Rat Song

Chapter 31

The church doors closed behind the last of the Harvest Festival's attendees with a thunderous boom. Though William could not see them from behind the dark curtain shielding him and the Piper from their audience, he knew the people of Aerzen outnumbered Hamelin's citizens, to say nothing of the countless rats the Piper had at his command.

This was William's only chance to save everyone from the Whole.

The two of them took up their instruments and strode to opposite sides of the church. Whatever happened next, they would not come to blows. Instead, they would allow their music to fight for them, with whoever possessed the greatest command of the Hymn of the Whole emerging victorious. Burdock paced between them with his fangs bared and his tail lashing as the waiting crowd murmured in anticipation of their performance.

At last, William and the Piper began playing.

Tentative notes rose from William's guitar. The strings sang his determination to banish the rats from their prisoners' bodies and keep his family safe once and for all. With each strum, his song grew more confident until it soared through the air like a hawk.

The Piper required no such buildup. Within seconds, his flute's frantic rhythm rose to a fever pitch. A chorus emerged from deep within the Piper's quivering abdomen as the Whole lent their voices to the song. They sang of safety. Of contentment. Of power.

Answering squeaks pierced the air. A storm of scrambling feet clawed the floor as rats flooded the church. The people of Hamelin screamed, only for their cries to be muffled and finally cut short.

William trembled with the urge to flee. To run from the church, from Hamelin, and from the terrible, awful screaming and never look back.

His fingers slipped.

Rats swarmed past the curtain with a triumphant chorus of squeaking. Black, brown, and gray fur seethed and surged with all the ferocity of the Tantalus as yellowed fangs snapped and snarled, the church so thick with rats that their bodies reached up to William's knees.

"Stop!" William yelled, punctuating the word with a strong strum. Could they not see they were harming each other in their haste to reach him? Teeth snapped through tails, claws tore through flesh, and shrieks ripped free of those who were crushed beneath the sheer weight of their brethren.

The swarm doubled in on itself. This was not the way of the Many. What good were their struggles if their brothers and sisters did not survive to see their pups flourish?

Though the rats halted their attack on William, Hamelin's children showed no such hesitation. Little Peter Farnsworth clambered up his father with his mouth twisted into a savage snarl, his fingers clawing at the farmer's eyes. Jennifer Baker seized a fistful of her mother's hair, cackling with delight as she yanked with all her might. The people of Aerzen aided the children in their fight, pinning Hamelin's citizens to the ground so rats could force their way down screaming throats.

William couldn't watch.

His fingers flew over the strings in a sharp staccato. Pull the curtain closed. None should bear witness to their battle.

The rats obeyed. Though nothing could silence the screams on the other side, the dark curtain once again closed William and the Piper off from their audience

Only when the last tail disappeared behind the curtain did William release the breath he had been holding. That had been far too close for comfort.

"They will continue to suffer until you give in." The Piper spoke not with his mouth, which never left his flute. Instead, the Whole's voice emerged from within his abdomen as fist-sized lumps rose and fell beneath his skin. "I will outplay you. The sooner you surrender, the sooner their pain will end."