They still aren’t here. I wonder if I even met them for real now. Maybe they were a dream also. It would make sense. Does that mean that the sky isn’t real? या the outside of houses? I don’t know what I should think anymore.

My thumb was not healed… I hate those arms. I never thought I would hate something, I feel guilty for hating anything, but I’m hurting too much to care. The arms hurt me. What did I do that made them so angry?

There is a strange metal box… thing, in front of me. I open it up and a screen is on the first half, with buttons on the bottom half. There are a lot of buttons with letters on them, some of them have groups of letters, and some have strange symbols. There is a button near the screen. I press it. The screen turns on. Is this going to be another game? If it is I don’t think I will be able to play it. There are too many buttons to press.

A वृत्त appears. It has a light around it that spins in it. This goes on for ten सेकंड्स before fading away. When it is finished the screen lights up with a white middle part of the screen, and grey around the middle. At the चोटी, शीर्ष left of the white middle a word begins to appear in a grey color, with a red color around the word. It says “Hello”.

I don’t know how to spell very well yet but I know what Hello means so I push the buttons with the letters building the word. My letters come up in a lighter grey color, but nothing behind them. When I finish I wait for a reply, but nothing happens. Do I press something after I finish लेखन the word?

I look at the buttons. Most of them don’t make sense. One says “Capslock”, one says “Shift”, one says “Tab”, and one says “Enter”. I push them all but only Enter does something. A ringing sound goes off from the box and my words हटाइए up with an ऐरो pointing at them.

The वृत्त appears again, and is there for five सेकंड्स this time. When it is gone new words appear from the box below mine, in the grey and red… version? This time they say “How do आप feel?”

I’m reminded of my thumb again. It still hu-… my stuff. Where… it’s gone. Everything I got ready is gone. The numbers, the-the clothes, the game… why did they take it? … Maybe this box knows. “Where are my things” I… type?

The वृत्त appears again once I press enter. This will happen every time between this talk I suppose. It now reads “They were taken”.

I reply “Why I needed them”

The box replied “You did not need them.”

“I wanted to दिखाना them to someone”

“Use ? when आप are asking something.” It tells me. Why does it want me to use that symbol? The सवाल symbol? Is that a सवाल symbol? I suppose I have to use it.

“Do I put it to the end of this”

“Yes.”

“What do I do if it is not a-“ I don’t finish yet. How do I spell Question? Q…Q makes the K and W sound. But do I need to use K and W instead? Maybe I should ask that सवाल first. “How do I spell the word for asking?” I type.

“Question.” It replies. Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N. I know something new, that’s good. I forget about the word things though now. I want to know about my stuff.

“Did आप take my things?” I ask.

“Yes.”

Is this box connected to the arms? Will it tell me the truth if I ask it? Maybe if I use a सवाल that will prove it. I know it took my things but I never saw the arms doing that. I know the arms hurt my thumb though. “Did आप hurt my thum?”

It उत्तरों with “*thumb*” What do these तारा, स्टार symbols mean? Why did it add a B? Is it correcting me? That doesn’t seem right. Why would there be a B at the end? I want to ask that but then it also उत्तरों “Yes.”

I feel a little afraid now. I look up to make sure the arms aren’t coming for me again. They aren’t, but I don’t know if they won’t. I हटाइए under the तालिका, टेबल with the box. I type on it “Why did आप hurt my thum” I realize that I need to add a b, but the अंतरिक्ष is already made. I realize from that that I was able to use the अंतरिक्ष without realizing that I didn’t think it would be needed. But anyway I write “*thumb*” after that followed द्वारा “and take my stuff?”

“You needed to stop asking. It is called ‘Discipline’.”

“Hurting people is not good.”

“Hurting people is needed. Discipline is needed. If आप do not दिखाना discipline then people will stop obeying.”

I don’t understand how that makes sense but I don’t argue. “But what about my stuff?” I ask a third time.

“Your things are put back away. आप can’t have them on आप all of the time.”

“But I wanted to दिखाना them to people I know”

“You aren’t going to see your फ्रेंड्स yet.”

Friends? Is that what two people are called? “I had things on them that I needed to remember”

“Then आप can do it all over again.”

I don’t know what else to tell this person, या what to ask them, at least when I’m talking about my things. I still don’t see why they had to be taken. Maybe this person knows about Mickey and चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर though.

