Lab Rat (1/2) (Short series)

Lab Rat

“My head hurts…” I groan as I blink my eyes open.  It takes a while to get into focus of my surroundings.  “Where?” I spin my head around.  I’m inside a… house; yes I can see it now.  There’s a couch, there’s a table, some stairs, some rooms.

“Is… anyone home?” I wonder.  I push myself to my feet, then instantly collapse to the ground again, as if this was the first time I was walking.  “Ow!  W-w-why I can’t I walk!?” I become dizzy.  I breathe quickly, and I feel overwhelmed by panic.  But the word… for this… what is it?  “Hyper… Hypervental?” Was that it?  Thinking about it only makes me more nervous so I stop.

“Slow… breaths…” I tell myself.  Since I cannot walk yet I pull myself onto a couch and sit.  “At least my arms work.” Then I examine my hands.  My long palms and long fingers, and long curved claws.  “Is that… normal?” I try to remember how long a normal hand is, but… I can’t remember.  With a sigh I let this go as well.  Trying to figure it out now would be pointless… I-I think.

I look down at my equally long feet, toes, and toe-claws, and decide maybe I just need to get the blood rushing through my legs again.  I start to swing my legs back and forth.  At first it hurts, as if I was tied to something, but after a while the only pain is the soreness of moving them up and down for so long.

I also notice how I am clothed.  I am wearing pale grey shorts… and a pale grey T-shirt.  “Why these clothes?” I don’t even try to figure this out.

After a few minutes I try to walk again.  One foot presses against the ground.  It feels like I’ll break my bone from doing this, but it will get easier, right?  I put the other foot down; it’s… easier, and takes some of the pressure from the other leg.  Then I realize that my feet actually are keeping me well-balanced.

I test this theory out by closing my eyes and leaning back a bit.  My talon’s cling hard to the floor, and my long feet and ankle-joints allow me to hold myself up.  I don’t sway or tumble.  “Okay… walk time.”  I take a step forward… it hurts, but I do it again… and again… and again.  It still hurts!  But… I have to keep going.

I make it to a door.  “Ewow…” A strange little groan of pain that comes from my mouth.  I meant to scream, but I soon find out I don’t have enough energy for that.

I’m still standing, I dare not sit.  If I do, it might start all over again.  So I open the door.  Inside is a bedroom; it has a bed, well obviously, it has a closet, it has a dresser, and a lamp.  Instinct tells me to check the closet, I’d like to wear something else besides these grey clothes.

When I open the closet all that is inside are more grey clothes.  “Ugh…”  I look through the dresser.  There only thing inside is a Bible.  “Is this a hotel?” I question.  I don’t know how I remember what a hotel is, but they always have Bibles in them… I think.

The room has nothing else for me.  I walk out and go upstairs.  I notice as I go up that my feet are not hurting as much as before.  At least I was used to walking now.  There is a large open room, with a conniver-belt on some kind of machine.  “…Tread… Treadmill…” I say.  Shouldn’t these be easy words to remember?  To my left is a giant wheel-shaped object.  “Wait a second… Why would that be here?”  I step inside and a whirring sound starts up.

I don’t know how I knew what came next, but my large ears twitched a bit to the sound, and told me to get off and so I jumped five feet to the side as quickly as I could.  The wheel began to spin.  Then after a few seconds it stopped.  I feel a wave of terror for a moment then it passes.  “It’s not going to kill you, idiot.” I tell myself.

I look around and see that there’s a trash-can in the far right corner. “Hmm…” I pick it up and place it on the wheel.  Nothing happens.  I step back on it myself.  It starts up again, and I quickly jump off.  “Maybe it needs more weight.  What can I use?”  I soon find a use for the clothes, and it makes me smirk slightly I admit.

I quickly walk downstairs, gather up the clothes, then pile them in the middle of the wheel.  Still nothing happens.  “Not enough?  Still??” I move the items off the wheel and walk off to find another room.

After a minute I find a bathroom, with another trashcan, a toilet obviously, a sink, and a shower.  “I don’t need this now…” I turn to leave, but a small white square in the room catches my eyes.

“Scale.” I name.  I pick it up, it’s fairly heavy, but it’s not its weight I’m interested in.  I bring it up to the wheel-room, and weigh myself.  There’s six and a two.  I weigh sixty-two pounds apparently.  I don’t know why but it makes me happy to know I weigh so little.

I then take the clothes and the trashcan, and weigh myself a second time.  It says one-hundred-and-four point two now.  “I need… nineteen-point-eight pounds more.”  I get the other trashcan.  Five more pounds, not enough.

My feet are hurting more now; I’ve been walking for about an hour.  I go back downstairs and sit on the couch for a while.  I realize after a while that I am extremely hungry.  “More searching.” I sigh.

In front of the couch is another room.  I go inside, it’s a kitchen.  “Whoa… uh…” I try to think of something else I’d like.  People normally would think money, but I don’t see the point, all I want right now is to not be so confused.

Inside there is not much food.  There are two loaves of bread, some salad and carrots in the large rectangle “… the… Fridge?  Fridgerator?”  There’s a gallon of milk, and an ice and water dispenser.  I don’t see anything else aside from that, well when food is involved that is.

I find some silverware in a drawer, and use a knife to cut off a piece of bread.  I nibble at it for a while, but I can’t get past how bland it tastes.  “At least I won’t starve.”

I look again at the… Fridgerator, and see that in one of the drawers are bottles of liquid-like goo.  I pull out a white one and squirt it into a plate I find in a cupboard.  The juice is white mostly, with little bits of green around.  It smells a bit sour, but not in a bad way.  I decide to taste a dab of it.  It’s alright but I won’t eat it by itself.  “What’s this called anyway?”  The label has… letters.

“Uh… R?” I have no way of proving if I’m right so I might as well go with it.  I read the other letters, which are “A-N-C and H”.  “Rae-‘nch?” I pronounce.  “I guess that will have to do for now.”  I pull out the carrots and salad and make a… salad with carrots in it, then I squirt some of the… raench on to it, then I put it on a plate.  I probably should have put it on a plate first.  “WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO REMEMBER!?” I yell.

I eat up the veggie-meal and am about to walk out but then something grabs my arms.  My instincts spring to life, and I try to cut at whatever has grabbed me as I squirm vainly.

It turns out to be robotic arms that grabbed me; my claws do nothing to these.  One of them grabs my head and holds it forward then another shoves some kind of pill into my mouth and makes me swallow it.  Finally they disappear.  I lay on the ground coughing and gagging.  “What if they come back?”

I dash back to the living room and hide under the table.  I stay there for a good ten minutes.  No sounds, no arms, nothing.  “What was that pill it gave me?” I think.

My fear subsides after a while and I go back to exploring, though I would not return to the kitchen for a while… if I did at all.  I find no other rooms, just hallways.  I walk back again to the living room.  I notice the cushions on the couch.  “Maybe those would work…” I tug at one.  It’s stuck.  “Come on!” I yank and tug at it.  It still doesn’t budge.  So I use my claws to poke a few holes then \*RIIIIIIIIIIIIIP\* I get a cushion.

I bring it back to the wheel-room and pile everything on the wheel.  It starts to turn.  “YES!” I cheer.  The wheel gets faster and faster.  I notice as it does that the lights in the room get brighter.  “This powers the house?”  The wheel gets faster, and the lights get brighter, but then some of the clothes fall off and one of the trashcans as well.  The wheel stops spinning.

“Ugh…” I decide it might be time to test it myself again, despite how terrifying it is.  I move the other items off then I get on myself.  The wheel starts up again and I close my eyes tight as I try to stay calm.  The wheel slides below my feet at first, but as it speeds up it begins to pull me with it.  Before I can get off though, I’m on the roof of the wheel, upside down.  As soon as I reach this spot, the wheel stops, and I fall hard on my face.

I tear up slightly.  It hurts, there’s a ringing in my ears, and my whole face stings.  But it starts up again.  “NO!” I jump off and land on the hard ground in front of me.  More pain.  The wheel of course stops as soon as I get off, and I’m stuck at the beginning.  But I remember that it also stopped when I was on the roof of it.

“It has to stay at the bottom.” But what can I use to keep the items together, let alone down?  “If I had some string… I could tie it down at the sides…. I need them together first though.”  I search the whole house… the whole house except for the kitchen, and the entire time I knew somehow the items I’d need would be in there.

I take the scale with me to use as a weapon.  The kitchen is quiet and unresponsive to my movements.  Hopefully the pill was only a once-a-day thing.  I search more drawers and find a drawer with tape, yarn, and scissors.  “Good.” \*crash!\* Startled by the sound, I yank the drawer out of its holder and make it out of the kitchen in under a second.  I was not going back… for a while at least.

After much tape and yarn later I have the items tapped together thoroughly, with no tape left over, and tied down to the ground and held by the foot of the wheel and the bottom of the treadmill.  It spins… and the items stay put.  “Yay!” I cheer again, though I don’t really know how this will help me.  Come to think of it, I never saw any doors or windows… how would I get out of here?  What happened to my mind?

