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Chapter Eight | What To Do
Rey was never really a light sleeper, but the recent sickness had thrown his whole schedule off. Every little sound woke up something in his brain, especially in the dead of night. His bedsheets felt weird, like they were too loose and trying to tie him up while he slept, and his pajamas made his skin crawl. Food didn't quite have the same taste, which Soren said was because of his sinus stuff.
Also, more annoyingly, he'd been waking up in the middle of the night for a drink of water or to go to the bathroom.
Rey wasn't the only one. Dorian had also been getting up too, but he didn't like admitting it for whatever reason. Maybe he was just trying to seem tougher? Rey didn't really care one way or the other.
What did concern him was what was on his bedside table right here, right now.
The only reason he'd rolled over was because he was feeling a bit overheated, followed soon after by the sound of someone throwing up. He had called out to his brother, but when he received no answer Rey's concern increased.
"Dorian? Are you getting si-… what the?" Rey had cracked open his eyes to check on his brother when, quite distinctly, he saw something on his bedside table doubled over and making sounds. The hair on his arm started standing on end and he knew something was different about what he was seeing. He wasn't sure what, but some curious part of him drew him in and, instantly, he was awake.
He pushed himself up and reached over toward the light, watching eagerly as the figure stumbled and fumbled their way off to the side by the tissue box, tap it a few times, and then vanish between the box and the light. He couldn't wait for another moment.
The young boy wasn't unfamiliar with this level of excitement. Every invention that didn't immediately fall apart made him absolutely giddy and curious about what he could do next. It was the same kind of excitement he was feeling now.
"Wha-? Rey? What's your problem? Turn off the light," mumbled Dorian. It was obvious he was still fast asleep and annoyed with him, but Rey didn't care. He needed his brother's help and needed to know what was on their bedside table.
"Dorian, something's on the table. I just saw it. It's behind the tissue box," Rey hissed. Once again, he saw the shadow move. They needed to act quickly if they were going to see what this thing was.
"You were probably just dreaming," his brother grumbled.
"No! I wasn't. I thought you were getting sick and saw something dart around the lamp by the tissue box. Come on. Help me look real quick," said Rey. The youngest managed to catch his brother's eyes and, in that moment, Dorian seemed to see that Rey was serious and not just messing around. He rolled his eyes and mumbled some kind of agreement, but Rey didn't really care. He was already pushing himself up out from under the covers and preparing to reach for the lamp.
He reached over and flicked the light on.
Rey wasn't sure what he saw, but what he did know was that something was leaving a shadow right behind the lamp. As he slid out from under the covers, Rey never tore his eyes away from the spot where he saw the shadow.
And then he saw it.
Her.
At least, he thought it was a her based on her facial features.
She was small, and pale, and she looked absolutely exhausted. It was absolutely fascinating, seeing something that looked so human and yet be so small. Rey gazed into her blue-gray eyes for what felt like an hour before she coughed and wretched, getting sick all over the bedside table. Rey could also see evidence that she got sick by his old medicine cup too, but he decided to worry about that later.
"Woah… did you hear that?" asked Dorian. Rey subconsciously nodded as he slowly inched his way forward and to the side to look at the small figure again.
"Dorian, you've got to see this," breathed Rey. Rey had moved cautiously, as if one of his experiments would topple at the slightest tremor of the ground. The last thing he wanted to do was startle the figure. Dorian, on the other hand, hadn't seen or noticed the anomalies and flopped out of his bed as if he was going to be late for pancakes.
"Wha-… woah…"
Dorian spotted her too, and immediately he understood why Rey was acting the way he was. From where he was standing beside his bed, he could see better over the tissue box and spotted the small figure that was too small, too real, to be just a toy or some weird invention of Rey's. Without words, both boys advanced at a snail's pace in hopes to keep the thing on the table.
Dorian watched as it fell to its knees, absent mindedly tapping at its sides as if it were searching for something that wasn't there. It looked scared, if that was possible for something so small to have facial expressions like that.
He and Rey exchanged a quick glance before Rey reached out and grabbed the lamp while Dorian pulled the tissue box aside, revealing the small figure immediately behind. Fascination flooded the boys' minds as they watched the figure.
She was wearing what looked like clothes, layers of them. Some kind of light tan shirt and brown pants with what looked like a green cloak or poncho over her shoulders. There was something that looked like a lightbulb on one side of her hip and a bag slung over the other shoulder. Features gaunt and hollow, she didn't look like she was doing or feeling well in the slightest. How she looked reminded Rey of how he and his brother looked for the past few days – sick.
"Rey? That's not… one of yours… is it?" asked Dorian, barely whispering.
"No… no way," Rey muttered, watching how the blue-gray eyes flicked back and forth between him and his brother.