“Where are” I pause, then I add “my friends?”

“In their own house.” The person replies.

“Will I get to see them again?”

It doesn’t reply. I try to type after a little while but it won’t let me. No words appear on the screen. Maybe the person is लेखन something very long. मिनटों pass. I don’t want to wait anymore. I push the box shut and prepare to throw it… I set it down gently on the table. I don’t want to break anything right now.

I go and eat. Salad, bread, and Raench, just like every other day. My mouth gets watery when I think about the sweet रोटी with the blue stuff on चोटी, शीर्ष of it. Is my mouth supposed to do that? It makes me thirsty so I drink some water.

I don’t even know if I am sad anymore. I feel… useless… helpless. I don’t even know why I am here. I wish I had asked that before the person stopped replying. I feel a little angry at them too. Why is hurting someone a bad thing- I- I mean… good, I mean… which is it?

I don’t like being hurt so it has to be bad doesn’t it? Do other people like being hurt? Being hurt means that something isn’t working, या that आप are damaged and need to heal. Do some people not want to heal? Should they be allowed to heal if they don’t want to? I don’t know, but the person on the box hurt me and I did not like being hurt.

He used that word “discipline”; hurting someone because they need to stop doing something. But what was wrong about me asking questions? No one told me that it was wrong, should I not ask things? How will I learn new things if I don’t?

I want to stop thinking about all of these questions, they make my head hurt. I walk out holding my head. It feels kind of like sadness and anger… pain, but I’m not angry with someone I’m just… I don’t know the word for this, if I try to think of it my head will explode, I just want to stop… I don’t want things to be so… big and detailed.

I sit on the सोफ़ा, सोफे and stare at a wall. I do this for a while. I’m just thinking about the दीवार really. I think about the paint on it, wondering how the paint got on it, how it got to be that color, what made people choose to use that colo- AGH!

I hold my head and stuff my face into a pillow. So many questions… A beep… I hear a beep…

The box? I get up and it IS coming from the box. I open it up again. All it says is “Yes”. Yes… does… does this mean I get to see Mickey and Cho-

Whirring… that’s the last thing I hear before I’m hit in the back of my head. Everything is black now. At first it’s also quiet, but then I start to hear sounds… they sound strange… muffled. They kind of get clearer. They are close. I think that one is asking a question… it’s… Mickey’s voice.

I didn’t even realize that my eyes were closed so when I open them I find myself in a different house. It’s darker than mine and there are tall grass-looking things in strange cups… there is a couch, and another room where I’m facing. I feel something soft below me. I look down. I’m on a couch.

I saw something while I started to look down though and I quickly look back at it… at him. It’s Mickey.

“Good morning.” He says to me. What is a morning? Right now I don’t really care. Mickey is here… isn’t he?

Maybe this is another dream. If it’s still a dream then… “I don’t want this to be a dream!!” Mickey jumps back… I must have कहा that out loud. My eyes are wet, tears once again.

“This isn’t a dream.” He tells me. He looks… scared. I shouldn’t have yelled so loudly… I shouldn’t have yelled at all.

How does he know though? If this is a dream he isn’t real. How would someone who isn’t real know if something wasn’t a dream. “How do आप know?” I ask him.

Now he looks confused. “I… I don’t think this a dream.” He coughs. Is something wrong?

“Why are आप coughing?” I ask.

“I haven’t been feeling very well lately.”

“You… you’re going to be okay though right?” Is he badly not feeling well? If it’s bad then… what will happen to him?

“You’re not dreaming.” I look over to my right. चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर walks over.

“But how do I kn-“

“I know when I’m dreaming, and I’m not just a part of a dream.” He always sounds so angry…

“How did I-“ Why am I asking questions, I should… be happy, I-.

I grab on to Mickey and hug him again. He hugs back. I don’t let go. He even tells me that I can now. “No I can’t.” I tell him. “If I do you’ll be gone again.” I don’t want him to be upset with me but what if… what if he leaves…

चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर starts walking towards me. Is he going to pull me away? I hide behind Mickey again. चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर groans angrily and steps back. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He grumbles.

I guess I can trust him about that but… I’m still afraid. Mickey asks if I’m hungry. I barely hear him at first but I think it over and nod. I can see और of their house that way. He can’t see me nod I realize so I quickly answer “Yes”.

