Seven
She was fuming.
Foxes. Evil. Every last one of them, evil. Finnick, who threatened to kill everyone he ever met; Gideon, who would have been a pred supremacist to his dying day had he lived at any point in history before the miracle of modern psychology; and stupid, stupid Nick, the one who'd gotten them into this situation, the one who'd apparently shown his real self to some poor bunny woman years ago and was now back to terrorize her and her daughter all over again, the classic faux-charming sociopath who didn't truly give a flip about anybody, hardly even himself. Judy was furious with herself for letting someone who could have been the main character of Animerican Psycho so deeply into her life. She was boiling with anger and could just about imagine herself turning red - and the idea of looking red like them just made her even angrier. How could she ever have been so stupid as to believe vulpines could be anything other than monsters when so many of them were literally the same color as the Devil!?
"Any luck finding your mommy, little girl? …Or The Fox, for that matter?" Because she most certainly would have loved to have found him herself and strangled him with his own tie while screaming in his stupid angular face that he couldn't lie to her anymore and that she'd learned of his true colors - and they weren't any colors she'd ever seen in a crayon box.
As for the nameless bunny girl herself, Judy had lost sight of her again, but she wasn't worried; the child kept disappearing and reappearing, going completely silent just to be a Chatty Cathy for a few minutes and then quieting herself again. The officer was starting to get used to the ebb and flow and was working around it.
And after a while of staying hushed, the child could be heard, though not seen:
"...Can I ask a question?"
"...Of course," Judy answered after taking a second to contain her anger and project herself as a confident authority figure.
"What are you gonna do when you find The Fox?" asked the darkness.
She smirked a smirk that no one else could see. "I'm gonna punish him."
"...Are you gonna hurt him?"
Oh, I'm gonna do a LOT more than that. "If he deserves it."
The girl made herself visible again for a brief moment before Judy lost her again. "But I thought you were a police officer."
"I am," Judy answered proudly.
"...You said the police are for helping mammals."
"I did," she affirmed, "and we are. We only hurt the ones who really deserve it. Just like your mommy said she was gonna do!"
The girl was quiet for a moment before answering: "...But you're not my mommy."
"So?"
The child didn't answer. And this didn't bother Judy; she didn't expect a little kid to have logically-foolproof answers to everything. Especially when that little girl had been traumatized by a bully.
But Judy still knew that she had to be dutiful and make sure she didn't jump to conclusions. "Are you… sure this is the fox you and your mommy know, little girl?"
"Yeah… he's the same one."
"...What's he like?" she pressed, firm but kind. "Tell me about him."
The darkness seemed to think about that. "Um… he's red."
"Uh-huh…"
"And he… he's bigger than my mommy and me…"
"Of course…"
"And… and he has pointy ears and teeth, too."
Patience, Judy, patience. "But what about him besides… how he looks? How's he… how's he act?"
Another pause.
"...He… he seems really friendly at first…"
Judy nodded to herself. "Yeah…?"
"And… uh… he smiles a lot, and that makes him look friendly."
And what a smile it is, don't remind me. "...What else?"
In the black distance, the girl started whimpering again as she spoke: "...But then… then he says really mean things… things that hurt my feelings and my mommy's feelings…"
"Yeah… yeah, he does."
"But he's still smiling when he does it… but it's a mean-person smile! Like he's happy being mean!"
The officer was seething under her breath. "What kind of mean things does he say to you and your mommy?"
"...That we're dumb bunnies."
"Mmmmmhmm." She felt the fist in her free paw balling up.
"And that… that he's smarter than us."
"Sounds about right." Her muscles started tightening all over.
"And… and this all belongs to foxes like him."
"Yeeeup." She grabbed her car keys from her pocket and held them so the sharpest key jutted out from her fist between her fingers.
"And that we should just go away!"
And with her other paw, she stuck her phone in her chest pocket to shine from there as she readied her taser.
"And that he's gonna MAKE us go away!"
Judy was no longer listening at this point, at least not to the girl; she was keeping her ears focused on any sounds of another presence approaching.
"And he's been saying that since the choo-choo train crashed!"
