Willows Bunny
I've had a bunny ever since easter ended, but I never expected the adventure that awaited me ahead…
April 5, 2008
Ten year old me was just walking home when the same group of bullies that bullied me every day came up to me and started harassing me. Alfred, the leader, walked up to me and grabbed me by the hairs and dragged me in circles against the hard pavement and grass. The other three, Ivan, Gilbert, and Antonio, just stood there with cold hard stares laughing sadistically. Me, having no self-confidence, let Alfred torture me. After the gang finished up with their session, I made a run for it back home. When I got home, my mother scolded, "Arthur! This is the ninety-second time! Please tell the truth. Tripping doesn't cause this many cut and bruises."
And she was right, it doesn't, unless someone trips you and drags you everywhere. But since I didn't want my mom to know that I get bullied, I simply replied, "No, mum, I did trip."
Even though my mom still had a look of concern on her face, she still managed to say yes and go back to cooking supper. I went back to my room to do some magic, my hobby. People, especially Alfred's gang, say that's a lame hobby. But things are different if you ask me. For me, I think of magic as a way to, literally, open another universe. A way to escape reality. A way to- "Arthur!" My mom calls, "Supper's ready!"
I walk to the dinner table and sit down to eat. After we start eating, my mom asks me, "Ever since a student named Alfred moved to town, your grades at school have dropped dramatically. Is there something I should know about him that you're hiding?" My mom was starting to catch on, but I still said, "No, Alfred's fine."
Afterwards we finished eating, got to bed, and went to sleep.
7:18
Ding-Dong!
The first sound I hear in the morning.
Great.
I get dressed and go to the door. "Hello?" I said "Who is this?"
I heard no response but a few faint scratches. I creaked open the door only to find a small stuffed bunny at my doorstep. Clearly someone was trying to prank me. I looked around my yard only to find no people around. I turn back to go back home, only to find the fridge door open, a bowl of cereal, and the stuffed bunny's mouth covered in milk.
I pinched myself a few times and rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming. No avail. I turned back to the bunny, but it was gone. I bolted to my mom's room, only to find the bunny clinging onto my mom's neck. I rushed to the bunny and tried prying its arms away from my mom; never have I ever met a bunny with such an iron grip. Mum's face was turning purple, and I knew that if I didn't do something fast, my mom was toast. I quickly grabbed the bunny's ears, and all of a sudden, I felt a jolt of pain and then everything went pitch black.
The world went silent. Then, a strange voice calls: "Don't...Leave...me."
I felt a sharp pain in the back, followed by a picture of a little girl throwing that same bunny into a river. Suddenly, life flashed back to normal. My mom was sleeping, I was in her room, but the bunny was still in my grip. I looked over at the bunny, who now looked way less cute, and brought it back to my room.
I got into my room and settled back in bed. I had so many questions for the bunny. If only the bunny could ta- "You have questions for me?"
I swiftly turned over to the bunny, who was giving me an...uncomfortable stare.
"What do you want with me?" I asked.
"Your love and care is what I want." Replied the bunny.
"I guess you're no different from me." I whispered. A moment of silence drafted over the room.
Finally, the bunny said, "Well...will you take care of me?"
I thought about it for a moment, but still managed a "Yes."
"Good, i'll settle in." replied the bunny. "Wait, where are you going!?" I asked abruptly. But the bunny was gone. Not questioning the bunny any further, I went back to practicing magic.
Wqf3 j3
My computer was flashing a retro-like green and saying something that sounded like "sSSSsssSsSS oooOOoOoo VVvVvvVv MMmmmmeEeeEeeEEEEehhHhH". I thought nothing of it until I remembered the bunny. I looked over to the place where the bunny was.
It was still there.
"Well," I whispered to myself. "I guess that it was just a doll."
Suddenly, my room tossed and turned as if it was in a tornado, and the bunny was sparking a deadly green lightning, sort of like those mutations that happen in movies. But this is real life. I rubbed my eyes in hopes it was all just my imagination, but I was still in this tornado of a mess.
