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“Scott!” Owen called out weakly as his vision faded, the world went silent as he slumped to the floor. It was dark and silent for a while after that before he woke up again, every thought and memory he’d had swarming as he sat there.
He’d heard from Krow Apo and Oliver when they had died for their first time how for a period of time it was like you were a ghost watching, how your body seemed to move on its own to get to safety before you came back but their deaths had all been from external forces nothing like this has happened before.
He watched as his body struggled fighting against the spores to get him out of the hall, eventually it dragged itself under the nearby bookshelf, Owen followed it afraid to go too far in case that meant he couldn’t go back. He waited as hours passed, no one had mentioned it taking hours, the longest had been Apo but it was by his own choice until he was completely safe from the cats. This was different, he didn’t even have the choice to return; he was being forced away.
“Come on… please it must have been at least a day…” pacing the hall became the only thing keeping him sane, it was too quiet without the constant chatter of his gears and the other rats, some of the gears had stayed in his bag but many had rolled away and went to the other rats, and even those left were too quiet for him to hear. “Please let me out” he begged to whatever being was out there. Nothing happened of course it was numbing and he couldn’t help but feel he deserved it,
He watched as the humans came by to inspect how bad the spores were muttering something about needing to take extra precautions. Finally after what must have been days a light pierced the dull grey walls leading back to his body. He took a shaky breath and stepped into his body again.
Once again darkness filled Owens eyes, his lungs burned and his throat felt raw but it wasn’t the numbness he’d last felt. “I’m alive!” he croaked before breaking into a coughing fit clearly the spores had left some side effects. Taking a few shallow breaths he managed to struggle to his feet. Every step made him feel weaker and every breath burnt but he was alive again.
“Owen?” Scotts voice made him jump he turned around to see the farmer rat looking worried “are you okay you look like you’ve had a brush with death-”
“Scott! I went into the spore room its horrible i died in seconds-” Owen quickly explained trying to not cough
“You went in?” Scott gasped his tail lashing side to side “i told you not to”
“I know i know but its my fault its like that and i wanted to see if i could fix it” Owen responded leaning into him and silently cursing his weak state
“Owen, how is it your fault?” Scott looked confused as he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a bottle of sparkling liquid.
“I put a mushroom in there. I wanted to see if it would kill the bugs” he explained, looking down guiltily.
Scott sighed wrapping his tail around Owen and handed him the drinks, “drink that” he ordered. Owen obliged, drinking the bitter liquid but he felt better farther away from death's door, “I told you to burn all the mushrooms. I warned you they were bad news”
“I know… i should have listened and not tried to tinker and find a way…” Owen sighed slumping,
“When did you go in?” Scott asked hesitantly
“After ratsgiving” Owen responded “how long has it been?”
“Oh my gods you’ve been dead four days-” Scott looked shocked “i can’t even imagine how that must have felt”
“It was very numbing and quiet” Owen answered it was the only way to put the lack of everything into words that made sense “it felt like years.”
“Never again are you going anywhere near this part of the basement.” Scott said quickly “now let's try and get you back up to the attic.” Owen nodded feeling more tired then he’d felt in years, the pair began the slow painful walk up to the attic.