He had even been seen backing down from his mate, Alice, as she publicly berated him for showing weakness. The irony of it was delicious. He let her live because their newest litter of kittens was still nursing, but to be honest, he was running low on patience with them, too. He suspected they weren’t really his, anyway, but that issue needed to ripen a bit. He’d let her grow more attached to them before doing anything drastic.
It had taken longer than he hoped, but his performance had finally paid off. Skit had identified several rats in his pack with very high aspirations, but insufficient subtlety to keep their plots against him secret. They, along with their mates and recent offspring, just to be safe, had been brutally and publicly tortured, murdered, and butchered for his larder. That should firmly reestablish him as a rat and king to be feared.
It was Skit’s recent news, however, that put him in such good spirits. His plot to ambush and kill his final, and most dangerous, rival was ready to move forward. Skit had even found a stash of dried food bigger than they used to have on the farm! In a single outing they could eliminate the biggest threat to his power, and return with enough food to feed even the runts for most of their lives. He would be more than a king, he would be a hero!
Everything was in place. They’d have to leave before sunset, though, when humans and monsters of all sorts would be able to see them. He hated going to the surface, especially when the sun still spilled its horrid light over everything. It was almost enough to make him reconsider.
He wondered if he could go back to being a country rat; living in a comfortable hole on a farm, near a stream where he could swim, fields with endless supplies of food, and a pretty little mate to dote on him.
Bah! I’d go crazy of boredom in a day!
Feeling almost young again, he returned to the main nesting chamber for some rest before his outing.
∼ ∼ ∼
In his dream, Giles was trapped in the butcher’s trashcan, and he couldn’t escape. The corpulent human regularly dumped fresh, delicious meat scraps right on top of him, however, so it was actually quite nice. When a barely perceptible breeze tickled his whiskers, and alerted him that someone was coming into the chamber, he awoke in a rather grumpy mood.
Seeing his mate Alice’s, dirty, whiskered snout poke up from her tunnel didn’t cheer him, either. She sniffed a few times and climbed up beside him, her hot breath whistling through her partially clogged nostrils.
“Where’s Jimmy?” she snarled, apparently unconcerned for the other rats sleeping nearby in warm beds of grass and leaves. She shook her body from snout to tail, showering the room with dust and bits of fresh dirt, and then bit into the remains of an unfortunate earthworm.
Giles’ goals for the evening didn’t include fighting with his mate. She was so much fun to tease, however, that he couldn’t resist goading her a little bit. He’d remind her of her place later, when they’d have a larger crowd. If she still chose to disrespect him, he knew a great spot to leave her bones.
“Jimmy’s been gone for days,” he said in his usual plodding manner. “I assumed you had him down in your tunnels. No? Then, I’m sure we’ll find bits of him in a mound of that new terrier’s droppings. It’s the same to me either way, but how is it any business of yours? You’re not sweet on him, are you?”
“In my …? Sweet …? You miserable …” Alice’s fur bristled and she involuntarily squeaked in anger.
Giles rolled to his feet, his tail flicking with pleasure at her reaction. He had only been taunting her, fishing for a reaction, but he seemed to have hit a nerve.
Alice and Jimmy, eh?
“You know I’ll rip him to pieces, don’t you? Yes, of course you do.” He paced as he spoke, watching her reaction. “Then, again, if that thieving plague–rat wants you, maybe I should give you to him. No, not give. I heard he found a fresh human grave beneath those tunnels you’ve been digging. I’d give ten of you for just a bite of a fresh human. Do you think it still has its heart? That’s the best bit.”
“Alice ain’t sweet on no one, least of all Jimmy. He likes to dig more than’s proper for a buck. Digging’s doe’s work.”
The way she always said her own name when talking about herself grated on his nerves. “Why are you so worried about poor, missing Jimmy, kitten? Is he not sharing his find with you after everything you’ve been through together?” This was too easy. Her ears flattened against her head, and her back was arched, practically in a fighting posture. The other rats looked up from their nests to watch.