Part Two

I wake up again.  I don’t remember how I fell asleep.  I am in my bed, not the couch…I don’t remember coming here.  I thought I was still next to the wheel that I had weighed down.  “What was the point of doing that anyway…” I mutter.

I do remember making one discovery before everything went dark.  I remember a worm-like shape that I found out seemed to be attached to my back.  I realized it was my tail, and that was it before I went black.

I throw off the covers and step off the bed, landing on my large spread feet.  I remember how I was able to lean back with them, so I do it again, for… fun I guess.  I do so successfully, though unsurprisingly.  I end up going so far back that my head can actually touch the ground, though it does require my back arch a bit, as does it with my neck.

I feel tension in my legs and feet, mostly my feet, but it is small… it slowly gets larger, and I pull myself up before I lose the strength to do so.  My feet feel normal again.  They must run out of energy after a while for that.

I decide to test how much energy is used by waiting a half-minute sitting on the bed, and notice that my claws have made holes in the carpet with their sharpness.  I cringe and lift them higher up to avoid doing that anymore.

I’m rested, and stand up, grasp the floor with my toes, and lean back.  I can now do this for two-hundred and twelve seconds.  That divided by sixty equaled three minutes, and thirty-two seconds…  It is now that I question how I know these numbe- equations.  And now I question how I know what numbers are.

I recall not understanding what the raench was, or the Fridgerator, but some of these things are very easy to know, like the scale, what pounds are, the wheel, the treadmill.  And why does the treadmill seem easy to understand while the raench does not?  It is bigger, it is more complicated.  Was there something wrong with my memory?  Am… I in some place that keeps me alive but keeps me from the outside world?  What is the out- “AAAGH!”

I clutch my head and fall to the floor.  I had passed the two-hundred and twelve second mark, and lost myself in thought.  My feet gave away, and I bashed my head on the ground.  The scream was hosted by this, but encouraged by the questions in my mind.  “I know what hosted and encouraged means but not what that wheel was…” I sigh.

I decide now to test if I can lean forward.  I can, and while it is not as far forward as I can backward, it is far and I am impressed with myself.  So naturally I freely bend my feet to the side to test that.  I hear a crack, and I feel a gush of pain, then collapse again, hugging my foot as I whimper.

Something in my foot is broken, I can feel it.  I feel like my blood is gushing and filling my foot, it feels really weird and I want it to stop.  I consider tearing at it, but that will only make it worse.  I bite into my pillow, and leave large holes with my sharp teeth as I scream while flailing on the floor, waiting for it to end.

My eyes are teary, very teary, and everything is blurry.  Something is above me from the ceiling… it… it’s meta- NO NO NOT THAT THING!  I pull at the ground, and slowly slide away, trying to escape the return of that metal arm.

Of course I can’t get away from it, and it does grab me by the arm again.  I decide to use my tail, and wrap around the arm with it, pulling at the arm, but it does no good, it is too strong.  I do notice though how easy I can control my tail.  I don’t think this is normal.

Then another arm comes from the roof, as if things weren’t bad enough.  This one grabs my foot and pulls it out.  Is it examining it?  I scream from having my joint being forced to move; why won’t it just let me go?!

The arm does let me go after a good minute or so, as does the other, and they go back into the ceiling.  I continue pulling myself away from the ceiling, and go out the door.    After that I spend a while under the table next to the couch again.

Because of my sleep I do feel a bit drowsy still, and soon I nod off.  I don’t know what time it is when I wake back up, but I do not feel like I’ve slept for very long.  My foot feels about the same still so it must have been less than an hour… unless it does not heal that quickly.  I don’t know.

My foot still stings, but I have had enough of being on the floor.  I pull myself out from under the table, and pull myself up with my arms and the table.  The table leans towards me and I almost fall backwards, but my tail breaks my fall and I use it to push myself back up.

“Useful…” I say to myself while waving my tail in front of me, back and forth.  “Maybe…” I wrap my tail around the lower part of my hurt leg, and use it as a brace, and a third foot.  It feel awkward but I think I can walk now.

I take a step forward, good it works.  Alright, what should I do now?  My stomach instantly growls so I decide to go towards the kitchen again.  I fear it less now, probably because I have already encountered the robotic arms, and they seem to only come once a day… I hope.

The kitchen looks the same as before, so I don’t expect anything special in the Fridge.  I open it  and find a new plastic bag of salad, with stringed carrots, and red triangle… things.  They look juicy.  To the side of it is a bag that holds these grainy rectangle-like things.  The dressing, Raench, is where it was last.

I put them all together once again.  If I were not so hungry maybe I would be more picky, but it all looks good at this level of starvation.  I do not remember eating more than once yesterday.

It tastes very good actually.  The rectangles are crunchy, sort of like the bread, and I learn that the triangles are called to-ey-ma-to-eses from the bag.

Alright now I am fed.  Where should I go?  I suppose the wheel is the best place at the moment.  I make my way there and see that all I had done has been undone.  It is no longer tied down by the couch cushion and other items, or spinning.  I gape at first, with sadness filling me.  I worked very hard and now it is all gone.

“So much for that…” Now… I feel something else… sort of like hunger, I’m… thirsty; yes that is the word.  I remembered the dispenser in the kitchen and walk back there.  I do not find any cups in my ten second search, so I just stick my face under it and push the lever.  I’m hit in the nose and eyes by slices of ice, and jerk back.

“Wrong dispenser…” I go to the other one, this time it gives me water, though now my whole head is practically soaked.  It does not take long for it to make me cold.  But I am replenished, fully now.  And I want out.

I go around the house until I find a tall lamp, long and metallic.  I pick it up, though it is heavy and sways a lot.  I decide to drag it instead of carry it.  It makes a lot of unpleasant sounds.  I get it to the wall opposite to the couch and bang it against the wall.

It makes a dent instantly, and a hole.  Dust flies in my face and gets in my eyes.  I shake my head quickly, trying to get it out, and drop the lamp.  It does not land on me tha… thaful… “Why can’t I remember these words!?” I yell while rubbing my eyes

I pick the lamp up again and hit the wall a second time, this time I keep my eyes closed, and close my mouth as well.  I do not want the dust in my throat.  The hole gets big enough for me to stick my head through so I do so.

It is very dark but I can see something about ten inches in front of me.  I push my hand through the hole and reach out at it.  It feels cold and smooth, and very hard.  It’s metal.  “Of course it’s not that easy.”  I pull my head out of the hole and go back to bashing at the wall with the lamp.

I keep banging at the wall until it is almost half gone from top to bottom, left and right.  I need room to get the next wall.  “OW!” I feel my hurt foot again as it is being braced no more.  I collapse on my side, and the lamp almost falls on top of me.  I roll to the side and it breaks its lamp.  I’m grateful that I had unplugged it.

I sit up and pick up my tail.  I realize now how sore it actually feels.  I can barely move it.  Holding it in position, and using it to push myself up for so long must have tired it out.  “I can’t bang at the wall like this…”

Is my foot healed enough?  Let’s see.  I feel pain, a lot of pain… but… it does not feel as bad now.  I decide to keep it off the ground for now.  I want it to heal completely before continuing.  Now though I need something else to brace it.

I measure out my tail and manually wrap it around my leg.  It holds but still hurts.  It isn’t going to work a second time for today at least.  I lay it out on the ground and use my arm to measure its distance to see how long my new brace will have to be.

The length needed at two feet.  I would be upset about knowing these words and not others, but at this point being bothered by it just annoys me.  I turn to the lamp and hoist it up.  Next I use it to pull me up, and for now it will keep me upright, but it is too long to be my brace.

I notice the table in front of the couch.  The… things, posts?  N-no… legs, the legs are the length needed.  I stumble over towards them, and drop the lamp as I go.  It’s too heavy now to lift repeatedly.  Had I two legs to lift it, the journey would be easier, but as the lamp **was** my other leg, it could not be used as both.

Since I don’t have the lamp anymore in my heads, I fall forward.  Quickly I brace my arms on the table, slamming against it.  I hear it cracking.  At first this scares me.  If it breaks I’ll fall, but then again, if it breaks, the legs will be free.

After many shoves the table gives way, and the legs break off.  I am prepared to duck but even while prepared my jaw bashes against the back of the table.  My teeth barely miss my tongue as tears fill my eyes once again.

Ten minutes of laying on my back and whimpering later I decide to get one of the legs.  As I sit up and turn to the table, I feel my jaw and the oozing wetness beneath it.  Blood is on it, and a bruise is forming.  “Not now…” I ignore it and look over the legs.  One is almost broken off, but slightly connected to the rest of the wood.

I twist it until it breaks off, scraping my arm on a sharp piece of wood in the process.  I don’t even bother to groan or scream this time.  After a long-day’s work I’ve fashioned two legs at my side, and wrapped the cushion-covers in strips around the legs.  I make it so that it braces against my knee but it still hurts and pushes past it, ruining the brace.

