6 AM

Gwen opened her eyes and woke up from the top bunk. For a few seconds, she sat there, reminding herself that this wasn't a dream. Taking in the smell of years-old, abandoned, and soggy wood, she left her bed and gently went down the flimsy, creaking ladder while trying her best to leave the sleeping man to his dreams. She gently closed the windows to prevent the strong smell of unrestrained nature from getting her too nauseous and pranced out of her room. Now, what to do...

Inspecting the fridge, she realized that nobody had brought anything to eat. Except Jax, who had stocked a third of the fridge with eggs without anyone noticing. Or, at least, she assumed it was him.

She sighed and closed the fridge. Looking around, she found a few maple cabinets. She opened each one of them, finding plates, cups, other glassware, and... a skillet! She hastily nabbed it and then realized that she didn't have anything to oil the pan with. While lost in thought and staring into her morphed reflection within the pan, she felt something run over her feet. Dropping her pan in shock, she realized there was not one, but several rats that had infested the ground she was walking on. Were they all in that one cabinet?

Unfortunately, the pan she dropped landed on her right foot, making her yelp in pain.

Caitlyn jerked awake, lunging out of her bed due to the high-pitched shout. Dashing out of her room, her clothing rugged and, to her standards, fairly improper for someone of her standing, even forgetting to put her signature top hat on, she went downstairs at lightning pace, just to realize that there were rats frolicking about. She quickly took 3 steps back up the stairs, denying the rats access to her limbs. She turned to her left, where she saw the kitchen, and Gwen sitting on one of the counters, trying to hit the rats with a broom.

"We're living in a damn TV show," Caitlyn mumbled as she kicked a rat trying to climb up the stairs. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned around to see an unreactive Yone, who probably didn't register that the house was infested with rats. He rubbed his eyes again and blinked a few times to clear his vision. Now, upon having the same realization that Caitlyn did, he gasped and ran back up the stairs, coming back with his blades.

"Are you insane? You'll ruin the tiling!" Caitlyn stammered as she saw Yone's eyes gleam with murderous intent.

"I either kill the rats now, or they burrow a hole through our wall. If they haven't done so already." Yone grimaced while watching Gwen desperately trying to prevent the rats from getting on her small island of safety. Unfortunately, the rats began climbing up the broom, forcing her to drop it altogether. And then, it was a matter of time until they began climbing up the counter.

"What is happening over there?" A disgruntled Jax woke up from his beauty sleep, confused about all of the commotion.

"A LITTLE HELP, PLEASE! AH!" Gwen had now realized that a rat had successfully gotten on the counter. She successfully managed to push it off, but it probably wouldn't be the only one.

"Hey, wait. Why is the cage open?" Jax pointed out that the cage was open, with a distinct absence of Briar within. Apparently, he couldn't care less than at least two dozen rats were running around in the living room.

"I'm cutting them down." Yone tried to pass by Caitlyn, who blocked his way. "Your blade will make swift work of the rats, and the limited furniture we still have."

While the three were discussing potential plans to rescue the poor girl, she was using a salt shaker to smack the rats down. Eventually, getting sick of their idle nonsense, she raised her voice, to get their attention. "OPEN THE BASEMENT DOOR!"

"But why would we—" Gwen interrupted Caitlyn, getting even louder: "JUST OBLIGE, WILL YOU!"

"We can't get there, the rats will—" Gwen glared… scissors? into Caitlyn's eyes. "MY GOD, DON'T YOU HAVE A GUN?"

Sighing, the detective went back up, and came down with her rifle, and shot the lock off of the door, flinging it open. From within the darkness of a basement with zero illumination, someone spoke.

"Hey, you opened the door!"

"Oh my— who let her in the basement?!" Yone, frustrated enough at the situation, crossed his arms and waited for something to happen.

Suddenly, the rats began all going down the stairs to the basement.

"Oh, are those… rats? That's a lot of rats! THAT'S A LOT OF—"

Briar screamed, but it was drowned out by the marching of the rats, all of them funneling down.

And then, after a few seconds of silence, the four others got to hear the sound of Briar's hemolith unchaining, and after a brief instant of… what sounded like cartoon fighting, Briar hopped up the stairs, yanking a rat tail out of her gums.

"That is… Briar, how about you go brush your teeth?" Gwen got down, off of her little counter, and almost pushed her into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. "I do admit I did feel bad about leaving her there. So, I let her sleep in the basement. It's not like there was any wiring in there she could nibble on."

Although Yone wanted to object, he didn't really see any flaws in Gwen's point. Besides, she did help with the rats… he huffed and puffed, but eventually, he nodded. "I suppose it was… pretty inhumane."

"As if humans did humane things to begin with," Jax mumbled under his breath, before going down the stairs himself. "I'm sure everyone's hungry. I myself could go for a boiled egg. Any takers?"

Gwen slowly raised her hand, using the other one to pick up the skillet and put it in the sink. The others, realizing they had literally nothing else, agreed as well.

Briar slowly opened the bathroom door, watching Jax boiling some eggs. She slowly made her way out, trying to avoid grabbing unnecessary attention. Considering how she walks though, everyone noticed in a few seconds, putting her a bit on the spot. "So, uh. Sorry about the sofa?" She put on a half-sincere, half-nervous smile.

"We did lock you in a cage for several hours. I think we owe you one at this point." Caitlyn smiled, which also relieved the Restrained Hunger.

"Phew. I probably would've gone insane in that basement. There are a lot of cockroaches in there, you know?" She quickly closed the basement door, realizing that there was a hole where the lock used to be.

"Does anyone have any money to fix the lock, by the way?" Yone inquired, staring at the one who broke the lock in the first place.

"I… well—" Caitlyn scratched her head, messing up her hair at the same time.

"We aren't using it, nothing important is inside of it. Just barricade it until we have a use for it." Jax turned to the door. "I'm sure a few nails and a plank can do the trick."

Yone, again, wanted to interject, but didn't have any arguments to the contrary. Like hell he wanted to use an infested basement for a study. So, he conceded to the point.

"I don't think we have any wooden planks here, though."

"The house came with a small forest and lake behind it. We're fine." Jax grabbed an egg from the boiling water, which made Gwen hiss with second-hand pain.

"There is ZERO chance I am going to chop wood for this mess!" Yone protested, probably already exhausted.

"Too bad."

Hello again! It's me. I've written down a second chapter for this... Nonsense.
Although it isn't anything too spicy just yet, and I doubt it ever will get that spicy, I've enjoyed the journey so far!

Expect more in the distant future!