Chapter Text
The house was completely silent as a small head poked out from underneath an entertainment center in the living room, brown hair shifting slightly as their blue eyes looked from side to side. The figure waited for a few moments taking in the silence and when no sounds or people revealed themselves, the small being came out from under the couch and began to make their way to the kitchen.
At only four inches tall, Belle was a borrower. A being that lived inside the homes of giants, borrowing and making use of their hosts often misplaced and easily lost items. More often than not these resourceful little people lived in the homes of humans. Creatures of habit, and clutter, and typically oblivious to the small race that relied upon their ignorance to survive.
This one though, lived not in the home of humans, but of monsters. A race that had only just recently resurfaced, that had long been forgotten. As far as Belle knew she was one of the first borrowers to attempt surviving in a home with them, and it was proving to be a challenge. A challenge she was quite enjoying to be honest.
She made her way into the large kitchen, as always the floors were squeaky clean, not a crumb to be found anywhere. That was alright though, given recent complications cleaner was definitely better. From the kitchen’s entryway Belle scanned the counters, she had thought she heard guests in the home earlier, and guests typically brought extra food with them when visiting her monster hosts. It wasn’t surprising, her hosts typically only cooked one meal here, spaghetti, so she appreciated the variety that the guests usually left behind.
Ah there it was. A fruit bowl left on the counter next to the outrageously tall sink. Belle hadn’t been mistaken. She shifted the empty bag on her back and grinned as she began making her way towards counter. Fortunately the cabinets were not flush against the wall so getting to the top wouldn’t be too difficult. Unfortunately there wasn’t a path that was entirely hidden towards the back wall of the kitchen where the counter that held the fruit bowl was located. Belle huffed and made the trek out in the open, which thankfully was uneventful. Not that the Borrower’s nerves weren’t tightly wound from being on alert the entire length of the kitchen.
Belle’s nerves though was warranted, because her monster hosts didn’t always stick to a predictable sleep schedule. Either of the two monsters who lived here, could awaken at any time. This was the main reason why Belle did most of her borrowing when both of them were out of the house at their jobs. However the smaller of the two monsters was actually off tomorrow and since she was out of food in her home she’d have to venture out tonight if she wanted to eat the next day.
Once behind the cabinets, she grinned and relaxed slightly now that she was out of sight. She bee-lined right for the stairway she had built for herself over the course of several days shortly after she first arrived in this home. It was built entirely out of nails that protruded from the wall. Since the home was newer, there were still nails scattered here and there so gathering them had been relatively easy. Getting them into the wall to create the staircase had proved a bit more challenging. Belle scaled up the nails with practiced ease, and quickly reached the top of the counter. Once there she paused again, and listened. Focusing her hearing up above to her right, where her hosts had their bedrooms.
Satisfied that neither of the monsters had yet to awaken she pulled herself onto the counter and made her way over to the fruit bowl. The bowl was taller than she was of course, but standing next to it, she could smell the aroma of the fruit that rested just above her. Attached to her left hip was a grappling hook, it was older since it traveled with her from her previous home. It was also one of the few things she hadn’t come across the supplies to create another one yet. She unlatched the device and started swinging it in a circle as she took a moment to judge her angle before tossing it upwards.
It hit the side of top of the bowl with a soft klink, a noise that made Belle pause for a moment to listen to her surroundings, making sure it remained unnoticed by those upstairs. When nothing obvious stirred she nodded and after testing to make sure the grip was solid, began climbing up the rope to the edge of the bowl. Once there she sat on the edge for a moment and flipped the hook around so that the rope went into the bowl itself. That way she could get out of the bowl when she was done, then she let herself slid down the bowl and amidst the fruit.
Most of the food was much too large for her to borrow. A few bananas, an apple and an orange. Though if she was desperate enough she could probably cut some smaller chunks out of the larger food items. Belle wanted to avoid that if possible, since such an action would not go unnoticed, and the two brothers were on alert enough as it was. On the far side of the bowl though, her eyes widened and she let out a silent cheer and a small jump of excitement. Grapes! Grapes were small and easy to carry, and came in clusters large enough that one or two wouldn’t be noticed if they went missing.
Grinning she approached the cluster of small circular fruit, and pulled a knife from its resting spot on her other thigh. The blade of the knife was actually made from glass, glass she had managed to scavenge from the floor the night after the taller of the two monsters jumped through one of the living room windows. Why he did such a thing, Belle wasn’t quite sure. However she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to procure herself something sharp. A knife after all had many practical uses. The handle was made from a couple of shaped pieces of wood, bound together with some wet fabric that had tightened when it dried. She had spent a few days making it, and getting it sharp enough to use, and making a sheath so she could carry it around safely without cutting herself.
