Looking Glass
Oh, Hazel, look! The field! It's covered with blood!
-Watership Down
Stretching to the farthest horizon is water. It rests still as glass. She stands in it up to her knees. Her toes curl into warm, coarse sand.
The sky, a deep crimson, filled with turbulent streaks of cloud. The only objects visible are a few barren trees, reedy and grey, spindling at most a dozen feet above the water's surface. Directly ahead, many miles in the distance sits a tiny black structure.
She is dreaming. Yet this is not a dream. Her conscious mind awakens as she scans the unreal landscape spread before her. The air feels oppressive. A tension lies on the water that she equates with the minutes before a hurricane.
She takes a deep breath. The rules here are different and as she steps forward, focused on her destination, she passes many miles. The dying trees whip past and in the distance the black shape grows into a great dark pillar.
With another step it has become a strange door towering above the plain like some unworldly skyscraper. Figures still too small to make out are gathered at its base.
She takes a third step and she is standing before a great shroud of darkness undulating and pinned between two great pillars of jet. The dark shape is not a door, but a fabric from which no light seems to escape; a liquid void.
In her midst she notices a strange assortment of familiar faces. Standing shin deep in the water. Nick Wilde, her friend duplicated ten – maybe, twenty times; each different, yet none are the Nick she knows.
As she arrives they turn towards her. Some wear fine clothes, others, prison uniforms. The most menacing is dressed all in black and stares at her expressionlessly with his one good eye.
Another, some strange creature, tall and thin, is bald but for a red mane sprouting from the top of his head. The eyes are the same though, emerald green and unmistakably Nick. He smiles at her as if they were sharing some secret joke.
Another, a red hare, is in a ZPD uniform and again, as strange as it seems, he is also Nick; without a doubt.
Closest of all stands a fox who looks more weary and thin then she's ever seen her partner. His eyes sad but gentle. No mask of sarcasm and indifference.
"A different life."
His once fine suit is threadbare. Some sort of collar is buckled tightly about his neck.
"Judy" he whispers his eyes falling to the water, "I'm sorry but we can't help much. I think maybe we are a bit like spokes on a wheel… if you know what I mean."
She doesn't.
The collard Nick looks back up at her, his eyes swimming with tears. "You look so young. It seems so strange to think that you are almost the same age she was." he pauses swallowing, "Judy. I tried to protect you. I'm so sorry. I wish-"
A shrieking tone erupts from the pillars like a five hundred foot, discordant, tuning-fork. The sound is a deafening warble that echoes painfully, on and on. The colossal black shroud overshadowing them is roiling and unfurling towards the ground like a waterfall of molasses. Where it begins to pool, a great wave of dark slime rolls out into the clear water changing it to swirling darkness.
The wave washes past Judy covering her from the neck down in glittering tar. The sand beneath her feet is turning into mud and she finds herself suddenly sinking. The strange, tall Nick is behind her in a few strides, and with difficulty grabs her from under her arms, pulling her out of the sludge. Looking down, she finally notices that the black goop covering her body is not actually tar at all, but an infinite swarm of tiny black worms. They are everywhere, wriggling their way into her grey fur. With a convulsive shriek she slaps at her exposed areas trying to clear them away.
Worms aside, other matters are quickly becoming more pressing. A massive form is rising between the two pillars. Coalescing out of the worms, a beast is taking shape. As large as a two story building, it dribbles and pulses with black ichor. A head of sorts first droops forward like a distended finger and then inflates into a wolfish approximation. Two crimson eyes ignite in its sockets.
Filled with a frozen terror, Judy feels its mind spin into being.
"Finally you have come!" it speaks directly to her thoughts with a voice like gore spilling onto hot cement. It sounds jubilant in the cruellest sense. Judy wants to scream but feels as if she's being strangled. The thing invades her consciousness. It surrounds her with a violent, lustful, hate that continues to intensify.
"You are the last. In the vast All-World, you are your only self that still lives. I'm your creator little one. You are my beloved creation. I bring for you, a gift"
The thing takes two steps forward and is now towering just above her. Great streams of worm ridden fluid run from its body. It has begun to take on a more solid form. It looks like a prehistoric canine. Not made for standing on two legs but for running on four. Emerging with a wet tearing sound from its featureless face a wide toothy maw appears, misshapen and chaotic. A low pulsing rhythm enters its projected voice. Judy feels as if her head is being cracked open. As if the thing is crawling inside her skull.
Now a single axis,
you enshroud yourself in Ka.
You shall see the shining vision,
you shall pass along the stair.
