The world seemed to stop for that split second as Zel charged forward. His entire life flashed by him and it seemed to all happen in a blink of an eye. He remembered waking up in Halloween Town, he remembered being an outcast. Being hated and reviled against by all of the members of the town. He remembered how they wouldn't even look at him, how even the passing glances seemed to be ill intended. Then he remembered the one person who had shown him kindness.
. . .
He ran. He ran and ran and just kept on running. It wasn't fair, what had he ever done to deserve this. All he had ever been to these people was polite and sincere and they treated him like he was the monster; like he had some kind of horrible disease that would kill all of them. It wasn't fair. He finally collapsed in a dark alleyway far from the sight of anyone else. All of the monsters were walking around doing their normal daily things, no one thought to look into the darkened alleyway and see the young man sitting there with his knees drawn in close to him guarding his face and the commotion of everything muffled the sound of his sobs. This wasn't the first time he had broken down like this. Ever since he had awoken into this life that he had no memory of he had been stretched to his limits and back. He was a strong person, but it could only last for so long with all of the hostility aimed at him. He gripped his hands tight and cursed at himself for being different from them. He reached his hand up and gently touched the left side of his face. It had been scarred beyond repair by something and it left him feeling insecure about everything. He wasn't sure if that was what was causing the others to turn their backs on him or if it had been something he had done. He quickly forced his hand down and buried his face in his knees, hiding the scars from the rest of the world.
"Now why in the name of all things Halloween would you want to do that?" a voice said from next to him.
Zel quickly looked up and over to his right at the other end of the alley. It was shrouded in shadows and made things hard to see in the failing hours of twilight. He squinted his eyes and could vaguely make out a shape standing a few feet from him. The figure took a few steps towards him and stopped.
"That scar makes you unique," the voice said, it was obviously feminine. "there's no reason to hide it. It sets you apart from everyone here."
The figure stepped forward into the light her bare feet touching the light first before the rest of her body followed. Zel looked up and saw that it was a girl not much older than he was, which would have put her around 17. She wore a light yellow sundress that ended just below her knees and looked almost identical to him other than the fact that she had a pair of small bunny ears off the top of her head. She looked down on him with her crystal blue eyes and smiled softly. Zel couldn't help but return the gesture.
The girl extended a hand towards him continued to smile. "Hi, my name's Bunni. What's yours?" she asked.
Zel gently grasped her hand and she hoisted him to his feet with a shocking amount of strength for her petite looking body. "My name's Zel." He responded.
Bunni raised her eyebrow and tilted her head. "What kind of a name is that?" she asked.
Zel chuckled and gave her a teasing smile. "Well what kind of a name is Bunni?" he asked.
Bunni erupted into laughter and patted him on the back. "Okay, I guess you got me on that one." She chuckled, "So you're that new guy around here that everyone's been avoiding?" she asked.
Zel nodded shyly suddenly ashamed.
"Hey, don't give me that look. I honestly don't care what or who you are. I'm an outcast too, I have been all of my life. Eventually you get used to it." She said. Then she hopped up on a nearby trashcan with catlike agility and balance and stood there leaning against the alley wall. "but then again who would want to be friends with a bunch of stiffs like them anyway? They're all different, but they can't see past our differences. Pfft who needs em'?"
Zel shrugged, although he agreed with her wholeheartedly. This whole town was nothing more than a giant melting pot of freaks and monsters and the two of them were outcasts for some reason? He didn't understand it.
Bunni looked down at him from the trashcan and smiled. "But I like you, I think you're different from the rest of the pompous hypocrites. You wanna be friends?" she asked.
Zel was star struck. Out of all his time here no one had even wanted to talk to him, let alone ask if he wanted to be friends and out of the blue here came this girl who wanted to be his friend after only moments of meeting him.
"Uhh, sure." He said finally.
Bunni practically exploded off the trashcan and left it knocked over behind her as she pounced on him. She grabbed him in her arms and hoisted him off his feet and started jumping around letting out squeals of joy. "Finally, finally, finally!" she shrieked happily, "I finally have a real friend!" she was laughing uncontrollably and after a second Zel couldn't help but laugh along with her.
She finally set him down but the smile on her face wouldn't go away. "So do you have a place to stay?" she asked.
Zel nodded. "Yeah, I live with the Skellingtons for now." He said.
Bunni's smile vanished. "Oh, you live with them…" she trailed off.
Zell looked at her confused. "Yeah, why?" he asked, "Is that a problem?"
Bunni nodded. "Yeah," she said looking away, "They…they don't like me very much."
Zel took a step towards her. "Well you know what, that doesn't matter to me." He said firmly, "You're the only friend I have here and nothing that the Skellingtons or anyone else says will ever take that away. I'll always be your friend." He said with a smile.
