"Hey, girl, you're finally awake!"
Minnie's eyes shot open. She didn't recognize that voice. She bolted upright, sitting up straight in her seat. Instantly and instinctively, she glanced around her surroundings. At the realization that Mickey was nowhere in sight, fear set in. She was in the back seat of an SUV, and there were three other girls in there with her that she didn't recognize.
"You gave us quite a scare." The same girl to speak was a light brown and black badger. "We were beginning to think you'd sleep all the way there."
"W-Where am I?" Minnie asked, confused and frightened.
The girl driving the SUV was the one to answer. "Well, we're about ten minutes from Colton." She was a silver rat with a white face. "If you hadn't been sleeping the whole time you'd know that already."
Minnie racked her brain trying to make sense of the situation. She glanced at herself to see everything about her her appearance was the same. She was still wearing the same outfit she was wearing at home only moments ago; white tank top, hip-hugger blue jeans and white sneakers. Her bow and gloves were present as well. "And who are you?"
"What, did you hit your head or something?" the rat asked, casting a glance up to the rear view mirror.
"Don't you remember us, Minnie?" the badger asked.
"Yeah, we're best buds!" another girl, a tan hamster, said.
"I don't think..." Minnie tried to make reason of the situation but she couldn't. She placed her thumb and index finger on the sides of the top of her nose under her eyes, trying to calm down and think.
"Do you remember where we're going?" the badger asked.
Minnie shook her head. "Um... No."
The rat driving rolled her eyes. "Jeez, where's your brain at today? We're just a bunch of hot 21-year-old chicks heading to a cabin by the lake for the week."
Minnie then asked the next question on her mind, though she said it to herself. "Where's Mickey?"
"Who?"
Minnie glanced up to see the rat eying her in the mirror. "He's my husband."
"Husband?!" the rat shrieked. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, when did you get married?"
"I've been-"
"Ha! You can't be married!"
"I am too married!" Minnie jetted out her left hand, reveling the gold ring to the others. "See?"
"Well, son of a... That's a wedding ring!" the badger said.
"Looks like a cheap piece of crap to me," the rat said with a cocky grin, glancing back to the road.
Minnie felt a sudden strong urge to punch the rat's lights out. "It is not!" She lifted her hand to look at and admire the ring. "It's beautiful. Mickey... my husband... He gave me this ring, he put it on my finger..." Minnie felt like crying. She didn't know where Mickey was or if he was even... No, she couldn't think like that! Knowing she needed to be strong, she pulled herself together as best she could.
"So when'd you get hitched?" the hamster asked.
"Yeah, and how come you didn't tell us?" the badger added.
"Well, I..."
"We never knew you had a man," the rat said. "What's he like?"
"Well... He's a mouse like me, a little taller, cute big round ears, big brown eyes..."
"Sorry, ain't seen him," the rat dismissed.
"He's gotta be here!" Minnie exclaimed. "He has to be!"
"Will you chillax, Mouse," the rat said. "We haven't seen-"
"Uh-oh, company," the badger said, glancing out the rear window.
Minnie turned around in her seat to stare out the rear window. Behind the SUV was a black Dodge pickup with a red and blue strobe light bar on the roof. On the hood was a gold, five point star. Suddenly the lights turned on.
"Better pull over," the hamster advised.
Minnie squenched her eyes, looking closely into the windshield of the police SUV. Wait... Those ears... Those big round ears! Her heart leapt. "Pull over!"
"I dunno... Think I can outrun 'im?" the rat asked.
"No! Pull over! I know him!" Minnie said.
The rat cursed under her breath and pulled the SUV off to the side of the road. "Think if I flashed him he'd let us go?"
Minnie's face reddened in anger and shock. "Don't even think about it! Unless you want a black eye, keep your shirt down and your jeans up, got it?" Minnie immediately unbuckled herself and flung open the door, jumping out of the pickup. And sure enough, much to her relief and joy, her Mickey was getting out of the truck and running up to her. "Mickey!"
"Minnie!" He swept the little girl mouse up in his arms, holding her tight.
Minnie held him in her arms for a bit, finally allowing her tears to fall. But this time they were tears of joy. After a brief moment, both pulled apart a little to look at each other, making sure that this was real. "Are you okay?" she asked, raising a hand to cup his cheek.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Are you?" he replied.
She nodded. "Yeah. I am now." Smiling warmly, she leaned up and kissed him, then embraced him again. "Oh, Mickey... I was so worried... I didn't know where you were, if you were alright..."
"Shh," he shushed her. "It's okay. I'm here now." She hugged him tight, afraid that if she let him go that he'd disappear again. "We've got to find a way out of here."
At that, she remembered their situation. She pulled back and looked up at him. "Where are we anyway? I mean, what is this place?"
"I'm not really sure, but I think... we're in that horror movie."
Her eyes widened. "What?! B-But how? How did we end up in the movie?"
"Musta been that lightning... I dunno. I'm not Professor Von Drake, but I reckon it somehow pulled us into this movie."
"Then... how do we get out?" she asked.
"We'll get out of here," he assured her. He offered her a reassuring smile and she did feel herself relax a little.
The sound of doors closing got the young couple's attention, and Minnie turned to see the other three girls walking up to them. "Oh, perfect..." she muttered.
"Well, hello, there," the girl rat said, rather flirtatiously towards Mickey, making Minnie's blood begin to boil. "And who might you be?"
"My husband," Minnie pointed out matter of factly in a back-off manner, giving a proud smirk in the rat's direction.
"Wow, Minnie. You failed to tell us how good looking your man was, or that he was a cop."
Minnie glanced at Mickey to see he was indeed wearing a police uniform. Dark brown pants with a green T-shirt and brown jacket over the shirt. He was dressed as a cop. She'd been so excited from seeing him that she failed to notice his get-up. She ignored the rat and turned back to her companion. "So what do we do now?"
"Aren't you gonna introduce us, Minnie?" the rat cut in.
Minnie turned to the girl with a dull expression, then sighed in annoyance. "This is my husband Mickey. Mickey, this is..." She paused. She didn't know the girl's names.
"Rhonda," the rat said.
"Helen," the hamster said.
"And I'm Betty," the badger said.
"Yeah. So anyway, what do we do now?" Minnie asked her companion again.
"Well, we were all going to Colton for the week. There's a cabin by the lake there and we were all going to have some fun in the sun!" Rhonda batted her eyes at Mickey. "You're welcome to join us."
Minnie gave the girl an icy glare. She cleared her throat and held up her left hand, showing the gold ring again, an indication he was hers and for Rhonda to stay away from him if she valued her life.
"Well, I guess the only thing we can do is wait until another lightning bolt sends us back," Mickey mused.
"We could be stuck here for hours, or even days!" Minnie exclaimed.
"The movie's only two hours long," Mickey explained with a light grin.
"Uhh, I have no idea what you're talking about, but we need to get going. We're only minutes away from Colton and we need to get there before dusk," Rhonda interrupted.
"I guess we might as well go with it for now. Nothin' else we can do," Mickey reasoned.
Minnie's head rolled back as she groaned. "Uhhg. Fine. But I won't like it."
To be continued...