The glass knife easily separated the grape from the vine, which she took and put into the empty bag on her back. The grape itself was about a third her size and Belle looked back at the remaining fruit and sighed. She’d only be able to get the one back for now, she didn’t dare carry another in her hands when her hosts could awaken at any moment. She could always come back for another once she had more time to spare. Belle navigated her way back to where she had left her rope and grappling hook and hauled herself and her prize out of the bowl.
As Belle began to lower the rope back down to the counter and setting her hook so she could lower herself down safely, she jerked her head upwards as she heard a thudding noise coming from above her. Belle swore and unhooked her grappling line completely and jumped from the edge of the bowl, all thoughts of being careful chucked aside in favor of haste.
From where the sound had originated from, it had to have come from the smaller brother’s room. The taller brother tended to talk rather loudly, even when talking to himself, and there hadn’t been any other sounds than the initial thud. Belle hit the counter with a quiet thud of her own, falling to her knees for a moment before sprinting to the wall where her staircase was. Even if she couldn’t get all the way back home she could at least get out of sight.
As Belle ran she rolled her grappling hook back up so that the rope wasn’t trailing behind her, but she didn’t have the time to re-latch it to her leg so she was forced to carry it in her hands. She was very thankful now, that she had decided to play it safe this time around and only carry one grape back. Just as she reached the edge of the counter there was soft sound near the entrance of the kitchen.
Belle didn’t take any time to look at what had made that noise as she jumped over the edge of the counter onto the stairway that was just out of sight. Descending the nails quickly, much faster than was probably recommended, Belle reached the floor and leaned against the wall breathing quickly as she listened for sounds coming from the kitchen. Anything to indicate if she had been seen. After a moment though she only heard the sound of the fridge opening and she heaved a sigh of relief. Since if she had just seen duck behind her kitchen counter the last thing she would do was go get something from the refrigerator.
Cautiously peeking her head out from behind the counter, her suspicions on who had awoken early were confirmed. The smaller of the two monsters she was borrowing from stood with the fridge open, his face illuminated by the light of the open appliance. He was bald, white, and where his eyes should of been were two black pits, and in those pits were two white glowing pinpricks. Then again this wasn’t any kind of surprise for Belle, she had long since gotten used to the fact that her hosts were literal walking talking skeletons.
He looked like he had been sweating in his sleep, and the slightly haggard look to his face made Belle wince in sympathy. He had probably been awoken by another nightmare. She had gotten used to this too, that the smaller of the two skeleton brothers suffered from them, having been startled awake the first week or so when thuds and bangs came from his room in the middle of the night. Now they were a part of the routine, for her, and clearly for him. She knew he didn’t like the nightmares. After all how could anyone enjoy such things that seemed to occur as often as they did for him. But she, like him, had gotten used to the fact that they happened. As well as the fact that if awoken by one, he tended to quickly show up in other areas of the house, more than likely to de-stress.
The skeleton reached into the fridge after having looked for a moment and pulled out a red bottle. Ketchup, Belle thought to herself, having also gotten used to the fact that this skeleton liked the condiment quite a bit. With a sigh, Belle ducked fully back behind the counter, there would be no traveling back to her house till the monster went back to his room.
She took her bag off and held set it on the ground in front of her as she leaned her back against the wall and slid into a sitting position. The amount of time the smaller skeleton spent awake after a nightmare differed from night to night. Sometimes hed only be up for an hour before heading back to his room, other times he never went back to sleep. Hopefully tonight he goes back to bed quickly. Belle sighed and fiddled with her grappling hook which was still in her hands.
Never one to be idle, Belle didn’t stay sitting on the ground for long before she was up and pacing the distance of the cabinet she was hiding behind. On the far side of the piece of furniture was a small, comparatively speaking of course, box. The small borrower recognized it as one of the homemade mouse traps that were now littering the house. Since unfortunately the house was, until very recently anyways, infested with mice. A borrower and a mouse were not ideal housemates, even under the best conditions, which were both parties ignoring each other. Even still mice got noticed, they weren’t anywhere near careful enough to remain undetected. Once the mouse problems were known, the humans, or monsters in Belle’s case would start setting out traps to deal with the problem.
