The Rat King!

I awoke to the sound of sharp whining. I opened my eyes and saw my brother standing over me, out of breath from wailing. I opened my mental shutters and let the roar of frogs and crickets from outside flood in like sunlight. This was the third time this week.

“Alright, alright.” I pushed my blankets aside and swung my legs out of bed. Reaching for the flashlight on my nightstand, I felt the cold, damp collar of my tank top against my neck. I clicked the light on and walked over to Joe’s bed. It was only a few feet from mine, on the other side of the bedroom. I observed the wall next to the bed absentmindedly. The construction vehicles and dinosaurs were separated, each taking up roughly half of the wall. The stegosaurus by the headboard was beginning to peel off. I crouched down onto my hands and knees and shined the light under the bed. I looked around very thoroughly. There was nothing that I hadn’t seen last time; some Legos, a Reebok shoe box, a few velociraptor action figures, and an old whoopee cushion. I took my time looking. If he thought I wasn’t thorough, there was a higher chance of him waking me again later. Eventually, I stood.

“No rats. No monsters, either,” I reported.

“Did you check under the pillows too?” He had calmed himself down, but the flashlight reflected off of his teary, red face. I checked under the pillows.

“Nothing there, either. Did you try going to Paws World?” He nodded.

“Okay. If that isn’t helping, you can come to Random Donut World.”

“Really?” he cheered.

“Sure. As long as you aren’t too annoying.”

“Okay!” He agreed and dove back into bed.

I sat on my bed and removed my shirt. Now that I was awake, the sweaty collar irritated me, chaffing and chilling my neck. I dropped it on the ground and lay back in bed. I pulled the covers back over myself, then promptly kicked them away. It was so blasted hot in there. I lay in my hot, stuffy room, on my sweaty bed, all sticky and uncomfortable. I stared at the white ceiling. At the glow-in-the-dark stars that I had stuck up there. I turned on my side and stared at the wall. It looked black at first, before my eyes slowly adjusted until I could make out the light blue color that it was painted. Then I turned the other way, looking back at the excavator and the ankylosaurus. And there he was, fast asleep already. After all of that. I sighed, hoping it would turn into a yawn. Usually a good yawn was the first sign that I would fall asleep soon. Besides, I needed to meet him in Random Donut World. Couldn’t have him messing anything up. I tossed and I turned until suddenly the sun beamed through the window, and Joe’s bed was empty.

That day went like any other sunny summer day on Ash Swamp Road. I went out front where my parents sat drinking coffee and spoke with them. Then I practiced my new hula hooping trick for a while. I went back inside, poured myself a bowl of Cookie Crisps with milk, and sat on the couch in the living room next to Joe and my older sisters, Lydia and Micaela, watching Spongebob. Next, I made my way to the tree fort to gather my mapping supplies and make my plan for the day.

In the afternoon, our cousin Jacob came over to theorize with Micaela about what might happen in season 6 of Lost when it aired that winter. We all went swimming in the pool and played categories. We had tacos, my favorite, for dinner. Then we watched more Spongebob until my mom said that it was bedtime.

I pushed some toys aside in order to perform my preemptive search for rats or monsters underneath the beds, in the closet, or anywhere in the boys bedroom.

“I got the new high score on Broken Bones last night in Random Donut World,” Joe goaded.

“Aw, what? Now I have to go beat it tonight.”

“No! I want the high score!” He whined.

“Too bad.”

Random Donut World was my place. I had invented it years ago, when I was dealing with night terrors of my own. I tried many things to avoid nightmares. The most effective method, I found, was to take control of your dreams. So I invented Random Donut World. It was a world of its own, set on an endless stretch of soft, fluffy clouds. They were white as snow and squished like marshmallows when you jumped on them. The buildings were mostly made of brick- don’t ask me why, they just were- and held only fun things inside. Primarily, the place was made up of arcades and donut shops. There was a big sign -like one of those Burger King signs that are way taller than they need to be- with a pink frosted donut at the top. The whole place smelled of cotton candy. When I went to bed at night, I would mentally go to Random Donut World and start having fun. Eventually, my body would fall asleep, but my dreams would be of continuing my adventures there.

I taught this method to my brother, and he invented his own world. He named it “Paws World”, after his stuffed orange cat Paws. I can’t really say what Paws World consisted of, honestly. I'm sure I went there at some point, but I don’t have a solid memory of the place. Every once in a while, though, I would let Joe come to Random Donut World and play games with me.

I wasn’t woken up that night. When I woke in the morning, Joe was on the floor scribbling on a piece of paper. I looked over his shoulder and saw a crude drawing of a rat with huge teeth wearing a crown.

“What are you-” I started.

“It’s him! It’s the Rat King! I saw him!” He was basically hysterical.

“Take it easy!” I shushed him. It was still early. “What do you mean?”

