Callista

Lost prelude. An inhabitant of lost spaces, he’d been hiding behind those thick walls for so long he didn’t know how to walk out from behind them when the sun finally appeared and offered to warm him. In spite of the brightly decorated exterior, sadness hung around him like an old blanket. He was missed and happiness beckoned but he refused to leave the cold comforts of the place he knew so well.

Lost 1. Day one. The place was a labrynth. She’d been lured by her curiosity. “Damn my curiosity!”, she thought to herself. After wandering through every doorway and finding it didn’t lead where it seemed she discovered there was no center, and gotten very lost.
Climbing the stone stairs that wove in and around the maze didn’t give much perspective. In fact, things felt more upside down when she tried that. Had she tried all the stairs? It was impossible to tell - there were so many zigzagging throughout. All she knew was that she couldn’t find a way out, it was cold, and would be dark soon.

Lost 2. Night one. Just before darkness fell she found a corner to tuck away in. The heart painted on the stone felt like a welcome mat - warm and inviting even though there didn’t seem to be anyone around for miles.
With her foot she cleared a mass of broken glass, scrap metals, and old food wrappers out of the interior of this closet-like space, pushed sand and gravel aside to make a body shaped divot for sleeping, and curled up under the greenery.

She could hear a river moving some distance below and realized she was thirsty. It was still cold. She pushed it out of her mind and tried to sleep.

Lost 3. Day three. Two nights and one more coming up if she didn’t find a way out. The creepy guy in a bathrobe who’d tried to yell at her had disappeared into the maze as she fled from the edge of the landing nearest the cliff overlooking the river. He’d been wearing what looked like a Pixies shirt under the bathrobe but he looked liked he’d been here a long time. Not safe.

Now she was here, facing East.

More stairs? Where had they lead before this place was abandoned? Another chimney? Who cares? She thought. She didn’t have time to wonder - the stairs weren’t helping her now.
Ali glimpsed what looked like fencing behind the scrub and trees on the other end of the landing where she stood. It could be a way out! She rushed over, very aware that creepy bathrobe guy was still lurking about somewhere. He seemed relatively harmless, but still, you never know.
As she ran up to the gate, weak from hunger but full of sudden adrenalin, she saw paved road on the other side! There was barbed wire at the top but she didn’t care. She took off her jacket, took a few tries before flinging it over the barbed wire and scaled the fence, escaping with some minor cuts onto the other side.
Looking back at the maze she’d spent her last three days in, she realized how massive it was, and how lucky she was to have been looking at that particular angle from the place she’d stood.
She wouldn’t take her surroundings or ability to navigate them for granted again.

George was unsure what his next move should be. Lil Popper had told him a hundred times he should just up and leave when the time came, but he loved it here. It felt....like home. He didn’t dare say that to anyone else though - they would never understand. He’d be shunned. This made him different. They knew it, he knew it, but they never talked about it and it left him feeling....uneasy. Like it wasn’t okay to just be George the Mouse.
Since The Crew has shown up they’d become fast friends, but as time wore on and differences revealed themselves so much went unsaid and poor George felt like he was alone in spite of the constant company. That was the WORST feeling of all.

He’d been afraid for so long of the day they’d leave this place, thinking he’d miss them terribly. Now the day was here and he felt freedom. Popper, the one he’d felt closest to, had tried to convince him to join their pack, but he felt himself rooted here.
He didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay and make his bed every day. He wanted to wake up every day in the place he’d known for his entire year of life.

Now, it was easy to say goodbye to The Crew. In fact, maybe it was kind of a dick thing to think but he *couldn’t wait* for them to leave. He daydreamed of spending hours reading and being curious, making noises with things he found and then making the sounds together...all of it scared the other mice.
Fuck them. He was staying.

Go on, try it. Place looks broken from the outside but if you knock and answer honestly when they ask who you are they’ll let you in. It’s pretty cozy inside.

Lost 4. Frustration and panic flooded her body.
Here? Again? Am I dreaming?

Bits of gravel pushed against the soles of her thin shoes and ground noisily as she moved quickly for the far doorway. Out. She just wanted out. But something stopped her. She paused, looking at the rams painted on the wall. It felt....like someone was watching her.

Arm still raised for glory days even though he’s been forgotten on some shelf deep in the rainy city.