The Bunnies

To those of you here from AbsoluteWrite– welcome!

To those of you who know me and know my story and all that good stuff, BEWARE!

This chunk of story takes place in my characters’ modern day, 2012 lives. THERE ARE MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT HALF OF MY CHARACTERS so if this will bother you, then don’t read past this paragraph! I’m warning you! >_< This scene may  never be incorporated into the actual story, though it is kinda amusing, haha.

**SPOILERS START HERE**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who the characters are in a huge nutshell, just so new readers have some idea. Mind you, there’s like a thousand pages of story that takes place before this, so everyone’s not fully fleshed out.

Cassie – 17 years old, junior in public school. recently dumped by her long time boyfriend and devastated as only a 17 year old can be. . .not that she hasn’t dealt with loss before. . .

Whisky – 30 years old, Cassie’s guardian for the past few years. They have a close relationship since Whisky’s been a family friend since Cass was 5.

TJ –  Cassie’s father, this-close to being engaged to Whisky way back when and they stayed close even when things didn’t work out. Perpetually 41 years old since he was murdered in June 2008. Still isn’t sure if he’s in purgatory or what.

Mike – Was TJ’s guardian and acting agent when they were alive and they too had a relationship that was very close. He died of a heart attack in 2002, though he and TJ just made contact in the afterlife for the first time very recently.

The bolded name is the point of view of that section.

Without further adieu:

Cassie

“No one’s going to want to be with me ever again,” I mumbled, kicking a random stone out of the way as Whisky and I hiked down the wooded path. “Everyone’s going to believe Matt and think I’m really weird.”

“Cassie, I know it’s hard to believe, but no one stays with their boyfriend from high school nowadays. I honestly don’t know anyone who did.”

Meh. I supposed she was right, but still. I’d been so out of sorts since Matt broke up with me on Facebook– persuading half of “our” friends to ditch me at the same time—that I barely felt like going outside to enjoy the gorgeous April weather. Hell, it had been days since I’d gone to the barn to exercise my horse, which I think was why Whisky decided it was time to get me up and moving. Part of me had wanted to protest, but everyone had been so busy with grad school and their jobs lately that some relaxed alone time would be nice. I’d agonized over wearing skinny jeans or shorts, eventually decided on a pair of black capri-length yoga pants. But did I really care what anyone thought now that I didn’t have a boyfriend or most of my other so-called “friends?”

We continued down the wide trail, dirt crunching beneath our sneakers. As we approached a corner, an older man and woman, binoculars around theirnecks, appeared from the opposite direction. They smiled at Whisky and I, gave a quick “hello,” probably thinking we were sisters just like everyone else did. Once we were alone on this new stretch of wooded path, I continued my tale of woe.

“Yeah, but—“

“Wait.”

Whisky slung her arm out in front of me, halting me mid-stride.

Taking a quick look up and down the trail around us, Whisky took a few quiet steps forward, towards the woods. Before she actually left the trail though, she crouched down, peered intently.

“What is it?” I whispered. She waved at me to come over.

I did, though not nearly as quietly or as gracefully, grabbed onto a nearby birch tree for balance as I sank towards the ground.

We sat there, her gaze unmoving from a spot in front of her that I couldn’t quite place. I didn’t—

“Bunnies!” She pointed.

I had to crane my head a little, but there they were, babies, little mounds of brown/grey fur blending them perfectly into the surrounding underbrush. I could tell where they were by the constant wiggling of their noses, four bunnies in all, huddled close together, staring at us.

“Where’s their Mom?” I asked, not wanting to get attacked by a protective rabbit while we were in the middle of nowhere.

“I don’t know,” Whisky replied. “I’m surprised they haven’t run away.”

It was kinda eerie, when even after both of us shifted positions a few times, and not in the quietest fashion, none of them moved. Not except for all four noses—twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch.

Then something in the air changed. . .felt charged. It wasn’t until dinner that night, long after we’d changed out of our gory hiking clothes that Whisky admitted to feeling it too.