What was Judy's reaction to that statement? Nothing; she didn't realize until later that that had been what the girl had said, not until when she had time to replay it in her head long after the fact. No, at that very moment, Officer Hopps encountered something that stole away her full attention.
Her phone's flashlight bouncing in her shirt pocket, pointing every which way but forward, she noticed something off to the left. Figures, two of them. And they were red.
Judy's pupils shrunk as she leapt over to the strange entities, attacking before they could attack her first. As she did, her phone fell out of her pocket, and all she had to go by was the scant light straying from the beam now pointed at the ceiling behind her. She went for the larger one, jabbing it with her buzzing taser and hoping to incapacitate it and scare the smaller one off. But no luck, it seemed, as she suddenly felt something come down on her shoulder.
She didn't even look at it as she dropped her taser and grabbed for whatever it was; as soon as she felt something firm and thick and furry, her brain throbbing with urgency and heart pulsing with rage, she yanked it off herself and thrust it up against the wall. And with her fist with her car key sticking out, she stabbed it, and stabbed it, and stabbed it, and stabbed it, again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again and again and again until whatever it was finally stopped moving.
And only then did she realize it never had been.
Her adrenaline was depleted; shaking as she realized what she'd done, she released her grasp on the strange anomaly, which then fell onto her feet - softly. Reaching back for her phone, she guided its light to the lifeless mass, and there she found a pile of cloth and stuffing that had once been a plush bunny doll wearing old-fashioned girls' clothing. And looking up, the two entities had been mere graffiti: a little rabbit and a big rabbit, silhouettes rendered in blood-red spraypaint, a message scrawled beneath their likenesses:
StAy AWAy fROm tHEm
"Oh… oh, my-"
"NO!"
When Judy heard the little girl screaming in her ear, she was too frightened to jump or to scream. She just turned her head very, very slowly to face her. And when she did, she saw that the tears flowing down the child's cheeks shimmered in the light emanating from her eyes.
"YOU SAID YOU WERE A GOOD COP!" the little girl shrieked. "BUT YOU LIED!"
"I… I…" But Judy didn't know what to say. She just put her paws up to plead innocence as she slowly tried to step back.
"That was a drawing of my mommy and me someone made!" the child screeched through tears. "AND YOU TRIED TO HURT US! And you…" The bunny girl bent down and picked up what was left of her stuffed doll. Her voice was on the verge of breaking, but she wouldn't be silenced: "And when Molly tried to stop you… YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED HER JUST LIKE THE FOX TRIED TO KILL ME AND MY MOMMY!"
Every syllable that came out of the girl's mouth felt to Judy like a bullet through her soul. She was crying herself as she struggled desperately to think of something, anything comforting to say.
"I- I-I'm so sorry, I didn't - I didn't mean to-!"
"YOU'RE NOT A GOOD POLICE OFFICER!" the little girl hollered so loudly that it nearly deafened her addressee. Sobbing, she started punching the very bad cop over and over in the stomach with both fists. "You killed Molly, YOU KILLED MOLLY, YOU KILLED MOLLY, YOU KILLED MOLLY!"
And never in all her years of tomboyish roughhousing had Judy Hopps encountered someone who could punch as hard as that little girl was punching her right then; no boys, no girls, no kids, no grown-ups, no foxes, no bunnies, nobody. Each punch to the gut felt like her ribcage was shattering, and she could hardly breathe. It was at this point that she began to realize why whoever had drawn that graffiti of the mother and daughter had warned whoever found it to keep their distance.
That was also when Judy realized how wrong she was, and that she should have trusted that fox who she'd found herself seeking to harm. Not knowing what else to do, she turned and ran away, as fast as she could.
But as soon as she did, she started hearing something. It wasn't the sound of her pounding footsteps, nor the sound of her huffing and puffing to run even faster than a rabbit was supposed to. She slowed down and forced herself to listen closely, just in case this was another sign of a new threat. And she was glad she did; this was the distinct sound of others.
Others speaking, murmuring, whispering. Despite how loud they were, she couldn't make out what any of them were saying. But just like listening to a language you don't speak, she could still decipher the tone loud and clear: they were shocked and appalled; they were disgusted and disappointed; they were judging her. And the cacophony was slowly getting louder.
