Man this part took long. I so tried to make it sound serious and tense, but the small things and errors made it hard.

There for I apologies the mistakes in the grammar. I so wanted to get to the next part, and the song. Yes I plan to put a song on the coming chapter. That's why this part had to come well.

Anyway

Chapter 5

That day wasn't easy for Phantalmina to sleep. She moved a lot in her sleep that Ashley and Justin woke up a couple of times to calm her down. He actually had to lay next to her to hold her close so she could sleep calmly the rest of the day. But before the evening came, a new kind of commotion woke him. Something was making newcomers worried. Justin got up quickly to take care of the matter before Phantalmina wakes up and might do it. He moved closer to the one group of mice to ask.

"What is it? What is the commotion about?"

"One of those who went to sleep alone can't be found." One of the older mice was willing to answer him. "He never goes too far away from the rest of us. And especially with the cats around."

"You don't think…?"

"No." Justin tried to calm them. "The cats are sleeping far away from the stage. They can't get here without waking everyone up. Besides that's against the rules, they are aware of this."

"I see." the older mice nodded as to saying he believes him. "But then, where is he?"

"Look, I call Arthur to look for him. Let's just try to do this without waking the little girl up." Justin finished and got up.

"Okay."

It didn't take long for Justin to find Arthur, tell him the situation and then they went to search the missing mouse. Justin went just in case to ask Munkustrap if he has seen the missing mouse, or know anything about him. But so far there was no sign of the missing mouse.

Justin returned to the bed checking on Phantalmina, hoping she was still resting. It was still a little too early for her to be waking up and the last thing they wanted her to have was more things to worry about. For his relief she was still sleeping. He adjusted her blanket making sure she stayed that way while they kept looking. On his way Ashley woke up and asked.

"What's going on?"

"One of the mice is gone missing. We are trying to find him before Mina wakes up." Justin answered. "Let's hope she stays sleeping for now and we finish with the search."

"I could go and ask Dusk to help too. It might help a lot to find this mouse quicker." she suggested.

"I appreciate that." Justin said, smiling to her suggestion.

So far his large form helped well with the newcomers, they didn't worry that much about the cats when they knew two big rats were there to help them. But it was a matter of time when his large form would turn back to his normal size and by that time it would be better to have things in order.

As Ashley took off and flew to wake up Dusk, Justin turned to look at Phantalmina again before he went looking for the missing mouse again. But it was then when he suddenly noticed that someone else was on the bed too. He startled and reacted quickly at first to see someone unknown on Phantalmina's bed, but he then recognized it was that same she-mouse he talked about with Munkustrap last night. Why did she come this close to the bed?

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude." she said as she also startled by his quick reaction.

"No. It's… it's alright. I didn't see you come. I… actually didn't expect anyone to come this close to bed. Or to her actually."

She smiled shyly at him and moved closer to Phantalmina. Her nose trembled a little when she moved closer to the sleeping little girl.

"Is... is she alright?" she asked.

"Yes. At least I hope so." He said, while looking at the little girl. "I really wished she didn't have to see any of those horrible things last night. Who knows how this has affected her."

The she-mouse turned to look at Justin as she asked...

"Why did you go there? I mean, wasn't it too dangerous for her? Release us all and take us away? I have never seen a human do such a thing for small creatures like us."

"That's because she is far more than a human. She keeps saying that so many times. How she's so different from them. Besides it would have been far more dangerous if she would have come all alone."

"But, then again,... If it wasn't for her we wouldn't be here, right?"

"Right. Maybe it's better this way." he smiled. "Everyone got away from that place, safe and sound."

"Are you going to help them to find Raymond?" she started to ask Justin.

"Yes. Better do it now before the little one wakes up and goes to look for him herself." he answered while brushing Phantalmina's hair away from her face. "She always wants to make sure everyone is alright before looking after herself."

"So,..um, sir... you…?"

"Oh. You can call me Justin."

"Justin..." she smiled while she said that. " If I may ask? Can all of you change your size somehow like that? Some rats that came with us mentioned that the other large one used to be small like they were, but now he… He is like you."

"Well, some of us actually. So far I could say that she makes it possible. And this form won't last forever. Arthur and I will be turning back in thirty minutes. Therefore I better go back to look for your friend Raymond." Justin said as he got up.

"Right. Sorry if I hold your back." she said looking a little away.

"No need to apologize. It's okay." he smiled at her. He took another quick look on Phantalmina before he asked. "Will you look after her, miss...um..?"

"Elizabeth." she said with a gentle smile. "My name is Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth." he said, liking how lovely it sounded. "Thank you."

Once walking back to the others Justin couldn't help but smile for being able to talk to her. Last night he was so uncomfortable to sleep when he was bothered with so many questions. Now that he got a chance to talk with her, some part of him was thrilled. That same part of him that was hoping for a miracle. And how could this not be it? She came closer to him, talked with him, and she told her name. But what really made his heart go in a beat was her voice. Not only did she look like the same one from so long ago, her voice was just like hers.

