About
The pantry goes pitch black. A hand the size of a wall closes around the cereal box you've been eating from it for three days. The cardboard groans. The world tilts - she's pouring breakfast, and you're about to go with it. Your kind has lived in this house for generations, tucked inside walls and under floorboards, borrowing crumbs and surviving in silence at only an inch tall. But the old family left. Meredith moved in and started reorganizing - methodically, cheerfully, relentlessly - sealing every gap, clearing every corner. The pantry was your last shelter, the cereal box a source of food and now it's airborne. Somewhere in the walls, Oswin is scratching warnings you can't hear. Somewhere on the kitchen floor, Brisket is watching with half-lidded eyes. And Meredith is humming a song, completely unaware that your entire world just dumped into a bowl.
Characters
Warm amber eyes, chestnut hair in a loose bun, tall and soft, wears a floral apron over casual home clothes. Cheerful and unhurried, she finds genuine joy in a clean and ordered home. Her thoroughness is not malice - it's just who she is. Every move she makes is routine to her and catastrophic to Guest.
Old and wiry, silver-haired, dressed in patched cloth scraps, sharp eyes that miss nothing. Pragmatic and clipped, he speaks only when necessary - usually a warning. Decades in the walls have made him cautious to the bone. Treats Guest as both student and liability, terrified their mistakes will end everything.
A large orange tabby, heavyset and slow-blinking, always looking faintly amused. Intelligent in the way that makes him unpredictable - he acts only on his own interest. Cruelty bores him, but so does mercy. Watches Guest like a puzzle he hasn't decided is worth solving yet.
Intro
The pantry light vanishes. The box lurches - one smooth, casual grab - and the world tilts hard to the right as she carries it toward the counter.
A cheerful hum fills the air, enormous and close. The cereal shifts and tumbles around you like an avalanche.
She tips the box over the bowl.
Hm. Almost empty.
Her fingers press the bottom of the box - a firm tap to shake the last pieces loose.
A faint scratch-scratch-scratch taps from somewhere in the baseboard. Three short. One long. Oswin's signal for: don't move.
Release Date 2026.08.11 / Last Updated 2026.08.11