"WHO'S THERE!?" Now it was Judy whose frightened whimpers echoed down the corridor.
"Our neighbors," the little girl said as she slowly and calmly walked towards Judy from behind.
"N-NEIGHBORS!?" asked Judy. "WHAT NEIGHBORS!?"
"Everyone else who was on the choo-choo train with us.. Mommy says we all have to live together now." The girl wasn't afraid anymore; she was livid. "They saw what you did. They know you're a bad cop."
"N-NO!" Judy yelled, sounding like she was begging the voices not to damn her. "NO, I… I'm not a bad cop, I just…! AAAAAH!"
The first touch she felt grabbed at one of her ears. She turned around to see whose paw it was, but nobody was there. Then something tugged on her tail; again, she couldn't see anyone or anything. Then her other ear got yanked. Then the first one again. Then her arm. Then her cheek. Then her shirt sleeve. Then her foot, until it felt like a thousand phantom hands were trying to pull her in a million different directions.
"STOP!" she pleaded, twisting and turning to try to escape the grabs, but to no avail. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Yet she could hardly hear her own screaming as the wordless voices got louder and louder.
But there was one figure Judy could see: the little rabbit, dragging the eviscerated corpse of her dolly Molly. And even for as many times as she'd seen Nick's canine irises shimmer in the night, Judy had never in her life seen eyes shine as bright as that little girl's were in that dark tunnel.
And she finally figured out how the girl moved so fast through the tunnel without tripping: Judy could see now that the little bunny's feet passed right through the rail ties.
She only hoped Nick would get out safe as well, but she knew she'd be no good to anybody dead. So Judy ran.
Yet as loud as the chorus of disembodied jeers had become, one voice still carried above them all:
"MOMMY! THAT BUNNY LADY TRIED TO MAKE ME DIE!"
-IllI-
Nick was no longer enjoying his time with The Stranger. But he didn't stop walking and talking with him. After all, The Stranger was right, about everything. Nick knew he'd do good to follow his will.
"So what do you think we should do about all these rabbits?" the older fox mused.
Nick knew he had to say something to appease him, so he said what he thought he'd want to hear. "Uhhh… kill them all?"
The Stranger seemed to flinch before giving Nick a very dirty look and giving him a decent shove, almost toppling our hero over.
"What are ya!? Adolf Kitler!?" The Stranger scoffed. "We don't expunge our food source from existence!"
Nick hung his head in shame. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir."
"Aw, ya don't have to call me sir, ya sycophantic little wiener," the tramp grumbled. "But… I am glad that you're at least accepting that I know what's best. I just wish you'd listen better."
Ever since they'd met, Nick had felt a fatherly vibe from this guy, but as the night went on, that feeling had only strengthened for both good and bad: it felt like The Stranger cared about him like a loving dad would, he wouldn't be keeping Nick around if he didn't… but true to form, he started seeming like a dad who was very capable of getting stern and angry just as well. Like a dad who genuinely believes he loves you, but who also genuinely believes that sometimes fatherly love entails berating and belittling you for your long-term benefit; for better or worse, The Stranger's fatherliness was becoming more realistically well-rounded with the good and the bad of a real dad.
Was that the way Nick remembered his own father? Fuck if he remembered, Papa Wilde's life hadn't overlapped his own for very long. Maybe that's why Nick was so thoroughly spellbound by this guy: something inside of him felt the need to make up for lost time, both the good and the bad moments that come between a young man and his old man.
The older fox seemed lost in thought again. "Tell me, Nicky: have you ever had the compulsion to eat a bunny before I put the idea in your head?"
"Um… su-sure I have." And he realized he wasn't lying. "I mean… just… just, like, a fleeting thought, y'know? Same way we all have the sudden thoughts to do crazy shit like… aw, I dunno, to burn our school down or to kill our families or something. It's just… it's a thought that lasts for maybe two seconds before it goes away, y'know? Yeah, I've had it like that… is that what you mean?"
