Magenta Mine (Invertary 3)

“Don’t do it.” Harry lunged at him. “They’ll get you.”

It was too late. He’d lost his cousin. He stumbled to his feet, fully intending to lock Matt in there, along with the rats, until the exterminator got there. It was too late to save his cousin now.

“Catch,” Matt shouted, and something came flying at Harry.

He saw the grey hair first and just about passed out. Without thinking, he actually caught the damn thing. A rat. A squishy, soft rat. A velvet rat? A rat with no bones? A rat that didn’t move? He looked down at the creature in his hands and felt his world tilt.

“I’m going to kill her,” he said through gritted teeth.

Matt was laughing too hard to reply. Harry’s heartbeat settled into a normal rhythm, and anger replaced panic.

“You are such a loser.” Matt leaned against the doorframe, his laughter now reduced to an oversized grin. “The twins got you with something almost identical to this when you were a kid.”

Where exactly did his cousin think his fear of rats came from?

He noticed something moving at his mocking cousin’s feet. The white rat. Harry couldn’t speak. He pointed.

“Rat,” Harry said. “Real rat.”

“Yeah, right.” Matt looked down. The laughter stopped. His cousin let out a stream of curses as he paled. With lighting reflexes, Matt kicked the rat back into the room and slammed the door shut.

They stood side by side, shaking as they studied the door.

Harry pointed at the bottom of the door. “Rats can squeeze through spaces smaller than that gap.”

Matt’s face was thunderous when he stomped into the bathroom and came back with two towels. He rolled them up and wedged them under the door. They stared at it. Without talking, Matt left again, disappearing into his room. Harry stared at his bedroom door while listening as Matt dismantled something. A minute later, his cousin appeared with a long shelf and several hand weights. He placed the shelf against the towels and then wedged the weights up against it.

“They won’t get through that.” He didn’t sound pleased. He sounded grim. Matt turned to Harry. “I’m going to kill them.”

Harry nodded. It was obvious Matt wasn’t talking about the rats. “You deal with your sisters. I’ll handle Magenta.”

Matt’s eyes darkened as he nodded. “First I need to call pest control.” He shuddered before stomping down the stairs.

Harry followed, taking the toy rat with him.

In a booth in the pub, the twins and Magenta were laughing so hard that they had to hold each other upright. They weren’t the only ones. Dougal had talked them into plugging Claire’s iPad into the TV over the bar. Everyone got to watch, and listen, to the Harry and Matt show. Magenta had gotten over her anxiety about the plan and thought it was only fair that everyone watched. After all, the whole town had listened in on the mine debacle too.

“That was priceless.” Dougal wiped tears from his eyes.

“I don’t know what they were doing out in the hall,” Josh McInnes said. “Maybe building a barricade. Wish I could have seen it.” He turned to the girls. “Next time, two cameras.”

Considering the American singer was one of Matt’s best friends, Magenta was surprised he’d enjoyed the show so much.

“The way Matt lobbed the rat onto the bed with his boot.” Josh’s manager and best friend said. “Fantastic. The damn rat didn’t even blink; it just turned around and started eating again.”

“You can’t let them kill the pet rats,” one of the ladies of Knit or Die said. “That’s plain wrong.”

Claire shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere near Matt or Harry. Someone else will have to rescue the rats.”

“I second that,” Megan said.

Everyone turned to Magenta. “Don’t look at me. I’d have to be nuts to go near those two right now.”

“I’ll deal with the rats,” Lake said from beside Josh.

The girls beamed at him. “Our hero,” Claire told him, making his lip twitch.

“In the meantime.” Dougal’s booming voice filled the room. “You girls better find a good hiding place. Those boys are going to be out for blood.”