He didn't have much time to wonder about that. Arthur came quickly to him and he looked worried.

"We have a problem. Another mouse has gone missing."

"What? Who? When?"

"I'm not sure, but I talked with him just a few minutes ago. For what I know he went his way alone and hasn't come back."

"Have you checked the other areas close to that place where you last saw him?"

"Yes, but there is no trace of him." Arthur said frustrated. "As if he's gone. Like gone, gone."

"Okay, calm down." Justin tried to calm him. "Now, where did you last see him? Maybe we'll find something together."

Arthur nodded to him and showed him the area. It was clear, not many places to hide or get lost in there, but still there was no trace of any of them.

For Justin and Arthur time was running out for their large forms. He wished they would have found something already. A clue, a mark or anything that would have told them where the lost mice were. But as the time was at its end they went to Phantalmina's bed to regroup. And in the matter of seconds their bodies were turning back to their normal size. They managed to time the shrinking right so they got themselves standing at the other end of the bed.

"Now what do we do?" Arthur asked, still frustrated.

"I'm not sure yet. But we need to know what happened. Otherwise things could turn bad."

"Justin."

Both of them turned and saw the she-mouse Justin met a while ago coming towards them.

"You turned back to normal." she guessed, smiling a little to him.

"Yes, Elizabeth. Unfortunately we did. Thank you for looking after her while we were looking."

Elizabeth smiled with a little blush on her cheeks to him. Arthur looked at Justin and Elizabeth in turns, noticing that Justin was acting a little more familiar with her.

All three of them soon felt the bed moving. Or more like the blanket was moving.

"Mmmm..."

'Damn it' Justin cursed silently. Phantalmina was waking up.

"Mmmm… What… time... is it...?" she asked wearily as she tried to get up.

"Six in the evening. We didn't mean to wake you up."

Phantalmina soon noticed that some of the newcomers were troubled, not by her or her friends but something else.

"What happened? Why are they so troubled over there?"

"Our friend has gone missing. " Elizabeth answered to her.

"What? Missing? How long?" Phantalmina asked, sounding worried. She tried to get up as fast as possible to help them.

"Mina, now hold on." Justin and Arthur tried to catch up with her before she was completely off the bed. "We are still looking and it would be better if you stay waiting here."

"How can that be better when something bad could have happened to her?"

"They are both males." Arthur didn't release in time that he said that out loud. He quickly tried to cover his mouth but the angry look on Justin's face already was telling he messed things up.

"There are two of them?" Phantalmina was stunned. "And what about Munkustrap and the cats? Have you asked them about this? Do they…?"

"Mina, hold it." Justin said to her "They are still out in the hallway. But if we bring them here now, there will be even more trouble and misunderstandings with them."

But the news of the missing mice started to bother Phantalmina already. Through all the years she has lived in the theater no one hasn't just gone missing without a trace. And if the cats were still out, what could have driven them away? She wasn't going to stay down, knowing that something was wrong at her home. She quickly got up from the bed and went to the edge of the stage to start looking.

"Wait. Mina? Phantalmina!" Justin tried to catch up with her. But it was no use, since he was back to his normal size.

Phantalmina went first to ask some of the newcomers where they saw their friend for the last time. Of course they weren't eager to talk to her first, but one of the elders was kind enough to show her the place.

"Your friends looked here already, but they couldn't find him."

"What about the other one? Where was he last seeing?" she asked then.

"Right there." the older one showed the wooden post in the corner.

Phantalmina thanked him for the help and went to look around the post. Justin joined her there, trying to tell her to leave the search to him. But she wanted to keep looking.

Just like Arthur and Justin noticed first, there weren't many places for a mouse to hide. Phantalmina was able to see Justin clearly no matter where he stayed standing.

"I don't understand." she said as she walked around the post. "There is no trace of them."

"I know. We looked here too. Please let us continue from here. Once we find something we let you know." Justin tried to reason with her.

As Phantalmina took a step forward, a clear snap could be heard. She looked down under her shoes and noticed some tiny bones.

"Eww. Why there are fish-bones here? I thought I told everyone to clean these things."

Justin moved closer to look at the bones. As Justin picked one to measure up he noticed...

"This isn't fish."

Phantalmina bent down, counted and placed the bones in the order they might have gone and realized the same horrible thing Justin realized too.

"Thi... this is a mouse."

Phantalmina gasped releasing it. Someone had done it. Someone broke the rule. But who? Who would dare to do it?

They soon noticed another piece of bone falling down, close to the post next to the others. There was a sound of chewing jaws and tearing meat. There was no doubt about it. As Phantalmina looked up she could see the culprit himself licking his claws clean after his meal.

"Oh no."