The Night I Started Taking

Stiff walls and bad air, I can’t smell anybody anymore. My floor is rough and smooth, sticky and moist, all in different spots. Hard to move and hard to breathe, but I am still here. There are not many colors. I think I see old pinks and purples, like the grasses on the way to the school. I want to move but I cannot. Stuck for a long time.

Very quiet. I hate quiet. Quiet is when I am all alone, no reds or pinks or purples, and no warm to help me move. I try to go to sleep, but I don’t know if I have, and my dreams are longer than I can sleep for. I open my eyes, and I see that a wall is clear. I look out and it’s all dark — smooth grey, flat blacks, white at the top and lots of little tools, like from before. I don’t want to go out,

I remember how they all poked me before and how it hurt, but I think I hate this new place more. I stick myself to the clear and smooth and lift it up. The air is cold but my nerves warm when it touches me and I can feel again. I feel so much better. There is a glow outside, and I see a wide black and the short green grasses. The grass is soft, but the dark is cold, so I don’t look out there any more. The bottom floor is smooth when I hit it, and the air is cleaner when I go further down. Drag along, lonely, creep underneath and hide, wait until it’s warm again.

But then, a noise. Two, from far away. Their sounds taste good to me, and I pull myself towards them. The wall with the hinge doesn’t come off when I tug it, but I try the trick that I learned before, and I get it open. The noises are clearer now, and I hear confusion in it, which makes me confused. One doesn’t want to be here, but they still are. The other tells them what to do, but why do they listen? They are above me, and are sometimes far apart, and other times get very close together. I go forward — their noises make me itchy, and I want to see them. I go up the walls, but there are no ways through them, and it starts to hurt. I need to go but I don’t know how, but then the noises start going down. I hear them go thud-thud-thud, talk-talk-talk, and I get shivery and go under another box.

They’re walking around where I am — one has long hair and smells like flowers, the other is short-haired and dirty, and I want them both. The long-haired one turns around and I don’t want it to see me. They have a thing like from before that talks, and they talk at it too. Everything is still too dark and I can’t see very well, the thing is bright but I don’t like it. The other one starts yelling and I shiver again, they turn on more lights and I get smaller and smaller. The loud one goes by me and I get too shaky, so I pop out at them, and they fall back over. He yells a moment before I grab his face, then not any more.

There are more noises from the top. The same voice from before is talking, but it wavers too much and makes me shiver. Another voice like from the one I took is there, but it is deeper and does not shout. I look down at the metal can that the first one had, and it smells like the box I was in before. I kick it away and walk to the stairs, since I know where they are now. I hear them talking, and they sound like they’re going to leave, but I still want them. I use my arms to go faster, and I go up the stairs. The light is better up here, and I see reds and browns on all the walls. They make me feel much better, and for a little while I just stand under the light and pretend it’s warm.

I stop hearing the voices, then they start to shout. I try to put on the face I got, but I don’t think it works very well, because I see the other two and they keep yelling. They start to run so I get on my arms and start running too, and I make noises at them. I grab the long-haired one and pull it back, the other turns to look and its face is pale, not red at all. I start taking them while I look around the room. I see more walls that are cold and smooth, and more lights that show the cool grasses outside. I’m not scared of them anymore.