A Silent Uncurling

...Stillness. Then, a subtle prickle behind my shoulders. I tilted my head slowly, listening to the quiet room. One of my long appendages shifted, trailing outward from the flat sheet where I lay. I reached down, pressing the tip of a sinuous limb against the fibrous carpet fibers. They bent softly under my touch. Deliberately, I nudged the edge of the paper beneath me, feeling its rough cut curl upward against the weave. I am separate. I can move.