#ratwitch

We heard the front door open and two sets of footsteps cross the almost imperceptibly creaking floors. Pricking up all of our ears, we listened to the voices.  

“Talk to your parents later if you’d like a pet, for now let’s not be keeping rats around.” “They said you’d be a friend but you’re too much like a grown-up. I mean, we could have kept it for a little while.” “Be glad I just tossed it over the fence. You don’t want to know what those things get up to.” “Yes I do!” “You’ll wet the bed if I told you.”

“I’ve never been scared!” “Your Daddy says you’re scared all the time.” “No I’m not, I, just like to pretend I’m scared.” “Why would you do that?” 

There was a long pause during which the ancient mechanism of the re-stuffed, re-upholstered recliner in the living room groaned under a small form nonetheless choosing to forcefully leap upon it. “I’m - just lonely sometimes.” 

“Lonely means you were scared!” “No! Lonely is different!” “They’re basically the same thing. Look, if you want to know what happened to Darcy, shut up and let me tell the story.” 

We raised our whiskers as though they too, could detect sound. The irregular bumps of the house and more distant, ambient sounds of the neighborhood were soothing but rarely gave way to more meaningful information. 

“Darcy was moving into that old house by the school. He was cleaning it out, fixing it up, went into the crawl space and met a Rat King.” “What’s that?” “It’s a giant rat with like 20 heads, rolls around at night like a tumble weed looking for it’s last and most important head - yours!” “And why does it do that?” 

“People are smart, much smarter than rats on average. With a person’s brain, the King of the rats is wise enough to rule.” “So what happened to Darcy?” “The ball of rats exploded. One of the rats hit his face so hard it got stuck there - reshaped his skull into a rat head for the rest of his life.” “Did he die?” “No one knows where he went. They say he was looking for survivors during the last quarantine and found this woman being attacked by rats. Too scared of rats after what happened, he just left her there, and ran off into woods, screaming like a maniac. When they found the woman later, her head was gone! Never been recovered!” 

“Do you think he was ashamed? Of letting the rats get the woman, I mean?” “I think he was scared, I would be too, especially since they found that headless woman in this very - part of town.”