Gabe let out a small, tired sigh as he allowed himself to sit and rest. He sat back on the couch, his eyes sliding shut as he propped his feet up on the coffee table. He opened his eyes just for his vision to go black once again. As it did, he felt a thin cloth layering pulled over his head. Gabe's hands shot up, struggling with the cloth as it was tightened gently around his neck. With a small, dull blow to the back of his head, Gabe was left unconscious.
A few hours later.
Gabe woke up to a very bright light flashing in his eyes. He tried to shift his hand up to cover his eyes, only to find his arms were tied behind him to the chair he was sat in. He squinted, looking away from the light. His head ached, the spot where he'd previously been struck throbbed slightly. Suddenly, he remembered what had happened. He realized he had no idea where he was.
"Hello?" Gabe called out shakily into the room. A voice from behind him began to speak.
"Well, well, well... look who finally decided to wake up!" Exclaimed the person who was hidden out of Gabe's sight.
"Where am I? Who are you?" Gabe asked, the fear in his voice rather obvious.
"Why, you don't recognize my voice? I thought we were much closer than that, Gabriel..." said the man, still concealed.
Then, he slowly revealed himself. As he stepped into the light, Gabe squinted at him. An immediate wave of recognition washed over him.
"William?!? Why am I here? What do want?" Gabe asked confusedly.
"Oh, you know what I want, Gabriel." The man—William—stated simply.
Gabe just stared at him, trying to register just what it was he could have wanted. When William realized Gabe truly did not know, he began to explain it to him.
"Don't you remember? May 19th, 2008? We had planned to go on that little date... to the cheese emporium. I got all ready, all dressed up and showered. Then, at the very last minute you decided to call me and cancel because you 'had plans with Ryland.' Don't you remember that, Gabriel?"
"I don't- what?" Gabe stuttered. He looked at William, even more confused now. "If this is about canceling the date, that was years ago! I mean, if you want we can just plan another..."
"You don't understand! Stupid, stupid man... It's about more than just the date!" William spat back, rage laced into his tone.
"What is it about then?!"
"Cheese! It's about the cheese!!" William hissed. Gabe laughed in annoyance.
"Cheese?!" Gabe said, almost in disbelief.
"Yes! The cheese!"
"All of this... over some fucking cheese?" Gabe tried to let his face fall into his hands before he remembered he couldn't—because they were tied to the back of the chair. He groaned annoyedly, throwing his head back, only for it to hit the head of the chair with a soft yet painful thump.
"'Just some cheese,' 'all this for some cheese,' 'just cheese,' 'just cheese,' 'just cheese!'" William mocked, his voice growing louder with each word. "It's not just cheese, Gabriel! It's so much more!"
"Like what?!" Gabe snapped, cutting him off.
"Like... like-"
Suddenly, William started to make a soft chittering noise. He looked up at the wall to see his clock had transformed into a wheel of cheese—meaning that there was a full moon. William's body started shaking, small tremors echoing throughout him.
Small tufts of soft gray hair began to sprout in patches across his skin. He threw his head back, the chittering becoming louder as he ripped his shirt from his chest to reveal that it was covered in thick, gray hair. His chittering turned into a high-pitched, ear-splitting squeal. It then progressively turned into a low, guttural growling sound. Gabe just sat there and stared—goggled—at the sight before him. His jaw was agape in horror, he was at a total loss for words.
"WHERE'S... THE... CHEESE?!?!?!?!?!?" William yelled in a voice that didn't sound much like his own. It was higher in pitch, more nasally.
Gabe stared at William, trembling. William began to step towards him threateningly.
"I- I don't... I don't have any! Please... I can- I can get you some! J-just let me free and I'll go... I'll go find you some!" Gabe stuttered in fear. William looked at him in disapproval.
"NO! I WANT CHEESE, AND I WANT IT NOW!!!!"
William let out another guttural, un-rat-like growl, and within moments hundreds of rats began spilling in from the vents. The rats were wet and soggy, dripping with water. Gabe assumed it was likely sewer water, that these were sewer rats.
A small group of rats managed to take the vent off entirely, while another larger group scampered in carrying a large crown. They crawled up William's back and placed the crown on his rat-head. Then the entire group of rats began chanting softly, "Sewer King! Sewer King! Sewer King!" The volume of the chants grew as the rats became raucous, bouncing off the walls and eachother.
"Hush, hush, now, my children. I know, you must be so excited," William began. "But now is not time for your chants of praise, it's time for a sacrifice!"
"Sacrifice?!" Gabe exclaimed, a look of terror overtaking his face.
"Yes, we shall sacrifice you to the Cheese Gods!"
The rats then began chanting again, only this time chanting one singular word—"Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice!"
Gabe shook his head. This must be a dream... a nightmare... this can't be happening... he thought.
"ENOUGH!!!" William roared. A silence fell over the crowd of critters. "Pipe down, get into formation. It's time for the sacrifice!"
The rats scampered into their placing. They gathered into a circle, all facing the chair in which Gabe sat. There were little circular patches within the crowd that were empty, ones that resembled Swiss cheese holes.
William's eyes slid shut as he began chittering quietly. It was a rhythmic sound, one that sounded specific... that sounded like he was saying something in a different dialect. A sewer rat dialect.
Gabe listened intently to the almost musical-sounding chitters, wondering what they must mean. A few minutes passed and nothing had happened. Suddenly, he could hear a what sounded like a vibration. He looked down, and all of the rats began quaking. They gave off the appearance of a synchronous shaking, all together, as they all began to chitter along with Sewer King William.
A few moments passed and suddenly, Gabe could feel the chair in which he was seated start to shake. It shook as if it were being controlled by an earthquake. The sound of the chair's legs tapping erratically against the cold, concrete floor overtook the sound of the sacrificial chitters.
The sound of the wooden tapping stopped, however, when the chair began to rise up off the floor. He could feel himself being lifted, the chair only being dragged along with him.
Then, all over Gabe's body, his skin began to itch. He looked down to see small, painless holes form about his forearms. The skin itself began to change in color. It transformed slowly from the normal, peachy tan, to a soft, yellowing shade.
Little beams of light began to shine from the porous areas of his skin. The beams grew brighter and brighter, and down below the chanted chitters grew louder and louder as the mice grew restless. They began to run rampantly throughout the small room.
As the seconds ticked by, Gabe could only watch as the chanting grew louder, the mice more reckless, and his skin turned more yellow and beamy.
Then, with a roaring sound that was vaguely similar to that of a person passing gas, the lights pouring out from Gabe seemed to explode into a ball of light. The whole room illuminated at this, the crowd of rats grew silent. As the light faded, it was visible that Gabe was no longer there, floating in the middle of the room. Instead, sat—or rather, floated—a large brick of cheese.
With a wet, flopping sound, the chunk of cheese fell down to the floor. William, taking his first action since the initiation of the sacrifice, pounced upon it. He seized it, holding it up for his cult of critters to see.
"My children, our sacrifice is complete! The Cheese Gods have blessed us with our reward. Gabriel Saporta is no longer, he is but cheese now!" William belted out triumphantly.
All the mice scampered about excitedly. They trampled one another in their celebratory dances. Loudly, they cheered until William hushed them once more.
"Silence, my children. It is time for us to feast!"
And with those words, William threw down the hunk of cheese that was once Gabe. All of his mice-minions immediately pounced upon it, gobbling it up. Sewer King William watched in pride, chuckling generously at the sight of his beautiful work of revenge.