Stripped
Disclaimer: The only people own are Ben and Chester Meroff. Don't use them without asking.
Author's Note: Ben came into my mind one day while I was daydreaming and pestered me until I wrote a story. So here it is. Not my best work, but I decided to post it anyway. I have no idea where Chester came from.
Ben sat cross-legged on the couch, staring at the sulking Basil and grinning.
"What are you smirking at boy?" Basil asked, not taking his eyes off the flames. Ben caught the way he said boy. It's almost like he. . . no, no one knew her secret and no one ever will, not even Basil of Baker Street. She just shrugged in response to his question. He looked so cute when he was sulking! Like a little kid.
"Stop grinning at me!" Basil snapped. Ben attempted to subdue her grin by biting her lip, but it still showed.
Chester sat at a wooden table, accompanied by a big, mangy, rat-like gray mouse with a notch out of his right ear and a white film over his left eye. Chester looked at his companion, his gray eyes heavy lidded and his fingers steepled.
"I know where his whelp is. It was that little pickpocket I swiped this from." Chester dangled the locket in front of the other mouse's nose, who followed its slow, twisting movement with his red eyes.
"The resemblance between the two is uncanny, so what I want you to do is find that little urchin, " He pulled a dagger out of the inside of his coat, put it on the table, and slide it towards the mouse. "and kill her. Slowly. I want her to suffer, just like her father did," The other mouse grinned, showing pointed yellow teeth, and took the dagger from the table.
"Oh and Stetter?" Chester called out. The other mouse turned to look at him.
"Do the job right. You don't want to end up like the others that failed do you?" He told Stetter, miming shooting himself in the head with a gun. Stetter got the point and swallowed nervously before leaving to start his hunt.
Ben lay sleeping, stretched on her stomach on the couch with her arms tucked under a pillow. Basil and the others had long since retired to their room, but footsteps said that someone was up and pacing. Ben's ears and tail twitched in her sleep and she shifted restlessly, dreaming.
She lay in her bed, listening to her father play a slow, soothing melody on his violin, as he often did when she couldn't sleep. She was just about to fall asleep when a figure darkened the doorway.
A black mouse with brown hair walked into her room, closing the door behind him and locking it.
"Hello Mister Meroff. What do you need?" She asked, sitting up.
"I need to know how much of a friend I am to you," He told her, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"I'm a lot, you know that," She told him, crawling over to him and sitting next to him.
"Yes, but I need more then verbal proof," He said, running her hand over her back. "I need physical proof," He put his arm around her and pulled her close to him.
"Would you let me touch you?" He whispered in her ear, running his hand along the side of her young, innocent face.
Ben gasped as her eyes flew open and her head jerked up. Her fur was damp with cold sweat and her heart was racing. She slowly sat up and shifted herself into a sitting position. Cradling her head in her hands, she wondered why she had that dream now. She only had it once before, when she was younger, before her father left. She dug the heels of her paws into her eyes until she saw spots. Why would she have that dream now? Her head jerked up as her ears caught the sound of approaching footsteps. Her muscles tensed instinctively, preparing to fight whoever was coming. She relaxed when she saw that it was only Basil, dressed in his dressing gown.
"I see you couldn't sleep either," He said when he saw that she wasn't laying down. She shook her head and rubbed her bloodshot eyes. He sat down in his chair and stared into the empty fireplace. She watched his hands as they reached down the side of the chair and pulled up a violin and bow. She watched him drag the bow across the strings, filling the quiet house with a soulful melody. She closed her eyes, listening to the music, her mind's eye flashing back to her father, playing the violin. How she missed it.
She felt a tear trickle through the fur on her face. She quickly wiped it away and settled back down on the couch. Basil glanced over at her and grinned slightly, changing the song to a lullaby as her blue eyes drooped and she dropped back to sleep, a single tear escaping and landing on the pillow.
Short chapter, I know, but it was a good spot to stop. More to come so sit tight!