...................
"Cheesy!!! Cheesy!!" I shouted, running off the plank and going to the cupboard, seeing that there where miniature steps to the side of the grey tub. Reaching the level where I could see the tub of water, seeing Cheesy's body floating lifelessly on top of it.
"Cheesy!! Cheesy hold on I'm coming you hear??Answer me Cheese hold on" Without thinking I put my hand on the edge and realized that it was slippery, covered in oil so that whoever fell into it would not be able to come up. Something else twisted in my gut again and I spiraled, tears coming to my eyes. I rushed down the steps and went to the toilet, going on my hind legs and rolling off some tissue off of the tissue role, tucking it into my mouth and running back up to the steps. I placed the tissue over the oily edge and got on it, taking a deep breath and diving into the water, the cold liquid rushing over my head and engulfing me. I was submerged now in the deathly waters, floating in the invisible space of the grey tub, swimming with so much momentum that my body almost touched the bottom of the bucket. Kicking my arms and legs vigorously I pushed myself up and swam to the surface; eyes focused on the floating, lifeless body above me.
Coming up through the veil of water I gasped severely, my lungs desperate for the trapped air to be released out of my mouth.
I continued kicking my feet and swinging my tail, my head bobbing barely above the vast expanse of water that surrounded me. Looking over, Cheesy was a leap in front of me, his face turned down to the water, exposing his back. I didn't know if it was my muscles tensing up from keeping above the water, or the pressure of it straining against my chest, but with that image I could've drowned there and then.
''Cheesy!!! Cheesy!!" under clattering teeth, I carried my arms back and forward like a professional swimmer, racing over to him in one swoop, my shivered hands urgently pulling him to me.
I flipped him over instantly. His eyes were shut tight, mouth crumpled, and whiskers bent over, as if he had fallen asleep into this nightmare. Those sharp, prickly, imaginary needles that scrapped the walls of my throat whenever I was about to cry showed itself, and under insistent gasps of air I struggled to keep afloat from the shook. Sucking in air I dived under him and came up against his chin, resting his head on my back as I swam forward, swimming back to the edge of the tub.
His body was devoid of any sort of heat while it rested against me. My mind raced to the obvious reason for this, but I kept denying the reality.
No. It was impossible. All I had to do was get him out of here and squeeze his chest a few times. It's just to get him out of this damned water was all he needed, and I'd carry him home and curse him silly for putting himself in such a predicament.
That's all he needed. That's all he needed... forcefully breast stroking over to the edge where I put the toilet paper, I grabbed Cheesy's hand and pulled him over onto the ledge of the grey tub, his face and hands slumped over it.
I climbed out beside him, positioning myself on the napkin and pulling the rest of his body out of the water, hauling his body over my shoulders and stepping onto the grounds of the plastic steps, lowering myself and resting his body on the ground. Getting on my knees I turned him over again.
His eyes were still closed. There was no breath coming out of his body.
And why the hell wasn't he waking up???
"Cheesy- jus hold on. I'm gonna make this right" I got over him, quivering paws rested on his chest, taking all the force I had in my body and pushing down on it hard, compressing against it over and over again.
I pushed up and down, up and down, over and over again. Repeating it with rounds of five times, determined that he would be spitting up water any time now.
Cheesy was strong. Look how far he had come from being a fat, incompetent rodent to someone that could turn around and offer a helping hand.
'Your...not...gonna..die..like..this!!!" I kept repeating to myself breathlessly, between heaves of pumping his chest.
The sinking feeling in my stomach was anchored; But I continued to deny. I would not accept this. This..this whatever it was, it was impossible, and it couldn't happen to Cheesy.
He had come so far. Too far. And I knew he wouldn't turn back now...
"Come the fuck on yuh big lump!!! Wake up!!!" I screamed.
Hot tears fell from my eyes onto my shaking hands.
I arched over and opened his mouth, covering it with my own and blowing breath into him. I did the same thing over and over and over again until I was out of breath. Then, I heard something.
It was something so soft, so unutterable, that if I wasn't listening, I wouldn't have heard it.
"Stop this. He's gone"
'No!!! No he's not!!! He can't be!!! Come on Cheesy, get...up!!" I protested, pumping down on the chest of his lifeless, unmoving body. Finally, I caved in, bending my head low and pressing my eyes shut, the hot tears rushing down on my arms.
"No...he- he- can't...we haven't- even gone....outside" My body heaved up and down between shortened breaths. An immense onslaught of pain penetrated across my forehead like someone took a hammer and smashed my brain to mush; My stomach was churning, hurting worse than that time I had accidentally eaten spoiled food. The bile danced on the back of my tongue, rushing up in its forceful, violent nature; I was about to vomit.
