Micies

The sound of scratching began again. Laila shuddered. She knew what it was. Rats, or maybe mice, but most definitely rodent. She was stuck down in this god forsaken basement because her boyfriend was a total jackass. She looked up the stairs at where he stood banging on the door and shook her head.

“I told you this was a dumb idea Tommy. Why the hell did you pull the chock away from the door, obviously it was there for a reason, and now we’re stuck down her with god only knows what and we have no idea if someone will ever walk past the door to open it for us.”

“Shut up Laila, don’t you think I’m regretting this?” he sighed and walked down the stairs to where she sat at the bottom. “Look, I’m sorry. But I thought this would be a bit more fun, I was expecting to find something more interesting than just a bathtub in the basement.”

Laila rolled her eyes. “Well, we haven’t actually explored the rest of the basement yet.” She said trying to comfort him. “Besides, we might find another way out if we have a look around.”

Tommy nodded and stood, offering his hand to her. “Turn off your light, cause I don’t know how long we’ll be down here for. We’ll use mine till it dies.” They approached the large bathtub and peered into it again. A shallow pool of red glistened in the torchlight.

“Gross.”

“It’s probably just rust, nothing else.”

“Yeah, sure.” Laila looked away into the darkness, in her mind she repeated: Just rust!

Laila heard more scratching to her left. She grabbed the torch and swung it around, searching for the source of the noise. She found it, about five feet away; a small white mouse cleaned its whiskers and looked up when the light came to rest on it. Its front feet slowly lowered to the ground and it darted out of the torchlight towards them. Laila let out a squeal and stepped behind Tommy who just laughed at her.

“It’s just a mouse Laila. One mouse can’t hurt you.” He gently took the torch off her and grabbed her hand in his free one. “Come on, let’s see if there’s another way out.”

Laila let Tommy guide her through a door against the far wall. They walked through several rooms, much smaller than the first but each one had two or three bathtubs inside. All of them with differing levels of the rusty liquid in them. Pushing open another door they realised they were at the top of another set of stairs. They led down too. But instead of being pitch black at the bottom there was a warm flickering glow as though from firelight. Laila hesitated when Tommy took the first step down.

“Come on Laila, if there’s light then someone is probably down there.” She stared down the staircase and pulled a face. “Come on, hurry. Let’s go.” She nodded and followed him down the stairs. There was soft music playing, like that from a record. As soon as Tommy’s foot touched the ground the music stopped. Scurrying footfalls sounded.

Laila looked around the room, an old lady sat poised in a rocking chair, an eerie smile on her face, her eyes twinkling in the firelight. Laila gripped Tommy’s arm.

“We are very sorry for intruding but we got stuck in the upper basement. I accidentally moved the chock that was holding the door. Is there another way out or do you have a key or something?” Tommy had taken a few steps towards the old lady. She didn’t respond, the smile was still plastered on her wrinkled old face. “Um, sorry, can you hear me?”

“Tommy, I think something is wrong with her, she’s too still.” Laila whispered into his ear. “I think she’s dead.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth the music began playing again. The pair whipped around to where the sound was coming from. A man stood at the foot of the stairs, a snarl on his face.

“Well, well, well, wha’ do we ‘ave ‘ere? New toys for the micies?” he had a terrible raspy voice, it grated with every breath he took. He lunged, faster than either were expecting and slammed Tommy across the room. He slammed into the old woman poised in the rocking chair; she crashed down on top of him.

Laila screamed and tried to duck past the man but to no avail. He easily snatched her up, holding her wrists. Her toes barely touched the ground, she tried kicking him but he just laughed. She looked around for Tommy but he was knocked out still smothered by the old lady.

“Would ya qui’ ya hollerin’!” the man screamed and tossed Laila across the room. She hit a few shelves that had assorted jars all along them and then lost consciousness.

Laila woke, she groaned in pain then her eyes snapped open as she remembered what had just happened. She realised she was hanging above one of the tubs from upstairs and had been stripped of her clothes. She looked around and saw Tommy hanging over the bathtub next to hers. His eyes were closed but she could see he was breathing.

“Tommy! Hey, Tommy! Are you awake? Tommy?”

“Laila?” he lifted his head and looked at her. “Laila, I’m so sorry.” A soft chuckle caught their attention and they both looked up

“well, now tha’ we’re boff awake le’s star’ the par’y.” The man lifted the bucket in his hands. “You gonna be a gen’lman and go firs’?” he poured the bucket into the bathtub. Laila could only see white flowing into it. Then she heard the scratching and squeaking. Tommy started thrashing about wildly, swinging his legs. “Your turn swee’heart.” He lifted a second bucket and poured the mice into Laila’s bathtub.

Laila screamed, she tried to rest her feet on the sides of the bathtub but her toes barely reached the edge. They slipped and slid back down into the mass of mice. That’s when she realised her whole body was covered in something sweet and sticky. Honey, to attract the mice.

“Ya can’ avoid them forever, you will tire and then the micies will play.” The man chuckled and picked up his lamp, leaving the pair to scream and squirm in the dark.

The pair had finally stopped their screaming, their crying and whimpers echoing off the bare stone walls. The last thing Laila heard before she blacked out from the pain of the mice chewing on her toes, feet and legs was the sound of Tommy apologizing.