Later still I have broken the lamp off into two pieces and replace the leg on the outer side of my own leg with the lamp.  This way I am able to push with my hand to keep the weight even.  With the lamp in two pieces, this is much easier to do.

I feel accomplished, but then I feel discouraged.  After all of this time, not only was my tail strong again, but there is no way I can try breaking through the metal wall in this condition.  There wasn’t a clock so how would I know how much time had passed?

There are no windows in this house.  I have examined everything… I think I did at least.  It is a box.  It scares me to be in this box.  I want out.  The air feels stuffy, and I begin to breath strangely.  My head becomes dizzy, I have to calm down.  It’s the hyper… thing again.  Deep breaths, I take deep breaths…

What is the reason for me being in here?

“Sir, Subject D-F E-2 is-“

“Doing much better than her brothers.”

“But it’s mental-capacity, it’s unstable.”

“So were the other two when they first gained consciousness.”

“I suppose… but what happens if-“

“I’m interrupting you because you have doubts.  Do you doubt me?”

“… I…”

“Then leave.”  The Doctor ordered. The agent walked out.  Starring over a control-pad, the Doctor selected a single button.  Metallic arms came out of the roof inside the house again.  “Perhaps she should meet her siblings.”

Part Three

I wake up.  My dreams are nothing but terrible.  All there is are the arms, the robotic arms, grabbing at me, sometimes ripping my mouth open and off.  Today I don’t know how I will handle it when they appear again.  I don’t know if I want to just go numb to the fear or the pain, or if I should try to fight back again.

I’m on my bed, again.  I get up, again.  I’m back to how I was before, again.  At least my foot is healed.  The lamp is probably fixed now so I might as well try to break out again.  I briefly think back to when I broke it into pieces for my brace.  It was sharp… maybe I could use it to attack the metallic arms.  I’d have to break it again but it wouldn’t be hard.

As expected the table is fixed again, as is the wall, and the lamp.  After banging the lamp on the ground repeatedly until it bent, then pulling it back and forth until part of it detached, I had a sharp pole in my hand.

Noodles?  These… these were called wires… The wires were still in the pole attaching both parts.  This gives me an idea.  I cut the wires off… and turn, the lamp, on.  Instead of light coming out, sparks of light and something that feels like painful… what word do I use?  Tickle?  That sounds… wrong.  It doesn’t feel good.  I start to feel like I’m burning up from the inside, stinging all over.  I can’t even feel my hand when I turn off the power.

Even after the power is off I can’t feel any part of myself yet.  My arms and legs give random… jumps sometimes.  It really really hurts, and I really really want it to stop.  Can I move yet?  When I try it just hurts again.  Is this going to be my life?  Every day I learn something new, and every day I get hurt.  First the Wheel made me fall over and over again, then my foot “Nr…” I don’t want to think about my foot.  I don’t want to think about the pain, just stop it.

Just like the last times I have to wait, without moving I have to wait until I know I won’t scream when I twitch my arm or neck.  Ten minutes, I try to move, it doesn’t work, I feel pain.  Twenty, the same thing happens.  “Enough!”

Strange uncomfortable feelings go through me when I force myself up.  I care but I can’t stand not standing anymore.  They’re still there so I shake and jump and run until they stop.  I feel… bad in my waist.  Now at least I get to use the bathroom.

I don’t like using anything in the bathroom.  That’s all I have to say about that.  I don’t have an immediate plan.  What can I do?  I can’t escape, so what else is there?  I don’t want to keep hurting myself… and I’m alone.

“Why am I alone?” I find myself asking out loud.  I don’t think anyone can hear me… anyone but those arms.  I had to defend myself this time.

I turn back to the lamp.  It’s off now, will it still hurt me if I touch it?  Maybe if I just… if I just… Ugh, I can’t remember the word.  I quickly put my finger against the pole for a short moment, and pull my finger back quickly.  I don’t feel any of the pain this time.

I do it again, this time keeping my finger there longer.  No pain comes.  After a few more times I’m convinced that as long as the lamp is off I won’t be hurt.  What will happen though, when I detach the wires from it?  Will they shoot out the pain?

I decide to only cut off one for now.  I take hold of a wire and rub it against one of the sharp edges of the broken lamp parts.  It snaps off after a while, making a small silver light pop at its tip.

“Gee!” I jump back before it can hurt me again.  The lamp was tricking me.  I can’t be so close to it if I want to cut the wires.  I remember the knife I used to cut the bread before.  That should be sharp enough.

I go to the kitchen and open the drawer that held the knife.  It is there but… it looks small.  I need a larger knife.  I see a few other knives inside thankfully.  One is shaped like a box only not a box… rect… something that begins with rect.

I hold the Rect-Knife, it’s heavy, but also sharp.  This should work on the wires.  I walk out and get to work.  Each wire does the same as the first one did.  I feel bad a little.  It looks like something being cut off from life… and dying.  I killed them.  I don’t know why that would be wrong but it feels bad so it must be… I think.

Now I have my weapon.  Even if there are a few wires sticking out of the top, the pole is sharp, not too heavy, and long.  Will this work?  I don’t know when the arms will appear this time so I don’t know if I will be quick enough.  Maybe I should hide under the table and wait for them.  When I think that over I realize that doing so will only make it harder for me to move my arms if I want to cut the arms.

I feel hungry again.  Maybe I should eat.  The arms seem to come after I eat.  I open the Fridgerator but something different is inside it this time.  There is a small house-like object on one of the shelves.  It’s circular and has different colors on it.

I pick it up, maybe this is food?  The top is a sort of squishy blue coat in a twisty partner… I think that’s the right word.  The bottom feels like paper, is the paper a holder?  I pull the paper off.  There’s a soft bread-like part under it.  I can smell the sweetness on the item, maybe I should eat it.

I take a small bite.  It squishes inside my mouth, the blue coat stuff tastes sweeter than the bread.  It’s good.  I eat the rest of it.  Is this normal food?  I guess it must be if it tastes so good.

Some of the blue stuff is on my hand.  I lick off what I can but my hands are still sticky.  I go to the bathroom to wash my hands off.  While washing my hands I start to feel bad in my throat, like it’s been scratched.  It makes me thirsty so I tip my head below the water to drink it.

I slip and almost fall on to the ground but something cold catches me.  “Wha!?” I dart my head around, the arms caught me.  “No no no!!”  I left my weapon in the kitchen!  Why did I do that!?

I spring upward trying to get out of the arm but it grabs my tail, then other arms grab my arms.  Why was I so stupid!?  I should have kept the weapon with me the whole time!

A small tube is being carried by one of the arms.  It has a long smaller tube… it looks very sharp.  It’s going to stab me- “Deaaaaaaaaa!!” I can feel it going into my arm.  It’s breaking my arm, and when I jerk around it hurts more.

The tube is pulled out but I still hurt.  I feel like my arm was crashed into by a large item.  The arm sets me down and lets me go.  I try to glare angrily at it but I’m crying too much.  I feel weak now.  I’m trying to support myself with my arms but they shake, then collapse.  I fall asleep, again.

I’m awake, again… I’m not in my bed.  I’m on the ground, but the ground is grey and rough.  Above me… it’s… it looks nice… beautiful is the word.  Above me… it’s blue, and it stretches everywhere.  There are white fluffy things in it, and a really bright yellow circle.  I try to look at it but my ears close.  I force them open with my hands but they start to hurt so I turn away, rubbing them.

When I look around again everything looks odd.  I’m not in my house anymore.  There is green spikes, small but in a very large number, to my left.  Then there is a strange structure.  It reminds me of the wheel and the treadmill.  There are two rectangles, like the table legs, going high upward, with a metal tube across from them.  Behind this is a structure with stairs, and a… slide, yes a slide!

Next to those is an upside down V, two of them, with a tube on top of them.  Weird grey rope is attached between them, with wood rectangles attached to those.  I don’t know what these are called.

I want to see what these do but I feel a sense that I’m outside of my house… maybe I can leave this too.  Or… maybe I’m already free?  I walk forward, past the structures, and see something meant to block my way.

It’s tall and metal, in stripes that go up like the wood-leg-things, only these are thinner.  It is very tall, taller than I am at least.  I don’t think I can’t get over it though.  I carefully wrap my tail tightly around one of the… posts(?) and use my feet to climb up, and up, and then I’m at the top.

“Yes!” I smile.  There are other houses, I think that’s what they are, they look like they could be but I never saw the outside before.  They also have the green spikes around them, maybe for protection.  This is my chance.  The arms aren’t after me right now.

I prepare to jump down.  “NO, STOP!!” someone yells behind me but I’ve already leapt… I’m blasted backwards and land on something soft.  My head hurts and I slowly open my eyes and look up.  It’s… a person.

He’s very tall, and white-furred like me, but he has black around him instead of brown.  He has ears like I do too.  I’m… I’m not alone!

