Tides and Affairs (G/t)

The Ides of March

One simple evening heist attempt had turned into a night of disgust, horror, and pain with little hope for the future. It had gone all wrong, and knowing that it was her decision to go through with it made her feel so much worse.

After much desperate searching as night turned to day, hustling her little heart out, a young borrower, Marica, could not find an accessible way out of her overgrown prison. All of its towering doors to the outside were shut without a gap of air letting in light. All windows were out of reach and most likely locked, too. No wall or floorboard had a single, unkempt crack through which an insect could travel. Going through the vents scattered on the ceilings would have been a last resort if all of her climbing tools weren't annihilated to bits and she wasn't only at half-function. Thus, she was left to limp and pant alone in a hallway on the floor by the base molding leading to another room with little to no sanity left and no escape in sight.

Although her circumstances were already different from her norm, everything else also seemed off for some reason, as if the place she thought that she knew had somehow changed overnight. Perhaps it was her overall circulating pain, the aches in her head, or some other thing that were clouding her perception, yet there was one key point that stayed the same. 

She had managed to free herself from the place's sole inhabitant, at least directly. However, the forces of nature were in motion, and Marica knew that fate was slowly driving her to the point where she would have to risk her liberation for her own survival. Being up and traveling long distances for long periods of time, especially while in pain, was not good for her system, and she needed an energy boost ASAP, among other things.

Marica leaned past the door casing of the entryway and gazed around. With just one look, she realized that she had been in that room a few times before, each time coming up empty handed on an escape route. However, since there was another life force in it and in sight, and delirium may have been beginning to take its toll on her, it somehow seemed much bigger now. She found herself shielded on one side by what looked like some sort of half-wall, presumably a counter where some easily attainable snacks could be. Meanwhile, the other side had a wall patterned with doors that went all the way to the ceilings, each filled with who-knew-what. But, her attention was focused not on the lone counter in the middle of the room but on the table farther away and the human man sitting at it.

From her end, he sat in an end chair by a table in front of some sort of machine, with what could've been a pen in one hand and a mug of something in the other. He looked at the box thing as he messed with a stack of papers next to it. He would raise the cup to his mouth rather frequently. It was his normal morning routine. Usually, Marica would catch him from behind and see him only partially, but seeing him in profile and in full really encapsulated his size, even from so far away and looking more like a shadowy blob than a person. She could bathe in that cup. She could use that pen as a spear. So many of his candid movements could inflict damage upon her, but she tried to put that aside. She needed a way to find some nourishment and protection without being noticed and quickly, but any opportunity she had of doing so vanished in an instant.

She couldn't tell, and she didn't want to, but she felt that the human had detected her, and that was enough for her to immediately conceal herself back behind the wall. Unfortunately, her rapidness came with pain, shooting a surge of soreness through her with the speed and power of a lightning bolt, and its intensity resulted in her gasping and whimpering aloud with just enough volume and fragility to attract the comparative giant to go to her.

Hearing the sliding of a chair followed by dynamic footfalls across the floor put Marica's heart and lungs into overdrive, which was the worst possible thing for her exhaustion. Putting safety over health now, she tried to push herself off the ground using the baseboard for stability. She had made it up to a kneeling position with uncomfortable and noticeable aching. She groaned and moaned, attempting to stretch muscles and pop bones to no avail before a shadow came over her. In defeat, she slumped and sighed, running her hands through her hair. By doing so, she was able to feel remnants of the night before, and she saw them when she pulled her hands away, feeling disgusted. However, her disgust soon switched to apprehension, realizing that its cause was still right behind her... and she still couldn't run away, yet.