“They found me! Last night, in Paws World, some rats showed up! I ran away, but they got me. Then-then-then they dragged me down and took me to him! I had to fight him, but I-I couldn’t beat him!” He was getting even more worked up. I glanced at the drawing.

“So this is him?”

He nodded.

“I’ll fight him,” I decided.

“Really?” Joe blurted.

“Yeah, I’ll take care of it. Somebody's gotta put an end to this.”

“Thank you!”

We formed a plan.

“He has a bunch of minions,” Joe informed me. “The whole place is swarming with rats. But he is way bigger, and way stronger.”

“I’m strong too,” I shrugged.

“I know!” Joe assured me.

“Still, I might need your help. So be ready. You remember the moves I taught you? You’re a Blue Volcano now, so I will be expecting more of you.” This was in reference to the martial arts dojo that I had invented a few months back. I was the master, and Joe was my student, and I taught him how to fight. He started as a Red Volcano, but I had recently promoted him to Blue.

“I won’t let you down!” He assured me.

“Good. So you remember how to get back to this place? I’ll need you to get us there.”

Joe gulped at the idea of going back, but nodded. “I can do it.”

“Good.”

“So, we’ll do it tonight?”

“Yes. Actually…” I looked outside at the sun. “No. He is stronger at night. That's why you never see the rats during the day.”

“HUH?” Joe gasped. “You’re right! I never realized that! You found his weakness!”

I smirked smugly. “Take some time to get yourself ready. After lunch, we will meet back here and take care of business.”

We went about our days, and once we had eaten our microwaved chicken taquitos, we returned to our bedroom and made preparations. I left the lights on, but closed the door. We each laid in our own beds.

“Okay, are you ready?” I asked,

“I think so,” he answered nervously.

“Don’t worry, I’m going in with you. I’ll take care of this stupid Rat King. Let’s go.”

We closed our eyes and fell. It was a long fall, and pitch black. Once we hit the ground, I rolled over and stood up. Joe did the same. It was still pitch black, but the air felt damp. I could hear running water in the distance.

“This way,” Joe whispered. “Lookout for rats.”

I followed him through the darkness, the stone beneath my bare feet cold and moist. As we approached, the sound of rats scuttling joined the flowing water ambience. They grew louder, and I noticed an orange glow on the horizon.

“We are getting close,” Joe told me. “Do you think he knows we are coming?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly.

“I think he does. He has spies everywhere.”

The path opened up into a large, square room. It was made of large stone blocks and lit by torchlight. On each side, water flowed through a sewer grate. The room was completely empty, except for a throne of shadow. Upon the throne sat the King- a rat twice my size.

“Woah…” I breathed. As much as Joe had talked about the Rat King, this was the first indisputable evidence I had of his existence.

His sharp, yellow teeth were as long as my arms and his beady eyes were tinted red. The creature rose from its throne, stepping forward on two feet and throwing its purple cape behind it. The king’s golden crown glimmered in the torchlight. It chirped, and a dozen rats appeared on each side of the room from the sewer grates and lined the walls. We stepped away from the walls, disgusted. I looked the king in the eyes, and he hissed sharply.

“Get ready!” I ordered. “Now’s the time!” We took our stances and charged to battle the Rat King. As planned, I met the Rat King head on while Joe turned to cover my back. I hit the creature with a flurry of punches, but was knocked aside by the swing of his thick tail. I clambered to my feet and dodged the king's teeth. Joe jumped onto the back of the Rat King, grabbing him by his ear and pounding on his head with his other fist. It appeared that the other rats wouldn’t interfere with the fight, so he had quickly opted to join in. While he was distracted, I struck the king in the stomach with “eruption”, a signature move of the Red Volcano. He stumbled back and fell, but he rose again. The fight went on for some time. It seemed that we were evenly matched, and I questioned whether coming during the daytime had really made a difference. Then, he started moving sluggishly. That was when I realized that he wasn’t weaker in the day, he just had less stamina. Once we had taken the advantage, the other rats jumped in.

“Can you hold them off?”

“I’ll try!” Joe ran to cover my back.

“I’ll make it quick!” I promised.

Luckily, I suspect that the king's guard was reduced during daytime. Those rats weren’t nearly equal to the threat that the king posed, but there were a lot of them. So I held nothing back. I knocked the crown off of the king's head, dodged a weary attack, ducked one of the rats that had slipped past Joe, and delivered the finishing strike. The Rat King fell. The other rats scattered as he shrank down slowly to the size of a normal rat, laying still. His crown was submerged by shadows.

“We did it… we really did it!” Joe exclaimed.

Out of breath, I wiped my brow. “Of course we did. I told you I’d take care of it.”

“He’s really been defeated! Take that, stupid rat!”

I put my hand up for a high-five. “You did good out there.” He slapped it. “Now, let’s go home.”

I opened my eyes to the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling. We both rose and celebrated once more. Then, I went about the rest of my day, wondering if I would still be expected to check for rats and monsters under the beds come nightfall. I decided I would do it either way. Better safe than sorry.