I want to ask who he is but instead I… I don’t know why I do this but I wrap my arms around him.  I feel happy… for now at least.

“Uh…” He says.  His voice is… it sounds how soft feels… I don’t know if that’s right.  I let go.  Did I make him feel bad.

“I- I’m sorry, I don-“

“No it’s okay.” He puts me down.  I see his arms when he puts me down… they’re very large… very… wide.  When I’m on my feet again I see that he’s very much taller than I am, almost twice as tall.

“You’ll learn.” Another voice says.  This one sounds more rough.  I look over next to him and see there’s another one.  They both have tails like I do, and hands, and ears, and feet, but this one is completely brown.

“Learn?” I ask the second one.

“It’s a lot to talk about.” The soft-voiced one says.

“We have a lot to talk about he means.” The rough-voiced one corrects.

“Wh-who are you?” I finally ask.

“I’m Chowder, this is Mickey.” The rough-voiced one answers.  Those names seem weird.  What is a chowder?  What is a mickey?

“What is your name?” The Mickey person asks.  I drop my ears.  What is my name?  D-do I have one?

“I…I don’t…”  I feel sad, not having a name… but… I have people now, they’re with me.  Or is this still a dream?  I don’t want it to be, I want this to be real.  I wrap my arms around the Mickey one again.  I just… want to hold someone I guess.  I don’t know why… but for now I’m happy, and I don’t want it to end.

Part Four

“You don’t have a name?” Mickey asks me.  I shake my head no.

“How did you get your names?” I ask them.  “Are they normal names?”

“I was told mine on a note.” Mickey answers.

This word is strange to me.  A note?  His name was on a note?  Like it was written on?  Who did that?  “What is a note?” Is the first question I ask about this.

“It’s a piece of paper people use to put words on.  You haven’t heard of those before?” Chowder informs me.

“No I haven’t.  Should I?”  Was I… did I start with the wrong information?  W-was I supposed to have more?  That would explain why I didn’t know everything but… did this mean I’d forget things?

“We both started out without knowing a lot of things.” Says Mickey.  That’s good.  Then they are just like me… I hope.

“I got my name from the first thing I read.” Chowder answers.

“What is a ‘chowder’?” I reply.  He makes an angry face at me.  I move back a bit slightly afraid.  What did I do wrong?

“It’s a…” He rubs the back of his head… is he scratching an itch?  He’s looking down now.  What is wrong, is he more upset?

“It’s food.” Mickey finishes.

Oh.  I see why he is upset now… I think.  Being named after food is a bad thing… why is it a bad thing?  If I was named after the Raench I wouldn’t be upset.

“Raench?” Chowder asks me?

“Did I say that out loud?” I ask.  I didn’t mean to do that.

“Yes… what’s Raench?” He questions.  For some reason me knowing something they don’t feels… good.  There is a word for this but if I ask them maybe they will get upset.  I might ask them later.

“It’s a white cream… thing.  I put it on salad.”

“Maybe we should call you Raench then.” Chowder says this in a strange way… it sounds a little like someone singing, but only barely… I think it’s a mean kind of way to say it… m-… mocking, he is… mocking, me…

“Chowder be nice.” Mickey looks at Chowder angrily.  I’m happy that Mickey is helping me but I don’t want them to be angry with each other.  I try to distract them with a different thing to talk about.

“Wh-where do you live?”  They look back at me now.  They don’t look angrily but they look surprised instead.

“We live in the same house.” Mickey replies.  “Do you live with someone?”

“No.” I feel… ashamed.  I feel upset and bad for myself.  I lower my head while feeling ashamed.  I look back at them.  Maybe I can go with them now.  W-… will I have to go back to being alone soon?  “Can I stay with you?  Please?”

They look nervous.  Did I scare them?  Oh please don’t let them be scared, I don’t want them to leave.  They give a strange motion to each other then begin to walk away.  I walk after them.  “Please don’t go!” I yell out nervously.

Mickey turns back to me.  “We’re not leaving.” He raises his hands… this is another signal I guess.  “We just need to talk alone for a minute.”

I don’t like this but I nod anyway… then I start counting to sixty.  If we aren’t alone, who created us?  Did the arms do it?  They were the only other things I’ve seen act around me, but I do like being around Mickey more than I do the arms… maybe Chowder too.

When they walk back I smile, I want to seem nice.  They were gone for less than a minute.  Why did they say “for a minute”?  Did they count wrong?  Did I count wrong?  What will they say?

“We don’t know if you can stay with us.” Mickey tells me.  “We... aren’t in control of anything really.”

“But… aren’t we out now?” I question.  I begin to look around while confused about this.  Are we still inside?  Is this a trick?

“This is a play-yard.” Chowder says.

“A play-yard?”  I don’t want to keep asking them questions.  I feel like it bothers them.

“Do you know what play is?” He demands.

“Well…” Play… A play is… something with a curtain?  When people dress up and pretend to be things.  I say this.  Chowder looks at me angrily again.  I wish he wouldn’t.

“You’re not wrong but this is a different kind of play.” Mickey tells me.  I like Mickey.  He doesn’t look at me angrily.  I want to wrap my arms around him again but he doesn’t seem to like that so I control myself.  “Play,” he continues, “is enjoyment.  It’s connected with a word called ‘game’.  Games are things you play.  There is a goal, and the goal is what you want to get to, the end of the game.  And by winning it means that you reach the goal.”

“When did you learn that?” I ask.  “Was that on a note too?”

“No I knew that when I first woke up.” He says.

“But… why didn’t I?” I feel stupid.  Chowder doesn’t like me because I’m stupid.  It’s not my fault is it?

“We learned different things from our houses before we were put in the same one.” Mickey replies.

“Oh.” That’s better.  At least I’m not… completely stupid.  “You lived alone?”

“For two weeks.” Chowder is showing his teeth now.  He scares me and I crouch.  Mickey looks over at him angrily again.  I don’t want them mad at each other but is Chowder going to attack me?

“She’s ten, Chowder.  Keep your hostility down.” I’m ten?  My age is ten?  I-is that normal?  What do ten-year-olds act like?  How does he know I’m ten?

“H-how do you know that?” I’m still cowering but I’d like to know.

“I don’t know, I just do.” He shrugs his shoulders.  I know what this gesture means.  It means that he doesn’t care or doesn’t know… I think.  “Maybe you know what our ages are.” He suggests.

“I…” look at them back and forth.  Chowder isn’t showing his teeth anymore.  They have… smooth faces, but I don’t know what age that makes them.  I’m ten… and they are almost twice as tall as me.  Ten twice is… twenty.  I hope that’s right.  “Are you twenty?”  I finally guess.

They look back at each other, going down and up with their eyes, then nod and turn back to me.  “You’re right.” Mickey tells me.

“I, I-I am?” I could have… I thought I’d be wrong, how did I get that right?  I think I’ll leave it alone and just accept that I was right.

I want to know when this ends.  I don’t want it to end if Chowder scares me.  I just want them to stay here.  “Do you know when this ends?”

“It ends… after a few hours.” Says Mickey.

“How long has it been?”

“Ten minutes.” Says Chowder.

“That’s short, right?” I want to make sure.

“Yes.  Ten minutes is short.”

The next thing I want to know is why I am here, why are they here, they are bound to know.  “Are we here for a reason?”

“We were never told if there was one.” Mickey answers.  “We spend our time walking, sitting, swinging-“

“Swinging?”  I cover my mouth and close my eyes.  Will Chowder be mad again?  My voice is muffled but I still say “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry” I keep saying it over and over.  I don’t know when to stop.

“You can stop.” It’s Chowder’s voice that says this.  I stop but I keep my eyes closed still.

“Here, I’ll show you.” Mickey offers.  He waits a few seconds then tells me “You need to open your eyes first.”

“Is Chowder angry at me?”

There is a pause.  I hear… low voices… I can’t understand them.  They sound sort of like grunts.  It stops and Mickey says “He’s not angry, you can open your eyes.”

Trust… do I trust him?  Mickey has been nice so I don’t have a reason to- I mean not to… why would I have a reason not to though?  Would this be a trick?  Why am I saying that, of course it isn’t a trick, he’s… he’s nice…

I open my eyes.  Mickey is smiling, Chowder isn’t, but he isn’t being angry either.  He makes his eyes go up then around… why was he doing that?  I’m staring at Chowder now, I don’t mean to, but Mickey waves to me before Chowder does anything about it.  I look back at Mickey.  He’s next to the wood attached to the metal strings.  I walk over to him.

“These are swings.” He says, gesturing to them.  They come up to my neck.  What do I do with them?  “What do they do?”

“Here.” He grabs my waist and begins to lift me up.  This feels weird, I didn’t expect him to pick me up.  It reminds me of the… arms, the metal arms.  I remember how they’d hold me still… and…  I freak out.  I jerk a bit, letting out a short scream, and he lets go.  I fall and almost hit my head on the wood.  Mickey stops me before I do.

He hates me now doesn’t he, he must at this point.  All I keep saying is that I’m sorry over and over again.  But then he tells me “It’s alright.”