The plum may be thine weapon.
The childe may foul thy womb.
As you sup with the magician, Alice tumbles.
Thirst, yet taste no water,
Draw, but give no quarter.
Let folly writhe within you,
as the worm infests the heart.
The rabbit slays the tortoise,
and breaks,
breaks,
breaks for me,
Breaks for me the beam.
With those booming words ringing in her head, the thing finally retreats. Lowering its massive muzzle it drops its nose into the black soup. From within it dredges up a figure which it holds by the neck between its teeth. The mammal gasps for breath. Choking and crying he struggles wildly. This is her Nick. Again there is no mistake.
Judy meets Nick's eyes for a moment as he tries to choke out a few inarticulate words. But then the evil thing, grinning like a scythe, puts a light pressure on the sides of Nick's head. The sound it makes is like biting down hard on a ripe cherry tomato. With a quick shake and a crunch, Nick's head separates from his body which tumbles into the muck with a soft splat. The black wolf locks eyes with Judy and leans in towards her. Looking into its burning, crawling, red eyes she feels certain it is about to kill her as well, but instead it breathes deeply through its slitted nostrils and spits the pulped remains of Nick's head at Judy in a spray of skull, fur and brain matter.
Judy awakes screaming, or more accurately, trying to scream. The problem is, she happens to be choking on her own vomit. Realizing this, she leans forward and begins to slap at her chest.
For minutes she hacks and heaves until every watery chunk of last night's carrot and parsley soup is expunged from her stomach and airways. By the time she can breathe the scream has died from her lips. She lays back gasping, a sound which she muffles with her now slimy pillow.
It is several more minutes before she has a chance at composure. Her first coherent thought is that she needs to call Nick.
Judy fumbles around for her phone in the dark. Clicking it on, the flash of light is blinding, but squinting she manages to find his number and hit the call button. By the time the phone is at her ear the screen is yet another victim of smeared vomit.
The phone rings several times. Judy silently prays that he isn't in danger.
"Please answer Nick."
A tired, familiar voice appears on the other end, "Whyyyy! Carrots.. So early". Stunned for the moment she says nothing. Seconds pass and Nick comes back more hesitantly, "Judy are you there?"
She hates lying to him, but what is she supposed to say? "Hey Nick," she doesn't hide the gravel the hacking and stomach acid adds to her voice, "looks like I've come down with something. I'm calling in sick. You won't need to pick me up this morning. Sorry I woke you."
"Wow, you sound terrible... Hey I'll stop by on my lunch break. Bring you some soup or something." he says groggily.
"No, it's okay. Last thing I want is for you to be getting sick as well. Thanks though."
"Hey, come on Carrots, I spend practically every waking moment with you. If you've got something and I don't, chances are I'm immune. I should book sick as well and we can sit around and watch crappy T.V. all day"
"Damn."
"No way mister. I'm throwing up and, and there are all sorts of unspeakable bodily functions happening over here. Save your sick days for when you're sick. I'll text you hourly updates if you're so worried about getting Judy withdrawal."
"Fine." Nick laughs weakly, "I was just feeling bad because without you around I'm totally going to skip leg day." He sniffs loudly and can be heard fluffing his pillow, "Well… Nick is tired. I'm going to sleep now. Feel better Hopps. I..*Yawn* goodnight."
"Goodnight Nick."
As soon as the call ends Judy realizes she is shaking. It's partly from relief but still... the dream still grips her mind. It was like nothing she had ever known; and that thing... the feeling of it inside her head. It felt like the most diseased, depraved mammal alive stuck its tongue down her throat. "The, 'Worm'" she names it aloud in a whisper.
Once she feels she can stand, she goes about the business of stripping her bedding.
She throws everything along with her soiled clothes into a bag. Then it's time for a shower, not long into which Judy feels a creeping panic trail up her spine.
"What if it's out there?"
Somewhere in the dark alleys of Zootopia. Could what she saw somehow be her future? Will she have to face it? Maybe it's a sort of metaphor, or…
She tries to shake the thoughts from her mind by focusing on soaping her body down a second time.
"Just a dream."
After towelling herself off and dressing in new clothes she takes a moment to check herself over.
"I still smell kinda like vomit."
She throws the towel on the bed and presses down for awhile on the wet patch, "Probably some kind of mattress fee I'm going to have to pay for this." She huffs a few times in frustration.
Before Judy can leave, she knows she is going to have to write down the details of what she experienced. Luckily, this is one of those times where it won't be difficult to recall.