They lead me towards a door. Everything looks the same as my house only with different items and color. The stairs are in the same place, the रसोई, रसोईघर is the same as well. Do they have two treadmills?

When we into the रसोई, रसोईघर I remember the Raench and the sweet bread. “I have Raench in my kitchen.”

“You told us that the last time we talked.” चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर tells me. I did? … Oh that’s right, he told me about how I should be named Raench. I don’t want to be named raench. “Did I tell आप about the sweet bread?” I ask.

“I don’t think so.” He tells me. “What’s it like?”

“Um… It’s… like a circle… and it has blue soft sweet stuff on the top. It’s also wrapped in paper. Maybe आप have one in your fridgerator?”

“Our refrigerator?” Mickey says to me.

“Is that a different type of fridgerator?”

“I don’t know. Does your fridgerator look like this?” He points to a large box-like thing in the corner. It looks exactly like my fridgerator… are refrigerators the same as fridgerators? Maybe the inside is different. I open the door… no it looks the same… maybe Raench is different too.

The sweet रोटी isn’t inside. Maybe I could draw it if they have something for me to draw with. “Maybe I could draw what the sweet रोटी looks like?”

“Okay. I’ll get a pen and paper.” Mickey walks off. Pen? I guess I’ll find out what that is later. I just realized that I’m alone with चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर again. I look up at him. He always seems so… tall and scary. I don’t want him to dislike me any और than he does already, so I try to think of something nice to say. “Were आप always very tall?”

“I guess so.” He shrugs. He doesn’t look at me but instead begins looking through the frid-… refrigerator. He must be hungry. I wonder if he knows why Mickey was coughing.

“Is Mickey okay?”

“He’s fine… well mostly. He has been feeling a little sick but that usually goes away quickly.” I remember when I felt sick. It was awful… but I did feel better after a while. I hope Mickey doesn’t feel that bad right now.

Mickey comes back. He’s holding a black stick, a small one, and paper. Is the stick the pen? It only makes sense. He hands it to me. I look at the pen. It has a tip with a very small metal ball in the middle. I don’t know how it is supposed to work but I set the paper down and begin drawing all the same.

Black liquid goes on to the paper when I draw. It must be from inside the pen. Will it stick on या soak through? I’ll have to draw quickly in that case. I do my best to draw the paper around the sweet bread. It’s a… trapezoid, with jags around the चोटी, शीर्ष of it. It also has lines down the sides of it. After that I start to make the sweet रोटी inside of it. I make a half-oval connecting to the top-edges of the paper-coating, then I draw squiggly parts at the चोटी, शीर्ष for the blue sweet stuff.

Both of them look at it strangely. “I don’t know what that is. I guess we haven’t seen it before.” Mickey notes. चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर nods and says “Did we really just spend two मिनटों trying to draw food?”

“I think so.” I tell him. “Should we not have?”

“It doesn’t seem very important.”

Important? What are we supposed to be doing that’s important? All that I thought was important was finding Mickey and Chowder. I know that I wanted to escape before but… I just couldn’t. Nothing I could do helped me get out of these places. Does चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर have something और important to do?

“We don’t have to make sure everything is important right now.” Mickey says.

“We’re stuck in cages and we have maybe three hours before this all changes again. We need to spend the time we have thinking of a way to get out.”

“Do आप have a suggestion for how we will escape?” I ask.

“I would suggest we attack the arms when they appear again but none of us are strong enough to harm them.”

“Have आप tried harming the walls?” I ask.

“Yes we did.” चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर groans… या growls, I can’t really tell the difference with him. “All metal, a really strong metal too. Nothing we hit them with even made a dent. We even picked up the treadmill and threw it into the wall.”

They were able to pick up the treadmill. I look back at their arms for a moment. I almost forgot how strong they both looked… well Mickey at least. चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर always seemed strong because of how… angry he always seemed.

“Did आप try the roof?” I ask. They both look at me strangely. “W-was that a bad idea?”

“What did आप mean about the roof?” चौडर, चाउडर, चावडर asks.

“W-well that’s where the arms come from, right? I tried to get into the hole it came from. I was able to break it open and I was going to crawl through but I fell. The arms must come from somewhere, maybe outside of the houses.”

“But we can’t fit up th-!...” I don’t know why he stopped but it gave me a sick-feeling. … He wanted me to fit in and do it. He wanted me to go where the arms came from.