Mickey pushes me back up to stand again.  I don’t freak out this time.  I look back up at him.  He isn’t smiling but he doesn’t look angry… then, he tells **ME** “I’m sorry.  I should have asked you first.”

I don’t know why I had to feel so bad when he picked me up.  I was wrapping my arms around him before, he should be mad at me.  “I just… I… there were these arms…” I don’t know how to explain it, will they believe me?  I have to try at least.  “I- in my house there were arms… metal arms, they woul-“

“They did that to you?!” Chowder’s voice is loud, and he sounds angry.  I jump onto Mickey, and even crawl around to his back, hoping that Chowder won’t attack me while Mickey is in front of me.  Then I realize what he said.  What does mean by- “What do you mean?” I ask him nervously.

“They grabbed you, and made you eat the pills?” Chowder demands.  I nod quickly.  He looks down, his hands clench like a fist, and his teeth show.  He kicks the ground yelling “I can’t believe it!”  Is… is he angry at me still or someone else?

“I’m sorry, did I-“

“He’s not mad at you.” Mickey tells me.  He doesn’t seem to mind me climbing on him I guess, he’s not saying anything about it.  “He’s mad that that happened to you.”

“So… he…”

“He feels bad for you.”

“Is that good?”

“I think so.”

He must be right.  Chowder hasn’t said anything mean to me right now, so I’ll believe Mickey.  They know about the pills.  Maybe they know what the pills do.  “What do the pills do to us?” I question Chowder.

“They make us fall asleep I think.” He answers.  His voice still sounds upset but he seems calmer.  “I don’t remember any other change.”

“Is there another way to sleep?”  Will we always need pills to sleep?

“We don’t know.” Mickey answers.  He sets me down and turns around to face me.  “Whatever is going on we aren’t in control of it.  But at least we aren’t alone.”

I do enjoy being with people.  Even if Chowder scares me he does seem protective.  This ends every two hours, so I want to spend it at least happy.  Then I can go live with Mickey and Chowder! … I hope.

“Could… could we try the swing again?” I ask… t-timidly.  I’m beginning to enjoy remembering new words, and Mickey and Chowder will be able to teach me new ones.

Mickey smiles, nodding.  “Do you want help this time?”

I’m not sure.  I don’t really mind being picked up but will it make him feel weird now?  I don’t know.  “Is, is that alright?”

“Of course.” Mickey kneels down and puts his hands on the ground, cupping them.  What does he want me to do?

“Um…”

“You put your foot here, and I’ll push you up so you can go onto the seat.” He explains.  Why did he change the way to get on?  Maybe it **DID** feel weird to him.  I don’t want to hurt his hands but I step on them anyway.  He doesn’t look hurt and begins to push me up.

I’m not sure what he wants me to do next but I feel myself beginning to fall.  I remember falling the first time, but what if Mickey doesn’t catch me again?  Before I know what’s happening, I’ve launched myself upward, spinning in the air, then landing on the swing, standing.

Mickey looks at me surprised.  Chowder does too.  Did I scare them?  I feel the swing move forward.  I don’t want to fall again so I crouch down quickly and grab the metal ropes tightly.  I’m okay now.

“That was cool!  You’re really athletic.” Mickey says.

Cool… that’s a good thing I think, but I don’t know what athletic means.  Does it mean I’m able to move quickly or spin?  If I ask again Chowder might be angry at me again so I change how I ask and reply “I am?”

Mickey nods.  “Did you learn that?”

I shake my head no.  “I was afraid I’d fall so…”

“Nice move.” He smiles.  I smile back.  Mickey sits on the swing next to me.  I didn’t know we sat on them so I do the same.  He begins to swing his feet- Oh I get it now.  He swings his feet back and forth, pushing his arms back and forth too. The swing moves forward and backward, kind of like a circle.  I try to do the same.  Mine moves a little but it sort of just jerks around.

“You have to use the momentum.” He says.  “When you feel the swing is at the highest it can go, you lean and push in the other direction, back and forth.”

I don’t know what momentum is, but maybe the second part was describing it.  I try it and my swing moves more.  It goes forward, then back, then forward longer, then back longer.  I keep doing this until the swing goes as high as the pole above us.

“Careful not to go too high.” Mickey warns.  I slow down.  This is fun.  I like the wind going back and forth against me, and a weird… tickling-like feeling.  It wasn’t like the lamp, it didn’t hurt, so that’s good.

Mickey calls out to Chowder “Are you going to join us?”

I don’t see Chowder’s reaction because I’m facing up while I swing but I hear him walk over.  After a little while we are all swinging high up.  Then, Mickey lets go of the swing and flies forward in the air, spinning like I did, then landing on his feet.

“Are you okay?” I call out.

“Yeah I’m fine.  I do that sometimes.” He replies.  “You want to try?”

I don’t know.  What if I fall on my face?  Maybe… “Can you catch me?”

“Sure.” He opens his arms and waits.  I take a little while nervously, but when I think I have the right amount of height I let go and I start flying forward too.  Mickey moves around so that he can aim correctly, and catches me.

“That was fun!” I laugh.  We both laugh.  He sets me down and turns to Chowder.  “I’m not catching you.” He says.  I think Chowder is going to be upset but he actual smiles  “Oh no, what will I do?”  He says it in that strange tune again.

“What does he mean when he talks like that?” I ask.

“Sarcasm.  It’s… joking.” Mickey tells me.  “He says something but he doesn’t actually mean it.”

“So… if I said I wanted to… um…” I can’t think of an example to use.

“You’ll get it eventually.” He says.  Maybe I will.  We all go back to swinging.  We do this for a long while.  None of us talk very much but it’s still fun.  Eventually the blue in the air turns orange.

“Why is it…”

They both look up.  “It’s the sunset.” Chowder says.  “It happens when the day ends.”

“Ends?  Days end?”

“Yes, then night comes.” Mickey continues.  “At night people… sleep…” The way he says it makes me think he just found out.  Does this mean though that the pills in the arms will come back?  I start to get scared again and stop swinging.

“Does that mean the arms will come back?” I ask.

They stop swinging now too.  Mickey takes a little while before answering.  “I… think so… I guess, we’ll just have to protect each other then, right?” He smiles trying to make me happy again.  I’m still scared but he’s right.  I want to protect them just like they want to protect me.  Maybe we will be able to get out of here one time.  Maybe we’ll find out why we are here… eventually.

Part Five

We’re flying in the clouds now while sitting on our swings.  Mickey told me that clouds are water in the air, but they don’t feel like water.  They feel like soft pillows.  They wrap around us and feel cozy.  Chowder’s clouds are black and begin to run into our white ones.  The clouds turn grey.

The clouds go away from us.  “Where are they going?” I ask Mickey.

“I don’t know.” He replies.  He puts me on his shoulder and increases his speed.  “Let’s go after them.”  I feel the wind in my face again as we fly towards the clouds.  Fly… it’s a strange word.  Mickey told me that it means to be able to stay in the sky, the big blue thing, in the air, and move around in it.  I love flying.

The clouds go down, and so do we.  I hold on tight to Mickey and feel a strange tickle in my stomach.  We’re about to catch them then-

\*PLOMPH!\* I land on a white cloud.  I laugh… I don’t know if that’s the right word for this, it’s a different kind of laugh, a playful one.  Then I realize… this isn’t one of the clouds.  It’s my blanket, on my bed.  I’m in my room again.

I’m surprised… I mean I’m sad, I don’t know.  That was a dream… I didn’t want it to stop.  If I’m here then where are Mickey and Chowder?  I have to find them!  I try to get up but I’m tangled in the blanket.  I tear through it with my claws and teeth and run downstairs as fast as I can.

I don’t see anyone in the living room.  “The kitchen… they- they must be hungry and-“ No… I open the doors to the kitchen.  No one is there.  My breathing feels strange and my throat feels weird, almost like it hurts.  I yell their names.  They have to be here!  They have to be here!

I run around the whole house.  They aren’t in the bathroom, they aren’t in the treadmill and wheel room, they aren’t anywhere.  But they have to be here…  I keep calling their names over and over.  Eventually I can’t anymore.  I’m crying too much and my words just turn into a weird breathing sound.

My nose bothers me.  I keep snuffling.  I lay on the ground curling up, still crying.  I was with someone.  I wasn’t alone.  Why did it have to end?  Will I see them again?  How long?  I don’t want to wait I just… I want to see them, again…

I keep asking myself why they had to leave.  Did the arms separate us?  Why did they have to be taken away then?  Why did I meet them at all if I wouldn’t get to see them again?  My brain hurts but I keep trying to think.  I’m thinking over more possibilities when I wonder…

Were… were they part of the dream too?  I’m still crying but my eyes flash open.  Were they pretend?  They had to be real, I- I talked to them I touched them, they… they taught me h-how to swing…

Hours pass… I, am still, alone.

