Carnivorous mice

Cages with mice were standing on the second floor next to Kevin’s room. Mice rustled 24 hours a day (and this was one of the reasons not to keep them in the son’s bedroom), so that night no one paid attention that the sounds became louder and... weird, and then stopped.

Sarah brushed her teeth and washed her face with ice-cold water. Mark, her boyfriend, woke up earlier and was already at the kitchen. Sarah smiled, thinking about him. At last normal guy, ordinary, plain, with no crazy ideas, working at the car service. Now he is preparing scrambled eggs and coffee.
Sarah wiped her face and went to wake her son. But in front of his room she stopped. Cages were empty.

***

She didn’t like these mice from the very beginning. Kevin brought two white mice with small red eyes from his father’s laboratory. Archibald Smith loved experiments. In some cases it was even a good thing – without his experiments Kevin wouldn’t have been born. But some of his experiments went beyond law and morality. However, no matter how many times Smith was arrested, he always got away with it, thanks to his powerful clients. Kevin wasn’t his only successful experiment.

At first there were two mice. However in about a week, in the morning, when Sarah went to wake Kevin, she heard a tiny squeak coming from the cage. There were seven mice inside. Kevin’s friends took three baby-mice, also white and red-eyed. Just in case, Sarah separated the remaining mice and put them into two cages, but this didn’t help – in an only a week there were already ten of them.

– Is it even possible? – Sarah asked her friend, who worked at the pet-shop.
Friend, who didn’t care for animals at all, shrugged and said that obviously Sarah separated the mice incorrectly.

The amount of mice constantly increased. They were growing quickly and within a couple of days were similar to adult-mice. Once Kevin was at his friend’s birthday party and stayed overnight. Mark went up to the second floor with a plastic trash bag. Sarah didn’t watch. She only heard desperate squeaks and Mark cursing. He dug the bag in the backyard.

– That creature almost bit my finger off! – He shook his head in amazement, putting a bandage on the finger.

There were only two mice left. These were the very first two mice; they were slightly larger than the others. Sarah drove Mark to the hospital and took mice to the vet for sterilization. However it did not help. In the morning, there were four mice in the cage. They rustled, squeaked and stared with their little evil red eyes. Veterinarian swore that the female was not pregnant yesterday. Sarah was sorry that she didn’t put each mouse in separate cage from the beginning. She told Kevin that she gave the rest of the mice to the pet-shop.
In couple of days Sarah was in the backyard. There she discovered that the hole was dug up, the bag lay ripped and empty. "Probably the neighbor's dog" – Sarah thought.

Nine mice were sitting in cages, standing side by side on the table in the hallway. Sarah pulled herself together and took her notebook. That was an extreme option, but she couldn’t see another way. She dialed her ex-husband. For a long time no one answered the phone and Sarah was about to give up, but then there was a click, and the painfully familiar voice said:

– Yes?

– Archie...

– What do you need? – Fatigue and disappointment. – Kevin didn’t visit me last weekend. Did you forbid him? I do not think you need to be reminded, but the court allowed...

– He was at his friend’s... But it’s not important, listen... – It was hard for Sarah to talk calmly to this person. – Those mice you gave to Kevin...

– What? What mice?

– Two albino mice, Archie, – Sarah began to lose patience.

– What a nonsense! What mice? Sarah, were you drinking again?

Sarah closed her eyes. No, no, no. For a long time – no. She gasped, breathed.

– No, Archie. A month ago, just after his birthday, Kevin was at your lab, remember? The time you sent him home on bus. – She hissed last words through clenched teeth, just could not control it. Usually Smith drove his son directly to the house himself.

– Yes, I remember, he raised a scandal that day. No manners at all. I'm sure it would be better for him with me, especially considering your... um, addiction to certain sort of drinks.

– This is in the past! – Finally Sarah had broken into scream. – Maybe we better talk about your arrests?!

– Is that why you called? I have plenty of work to do.

“Sarah, calm down! Inhale, exhale.”

– I called you because those mice, which I started to speak about, those white mice with disgusting little eyes, with these damned writhing tails, they reproduce!

– Oh really?

Sarah could clearly see how he raises his eyebrow and grins. Arrogant bastard.

– Archie! These are your laboratory mice. They have the blue marks on their bellies. They reproduce, Archie, with terrible speed. And Kevin said that you gave them to him on condition that he does not give them to anybody!
When Smith finally spoke, his voice gave Sarah goose bumps.

– Sarah, I ask you to do one thing. Look exactly what marks do the mice have on the bellies.

– I remember it well – the letter "C", and under it the point. Archie...

– Sarah, urgently, can you hear me, urgently, immediately, right now, take these two mice and bring them to me.

– Why don’t you come?

