It was dark. Horsie's eyes automatically adjusted to the dim light of the small, gray, square room it found itself in. Its eyes adjusted rapidly, and it could make out dim shapes like a chair, a desk, a lamp, a storage cabinet, and the bed with the slightly lumpy mattress that it was resting in. There was nothing else. The nice people that Horsie had met were conspicuously absent. Somehow, Horsie had thought they would be there when it woke up.
Now that Horsie was awake, it couldn't get back to sleep. And it felt lonely without its new friends, here in the dark empty room, with nothing to do or look at. Perhaps it should go look for its new friends? The blonde lady, Sam she'd said her name was, had said she would come find Horsie in the morning, but surely Sam would not mind if Horsie went to find Sam. Sam had been very nice. And morning seemed like a very long time away.
Mind suddenly made up, Horsie slipped out from under the covers that Sam had gently tucked up around it just a few hours ago, and found itself up between the bed and the wall. Horsie struck a pose, looking for the moment like a mural of a brave explorer, the word, "Moo!" boldly emblazoned in its conversation bubble. But there was no one to see it, and so Horsie moved on. Suddenly, it was possessed by the desire to see if it could fit behind the storage cabinet, so with a bit of squeezing, that's exactly what it did.
"Waaachoooo!"
Yes, indeed, it seemed a stick horsie could fit behind the tall utilitarian storage cabinet. Horsie's new friends did not, however, seem inclined to dust back there rather frequently, so Horsie slipped out the other side, obliviously passing underneath the security camera, which was still aimed at the bed, never having noticed the slight stirring of the covers of an insomniac stick horsie sliding out the wrong side of the bed.
Moving around the small room, Horsie continued with its impromptu game of sticking to the wall and squeezing around the furniture. It even bent its body to accommodate the corners with a bit of amusement. Before it knew it, it was at the door, and presented with the puzzle of how to get around the obstacle in the pathway.
Horsie's friends had made using the door look rather easy. All they had done was take a small plastic card out of their pockets, and then swiped it through that intriguing rectangular box thingy right next to the door… and then… Horsie studied the little box on the wall, even sticking its nose into the slot where its friends had placed their cards, but it only made its nose tingle most uncomfortably. Horsie rubbed its nose against its front leg. It most definitely did not like that box on the wall.
Studying the door again, the curious stick horse could see that light formed an outline of the door all the way around it, and it remembered how it had just roamed around the outside perimeter of the room. With an idea, Horsie popped its nose into the crack of light in the doorframe and squeezed. It took a good bit of maneuvering on Horsie's part, but it soon found itself in a brightly lit corridor.
Just outside the door stood two men, their backs were to the door, and they hadn't noticed that Stick Horsie was no longer sleeping. Horsie didn't recognize these people as its new friends, and memories triggered in stick horse's mind. One recent, of many men in the large room with the big ring, with all the guns pointing at it, making Horsie feel very uncomfortable. And one very distant memory, which said that men like these were here to make sure Horsie stayed where it belonged, and if they saw Horsie, would make sure Horsie went back to bed where it was supposed to be. Which meant that Horsie wouldn't be able to look for Sam.
With that thought, Horsie flattened itself against the wall, and concentrated on looking like a large drawing of a horse. Confident that its disguise was foolproof, the stick horse started to move slowly and carefully along the corridor, ready to freeze at any given moment, and pretend to be only an overly large drawing.
Luck was with Horsie, for the hour was late, and the corridors on this level were nearly deserted. The thin blue stick horse did not encounter anyone, and made it to the first turn without the two guards noticing it. Unfortunately, Horsie was presented with a new problem, for this corridor was a row of doors. It had a feeling that Sam was on this floor, and nearby, but behind which door? Undaunted, Horsie approached the first door and stuck its head into the small space between the door and doorframe.
Pulling its head back out with a little shake, Horsie moved along. Nope, that was not Horsie's Sam. The same proved to be true for the second door. And the third door as well. The fourth and fifth doors proved equally fruitless. Horsie was starting to despair of ever finding Sam; the corridor seemed to go on forever. And then, on the sixth door, Horsie found her. She was asleep. Overjoyed, it pushed itself the rest of the way into the room with Sam.
Horsie's joy was short lived however, when a small whimper from the sleeping occupant on the bed stopped it in its tracks. Confused, Horsie watched its new friend worriedly as the blond woman moved fitfully in her sleep, muttering, and then crying out, "No, please. Please stop! No more! No!" Her cries and movements became more frantic and Horsie found itself moving instinctively to her bedside, intense feelings of protectiveness nearly overwhelming it. Before it even knew what it was doing, if found it was vibrating warmly, and making a soothing rumbling sound.
It approached the dreaming woman slowly, letting her feel its presence, and as she quieted, it started to nuzzle her gently. Almost unconsciously Sam slowly relaxed, her hand moving to grasp Horsie behind its head, and Horsie encouraged the movement, butting its head under her arm. Sam reacted, tugging Horsie closer. Accepting the invitation, Horsie slipped into the bed and under the covers, as Sam's arm slipped around its neck, pulling it into a warm one-armed hug. Carefully, Horsie drew the covers over both of them using its teeth, and Sam sighed, curling on her side, and tucking her head under Horsie's chin. With a blissful sigh of its own, Horsie rested its own head on top of Sam's soft blond hair and drifted to sleep, content.