Two weeks had passed without event. Arnie had been going along with his normal routines, studying at university, working on various projects and in the meantime keeping an eye on his new set up.
All of the socks had been worn at least once, all of them had been washed and all of them remained. He was a little frustrated.
He had re-tested the tracking devices after washing and they were still working.
Today, he was at home. He was reading a book by a renowned professor on "The Shape of Space" and was diagramming out some points of interest. He was thinking that perhaps he would need to sketch it into 3D to really understand the concept being put across.
He was still working on his paper on accessing parallel worlds and was hoping for some new inspiration. He remembered the words written in one of the papers he had read previously. "Every lock can be opened if only you can find the key. And if you can't find the key then make another!"
He finished reading the chapter he was on and put a bookmark at the page. He laid his notes and diagrams to the side and got up. He stood still for a moment, testing for pins and needles and then, satisfied he wasn't going to lose the feeling in his feet, made his way into the kitchen and stared at the fridge for a moment or two.
His kitchen was pretty big - he had a large, run-of-the-mill white fridge freezer unit by the door, and then going anti-clockwise from there he had a couple of kitchen units - under the worktop and a couple of cupboards above the worktops. Then came his beautiful steel plated gas hob, below which sat his electric oven. A few more shelves, units and worktops, a washing machine/drier and then a sink and dish rack. Apart from that it had a high ceiling, two bright tube lights and two large windows. And, with the exception of a little dining table that he rarely used, the rest was empty space.
He opened the door to the fridge, rummaged around, and pulled out a block of cheese and some butter, he then went to one of the cupboards and grabbed a packet of crackers. As he made his way over to the dining table, his phone vibrated. He shifted the crackers to the hand that was already holding the cheese and butter and pulled out the phone absent mindedly looking at the screen:
"SOCK MOTION!"
It took him a second to comprehend what he was looking at and then he dropped everything that was in his hand and ran towards his bedroom. His feet crashed against his laminate floored hall, and then padded as he entered his bedroom and ran across the mustard carpet. He ran up to the chest of drawers, yanked open the sock drawer and looked inside.
Everything looked the same. He rummaged around for a moment - nothing. He closed the drawer and went to his workshop. He wasn't disappointed yet - he had the video to watch.
He sat eagerly at his computer wondering what he would see and pulled up the video viewer. He opened the recent video footage just taken. His excitement turned into horror as he watched it. His face fell. All he could see was blackness. There was no light! He watched the full minute of video over 3 times. On the second time watching it, he thought he saw something shake slightly so watched it again only to discover he couldn't see anything.
He got up and paced the room. And then, his pent-up frustration burst out - he jumped up and down and sang at the top of his voice in a child-like voice.
"ARNIE IS AN IDIOT! ARNIE IS AN IDIOT!
Another of Arnie's eccentricities was that he often did this when annoyed.
These brief lines were repeated several times and the song was followed by several insulting thoughts directed entirely at himself.
He finally calmed down, sighed and stopped it.
Not wasting any more time he went to his desk, rummaged around on one of the shelves and found a torch, he found some other bits and pieces of circuit boards, switches and cables and put them all out in front of him. He grabbed his toolbox and set to work constructing a camera light for the drawer.
Within half an hour it was complete and he installed it in the drawer.
This time he tested everything including watching the video. Once he was satisfied, he returned to the kitchen and picked up his cheese, butter and now broken crackers from the floor and prepared himself a meal.
As he ate he thought about how long he had waited - 2 weeks - before anything had happened. He felt gloomy while he munched at his broken crackers. As he tidied away his dishes, he cheered slightly and decided it was a bit like fishing. He had gotten a bite. Patience would lead to the catch!
No sooner had he had the thought, than his phone vibrated again. He picked it up unhurriedly, thinking it would be a text from his mum and looked at it.
"SOCK MOTION!"
This time a gut feeling made him walk stealthily to his room. There was no crashing from his feet this time. He crept through his bedroom door, across the carpet and to the chest of drawers. He put his hand on the handle of the sock drawer and braced himself to pull. He silently counted in his mind,
"3, 2, 1"
He pulled. The socks were there, the light was on and the camera and sensors sat recording the uneventfulness of the drawer. It looked unchanged. He was about to shout in annoyance when his eye caught sight of something. The green heeled pair of socks seemed to be slightly thinner than the rest. He reached towards it with both hands and without lifting it from the drawer pried open the top of the outside sock and reached in. He felt a lurch. His hand was being pulled into the sock.
"Whoa!" he shouted in surprise, although there was no one there to hear him. He closed his eyes, shook his head and opened them again, but still it was happening.
He looked down, the sock was gradually pulling in his arm. He tried desperately to pull it off but it wouldn't budge.
A new feeling, one he was unaccustomed to crept in. He was terrified and half shouted, half screamed. The sock continued to eat upwards at his arm. There was no pain, just a firm, dry sucking feeling. When it reached his shoulder the sock mouth opened wide. It was the yawning jaw of a monster. He tried to pull his arm out - thinking it would be easier now the mouth was open - but it wouldn't budge. He looked into the sock mouth to see what it looked like but found it dark and unclear. And then suddenly, before he could look any closer or make any further attempts to do anything, he toppled forward into the now gaping hole.
If you had been in the room in that last moment, you would have seen the soles of his feet vanish over the mouth of the sock before it thunked back into the drawer, normal sized once more, innocently mixed among the others.
And we are in! What do you think is going to happen next? Please remember to vote if you like it!
YOU ARE READING
Travel to Sockland
Adventure(*Wattpad Featured Story*) Arnie is a physics student. When he discovers once again that one of his socks has gone missing, he decides to apply his knowledge to tracking down where the lost socks end up. He soon finds himself in Sockland, a world...