I want silence.  I want to be left to be upset, but the clock’s ticking is so loud, it gets louder when I realize that it’s ticking.  “LEAVE ME ALO-“ Leave me alone?  W-, why would I say that? … wait, the clock?  W-when did a clock… There wasn’t one before.

I sigh.  Does that even matter?  I get up again wiping my face off from the tears.  I look up and see that there is a clock hanging on the wall above the couch, as if that is supposed to make me feel better.  I have to wonder though why there is a clock now and not before.

The ticking is annoying.  Why do clocks tick?  Or why do they have to make sounds when they tick?  It makes it hard to think.  My thoughts keep getting interrupted when it makes that noise.  “I didn’t need a clock before… I don’t need it now.”

I climb up onto the couch and grab the clock.  I prepare to throw it on the ground but I feel bad now.  Should I break it?  There has to be a reason why I’d need it.  \*sigh\* I put the clock back on the nail it was hanging on.  I don’t care about the clock right now.  I just want Mickey and Chowder back.

I go into the Treadmill and Wheel room so that I don’t hear the clock.  I don’t know if I feel hungry or not but I don’t want to eat right now.  I remember how the air felt when I was where the sky was, with the playset, outdoors.  It was nice.  The air in here feels stuffy and makes it harder to breathe.  It’s not because of the hyper-word this time, it just feels… unclean, somehow.  I try not to think about it since I can’t change it.

I hear a large thump from the living room.  It is a loud large thump… I think that means the same thing.  I walk towards it.  Maybe it’s Chowder and Mickey?  I try not to get excited.  I don’t want to be upset… more upset.

It isn’t them…  Even though I knew not to get my hopes up it still hurts to see that there was no Mickey or Chowder.  Instead it’s a brown box.  It’s about half my size and feels both rough and smooth at the same time, sort of like paper only thicker.

Boxes have things in them usually so I use my claws to rip it open.  Something makes a weird squeak from inside.  This startles me and I yank my hand back.  It could be a mean person so I give the box a good shake, then I kick it, then I punch it.  I hear a crunching and breaking sound.

Instantly my half-rage-half-fear is turned into sadness.  I just broke what was inside.  I carefully pull it out.  There is a large white squishy thing surrounding what probably looked like a rectangle at one point.  It has buttons on it, and a glass rectangle in the middle but it’s cracked and parts of it is completely broken off.

“I have to fix it…” I rub the pieces together.  Why did I have to break it?  This… was this for me?  What was it supposed to do?  I feel sadder now.  I don’t know why but I feel… bad, like I betrayed someone.  This was for me and I broke it.  It was… a gift.

I push the buttons, maybe it will turn on still.  It doesn’t.  I don’t want to cry again, my eyes are hurting from it.  I feel too tired to cry.  I wish I could fall asleep and this would be changed.  Maybe if I do I’ll wake up back with Mickey and Chowder.  It took… three sleeps last time I think.  I would have to sleep three times.

I walk over to the couch and lay down on it.  Nothing is going right today but maybe tomorrow it would be different.  But… I feel like I’m forgetting some- the arms.  I’v- I’ve never slept without the arms… I think.  Would I be able to sleep?  Mickey and Chowder didn’t remember sleeping without eating the pills.

I feel less tired now, and instead nervous.  Do I have to wait until the arms come out?  How long will that be?  It hasn’t been very long in the day, and they usually came later.  Maybe I could fall asleep on my own?  How does that work? Being tired has to have a part in it, maybe when I become really tired I can fall asleep.

When had I been tired before though?  Is there something I can use to make myself tired?  There was the wheel I guess, but that just hurt me over and over.  Maybe I should try using the treadmill.

I get up from the couch and try to not look at the thing I broke.  I go to the Wheel and Treadmill room and step onto the Treadmill seat.  There are strange legs on it, peddles, that’s what they are called.  I need to push them.

I don’t think they’re for my hands because there are handles at my side, so I push them with my feet.  The peddles and the handles both begin moving.  I’ve pushed it hard enough that they begin going in a circle pattern.  I almost though they were supposed to just keep going straight.

I push them now in the circle pattern.  It’s hard and puts… pressure, on my feet and hands.  I find that when I push and pull with my hands on the handles they help make the circle pattern go faster.  There’s a rectangle on the top-middle of the treadmill in front of me, like on the… thing I broke…

It shows numbers.  Ten, eleven, thirteen, it skips numbers sometimes.  What is it doing?  I slow down a little so I can concentrate, and the numbers go down… hold on.  I speed up, and the numbers get higher.  That… that is the speed.  It’s telling me how fast I am going.

I decide to try to get to the highest number I can.  My arms and legs hurt, they feel sore, but if this will help me get tired enough to sleep it’ll be worth it.  I end up going so fast that the number eventually becomes a eighty-three.  I keep going still.

I don’t know how long I’ve been doing this now but I feel dizzy so I slowly stop myself.  It’s hard to do with my feet feeling very weak, but I don’t want them to get tangled in the peddles and broken.  Once I’ve stopped I step off of the treadmill my legs shake uncontrollably.  I sit down quickly while I pant quickly.  My throat feels sore from breathing like this for so long.  I feel the need to get water but when I start moving I feel more exhausted so I wait until I’ve stopped breathing so hard.  It hurts to wait so long.  I feel briefly scared about my throat being hurt forever, but I think I’ll be fine by the next time I wake up.  That’s what happened every other time.

I crawl using mostly my hands to get to the kitchen, and barely stand up long enough to get a drink of water.  My legs were not supposed to run for more than two hours.  Was it two hours?  I don’t know.  My head feels more dizzy but I don’t feel the right kind of tired.  “Maybe I need to be on the couch.” I think.

I lay down on the living room couch and close my eyes, waiting to fall asleep.  I do start to feel sleepy at one point.  I yawn, that’s a sign of sleep I remember… I don’t remember where I remember it from but I do remember none the less.

My mind begins to think about different things.  My thoughts are about the kitchen, the treadmill, the wheel, or anything else that would not remind me about Chowder and Mickey.  Every time I try to think of something else my mind goes back to the swings with the cold breeze, the structures around us, or the sky… the beautiful sky.

I don’t know what sleep is like, but I feel a sudden jolt at one point and get up.  I don’t know if I actually slept so I turn about, looking for something that will tell me if enough time had passed.  I don’t have to look long because the rectangle with the buttons is fixed and not in its box any more.

I walk over and pick it up.  It might do something now.  I push the buttons but they do nothing.  I notice that it has a strange cross-button on it.  There are arrows on the ends… pointing… directi- directions?  These point with directions, to move… move what?  I don’t see or hear anything happening so I keep looking around it.

At the top I see a strange small black rectangle.  It has a jagged top, and is next to a rectangular hole.  I try to push it down but nothing happens.  I push it again, which hurts my hands, but instead of going down it slides to the right, covering the rectangular hole it was next to, and making a new one on the left of it.

Loud sounds come out from the large rectangle, and the rectangle inside of it light ups brightly.  I instantly drop the item and jump back.  It falls to the ground, making a strange jitter sound.  I hurt it.  I grab the item, checking around it to make sure it is not harmed.  It seems okay.

The rectangle in the center, the one lit up, has a picture on it.  There is a person on it.  The person is a man wearing a yellow suit.  He has a large head.  The rest of the area in the rectangle look… hilly. A hill is… it’s a mound of dirt right?.  There is a hill and a set of words on the… rectangle.  There is a word for this I suppose.  Maybe Mic-…  I start reading the words so I don’t start thinking about that again.

“S…sl- si… Side.  Side scraller… scrall?”  Is scrall a word?  I don’t think it is.  Did I say the word wrong?  Oh well.  Below these is the word “start”.  I know that one.  Next to it is a red circle.  One of the buttons is a red circle.  I push it, and the screen changes.  The person and the hills are still there but the words disappear.

I press the red button again.  The person jumps.  This is interesting.  I press a different button, a green one this time.  Nothing happens.  I press the yellow button and the person punches the air.  What are the directions for?

I push the one at the right and the person moves to the right.  I push the left, and he moves back.  I push up and the scre-… SCREEN!  The screen goes up, looking at the sky.  I do down and it looks down, with the person crouching.

“There is a goal, and the goal is what you want to get to, the end of the game.  And by winning it means that you reach the goal” I remember Mickey saying.  So the goal is further on the path of this game.  Okay.

I make the person walk forward.  He walks along grass, and the grass makes a sound when he steps on it.  This is fun.  I keep making him go forward.  At one point there is a square in the path.  He walks up to it but not past it.  It’s in his way so I push the jump button.  He only jumps up.

I need to make him go over the square while jumping.  I push the right button and the jump button at the same time and he does that.  What happens if I push the down button and the jump button?

I do this and all that happens is the person crouches then jumps.  Maybe I have to do it a different way.  I push jump and then down.  He just jumps, nothing else.  Oh well.  Maybe I will learn more later.

