The Mice Will Play

a short story about the cat going away and the death of tyrants

While the cat is away, the mice will play, dressing up in calico and claws and performing pantomimes of the beast that has preyed on their families for generations.

They laugh and cry, taking turns playing the monster or the hero that slays it, but as they jape they begin to wonder: if we can kill this creature in jest, can we kill it in earnest?

Their play takes new forms--imagining traps and tricks, a war-beast of their own built from cogs and levers, one thousand mock deaths for this creature that only yesterday was invincible.

And when the cat returns, it finds the rules of the game have changed. In their play, the mice have forgotten their fear and remembered something else:

The curiosity that kills the cat need not be its own.

Short story written by Peter Chiykowski

Story prompt taken from a photo by Joanna Malinowska