I looked at the first bunny in the pile, right into its little black eyes—and I couldn’t turn away. I swear I’m not crazy, I swear I tried, but I just couldn’t. It was like the bunny was trying to tell me something and this was the only way it knew how.

And just when the tension in the air—or whatever it was—built so strongly it was almost visible, it happened. With a horrible, wet splat! , the sound of water balloons smacking pavement, each tiny bunny burst, erupting into bits of fur and blood and innards, some of which rained down onto us, sticking to our hair, our clothes. Everything happened so quickly, and was so unexpected, neither Whisky nor I even moved for a sec.

“What just happened??” I asked, staring at the matted down bed of grass where the bunnies had been.

“I don’t know,” she responded, carefully standing up, surveying the bits of bloody flesh that clung to her t-shirt. “Let’s just. . .go.”

I couldn’t help throwing back one more glance as we slowly stepped back out onto the trail and began walking back the way we’d just came. I still had that feeling of being watched, of being pulled at, but what was left of the animals was now all over us.

*          *          *          *          *

TJ

“Mike!”

Slammed open the door to the dark, empty orchestra room, stormed into the equally dark theatre hallway.

“Are you here?!”

No, the theatre was clearly deserted; even  a show with a small cast would be using the wardrobe room or something but that end of the hallway was just as black. I continued walking, wafting, whatever, headed for the staircase at the far end of the hall, up to the main floor.

“Where are you?? It didn’t work.”

I didn’t get too much further. No sooner had I begun gliding up the stairs did I start getting that tug in my chest. I didn’t fight it anymore; no, I allowed myself to fold into that odd sensation—

–and reappeared in a large, sunny field, where everything was bright and perfect.

“Mike!”

“I’m right here,” he replied from behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder as he walked by. I still wasn’t used to seeing this younger, 70’s style version of him.

“I tried what you said,” I commented as he drifted off towards a patch of vegetable garden I hadn’t noticed before. “You know, the whole ‘drawing energy’ thing.”

“And?”

I stared at the back of his shaggy maned head until he turned to look.

“They exploded.”

Mike cocked his head. “What did?”

“The rabbits. They were the only thing around that had enough life to them.”

A bemused smile started to creep across his too-young face.

“Oh, TJ. You didn’t.”

“The girls were in the woods, what was I supposed to do?”

I could tell Mike was stifling his laughter because I was far from amused.

“How about wait until they’re in a more appropriate area where there are plenty of mechanical devices you can draw energy from? I guess I didn’t make myself clear.”

A beat. I turned away first, glanced out at the endless stretch of pristine rolling fields surrounding us on all sides, sighed.

“I hate this,” I said, deciding to sit on the ground and stay awhile as Mike turned back to his garden. I knew I’d wake up in the theatre again before long but at least while I was here, in my old guardian’s version of the afterlife, I felt a little less incompetent at being dead.

_____________________________________________________________

If you’d like to read other dead bunny stories (which are light years better than mine!) then please check out the following blogs:

orion_mk3 – http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to this month’s post)
KatieJ – http://www.crystalwindchimes.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post)
kiwiviktor81 – http://storygenerator.net (link to this month’s post)
Nissie – http://www.paperheroes.net (link to this month’s post)
SuzanneSeese – http://www.viewofsue.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post)
pyrosama – http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post)
dclary – http://www.davidwclary.com/ (link to this month’s post)
randi.lee – http://emotionalnovel.blogspot.com (link to this month’s post)
Turndog-Millionaire – http://turndog-millionaire.com/ (link to this month’s post)
julzperri – http://www.fishandfrivolity.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Penelope – http://poet-slash-writer.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post)
AFord – http://af12.webs.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Araenvo – http://plottypus.blogspot.com/ (link to this month’s post)
writingismypassion – http://charityfaye.blogspot.com (link to this month’s post)
magicmint – http://www.loneswing.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Anarchicq – http://anarchicq.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Ralph Pines – http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Whisky – https://nopart2.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Bogna – http://bemaslanka.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Joliedupre – http://www.preciousmonsters.com/ (link to this month’s post)
Tomspy77 – http://thomaswillamspychalski.wordpress.com/ (link to this month’s post)