The Boy in the Walls

Chapter 1

Have you ever had something mysteriously disappear? Or maybe you noticed small noises in the walls. Or even seen a small form out of the corner of your eye? If so, then you probably have mice or rats and can forget about it. Just ignore any signs of suspicious things going missing. Don't try and find out more, and do not under any circumstances set traps.

...Okay, I'm joking. I obviously do not think it is mice, I do however, believe you should do the ladder options by ignoring it and not bothering with anything related to it. Because if you don't, you will cause unnecessary fear and anguish to some poor being.

I shall elaborate. What I mean is simply this, there are beings that live in our world that are not quite animal, but not human either. These beings reside in the walls of our homes and take out things, freeloading off of what we are unintentionally providing. No, these are not mice, or rats, or whatever exocentric thing you can think of. For these beings are beyond our plebiscite ways of grasping the supernatural.

These beings are known as borrowers. They are sentient, humanoid creatures that are no taller than your pointer finger. And one of these creatures in particular is the protagonist of our story. It's, or rather, his name was Oliver. He, like many other borrowers, grew up knowing and learning to fear the humans or, as they called them hosts.

Oliver was a relatively decent height for a borrower, 3 5/8 inches tall, he had wavy blonde locks that never seemed to be neat. The most unique characteristic that Oliver had, were his ears and tail. See, most borrowers are identical to humans, the only difference being their height.

Oliver however, he was a hybrid. See, his mother was a normal borrower, and his father was a brownie. Brownies generally have more rodent like features. So Oliver shared the mix of looks from both of his parents. He had a fluffy blonde tail with a tuft of hair at the end. He also had the mouse like ears from his mother.

There were other distinctions that scattered throughout his body. The galaxy of freckles that scattered about his form, and the odd shape his face and nose were formed to.

Oliver had been living at his hosts house for little over a month, having come of age and moved out. The boy worked hard to become a good borrower, and when he finally set out he felt he was prepared for his new life. but the journey was rough and when he arrived at the complex system of college dormitories, his host seemed to have no schedule at all. for one thing, they would stay up all night on their computer and still wake up early.

His host didn't seem to even have a consistent diet either, sticking mostly to packaged producers that were near impossible for borrowing. Oliver was weary of the stale and unhealthy food with witch the human had been buying recently. But there was no possible way to change it, 'you get watcha get' Oliver's father used to say when the boy complained about the lack of variety in their diet.

He needed to know when the host would be distracted enough for Oliver to get food. so far it had been about a week since he had borrowed and 3 days since he had last eaten.

Oliver was already a scrawny boy so it didn't help his composure at all.  He was quite pale and skinnier then most borrowers. one day, in the late afternoon, Oliver's host was busy doing something in its room, so he decided to go out borrowing when the human was preoccupied.

he set out to the kitchen with his hook and borrowing bag. Traipsing through the musky, dark, tunnels that he had constructed over his month of living in this new house he made his way to the kitchen. it had taken him most of his time in his new home so far to construct, and mine out those tunnels. plus. the borrower had to remain completely silent whilst doing so, or risk being discovered.

Oliver entered from a chipped tile which he had found upon arriving at his new home, and began heading towards the cereal cabinet. the boy propelled his hook at the cabinet door. his recycled fishing hook flew upwards with great speed, it made a slight thwack. Oliver cringed at the sound but kept going. he climbed up the thin rope, which was quite the task, the cabinet being over 30 feet to him. Oliver heaved himself up into the cabinet cautiously.

the cabinet was a lot larger on the inside then it looked. it was dark, but not uncomfortably so. Oliver inhaled the warm scent of grains. the borrower looked around the expanse of boxes, examining each one carefully. finally he found the one which he had been looking for.

Oliver pulled out his knife and cut into the cereal bag. the thick plastic was hard to cu into at first, but after a few tries, the boy was successful. Once he had grabbed enough food to last him a few days, Oliver began to descend the rope, quite thankful that he had his climbing gloves on. he was about 12 feet from the counter top when the knot holding onto the hook came undone.

have you ever been in a situation so scary and shocking that everything seems o slow down? well that's how Oliver felt. Everything went in slow motion, Oliver began plummeting towards the ground the room spinning around him as he fell. Then all at once Oliver landed in a painful heap, twisting his leg in an awkward position causing him to yelp in pain. despite the pain, Oliver still got up, staggering, and causing his head to spin.  he looked up to his now detached hook, still planted firmly on the cabinets wood.