Bunni turned around with tears in her eyes and just stared at him for a moment. Finally she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder.
"Thank you," she sobbed, "thank you so much. I've never had anyone say anything like that to me before."
Zel smiled and pulled her close. "Well that just goes to show you that you've never had a friend like me before." He said.
And there in that dark alleyway away from the rest of the world their close friendship began. It would continue to strengthen and grow until the day that the two were forcibly separated by fate.
. . .
Zel shook the images out of his head. There was no time for any of this now. His town was in danger, his people were at the risk of death, and the one behind it all just happened to be the person he used to call his friend. There was no room for compassion, no room for…
Your past
The words echoed in his head and as he took another running step towards her his head swirled with more memories and he was again lost in that split second.
. . .
The night was dark and cold as the two of them ran through the town laughing. Zel on the right with his hearty laugh and his cool demeanor and Bunni on the left with her elegant laughter and her wild excitement. The two were the perfect pair and they knew it and so did the rest of the town. They had just set one of the werewolves' tails on fire during the Halloween celebration and had ran before anyone could catch them. They just kept running and laughing, daring the world to try and stop them in the prime of their youth. They made their way through the graveyard, Bunni hopping from gravestone to gravestone and Zel running next to her, until they came to the gates that marked the pumpkin patch.
This had been the sole property of the Skellington family ever since Halloween Town had first been formed by Jack's Ancestors. It was their duty to defend the souls stored inside the pumpkins of the patch which maintained peace and harmony throughout the town. Zel and Bunni made their way carefully through the patch making sure not to disturb any of the soul containers until they came to the hill that stood in the middle of it. They both climbed to the top and sat down on it's curved end. Between the laughter and the running they both struggled to catch their breath.
"Oh my god, did you see how he yelped!" Bunni said still laughing.
Zel continued laughing and nodded his head. "Yeah, that was priceless."
The two of them just sat there laughing until their laughter finally died down and left only the quiet of the night and the dying lights of the town.
"Well it was actually pretty scary this time." Zel said finally as he looked up at the stars.
Bunni nodded. "Yeah, Jack sure knows what he's doing when he plans this stuff. Even though I'm sure the Mayor will try and take some credit for it like always."
Bunni sighed and looked up at the stars with him. "Do you think we'll ever be a part of it one day? The celebration I mean."
Zel shrugged. "I suppose anything is possible. Who knows maybe in a few years we'll be running this show." He sighed and put his hand over his scars.
Bunni knocked his hand down and looked over at him. "Why?" she asked, "Why are you still trying to hide it. It makes you special."
Zel shook his head. "I dunno. You say that, but I just don't feel it sink in. I feel like it's bad on some levels. Like it sets me apart; that it makes me ugly."
He didn't even notice Bunni cocking back her hand and it shocked him when he felt her hand explode across the side of his face.
"Shut up!" she yelled at him, "You're always doing this. You never think you're good enough for anything, but you are Zel." Tears were now coming down her face. "You always act like you're insignificant and unimportant but you are so much more than that. You have so much talent and promise it's not even funny. And you're not ugly, in fact you're the farthest thing from it that could possibly exist. Those scars make you who you are. They make you my one and only friend, they make you my only family, they make you the man I…" she trailed off and wouldn't finish.
Zel just sat there dumfounded. He dropped his hand away from his burning cheek and looked over at Bunni. She had turned away from him and refused to look in his direction. He took his hand and slid it over hers and squeezed gently. She turned and looked at him and there in the moonlight under the stars there lips met for a brief second that felt like an eternity to the both of them.
. . .
But it was never meant to be, for not long after that Bunni murdered one of the Town's Vampires in cold blood and Jack exiled her from the town. It was a tough blow for Zel, Bunni never came to say goodbye. A few times after that he had ventured out into the forest to try and find his dear friend, but she was nowhere to be found. Months passed and when they finally met again out in the reaches of the forest they were both different people. Zel had become more responsible and a trained soldier, while Bunni had taken on the life of a careless rouge. Zel could never bring himself to hate her though, no matter how difficult she made his trips into the woods in the passing months he still regarded her as a friend. But the spark that they'd had that night under the stars was gone.
Zel knew this as he charged forward, this wasn't the same Bunni that he had kissed under the stars, but the memory kept playing in his head as he ran. Then he looked into her eyes. Her once beautiful crystal blue eyes had been transformed into something of a dark evil. This wasn't the Bunni he had been friends with, this wasn't even the Bunni from the other day. She had been changed somehow, Zel could tell. No matter what bitterness she held against the town she would never have gone as far as this, never in her life. That was when it struck Zel. This wasn't her fault. Maybe his dear friend was still in there somewhere, all he had to do was reach her. But could he do it before she leveled the entire town and massacred tons including himself?