"Then what is it?" Dorian hissed back.
"I… I don't know, but… I think it's a she, and I don't think she's feeling well," Rey muttered back. He cleared the tension in his throat with a few light coughs as he directed his words at the small figure. "Hey, are you okay?"
"You think it, or 'she', can understand us?" Dorian asked.
"I don't know," Rey stated. "But she's looking from me to you, so she can at least hear us." Rey watched as the figure's shoulders began to shake, vibrating as her chest heaved rapidly. In and out, she was obviously hyperventilating. Rey, if he held his breath, could almost hear her small gasps.
"This isn't a dream, right? I mean, she's real." Dorian's hand was already in motion before Rey registered his question. Everything moved so fast.
Ashlynn, who was listening to the boys talk back and forth about whether or not she could understand or if she was real, was starting to feel lightheaded again. The corners of her vision were blurring. She wanted to vomit again, but nothing was left to give. Every sense she possessed was deteriorating rapidly, and now she was backed into a corner.
She was trying to recite the Borrower rules in her head when a massive amount of movement caught her attention. Her eyes snapped up to see the older of the two, Dorian, reaching his hand out toward her.
Fingers were extended.
Palm easily eclipsing her body.
Ashlynn felt her instincts take over her aching body as she forced herself to her feet and threw herself backward away from the child's grasp. Sadly, she overestimated the force she would need. She jumped up and back so violently that her back actually hit the wall beside the bedside table.
She'd managed to get away, yes; but there was something she didn't account for – the gap.
Between the bedside table and the wall, there was a gap about an inch wide, which was just enough for her to slip through. For a brief moment, Ashlynn's body was perfectly posed against the wall and the table before her center of gravity shifted again and she began to plumet into the shadows.
A scream was lodged somewhere in Ashlynn's throat as she began to slip, but it didn't stay there for long. As her body fell, an immense shadow fell over her and pressure surrounded her right arm. She heard a distinct popping sound from her shoulder, as if she were cracking her knuckles but on a much larger, louder scale and the scream that was trapped erupted out of her. Her body hung limp momentarily before her body began lifting from her throbbing arm.
She didn't want to look, but impulse overrode her and she glanced up only to see her arm was being pinched between the fingers of the one called Dorian. He was lifting her by her throbbing arm, and there was nothing she could do. Those immense fleshy columns and their vice like grip around her aching appendage would not release her, no matter how she struggled; not that she had the strength to.
The Borrower swallowed the cries of pain she wanted to release and replaced them with choked whimpers and groans. She closed her eyes tight and averted her gaze from her arm. She wasn't sure if she was about to have it ripped from her body or if it was about to be broken into tiny pieces. Whatever the case, she didn't want to see it. She didn't want to look at the human child's face as he examined her now fully exposed body.
There would be no escape now.
The words of the youngest boy sounded muffled and distant, but Ashlynn was still able to make them out in some form.
"Dorian! What are you doing?! You'll hurt her!" Rey's harsh whisper was followed by a scuffling. Rey had watched as the little figure had backed up and had started to fall from the bedside table to the floor. Dorian was faster and had managed to grab her arm, but the scream that followed told Rey that Dorian had either grabbed too hard or that she didn't like being touched.
Whatever the case, Dorian had managed to keep her from falling at the cost of injuring her, so he was grateful for that much at least. Rey saw how the figure looked away from where her arm was being grabbed and felt his heart ache for her.
She was terrified beyond words, and he and Dorian were causing it.
"Dorian, you're hurting her. Don't pinch her arm like that," Rey urged. Dorian grunted frustratingly and held out the partially limp figure.
"Well, then you hold her," Dorian hissed back. Rey didn't have time to object as Dorian lowered the tiny woman into his hands. Rey cupped his hands and prayed she didn't do anything rash like try to run or jump out of his hands. Thankfully, she didn't seem to be able to do either as she crumpled into a ball in his hands and pulled her arm toward her torso.
The sensation was a novel one. The life was so small, but so much like his own. Rey had held his friends' pets before like hamsters and guinea pigs. He'd even pet a few fish before.
This was something entirely different.
In the dim lamplight, he was able to see more of her features now that she was so much closer to him. He could make out her fingers and the way her hair fell across her sweat chilled cheek. He could see her fingernails and how they grasped at the fabric of her clothes.
It hit Rey all at once that she wasn't just some creature – she was a living being. Practically human except for her size.
Rey glanced up at his brother just in time to see him dumping out the contents of a drawer from their bedside table, the pieces and parts scattering while others stacked and lumped together. That's what they got for shoving their random knick-knacks into the thing in the first place. Rey also saw Dorian was getting together what looked like a set of bundled socks, some of the crackers, and a lid of water.
