Cozy Critters.
By Johan M.
The seed of this idea started growing in Benny’s mind long before he knew it. At age 10 in bed one night he noticed something moving around in his duvet. It tickled him and he jumped up. A lump was running back and forth beneath the fabric. It turned out to be a small mouse that had chewed its way inside. He managed to catch it and put it in a wooden box where it was fed with grains and water. Sometimes while smoking cigarettes stolen from his father, he would blow smoke at it to study its reaction. Usually it would seem to get nervous and scurry back and forth before calming down again. This mouse was kept as a pet until it died about 2 years later. Its name was Todd.
When turning 17 Benny got a job as an ironworker at a steel mill. This place had a stereotypical macho atmosphere - vulgar profanity, pornographic calendars, you name it. After a couple of years as a general laborer he was introduced to the blast furnace which is an assortment of extremely complex engineering where immense heat is used to separate pure iron from iron ore. A week or so into learning, there was an accident where a gas leak coupled with a stray spark caused an explosion that killed one of his coworkers. As they were the only two people in that area at the time he felt the others were blaming him behind his back, and one evening at the local pub, a group of them cornered and beat him with pool cues. Work became difficult, he was given a cold shoulder by most everyone and his mind started to numb and darken. Fed up and depressed Benny decided to quit, but on his own terms. He did not tell anyone beforehand.
It was his last day and the shift was coming to an end. Among the people he worked with were two of the guys that had beat him. Benny grabbed a pry bar from a tool box and dipped it in molten iron before slamming one guy in the mouth with it and hurling it towards the second one. He made a run for the exit as he listened to the wailing behind him. When he reached the parking lot he picked drill bits from his pockets and scratched as many cars as he could while rushing out of the area. He had no car so he ran through the suburbs until he was home. There his things were packed and ready to go, he had quit the lease on his apartment and left for good. Knowing he had seriously injured one, maybe two people he needed to stay away from the public, at least till he was out of town, the authorities were surely alerted by now. Apart from this he had made no further plans on what to do, he had some money saved up but no place to live.
After an 8 hour train ride Benny got off at a city named Acovale and found a cheap motel, unloaded his stuff and went back outside. It was late, the streets were quiet in the outskirts of the city.–“could you help me a bit?” Someone said. Benny turned around to see Richie, a short man much like himself. He was smiling, looked slightly intoxicated. –Help with what? Finishing these, he said and pointed to ten bottles of beer. Benny had nothing better to do and was already wandering aimlessly around so he accepted. They got drunk and talked into the night. Richie was fresh out of an ugly divorce, and Benny told him that he had quit his job at the steel mill, without giving much detail. He liked Richie and it felt he could make an actual friend for the first time in his life. They kept in touch. On one of their drunken evenings Richie confided in Benny, telling him he had committed a crime that involved a slashed up whore in a dumpster. It had not been on the news or anything. Benny did not mind and told the truth about his own past. Waltzing around after dark they saw a hobo sleeping with an empty duvet cover. Benny stopped for a moment and then the idea struck him like lightning. He told Richie who laughed and said why not. The following days they hunted and caught every rat they could get a hold of.
Eventually they had about 50 rats trapped inside crates in an abandoned warehouse building. They were fed with grains and water. –Ok, how do we get them to stay inside without gnawing through the fabric? Richie said. –I’ve bought a bunch of steel wool and copper mesh, Benny answered. They turned the duvet cover inside out and began packing a dense layer of steel wool and mesh on all of the surface area, using glue to fasten it. A tedious process but the end result was quite good. Then came the main task, getting all the rats inside of it. They hung the duvet up like a bag with the opening on top then dropped the rats in one by one. –What if they get agitated and start killing each other? I could drop some of my weed inside, maybe they eat it and calm down?
The duvet was stuffed and sown shut with tiny air holes made at regular intervals. It laid flat on the ground, lumps moving everywhere as rats rolled and climbed over one another on the inside. Richie put his ear next to it and listened. There was some hissing and screeching but they seemed relatively calm. –Maybe the ganja worked? He smiled. Benny was surprised it turned out so well. The same evening they brought the duvet over to the homeless person they had seen a few days before. He was sitting at the same spot underneath a bridge. -We got something for you! That sour blanket of yours is empty and cold, try this, Richie said. The hobo was blasted out of his mind on fentanyl or god knows what else, he squinted at them and was happy for the gift.
This was the start of a phantom enterprise in the dark underbelly of Acovale. The freaks, the misfits, the outcasts, they started taking notice and word spread like wildfire. The company name: “Cozy Critters”. Their sole product “The organic rodent duvet” was sold for cash or drugs. Benny and Richie even hired some workers and turned the abandoned warehouse into a small factory with a single production line. The duvet got adjusted and improved over time. A custom made nozzle and valve was fit to the bottom. This could be opened and shut to inject liquids or gases as well as suck out urine and excrement. If one wanted to be rid of the rodents, it could be done by filling the blanket with water to drown them. Another use which seemed popular in brothels was the infusion of specific substances like high-concentration petroleum. This caused the rodents to go completely frantic, making an almost vibrating duvet. It was said to have heightened the arousal and overall sensation for many couples.
Other more opportunistic people would use this as a way of making money - breeding huge numbers of individuals inside the duvet and then selling them for a profit. Inbreeding was an issue as there was no way of knowing who got on with whom. Although this caused a multitude of problems, the most uniquely mutated specimens often sold for higher prices and were very much sought after by miniature circuses and animals freak shows, as well as underground scientific researchers.
This whole business venture lasted just over a year before it became known to the general public. Rodent duvet farms caused a vast increase in the population of rats in the city, many of them terribly mutated and disease ridden. There were several accidents with gases causing house fires, and many customers suffered damage to lungs and brain from exposure to toxic fumes. Despite of this, the company continued to grow. However, videos from whorehouses and farms eventually went viral and there was just too much risk to continue operating. Benny, Richie and their employees gathered all of the equipment inside the warehouse and burned it down before fleeing the city. Cozy Critters had never been an official firm so there was no paperwork or other tracks to erase. They were long gone when the story made headlines in mainstream media and people went into hysterics. They found it absolutely insane how anyone could even think to do this.
To each their own.