G/T Stories

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Cole was laying all curled up, with his tail being tucked in between his legs, trying to ignore the munchies. He promised his parents he won't go borrow alone, but in that case he had no choice. It's been so long since they had left him and the stash they had left for him ran out this morning.

He forced himself to get up and shuffled his legs towards the exit of his home. He peeked carefully if the room was empty. He didn't want to stumble upon that scary, sheer creature called bean. He still remembered his parents words: "Remember Cole, if the bean sees you, you're dead."

After he made sure there was nothing threatening his life, he shyly wandered off in search for food.

His eyes glistened with joy, when he saw a pile of bright, blue pellets in the corner. He felt so lucky! He didn't even have to climb up any high places!

He quickly got to the pile and began to greedily devour pellets. They had this funny taste, but were pretty tasty anyway.

He ate about dozen of those until he felt full. But he couldn't rest here, he had to go back home. He lazily got up and headed towards his hideout.

***

Cole must have been the luckiest borrower alive. Pellets were magically reappearing in the same spot everyday, letting borrower to spend more time on other things than borrowing.

But after a few days Cole began to feel strange. He had stomach cramps, he often felt nauseous, he was constantly tired and lethargic. But he shrugged it off, thinking it was because of his gluttony and decided to eat less.

But nothing changed, infact he was feeling worse and worse with each day.

He was now slowly crawling in pellets' direction, too weak to even stand. He reached the pile and shakily took one of the pellets in his hand. He took a bite of it, but then he felt something coming up his throat. He couldn't stop it, he had to puke. Disgusting vomit poured from his mouth, staining his clothes and pellets.

He soon lost his consciousness and collapsed, curling in the fetal position.

***

As Jay turned the key to open his flat, he was wondering if the rodent bothering him was finally dead. He noticed that poison was running short everyday, so it meant that pest was still alive. 

He entered his flat and hung his coat on the rack. After that, he immediately headed to the kitchen, to see if there were any trails of rodent's activity.

He quickly got to the corner. His jaw dropped and he had to rub his eyes few times, to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

There was a small creature laying in the pool of vomit. It had curly, dirty blond hair and long tail with hairy tuft in the same color as hair. It also had mouse-like paws, but in other aspects it was very human-ish. It was wearing clothes made from scraps.

Jay felt how guilt trip was crushing him. He quickly got down on his knees and gently took the creature in his hands. It was panting heavily and trembling. Poisoning must have been strong.

He took out a moist towellete and gently wiped out the vomit from creature's clothes and face. He then placed it in his case for glasses, which was filled with soft material inside.

He opened medicine cabinet and took out a small bottle with powdered activated charcoal. He poured a little to the mug and added water. He stirred it, until he got a homogeneous solution. He then took a syringe in his hand and sucked the medicine in.

He walked over to the creature and gently lifted up its head. Then, he very carefully stick the tip of the syringe to its mouth and slowly pressed the plunger.

Jay was surprised, seeing how greedily the creature was drinking the mixture. But maybe to it the solution had a good taste.

Creature quickly drank all the content of syringe. It then turned on its right side. Its breathing became calmer and it seemed that activated charcoal was slowly neutralizing the poison. Jay sighed in relief. He would never forgive himself, if the little one died because of him.

But what that creature actually was? Once again man took in its features. It was something between mouse and human and strangely, Jay had déjà vu - he remembered picture of similar creature, when he was younger.

He left the counter and headed to his bedroom, where was the entrance to the attic.

He climbed up the ladder and having gotten into the room, he took a cardboard box with his old books and searched. He finally found it - "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton. He opened it and looked at the illustrations showing the little folks. They looked almost identical to the creature on his counter.

Jay also finally found out what must have happened. Borrower must have thought that the poison was a food and ate it.

Man put the book back to the cardboard box and left the attic. He heard a quiet thud coming from the kitchen. Expecting the worst, he rushed towards the kitchen.

***

Cole was terrified. He didn't remember being on the counter, so that meant that bean must have caught him! Luckily, the giant wasn't around for now, that fact gave him time to escape. 

He clumsily got out of the weird box he was in, making quite a loud noise. He stiffened, feeling how the counter began to shake. Knowing very well what that meant, he raced to the edge and looked down. He didn't have any hook with him, it was foolish of him not to take any gear.

But when the tremors stopped and huge shadow casted over Cole, he leaped forward without hesitation. But his fall wasn't long, he landed on something squishy.

He tried to get out of bean's hand, but the fingers closed around him, imprisoning him in there. Borrower yelped softly, feeling how the hand was going up and up. The fingers finally uncurled, showing something that Cole never wanted to see.

For it was a bean's face.

Borrower was so frightened, he didn't notice the worry painted on giant's face. He could only think of the way bean is going to get rid of him. Is he going to be crushed? Or maybe eaten? In the best case bean will just dump him outside.

Giant said something, but Cole didn't hear it, as it was ringing in his ears. He felt that he was placed in the box again, then bean's large finger gently ruffled his hair.

- Don't worry little one, I'll keep an eye on you until you can go back home - giant said and left somewhere.

Though the words sound kindly, borrower knew they meant nothing. It was just a trick, to lull his vigilance.

After all, why would he have wanted to poison him in the first place? Borrower saw a bottle with crossed out rat on it, the familiar pellets were inside it.

He let the tears flow, since bean wasn't there. He didn't want to die, but what else he could do? Bean knew about his existence, he was doomed.

If only he had listened to his parents and was patient, none of that would have happened.