The Ants & The Cube

The Scent

The little black ant was traversing the green and brown grounds looking for food, when it came upon a peculiar structure, nestled into a small area where the trees were cut down, and the sky beamed down in its entire might. It was a cobblestone cube, with moss and vines growing on it, where the ant sensed something, which she presumed was food. Cleaning her antennae, she marched forward, clearing the ground before her, the sun bouncing off her exoskeleton. Coming upon the structure relatively fast, she circled it, noticing how tiny it was. Climbing the bumpy and dust covered cobblestone, with vines and moss growing in the weaves and corners, she figured her way all around the construct before finally arriving at some sort of entrance, which was more of a hole. Moving to the side, she walked down the wall, and then began scurrying down the ground, when she noticed something off. As she walked around, exploring the construct, not going too far from the entrance, she noticed it was bigger on the inside. Way, way bigger.

Puzzled by this, she chose to continue exploring the dark chamber before her, which suddenly lit up, as if by command. There was no apparent source of light nor any clear window, but it drew her further in. The ground, a choice of light wooden plank, littered with dust as thick as a finger coupled with leaves and dirt likely brought in by wind, felt vast and endless. She seemed to have come unto a kitchen or living room of sort, but as she walked around, it may have been the two as one room. She scurried near one of the cabinets, a fine dark oak it seemed, with handles of grey iron, which she began climbing, her form hugging the weaves and intricate threads of wood. As she came to the top, a wooden counter of all things, she began heading rightwards, where a vast emptiness lay before her. She was headed towards a vast corridor with doors lining the sides, the end hidden away behind a deep darkness. She began her climb downwards, when she felt the ground shake, to which she responded by turning around a few times in what one may describe as apparent panic. Once the strange event stopped, she went on, heading onto the ground, and running down the corridor. The doors began to open themselves as she approached them, and turning around curiously, tilting her little head, she cleaned her antennae like she was in deep thought. She headed backward, and walked into one of the rooms. Nothing could be seen. She went in a little more, but still, no light. Leaving, she went for the opposing door. The light did turn on, but the room was empty. In fact, she felt the ground roughen up and soften, as if it had changed to dirt. Yet she was not outside. Puzzled, she stopped for a while, before the room began to shift before her. It was now a lavish green forest, yet still no sun in sight, nor any sense of immediate danger.

Pursuing past the leaves and bushes, she came unto a strange little hole. Curiously, she peeked in, but could not see anything. Her environment was like a garden but with wooden walls and not a day's light or sense in sight. Trying to enter the hole, it pushed her away, as if she was not allowed in. Deciding to not bother any longer, she turned around, and headed for the door. But it was not there, and she was confident her pheromone track was correct. Turning around, taking in the environment, she began to once more feel that sensation. Going in its general direction, she ended up at the door. But it did not lead to the same old corridor. Instead, it led to a strange spiralling nightmare of stairs, who did not just spiral, but looked to cross and mingle with each other. Going forward, she began climbing upwards, as that was where the scent was. Something was navigating her to the top.

The bottom looked like a dark empty pit with no clear end, whilst the top, well, did not look any more pleasing. The stairs appeared to have a continuous spiral into what one would call nothingness, whilst some stairs budged out of the walls, cutting into the spiral itself, and sometimes, cutting into each other, or linking up with one another. The more the ant climbed the spiral, the more the bottom moved away, until the place she was in seemed to turn into a cylinder. It was originally slightly cubic, but she had come across a spot with a rather strong scent. Turning around, and shifting her little head to the side, she seemed curious. Cleaning her antennae, as if in deep thought once again, she marched forward, continuing the hunt for the scent. She was on one of the budging stairs out of the walls, which in hindsight would look more like a slab, but with an angled edge that came out of it. At its end, a small door appeared, which was rather small, almost as if it was placed there for the ant. The darkness before her caused her to step back a little, but she felt something, some sort of sensation from within. And as such, onwards she marched into the darkness, which quickly lit up. She was in some sort of room, and it was no pretty sight either.

Looking like a hoarder's house, the room left her in a weird spot. Looking around, she noticed, the room was filled to the brim with boxes, for some reason many closed, and the floor was thickened by dust with chunks of dirt and hairs spread across like corpses in a battlefield. There was a bed in a far corner, looking like a prisoner's bed by how small it was, and the metallic frame, with a rather sad and flat mattress with white sheets and pillows turned yellow. In fact, the walls seemed to show signs of once being some shade of white, but have turned yellow. She chose to march on, but was quickly distracted, as she scurried off to some large shadowy area, which turned out to be a spot under a large desk that had been conquered by many cans, scattered papers, a broken monitor, a keyboard that was once upon a time clean, and a huge computer case that had fallen to the floor. Still, there was no sign of life, until she saw something that scared her. She had found some sort of food, it looked like small bites of perhaps chips, or maybe even fries, but she could not tell nor could she care. This did not feel like what she felt, however, but rather was still a neat source of food to have found. Taking some, she planned her return, following her pheromone track, when all of a sudden, she dropped it, and noted a large spider in a corner of the room, with a web covering a large portion of the ceiling, and the two walls that made the corner. Yet, as if that was not enough, her exit was suddenly populated by three or four cockroaches. They were abnormally large too.

Yet, despite how close she was to the entrance, they seemed ignorant of her presence. In fact, somehow, one of them was suddenly caught off guard by another spider, or what looked like a spider, but something about it seemed off. Needless to say, the cockroach was quickly cut apart, and had its corpse mangled before it was taken away. The cockroaches did not seem to notice their dead comrade. In fact, they seemed ignorant to all that has happened. The ant bobbed her head curiously, cleaning her antennae to this curious set of events. As she looked around, she noticed that now the entire ceiling, along with the corners and linings of the walls, were fully covered up within cobwebs. This surely did not make sense, but if things could not get stranger, the spider she saw in one of the corners appeared to be heading to battle with another, and it was difficult to distinguish, due to how their entire body was the colour of night. Unsure of what to do, and her senses starting to be thrown apart, she bravely marched forward, and managed to get through the door. Her presence was not accounted by the cockroaches. If the cube being larger on the inside was not weird enough, this did it for her, but now she was not in the stairwell anymore. She was back in the corridor. Yet, where once there was that large kitchen, there now was a wall, and the only door open was the one she had traversed. She walked around, but no doors opened for a few minutes, until one did. Going in, she continued looking for the scent, but soon realised she may have gotten herself lost, and in a rather strange, yet magical, situation.