Now Belle’s monsters had started with conventional traps, she knew what they were and how they worked. It was one of the few things her father had been good for. However once the two brothers truly understood how the human traps worked, well they didn’t stay for very long. The smaller one hadn’t been as bothered, but the taller one, he cried. Apparently he didn’t want to hurt the little mice, he just didn’t want them eating holes into all his spaghetti boxes and ruining his sauce ingredients. In the end he ended up making his own trap, but a better word would have to be puzzles.
Inside each box was a different kind of puzzle. If you were able to solve the puzzle you could go free, so they were completely harmless. The taller had proudly explained the way the puzzle boxes worked to his brother, which was how Belle had heard about them. There naturally was the bit of food that acted as a lure to get the mouse into the box in the first place, and the spring mechanism that closed and locked the only entrance into the box. From there the puzzle differed from box to box to release the locking mechanism and enable the exit to be opened.
Naturally hearing that there was no physical risk involved with the boxes, Belle had to check them out. She was smart about it, she made sure she understood what the puzzle was for each box before going into them, and made sure she had enough time to solve it before venturing inside. Belle was a fan of easy food, and with a way to grab some that only involved a bit of brainpower who was she to say no. She made up for it though in different ways, the main one being luring mice into the traps to help get rid of them.
Belle really didn’t want to live with mice, they were as much of a threat as the Big people were, more so sometimes. A mouse would attack a Borrower, and could and did get into the walls of the house where Belle did most of her inter-house traveling. The mice were the main reason she had stopped expanding her own network of tunnels through the building, so that she wouldn’t get caught by one of the vermin in a dead-end passage. All in all Belle was more than happy to help get rid of the creatures, and if she helped herself to some of the food from the traps, than it was earned. In her opinion anyways.
She turned away from the trap with a sigh. Now that all the mice were gone though, she couldn’t help herself to any more of the easy food from the puzzle boxes. The sooner the monsters thought their home was mouse free, the easier her life would get. If the food kept vanishing though, she knew they’d believe there was still a mouse in the house, so it was back to working hard for her meals, like that grape in her bag. No need to make her life harder just because she didn’t want to work for her meals.
She got back to where she left her bag and slung it back on her shoulders. The kitchen had gotten a bit quiet, and Belle wasn’t sure if it was because the skeleton had gone back to bed or fallen asleep in the kitchen itself. Only way to know for sure would be to check. Slowly poking her head out from behind her hiding space she took stock of her situation. The skeleton was nowhere that she could see, and the lights were still off in both the kitchen and the living room, which made Belle realize that the monster had never turned them on when he came and got his ketchup bottle.
She looked out a little further to make sure that she could get a view of the dining room table, and saw that there was was no one there either. Shifting her shoulders to get her bag settled Belle decided that it was no or never, she should at least make a break for the small set of cabinets by the kitchen entryway.
Belle didn’t bother with taking her time, she dashed out of cover, rushing towards the next bit of it. She really didn’t want to be caught in the open and she wasn’t entirely sure where the monster had vanished too. She made it to the next set of cabinets without incident and she paused for a moment in this haven of safety to catch her breath.
After making sure all her stuff was still secure after that dash, Belle listened again. Doing her best to make sure that the coast was still clear. She couldn’t see into the living room until she left her hiding spot, but with the kitchen still clear she dashed forwards to the entryway. She came to a halt just long enough to make sure there was nothing between her and the green couch in the living room. Once everything appeared safe she made her move, sprinting forwards towards the last place she had to reach before she was safe for sure.
Just as she was only a foot from safety the door to the laundry room opened and Belle swore. Of course he be getting a clean shirt. He had sweated through the other one. Stupid, stupid, how could you be so stupid. She thought to herself as she ran, she should of made absolutely sure that he was gone. The smaller skeleton was always so random. The adrenaline flowing through her allowed her to run faster towards that safe haven that was just in front of her. Just as she ducked underneath the couch she heard a deep voice, “what the-”
Belle didn’t wait long enough to see if he would go searching for what he saw. She wasted no time in pulling up her trapdoor, and jumping into the tunnel it concealed, holding the flap as she did so to close it tightly behind her.
Not even a moment later, there as a faint blue glow coming in through the cracks of the tunnel’s entrance. Belle quickly reached up and made sure that the trapdoor was latched so a casual sweep of the monster’s hand could not accidentally reveal it. Belle wasn’t going to wait around to find out if she had been seen though, figuring that in the dark and with how fast she had been moving the skeleton would assume she was just another mouse, while not ideal at all was the better option at this point. As she traveled down the tunnel a faint voice could be heard. “now where did it run off to…”