The floor felt cool against her feet as she padded along, quick and nimble.


    But quiet, always quiet.


    The darkness crept up behind her as always and shied away in front, a bubble of light that let her see her path. The food room always felt so far from the safety of her home but she couldn’t live on treats alone and so she had to beat back the darkness once again.


    The noises in the dark made her heart beat faster, but thankfully they were never close, always some unknown distance into the dark. She wished she could find them, the Others, and beg them to let her stay safe and secure in her home again. They had never interacted with her before, always hiding behind the foggy wall, but perhaps she had done something to drive them off and she could say sorry. Anything to not have to venture into the darkness, to have them fix the crack in the wall to her home. If not for her trinket granting her a small bit of light she would likely be stuck in her home regardless, unable to brave the darkness, doomed to hunger.


    Reaching the Food place, she pushed her trinket inside to let it light up the large space. As the light brightened the area, she scooped up her trinket again and padded through the maze of large flat objects inside. Headed for the back area, a wall with a hole in it separating where she was with where she wanted to be, she scrounged through the wall flaps looking for more of the powder that made the hunger fade.


    ‘Seems like the powder is running out, I’ll have to find another Food place soon.’


    Going to the spout where water came out, she drank her fill and began padding back through the maze and out into the smaller longer area, her trinket held tight and the light flickering around her. She felt that she deserved a treat for making it so far, so she took a detour down an even smaller area, following her memories of where she had hidden a small stash of treats. Her supply in her home had run out and she needed to bring back more.


    The Others had always given her treats when she had figured out something important, before they disappeared. They always slipped it through a flap on the foggy wall. The treats were the only reason she had to believe they weren’t trapped behind the foggy wall the same way the small people were trapped in the little box in her home, the small people in the box had never given her anything. Though both the small people and the Others had never reacted to her in any other way. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    She wanted to help the small people, but she could never figure out how to open the box, so they remained trapped. She hoped they had enough food in that small box. If the wall had not cracked open when the Others had disappeared, she would have nothing left. The tube that had fed her up before the Others disappeared had also stopped giving her food, hence why she was forced into the darkness beyond her home.


    Running her hand along the smooth surface of the wall as she padded towards her stash, head full of thoughts about treats and looking at the Pages once she returned to her home, she was startled quite badly when the lights changed. Instantly she stopped and crouched to look around trying to find what had happened, but as she did a deep chill flew down her spine.


    The noises, they were closer.


    Close enough to be a danger. She had never encountered whatever made the noises, but there was no doubt that whatever it was, it had to be hungry. Maybe it had been trapped like her and had finally gotten free. She couldn’t stay here, she had to run home and close the wall. Hope that it couldn’t find her, or if it did then hope it couldn’t make it through the wall crack. She stood to start on her way back to her home, much more quickly than her walk here, when the noises caught her. A loud clunk through the wall she had her hand on.


    Her breath left her and she began to run, scrambling to get away as fast as possible. If the noises could break a wall, then nowhere was safe, but she didn’t plan to stay and find out. Running through places at random, her trinket lighting the way as the darkness faded in front and chased her behind, she kept going until her legs couldn’t hold her anymore. Collapsing against a wall, the surface cool against her hot skin, she tried desperately to catch her breath, eagerly gulping down air.


    The noises had never been that close before, just on the other side of a wall. It seemed she wasn’t the only one running out of food and she didn’t want to meet anything that could make the noises she had heard. It might turn out whatever it was even considered her to be food. Once her breathing had slowed and she was able to stand again she got up and looked around. She felt it again, that chill down her spine. She had run so fast that she didn’t watch where she was going and now, looking around the long narrow areas that all looked similar, she had no idea where she was…


    Or how to get home.