Picture Stolen Socks

Warning: Mentions of stalker behaviors. Siblings smacking and being rude to each other. But no actual abuse, just siblings being siblings.

“Sam! Did you take my socks!” Justin shouts from his room.

"Why would I take your disgusting socks? I wouldn't be caught dead even thinking about touching them," his brother spits back from his own room.

Justin grumbles, giving his drawer another look. No socks to be found. He storms out of his room, rounding the corner to find his brother draped across his bed.

"Then where are my socks!"

Sam doesn't look up from his phone, "Maybe they crawled away to go die. Probably even dug their own graves."

A ferret scurries across the hardwood, carrying a black and grey sock in its mouth to the closet.

"Noodle!" Justin shouts, scrambling after the quick creature.

"Hey! You crush my ferret, I crush your skull!" Sam shouts, leaping off his bed, stopping Justin in his tracks.

"Your stupid ferret has my sock! I bet it has all of them!" Justin proclaims, pointing an accusatory finger at the thief as it scurries into a cut out flap on the side of an extra-large cardboard box. Across the top reads Noodle's Palace, it's painted like a castle.

Justin shoves past Sam, going straight for the box. "He will literally bite your face off if you even try and mess with his box." Sam warns, arms crossed as he watches unbothered.

"It's a stupid ferret," Justin says, reaching for the box. "It can't hurt me; it's teeth are too small."

The box lifts slowly, and the Noddle's head pops out from under the box, locking eyes with Justin. The two freeze, then the ferret charges. Justin yelps like a dog as the ferret runs at him, chasing him around the room. Sam laughs maniacally.

"I tried to warn you," he gets out in between laughter. "Mom tried the same thing and he chased her out of the room!"

Justin squeals when Noodle's teeth grab the edge of his sweats. "Get your demon-spawn off of me!"

"He don't bite," Sam jokes.

"Yes he do!" Justin shouts, hopping on one leg, trying to shake the predator off.

Sam gently grabs the dangling beast, who immediately releases Justin, looking up at his owner like he could do no harm.

Their mom rushes into the room frazzled, "What's going on, who's dying?" Her eyes dart between the ferret and Justin.

"Did you try and touch his castle too?"

Justin glares at the small creature, "It stole all my socks!"

Sam rolls his eyes, "No he didn't, he stole one sock."

"That you know of! they're probably all in there."

Their mother sighs, "I thought teenagers were supposed to act like teenagers, not first graders."

They both ignore their mother.

"Tell your feral beast to give me my socks back!"

Sam shrugs, depositing the ferret into Justin's hands. He quickly drops it onto the floor, and it scurries to Sam, who opens the top of the box.

Slowly, Sam looks at Justin, leaving the box open. "There are no socks in there. However, there is a lot of bedding." the ferret climbs into its castle, almost showing off its big den.

"What do you mean by that?" Justin is quickly next to his brother, staring in absolute horror into the box. And the so-called bedding that used to be his socks.

"My socks!" He whines.

Their mother sighs from the doorway. "Sam, go take your brother to the store and buy him some new socks, please."

Sam looks to his mother defiantly, "Why do I have to get him socks, he can get his own."

His mother hardens, "Because it was your pet who destroyed his socks. So now you get to buy him new ones. And it has to be socks that actually fit him. Not cheap baby socks." Her finger points at him accusatorily.

He slumps, that had been exactly what he was going to do. "Fine."

"Good, now I'm off to the grocery store. Y'all behave." She leaves them alone, both mourning for different reasons.

"Has there always been a door on the floor of your closet." Justin asks.

Sam's head whips around. "What do you mean?"

The front door opens with a creek and slams shut. They are truly alone now. Sam stands beside Justin, both staring at the trap door that was once hidden by Noddle.

"I just thought that was part of the hardwood design, like they messed up or something."

Justin gives Sam a look of complete disbelief, "How does that look anything like a design. That's a door!" He points at it, as if it will help Sam to understand. "Do you need me to tell you that your pants don't go on inside out too?"

Sam glares at his brother, wishing that Noddle would come over and bite him this very second.

"I'm gonna open it." Justin declares, dropping the box off to the side, trying to fit his fingers into the too small gap. Sam yanks him back by the shoulder.

"Why on earth would you open something that you don't know what it is."

Justin gives him a look, "Oh, maybe it's because I want a monster to come crawling out and have a tea party with me. Obviously so I know what it is!"

"What if a homeless guy lives under there?" Sam questions, crouching down to better expect it."

"If there was a frogger, then they would be sleeping in your bed with you, not under the floorboards." Sam slaps him upside the head with enough force to make him lose balance, falling on top of it.

Justin glares, "I hope there's a mole-man down there, just waiting to eat you." Same scoffs, standing up and leaving the room.

"Where're you going?!" Justin shouts after him, standing and throwing his hands up.

"I'm getting something to pry it open," Sam explains. "Idiot," he mutters to himself.

Eventually, Sam returns, crowbar in tow.

"When did we get a crowbar?"

"Not we, Dad got it for some unknown reason who knows how long ago. Now move."

"Why do you get to use the crowbar?" Justin whines. "I found the trapdoor, so I should be the one to open it."

"Actually," Sam says matter-of-factly. "Noodle found it, and Noodle can't use a crowbar, so I took his place." Sam shoves the crowbar into the small space between the door and the floor. "Not to mention, it's my room. So, it's my trapdoor." He positions his hands at the top of the crowbar, bending over. "Not to mention, I'm taller and stronger than you."

Sam shoves the crowbar downward, but nothing happens.

