To-mas's POV
I knew that scent. They were here. They were everywhere, those miniscule, thick, juicy slabs of meat. The moochers that they were....
They were like parasites, the rats. It only took one of them in an area. After that, a whole army of them would surface. They breed like rabbits.
Ever since I stepped foot into this house, I could smell them. I smelt them on the Kitchen floor. I smelt them in the living room on the rugs. And now, I could smell them here. The pesky slobs left their scents all over this home. How could that colossal, thickheaded Human not have smelt that? No wonder he brought me in here...
I heard something coming from underneath this couch. It was those high pitched, ear screeching squeaks that they made...coming from this area.
Lowering my head even more, I attempted to push it underneath the couch to get a better vision, but the space was too narrow. Only the varmint sleazebags could fit their tiny bodies under there...
That was the one thing I was jealous of them for. Being able to squeeze their bodies into spaces like that.
Pitching my head up, I continued peering at that hole with growing suspicion. It was deathly dark in there, so I couldn't see anything. Strips of the couch cloth was obstructing my view. Plus, it ranked of dust. My nose was beginning to tickle at the filth gathering. I stepped back, sneezing and shaking my head.
But I wouldn't give up. I knew what I heard, and I heard pigs. Snickering. Perhaps they were giggling. About what I wonder? Their own demise??Hmmm.
I was a housecat once. But I ended up on the streets... hunting for food. Living only to survive.
Before this numbnuts Human decided to take me from the cat prison they shoved in me in, I was wandering on the hard streets of the city. Garbage diving for scraps at the back of restaurants. Climbing up trees for squirrels, digging under trenches for rats, breaking into rabbit pens. Hiding from dogs. Avoiding those little humans that threw rocks at me..
Sometimes food was everywhere. Most times, it wasn't. Prior to this it was going five days without me having a solid meal, so now, I didn't want to think anymore. All I desired was food. I needed sustenance...something in my system before I went mad. A hot, soft, plush slab of rat meat was just what I needed to warm up the engine....
Rising up my paw to my eyes, I unsheathed the tiny knives that were my claws. The points of them shined, like needles. I sharpened them every day in case I had to claw someone or thing, in the face. Wanted that thing to be Human but who was I to choose? At least I would grab something now.
I didn't care about no damn dust, or the stupid shredded cloth that blocked it. None of those things could stop me from shoving my hooks in there. It was bound to sink into something fleshy I bet..
"It's dinnertime.." A joy bubbled up inside me that I missed feeling for too long. That was the joy one experienced before they engaged in a hefty portion of delicious food.
Like a droplet of water travelling down a pipe, I took my acute paws and eased it forward, slipping it slowly into the darkness of the hole..
......................
Mother Mince dared not move an inch more. The four of them were squeezed up together, watching the Cat's paw patting about in the hole. He moved his paw aimlessly, unknowingly placing it directly underneath Mother's chin. She struggled to keep her neck up.
If she so much as breathed too hard, it would pierce her straight through, impaling her chin straight into her mouth.
No one dared to move. All four of us laid flat on the board, frozen in absolute terror. Our breaths stopped. Not a cough, not even a simple inhale. Eyes were glued to the tapered, spiky daggers that were a breath away from her chin.
She gripped my paw for dear life, her lips so puckered that they disappeared into her face. Her neck was getting tense from staying in that fixed stance. I could tell she couldn't stay like that for much longer.. Four creased lines of wrinkled fat printed themselves out from her forehead, a droplet of sweat crawling down the bridge of her nose, about to make its way onto the lingering trap of knives.
I had to do something now. If I didn't, the damned cat would feel the water drip in the middle of his palm.
With no thought I rose my paw ever so gently to her nose, pressing it against her snout, with the utmost precision, the tiny drops of sweat melting in my fur.
The cat moved his paw, suddenly thrusting his sharp claws upwards to her chin in one move.
I gasped, my heart whipping the air out of my lungs as it shot down to my stomach.
Cheesy had tears in his eyes. Sharp was frozen in place, his mouth the shape of a circle.
