>> The Box That Should Have Been Empty

## Polybius neuroNode [44-B] set to mode :: [Dream Observer]

A vast bell tones against halls of stone, as I chase through torrents of falling light. Colours and windows blurring on past. Pillars of polished rock, and floors of gleaming stone. Warm, and brown, and hunted by children. For a while, I'm a baby. A little kid, once more. Pattering. Pittering. Laughing at our games.

And so many there are, all blurred into one!

A sea of tails, and funny little ears....

"You gotta come! You gotta come!" I yell as I tug on a much bigger hand. A big, big, girl - her face lost to time. Empty of detail. Empty of memory.

A ghost, in all but name.

## WARNING :: [Unknown Memory]

## Event Rating :: [Positive], [New]

## Natural Memory Transition :: [Accepted]

## Memory Capture Systems :: [Activated]

## Capturing :: [New Memory 0001]

"Nyaa! Slow down! Slow down!" The rabbit girl yells. Or maybe not. Maybe that's me, and I'm being dragged? It's hard to remember! The world is a blur! A chaos! A whirl of faceless faces, and fuzzy little heads!

A hundred GMO children of every strange kind!

Chasing us! Chasing us!

As we run, run, run!

Bounding like wind, as we leap on all fours!

## Detecting :: [Subconscious Event Linkage]

## Natural Memory Transition :: [Denied]

"There! There! There it is!" I yell and hop and dance. "I found im! I found im!"

And the world snaps into focus. Sharp as a blade. Right as rabbit-girl drops my tiny hand.

Because it's the day I found.....

“Oh my GOD! Look at his little kitty ears! They’re so CUTE!!” The older girl gasps, wiggling her nosie and tugging her own! Her lugs so big, they should tickle her knees!

"Heeey! I can't seee! I can't seee!!" I yell, and flail, and the crowd swarms in! Battering me with wings! Sweeping me with tails! Knocking me flat, and bowling me around! "Not fair! Not fair! I found im!!!"

But then I'm dragged up! I'm put right in the middle!

A circle of stone, beneath a ceiling of faces.... with no faces at all. Every one of the huge! All the big kids! All crowding and talking round that ratty old box!

"Woo! Smells like it got used as a toilet!" Someone gags.

"Yuck! And dat widdle kitty even worse!" Another wails. "Stinky, mucky, AND ewwie!!"

"AND gross!"

"I bet he DID have a widdle!" Says one of the others, knowledgably. "I bet eee had a HUGE widdle!"

"EEEWWW! NOO! Dun say that!" Says big rabbity girl, tugging down on her ears!

"You gonna make em longer, doin' that!!!" Giggles another. A little bat boy. "Den they'll be so long dey-"

"Shhh!" She hushes, as the little box stirs! "Shhh! Shhh! Shhhh!"

And I remember that pillar. That pillar behind it.

I know this place. It's the hallway right by my childhood room.

The Lost And Found Box nobody could ever find.

A box full of string, and bits of old tat. Full of chewed on balls, and broken dolls. All muss, and dust, and things from long ago. Plastic bricks, all on their own. And foam orange darts without any gun.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Except, not today. Today is different.

And I never even thought. I never even wondered.....

Who did this? Who left him there? Right there?

Right in the middle of the hall?

Without even one of us seeing?

And....

I....

## Detecting :: [Subconscious Destabilisation]

## Detecting :: [Host Interference]

## Stimulating Hormone Mix :: [Nostalgia], [Warm Fuzzes]

But.....

But then I see him!

I see him, again, for the very first time!

And he blinks up at us all with the most amazing green eyes! Little emerald slits, like a cat from a picture book! With a little green tail, frisking all about, as he opens his tiny mouth wide! Revealing just one little fang! “MIIIIIII!!!!!”

image [https://images2.imgbox.com/ea/dd/ZjEeBEOs_o.png]

The girls all gasp. “Ohh! That’s so cute! He’s calling for his mommy cat and dada cat!” The biggest gushes, pattering her bare feet on the bare brown stones! Hopping and bounding in bunny-girl glee! “Dada Joan’s gonna be so thrilled we found him!!”

“WE!?” I huff very loudly, fighting my way between all the legs and tails of MUCH bigger kids. “I FOUND HIM! And I’m gonna name him too!!! SO THERE!!!!”

“Oh, shhh shhh Spookiekins! You’ll just name him something stupid again!” Scolds that bunny-eared girl. “See! I’m going to give him a proper name! He’s a kitty, so I’m gonna name him Catspian! Get it? Caspian the cat! Cat-spian!”

“NOO!!!” I yell, stamping toes and claws on the big big stones! All huffing and snorting and humming about! “I found im! I found him!!! So I gotta name im!!!”