– And to bring the whole lab? – Again, that damn sarcasm. – No time, come.

He hung up.

Fine, very well, I'll bring you your damn mice! Sarah took a shoe box out of the closet, and walked into the hall. Mice were sitting motionless. That was weird. Nine pairs of red eyes staring at her. Quickly, with disgust, Sarah grabbed the first big mouse by the tail, then the second, and threw them into the box. Just in case she threw there also two lesser mice.

Sarah closed the box, tied it with a rope and threw on the front seat. She wanted to put the box into the trunk, but she decided to keep an eye on it – what if the mice bite through carton and get out, how then would she search for them in the entire car?

***

Last time she saw him a year ago, in court. They got married right after high school, it didn’t become a surprise for anyone, but still it was considered that such a dolly as Sarah, not having, in addition, any ambitions, should choose someone more imposing and perspective for a husband. It should be noted that back then, almost eighteen years ago, Archibald Smith was not deprived of charm, and its perspectives revealed later, when he graduated university in three years, received his doctorate and began to carry on his own research. The first clients started to appear. Five years after the wedding, they were able to buy a house. Sarah could buy anything she wanted, but one thing clouded her life – all her friends, who married early, had already had a child, or even two. After two unsuccessful pregnancies Sarah started to drink. Only after ten years of marriage they had Kevin. But later Sarah found out that Archie secretly added his experimental drugs into her food. She already hated him enough not to feel even a drop of gratitude.

Smith lost weight, became more slouch than he was before the court. Wrinkled costume hung on him – he never cared about clothes. Still, the glint in his eyes did not disappear. He grabbed the box out of Sarah’s hands, placed it on the table and untied the rope.

– You said that there were much more.

– But you told me to bring only those two.

– You brought four.

The wave of hatred covered Sarah. It was one thing to talk to this person on the phone, but quite another – to stand next to him and listen to traditional speech that she cannot do anything right.

– By the way, have to tell you that there is a risk that our son will grow a criminal. He stole these mice. I remember now – he raised a scandal because of them. He heard me ordering my assistant to dispose of them. I cannot imagine how he got them. It's all your upbringing, I told the judge, I foresaw this.

– Shut up.

– Your alcoholism, and also relations with unreliable men, literally garbage! That one, what’s his name... Max, a mechanic, is he? I wouldn’t even let him at the doorstep.

– Shut your mouth! – Sarah lost control over herself and hit her ex-husband with all her strength. For a second he lost his balance and knocked down the box with mice. Immediately they rushed in different directions.

– Damn! – Smith managed to grab a bigger mouse. – A-ah! Damn, such sharp teeth! Jake! J... oh, I fired him... Sarah, go away, don’t you see that you only make it worse?!

Sara was sitting in the car and biting her nails on the left hand. The right one ached from the hit. Bastard! She took the silence on the phone for concern about his son, but no, Smith was simply trying to cope with irritation. Kevin was a complete disappointment for Archie. He was totally like his mother – a cheerful, light-minded boy. Smith used any chance to “make a man out of him.” He met with his son once a week and most of the day kept him in the laboratory, lecturing, loading with textbooks, and even giving him homework.

Despite all this, Kevin loved to go to his father’s lab. He liked the liquids in the flasks, multi-colored powders in bottles. Jacob, Smith’s assistant, sometimes showed him magic tricks – he poured white powder into clear liquid, and it immediately changed color. But most of all Kevin loved the laboratory animals – rats, mice, rabbits. Until recently, he did not know how most of the experiments end for them.

Several days passed, everything was quiet. The remaining five mice softly rustled in their cages. Kevin actually stole the mice from under Jacob’s nose. Sarah decided to call him and apologize – he got fired because of Kevin. At first Jacob just laughed and was amazed by the boy’s courage, but at the mention of the mice he suddenly became serious.

– You say, “many”. Many – how much? Ten, twelve?

– N-no... I'm afraid a total of about fifty.

– Fif-ty... – Jacob said, puzzled. – Where are they now?

– Well, we've got five; those first two mice and couple more I returned to Archie; Kevin’s friends took a few of them. And the rest... we got rid of them.

– You burned them?

– Sorry?

– These are laboratory mice, they should be... Oh, doesn’t matter! What did you do with them?

– We... oh god. We buried them in the garden... – Sarah sighed – when will this finally end? – And then, well, it seems, the neighbor's dog dug them up and ate them. That's it.

– Ma'am, you just do not panic...

– What's wrong?

– Have you seen neighbor's dog after this incident?

– No, but... – Actually, the neighbor's dog Hopper was very noisy, he used to bark at night and especially in the early morning, always tore the chain and ran to neighbors' yards, digging flowers and spoiling neat lawns. The whole neighborhood hated him. Sarah suddenly realized that for quite some time, she did not wake up from hysterical barking. – No, Jacob, I have not seen or heard him for a while now. What should this mean?

