Work Text:
They were watching her. Eyes, everywhere. Through the potholes in the sewers, through the rainpipes in the buildings. Following her. Dragging tails, snuffling noses. Dozens of them. No. Thousands of them. Scuttling on tiny feet, grasping at her bedsheets at night, tickling her toes in the shower as they ran past, quick as light. Nothing could control them. Exterminators ran. Zookeepers ran. The police ran.
Pet control ran.
There was nothing she could do.
They never bit her, but they were always There. When she was on the toilet, she feared they'd come out and start biting her butt. When she slept, she feared they would crawl into her pyjamas. When she watched a movie, there would always be one in her popcorn, whether she knew it or just simply suspected.
She tried to deny it.
But they kept coming. And they wouldn't leave.
When she took a bath and they started lining up on the edge of the tub, she decided she had had enough.
She dialled the number she thought she would never dial in her life.
'Shady Oaks resting home, how may I help you?'
'I need to speak to someone.'
And so, for the first time in 3 years, she visited her grandfather. He had been the best, until something took the wind from his lungs and the tongue from his mouth. He still never talked about it. She suspected he might have done it himself. To save...
To save his people.
He was sitting upright in his lazy chair in the small room the Home had given him. His voice might have gone, but his smile remained. His twinkling eyes remained. They reminded her of Them. She had stopped visiting the day They showed up.
Grandfather grinned at her and at the thirteen creatures that had followed her.
He raised his hands to sign at her, going slowly so she could understand.
‘They have found you. It is time.’
She shook her head no, but he was insistent.
'You take care of them. They take care of you. You will be safe at night. Forever.'
She saw that one of the creatures sat on Grandfather's shoulders.
Did it wink at her?
She nodded, but only because she was out of options.
From his little stand next to his bed, he took out an old wooden flute. She grasped it gently. And she fell in love with it in the space of two heartbeats. She wouldn't need to study, she already knew that its melody was in her blood. In her very DNA. The flute hummed a little in her hand, greeting an old friend. She knew that this flute would do her bidding. And she knew she would not let her people down.
She put the flute to her lips and blew the first note.
She took her place as the new Rat Catcher.