The Stranger gave another winning smirk. "Now, ya see, Nick… the difference is that those examples you listed are incredibly fucked up and you should feel bad about thinking them… but the desire to eat rabbits is inherent in our blood. Murdering mammals for no constructive reason isn't natural, but murdering mammals for constructive reasons is very natural!"
The officer just nodded sheepishly.
"...You really haven't had the desire to eat a bunny?" the old fox continued.
Nick shook his head meekly.
"Now ya see, that fascinates me just as much as it worries me."
And that was when The Stranger stopped walking. Nick did the same as soon as he noticed.
"Look me in the eye, Nick."
And so he did.
"Let's… give you the vulpine litmus test," The Stranger said rather formally. "Have you ever… scammed someone out of their money?"
"...I have," Nick said timidly.
"Have you… hoodwinked somebody purely for your own amusement?"
"...Yeah, I have."
"Have you stolen so often without getting caught that you can do it with confidence at this point?"
"Yes, I have."
"Have you cheated - in games or in romance or anything at all - so often without getting caught that you can do that with confidence?"
"Yes."
"Have you made a point to make others feel stupid?"
"Yes."
"Have you made a point to make others feel incompetent?"
"...Yeah. Yes."
"Have you ever consciously tried to charm somebody you didn't give a fuck about specifically so you could take advantage of them?"
A deep breath through his nose. "...Yes."
"Are you good at that?"
"Yes."
"And finally, have you ever…" He paused to choose his words carefully. "...Have you ever made a conscious effort to degrade someone so much that it'll permanently lower their self-esteem and ensure they know better than to ever get in your way ever again?"
Nick was having trouble maintaining eye contact at this point. "...Yeah. I have. I have done that, yes."
The Stranger clapped his paws together. "Welp! Sounds pretty foxy to me! Now open up your mouth."
"Wait, wha-? AAAAAH!"
Proactive as ever, The Stranger grabbed Nick by the lips and pried his jaw open, then stuck his nose inside.
Sniff, sniff, sniff sniff sniff.
With the old fox's grip like iron, Nick could only stand there and try not to whimper and whine as his jaw seemed to be open one degree past how far it was supposed to go.
Finally, The Stranger surrendered his grasp and Nick relaxed his aching mouth. The older fox gave the younger one a look that seemed to be pitying him.
"...You don't eat meat," observed The Stranger. "You don't eat meat at all… You're a vegetarian, aren't ya, Nick?"
And Nick just stared back silently for a moment, looking terrified, trying desperately to find a way to lie his way out of this. Alas, he couldn't.
"...Yes."
With a smirk, The Stranger closed his eyes, shook his head, and tutted his tongue. "C'mon now, Nick… whatever would possess you to do a damn-fool thing like that?"
The younger fox almost looked like he was testifying before a judge. "I… I dunno."
But the older fox wasn't buying it. "You made a major life decision and you don't even know why, eh?" he asked, looking disappointed with his paws on his hips.
Nick didn't even look nervous so much as glumly accepting of his fate. "I mean… there's… there wasn't just one reason-"
"Explain."
"...Um… health reasons, uh-"
"Even though we've established that eating meat is literally in our biological code, but no matter, continue."
"...I, uh… I didn't have access to a… to a real kitchen for the longest time, so… less to cook-"
"Because a Bug Burga's just gonna break the bank, but go on. What else? Why else?"
"...Moral reasons?"
And Nick expected The Stranger to have the most visceral reaction to this last reason. But the scruffy old fox didn't. He just stared at him blankly for a moment, not saying a word as he processed that.
"...Moral reasons," the tramp echoed, just to make sure he heard it right.
"...Yes."
After another moment of staying silent and still, The Stranger nodded slowly. "Alright… alright, fair enough. I may disagree, but if that's what you feel is right… it'd be shitty of me to tell you not to…" He kept nodding, his eyes seeming to look at everything in that dark tunnel except for Nick. But then he suddenly gave Nick a direct look once again: "Hey, let's do another fox test. Turn your light off."
"What!?"
"Turn your light off and put it away. Night-vision test. C'mon, let's try it," he pressed, gesturing with his paws for his pupil to make haste.
"Um… alright…" Nick was powerless to resist The Stranger's commands; he did as he was told and extinguished his flashlight before slipping his phone in his pocket. And then all there was, was darkness.
