If you are sensitive to animal death, gore involving rabbits, or somewhat abusive language towards a child, please skip this chapter.

Another Runt of the Litter

He could hear everything, but dared not open his eyes. The squeals reached his ears, followed by the scrapping of claws on the cutting board. Daddy grumbled, tightening his grip around the rabbit's pure white underbelly, and Morry's stomach squeezed as if that hand had wrapped around him. He rubbed his stomach, bowing his head as Butch hissed at the rabbit to stop squirming, his growl laced with malice, his shadow covering both bunny and boy.

Another shriek ripped free from the back of the bunny's throat. Loud thuds echoed from her feet pounding on the cutting board. Her struggles were met with another snarl, Morry keeping his eyes squeezed shut as Butch reached over, the sharp jut of his knee bumping into the side of Morry's head.

"Move aside. I can't reach 'em," he snarled, and Morry, covering his eyes, scampered.

He bumped into a counter and rubbed his head, His brothers laughed outside, darting across their yard. Morry bit back his whimpers, one of them shouting at the other to go long. His mama's voice filtered in from the open window, the air and her tone too sweet as she asked them if they wanted some lemonade.

Metal scrapped against the cutting board. It made his molars ache, their nerves feeling inflamed. He cupped his jaw, his fingers pressing into pudgy skin, but trying as he might to remain in the dark, he felt everything. The fear boiling in the bunny's gut was his own. His throat ached as the bunny screamed itself raw, thrashing on the board as Daddy's shadow shrouded him, but Morry knew. He knew the inevitable.

Flesh parted as the knife split open her belly. Blood pooled and stained her fur crimson. Beady black eyes bulged and shined brighter than ever before. Her tail twitched, and her limbs beat on the board as Daddy withdrew the blade, bones crunching with another squeeze.

Morry nearly doubled over. Vomit filled his mouth and almost gushed out like a raging waterfall. He swallowed it down, tasting a chunk of meat from last night's stew. He groped his belly, feeling as if his intestines were squirming and coiling around his other organs, trying to free themselves from his round body from an invisible wound.

Another scream emerged and was silenced just as quickly. Daddy dug deeper, twisting the blade in her gut and carving through muscles and organs. He grunted and shoved it deeper until the tip of the blade hit the board, the veins on his arms bulging as he finished. The bunny gasped, expelled her bowels, and collapsed, her ears flopping over her face.

Morry's knees knocked, his lungs failing to expand as acid mingled with urine. Still blinded, he reached for the table with a pale white hand, a splash of red covering it in his mind's eye. And he tried ambling away, his daddy continued to slice and dice at his leisure through fur and muscle, humming a tune they had heard on the radio.

Morry should have been used to the stench, but the copper was too rich. It wafted around him, like a painter brushing the air with bloody, wispy streaks. He bit back his moan, his body weighed down with squirming entrails begging to see the light of day and mocked him, continuing to fill his mouth with raw, soiled meat..

"What's wrong with you? Hiding another runt," Daddy spat, not sparing him a cursory look. He dragged the blade along the cutting board, bloody droplets becoming one with his smock. He snorted and gripped something unknown to Morry, but it squished and squelched in a way that made his stomach churn again. "You know better," he hissed, "especially since this one was even smaller than the first. Don't let me catch you hiding another runt, y'hear me? Don't make Daddy catch you again or else."

Lips trembling, all Morry managed was a nod. His tiny legs carried him out before his eyelids could part. Escaping into the hallway, Morry blinked open his eyes and let the tears welling in the corners of them trickle down his cheeks.

But as he dragged himself over to his mama waiting in the doorway, he realized his tears were rich and coppery, staining his face and clothes like the rabbit's ichor draining down the sink.