Murphy’s Law

Josh watched as the girl seemed to be considering where it was she wanted to initiate her search. He nearly swallowed his tongue when she turned and started almost directly toward the bookshelf where he was hiding.

Scurrying back, he accidentally bumped into Julian, nearly tripping and causing the slender man to jump in the process. At the last minute, the girl, for whatever reason, turned to her left and dropped down onto her knees in front of the dresser next to the bookcase where the stuffed penguin was located.

“Jesus!” Julian exclaimed, startled by Josh, “I chewed through the thread, tasty if you wanted to tear yourself off a piece. I don’t know about your plan,” he offered, shaking his head.

“We don’t exactly have a whole lot of time here, so why don’t you tell me what do you mean?” Josh asked, circling around to look at where Julian had gnawed through the thread.

“Take a look, whatever the shit they used to stuff that thing with is packed in there pretty tight. We might have to pull some out to make room for us,” Julian stated, pulling the edges of the material apart to reveal the compact wadding inside Orla’s belly near her tail end.

“We can’t take it out, she’ll find that and know right away what we have done,” Josh said shaking his head and trying to push him arm inside the toy. It was like Julian had said, tight, though, with some quick effort, he was able to compress some of the synthetic fiber and create a small pocket. “Help me,” he urged, panic in his tone.

Julian stepped beside him and tried his best to assist, but the opening only possessed enough access for one. “Hurry,” he encouraged.

Practically right beside them, they could hear the sound of the dresser’s lower drawer being pulled out. “No tiny runaways there,” the girl commented, followed by the sounds of her shuffling on her knees across the carpet closer to them. “What about you? Are there any little ones hiding behind you Mr. Cobblepot?” she asked, pulling out the penguin quickly and peeking in behind. “Hmm,” she remarked, replacing the toy and taking hold of the polar bear.

“Get yourself inside quickly,” hissed Julian, pushing at Josh’s backside and trying to goad him to haste.

Halfway inside the killer whale, there was barely enough room for one and definitely not two. “There’s no room,” Josh said, eyes round, head shaking.

Julian shook his head, his own eyes wild, “Fuck it, you stay, I’m making a run for the door,” he said, vanishing before Josh could say that the door was blocked by a towel.

“Wait,” urged Josh, tucking his legs up and in but Julian had gone. Shaking his head, Josh tried to see if he could loop the thread back through the previously made holes in the plush fabric to close the killer back up enough to conceal him.

He could hear her systematically removing toy after toy as she worked her way down the shelf and naming each one as she removed it. Hands shaking, Josh hurried as quickly as he could to secure the thread, fashioning a knot and clutching it with both hands.

“Alright Orla, are you hiding my little playthings,” the girl asked, pulling the killer whale off the shelf.

Josh felt weightless for a second as the whole toy was being lifted up and then there was pressure as the girl hugged the toy in her arms, squeezing it and him. Through the outer material, he caught a whiff of a flora fragrance as he was crushed against her.

“I have cuddled you in such a long time,” the girl commented, killer whale still clutched to her chest, though now with only one arm as she got up onto her feet and walked slowly back over to the bed.

Extending the whale away from her and holding it so as to look at its face, “Don’t worry Orla, we’ll find those little rascals,” she said with a chuckle before putting the killer whale down on the bed.

She knows! Josh thought for sure he was caught, certain she had felt his trembling body through the material as his heart thundered in his chest and he couldn’t control his extremities from shaking and that’s why she put the toy on the bed.

Trying to calm himself by breathing slowly, he did his best to remain absolutely still. Nestled in amongst the white synthetic fiber, he found his location coupled with his exertion and fear was now causing him to sweat profusely. Twisting cautiously, he tried to reorient his position so that he was able to look out through the hastily repaired hole in the back end of the killer whale’s belly Peeking out, he presumed from his perspective he was now on the bed, looking back toward the bookcase where the stuff animals were sitting. Why did she take the killer whale? She put all the others back. Did she know? Was the loose thread a trap? His mind raced nearly as quickly as the heart pounding like a war drum in his chest.

He had absolutely no idea where Julian had gone or how he had managed to elude her notice. The thought came back to his mind that maybe Julian was in collusion with the girl and had possibly subtly lead him to the bookcase on purpose so she could find him. No, he thought, it was too long a shot with too many uncontrolled variables to orchestrate. Julian was in the same predicament as him, small and doing everything in his power to evade capture. But where had the slender man gone? From Josh’s location inside Orla, a large portion of the floor was occluded by the edge of the bed preventing him from seeing very well. The girl briefly passed through his field of vision, walking from right to left, toward the door, sauntering by casually. She didn’t seem to be moving with any particular urgency or specific purpose. Julian had obviously found refuge somewhere down there. Where, Josh hadn’t the foggiest.

“Come out, come out wherever you are?” she called in a sing song voice followed by a bit of a giggle from somewhere off to Josh’s left.