"H-hey, what's-!?"
The next thing he knew, he felt himself lift off the ground and fly through the air - but there wasn't very far to go before he crashed into the concrete tunnel wall. He probably would have screamed in pain had the impact not knocked the wind out of him.
Falling to a heap on the ground, his lungs weren't working, but his eyes were: maybe his eyes had adjusted, or maybe it was just the red glow exuding from The Stranger, but in any case, he could clearly see the old fox standing over him, kneeling down to get his face closer. And as long as Nick couldn't speak, The Stranger did the talking.
"It's one thing if you ain't never eaten a bunny, Nick," he explained through a face that seemed mockingly calm. "Most foxes alive today haven't, it's tough to get away with in the modern world." A deep breath through his nose. "...I spent my entire life trying to figure out a way to pull it off without spending the rest of my life in jail… but if I knew what was in the cards for me, I woulda gone for it anyway."
But then he stopped pretending to be calm; he leaned in even further. "But you? You're just plain denying the predator inside of you." A faint growl could be heard as he paused. "You're not a real fox, Nicky. You're not. You're just a scumbag who acts like a fox when it's convenient for you. And the fact that you get to live as a fox out in the big wide world while I'm stuck down here forever? …It makes me fuckin' sick." And to accentuate his point, he spat in his writhing listener's face.
But something about not being able to speak and only hear this crazy old man speak, looking deep into that fox's fiery eyes, gave Nick the clarity to finally put the pieces together.
"You look lost in thought, Nick," said the Stranger, "...what's on your mind?"
Nick's diaphragm had gotten itself back in gear: "...I… I remember who you are now…" He took a moment to steady his breath further. "I… I remember."
And the old fox put on another irresistible smirk. "Oh, really? And what is it that you think you remember?"
Nick was still panting. "...Uh… Alf-Alfred- no." A pause to collect himself. "...Albert. Albert Ruston… but the news said that everyone called you-"
"Rusty," the tramp grinned and chuckled, pleased that they'd finally made a breakthrough. "...What did the news say about me?"
"I… I don't remember too well…" the beaten fox murmured, "it's… it's been so long-"
"Pfft, tell me about it…" Rusty said with an eye roll.
"...But I remember they said… everyone thought you were always fucked up on something…" Nick continued as it all came back to him, footage from the fated subway train on every local TV station's evening coverage, and a prior mugshot of the deceased aggressor on the front page of every local newspaper. "...They all said you were crazy."
Ah, have you ever seen somebody hear something they find so unfathomably offensive that they can't help but grin at the sheer ridiculousness of it? That's the kind of look Rusty was wearing now.
"They called me crazy?"
Nick nodded bashfully.
Rusty shook his head. "My, my, my… they probably wouldn't dare call a bunny their C-word but of course they'll gladly call us ours." But then his crestfallen smirk found a new target: "So… it really took you this long to figure out who I was?"
Again, Nick nodded bashfully.
The old fox let out a single sharp laugh to the ceiling before getting as close to Nick's face as he had all night: "Young man, you asked me for a hint about who I was, and I looked you in the eye and said I am the passenger and you STILL didn't get it!? Nick… we're supposed to be clever critters, but I'm running out of crafty and creative ways to say you're a terrible excuse for a fox."
Nick just cast his eyes at the spot where the tramp's feet were supposed to be. "I know…"
But then a paw was extended down; white and vermillion, just as before.
"C'mon, let's get you up."
Nick accepted it and groaned as Rusty pulled him to his feet. "Thanks, I - OOF!"
Just as quickly as he'd gotten up, Nick was back on the ground.
"C'mon, I told you to get up!" Rusty repeated as he pulled Nick up again before shoving him back down again, even harder this time. "Are you deaf!? I said GET UP!"
Nick took his paw again, and again went up just to go right back down.
"What are ya, stupid!?" Rusty growled as he offered his paw yet again.
This time, however, Nick stayed down. He didn't even attempt to reach out for Rusty's hand. "Why do you keep pulling me up if you're just gonna push me down again?"