My body wrenched over in a deeply arched bridge. Turning away from Cheesy I held my stomach, hunched over like a beggar on the street, a lengthy, slimy string of saliva coming from my mouth, stretching down to my feet.
"Cheeeeeeesssssssssyyy!!!!!!!!!!"
A heightened, horrified screech wrenched itself from the bowels of my stomach, blasting the walls of the bathroom at such a high pitch, that I swore it wasn't mine. I wailed like a snail that got dosed in salt, screaming all my agony and pain onto the walls of the bathroom.
I thought I was going to hurl, but it was nothing but the shock, the pain, not knowing how to inflict itself onto my body, so it came up through sound. There was no better way I could express it.
I turned to him.
He laid there, lifeless. Still.
His eyes were closed, mouth a straight line. He was so serene, so at peace.
Sitting there, sighing deeply, I was nothing but an empty shell. All the life and hope that I had for the future, all my dreams, my love, the tiny drop of faith that I had left...gone.
It died along with him. Washed away, drowned into the deep murky waters of inevitability.
Shoulders hunched I kneeled before him; eyes reddened with tears. I sank my head onto Cheese's wet, cold chest, feeling all the anxiety, all the depression, scrapping my insides. My voice was hoarse from all the pelting, and my mouth was dry.
"NO....no your fine. Get up. Wake up"
I started pumping his chest again vainly. Figuring that maybe I hadn't done it long enough. Maybe if I did it jusst a bit more..
"It's too late" the voice reverberated in the back of my mind. I forced my hands to the ground.
"Cheesy you said we needed to stick together. You said we had each other's backs no matter what. So why? Why are you leaving me now, hmm?" The tears flooded down my face even harder now, my chest bursting with grief. I slammed my head into Cheese's chest, staying there and crying while I hugged his freezing, rigid body.
It was too late. It was over. There was nothing else I could do.
Cheesy was gone.
I got up and looked down at him, resting peacefully before me.
Was this the faith that Mother Mince referring to? Was this the protection her "Father in Heaven" provided??
I never asked for much. All I wanted was to go beyond my limits, venture outside, keep my Family safe. And nothing but the opposite happened.
Every time I hoped, someone died. Every time my belief was regained, I suffered. Looking up to the ceiling, I asked him what I've been dying to say.
"Why??All I ever asked from you was to protect my family. So why do you keep taking them away from me??" I shouted.
Then there was nothing but silence that followed. I knew he wasn't listening to me, and all that I was doing was in vain.
Standing there above him, everything in me deadened. I was frozen, like someone had ripped my soul out of my body.
"Cheesy.." I muttered tearfully, sniffing softly.
What was I going to tell Sharp when I got back?? On top of that, I failed to do what Mother told me to do, which was protect my Family. My legs gave out and I slumped down beside Cheesy's unanimated body, my paws holding my chest cavity from dropping to the floor.
"Click-clack"
Then, snapping out of depression, my ears flickered up; there was a sound coming from the door.
............................................................................
I heard footsteps and a booming voice, and cat like noises behind it.
It was the cat. He was coming.
Looking left and right desperately. I took one step forward and stopped.
My eyes immediately swerved to Cheesy. I can't leave him here. I just couldn't...
"Meeooowww"
"Click"
The sounds were coming closer. Burrow turned to look down at Cheesy, not wanting to leave his side. The disheartened brother stretched out his hand to touch him one more time, the strings of his heart popping in his chest as he moved away. In the distance the bathroom door flung open, the Giant strolling through casually, the cat behind him.
Burrow climbed down from the steps and quickly hid behind the toilet, the Giant striding into the room with the cat meowing in front of him.
"What is it you wanted to show me kitty?" he asked, following the cat as he walked up to the grey tub. To-mas had been pulling at his jeans foot and nagging him for a while now, as if he had been begging him to come to the bathroom.
"Okay okay okay!! I'm coming To-mas. Give ya slave a break why dontcha" The Giant went over to the grey tub, his eyes meeting it before he stood in front of it.
"The plank's still in tact, the paper channel still here...but what do we have herreee???" Perkins had caught something at the corner vision of his eye, something laid on the detachable plastic steps that was right beside the grey tub.
His eyes widened, and he smiled, laughing heartily as he saw it.
It was a dead rat. He poked it curiously with his middle finger. It was as stiff as a board.
"It worked! The trap worked!!" he exclaimed excitedly, the grown man jumping up and down clapping like a little girl, most obviously enthralled.
Burrow's tear-stained eyes peeked out from the behind the toilet, a cold chilling feeling came up in his core again, mixed with anger.
These Giants were monsters. All they did was kill and destroy everything they didn't understand, rejoicing over their annihilation. Didn't he know that they had a family? Burrow sighed, shaking his head at how ridiculous he sounded.
