Between the Cushions

The room buzzed with people talking over each other, and singing along with music. Miranda entered the living room to escape the noise and sat on the couch with her cup of punch. She reached into her jeans pocket for her phone and pushed the unlock button. The message screen came to life showing her last message sent, and then she sighed. The message was still on Read.

Miranda was a sophomore in high school, and this was the first New Year's party she had been invited to. It was Stephen’s idea. He had been her friend from childhood. They grew up next door and did everything together as kids. But once they hit middle school, they started to drift apart. He got involved with sports, while she got involved with the arts. She had a crush on him but always felt second fiddle to the cheerleaders fighting for his attention. Besides, she was plain and enjoyed painting, theater, and singing. So it surprised the head cheerleader when she opened the door to see Miranda standing on her porch. She was kind; she showed her around and where the food was. But after a few minutes, the head cheerleader moved on and Miranda found herself in a room with strangers. She drifted away from the jocks into the other room. She texted Stephen and asked him where he was, but it only said Read. She fought back the thoughts that plagued her;

Maybe he isn’t coming?

Maybe he is second-guessing asking me to come tonight?

What if this was just an initiation, invite the theater freak to embarrass them.

Or what if it was worse…He simply forgot her.

                She took another sip but missed her lips and poured some punch on her jeans.

                Great.

                She set her phone on the couch and her drink on the corner table. She walked into the next room, wiped her pants with some napkins, and returned to the sofa. She paused and checked her pockets, then her purse. Her phone was missing. She looked under and around the couch. Nothing. She leaned over where she was sitting and noticed a hole between the cushions about two inches wide. At the bottom of the hole, she saw the bottom half of her cell phone. She reached her hand toward the hole and saw her phone quickly pull out of view. She reached further into the couch and began to feel around. She expected to feel the rectangular shape of her phone. But she still felt nothing.

                What the hell?!

                She continued to sweep the bottom of the couch until she felt her hand stop. Something long, hairy, and thin was touching her hand. She began to pull her hand out, but more of these thin, hairy things grabbed her hand keeping her from retracting it. She braced herself with her other hand and tried to free her arm, but it didn’t budge. She saw in horror, she was being pulled toward the hole. She filled her lungs to scream but before she could make a sound, she was yanked off her feet and was pulled down the hole into the couch. The room was silent except for the echo from the party in the other room.

                Miranda hit the ground with a thud. The floor felt soft and dirty. Dust particles floated away with every breath she took. She got up on one knee and looked around. She appeared to be in a cave. The only available light was directly above her from the hole she just come through. She craned her neck to look more closely at the hole. Beyond the entrance, Miranda could see a ceiling fan and the light form from the bulb. The realization hit her. She was inside the couch. She began to jump, waving her arms and screaming for help. Someone must hear her, anyone! But her voice was silenced by the darkness around her.

                After a minute of frantic cries for help, she bent over to catch her breath. She heard A soft buzz over the air and felt the ground shake. The tremor continued in a rhythmic pattern, as she fell to the ground. Then it hit her, she knew the rhythm, it was her phone getting a message. She looked around and saw a tunnel that flashed a faint glow to the rhythm of her text alert. She ran out of the circle down the tunnel, pressing against the large cushion walls. Down a long gap, she saw a bright light illuminate the walls and to her joy saw it was her phone! The cushion squeezed tighter against her as she shimmied toward the opening. It was another cavern but with no light. Miranda also noticed that her phone wasn’t the size of a handheld device anymore. Now it was the size of a twin bed. She moved toward the phone's lock button on the side to light up the cavern again.

                A hand rested on her shoulder and a little girl’s voice whispered in her ear. “Don’t move, they are watching us.” Miranda tensed and was about to scream when the girl's voice came again, “Please don’t scream or we're both dead.”

                Miranda turned to the voice and whispered, “Who are you? And who are they?”

                Miranda’s phone vibrated, shaking the whole cavern. The light from the screen illuminated horrors Miranda only thought existed in nightmares. The walls were covered with huge arachnid-like creatures with red eyes and mouths that looked like vicious dogs, that dripped with green liquid. Miranda felt her arm being pulled hard the girl’s voice screamed,

                “Run!”

                She ran in the direction the small girl pulled her. Behind, she could hear the various hisses and snarls as the beasts pursued them. She glanced back to see the ground, the walls, and the ceiling crawling with these monsters. She turned around and saw the figure pull her to the entrance. She noticed the girl was much shorter than Miranda, and she ran very stiff, but fast.

                The girl yelled, “Get in the circle!”

                Miranda saw to her left and aright two more figures were moving toward the light. One was an army soldier and the other was a dog. They reached the circle and held out their arms and legs. Miranda and her savior flung themselves into the protective circle. Not a second later, three hideous faces came within inches of the circle, but Miranda could see the whole hideous creature. It looked like a disgusting cross between a spider, a crab, and a lobster. The red eyes turned into yellow cat-like eyes, looking first at her, then at the others who shared the circle. Then one creature crawled toward them and spoke.

                “Four in the circle, yes, four in the circle, but not the same four. Did you forget someone in your quest to save the newcomer?”

