Food FoR ThoUgHt PART 1:

Darkness held the moment like a purgatorial soul. The Betty Rats, all three, awoke together, having no recollection of events preceding. No explanation for their current situation and no immediate means of distinguishing what, exactly, this situation was. Betty Rats, all three, mired in darkness as in some forgotten tomb or ancient dream. Anything was everything; all was not there... an infinitude of nothingness and possibility.

What answers had they for this new awakening? What course for navigating this void, this still-born new black captivity? They began feeling their way around and soon realized that the infinite dark was not infinite at all, but in fact quite limited. Their wandering hands moved quickly along the physical perimeter of their blackened space, revealing a sort of pod shaped enclosure. The walls were lined in gook. Beneath this, lay a hardened shell of some kind. Many questions remained, though one aspect of this curious predicament was unmistakably assured: the Betty Rats were trapped.

Having nothing more to consider than these, the base characteristics of a pitch-black cell, the Betty Rats resolved to break out. By default, they found themselves with backs against one another; all three pressed together into a crude, triangular formation. Using this core support, they also discovered that, by simultaneously placing their three sets of feet at opposing spots on the walls around them, they were able to push out with a great deal of force... enough force, perhaps, to crack the outer shell and break them free.

And so they began to push, each member of the three braced against the levered support of the other two. In the darkness, with no discernible references to speak of, save for the physical embrace of their struggle, they seemed to labor abstractly as though churning in a blind vacuum of anguish. Screams and echoed moans of exhaustion began to circle around them in the hollowed dark, as the task grew more painstaking with each passing moment. The Betty Rats did not falter in their efforts, however. They pushed hard, with blood-lit vigor, and though the shell appeared at first not to budge, they soon heard a grand crack!

No sooner had the sound reached their ears, than a great rush of light came beaming in through a single fractured section in the shell. They continued to push, widening the narrow gap still further, letting in more light. Then suddenly, another, much deeper, scream rose up around, drowning out the remaining utterances of the three captives. Unable to fully acknowledge this noise in the heated moment, the three came together for one final surge, this time cracking their pod-prison open like a cantaloupe!

The Betty Rats, all three, spilled out, landing on what can best be described as an enormous dinner table. They were greeted with the booming cries and bloated faces of a family of giants, all seated round the table; all leering on in horror with their bulging eyes fixed on the three late guests. The Betty Rats, themselves paralyzed with fear and bewilderment, turned languidly to examine the pod from which they'd newly emerged.

On turning to look, they realized with sudden, coursing terror, that the pod was something much more than the base containment vessel they'd imagined. It was, in fact, a giant head - belonging, without question, to another of the dinner-party of giants who sat bordering the great table on all sides.

The head lay cracked open, oozing onto the tablecloth linen in front of them. Its freakish presence dominated the scene. As they looked on, the Betty Rats found it difficult to comprehend any of the other aspects of their immediate landscape. Only the head shone through. Illuminatis! And a horrific sight it was to be locked in against.

The mouth was fixed, unhinged and gaping. The eyes looked on without resolution; lost to the abyss of death... madness... the unknown. The eyelids pulsed up and down, caught in a dull and dwindling flicker that seemed to quietly sigh farewell.

These deranged conditions were accentuated by the presence of a massive chandelier, which hung over the center of the dinner table. Its ubiquitous glow seemed to baste everything in a glistening golden-brown glaze. All was sparkling and brought to life with a sustained flash of intensity - all including the broken head of the now lifeless giant.

It made for an oddly enchanting picture of pure terror. The light from the great chandelier in the sky came pouring in like heaven, flooding the senses of the three Betty Rats. The ooze continued to flow from the cracked opening in the giant's skull. Blood now began to stream down from the nose and mouth.

As the Betty Rats struggled to reestablish control of their physical forms, they suddenly became aware of a low rumbling disturbance in their environment. It was both sound and motion. It shook the surface beneath their feet and clouded the air around them with a thunderous coming-on.

They turned quick to face the crowd and were greeted, once again, with the booming of the giants! Face all leering and fat. Eyes salivating with anticipation! Together they pounded their forks and knives on the table in front of them. Together they chanted... "Molliges Nagetier! Molliges Nagetier!"

To Be Continued...