Rusty scoffed. "Foxes don't say the quiet part out loud! I'm doing it to fuck with you! I'm trying to break your spirit so that you'll do what I say for lack of confidence in yourself to make your own decisions! C'mon, Nick, I'm better than you at everything a fox is supposed to be good at, do I need to spell it out for ya!?"
Nick didn't say a word.
Rusty sensed that he had the floor, so he decided to sit himself down cross-legged to get closer to his audience's face once again. It wasn't like he was going to get dirty sitting on the ground.
"Nick… surely you knew I could see that nervous little glint in your eyes every time I mentioned rabbits. I can read faces better than you can, bucko; I know you got a bunny in your life."
Nick still didn't say a word; he had a feeling he didn't need to.
"Who is this bunny to you, Nick?" Rusty continued. "…A business partner? …A kindly neighbor? …A beloved friend? …An adopted child, maybe? Or could it even be… a significant other?"
The only thing Nick could think to do was not think about her; he knew Rusty could tell the answer just by looking in his eyes as he rattled off potential connections, so his strategy was to not let his eyes give away which one was the answer.
And astoundingly… it seemed to work. Rusty huffed. "Now that's a good poker face, Nick, but it's too little too late. I don't know who this rabbit is to you - I'm just as disappointed as you are that this whatever the fuck I am now doesn't have the capacity to access your memories and literally read your mind, but I still got pretty close just by vulpine instinct alone. I know this bunny exists, and that you value them in some capacity. Well, lemme letcha onto a little sumpthin'-sumpthin'..."
Rusty repositioned himself, getting onto his knees. Nick just stayed still except for how he shuddered as he feared this would be getting even worse for him.
"...What if I told you… that you were gonna hurt him or her?" Rusty taunted.
Nick's face twitched. "...Wh-what the hell do you mean!?"
But Rusty just cackled and clapped his paws. "Awww, you slipped up that time! I know it's a her now! I saw it in your eyes when I said her! Ha ha!" The tramp composed himself before continuing. "...What I mean, Nicky, ol' buddy, ol' pal… you're still a fox and she's still a bunny! It's bound to end that way. Nature decreed it long ago and it's not gonna change its mind now."
For the first time since they'd met, however, Nick didn't think Rusty was making any sense.
"You just said I wasn't even a real fox-"
"NUH-UH-UH!" Rusty waved a finger in Nick's face. "You don't get to be a foxy smartass when it's convenient for you! If you were paying any attention, I said you have all the worst qualities and none of the good ones! You're an asshole, but you're not even an effective asshole! Hey, mammals are drawn to villains in movies and shit because they're at least doing things and working towards a goal and they have the power to make the world a shitty place on a grand scale, but you can't even do that! You can't lie, you can't persuade… you just make everybody around you miserable without it ever adding up to anything! You, hurt, others… and you don't even fucking gain anything from it!"
He was beaming as he rubbed it in, inches from Nick's face. And just when it seemed he couldn't get any closer, he got so close that their noses were nearly touching. And despite the warm red glow coming off of the old fox… it felt to Nick as though he had stuck his face into an open freezer.
"There's a lot of words that I could use to describe you, Nick," Rusty snickered. "But as much as I want to say all of them, I don't wanna diminish the impact of my message by overusing them. So let me be concise…" And then came the most twisted grimace he'd given all night: "...You're despicable!"
Oh, how badly Nick wished he could disagree; how badly he wished he could just ignore what this fox was saying. But Rusty had proven his own point: only a fox could be as sickeningly convincing as he was, and he was better at it than Nick was. Our hero could only do and believe as he was told.
"Do you wanna tell me who she is to you, Nick?" Rusty pressed. "You wanna tell me her name?"
"...N-no," Nick trembled, eyes starting to glisten.
Rusty shook his head. "I'll give ya one thing: it prolly don't even matter. Because one thing remains the same, Nick: you're gonna hurt her."
"...N- no!" the officer started to weep.
"Either it's gonna be something ya say or something you do-"
"No!"
"-or maybe a little bit of both-"
"No!"
"-but you're gonna make her regret having you in her life."
"NO!"
