on the dresser, Vengie clawed at Luke’s fingers, causing him to lose his grip on one hand.

“Stop!” he cried out as his free hand tried to knock the house cat away and regain a grip on the rail. Before he could grab the wobbly rail again, the angry animal’s fangs bit down into Luke’s remaining hand holding the railing. He let go in pain and agony as he plunged from the balcony to his death.

Vengie jumped onto the ottoman, facing the cam’s live stream. Twenty thousand viewers watched as Luke fell over the railing. The cat meowed into the phone, as if communicating with the many faces behind the camera. He remained there until city police broke into the apartment, ending the stream. Authorities investigating Luke’s death could not determine clearly what caused him to back away from the camera because the polarizer filter was damaged sometime after Luke smashed the mirror. They also found it odd that none of Sir-Luke -Wagner @ Twitter-X followers volunteered to adopt the lovable Bombay cat with beautiful, large amber eyes.

The End…until the Next Friday 13th