From under her bed Judy withdraws a tattered notebook. Anyone trying to read it would find it written in a cipher known only to her. Long ago, she had scrawled the words, 'Judy's Diary' on the front cover and filled the insides with insipid hearts and little sketches, the reality is though: this is a record of her dreams. No mammal, not her parents and especially not Nick, knows about what she sometimes sees. She is determined to keep it that way.
Writing, the memories come quickly, and she records everything meticulously. Near to the end however, when the 'Worm' had stepped towards her, it said... something.
No matter how much she wracks her brains the words will not come.
"Some kind of a rhyme?" she thinks. But whatever it was is lost to her.
"Shit." she hisses. She keeps her voice down so she doesn't wake her neighbours. Not that there's much chance of that. Past one in the morning they are generally dead to the world.
After a few minutes she still is unable to remember, so she adds a few additional curses to the first and closes the book. The part of the vision where Nick is decapitated and splattered onto her face is left out. She is not likely to forget that part any time soon.
Sighing, she slides off the bed. Never being one for sitting around, Judy grabs the bag filled with her soiled things, and leaves her apartment.
Moments later she is outside. A few blocks away is a 24/7 laundromat that she uses; maybe a five minute walk. She starts out into the abandoned street.
They say that Zootopia never sleeps, but tonight is uncharacteristically quiet.
It's cold. As cold as this part of the city gets at any point during the year. A bone chilling wind is blowing restlessly along the semi-lit sidewalk.
Immediately Judy regrets leaving the apartment. She sees dark figures in every shadow. Each wind-rattled bit of debris or billowing cafe awning has her ready to bolt. Her head swivels in all directions, and by the first street intersection she decides to upgrade her brisk walking pace to a jog.
"It is too empty out here."
Not a single car or citizen crosses her path. Convenience stores that never close are dark and empty. A pall hangs over the city, like the feeling one gets in an unlit graveyard.
She nearly turns back as a feeling of utter surety falls over her: the laundromat will be inexplicably closed. When she tries to return home she will find herself lost in an empty, darkening, city.
She comes to a stop as goose pimples run up and down her flesh.
"I don't remember these shops. What street is this? Where am I?"
The spell is broken by a passing car which turns in front of her and quickly accelerates away. She does know the street. She walks it every day. She's nearly there.
Sprinting with the bag of laundry bouncing behind her she arrives in short order. The laundromat has a wide all-glass front and a pair of sliding doors which open at a leisurely pace when Judy runs up to the entrance.
She is breathing heavily, dropping her bag nearby as she walks in circles; holding her sides and taking shuddering breaths. Her hands and face are numb from the cold so she works to rub warmth into them. Once she catches her breath, which takes only moments due to the fact that she is in pretty amazing shape. She loads the washer, sets it to run, and sits down.
Thirty minutes pass without a single soul coming anywhere near the laundromat. When the buzzer goes off on the washer Judy bounces out of her chair with a jolt.
"Holy-hell!" It's the first noise she's made since she left the apartment. She finds herself unused to her own voice. She must have been on the verge of sleep. Shuttering slightly, she makes a resolution to swear less after tonight. Nicks more colourful language seems to be rubbing off on her.
Swallowing the receding panic she pulls her laundry out and gets it into the dryer. Judy watches the sheets rotate for a while. Eventually, too tired to stand, she sits down in a wobbly plastic chair with a crack in the seat.
The sheets whip against the sides of the dryer in a continuous drone.
Tha-thack, tha-thump.
She watches and her eyes are growing heavy.
Cha-Chack, Cha-Chump.
For minutes and minutes.
Dad-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? ...
The automatic glass doors of the laundromat slide softly open.
With a shiver Judy looks up. There is nothing. No one stands at the doorway. The empty street, dimly lit, sits beyond the threshold. Yet, Judy feels as if a poisonous spider is crawling up her leg.
Moments pass. Cold air is swirling into the far corners of the room. Her eyes are cold; she has not allowed herself to blink. The street lamps are dimming. The darkness beyond begins to crawl towards the fluorescent glow of the store's interior
From above the door a huge face comes into view. The size of a train engine. Eyes blazing with red light. The most terrible smile. The world is filled with wild, deafening screaming.
She awakens to the resounding buzz of the dryer finishing its cycle. For a moment she thinks she is going to be sick again. She manages a single shuttering breath. Her heart is thrumming like a tired guitar string that has been cranked to the breaking point, "What's happening" she whispers aloud. "This has to end-this has to end-this has to..."
