The tale of the Demon Cat. It is said that within the cold, echoing corridors of this architectural marvel, an ominous presence lurks, waiting to reveal itself in times of great turmoil.

On a still night, when the wind whispers secrets through the city streets, the Capitol seems to breathe with a life of its own. The vast, marble corridors, usually bustling with the footfalls of politicians and tourists, fall silent. It is in this silence that the Demon Cat prowls.

Legend has it that the cat first appeared in 1862, during the Civil War, when Union soldiers made the Capitol their temporary home. But the cat is no ordinary feline. Witnesses describe it as a spectral creature with eyes like burning coals, capable of growing to monstrous proportions. Its presence is a harbinger of doom, foretelling national tragedies like the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the stock market crash of 1929.

The story begins with a janitor named Thomas, who worked the graveyard shift. The Capitol at night was an entirely different beast, and Thomas knew its quirks well. But one night, as he polished the marble floors, he noticed something unusual—paw prints. Large, feline paw prints that seemed to appear out of nowhere and vanished just as mysteriously.

“It’s just a story,” Thomas muttered to himself, but his voice wavered in the vast emptiness. As he bent to clean the prints, a chill swept through the corridor, pricking the hairs on his neck. He stood up, feeling the air thicken with an unexplainable dread.

The chill deepened into a palpable presence, and Thomas could almost hear the soft, sinister padding of paws. As the legend goes, the cat’s eyes glowed in the darkness, two burning embers in the shadows. The janitor’s flashlight flickered, casting ghostly shapes against the walls, and in that moment, he saw it—a massive feline form, its fur bristling like a storm cloud.

Fear rooted him to the spot as the cat’s growl resonated through the corridor, a sound like thunder rolling through a distant storm. Suddenly, the hallway seemed to elongate, stretching into an endless expanse of darkness.

Thomas blinked, and the cat was gone. Only the echo of its growl remained, reverberating through the halls like a warning bell. The next morning, he found the initials “DC” scratched into the floor where the creature had stood, a chilling reminder of the encounter.

The janitor’s tale spread quickly, adding to the Capitol’s eerie lore. Some dismissed it as a trick of the light, while others whispered about the otherworldly guardian that appeared before disasters. Yet, those who dared to walk the halls at night couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, a primal fear that the Demon Cat might return.

As history unfolded, the Demon Cat’s legend only grew, entwined with the Capitol’s own rich tapestry of events. Those who encountered it spoke of a presence that defied logic, a creature that transcended the boundaries of the natural world. And while some believed it to be a mere ghost story, others feared the truth—that within the Capitol’s ancient walls, the Demon Cat awaited its next grim heralding.