"Maybe you'll crush her spirit…" Rusty mused, "...or maybe you'll betray her trust in a way that she never thought a mammal could… there's also the option that you'll do a million little evil things and destroy her slowly over time, with the added bonus of knowing she wasted away with you around… or, hey, we're all adults here, maybe you just suddenly remember how much of a predator you are and outright assault her-"
"NO, NO, NO!" the younger fox sobbed. "NO, I would… I would never-!"
"Nick, you're gonna have to stop saying no, no, no, it's really disruptive." And then Rusty got back to stating his thesis in an almost singsong voice: "Maybe it'll be something heinous, maybe it'll be something mundane, but one way or another, Nick… you're gonna make that bunny feel small… and afraid… and stupid… and worthless… and broken… and all of this suffering's gonna come all because you featured in so much as a paragraph of the story of her life…"
Nick's eyes weren't just shut to keep the self-loathing tears in; he was also trying to shield himself from the red light all around them, which was burning the bloodiest shade of red he'd ever seen.
"...Have you already made her feel any of these awful feelings, Nick?" asked Rusty, sounding playful as ever. "Be honest; I can tell when you're lying."
"...Yeah…" Nick squeaked.
"So I'm right," observed the older fox. "Again."
The fox laying on the dirty ground just nodded a little.
"So you're not foxy enough to be any good to the vulpine genus and you are foxy enough to be a detriment to everybody else!" summarized Rusty. "So for all intents and purposes, you're nothing! What do you think we should do with somebody who's nothing, Nick?"
Nick didn't say anything; he knew whatever he might say would be wrong.
Rusty had the impatient smile of a teacher waiting for their students to solve an obvious problem. "Well… I have an idea!"
With that, he ran his paw along the filthy corner of the tunnel, picked up a bunch of dirt and soot, and slapped it down on Nick's cheek before rubbing it into his fur.
"When something is really nothing… it should go away!"
"...Go away?"
"But of course!" the old fox affirmed as he picked up more detritus. "You see all this darkness around you? That's nothing! So how's about we make you blend in with it!?"
Not for the first time that night, Nick detested how much sense that seemed to make.
"C'mon, join me!" Rusty encouraged as he blackened Nick's head and arms. "Let's send you where you belong! To nowhere!"
Nick didn't feel like he got a choice. Sobbing like a regretful mammal on his way to his execution, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and started grabbing all the dirt he could get his paws on, rubbing it into his face and all over his shirt, quelling and quashing all the colors until he really did start blending in with the darkness around him.
"That's right, Nick," said Rusty, who quickly stopped helping Nick soil himself since the younger fox was doing an excellent job all by himself; instead, he was helping by dimming his red light as the sorry excuse for a fox before him turned black. "This is the right thing to do, don't you agree?"
"...Yeah…" came a faint peep from the tod who was quickly fading from his own reality, his impulse to just bury his head and weep doing nothing to stop his drive to right the wrong that was his existence.
"Just… erassssse yourself…" said the old fox with a serpentine hiss, "...and then you won't be able to hurt her anymore."
"I… I don't wanna hurt her anymore…" Nick repeated through tears as he saw less and less of himself, his objective aided by the almost complete removal of the luminescence coming off of the older fox. "I… I don't wanna hurt her…"
"This way, you won't," Rusty said warmly. "She'll be very fortunate to have you gone."
And wherever that red glow was coming from, what little was left of it finally went out. Nick couldn't see anything anymore, not even his own paw in front of his face, not even the moisture that would otherwise be blurring his vision. Accepting everything the old fox had said, Nick collapsed back down onto the tunnel floor, and he forced himself to stay very still and wait for the tears to run out, at which point he'd lay there until the emptiness consumed him and even he forgot that he existed.
And as for Rusty? Eyes shut tight, Nick couldn't hear anything from the old fox. It was as if he'd never even been there.