"Dorian, what're you doing?" asked the kid.
"What do you think? Setting up an area for her until we figure out what to do with her," replied Dorian. Immediately, Ashlynn turned her fear filled eyes onto Rey and then to his brother. She attempted to squirm, but weakness overtook her. Not even adrenaline could force her body to flee now. Rey noticed this and felt a pang in his heart.
She seemed so scared. So helpless.
"Dorian I… I don't like the sound of that," stated Rey.
"Well, what else are we going to do with her?" Dorian asked harshly.
"I… I don't know. Let her go? I mean… I don't know… It just doesn't feel right keeping her in a drawer," mumbled Rey. He noticed the eager gleam in the small woman's features as she looked up into his eyes for only a moment. It took everything the boy had to tear his gaze from the figure to his brother. "I just… I don't know. I think we need to wake up Soren. You know? Get his help?"
"You saw Soren and how tired he was. We went to bed early and everything. He's tired. You're tired. I'm tired. She looks tired. It's just for the night," rebutted Dorian. "You want to wake up Soren when he's feeling sick and tired?"
Rey chewed on his bottom lip in confliction before mumbling, "No."
"And, do you see her? She looks sick too. She might've been the one to get us sick for all we know. Remember what Soren said about keeping the mice in the walls as pets?" pointed out Dorian.
Rude! You little germy twerps are the reason I'm sick! Ashlynn thought as her heart raced faster and faster. That lightheaded feeling consumed her again. I can't. I can't let them take me. I can't break the rules, but I can't let them keep me. I'm going to be a pet. They're going to get me a cage and I'm going to be a pet! This is bad. This is really really really really bad! Curses! I should've just stayed in the walls! Why did I think medicine was going to help? That's a human thing.
"Yeah, but…"
"Good, then it's settled," interrupted Dorian. "She'll be safe in here for the night and then Soren will know what to do with her. Now, put her down in there, let's get some sleep, and we'll get Soren in here first thing tomorrow. Besides, he can't do anything if he's just as sick and tired as the rest of us."
Rey looked down at the little figure again, the same pang hitting him again, before relenting to his brother's idea. He walked over to the bedside table carefully and lowered his hands into the hard wood box.
Ashlynn seized the opportunity to get off of the child's hands as fast as possible, scrambling to get off and instantly regretting her quickness of movement as her body screamed in agony, especially her arm. Whatever that boy did made her fingers tingly and numb. Already, there were bruises forming on her arm in the shape of finger pads.
She stumbled backward and pressed her spine against the hard wood directly behind her and stared up from the shadows at the faces of the two boys.
Please don't close the drawer. Please don't close the drawer. I can maybe get out if you don't close the drawer. Please. Just let me go. Ashlynn's silent thoughts went unanswered as the older boy reached out and pressed his hand against the edge. She wanted to cry out and beg them to stop, but instinct stopped her once again as she was sealed in darkness, barely the width of her hand open at the top of the container.
Ashlynn choked on a sob that rose up in her throat. Sliding down the back of her wooden prison, she curled in on herself. Her body shook like a leaf in a hurricane, but she had no tears or energy left to maintain her fear. She listened as the two boys talked for a little while longer in hushed words before the bedside light finally flicked out, leaving her in complete darkness.
No. It's over. It's all over. I'm caught. I've been seen and now I'm caught. I don't even have my weapons to protect me. Their dad is going to put me in a cage and I'll live off of pellets and goodness knows what else until the end of my days. Poking. Prodding.
Ashlynn shivered as she thought about the boy's hands holding her. The warmth. The tiny flexes each finger or muscle made as he adjusted to her weight. It was a living nightmare, but what was worse was the thought that it would be all she ever knew from here on out.
Exhaustion dragged her eyelids further and further down. It wasn't even a matter of sleep now. Between the pain and chills and sickness and the fate she knew she would have to endure, it took everything she had left in her to drag her way over to the bundled socks and lied down. For just a moment, she wanted to enjoy the simple comfort of her hip lamp, but even that was a disappointment as the lamp flickered on and off.
Even the battery is failing me. Truly the last thing to go wrong.
Ashlynn recited the Borrower rules in her head, mainly the three that truly mattered.
Don't be seen. Don't get caught. Don't talk to the humans.
Well… if this is how I end, I can at least follow the last rule. Then again… is it worth it? Maybe if I talk to those boys, then they'll let me go. The one seemed to think so.
Oh… who am I kidding? Who am I trying to convince? Myself? I'm not making it out of here. This is my life now.
Ashlynn felt a single tear drip down her cheek as, finally, the last life of her hip lamp battery drained. Lying there in complete darkness, Ashlynn curled into the top of the stiff sock and let her exhaustion overtake her.