This was how my mother was going to die??Before my very eyes??? Lunging my hand forward to impede the attack I pushed my paw out, then on the spur of the moment, the cluster of claws stopped in their tracks, at just the very edge of her fur.
A delicious smell wafted across To-mas' nose from behind him, and it was so strong that he could've cared less about what was underneath that couch. Suddenly, the cat stopped in its tracks.
"Here kitty kitty! It's breakfast time!" Perkins came back with a silver bowl in his hand filled with chunky pieces of chicken breasts, calling the cat from the kitchen hallway. The cat drew his paw from the hole and turned back, heading giddily to the man, completely forgetting about his previous vendetta.
''Thank goodness" Mince muttered softly, collapsing her head onto the board. The panicked feeling that constricted her neck to a stiff, aching passage, left. The puss was distracted for now... Sighs of relief went across the board, Sharp, Cheesy and I simultaneously releasing the breaths that we were holding in. Mince looked across to her boys, thanking the creator and all that ruled above, for his protection over them. The Lord shielded them from the dangers of the devil today and reminded her why she never let them outside in the first place. It was the father sending her a sign. He wanted her to take her boys out of this place. It was no longer safe for them here....
...................................
A WEEK LATER
A few minutes later we went back to the holdings, the three of us trying our best to maul over what we just saw.
"What was that thing Mother?" Cheesy asked innocently.
"Why was it so big? Was that the thing that ate your Aunt Esther?"
"Now that its living with us, how shall we get food??Is it going to attack us?? Cause I'm ready to fight" Sharp warned.
Cheesy and Sharp flung questions at Mother Mince from left to right, bombarding her and not giving her the slightest chance to explain. I sat in my corner silently, my hands clasped, lost in thought.
"Wait, wait, wait wait!!! Everyone be quiet, this instant!" she bellowed, Sharp and Cheesy instantaneously closing their lips. Taking a deep breath, she sighed, rubbing the temples of her head. Looking forward with weary eyes, she finally opened her mouth to give them the answers to questions that they deserved to know.
"Don't you bucks remember anything at all from the stories I've told you?? You pretend play with them in Dratsmate all the time. That was a cat. A feline.." she explained.
"Ohhhhhhhh....." Sharp and Cheesy exclaimed at the same time, having not remembered the term they used playing the board game they created. Even though we played and made up the cat villain in it, that was based off of Mother's stories. I remembered after we got home what it was and matching it with Mother's description of what she described to us, it was every bit of terrifying. I had cats looming about in the distance once or twice at nights through the clearing eye, but I had never been so close to one. So, I had definitely seen one before. That was the first time they saw a cat.
"Our number one enemy as rodents are the cats. They don't like a bone in us, and they will pounce on you as soon as you give them the chance to. So... you boys will have to stay away from them" she finished.
"And yes, that's the same animal that ate your Great Aunt Esther all those years ago...' Mince added, looking out into the distance, a hopelessness draping over her eyes as she said that.
" I want you all to remember that it is not a game to be played with those things. This isn't Dratsmate. We must, must, must! Avoid it all times. We will need to find another house to occupy apart from this one. It's too dangerous to live here now" Mince clarified.
I was so happy to hear that. Finally, she was pushing it. Maybe the cat's arrival in this house would get her to have a change of heart.
"For now though, our escape has been cancelled by a few days. You boys will have to stay inside for a bit. Cats are very dangerous, so I'll go out and get the food for a while'' she added. And just as she said that my excitement dissipated. Sharp and Cheesy sighed in relief, glad that their expedition of the outside world was cancelled. I stood up, perplexed at this rash decision.
"But what about our venture outside? Mother should we really allow one tiny feline to stop us? We've-"
"There is no such thing as a "tiny" enemy when you're a rodent, Burrow. I'm afraid the adventure is cancelled for now. I know you long to see the world, but the world will always be there, so you boys will have to take it easy. Just for a while'' she rose her palm to indicate that I needed to calm down. Just like that, the opportunity I had been hoping, dreaming, and begging for vanished. Gone, evaporated into thin air. Feeling like someone had whipped all the air out of my chest, I slumped down in my seat, speechless.