Of course, these beings didn't care about anything but themselves. We invaded their space after all, and they didn't want to be in the same space as "pests".
"ohhh dis shit is excellent " Perkins said to himself, walking towards the toilet. Burrow hid himself behind the toilet even more as he did. The man merely rolled off some toilet paper, going back over the grey tub. Burrow stuck his head out to see the giant hovering over Chessy's body, wrapping it in the napkin, and taking it up. He held it up, and Burrow looked at his brother's face one last time. He could feel his heart sinking and the tears came back again, the Giant stepping out the room with Cheesy's body in his hand, in the rolled-up toilet paper. The cat followed behind the man calmly, waving his tail behind him.
Burrow panicked, wondering what in rat's tarnation he would tell Sharp. He approached the bathroom door with caution and followed behind the Giant from a distance, his eyes on Cheesy's body.
.....................
Burrow stood by the window and watched as the Giant reached outside and threw Cheesy's body on a pile of leaves and trash that they nearly burned in the last time. That Cheesy would now be burned in.... Perkins proceeded to scoop dead dried leaves and placed it over his body, tears piling up in his eyes.
"I'm sorry Mother. I've failed you. I should've watched him; I should've gone with him into the bathroom" he whispered to himself. Mother Mince trusted him to watch over his brothers, and he was failing completely at doing that. He turned off, running across the kitchen floor, his heart heavy. His brother was drowned, he couldn't bare to see him burned as well. He just couldn't bear it.
He returned to the holdings with a heavy heart, walking into the room with his shoulders slumped, and his eyes red and teary.
"Burrow did you find...." Sharp took one good look at Burrow mid question, noticing that his eyes were red and his body language was off.
" Burrs what's up?" Sharp asked again, Burrow holding his head down and sniffling, wiping tears from his face. Sharp saw that he was crying and came closer to him, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Heeeyyyy. Burrs? What happened?" Sharp asked softly, Burrow finally looking up at him, opening his mouth to say something, but no words came out.
"Burrs talk to me! What happened??" Sharp asked him again, Burrow still sniffling and wiping his eyes.
"Ch- Cheesy. It's Cheesy" Burrow muttered out slowly, his heart feeling heavy.
Sharp narrowed his eyes, giving Burrow a strange look.
"What do ya mean? Cheesy gave you a talk and left for water just now. Did something-'
"Cheesy's dead Sharp! He's gone.." Burrow cried out, his voice breaking as the tears flowed down his cheeks.
"He got caught in some stupid trap the Giant set in the bathroom, he drowned cause of it. I came there and took his body outta the water and I tried over and over and over-"
"Where is he now???" Sharp asked, Burrow sniffling and holding his chest, leaning back.
"Where is he now Burrow???" Sharp rose his voice, demanding Burrow to tell him where he was; he stood up, his expression filled with vexation. Cheesy couldn't be dead, that was impossible. He was just here. He was just here, so he couldn't be dead Sharp thought.
"The Giant took him outside and threw him on the pile that we almost burned in" Burrow said weakly, sniffling while he said so.
"And you let him???" Sharp asked angrily, he took off through the peephole with not one care in the world; he didn't even stop to look about and see if anyone was outside, he just ran off, going across the kitchen floor and head straight to the cat door.
"Sharp noooo. It doesn't make sense, he's gone!" Burrow warned him, Sharp flying past him and going anyway.
"Cheesey?? Drowned from a trap???No no no. Not my Cheesy. He's too smart for that" Sharp said to himself over and over again, as he passed the counter and made his way through the cat door.
"Shaaarp!" Burrow was feet behind him, seeing him dig off through the cat door and going to the patio. Sharp was climbing down the steps as Burrow jumped through the cat door, there was no sign of the giant or the cat where Burrow had seen them through the window.
"No way Cheesy could be gone and I taught him so much. Not for a trap. I'd have to see that myself" Sharp affirmed, continuing to march across the lawn of the front yard, and making his way closer and closer to the pile.
"Sharp no! Wait-"Burrow sobbed from behind, Sharp's focus fixed on the pile of dried up leaves in front of him.
"Sharp..." Burrow said sadly, Sharp finally reaching the pile and stopping. He took his paws and dug into the pile of dried-up leaves before him, digging and digging, until his paw hit something wet. He moved three dried up leaves out of his way, and there Cheesy was. He laid before him, his eyes closed, unmoving and still.
"Cheesy." Sharp muttered lowly. He bent down and got closer to him, observing him.
His eyes were closed, droplets of water still dropping from his whiskers. Taking his paw he gently rubbed Cheesy's head, he felt cold and hard to the touch. Sharp dragged his hand back. There was a hollow feeling in his chest, like someone had dug it out and there was nothing there, nothing but emptiness. Tears gathered at his eyes.