Then I heard a strange, shaky voice "You...Traitor." I turned to the voice, all shaken up. The bunny. It was a living nightmare, the bunny's jaws wide open with sharp teeth that seemed to be stained with a dark fluid. Suddenly, I stopped breathing and my heart stopped beating. I swiftly grabbed my chest and fell to the ground.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" I screamed, still stripped from oxygen.
"It's nOT mE." Replied the bunny distortedly. "What's wrong with you?" I didn't understand. I gave the bunny what it wanted, and now it was trying to suffocate me.
"I DON'T GET IT, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?" I managed, running out of breath and circulation.
"You said you would love me, YOU said you would take care of me!" answered the bunny, who was starting to fade.
"BUT I AM!" I said, with the last of my breath.
"Is that so?" He said, followed by him vanishing. My heartbeat and my breathing came back abruptly, and I was just happy that I wasn't gone.
For good.
Next morning I went to the kitchen to get breakfast, expecting the bunny to be there. To my great relief, the bunny wasn't sitting on the counter, so I decided to search the house.
No bunny.
I finally thought I could go back to my old life, school, Mum, Alfred-Suddenly I mentally see him and his gang stuffing me into the trash, as if they hadn't done that enough (ahem, they did). Yeah, no, let's not think about Alfred. I poured myself some cereal, ate it, got dressed, packed up, and headed out to school. I was there. Scholar King Elementary. I walked into my class to start the day.
Surprised, Miss Hedervary asked, "You're early?"
Sure I was. It was so quiet you could hear a leaf drop, and it was as empty as a graveyard. Guess you could say it was...DEAD SILENT!
Haha—no.
I waited for the room to fill up with my classmates, but it was just me, and Miss Hedervary. Eventually, my friend, Michelle, came in. She set down her stuff and looked at me with the same surprise that Miss Hedervary gave me. "You're early?" She asked.
I was going to tell her that she just repeated what Miss Hedervary asked me, but instead I just replied, "Yes."
After what felt like all eternity, everyone settled into the class. "Alrighty, kids. Time to learn about complicated words."
"Lemme guess, floccinaucinihilipilification and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis plus Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…-" I stopped because that last word would take way too long to pronounce at once.
Even then, everyone, and Michelle had their jaws wide open.
"How did-what is-are you-" stuttered Miss Hedervary. It wasn't hard to say the words, but it was hard for others to believe what I had just said. After that the class just got kind of silent. When it was time to leave class, everyone was talking about me and my "big" mouth. In the halls, I saw Alfred and his gang approach me.
Great.
"What up, NERD." The rest of the gang just chuckled and took turns socking me in the stomach, then left. Michelle luckily saw this and helped me up to my feet. I bet if she could, she would stand up to Alfred. For her sake and mine. Lunchtime rolled about and everyone talked about how they thought the school lunches were terrible. "I, for one, think that the school lunches are pretty goooooooo-" My voice trails off as I see a stuffed bunny on the lunch line.
Willows bunny.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I didn't realize the people trying to talk to me. I got a grip back on reality and went to get lunch. At the lunch table I sat down next to Michelle, like I always do.
A lot of people say stuff like "Ooooooohhhhh!" or "Arthur has a girlfriend!"
Nah. She's not. Besides, she was my only friend. I wouldn't want her to think otherwise. As I sat down next to Michelle, she asks me,
"What was all that head shaking all about?" Ugh, how do I explain this one. I told Michelle everything, from the bunny to the tornado-in-a-room. To my relief, she believed me.
"So, what drove the bunny specifically to your house?" I froze. I had never thought about that. All I knew that a creepy magical bunny doll came to my house seeking care and love.
"I—actually don't know. "I replied, still thinking about Michelle's question.
"Fair enough." Michelle said.
Glad about not having to answer any more questions, I ate my lunch as quiet as a mouse, hoping to avoid another question. In the hallways, everyone was staring at me. Confused, I asked one of the...um...starers what was going on. Then, out of nowhere, he said "Freak." And walked off.
