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Description
“Will you please stop that clicking?”

I looked up from the jet black ballpoint pen on my right palm and glanced at Dolores. Her unkempt maroon hair made her soft face pop away from the mottled tiles of the wall.

“Let’s just wait this out in silence; someone’s bound to find us in here.”

“Ugh, can’t we just find a way out by ourselves?”

Frustration was a feeling we became familiar to when we woke to this place. Having known each other since childhood, both of us decided damn well we were not going to starve to death with our last sight being this enclave of aquamarine velvet imprisoning us, and the small grilled opening on the opposite wall mocking our corpses with the trickle of sunlight inching through.

“Maybe we can try breaking the bars.” Dolores suggested. “It looks like it’s big enough to crawl through.”

“Okay, let’s give it a shot.”

I put the pen somewhere behind me to lift Dolores to the opening. Supporting herself onto the edge with her left hand, she rattled and shook the bar, before using her other rust-stained hand to signal me to let her down.

“No good, it’s rebar. Should’ve known.” The abject dejection behind her words made the room seem bluer.

We went back to sitting on the musty floor, and I grabbed the pen again. It was unusual that this was the only thing with us inside. I unscrewed the tip and took out the ink cartridge. Full, as expected. Fixing it back, I tried scribbling with it on my hand, but it made no marks. Also expected. Stippling a few dots onto my clothes, it made a stain in the silhouette of a mouse’s head. Okay, didn’t expect that. Dolores held her head up high in exasperation and glanced around the cell, maybe to find other ways of escape.

I started clicking the top again. A few two clicks devolved into a mindless percussive drone that echoed off the walls.

“Will you stop that? It’s bad enough we’re trapped with no food or water, but that pen’s getting really grating in here.” Interspersed between her words was the incessant clicking, and a squeak…wait, a squeak?

We turned towards the direction of the sound. A small grey mouse was on the sill of the opening. It seemed to be very still, staring at us.

“At least we won’t starve to death,” I joked even though I might eat those words along with the mouse if it ever came to that.

“You really want to eat that?” She scoffed.

“Well, it is an edible dormouse.”

“Nerd.”

I unconsciously clicked the pen a few more times while staring at the mouse. Another mouse flanked it from the left, while the first one moved slightly forward.

“Wait,” Dolores said, “do that again.”

“Tell me twice.”

“Okay. Wait, do that again.”

With a few more clicks of the pen, five mice came popping out of the opening. The first two were already…hanging vertically on the wall. Huh.

“Um, do you see that, Dolores?”

“…Yes?” She tilted her head at the sight.

“No, not that.”

I pointed at a hanging mouse. There was a small indent in the wall where its mouth was. I looked at Dolores, who only gave a small nod before looking at the wall again. With that affirmation, I clicked the pen in rapid motion, my thumb a hummingbird’s wing.

“Oh, God!” she screamed.

Dolores and I huddled towards the center of the aquamarine prison as an unrelenting swarm of mice flowed in like a storm surge in Bangladesh. They moved uncannily; they covered the walls as if they were bees in a hive, without actually moving their legs, and the mice kept their eerie stares into nothingness ahead of them. The contradictory, reality-negating mass was chaotic as it filled the room with a dodecaphony of chirps and squeaks from still mouths, yet careful and precise enough to avoid us by a nail’s length away from our feet.

I tried holding back my surprise. “I’ll be damned.”

“They ate it,” Dolores added. “The whole thing. What the hell.”

Our cell obliterated into nothingness by the mice’s efficient gluttony, leaving behind a glowing white expanse. The mice phased into the floor as if it was water, and as they did, a rectangular opening appeared about ten meters away from where we were standing. It looked like there was a bright meadow glen amongst prairie hillsides beyond it. I held Dolores’ hand tight with my left hand, and the clenched the pen on my right before taking out first footsteps into the unknown.

Without even an inkling of an answer.

Description
“Will you please stop that clicking?”

I looked up from the jet black ballpoint pen on my right palm and glanced at Dolores. Her unkempt maroon hair made her soft face pop away from the mottled tiles of the wall.

“Let’s just wait this out in silence; someone’s bound to find us in here.”

“Ugh, can’t we just find a way out by ourselves?”

Frustration was a feeling we became familiar to when we woke to this place. Having known each other since childhood, both of us decided damn well we were not going to starve to death with our last sight being this enclave of aquamarine velvet imprisoning us, and the small grilled opening on the opposite wall mocking our corpses with the trickle of sunlight inching through.

“Maybe we can try breaking the bars.” Dolores suggested. “It looks like it’s big enough to crawl through.”

“Okay, let’s give it a shot.”

I put the pen somewhere behind me to lift Dolores to the opening. Supporting herself onto the edge with her left hand, she rattled and shook the bar, before using her other rust-stained hand to signal me to let her down.

“No good, it’s rebar. Should’ve known.” The abject dejection behind her words made the room seem bluer.

We went back to sitting on the musty floor, and I grabbed the pen again. It was unusual that this was the only thing with us inside. I unscrewed the tip and took out the ink cartridge. Full, as expected. Fixing it back, I tried scribbling with it on my hand, but it made no marks. Also expected. Stippling a few dots onto my clothes, it made a stain in the silhouette of a mouse’s head. Okay, didn’t expect that. Dolores held her head up high in exasperation and glanced around the cell, maybe to find other ways of escape.

I started clicking the top again. A few two clicks devolved into a mindless percussive drone that echoed off the walls.

“Will you stop that? It’s bad enough we’re trapped with no food or water, but that pen’s getting really grating in here.” Interspersed between her words was the incessant clicking, and a squeak…wait, a squeak?

We turned towards the direction of the sound. A small grey mouse was on the sill of the opening. It seemed to be very still, staring at us.

“At least we won’t starve to death,” I joked even though I might eat those words along with the mouse if it ever came to that.

“You really want to eat that?” She scoffed.

“Well, it is an edible dormouse.”

“Nerd.”

I unconsciously clicked the pen a few more times while staring at the mouse. Another mouse flanked it from the left, while the first one moved slightly forward.

“Wait,” Dolores said, “do that again.”

“Tell me twice.”

“Okay. Wait, do that again.”

With a few more clicks of the pen, five mice came popping out of the opening. The first two were already…hanging vertically on the wall. Huh.

“Um, do you see that, Dolores?”

“…Yes?” She tilted her head at the sight.

“No, not that.”

I pointed at a hanging mouse. There was a small indent in the wall where its mouth was. I looked at Dolores, who only gave a small nod before looking at the wall again. With that affirmation, I clicked the pen in rapid motion, my thumb a hummingbird’s wing.

“Oh, God!” she screamed.

Dolores and I huddled towards the center of the aquamarine prison as an unrelenting swarm of mice flowed in like a storm surge in Bangladesh. They moved uncannily; they covered the walls as if they were bees in a hive, without actually moving their legs, and the mice kept their eerie stares into nothingness ahead of them. The contradictory, reality-negating mass was chaotic as it filled the room with a dodecaphony of chirps and squeaks from still mouths, yet careful and precise enough to avoid us by a nail’s length away from our feet.

I tried holding back my surprise. “I’ll be damned.”

“They ate it,” Dolores added. “The whole thing. What the hell.”

Our cell obliterated into nothingness by the mice’s efficient gluttony, leaving behind a glowing white expanse. The mice phased into the floor as if it was water, and as they did, a rectangular opening appeared about ten meters away from where we were standing. It looked like there was a bright meadow glen amongst prairie hillsides beyond it. I held Dolores’ hand tight with my left hand, and the clenched the pen on my right before taking out first footsteps into the unknown.

Without even an inkling of an answer.