Mother sauntered by and rubbed my head, walking back to the table to prepare some food she had from the day before.
I sighed, the sinking feeling moving from my chest to my stomach. Unlike my siblings, who were glad our little exploration was cancelled until God Knows when, I was utterly devastated, in a state of deep disappointment.
"So much for going on an adventure..." I mumbled chummily to myself, going back to my cotton nesting.
At this rate I would die old and weary before I got to go outside ....But why? All of this was so unnecessary. Why did we have to continue existing in this space that wasn't ours???This cramped, confined, space of wooden walls where the four of us could barely fit.
There was a whole world out there...a world of different species, a world with different colors, with so many different foods that weren't from a garbage, the total experience. With an endless abundance of opportunities to enjoy...and here I was. Stuck in this God forbidden prison, with not one, but two oppressors. No three actually, If I counted my mother in with the stupid cat and his stupid owner, the giant.
"Woe is me.." I muttered. The day was shit, but at least I wouldn't have to go through it again. Curling up into a ball, I curdled my knees to my chest, closing my eyes and falling asleep.
................................................
So the days passed us by regardless, though my world had stopped. I felt I was living in my own personal version of Hell, and things had gotten worse now. I used to think that my span of seeing things were so limited with not being able to go outside. If I had known, I would've appreciated the times I got to at least sneak out to the clearing glass. Now, we were home ridden.
It was the same thing every day, over and over again. We abided by the same routine that Mother had suggested.
We got up, prayed to the Creator like she wanted us to, talked, played Dratsmate, played other games, made sure our holdings stayed clean while she was gone; And while we were doing all this stuff Mother Mince would go out to get us food for the day, attempting to get so much that it would last as long as possible, to avoid going out for long until she found it absolutely necessary to go again.
She had really stuck to her word. She forbade us from everything. No stepping foot outside of the holdings, no going into the Kitchen, no going to the bathroom even if it was to get water. Cheesy or Sharp always took turns in getting water from the bathroom to fill up water buckets, and that was never allowed anymore. She did everything.
The only time she allowed us to go out was for us to relieve ourselves, and even then, it was heavily supervised.
This existence, truly, was awful.
I was determined still to sneak a peep by the clearing glass like I used to. Even If it was just for one blasted minute. Screw that Cat.
So it was on.
Every night I would get up, at the perfect moment when everyone had drifted off into deep sleep, to escape quietly through the hole like I usually did. The most annoying thing was that now, she never slept. Not peacefully anyway.
I pretended to sleep, but whenever I would peep my eyes open enough so it could still give the illusion that I was sleeping, I would see her watchful eyes roaming over me, over all of us. We were like prisoners being watched 24/7, and she was our prison guard. If any sudden movements were made, and I mean anything, so much as a shifting to turn one's back to the other side, or just to give yourself another position while you were asleep, she would notice. When she got tired, she would sit up, going over to the wash pan and washing her eyes to jut herself out of her weariness. Then she would sit in front of our nestlings, continuing to watch us while we slept. She only slept during the day, for a short while. Mother Mince stood on the edges of Paranoia.
I got up one faithful night and she happened to be sleeping soundly, snoring away even, so I sprung up and decided to take the opportunity to sneak away to the clearing glass. Rolled out of my bed with the softest sound as possible, I tiptoed onto my feet and creeped past Sharp, Cheesy, and her to get to the door.
The white moonlight shone into our room from outside, and it was heavenly. An Ethereal glow, a magical one, that was pulling me to come outside, begging me to escape into the night and indulge. I longed to stare up into a star-studded sky, and the moon was out tonight, so it would be even more scenic to observe. I looked back cautiously.
Mother was still asleep.
"Yes! I'll be back before she even knows" I whispered to myself, deciding that I would only sit at the clearing glass for nothing more than five minutes. I treaded so lightly towards the exit that one would swear I was hovering, making sure to lightly tap down on the sole of my paw, which eliminated any sounds of footsteps.