Okay, first people are being loud mouths about me and now they're silently staring at me. I walked down the hall being a little precautious for the bunny and Barry. As I headed towards the recess door, I saw two students in my grade lying on the ground with scratch marks. The scratch marks had some stuffing in them. I felt the stuffing, and it felt like...Willows bunny.
No. The bunny was already outside?! I had to do something! I quickly ran out the door to face that living nightmare.
When I walked out the door, I immediately saw something wrong. All the kids looked happy, but the toys and recess equipment were different. The ground was all black, all the trees were flashing a dark red and black, the swings were make of flails attached to swords, the sky was blood-red, and the sandbox looked like little clowns were using metal "toy" blades to butcher rotting bloodstained deer.
Feeling quite uncomfortable, I walked up to a little boy playing in the deer-pit and asked him what was going on. Then I saw it. He was holding Willows bunny. I quickly snatched the bunny by its ears. Then I felt a sharp jolt of pain, the same jolt that I'd felt after I grabbed the bunny from my mom.
"StoP!"
I turned around. No one.
"LeT gO Of mE YoU TraItOR!" I spun my head back to my hands. It was gone.
The bunny was gone.
I was still trying to find that beast. It was practically impossible, as the creepy kids and darkness weren't helping to make anything easier. Scouring the main playground, I felt a tug on my shirt, and a groaning sound. I turned around. Nothing.
Then, out of nowhere, a sharp stab-like pain in my hands. I pulled my hands away and stared at them in disbelief. I was covered in the same black fluid that the bunny had on its teeth before.
It couldn't be.
But it was.
"That is the blood of your soul, shrouded in darkness," said a voice. I turned around, only to see a kid with the bunny's teeth. "This corpse is a great and worthy host for my liking."
Then I realized, the kid had been possessed by the bunny. "Snap out of it!" I shouted.
"He can't hear you. He's mine now." I didn't want to hurt anyone, but I had no choice. I socked the kid in the stomach, like how Alfred did to mine. The bunny came flying out of his hands; a dark mist came out of him and into the bunny. The kid lay dead as a doorknob.
"What did you do to him?!" I asked.
"I took his soul, and you'd better run before I take yours." answered the bunny.
"No! I saw what you did to the students back there in the building, you tore them apart and left them for dead. I'm not letting you mess with my school like that and get away with it!"
So this bunny thought this was all pure fun. One, it wasn't pure. Two, it wasn't fun. At all.
"Okay, then, say goodbye." The bunny puked a sharp black whip at my legs. I quickly jumped, only to get my arms pinned to a nearby wall. "Nice moves, too bad that you can't use them anymore." The bunny shot three sharp tongues at my chest. I swiftly twisted my body, my arms still pinned to the wall. The three tongues barely skimmed my shirt, shaving just enough cloth to expose my back.
"Come on now, human traitor, play nice," the bunny horridly replied. As if. He has me pinned to a wall and I have nothing to defend my body other than my shirt, and he wants me to play nice?
This bunny is insane.
I had to break out of the bunny's grasp. I tugged as hard as I could, but my hands only slipped closer to the bunny. "Yeah, go on, make yourself an easier target, i'm not stopping you," the bunny said, as if it was funny. With limited time to get out of the bunny's grasp, I, without thinking, bit the bunny's tongue. The bunny let out a blood curdling screech as its tongues retracted back into its mouth with an unusually disturbing slurp. With the bunny screaming in pain, I sprinted back to the building entrance. I carried the two scarred kids into the nurse's office where we all got bandaged, the other two's stained red, while mine
were
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—
-Beep-
-Beep-
"Arthur? Arthur, can you hear me?"
Huh? What was going on? Where was I?
"We were so worried." I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was Michelle, but I couldn't see her. All I could see was darkness, but I was still conscious.
"We found you in the nurse's office. I was worried sick, you passed out!" It was mom.
"Mum?" I started, "Where are you?" I couldn't see a thing. So this is why the bunny said I was shrouded in darkness. It hurt to breathe, too. Suddenly, I felt a cloudy smoke come out of my mouth, and I started choking.
"Doctors! My son is choking!" My mom sounded like she was in a panic. So that's where I was. I was hospitalized, which would explain why it felt like I was laying in a hospital bed. I still had no idea what was going on.