I pass more obstacles, and come across a crab.  When I touch it with the man, he turns red.  The person also makes an “oof!” sound.  It seems funny how he says it so I make him touch the crab again.  I do it a couple more times after this and the person collapses with X’s on his eyes.

I can’t move him.  I realize now that he was dead.  The crab hurt him somehow, and I was supposed to keep that from happening.  I don’t know how to restart this game though.  I turn it off and on again.

It gives me the screen, and so I start from the beginning again.  When I reach the crab I attempt to jump over it, but the crab jumps with me, and hurts the person.  Maybe if I punch the crab it will die instead… should I do that though?  It seems mean.  But it killed me first… I punch the crab.  It turns red, making a screech sound.  This doesn’t feel right, but I do it again, it screeches again.  I want to stop but I force myself to push the button one more time.

The crab hisses as it collapses instead of my person, with X’s on its eyes.  It flashes for a moment then vanishes.  A glowing ball appears where it was.  I walk to the ball and the person lights up blue.  I push the hit button by accident and his hand turns into a claw, hitting forward.  I got to have the Crab’s claw, its power, by killing it.

I still feel bad about killing the crab, but I want to find out if there are other powers to get.  I walk forward.  There are a few falls in front of me that I jump over, more crabs that I kill, none of which will give me new powers, and eventually a set of posts.  I reach the post and a song plays.  It’s short and cheerful.  Numbers next to letters appear on the screen.

The first says “Time: 3:10”

The second says “Health “8/10”

The third says “Enemies killed “5”

At the bottom it reads “Total score: 4000”

The numbers above turn into the Total Score.  I get this total score with those numbers.  The time is how long it takes. I want to be quick.  I also don’t want to get hurt.  The more enemies I kill the more points I get also.  But was that the only part of this game?

I push one of the buttons and the numbers and letters go away.  The person walks forward, and I see more enemies, this time they look like snails.  I kill these using my crab powers, and even though I feel bad, I’m happy to get a new power.

I can now use the snail power to stretch my attack.  Also when I hold down the attack button I can switch between the types of powers.  I’m getting excited, happy… but… I still feel like I’ve done something wrong.  Would Mickey like seeing me hurt people?  I never asked him.  Maybe I should wait to ask him if this was okay.  Was it?  I was rewarded so maybe it was.  You get stronger from killing?

All that I know is that I feel ill now.  I feel confused and alone again.  I don’t want to play the game anymore, it… frightens me.  I put it down, I don’t break it, but I leave.  I’m hungry so I get something to eat.  I don’t know if the game wants me to kill people, but I know that I wouldn’t want to die, and if other people don’t either am I supposed to kill them anyway?  Mickey will know… or Chowder… they have to… if I see them again.

Part Six

It is the Seventh time that I had woken up now.  I decide to count so I can keep track of how long it took until I met Mickey and Chowder.  The first day was my… first day.  The second day was when I hurt my foot.  The third day was when I was hurt by the lamp.  It was the fourth day that I met Mickey and Chowder.  The fifth day I woke up without them.  The sixth I’m not sure about.

When I first woke up I thought that every time I went back to sleep a new day arrived, but I don’t know how much time passes when I go to sleep.  Maybe I fell sleep and the day was not a full day.  Maybe the game was replaced or fixed while I was sleeping.  The only thing that helps me figure out what decide if a day passed or not is the arms.

Every time a day passed I remembered arms before I went to sleep, and yesterday they came again.  I was eating… done eating, and started to walk out, but when I opened the kitchen door an arm was there and stuffed the pill into my throat before I could do anything.  It didn’t even need to grab my arm this time.

And now I’m waking up.  So this is either the Sixth, or the Seventh day.  If it’s the Sixth, then in two days I will see Mickey and Chowder again.  If it is the Seventh day I will see them tomorrow.

I feel excited.  I wonder how they will act when I see them again.  I should show them the game- or, or, I should write down how fast I was on the Treadmill!  I should tell them how I made the wheel go, or how the walls are metal, or-

I have to get started now.  I feel a lot of energy in me for some reason.  What should I do first?  I throw off my bed covers and run to the living room.  The game is still on the ground, good.  Now... whenever I wake up everything is back to normal… even though this game is still here now… a-anyway, so if I wake up and it’s not with me, I can’t show it to Mickey and Chowder.  I need to make it so the game comes with me.

“I’ll tie it on me!” Because there is no string I use the couch covers as rope again.  I tie the game around my arm and start to think of other things to do.  The game feels a bit hard to carry, heavy.  Maybe I should wait until later to tie it?  But what if the arms come when I’m not holding it?  I’ll lose it.

No I keep it with me.  I can live with it being heavy for now.  I need to tell Mickey how fast I was on the treadmill, but I don’t remember the numbers.  I’ll do the treadmill again and then write it down and tie that to me too.  I need paper for that, but the only paper I ever had was the one on the bread-sweet thing.  If I can’t find paper I will have to write on something else… but I’ll need something to write with, and it has to be small enough so I can carry it.

I think about ripping the couch, writing a message that way, but it’s much too big.  Maybe if I carve into the bread?  I go to the kitchen and try to pick off small parts of the bread, but then I realize that I haven’t done the treadmill yet so I stop.  Looking over at the bread I realize that I probably won’t be able to write on it anyway.  It rips off parts I don’t want ripped off.

I can’t use the water, the water will dry up.  What else do I have to use though?  Will I have to remember the numbers?  I can’t afford to forget them.  I need something that will leave a mark on something else.

I remember seeing numbers on the scale.  Maybe if I put enough pressure on the scale I can make it say the numbers I get on the Treadmill and bring that.  I get more rope and use it to make a knot around the scale, while at the same time making it so that the knot can pull in and out in how tight it is.  I pull, and the makeshift rope snaps… it broke.

Maybe if I used two ropes it will stay not-broken.  I try that, pulling with one hand for each rope.  One breaks, and right after that the other breaks.  I fall back almost crashing into the wall if it isn’t for my tail balancing me.

I need to make the rope stronger.  I look over the rope pieces.  They are kind of thin.  If I could make them thicker that would make it stronger I think, but how would I do that?  I don’t know how couch cushions are made, or what from.

I decide to try again. I don’t want to have to tear off more rope so I tie the two broken ropes back together and pull.  They break again but this time it takes longer for them to break.  The parts they broke at were farther away from the knot I notice.  Maybe…  I try to break the knot by pulling it.  It doesn’t break.  But how will I make it all a knot?

I notice that the rope is sort of tangled pieces of rope when a knot so I try wrapping the ropes around each other.  They make a sort of design, but when I start wrapping them around the scale though they begin to unwrap.  I need a way to keep them wrapped.

I try tying them at certain points.  They stay together.  I wrap my new rope around the scale.  It doesn’t break.  This is good; I start to make measurements on the scale, but the rope knots keep making it hard to pull when they get caught on the edges.  I reach the number seventy while using all of my arms and legs to push and pull the scale.  I try to test keep it like that by tying the rope once it’s kept as those numbers, but it’s too hard.  I’m too tired and sore (especially with the game still on my arm) to stay steady while tying it, and my foot slips, making the scale loosen, and go back to zero again.

The scale isn’t going to work.  Nothing will… I’ll just have to hope that I remember the numbers.  I move to go to the treadmill now but my legs don’t have the energy to do it yet.  Maybe I could show them the food I have, or the Raench.

I go to the kitchen and look for the Raench.  I am also hoping that the sweet-bread thing is there.  I’d like to give it to Mickey, he might like it.  I find the Raench, but the sweet-bread thing isn’t there.  I should tie the Raench on so that I can bring that along.  I screw the lid on tightly first so it doesn’t splat everywhere, then tie it on my arm.

Now I need to figure out how to show that the walls are metal… I don’t know how I will do that.  I think I will remember though so it shouldn’t be too bad.  What else should I do?  I should… I begin to walk around, trying to figure out what to do next.  I walk through the kitchen, the living room, up and down the stairs, the bathroom, the bedroom, I open the closet repeatedly-…

While looking at my clothes on the hangers I start to wonder if I could be able to wear something else.  I sort of like the clothes I usually wear, but they’re very bland.  Maybe I could make something new and show it to Mickey and Chowder!

I begin to pull out the clothing.  Shorts, and shirts, both grey, that is all I have.  I need to know what I’m making first.  Maybe I could make the arms on my shirts longer, or the legs on my shorts.

I tear off the body of the shirts and roll them up to be my arm length.  Now I need a way to put it together.  If I make a hole it might tear the entire shirt up.  Maybe if I tie it on the short arms I can tie the rest around my arms, and that will make it longer.

I try it.  The wrapping and tying looks strange but now I have a shirt with long arms.  I decide to do the same thing to my shorts but those don’t have the same amount of hole.  They do look kind of wide though so I could make a hole in them.

I do that, and soon tie that into long legs.  I’m happy to have made something new, and I’m excited to try on my new outfit.  I change into it and hope that I look okay.  I don’t have a way to see what I look like so I will have to ask Mickey and Chowder.  I hope they like what I did.