She took another vicious bite of her earthworm, and then pointed the oozing stub at Giles like a weapon. “Does Alice look worried to you?” she asked in her annoying nasal growl. “It’s Jimmy needs to be worried. If he shows his pointy face again, you tell him we ain’t forgot. You tell him Alice’ll get her due, or he’ll get his!” She ended with a strong, loud voice, looking around to make sure everyone heard.
Giles grabbed the leaky end of Alice’s worm and pulled it tight. “You growl at your king like a sunburned badger, little kitten. Shall we find out if you bite like one, too?”
Alice’s fur bristled, and she gnashed her teeth a breath away from his nose. “Alice ain’t no bald little kitten, love, and even if you is still King, you ain’t half the rat you once was. Now, let go of Alice’s snack, or you’ll wish she was just a badger.” Her back definitely arched this time. Her hair bristled, and dirty spittle sprayed through her bared teeth.
Another rat looked down from a ledge above Alice’s tunnel, and clicked her tongue. “Aww, that’s so sweet, isn’t it, Terry?” she said, nudging the rat beside her. “They still care enough to fight. Your lover’s spats are always fun, Giles, but all of this squeaking and hissing is making my tail twitch, and the Queen’s voice is annoying my fleas.”
Terry stopped scratching his ear long enough to point at her and laugh. “Heh. Hilary has fleas.”
She swiped at him, nicking his ear with her claw. “Pike it, Terry. We all have fleas.”
“Some King!” Alice said. “Your brother and sister don’t even show you respect. You’ve been King a long time, love. We all knows you’ve gone weak. Being King ain’t easy. Maybe you need a breather.”
“Enough of this!” Hilary said. She jumped from her ledge, landing at her brother’s side. “Are you going to put this little wet nurse in her place?” She glanced around at the watching faces with a knowing, sympathetic smile.
“Mind your own whiskers, Hilary.”
Giles lunged sideways at Alice. Still gripping the worm in one claw, he jumped halfway onto her back and bit the back of her neck.
“Don’t …” she sniveled, “Don’t be cross with your Alice, love. She was only showing off her king’s strength and speed. It was all for you. All for you.” She let go of the worm, and screeched even higher as she continued to grovel and flatter him.
“Of course it was, kitten. Go tend your young.” He shoved her back towards her tunnel and glared at the expectant faces of the watching rats until they returned to their nests.
With a chitinous flapping sound, Skit landed on Giles’ back and whispered to him. Giles nodded, smiled, and let the roach nibble Alice’s end of the worm.
Terry hopped down from the ledge, and started talking at the same time as Hilary.
“That could have gone better, Giles,” Hilary said, as Terry cuffed his shoulder, saying “Good job.”
“Gah! What did you expect me to do, Hilary? Kill her? She’s still nursing my kits,” Giles said. “Her time will come.”
“Expect? Only what every sister expects of her brother; what every rat expects of her King. I expect you to be strong, and to lead your pack with hard claws, sharp teeth, and a heart of stone!”
He knew exactly what she wanted, and there was nothing sisterly about it. She had twice Alice’s ambition, and was ten times more dangerous. Alice was just a stupid, crude bully, and was easily controlled, but Hilary was too smart for her own good. A master politician, she was respected and feared b
y the pack. She was orchestrating his demise in some elaborate plot that would never lead back to her, and would step up as the pack’s reluctant, but capable new leader after his unfortunate accident.
He looked around the dark chamber at the rolled up lumps of fur and scaly, twitching tails, wondering which ones had already sided with her, and how many other conspiracies were twisting through their greedy little minds. He was surrounded by his pack. His family. His enemies! Any one of them would finish him off at his next sign of weakness.
They made him proud. Even the weakest of his Alley Rats would be a strong king in another pack. That’s how the game was played. But no rat alive could outplay him, not even Hilary. His tail twitched as he looked at her.
Not even you, sister. I’d see our idiot brother in charge before turning it over to you.
