I dreamed I was a cat who could only speak in lipstick smudges

I woke up with my mouth dry and my fingers sticky, like I’d been licking the edge of a red lip pencil for hours. In the dream, every time I tried to say something—‘I’m tired,’ ‘where’s my food,’ even just ‘hello’—a perfect, slightly smudged kiss would appear on the nearest surface. My owner kept trying to read them like riddles. I wasn’t angry, exactly. Just… untranslatable. Like I’d forgotten how to be human, but still needed to be seen.