She is staring at the closed doors of the Laundromat-at the empty intersection beyond. "Just a dream," she continues to rock in the broken chair, "Just a dream". She is watching the street lights change from red to green, to red again, "What do I do? What do I do?"
It is almost five in the morning when a lone bunny finally makes her way home in the thin light of early dawn.
As the sun rises Judy sits at the foot of her bed, knees drawn against her chest. For hours a creeping sensation has been building in the back of her mind.
Something is watching her. She can feel it.
Ever since her dream at the laundromat she has felt a presence looming just outside the realm of her senses.
More than anything she needs to sleep. But, she can feel it waiting. It is waiting for her to close her eyes. As if creeping behind every shadow, desperately, something is straining towards her. She glimpses it just out of the corner of her eye, but when she turns to look, she finds nothing.
"If I keep thinking like this I'm going to lose my mind." she presses her hands to the sides of her head. "What am I going to do?"
So, to keep herself awake, she makes plans and tries to organize her thoughts.
She decides that if there is anyone who can help her it will be a, 'Fifth'. The only place she is going to find one is in the Burrows or somewhere else with rabbits. Although where exactly, is another question.
"Doesn't matter, I'll find one. Am I a cop, or am I a cop?"
Her brother might be able to help her as well. That is, if there is still a way to reach him.
Judy stands and begins pacing around the claustrophobic room. Having grown up in a room half the size of her apartment she is surprised at how trapped she feels. But in this moment, with this evil presence hanging over her mind, it feels very small indeed.
"I'm so desperate I'm going to travel hundreds of miles to talk to some weird, oldworld, midwife, druids. Just because, maybe, in some fantasy world, they might be able to tell me what's happening. I'm so screwed."
Eventually she can't stand her own thoughts so instead talks to herself quietly. "I'm heading to the Burrows. First train leaves in six hours… I'm going to be on it. Find a Fifth. Figure out how to exorcise this... whatever it is. Get back to my life. Confirm that I am not actually going insane."
"Perfect plan!"
Judy grips her ears in anxious frustration. She forces herself to switch mental gears and instead begins to think about the only other pressing matter on her mind; Nick.
Judy has always been smart. In fact, smart is a vast understatement. In rabbit culture she has all the qualities that raise one's station: intelligence, fearlessness, willpower, and ambition. She has never, apart from a few notable exceptions, found herself lacking in self awareness.
That being said, she knew with certainty that she was in love with Nick Wilde pretty early on. Returning to Bunnyburrows after the Missing Mammals case, and despairing for months in self-imposed exile, gave her all the time she needed to sort out her feelings.
It was not long after, having earned forgiveness from Nick, that Judy began to suspect that he felt the same way about her.
Then one night they had gone to a Gazelle concert just days before he was set to leave for police training. Afterwards, he had simply looked at her and she'd known; it radiating off of him like heat from a fire.
The night before he left for training, Judy had kissed him while they were relaxing at his apartment. She had come over to help him pack and to make sure he remembered everything. Nick was shocked at first, but also elated. Once they began, kissing for them came as naturally as breathing.
They didn't spend the night together exactly but definitely got close. Unfortunately, a week or so after Nick came to work at the ZPD chief Bogo must have seen them standing too close, or noticed how they were always touching. Or maybe it was the way they kept making eyes at each other.
Regardless, he called them into his office after roll-call and reminded them that if there was any intra-departmental fraternization happening, he would be happy to transfer Officer Wilde to another police department somewhere far, far away.
After that rude awakening they talked late into the night and eventually realized that neither of them could choose between their jobs and each other. So they did the only thing they could; they made a plan.
They decided to treat the situation like one of Nick's old cons. At work they would be the two most platonic partners who ever lived. When within earshot or possible view of any mammal, they would never touch, never meet eyes, never flirt and never appear as anything but the most professional police officers in the ZPD.
They each took this as a personal challenge, and they broke their own rules at every opportunity. Their failed resolution quickly became something they liked to call, 'The Dangerous Game'.
If given a span of ten unmonitored seconds they would find a way to kiss, to touch, to whisper statements of love. They may even have had sex in a place that was totally inappropriate, like the janitorial closet in the ZPD sub-basement.
"Scratch that. We are pretending that never happened."
Nevertheless, they are skating dangerously close to a future where they might find themselves separated as partners and out of a job. Judy is fully aware that the whole thing is a ticking time bomb and desperately hopes they get it out of their systems soon. Still, a voice inside her head is saying, "But I love it, and I can't seem to help myself!"
