Rain is pouring as if the sky were going to come down upon the earth. The windows rumble, dogs bark, and the stairs that lead to the porch of the house where this story takes place lift and fall down thunderously. The house, two stories high with an attic, is made of wood, painted white, yet ashen from time. It has many windows in each room, one of the many houses in Massachusetts that is isolated, far from its neighbors, separated from the street by a fence made of the same white wood. Almost too pretty to be real, like a human-sized doll house. 

 

Laesa, a gray rat, shoots out of the chimney toward the roof. With adrenaline as her drive, she clumsily pulling the body of Gravis, a brown (passed out) rat. She's on automatic, with a fixed goal she focuses on: get safe. Suddenly, she spots a hole in the roof, carries everything as best she can on her back, and runs, slipping from time to time with the rain on the roof tiles. Upon reaching the other end of the roof, she trips, barely holding herself with one hand on an old tile, almost flying off the roof. She doesn't think about it and jumps to the attic through the hole.

 

The place is full of boxes and antiques from the early 1900s, although they are completely worn by time and abandonment, along with mountains of letters with army stamps and photo albums, dulling the aqua wallpaper that barely sticks to the walls. Laesa lifts and shakes her head, going into fight-or-flight mode again, and grabs Gravis' body, rapidly hiding between the walls, leaving a cloud of dust behind her. 

 

She is stopped abruptly by crashing into a wall, suddenly coming out of her flight state, her heart still beating fast. Her eyes are fixed on what lies before her. "Shit," she thinks. They had reached the cemetery, a dark place between the walls of the house, beneath the worn electrical cables that throw occasional sparks, illuminated only by the light from the attic that manages to pierce through the walls; it's not possible to see where the wall ends, like a black sky that covers everything. Macabre, the air of the place feels heavy, being a mixture of the smell of old bodies, rat poison, and humidity. Some of the rat corpses still have their killing weapon on them, though no blood is visible.

 

Laesa is paralyzed; the very idea of taking a step seems impossible. She turns her head at unconscious Gravis; such a brave person, and the only reason she would ever leave the burrow, now vulnerable and weak. She then turns her gaze forward, ears twitching at every sound but out of herself. With the harsh hit of the wind against the walls, the cables move, and several start to fall, one of them close to her. Laesa's first instinct is to run; however, she stumbles and falls, dropping Gravis and a pocket-bag that fills the air with purple dust. The dust has the ability to change the properties of light with the sole purpose of making it possible to see the blood of rats, which would otherwise be completely invisible to the naked eye; The blood from the nearby bodies is shown, on the walls appear traces, drawings made with a shaky hand, of a rat with the power to heal, accompanied by arrows indicating the way. Gravis has the recent wound of a rat trap on his stomach, and on Laesa's body, old wounds appear as her head shows dried blood coming from her forehead, and on her neck and shoulders, there are marks of barbed wire. She manages to drag herself closer to him and presses her forehead against Gravis's while holding his hand in a failed attempt to calm down. Finally, she lifts Gravis back onto her back and walks with her eyes closed.

 

As hours go by, we see a bathroom with walls covered in white tiles, every knob and decoration made of clean metal, a white bulb dazzles the whole place as every trace of rain has disappeared from the environment, only the cold wind keeps blowing. The healer's house, a metal box within the walls of said bathroom, is illuminated by candles of all sizes, among a large number of books and bottles, while the constant rise and fall of water in the old pipes is heard. Salus, a blind brown rat with light spots, was reading one of his handmade books written in braille. The murine considers him almost an urban legend; many never get to meet him, either because they never have the need to or because they die trying to find him.

 

Laesa, struggling with Gravis on her back, stumbles upon entering through the door. Salus notices her presence instantly and approaches. They meet eyes, and she lets her head be touched by the healer, his touch careful and light, but quickly stops as he rushes to move some strings that have purple crystals hanging to cover the rays illuminating the room and create the same effect as the purple dust in the cemetery.

 

Salus can now see and quickly lifts a piece of floor that reveals an obstructed pipe with healing water; its texture resembles a galaxy of colored stars moving slowly. When he turns around, he is surprised by the poor state of the youths. He intends to take both of them to the water, but Laesa only hands Gravis and shows no intention of entering the pipe. Salus frowns but wastes no time. Gravis enters the pipe, and the water inside glows around him. Laesa watches him with wide-open eyes, expressionless, getting out of her trance as the healer extends a hand to her. She trembles, but gives in and enters the pipe, taking a quick glance at Gravis, then turning her face upward and closing her eyes.

 

Laesa relives the trauma of making the wounds she has: She fell into barbed wire at a very young age, finding it easier to live with the wounds than to heal them. Due to the excruciating pain of remembering, she gets out of the pipe in a jump, disoriented. The water dripping from her head clouds her sight and mixes with her tears, her heart racing, her gaze is lost, and the memories repeat over and over. Unable to take it, she runs.

 

Laesa runs as if fleeing from something; turning the corner, she bumps into a fallen cable from the ceiling, realizing that if she keeps running, she'll return to the rat cemetery. She crouches in place, hugging her legs, right where the two walls meet. She tenses up, pulling her hair roughly and making abrupt movements, unable to stop thinking about her memories. Gravis, still injured but awake, catches up to her running as best he can.

 

He and Laesa lock eyes, taking a few seconds before running toward each other to join in an embrace full of relief to know the other one is ok. Gravis takes her hand, trying to guide her to the healer, but Laesa pulls away. He tries to approach, confused, but she raises her hand between them to keep distance, to which he quickly shakes his head and holds her raised hand, understanding what she means. "Please," he thinks. She doesn't look at him, eyes fixed on the floor. He understands there's nothing he can do, slowly kisses her hand, and gently lets go, leaving her behind.

 

She puts her head down, the water still dripping down her body. She feels once again like that injured child, as that enduring teenager, the accepting adult, and a corpse, all at once, while trying to come to terms with her inevitable future. "It hurts," she thinks, "Will I have a chance of something different? Can I have a chance for something different, even? It's not fair. I never wanted this."

 

She tears up, overwhelmed. Laesa runs back to where she came from. "Everything is going to be alright," she thinks, not very convinced but finally ready to start healing.