– M-m-m... Maybe nothing. Just that I injected almost the same preparation to a rabbit... however, the dose was bigger... well, we had two rabbits in a cage. Pf-f...

– Oh come on, tell me!

– Shortly, the first rabbit ate the second one.

– What?!

– Gobbled! Did leave neither bones, nor a single drop of blood! There were two rabbits in the evening, and when I came in the morning there was only one. Doors locked. I watched the recording of surveillance camera... Well, Mrs. Smith, oh, I'm sorry, Sarah, you have nothing to fear, your mice must be all right! They do not eat each other, right? They do the contrary, I’d say… Well, in general, the drug was made for this... And forget about the dog, it's all nonsense, ask neighbors, surely they have simply taken it away somewhere... I did not mean to scare you!

– O-okay, Jacob, all right. I just... No, really, nonsense!

Sarah thought of a bunch of white mice with red eyes. Mice that ate a dog? Mice, buried in the garden, ate the dog that dug them up?!

– In any case, ma'am, tomorrow I'll go to the lab to pick up some of my stuff and ask Mr. Smith. But I'm sure that everything is okay!
Sara hung up the phone, went upstairs to look at mice. Mice, as if by command, stopped doing their mice affairs. Seven pairs of red eyes stared at Sarah. Seven.

– Oh, my God!

Sarah did not smoke for a long time, Mark smoked from time to time, but there was always a pack of cigarettes on the table at the entrance. Sarah went out. One cigarette, two... Yes, much better. She threw cigarette end and firmly walked to the neighbors’ door. A pile of newspapers laid on the threshold. Nobody answered the bell. Sara knocked with her fist. Where are they? Bob is at work, and Maggie? Sarah decided to knock on the back door. They could go to relatives, thought Sara, looking at the untidy lawn and wilted flowers in pots. There was Hopper’s doghouse with a torn collar near the door.

Sarah knocked, and the door creaked open. Sarah gently pushed it – there was the kitchen behind. Towel thrown, garden shoes in the corner, but no smell of rotten garbage and no food on the table and the stove, and if...

“If what? If they were suddenly eaten by a pack of carnivorous mice? Sarah, you are totally out of your mind! They just went to relatives, and you almost broke into someone's house! If they have a security system, now the police arrive and you'll have to come up with something better than predatory experimental animals.” Sarah closed the door and went home.

***

In the morning the first thing Sarah thought was that it was Mark. This night she told him about the rabbit. But the single look at the empty cage was enough to reject this version.

Sarah stood silently and stared at grating, gnawed by the tiny sharp teeth. She started to shiver.

– Kevin! – She cried out and threw open the door to her son's room. There was nobody there.

From below came the sound of breaking glass, followed by terrible screams which almost made Sarah faint. “Mark!”

While she went down the stairs, there was silence. Sarah walked slowly along the corridor. The door leading to the kitchen was shut. Only a quiet rustling could be heard behind it.

– K... Kevin? – Sarah called softly, pushing the door.

First she saw smiling Kevin. He stood in the middle of the kitchen in his pajamas, drinking cocoa. He always drank cocoa in the morning. Sarah sighed loudly in relief, but then her glance fell on the floor.

At first she did not understand. She did not want to understand. Something white lay at Kevin’s feet, with some broken glass and what seemed to be pile of tissue. In this white the white mice were swarming. There were at least three dozen of them. Sarah moved back into the corridor, trying to catch breath.

– Mom, don’t be afraid! – Kevin took a sip of cocoa and put the mug on the table. – They won’t touch you.

– The more of them, the better I hear them, – smiled he.

At once all the mice turned their heads to the sound of his voice.

– They will not touch you, because you are my mom, they understand it. And Mark, I could not explain about him. They told me what he tried to do with them.
Kevin gently kicked the pile at his feet; a bone rolled across the floor.

– He was bad, Mom. Soon in the whole town there will remain no bad people. Me and Bradley...

...the son of the mayor, Sarah remembered...

– ...and with Angela...

...the sheriff's daughter...

– …have made a list.

...children, the same as Kevin. The results of Smith’s experiments... Like these mice.

– Probably, we no longer have the mayor, – noted Kevin with non-childish cynicism.

“Unexpected side effect of the drug for infertility”, – thought Sara and giggled quietly.

– Mom, don’t worry, soon everything will be just fine! Better drink cocoa. And eat something, – suggested Kevin looking at mice who were gnawing the bones and clothes.

– Yes, perhaps, I should drink, – said Sarah.

A bottle of excellent cognac was hidden on the top shelf.