"But how...how?" Just as Sharp got closer to embrace Cheesy's body, something rattled in the bushes right above where they stood. Sharp stopped and looked above the pile of leaves that was ahead of Cheesy's body, he peered up through his cloudy, teary eyes and saw another pair of larger, yellow eyes looking down at him.
"Sharp get back!" Sharp gasped and jumped back at Burrow's warning, the pair of yellow eyes emerging out of the pile of dried-up leaves, Cheesey's body being dragged further back into the pile of leaves.
"Cheesy!!" Sharp leaped forward, stretching his hand out to grab Chessy's body but only touching the tip of his cold, stiff fingers.
The yellow eyed thing emerged to the top of the pile, with Cheesey's dead body in its mouth. The creature was nothing they had ever seen before; it had a long body with short ears and a puny face and an elongated snout.
The thing hissed at both of the brothers as they held each other, turning around and slapping them in the face with its tail, kicking dirt up in their faces as it left.
Sharp and Burrow coughed from the dust that that thing just romped up in their eyes. The creature turned and ran off to the fence.
Both of the brothers sat down dazed on the ground, not completely registering what had just happened. Sharp quickly snapped out of it, getting up and scratching his eyes, fanning the dirt away to see the creature running off with his brother.
"Cheeeessssyyyy!!!" Sharp leaped up and ran after the thing that quickly dug through a hole in the fence and into the forest.
"Sharp no!!" Burrow running after him. He climbed under the fence and pushed his head out, the thing already melted into the dark canopy of the forest, nowhere to be found.
"Cheesy..."
Sharp's voice began to break, the tears flooding down his cheeks as he looked on into the lush bushes and trees of the forest, the hollow feeling in his chest even worse now.
''He's gone..." He muttered with a trembling lip. He stood there, looking out into the darkness for a while, the disbelief slowly sinking into him as he realized, that he was brother was dead, and gone.
....................
They went back to the holdings. Both of them sat there, quietly, devoid of anything to say. Burrow crumbled up into a ball and wiped the tears from his face, Sharp sitting down at his corner, staring blankly into space. They sat there, the atmosphere thick with tension. The room, absent of Cheese's presence.
"You know what?" Sharp said, standing up and finally breaking the silence.
"Mother was wrong. She lied to us Burrow, about everything" Sharp eyes flashed with aggravation as he looked intently at Burrow. Burrow sniffled, looking up tiredly, his eyes weary.
"All that nonsense of "We are rodents, and not rats" About us deserving to live and walk on this planet like we deserved life. About rodents having souls, carrying themselves with respect. All complete and utter ratshit!!!" Sharp shouted, kicking the empty water cup that stood beside the peephole.
"It was all nonsense, Burrow! Nonsense." He bellowed at the top of his voice. Burrow sat there like his soul had been drained, his eyes dead.
Sharp came up to Burrrow, leaning down so that his face was exactly in front of his.
"We are not Rodents, Burrow. We are nothing but filthy, stinking, nuisance rats!! We're parasitic pests that annoy the giant's civilization. We are bags of flesh to every. Single. Creature. Out there. What do we eat but scraps of food in garbage bins and fruits? We're at the bottom of the food chain!!" Sharp was yelling at the top of his voice now, Burrow sitting there quietly sniffling, his eyes becoming glossy again. The enraged rat walked off with his head in his hands, nodding.
Burrow thought deeply.
Mother always made it seemed like our lives mattered, but it didn't. It never did. She only lied to us because we were her sons, it was a necessary lie. Something you told your kids to make the world seem like a wonderful place. Something you told your lover that they were the only one, when you know they couldn't bear the truth.
"Look at the things we've seen. That damned, humongous bird was the thing of nightmares. Even now I could feel the bloodlust that dripped off its eyes. Images of the cat eating out our mother's insides, the very insides she once carried us in. Still in my head" Sharp hit his own head repeatedly with his paws, each time harder than the next.
"Even that thing with those horrid, haunting yellow eyes. It scooped up Cheesy like he was nothing. Nothing but a piece of meat. Nothing but dinner for him. But he was everything. He was everything to me, everything to us. He was the glue, Burrow." Sharp's eyes were filled with tears now, his chest heavy. He kneeled and placed his head in his lap, his whole body shivering from the grief, hot tears drenching his face.
He slowly brought himself up again, looking at Burrow with tears in his eyes. Burrows eyes were filled with tears too.
"He was everything. He was everything to this family" Sharp cried, sobbing horrendously as he kneeled his head down in his lap again.
Burrow looked at him and felt the hopelessness spread all over his body. He got up from his corner and walked over to Sharp, kneeling down and hugging him as he bawled.
They both held each other, crying.