This is a gift for my friend Xanthos-Samurai, who inspires me with her delicious writing. She has a character named Nightmare Man, who can assume just about any shape and usually appears as a black creature with silver eyes and its mouth tied shut with red thread. I forgot the "shut" part until I was almost done with the picture. oops.

Xan says she has this nightmare where she's paralyzed, and there a cat with hands instead of paws sitting on her chest, and it slowly reaches out and strangles her. So I drew Nightmare Man as a handcat just for her.

Speed sketch -- took an hour or two in openCanvas 1.1.