"Mum? Michelle? I can't see you!" And I was right. All I could see was darkness. I could feel my hands, wet and clearly still bandaged. It was like I was blinded.
By darkness.
"Okay," started Michelle. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Ten?" I answered, hoping to get it right.
"Sorry," Michelle said. "Only seven."
Darn. It was bad enough that I got pinned to a wall by a psycho-bunny, but now I couldn't see a thing. My brain became a train on tracks when my memories came flashing before me. All the scars, pain, suffering, joy, all in one. It was painful to see these memories tick by before I get completely consumed by darkness. The nostalgia was like a baseball to the face; it hit me hard. What if I didn't make it out alive and had to be blinded forever? I didn't like the way the bunny treated others, but I was the only one who can stop it. Even so, in a state like this, the hospital might as well not exist.
At this point, it wouldn't matter. I started to tear up. Then, it happened. All the darkness that had once consumed my body had been washed away. I could see! I was overjoyed when I saw that my wounds had healed, and when I saw my mom and Michelle. It was time I returned back home to prepare myself for what would soon become history.
Home.
Home sweet home.
I was back at home. It has felt like so long since I first left home for school. I felt a bit trembly when I first came back, but it soon felt much better. I went back to my room to plan for the bunny's next step. I knew it liked to play dirty, but I still couldn't wrap around my head why it specifically came to my house.
Was I cursed?
School is tough enough when bullies are always on your tail, but now there's a bunny terrorizing the school. I wanted to go back to class, as it was still 2:47, but I needed to rest and think about what to do to prepare myself against that horrid beast. I started biting my pen as I jot down strategies to help. I knew that my tears cleared away the darkness that once consumed me, but that wasn't valid proof. Maybe the bunny had more to it than I thought.
"Arthur?"
My mom was calling me. "Arthur! How exactly did you end up like that?" She asked.
I didn't want her to know about that demon, and besides, she would probably regard me as a liar.
"I don't think you want to know, and you wouldn't believe me, anyways," I responded. My mom shook her head and told me to stop hiding these things. I guess I had no choice. "It's-just," I started. I explained how the bunny appeared on our doorstep and freakily glitched into our house, and started choking her.
She nodded her head understandingly. "You shouldn't try to protect you school if those injuries keep on happening. You should contact authorities," she told me.
"The authorities wouldn't do anything about it, and I don't want to sacrifice Michelle's life only for saving my own," I responded. And I wasn't lying. Sacrificing lives to save your own isn't right. And authorities weren't made to stop rabid demon bunnies. I was still the only one that could do anything.
Unless…
"Mom," I said "I have to go." She urged me not to leave, and I can understand why. It's only been five minutes since I got home from the hospital, but my plan was the only thing I had left.
I set of with all that I needed. I was going to be hard, but I had only one shot at my plan. Otherwise, we're all done for. I remembered the Willows, or known as,
Willows of Wysteria.
The Willows weren't very far from home, and that's a good thing. The Willows was a nice calm forest full of willow trees, waterleaf, lots of friendly animals, and a nice clean spring stream-
Wait.
The girl.
That little girl.
I remembered that flashback when the bunny was choking my mom, it was a little girl throwing a bunny into the river. She was alone, looking like a sick and twisted version of Michelle, with tattered clothes and a the smile on her face was like-
URRACK!
"WHAT HAPPENED!?" I thought. I could taste blood on my mouth, and there was a scarlet red needle-like claw in my chest…
The claw retracted, and I swung my head around to see what had stabbed me. It was-
"LoOKiNg FOr mE?" said a voice. My vision was getting blurry, but I could tell who it was. It was the little girl. I stood up, looking at her horrific face. Her head was tilted; to glitching and shaking abruptly. "Will you cOoOoOm-m-m-m-m-m-m Pl-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-lay-y-y-y wi-i-i-i-with-h-h mEeee?-?-?-?-?"
~to be continued...
I'd like to thank my brother for writing this story so I could adapt it to Hetalia! Hope it was good, read and review if you want a sequel :D
Crafty out!