I was by the water bucket now that was right next to the door, walking straight through it, the moonlight shinning on my fur, almost halfway through the peephole, convinced that I would be getting to see the sky tonight.
But I was wrong.
I don't know what it was, or even how she knew I was escaping, so I shrugged it off to superstition.
It was like she had a sixth sense; or God had shown her a dream that I was about to step out. As I stepped into the Hallway, Mother Mince's eyes popped open to see me just walking my way out. She stood up and protested, racing towards me.
"Burrow!! Burrow stop!! Stop right there you are conniving young buck!!!!" she cursed.
My feet stopped midway from me taking the next step, my whole body had stopped. I sighed, rolling my eyes in disgust.
She was dead asleep ten minutes ago?? How did she suddenly be revived from it to notice and stop me from going outside???
She caught up to me.
"Listen Burrow, I know how hard it is for you to be couped up in a place like this, for such a long time. I know you bucks long for adventures beyond your wildest dreams" she said, taking my arm and wrapping hers around it, gently stirring me back to my bed.
"But it is too dangerous...too risky. That cat out there??It's not a creature to be taken lightly" I nodded my head and listened intently, even though I had heard this same story a thousand times.
''It gobbled up your Aunt and spat her back out like a toy"
"Its dangerous and will hunt you down until it gets you"
"I've been here longer so I know more than you and your brothers combined"
Yes!!! Yes, yes. I got it Mother. She was going to reiterate these same things over and over again, in hopes that I would become scared.
But that wasn't what she said. In fact, what she said next shocked me to my core.
"I know you have a habit of going underneath the looking glass and sitting there, staring up and looking carefully at things on the outside, and even though you disobeyed and still did it; I didn't mind. I knew you were anxious to get out Burrow, of course. I know how much you want to get out and climb the tallest tree you find, just so you can for once feel bigger than anything else. It's only natural that you want to be bigger, after having been told how much smaller you are than everything else in this world." A wave of shock emanated in me as she said that. I mentioned that to Cheesy and Sharp, but I never expected them to go back and tell her..
" But times have gotten different now, and I can't allow the risk. I can't afford to lose you. Any of you. It would be too emotionally damaging. You boys are my everything" tints of light glistened from the corners of her eyes as she caressed her hand across my cheek, a look of deep compassion radiating off of her onto me.
For the first time in all the times I had found Mother's warnings unbearable, I felt a sense of guilt. She was just trying to protect me from getting hurt. And here I was, selfishly disregarding her protection. I can't imagine the pain she would feel if any of us got hurt. Blinking back my weariness, I gazed at her loving expression, kissing her hand and rubbing it against my cheek even more.
"Okay Mother. I won't try to sneak out anymore" I said, giving up the struggle, and waving my white flag.
We stood there for a while, silently. Then, a thought came back to me.
"You..how did you know I wanted to climb the tallest tree. Did Cheesy or Sharp tell you that?" I asked tentatively.
"Why of course I knew, silly!!I'm telepathic after all. That's how mothers know their sons. From head to toe" she pointed her finger in the middle of my head and landed it straight to my feet.
I chuckled under my breath, rolling my eyes as we walked slowly back to our nestings.
"But how?" I asked myself, forgetting that I had been speaking out loud. Mother placed her arm around my neck, drawing me so close to her that our cheeks smushed together.
"You sleep talk about it all the time. plus, I hear you a few times running it over with your brothers." I opened my mouth to defend myself because I had no memory of sleep talking, but then I canned it, realizing that I had been suffering from nightmare of late.
Both of us ended up laughing it off, attempting to hold our snickers from waking anyone else up.
We were at the bed now, Mother having her last say.
"Now please, I want you to do just one thing for your Mother and I would consider it a big favor" she whispered. I narrowed my eyebrows in curiosity, wondering what she could possibly ask of me. Despite her denying my freedom, I'd do anything for her.
"I want you, my son Burrow, to be patient. Just have some faith and love and patience."