“Oi. Shut up, Stoopy Spooky!” One of the boys scoffs, poking me hard with a sharp doggy claw.

“Yeah!” The big rabbity girl smirks, with her big stoopie face and buttony nose! Looming down at me, like she owns the whole dang hallway! “And what did you name the last one, huh? Go on?”

“Mm-ffffff!!!” I stutter, hid behind clawed lil hands.

“What was that?” The boy scorns, joining in. Wagging his wolfish tail.

“I named him Poopie!" I shout. "Cos his tail was brown like a big ole p-!!!”

“EWWWW!!!” The girl sticks her tongue out, and I feel ashamed. She’s just gone nine - and that’s very grown up! Way more than me! So I sniffle a bit, staring down at my toesies. And she softens. “Alright. Alright. You get ONE try! But it better be a good one - or we’ll NEVER let you name nothin’ again! Not for nine million-zillion years!!”

“Eeee! But r-really?” I beam through all the snot and the tears. “Really really? I can name ‘im!?”

“Mmm hmm! You can TRY!!!” She nods, very importantly - huge bunny ears all flopping about. “But it better be a good un!! OR ELSE!!!”

A little space clears, and I scurry into it. Nervous as heck, with all these big kids! But the tiny lil kitty-boy in the box is even scared-er! He lowers his little head, and mews so tiny! All hunkered, and peeping! Little ears dropped, in his mixed-up strands of darker and lighter green. “Miiiii?”

image [https://images2.imgbox.com/dc/66/n8DNqRMY_o.png]

I get down close, holding my nosie! And I gotta think real hard!

Gosh, but he stinks tho!

I dun even want to waggle my tail for him to batt at! He smells so bad! But I gotta think quick! Gotta channel all the power of cartoons and books and everything!! “Oooooh! Ooooh! What do I call you….?”

I don’t dare say my ideas! Not with them all stood about!

But what? Greenie? After his hair?

OOOH!!! Nooo! I went on colours last time, and look what happened!

Nope nope nope!

“Better huuuury uuuuup!!!” Some stoopid says, nudging my back with a rough-padded foot or a scratchy-pawed hand. “Tick tock! Tick tock!!”

“Tufty!!!” I shout, making lil kitten duck in all kinds of fright! “I’m gonna call ‘im Tufty! Coz ‘is ears is all fuzzy n tufty! An there’s a kitty on TV-”

“Uh huh-?” The scoff is so sly!

“An I don’t care wot you all think!" I rage against em all! "I’ll call ‘im that even if yew don’t!” I yell, kicking the cobblestone wall with my pads. “SO THERE!!!!”

“MIIIII!!!!” Baby Tufty cries, possibly in fright.

Or agreement!!

“Oooh! I think he likes it!!!!” Says a big scaly thing! With a million wings for arms!

“Nah. I think he’s just hungry.” Grrs a tiger-stripy boy with a tiger-stripy tail. “C’mon! Let’s get ‘im outta that horrid ole box! We gotta show Joan!!” So someone pulls off their shirt, and wraps up the little lump!

"Wait wait wait! I gotta go!! I gotta hold him!" I yell in baby panic! And I get to hold on to one corner! Tiny kitty peeping at us, all shyly, through his muss as we carry him away through our big stone house! We soon find Joan all up in the library, teaching some tots to ABC!

But never mind that, as we bustle all around!

"Oh my, so that's...." He murmurs as he takes off his glasses. Peering down at that ickle face peeking out! All big eyes, and scaredie! And a mucky little tail, flicking about!

"Yeah! We found him!"

"Nuuu! I did!"

But it's no good at all! And all too soon ‘Spook found him’ becomes ‘we found him’! And I'm not happy at all! But Joan believes me! I know he does.... And I help the little kitty have a million million baths.

But, you know….

I never did tell anyone how Tufty ‘turned up’….

I never said nothin’. Cos, maybe I was afraid.

An maybe I pretended-ed it.

And I know it's not meant to happen.

And….

## WARNING :: [ANOMALY]

## WARNING :: [ANOMALY]

## WARNING :: [ANOMALY]

## WARNING :: [Dreamspace] undergoing [Total Structure Collapse]

## WARNING :: [Heartbeat Elevated] at [83.5bps]

## Synchronisation :: 5.2%

## Attempting :: [Full Override]

But Tufty stayed Tufty!

AND Catspian too!

Coz Joan can put two names down in the little old book! And I looked after him good. I cuddled him tight!

## Polybius neuroNode [44-B] :: has suffered [NODE FAILURE] at level [CATASTROPHIC]

Except…. maybe I didn’t.…

Maybe it’s all my fault….

....he betrayed us.....

> > >< < <