                The three looked around, and then the soldier turned and blurted out, “Bobby! Where are you? What did you do to him?”

                The creature who was speaking scuttled out of the way and there stood a green hawk that looked to be made of hardened glue. It was one of those squishy toys you could make at home by pouring a mixture of glue and other substances into a mold. Two creatures stood on either side when with a click of its claw from the leader, the two guards fell onto Bobby. One grabbed his head, the other grabbed his feet, and they began to pull. Bobby began to squawk and scream as the hardened glue around his mid-section began to stretch further apart. Then with a sickening Snap! His upper body tore away from his torso. The creatures laughed as they carried the poor glue bird back down the tunnel toward the phone.

                Miranda stood in shock as she heard the little girl cry. She felt a tug on her arm as she was whirled around to face the soldier.

                “Who are you?” He demanded. “One of my friends just got killed saving your ass from the dusters!” Miranda stood with her mouth open in shock. Before her stood not a human being, but what looked like a human with shiny skin, a crew cut hair cut but not made out of hair. He was a toy soldier. “Well? You got a name?”

                “Take it easy on her” came the little girl's voice. Miranda looked over to see it wasn’t a little girl either, but a little doll. She wiped the last tears away and took Miranda’s hand.

                “I…I’m sorry about your friend.” Miranda said. The soldier huffed in frustration but the dog and the doll nodded in acknowledgement. “What's your name?” said the dog as he leaped up and put his paws on her shoulders. He also was a toy, in the form of a Great Dane.

                “Miranda, my name is Miranda,” She said with a chuckle as she balanced the dog's weight against her own.

                “Please to meet ya!” said the dog. “My name is Rampage.”

                “I am Lucy,” said the doll as she gave a little courtesy, “and that’s Officer Clark” She finished this by pointing at the soldier who stood on the far side of the circle looking into the darkness.

                Miranda looked at Officer Clark and then back to Lucy. “What is going on?”

                “Well deary, that’s a long story for another time. But we are the forgotten toys that fell between the couch cushions.”

                “Ok, but how are you guys alive and talking?”

                “Honestly, we don’t even know that. All we know is that once we fell between the cushions, we could move. We could speak. But it came with a price, I think we all would give up the ability to walk and speak if our owner would pluck us out of here. Nothing feels worse than being forgotten.”

                     Miranda’s body felt heavy when she heard the last part. She simply nodded in agreement.

                “But we saw your phone fall through and your hand started to reach for it!” Lucy continued.

                “Yeah, then I felt like something was pulling.”

                “That wasn’t us. We hoped to get to your hand so you could pull us out, but then the dusters got to you before us.”

                “Dusters? What are those?”

                “Monsters in short,” Officer Clark added, “Some say they are bugs, some say they are forgotten toys gone bad, some say they are creatures not from this world.”

                “Have you guys tried to fight back?”

                “Ha!” Clark interjected and turned around to face the group, “Yes and they end up like Bobby, torn apart and feasted on.”

                “Don’t they have any weaknesses?”

                “They don’t come into the light circle” Rampage contributed.

                “But what about trying to get out of here?” Lucy said.

                “Why bother,” Clark said, “I know Tommy has forgotten about me and Rampage. He’s probably moved on to college or married for all we know. He's forgotten us. Grace has probably forgotten you, Lucy.” He said this and faced the darkness again.

                Miranda said, “I know what it's like to be forgotten. That’s how I got here in the first place. I was invited to a party by a guy I like and he didn’t show. Or if he did, he must have forgotten I was even there.” Now Miranda wiped tears away as Lucy laid her arms across her.

                “You can’t give up, maybe he is still coming. You have a chance still to get out and live. I’m not going to let you stay down here with us in the dark.”

                “But how? How are we going to get her or us out of this place? Who can help us?” Rampage said and nuzzled up against Miranda comforting her.   

                In the distance, they heard a voice from beyond the cushions. They looked up and saw a boy standing where they could make out his face.

Miranda stood and yelled, “Stephen! Down here!”

But he didn’t look. He held his phone up and typed for a second.  A moment later, the ground shook as the four of them felt Miranda’s phone buzz.  

“Maybe we can text him to grab my phone and he can get us out?”

“But how? The Dusters have your phone and as soon as we get in there they will swarm us?” Rampage said.

“We need a bomb or something,” Officer Clark said as he looked down the tunnel to the lair.

Miranda’s eyes widened, “No we just need to make our own light source!”

The four squeezed their way through the tunnel until they got to the entrance of the lair.

“Now what?” Clark whispered.

“Wait…” Miranda said.

                They felt the floor shake, “Get ready…” The phone illuminated the cavern, revealing all the dusters crouched in their locations.

                “Now!”

                The Four rushed to the phone. They got to one side and squeezed their hands under the phone. The cavern began to fill with sounds of hisses and clicks above the four. With a tremendous heave, the four lifted the phone to its side. Miranda pushed the unlock button on the side and the screen lit up. She covered her eyes for a moment to keep herself from being blinded, then she reached down to the flashlight emblem and pressed the touch screen with both her hands.

                “Drop it!”