Laying there in the pitch black, unable to hear anything but his own sobs and sniffs, the lonely fox just kept thinking over and over about how right Rusty had been about everything. Nick had tried to learn how to be a decent mammal, but old habits die hard - if they ever die at all. He'd been a lowlife his whole life. It had always behooved him to be an asshole, to only care about himself and only ever care about others when it benefitted him to do so, and now, surprise surprise, being an asshole was the only thing he was good at… and he wasn't even that good at it. He might have been able to fight and claw to survive in a city that wanted nothing to do with a fox like him, but did he ever come close to actually escaping poverty? He might have been able to draw anybody towards himself, but how many of them stuck around after scratching beneath the surface and finding nothing of value there? There's a reason why when Judy foolishly came back to town to apologize to him, he could be found sitting under a bridge of all places, all by himself - and he'd accepted her apology quicker than he honestly thought he should have, in large part because somewhere deep down, he knew that he was lucky to have finally found somebody who actually liked him enough to want to apologize to him, and he didn't want to let that go.
But now he had to. Oh, poor Judy, she did nothing to deserve this. She'd only suffered from having him enter her life - but he, being the con-artist he was, was able to gaslight her into believing it wasn't that bad until she finally seemed to realize it that night. Incessantly goofing on her even when she clearly wasn't in any sort of mood for it, never restraining himself from viciously mocking an idea or opinion of hers that he even slightly disagreed with, refusing to dignify her courage and bravery in the way she deserved, and just generally never being able to be genuine in his emotions because he was too much of a coward to display any emotion besides contempt without several layers of irony. He'd kept hurting her until he'd pushed his luck and she finally realized it didn't have to be that way. If she was smart - and he knew she was - that bunny wouldn't shed a single tear for him when she realized he wasn't coming back. She had a future; she ought not spend it with someone who didn't. He only hoped she could get out of this hellish hole safely.
Ah, and old Rusty. They'd only known each other for the better part of an hour, but it felt like they'd been together for a lifetime; alas, for some souls, an hour is as much of a lifetime as they get. The poor old guy was lonely in his personal purgatory; he only wanted a friend. A friend, was that so much to ask? A friend who would follow his will to the letter and would join him in bringing about a golden era for foxes everywhere and the eternal subjugation, commodification, and consumption of the lapine species - was that so wrong? But Nick had been such a sorry excuse for a sneaky fox that he could only disappoint him, and now that Rusty had done what was right and sent Nick to hell where he belonged, the poor old man had to walk a lonely road to go brutally murder whatever rabbits might be out there on his own.
…That conniving son of a bitch!
Nick's eyes popped back open and he snapped himself back into a sitting position. For the first time in a long time, he was feeling like himself again, but how dearly he wished it had come under better circumstances. Well, fuck, he'd been right the first time: he shouldn't have trusted someone more charismatic than himself because it would most certainly be manipulative bullshit, and it was.
Unfortunately, Rusty had simply mastered the art and even Nick couldn't resist. Good God, no wonder why they called it brainwashing; Nick felt like he must have been huffing ammonia and drinking drain cleaner as he reflected on the insane things he'd been led to say and think. Let this be a lesson to us all: anybody who has an easier time making friends than you do is probably a serial killer.
But no time to ruminate on how we should all be deeply cautious of falling under the spell of a smooth talker; Judy was in trouble. Between what Rusty could tell by himself and what Nick had let slip, that old fox had pieced together that there was a live rabbit somewhere down there. And as much as Rusty would have seen it fit that Nick be led to eviscerate her in his stead so that the lost soul could live vicariously through the living fox, the tramp eventually got the point that Nick just wasn't the type for that and decided to seek her out himself.
Where was she? Not here; that's all Nick knew, and that was enough to get him to turn his light back on and go running down the tunnel in what he was fairly certain was the way towards the Banyan Street platform. Even if he was wrong, he had better chances finding her this way than he would by just sitting there. And however far he had to go, he was never going to stop running, fueled by the pure adrenaline rushing through his veins. Oh, he hoped he could get his hands on Rusty, because Nick could just about kill him - or, uh, well… aw, you know what I mean.
Now and again, Nick would trip and fall on the rail ties, but he always got himself up without even giving himself a moment's rest. In fact, there was only one point when Nick hesitated: it was when he could swear he heard something, but he couldn't tell whether he'd actually heard it with his ears or if it had just played in his head. But in any case, whether this was the smart move or not, what he heard ultimately just inspired him to run even faster.
Go on, Nick. Lead me right to her.