"Wow, oh brave and powerful knight," Justin says sarcastically. "How dare I ever question your strength." He deposits himself on the floor, now content to just watch.

"Shut up." Sam growls, his face turning pink. He pushes again, harder this time, the crowbar moves a centimeter at most.

Justin slow claps. "How inspiring!" he says with mock admiration. He raises his hands into a position of praise, "Oh how wonderful it is-"

Sam growls, "Well why don't you try it! it's harder than it looks!"

Justin gasps, placing a hand on his chest, "Thou would let me, a humble peasant try?"

The look Sam gives him is enough to make him shut up, but not without a grin on his face. With the confidence of a young bull, he takes over Sam's place. But just like Sam, he can't budge it at all. He finally gives up after his third try.

"Are we sure it's a trap door?" Justin questions.

"Oh, my mistake, it might actually be a brick wall." Sam nods to himself solemnly.

"What if we try at the same time?" Justin suggests.

"Sure, why not." Sam gives in.

With one on either side of the crowbar, they count down.

"One," Justin says.

"Two," Sam replies.

"Three!" they shout together, both shoving with their full weight and strength behind them. Justin actually jumps and pushes down at the same time.

And just as they pushed together, they also toppled down together. The crowbar hits the ground hard, the two bows falling over it in opposing directions. Meanwhile, the trap door flies up, coming completely out of the ground. Clattering loudly upside down.

The two boys lay there, gawking at the door. Until, that is, Noddle makes an appearance.

"Noodle no!" Sam shouts, fumbling to get up off the floor, but it's too late. The small light brown ferret dives right into the gaping hole on the floor.

"Welp." Justin says. "I'd say it was nice knowing him, but that would be a lie."

Sam blindly swings backward at him, inadvertently smacking him in the face. "Shut up! You're helping me get him!"

Sam rummages through his closet yanking a hoodie off a hanger.

"And why would I do that?!"

"Because you're the idiot who wanted to open it in the first place!"

He shoves the hoodie on in a haste. Cautiously placing one foot into the crawls space and then the other. It goes as high as his waist.

"I swear if there are any rats in here you are dead meat," Sam growls, crouching down to crawl on his hands and knees.

"Why did that stupid ferret have to steal my socks?" Justin groans, trailing after Sam.

The two crawl for not even three feet before Sam stops, making Justin almost crawl into him. "Why are we stopping?" he grumbles.

"Give me your phone."

"No, why would I do that?"

"Because I can't see anything."

Justin grumbles, "Why don't you use your phone? And why didn't you bring a flashlight? I can see your phone in your back pocket!"

"Just give me your stupid phone, or grab mine and hand it up, I can't reach back that far!"

Justin fumbles as he grabs Sam's phone, tossing it underneath him, it lands causing dust to burst upwards making Sam cough.

The light turns on, illuminating what Sam had feared. "My hand is on a bone." Sam says plainly.

"What do you mean your hand is on a bone!?" Justin shouts.

"Not a human bone! Like a rat or mouse bone or something!" Without further explanation, Sam continues on.

"So, we're just gonna ignore th-"

"Noodle! Come here!" Sam shouts down the path, hobbling while the phone in one hand.

After another thirty feet, Sam stops again.

"What is it now!" Justin groans.

"Theres a room," Sam whispers.

The sounds of breathing fill the void.

"Like a serial killer's room, or?"

Sam slowly begins crawling again, slowly moving into a crouch once out of the tunnel. Justin appears beside him.

"Oh wow," Justin says, standing up completely. "Looks like someone just carved away at dirt until they got a small bunker. Like, whoever made this probably made friends with moles and worms." He walks further into the room, turning his head this way and that. Taking out his phone for his own light.

Noodle scurries through the dirt, playful and ecstatic to be in a new environment. Sam picks him up, shoving him into his hoodie, "Don't you ever come down here again," he scolds.

"Umm, Sam? Come over here," Justin's voice wavers. Sam doesn't even take two steps before he realizes what his brother is looking at. A whole bunch of photos and notes stuck to a dirt wall. And on the floor beside it lays a sleeping bag, a lantern, and a notebook.

Sam marches up the wall of photos. None of them have either of the boys in them, nor anyone they know. Instead, they are all of the same boy. He's in his late teens maybe early twenties. On some of them, hearts are drawn. On others, people around him are crossed or scribbled out.

"This lady's crazy!" Justin declares. He reads the notes, "This one says 'I can't wait to marry David one day. We will be married on the twenty-fourth of October. We will have four children and of course we will have a cat and a dog. The kids' names will be Olivia, Luke, Jacob, and Samantha.'" Justin shivers with disgust, backing away from it.

"This one just says 'Lauren Mae Black' over and over again," Sam says with disgust. "None of these papers are dated after January of 2022." Sam says looking to his brother.

"We moved here in February of '22." Justin 's eyes are wide.

Quickly, Justin makes his way back to the tunnel, "I'm out of here," he exclaims, crawling down the tunnel quickly. Sam is right behind him, Noddle forced to go along.

Justin scrambles out the open trap door. Sam steps out and throws Noodle onto his bed before picking the trapdoor up and slamming it back onto the floor. The two boys jump and stomp on the door, securing it back in place firmly.

"Agree to never speak of that again?" Sam asks.

"Agreed." Justin says.

The front door opens and shuts. "Boys! I'm Back! Did Justin get new socks?!"

The two boys look at each other, silently coming to an agreement.

"We're leaving now!" Sam shouts.

The two boys flying past their mom and out the door, never before as glad as they are to be out of the house.