As if the mortifying ordeal from earlier in the day wasn't enough, you returned home to a note taped to your apartment door.
「 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚝-𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚓𝚘𝚋 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚞𝚙 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎.
𝚂𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍,
𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚋𝚘𝚛, 𝚘𝚋𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚕𝚢, 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚙𝚒𝚍. 」
You threw your hands up in frustration. That was the 3rd person to cancel this week alone.
You unlocked the door to the apartment, using your one and only key, ready to be reunited with your beloved pet children. You tried pushing open the door.
Unfortunately, the oddly jammed door had no intention of opening for you. It seemed as if you'd have to resort to brute force. You took two steps back before ramming your shoulder straight into the door, only to realize that:
a) the door was still closed
and
b) you'd probably just broken every bone in your body trying to open said door
You bit your tongue and stood there for a second while the pain passed, seething on the inside and cursing whatever had caused the door to become jammed. Once you were recovered enough to move, you returned to the malicious door. Taking a deep breath, you walked right up to it and firmly grasped the brass knob, turning it and using your foot to slowly add more pressure to the glorified plank until it began to give way.
As the door finally opened to your apartment, you stuck your hand into the dark room and quickly found the lightswitch. A horrific sight followed.
Feathers were strewn about the room, gashes through your favorite pillows. You cried a little on the inside as you continued taking inventory of the room and it's damaged contents. Fortunately, it seemed as if your pillows had been the only things to sustain damage, their cases torn apart and all the feathers inside pulled out and spread throughout the room like a murder trail.
Like the brilliant detective you definitely were, you followed the trail of dead pillows. You were going to get to the bottom of this one way or anot-
You paused and looked at your feet. A small, thinly haired creature was nibbling at your favorite shoes, looking straight into your eyes while doing so. You glared at the clear culprit of this whole mess. The baby rat just gazed into your eyes innocently as it took another chunk out of your left shoe.
That was the last straw.
You lunged forward, hands out to grab the little rat. It evaded capture, weaving through your fingers and taking off like a bat out of hell.
"No- CeaSE- DO NOT RETURN TO YOUR BRETHREN YOU FERAL DEMON SPAWN-"
You took off after it, running into your small bedroom only to find the rest of your pets. Mama rat, who you had cleverly named "Mama Rat", twitched her nose as her smallest baby dove back into the blanket burrow she'd created on your bed. She looked at your disheveled form as you dashed into the bedroom, raising a metaphorical eyebrow at your state.
"Don't judge me you wire chewer, I know that look in your eyes- and no don't you roll your eyes at me either, I'm stupid not blind you fiend." You huffed and gave up your chase, throwing yourself onto the bed and staring at the ceiling.
You touched him. You touched John Doe. Never again would you wash your hands from this moment on. You wanted to touch him more.
You were so lost in thought you didn't notice the small creature chewing on your hand. You turned your head, eyeing "Baby Rat 4: Sir Ratticus" as he chewed on your pinky finger, too engrossed in the task to notice your staring.
In one fluid movement you catapulted Ratticus across the room, what you could've sworn was a tiny "ʷᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉ" following his flight. Mama Rat let out an alarmed "SQEAK!" as her baby flew across the room, turning to glare at you before running off to retrieve him. You rolled your eyes and turned to find the rest of her children in the blanket burrow.
5 little faces poked out at you and gazed innocently into your eyes. You gave them a grin and moved towards their huddle, watching as they slowly came out and laid by you. Your eyes grew soft as you watched over them. Despite their destructive mannerisms, you couldn't help but treat them like your own children, wanting to keep them safe from the world and loving them more than anything else.
You hummed softly for them, propping one arm up to hold your head and curling your legs in so that they would feel more secure against your abdomen. As your made-up song continued, their eyes began to close, a few fighting sleep but being unable to resist it after some time. You watched as their little bodies rise and fell. You adored them.
So entranced by the little creatures, you didn't notice the 6th still staring at you from the burrow until it moved closer.
"Now what are you, little thing?" You cooed at it, beckoning the foreign entity closer.
It looked like someone had taken a cartoon eyeball, made it real, and then glued a wig onto it- not the strangest thing you'd ever seen, but definitely up there somewhere. It seemed pretty friendly and you were never one to turn down a sweet creature so you beckoned it closer until it sat near the little rats, looking cautiously at you as if it was expecting you to make a sudden move at any moment.
You breathed out a laugh, finding it's little antics amusing. It seemed to squint at you, almost as if trying to gauge your thoughts. You laid down your arm and head in order to be eye-level with the hairball, gazing right into its eye and smiling. It fluffed up some, not expecting you to get so close, but quickly recovered and averted it's gaze.
"Where did you come fro-" Your question was cut short by the poking of your nose.
A little piece of hair moved like a tendril, poking your face while the hairball just watched your reaction. You weren't sure what to make of this whole situation but oh well- live, laugh, love and all that stuff. You gave the creature a crooked smile and moved your arm, poking it in the side.
It let out a panicked squeak and fluffed up, a few pieces of hair in front of it like it was trying to shield itself. You raised an eyebrow and did it again to the other side, getting another squeak out of the entity and laughing at the tiny noise it made. Soon enough you were lightly tickling the little being and after a few more squeaks, it just pouted and crossed two strands of hair like little arms, refusing to make eye contact with you.
"You're adorable, little thing," you said happily, finding joy in its antics and slowly backing away from your little rats in order to get off of the bed. The hairball eyed you wearily, unsure of what you were trying to do.
You rose from the bed, careful not to wake up your rat children- to your luck, Mama Rat had just arrived back with Ratticus and scooped her babies back into their burrow, careful not to wake them.
Standing up, you moved to your bedside lamp and turned it on, letting more light flood the room as you moved towards your target: the many Polaroid pictures of John Doe you had tacked onto your wall. You zoned in on them, admiring his figure and how adorable he was. To be honest, you probably would've sniffed him in the store earlier if you weren't nose-blind but oh well, it was the rest of him that you loved.
Kissing two fingers and touching them to your favorite photograph (one you'd gotten by some miracle where he had been walking with hearts in his eyes), you sighed dreamily.
"Goodnight my love, sweet dreams to you...wherever you are." You turned around and flipped off the lights in the main room before heading back to your bed stand and turning off that one too.
You settled back onto your bed and wished a silent goodnight to your rat family and the little hairball...although the latter had disappeared out of nowhere. Oh well, you had a feeling you'd be seeing it again anyways.
You closed your eyes and leveled out your breathing, dreaming of your true love finally noticing you. Sometimes you weren't sure what you felt for him- at first you'd thought it was just a really intense crush that would pass over in a few days, then you figured that you were just hyper-fixated on someone again. It had taken some time but now, as you sat in the darkness, it felt like you had finally realized your true feelings.
YOᑌ ᒪOᐯE ᕼIᗰ