                In an instant, the camera's flash exploded with light. The Cavern was bathed in a bright fluorescent glow as the phone fell flat. The dusters began to screech as they covered their eyes from the harsh light. Their bodies began to steam wherever the light touched them. Many began to fall from the ceiling and writhe on the ground. Others scurried to find any place the light didn’t touch. Miranda yelled for the others,

                “Grab it, Let's go!”

                Three of them lifted the phone up as if it were a large table. Rampage crawled underneath and stood up straight to brace the phone. They got to the tunnel and pushed it sideways through as they heard a hateful screech from behind them. Once the phone was through, they each in turn popped out one by one. Once they were all free they picked up the phone and shuffled toward the circle of light. Clark saw a paperclip that was the size of his leg just outside the circle. He snatched it up and began to unbend it. Miranda directed them to flip it over so the screen was facing up now. She hit the unlock button and saw messages from Stephen. He asked where she was and even called her. She went to the missed call and slid the notification over with both hands. The option to call appeared.

                “Miranda?” Clark said.

                “Not now!”

                “Miranda,” Rampage said, “better make that call quick…”

                Miranda looked up to see the dusters pouring all over the cavern. But what confused her more was they were hauling something long and flat. It was a postcard from some insurance agency that slipped through the cushions ages ago. They continued to pass the card to each other and slid it up the wall towards the opening.

                “They are trying to block out the light!” Screamed Lucy.

                Miranda hit the dial button.

                The phone rang. She hit the speaker button and then lowered the volume.

                “Hello?...”

                “Stephen!”

                “Hey! Got you, this is a recording. Leave a message…”

                “Dammit!” Miranda screamed and hit Redial. She looked up. The Postcard was now halfway up the wall.

                “Hello?...Hey! Got you,…” the voicemail replied again.

                “Come on Stephen! Pick up!!”

                She hit redial one more time.

                “Hey! Where are you?” Stephen said.

                “Stephen! I need you to grab my phone. It's in the couch in the living room.”

                “Ok, but where are you?”

                “I don’t have time to explain, but I need you to grab my phone. It's between the cushions.”

                “Ok, I’ll get it.”

                She looked up and saw the postcard was at the edge of the hole. It started to cut off the light little by little. On the ground around them, dusters began to close in tighter around the circle. Their green saliva puddled on the ground giving off a putrefied stench. Rampage stood between Miranda and the nearest duster. In an instant, Rampage lunged and sunk his jaws on the creature's foreleg and gave it a vicious tear. Green ooze poured from the hair insect leg. Another duster closed in on Rampage, taking advantage of the opening the valiant act created. Miranda saw a long, shiny, thin object thrust into the second duster’s throat, causing him to retreat. Clark stepped forward holding the end of the long shiny object like a Roman soldier thrusting a spear at anything that moved. It caused a couple of dusters to retreat but Miranda could see the dusters were closing in around them.

                A shadow began to cover the room and Miranda didn’t dare to look up. She thought, the postcard must be covering the hole now. She waited for the inevitable. But instead of hearing screams of pain, she heard shouts of joy from the toys around her. She looked up to see a large hand reaching through the hole, knocking the postcard down and flattening five dusters in the process. The four’s joy was short-lived, as the duster moved closer now the light was blocked by Stephen’s hand.

                Miranda yelled, “Hold on to me!” as she grabbed the phone with her whole body. Lucy grabbed Miranda’s arm with one hand and Rampage in the other. Officer Clark grabbed onto Miranda’s other arm. Stephen’s hand found the phone and pulled upward. Miranda felt herself get bigger the closer she got to the opening in the couch. Her hold around the phone began to enclose around the phone more as it shrunk in her grasp until she held it in both hands.

Stephen saw the two hands holding onto the phone and said, “What the hell!?”

                “It's me, Miranda, don’t let go, pull me out!”

                Stephen grabbed Miranda’s wrists and began to brace himself against the couch. Miranda’s head and shoulders slid out further from the couch. Now she was halfway out. She felt a sudden downward jerk, by hairy legs around her ankle. She began to slide back into the couch. Stephen looked on in confusion and saw the terror in Miranda’s face. He braced himself again and pulled as sweat beaded off his forehead. But this time, Miranda popped out and fell over Stephen. She clung to him and he held her.

                “What was that?!” He asked.

                “I’ll tell you later, but first.” She climbed off him, got to her knees, and looked back at the couch for her three companions. She didn’t see them. She looked into the hole and saw the dusters scurry off. She trembled as one of her hands went to her mouth and her eyes began to swell. Her other hand slid down her waist and she felt something in her pocket. She dug into her jeans and pulled out three figurines. A Great Dane, A Doll, and a Soldier. She hugged them and wiped the tears away.

“Are you ok Miranda?” Stephen asked.

“Yeah, Everything is ok.” She said embracing him.

In the other room, they could hear the jocks and cheerleaders begin counting down from 10..9...8. to bring in the New Year.

“You know why I asked you to come tonight?” Stephen asked her.

She looked up into his eyes and shook her head.

“Because there's no one else I'd rather kiss at the stroke of twelve.”

And as the countdown to midnight concluded the two leaned in and sealed the year with a kiss.

The End