“Where’s he going?” Hilary asked, as Skit left through the alley tunnel. Her voice was low, and her tone so perfectly casual that she might have been merely curious. He knew better, though.
“What? Don’t you know?” Giles whispered.
“Oh, a secret?” she whispered back. “No, I already know all of your secrets, brother. I really don’t care what your little bug is up to.”
“Of course you do. That’s your weakness. You always have to stick your runny nose into everyone’s business. Every rat in this warren is covered in your snot.”
“Have you noticed where we live? It’s a real rat’s nest. It pays to know what’s going on down here. I know, for instance, that your little crawler follows Alice through her tunnels. Are you going to raid Jimmy’s fresh human grave, or are you looking for a nice new corpse of your own?”
“You’re slipping, sis. I’ll give you this secret for free. Skit and I have discovered a stash that will put Jimmy’s to shame. We can fill Alice’s tunnels with it, and leave her beneath it, for all I care. Skit’s making sure the way is clear right now. Come along, if you want. It’ll be you and me, like old times. We have to go now, though.” He turned away from her and went up the tunnel after Skit.
She followed, watching him carefully, as if her mere gaze would reveal his angle. “What are you up to? You don’t give anything away without a reason. You need me, or you wouldn’t have said a word. What’s my place in this adventure?”
He stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “You see too much, sometimes, Hilary. But that’s precisely what I need. I need someone competent at my back. Someone I can trust. But, alas, I’ve already killed all of those rats, so I’m stuck with you. We both come out on top this time, though, so forget the scheming for one night, and keep your ears open. It’ll be dangerous up there.”
“Up where? Where is this stash of yours? Is it far?”
“No questions. Come along if you want a share, stay here if you don’t.
“If we’re going to the surface before nightfall, then I’m bringing Terry. He’s very useful around danger.”
Giles pretended to consider her suggestion. He wanted Terry along, too, but it would be better if it seemed like her idea. She trusted no one, least of all Giles, so her bringing their soft–headed brother along was a sure thing. He nodded his approval.
“We’ll meet you at the top,” she said, trying not to look rushed as she went back for her bodyguard.
∼ ∼ ∼
Part Two: Pumpkin Day
It had been ages since Giles had seen the surface world in the burning light of the sun. He hadn’t missed it. It was terrible during the day, but even after the hated sun had abandoned the sky to the stars, pools of light still polluted the world. It bled from the tops of towers on street corners, and from nearly every wall of every building. The light was full of monsters. It was everywhere, and he hated it.
As his eyes adjusted, he saw that the humans were out in force. Their booming voices and thunderous footfalls were punctuated by occasional screams, laughter, and choruses of “Trick or Treat.” The air was thick with howls and barks of distant, and even not so distant, dogs, and the alley reeked of cats and other animals, all of which would be delighted to eat him. All monsters. Anything that considered rats food, they thought of as a monster.
A crash of plastic, metal, and glass froze Giles in place as an avalanche of debris cascaded across the pavement in front of him. Laughing humans ran past, knocking over three more bins on their way down the alley.
That was quite decent of them.
The chaotic jumble of delicious scents was a siren’s song, wafting lazily through the still air, but he wasn’t here to risk his life for bin food. The debris gave them plenty of hiding places, though, and with Skit signaling to alert them of trouble, Giles reached the end of the alley without incident.
As he waited beneath a dripping drainpipe, Terry ran from beneath an opened pizza box to join him. Neither he nor Giles noticed Skit’s frantic warning. Just out of sight, a chain rattled, a dog barked, and three smaller, giggling humans rounded the corner, bumbling along less than a dozen tail–lengths from Giles.
Carelessly bumping into one another and jostling their brightly colored bags, they dropped two shiny red packages behind them. One of them skittered to a stop at Giles’ feet, but the other bounced and rolled through a sewer grate at the street curb.
As humans tend to do, the three little ones continued on their way, fortunately for Terry, paying no attention to the world below their knees. He sprinted over Giles as soon as they ran by. By the time Hilary reached them, they had torn away the shiny red wrapper and were wiping the remnants of the delicious chocolate candy from their chins and whiskers.
