10 - Into The Castle

He looked around, feeling desperate to do something. He wondered if prisoners from long ago had any way of escaping their incarcerations and if there were, maybe he could find them.

Asher walked forward, carefully taking his steps in case he was to land his foot on top of something that was still alive. If that mouse is alive, then maybe there’s a way of keeping myself alive in here, too, he thought.

The problem was that he didn’t know if the mouse had just crawled through a hole from the outside and somehow found its way here. He had no doubt that it had other exits from this room as mice always found ways to get in and out of certain places.

“Maybe I can dig a hole out of here, too,” he hoped.

He ducked again, going down on his elbows and knees, searching for a light of some sort and running his fingers against the walls to find the mouse holes. Where did it come from?

He was getting his pants dirty and luckily he wore a short sleeved shirt so he had no worries about ruining the sleeves, but after all he’d done today, he couldn’t believe that he wasn’t already covered in so much dirt.

Squeak!

“Agh!” He stumbled on his back, pushing away from the sound. That squeak had been too close to his ears. He shivered in the thought of being so close to a mouse. And he only hoped it was one.

He was breathing heavily, startled and disgusted.

He heard himself breathing in then out; that same exercise that usually helped to calm him down and lower his stress.

In then out. In then out. In then out. In then...

Wait a minute, Asher thought, already calm and now only confused. He stopped and held his breath. There was something else...

In then out. In then out. In then out.

W-who...? Asher was shaking. He wouldn’t dare move, but he couldn’t help shaking. There was someone else...or something that was here!

Please just be a really big mouse...

He felt his heart beating a rapid speed. He wanted a heart attack to kill him more than finding out what this creature could be. His fear was back, threatening to linger around to laugh at him as sweat ran down his forehead.

Please just be a mouse!!

He stayed as still as possible and so did the other presence. It continued breathing its heavy breathing, its odor wafting into Asher’s nose, which explained most of what he had smelled earlier.

It was the repulsing and pungent stench that had greeted him from the beginning. It scared him that maybe this creature knew he’d be coming and so hunted him down here.

I’m just dreaming, he yelled in thought. He tried to tell himself to wake up; that this all was just a bad dream and he’d wake up to a beautiful, sunny morning that would reward him with the smell of his neighbor’s baking.

Yes, just dreaming. “This is all just a dream.”

Before he knew it, he realized the words had come out of his mouth. He kicked himself in thought for letting anything be said out loud.