Now that I’ve done a few other things I think I can do the treadmill again.  I go up to it and move the peddles as quickly as I can.  This time I get to the number ninety-seven.  Once I feel like I can’t get higher I slow down and get off.  I stopped sooner than before.  I don’t want to feel like I did the first time.

Ninety-seven… I’ll need to remember that.  Wait… I go to the clothes and try to tear… yes I can do that, I- I did it!  One of the shirts has a Ninety-Seven number on it now!  I tie that to my arm, over the second arm I made on my clothing.  Now I have everything.

Tired… I feel kind of tired now.  I did a lot.  For once I… I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but I kind of want the arms to give me the pill again so this can finish up quickly.  I just hope that tomorrow Mickey and Chowder are there… if they aren’t then it will be the day after tomorrow.  I can wait… I have to wait.

I decide to wait on the couch.  I let my arm rest, the one with the game tied to it.  It was feeling kind of sore from carrying the game so much.  It’s a while later but I hear a whirring… then I see the arms come out of the ceiling.  Even when expecting them I’m afraid now…

I don’t want to be force-fed, it hurts.  Maybe it can hear me.  “You don’t have to grab me this time!” I say to them loudly while crawling backwards away from them.  The arms move towards me and I get ready to duck and run… then they drop the pill on the table…

I’m shocked.  They… they actually heard me?  They understood me?  Could… could they know what is goin- “WAIT STOP!  DON’T GO YE-“ they’ve left, to the ceiling.  It’s too late.  But now I feel… conf… conflict… I feel conflict.  I want to go after the arms.  If I open up the ceiling I can find them, talk to them.  But if I don’t take the pill I won’t fall asleep… and I won’t see Mickey and Chowder again.

I want to know what is going on, but…I did so much for them… I have to show them what I learned first… then I can look for the arms.  I take the pill.

Everything becomes blurry, and I collapse.  I’m asleep.  When I wake up again I’m still on the couch, and I still have my items.  The room is still here… M-maybe Mickey and Chowder are in the house now!  I can still see them again!

I check all the rooms.  Neither of them are here.  I know that there is still another day to check but this still makes me feel sad.  It makes me feel doubt, and I don’t want to doubt.  Now I have to wait a whole day again.  I don’t have anything to do to get ready for them so what should I do in the meantime?  I’m not playing the game again yet; not until Mickey says it’s okay.  I’m not hungry yet, and I don’t want to use the treadmill, or the wheel, right now.  I could weigh myself on the scale, but that will take up only two minutes of my day at the most.

Hm…  There’s the arms.  I could still try to find where they came from, or talk to them, something like that… but I don’t want to have to carry all this around while I do that.  What if the hole is small?  Well… I could at least see how large the space is.  First I need something to pull the ceiling part open.

I go to the kitchen, there was a large knife I could use.  It’s still there, good.  I take it and walk back to where I saw the arms come out.  There must be a hidden door or something that let them through.  I can’t reach that part of the ceiling though, even when standing on the couch.  Maybe if I stack the table onto the couch.

It’s really hard to get the table onto the couch but I’m able to push it on.  I take a small break after this to regain my energy, then climb on top of the table.  It wiggles, it wiggles a lot.  It starts to slide off of the couch so I jump off of it.  It slowly falls, making a large bang on the ground.

The cushions… the cushions weren’t hard enough for it to stay on them.  I need to take them off.  I do this, and put the table back again.  It’s easier since the cushions don’t push against the legs anymore.  When I get the table back on its much sturdier, but it’s a little shorter.  I think it will still work though.

I get on top of it and start using the knife to pr-…pr- pry!  I’m prying open the ceiling.  I think that one day I should just sit and make random noises.  Maybe that will help me remember more words.

With the Raench, game, and cloth, all on my arms it’s a bit hard to push and pull at the ceiling.  My arms are getting sore but I need to get it open.  I hear a cracking sound eventually, then a piece of the ceiling breaks open like a flat board.  “Yes!”

I lower my hands and relax.  I want to check it out but my arms need to rest first.   The hole is actually pretty big so I might be able to get through it.  I jump at it.  My arms reach the hole but before I can pull myself inside further the boards begin to pull out more.  I try to force myself up but my clothes and the game get caught on the edges.  The ceiling crumbles, and I fall.

A bang, then a ringing noise follows.  Everything gets red and blurry.  My head hurts terribly, and a little while after that I feel bad, mostly in my stomach… sick.  I feel sick.  I must have hit my head on the table when I fell.  The soreness begins to sink in.  It hurts so badly that I’m screaming, but when I scream I feel more sore and more sick, which makes me scream more.

Finally a huge stinging comes from my stomach, as if something was stuck in my throat and had to get out.  I roll to the side and whatever I ate shoots out of my mouth.  I feel both sicker and relieved at the same time.  It’s not a good feeling at all, but I start to feel less bad.  My head still hurts terribly.

When I finally get back up things are still a bit blurry.  Pieces of the ceiling fall on my face like dust.  It gets in my eyes, stinging them, and I instantly begin rubbing hard.  Eventually I get the dust out and move away from the hole in the ceiling.  When I move away though my foot slips on something and I fall forward.  My tail saves me this time thankfully, but I quickly notice that what I was tripping over was my clothing.

The arm I added to my clothing had torn.  I don’t feel too upset about this but I don’t like having to keep fixing things.  Still though I untie what’s left of it, and make a new one with my other shirts and pants.

I don’t know if the ceiling can support my weight.  It broke off before but that was probably because the hole was crumbly already.  I’m not willing to try to do that again though, at least until I know I won’t fall this time.  So now I need to find things that will equal my weight.

Unlike when I tried to equal my weight with the wheel, the hole is small.  I can’t use the cushions anymore.  I have all five clothe-sets, and the scale. I end up having to toss them up.  The ceiling doesn’t collapse, but I don’t think the scale and clothes equal my weight.  I break off legs from the table and use those, it still hasn’t broken.  I go to the kitchen and start filling the hole with bread, salad, and Raench.  When I throw the Raench in it falls back and hits me in the head.  I fall back and land on the couch, then it falls on my stomach.

While angry at the bottle I throw it away, screaming for a second.  I lean back on the couch and look up at the hole.  A lot is in it now, and I can’t fit any more things.  I guess I’ll just have to hope I will fit next time I try it.  I’m hungry but the bread and salad are in the hole.  I can’t reach them and with the table broken I can’t use that to help myself up.

I’m tired of the lifting and moving.  My legs and arms are sore.  I still want to eat but if I sleep maybe I will have food again.  I lay down on the couch and close my eyes.  I’m not completely upset though.  Tomorrow I will see Mickey and Chowder again.  The day count… it has to be right.  I’ll see them tomorrow and then I can show them everything.

I feel almost completely asleep when I hear a large amount of falling and crashing.  I look over and the arms have shoved everything out of the hole.  One of the table arms almost hits me.  I jerk away, curling up.  The arms come closer to me, and this time they grab my arm even though I tell them that I’m not going to fight again.

One arm forces my hand open and hands me a pill.  Why did it do this?  If it thinks I will eat it why force it to my hand and not my mouth?  I don’t have answers to that, but they’re here now so I might be able to get them to talk to me if they can.  “Please don’t go!” I say before it’s let me go completely.

The arms actually stop for a little bit.  I’m stunned so much that I almost say nothing.  When I remember to ask something my mind goes blank.  I shout out the first thing I can think of, “Who are you, where am I, why can’t I leave, please talk to me, can you talk, where’s Mi-“

The arm tightens on my hand.  It hurts but the arm doesn’t stop tightening.  I want it to stop really badly.  I feel like my hand is going to snap into pieces.  It feels numb and I start to tear up,  I try to yank away but the arm tightens more, pushing my thumb in.  I scream at it, I feel so much pain from it but the arm doesn’t care.  Another arm covers my mouth instead.  Neither gets lighter, they stay tight.

I’m still screaming for a good while, but at one point it just turns into whimpers.  When that happens, and only when that happens, the arms let go.  I hear, and feel, a snap in my thumb.  I start to scream but shut my mouth quickly, still tearing.  The arm will hurt me again if I scream… it doesn’t want to talk.

With the hand holding the pill I toss the pill away angrily, and almost lose my balance on the couch.  I move my hurt hand away just as I fall onto a pillow.  The arms are gone… I don’t want to see them again.  I never should have stopped being afraid of them.  They don’t like me, they don’t want to talk to me, they just want to give me pills and hurt me.

I’m tired again and I don’t have the energy to get up.  My hand starts to move and stings when it does.  I stop moving it but it’s uncomfortable.  It’s underneath a cushion somehow.  I don’t remember how that happened, probably when I was dozing off.  I have to pull it out and I do… and all the pain comes back.

I’m hissing through my teeth while moving my hand in front of me, resting it on top of the couch.  Tomorrow will be better… I’ll be healed, the arms won’t be there, and I will see Mickey and Chowder again… I just want someone to be there again… please.