Chapter 4: The Rattery
The men put several dizzying flights of the spiral staircase between them and the base of the tower before the snap of the lock closing brought them to a halt.
“You don’t suppose they have given up do you?” said the little man peering down into the darkness of the tower below.
“That’s seems a bit optimistic.” shrugged the the larger man joining him.
“I find no better way to be,” smiled the small man.
“Ha! Indeed…well, up seems better than down at the moment…so, shall we?”
“After you, oh great one.”
Together they cautiously continued up the dim candle lit tower.
The stair bore no railing and as they progressed it became apparent it was to ease access to the many and various cages which now hung in the center from lengths of chain. Upon closer inspection the cages were filled with a startling variety of rats. So too were the many alcoves that began to line the outer wall as they ascended, each barred by a cage door and every one filled with rats. Attached to each, a small card bearing the same wiry scrawl detailed what lay within.
The duo continued to climb marveling at the collected diversity that lined the stairs. There were rats of every color of the rainbow, some were even polka-dotted or zebra-striped. One shifted continuously from one color to the next, while some glowed or scintillated. Several had horns, rams horns, elk horns, bullhorns of various sizes and colors. But things only grew stranger as they continued to spiral upward.
The higher they climbed, the more the rats began to demonstrate extraordinary and mystical powers. First there were what seemed to be ordinary rats but who were extraordinarily resistant or immune. They played and romped in pools of acid, sealed jars of noxious gases or across flaming coals. One sat lounging in a vat of boiling oil while next to it a rat sat allowing itself to be flattened repetitively by a reciprocating roller. After those were ones that seemed to control the very elements themselves, bursting into flame or crackling with lightning. Water, wind, stone and metal bent to the various wills of the contained rats as they scuttled about their cages. Then came those rats that seemed to be made up of all those very elements themselves, their cages covered in many runes and wards in order be able to contain them from melting through the bars or simply just blowing away.
The last stretch of cages also bore enchantments, but their contents—which at first seemed more weird and curious—grew steadily more disturbing. It began with rats that puffed up into rubbery balls, ricocheted around their cages at dizzying speeds or morphed into teapots and various household items. These were followed by rats that could teleport or phase between the two sides of their split cages, turning ethereal and ghostlike as they did. Among them was a rat that could turn itself invisible, though to do so it had to pass through each layer of its anatomy as it did. So first its skin would disappear, then its muscles, then veins and finally its bones. It seemed to like to linger at the bone phase.
Both men started as the cage beyond made a sudden “WOOMPH!” Inside sat the angriest-looking rat that either man had ever seen. It eyed them both, seething and snarling with rage. As it did, it started to glow red from within and swell. The tip of its tail then burst into bright sparkling flame crackling and sizzling as it lashed back and forth. The rat tensed then… “WOOMPH!” It exploded again, causing both men to flinch backward. The sealed cage flexed and creaked as it struggled to contain the blast but as the smoke cleared once again, there stood the rat, angry as ever. The cycle of periodic explosions slowed as they walked on from that cage, but never fully stopped.
The last group of rats they came to unsettled them greatly. These rats stood stock-still as if in deep concentration while objects floated about their cages or were twisted and bent by unseen hands. More disturbingly, whispered voices began to echo in the men’s heads. Sometimes strange tastes or sounds came to the men, or the feeling that this had all happened before. Images of strange people and places popped into their minds unbidden as did more nightmarish visions of dark places filled with tentacles and snapping teeth.
The last cage, which was set in an alcove at the top of the stairs not only had bars and wards, but was also wrapped in large chains and locks covered in glowing green sigils. The men approached cautiously what at first appeared to be an empty cage. As they stood staring into the darkness of the cage its occupant came floating forward, drifting slowly like a jellyfish through water and bathed in the lurid light of the chains. It had the body of a normal rat, though dwarfish and emaciated from obvious disuse. Dark piercing eyes glared out from its head which was also of normal size. What wasn’t of normal size was the glowing pulsing brain, twice the size of a normal man’s head, which grew from the back of the rat’s skull. As it drifted to the front of the cage, its small body dangling beneath its watermelon-sized brain, its eyes bored into the two men. Green tentacles of energy lashed forward from its brain, only to be dispelled at the last second by the wards in a flash of white light.
“Hellooooo…” a flatly nasal voice echoed loudly within the men’s minds.
Cold shivers ran down their spines at the alien touch of the rat’s thoughts, which seemed to wriggle and crawl through their minds. They stood unnerved, gaping wide-eyed at the rat for several seconds.
“Can I help you?” the creature sneered into their minds.
As this second wave of thoughts washed over the pair like a bucket of cold slime, both men were galvanized into action.
“No, we…Yes, I… Um , thank you , but no , we really …can’t…must go…Uh…” their words tumbled over each other as together they backed warily from the cage.
Skirting away from it as far as they could, they circled to reach the curtained doorway which lay beyond. The rat eyed them coldly as they quickly shuffled through it never taking their hands from their weapons or breaking eye contact with the rat.
“How positively rude,” echoed the rat’s thoughts as the curtain dropped back into place between them. Without turning it floated backward into the darkness of its cage, eyes unblinking.
© Tucker Johnson 2020