“Nothing left for your sister?” Hilary asked a bit too sweetly.
“There’ll be plenty of sweets for you tonight, Hilary,” Giles answered. “The night hasn’t even begun, yet. If you really want it, another piece rolled through that sewer grate.”
As they watched, another rat, probably from the Road King’s pack, crossed the street from the other side, and climbed down through the grate. Seconds later, it climbed back up with the candy in its mouth, but squeaked in fright as something caught its tail and yanked it back down into the sewer. Brief, but agonized screams echoed up to them, and abruptly stopped.
“Maybe I’ll just wait for the next treat,” Hilary said. They nodded mutely, unable to look away from the grate, even though they couldn’t see inside. Clawed hands grabbed the heavy iron bars from below, pulling a pair of malevolent red eyes up between them. They glowed with an unnatural light, and Giles felt their gaze upon him.
Those eyes were all wrong. Something about them was itchy. It left a nagging bump deep inside his head, where he couldn’t scratch it. Danger bled from those glowing orbs; giving notice that this beast was entirely predator, and knew neither the fear of being prey, nor the hunger of an escaped quarry.
Skit hissed and buzzed his wings, urging them onward. A rat’s best protection was its ability to hide, but they stood still and bare, for all the monsters of the world to see, out in the open. Giles’ mind screamed “Run!” but his body stubbornly refused to obey. He and his siblings were transfixed by the hazy crimson glow of those eyes.
The eyes blinked, the claws let go of the bars, and the monster descended back into the sewer. As one, Giles and his companions exhaled. Somehow, the remaining patches of sunlight had been completely chased away by the deepening dusk while they stood there for what they thought had only been a few seconds.
Giles burst into motion, following Skit to the opposite wall of the alley, and around the corner. No longer in his own territory, he wanted his scout in sight in case they had to move quickly.
They emerged from the alley onto an impossibly wide and busy street. On the near side, grassy gardens with walls that looked like brick latticework lined a row of connected human lairs. On the far side, they saw their target.
“It’s the gates of Hell,” Terry said, in an awestruck whisper. He stared at the bright lights and the glowing images of snakes, lizards, dragons, and monstrous crocodiles that flashed across the glass
wall.
Hilary shoved Terry aside. “Shut up and move!” She ducked through one of the gaps in the wall, and hid on the other side. Giles climbed through, too, and then climbed up to a higher row to get a view of the sidewalk. If Terry was going to be squished, he could at least watch.
A pack of humans nearly trampled Terry, but he dove into the garden at the last moment. They must have seen him, because they screamed and backed away, pointing to where he had been.
Two houses down, behind the humans, a pumpkin toppled from the wall and smashed on the sidewalk. The humans spun around and renewed their chorus of screams. Their screams softened into embarrassed laugher as they ran past Giles. Unconcerned with the humans, Giles’ attention was on the top of the wall where the pumpkin once sat.
A chubby tomcat sat on the wall as though he not only owned it, but had designed and built it. The humans must have spooked him into nudging the pumpkin over the wall's edge. The cat nonchalantly cleaned its deadly claws, pretending the whole event had been staged at his command.
Giles grinned. The orange menace was exactly where Skit said it would be. He watched it for a few more heartbeats, admiring its confidence and utter lack of fear, even as an unseen dog barked nearby.
“Well?” Hilary hissed up to him. “Now what? Skit’s gone off without us.”
“You two wait here, that’s what. One of those humans spilled more candy two walls down when your ferocious brother scared the water out of them. Nice job, Terry!”
“Not this time, Giles. It’s my turn, remember?”
“Alright,” Giles said, cutting her off. “You missed out on the last treat, so you can go first this time. Bring as much as you can back here. If Skit returns first, we’ll join you. Now go, before I change my mind.”
Tales From The Mist: An Anthology of Horror and Paranormal Stories Page 15
