PROMPT

9. “Hey! Put me down!” 👀 👀 perhaps?

 

It was mid-afternoon. No one was supposed to be home. Why was the human home? Lian bit his lower lip as he tried his best to stay hidden behind the skinny chair leg under the kitchen table. He was just trying to get to the pantry across the room.

It had been weeks since he had left the comforts of his home in the vents to find sustenance. The human, Joe Dawson, hadn’t left the dorm all this time, and he finally was out. Lian had just migrated from one dorm complex to the next after some suspicious college students started setting traps and surveillance in their rooms, and he was starting to think Joe was already suspicious.

Lian was alone, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. Many Borrowers lived on their own if they wanted to stay safe. It was the ones who couldn’t pick up and move who were more likely to get found out; or, at least, that’s what Lian thought. Now that he was truly alone and no longer with his brother and his family, he knew no one would be able to find him or rescue him if the worst were to happen.

No.

The worst wasn’t going to happen.

He was going to make his way out of this.

He just had to find a way around the human who just came home to his dorm room.

Lian leaned out carefully and saw the human, Joe, vanish into the next room with a couple of plastic bags. Now was his chance!

As fast as his Borrower legs could carry him, Lian sprinted from the table leg. He just had to get into the cabinet beside the washing machine. That was all. Heart pounding in his chest and breath burning his lungs, Lian was mere feet away when he heard the bone chilling words from behind him.

“What the—”

Lian’s heart clenched in his chest. The Borrower didn’t dare slow as he slammed into the baseboard next to the washing machine. Hands trembling, he pried the edge of the cabinet open and forced his way inside, scraping his back along the unforgiving edge as the door closed behind him.

Panicking, Lian began forcing his way past the cleaning supplies and under bottle nozzles as he made his way to the back of the cabinet. It was nearly impossible to see in the dark, but he didn’t dare turn on his hip lamp. Not now.

Light flooded in behind him and the eclipsing shadow of the human soon followed.

He was almost there. Perhaps he was in the clear.

That flicker of hope was premature.

Lian pushed past one last bottle and had his hand on the string to the door when he felt a pinch from behind.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his shirt and borrowing bag were pinched between the massive thumb and index finger of the human. A shriek rose in his throat but didn’t make it out as his arms were suddenly slightly restrained and his chest was compressed as the shirt pulled tightly from behind.

He kicked and wriggled, trying to slip out of his garments, but to no avail. He could only watch, heart palpitating, as he was hoisted into the air and effortlessly pulled out of the cabinet. He felt lightheaded at the speed of the human moving him jostled his brain. The unforgiving pinch at his back tightened as the human’s wrist rotated, leaving Lian face to face with the human.

The human had sharp features and cold, calculating eyes. To Lian, his teeth were way too big and his eyes were way too wide as he was held mere inches from the human’s face. There were gaps between his teeth which Lian only saw when a sly smile crossed the human’s face.

“Well now. What have we got here? You’re not a doll,” stated Joe, his smug, nasally voice shaking Lian to his bones. Joe wiggled his wrist, tossing Lian from side to side as he was still restrained.

Lian was frozen stiff, unable to force himself to move. Every nerve in his body screamed to run and hide. Every ounce of his being cried out for help, but he had no command over his body with these chilling words.

Joe stood up from his crouch, rummaged through his cabinets, and grunted as he wasn’t able to find what he was looking for. Obviously improvising now, he reached under a different cabinet and pulled out a large glass mixing bowl. Lian knew he had to do something. He couldn’t move very well, but perhaps he could reason with the human.

There were a few stories, albeit few, where the human was sympathetic. Maybe if he knew Lian was sentient, he would be let go. It was a long shot, but he had to try.

“Hey! Put me down!” shouted Lian, commanding all of his effort into keeping his voice audible and unhindered by stuttering and fear. “I’m not an animal and I’m not a toy, so just put me down!”

“Gladly,” stated Joe coolly as his hand hovered over the bowl and dropped Lian in once he was a few inches from the bottom of the bowl. Lian stumbled and quickly found his feet as he backed as far as he could away from the human who was now leaning over the bowl.

Lian had never seen anything more terrifying than this – a human hovering over him like he was some sort of plaything.

Cornered.

Trapped.

No escape.

No one coming to look for him.

Lian’s body started to shake violently, but it didn’t stop him from attempting to steel his features and grip the shower razor blade he fashioned into a short sword.

Joe, in response, chuckled in amusement.

“Wow, look at that. You have tools and everything. Looks like Austin was right. I didn’t give that punk enough credit,” said Joe. Lian’s heart sank.

Austin? Who was Austin? And what did Joe mean that he was right? Did that mean… others had been found?

Lian couldn’t think about that now. He had to find a way to get away – to get free.

His determination quickly vaporized, however, when he watched in horror as Joe pulled out that funny black rectangular box called a phone and hold it up above Lian. There was an incredibly bright light that flashed like lightning, making Lian stagger back and slip against the edge of the glass bowl.

“W-wh-what was that?” he shouted at the human.

“Oh, just taking a couple of pictures for evidence.”

Lian’s heart sank. Evidence? Evidence for what? Proof? Proof of Borrower existence?

No…

Not like this…

Had he just revealed all of Borrower kind?

Maybe he could still reason with the human. After all, technology was advanced, right? People could make things look like others all of the time. Lian saw a few movies in his life after all. It wasn’t real.

“E-ev-vidence? Ha! No one will believe that!” said Lian, attempting to sound brave despite how he stammered. His vocal tremor was unfortunately noticed by the sinister looking human.

“Maybe, but this is just a backup. I’ll need to start making some calls for proper analysis. I’ll also need to confer with a few other colleagues that you are, in fact, real and that there isn’t literature on whatever you are already being hidden by the government or some other group,” stated Joe coolly as he reached into a drawer and pulled out some plastic wrap and snapped it over the top of the bowl to keep Lian inside. “But first, I need to see what Austin says, especially for pricing.”

“P…pri…”

“Pricing. He has a business. He’s an exterminator, but he’s quite inventive when it comes to traps. There have to be more of you running around, and he has a few things that could do just the trick in getting a better sample size,” said Joe.

He walked away with that strange rectangular box and held it up to his ear as Lian slid to the bottom of the bowl. His shoulders shook uncontrollably, and he felt lightheaded. It was going to be his fault. The reveal of his entire family and his kind was going to be his fault.

Hopeless, Lian collapsed inward on himself, trembling for what was to come. He knew he couldn’t give up and that he had to find a way to escape, but how long would he have to do that?