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Part Twenty One

   For the next day, (though they were never able to tell within the dark void) Drizzle and Jack did their best to assess the surroundings. The best they could make out was a plastic container too high for them to reach, and a few pages of an open book that rested on its side. Everything else seemed to be trapped in a world of cloth, though it wasn't any type the borrowers had seen before.

   After hours of searching and not having so much as a crumb to eat, Drizzle's ears picked up on the patter of footsteps, not too far off from her own. These steps seemed much more frightened, though, and smaller than she could've imagined. They first circled around the front of the cloth, and then the side before Drizzle felt it best to call out to the stranger.

   "Hello?" She cried, and was immediately broken off when Jack covered her mouth with his hand.

   "Are you crazy?! Who are you trying to attract?"

   "I heard footsteps. Someone might be able to help us."

   "And what if it's a human toying around? We can't exactly be sure of anything in the dark right now, can we?"

   "It's better than sitting around doing nothing!" Drizzle shot right back, and broke away from her husband to reach the cloth wall.

   "Hello?" She repeated once more. "Is there someone out there?"

   "...hi?"

   It was a tiny voice, that of a child, but it was no human. He seemed to be Sam's age judging by the high pitch, and Drizzle's heart sunk deep at the thought of her son still back in the outlet.

   "Hi, sweetie," Drizzle put a hand up against the wall. "Can you hear me?"

   "Yes."

   "Do you have something sharp on you?"

   "...yes."

   "Do you think you can cut through this fabric?"

   It went silent, and Drizzle thought she lost him. But a tear went through the wall the moment she turned around, and both her and Jack were flooded with a blinding amount of light breaking through. The cut kept ripping, letting even more light shine in, but Drizzle held her stance even as her husband ran to meet up with her. The two entwined their tails together, huddling close, Eagerly awaiting to meet whoever was on the other side.

   By the looks of it, he was actually a year or two younger than Sam. With a dark complexion and even darker hair, the boy stared at the ground with a timid posture about him. He was a borrower, the same as the others, but looked far too skinny to belong to a colony. His clothes were tattered, his arms covered in scrapes, and his tiny eyes were about as sunken as Drizzle's heart when she first caught a glimpse at him.

   "Hello," She whispered, taking a slow step forward and escaping the fabric prison. "What's your name?"

   The boy didn't reply at first, only putting his focus on taking a step back. Whether out of fear, or his own safety, Drizzle couldn't blame him, and she lifted a hand to show no harm.

   "I'm Drizzle," she explained. "This is my husband, Jack. It's alright, we won't hurt you, sweetheart. Do you know where we are?"

   As Jack gave a firm nod and released Drizzle's tail to chance a step closer, the boy finally looked far up enough to take notice of their former cage. He eyed the whole structure, from the handles protruding from the sides to a few yellow zippers lining up and down the front. He knew what it was, but he didn't know why they were stuck in there.

   "That's the n-n-new human's bag," he spoke up, but he had a noticeable stutter to his tone. "Moved in yes-yesterday."

   "The new human- you mean the boy with the glasses?" Jack was the first to put two and two together. The child simply nodded and looked away again. "You said he moved in? Was this house empty before?"