She attributes this strange duality to why she's been swearing so much lately. Just thinking about it has her about ready to burst a blood vessel and she can't contain it any longer, "Shiii-Crackers! What is wrong with me?!"
She hears a light knocking at the door, "Uh, Jude are you ok in there?" a voice asks quietly.
For a second Judy feels a spike of panic, but then she registers that the voice belongs to Nick. She forgets everything and practically dances for joy. Before she stops to think, she unlocks the door and he slips into the apartment.
Nick's head is mostly covered in a baggy grey hoodie. In his hands he has some kind of food and what looks like coffee.
"Hey, are Bucky and Prongs around." Nick says in a whisper.
Trying to contain herself Judy whispers back, "No they left for work not long ago." Her current problems are coming back to her all at once and she feels her little euphoria fading. "Nick what are you doing here? You said you weren't taking a day off."
"Did I say that? I don't remember. One thing you should know about me Fluff is my memory isn't exactly top notch at one in the morning. By the way, you look like hell."
Judy opens her mouth to rebuke him but something is pulling at the back of her mind. From Nick's perspective she looks as if she is going to speak, but then her face goes slack with concentration. As if she is listening for something.
What she notices is the presence that has hung over her the entire night has evaporated. It did the moment Nick stepped into the room. It was gone.
Nick watches her in confusion, "Am I missing something here Carrots? Listen, it's Friday. I told the station we've both come down with something. Not too suspicious really. Now we get a long weekend together. Here, I bought green tea and lentil oatmeal with carrot bits-your favorite." he gives the circular cardboard container holding the oatmeal a withering look.
But Judy is still stunned. It's gone. Even if it's just for the moment; and after all the fear and dread... and having Nick show up after seeing him die in her dream. Everything just sort of crashes together.
Tears are gathering in her eyes. Then she is crying.
If there is one true weakness in Nick Wilde it is seeing Judy Hopps cry.
He sets the food down and lifts her up, letting her bury her face into the fur around his neck. The only words Judy manages to say are, "Th-thank you" before talking is again impossible.
Nick carries her to the bed and lies down still holding her to his chest. They lay like this for a short while. She hugs onto Nick's neck with a death grip as he slowly rubs her back in long strokes. He pulls the back of her shirt up and uses the tips of his claws to delicately scratch her back as she begins to calm.
With a few sighs and a sniff, the tears come to an end.
Nick, who has been kissing the top of her head whispers in a low voice, "Sweetheart," he says it un-ironically for perhaps the first time ever, "please tell me what's wrong. We'll figure it out."
And here it is. Judy is going to have to lie to the person she loves most in the world; again.[S13] She feels a sharp pang of guilt, but what can she say. Any attempt at explaining things will make her seem completely crazy. She is going to tell him, somehow, eventually. She is going to make it up to him even if it takes her the rest of her life. For now though she's going to lie, just like he taught her; using as much truth as possible.
"I'm o-ok now that you're here. I just had a re-really bad night. Threw up all over my bed. Had to wash everything. I haven't even slept except for once, and then I had a terrible dream." she pauses for a moment to sniff and wipe her eyes, "You were in it and you died. It was terrible."
Nick continues to scratch her back lightly, "My poor bunny. Well I'm here now so naturally things are going to be much better. What do you think made you sick?"
"Maybe last night's dinner? Plus the dream. I don't know."
"Sounds like a bad one. I know I'd be upset if I saw me die."
Judy nearly chuckles at that, "Shut up." but she pulls herself closer into his chest so that every breath is filled with his scent. She is starting to feel alright for the first time in hours.
Nick moves his hand to the top of her head, "Seriously though Judy. You know I have a lot of nightmares. I know what it can be like. If you ever want to talk about it just let me know."
She nods slowly, muffled against his neck, "I will."
Catching herself suddenly, she realizes she is about to fall asleep. That needs to happen, but not before she deals with what's going on. Nick's arrival changes things; maybe for the better. Reluctantly, Judy pulls herself back and looks at him, "Listen Nick there is something I want to ask you"
Nick rotates his ears forward and raises his eyebrows as if to say, "Do tell"
Judy can't help but smile, "I had planned to take the train to Bunnyburrows today. Maybe recover a bit and get in a little relaxation on the farm."
The smile is leaving Nick's face so Judy continues. "You could come with me. Actually, let me put it this way. Nick Wilde please come meet my massive family and keep me company for the weekend. Seriously, please."
Nick's face becomes somewhat grim. Finally, he says, "Carrots. Haven't we been trying to hide that we're together? This seems like a great way to... I don't know… completely do the opposite of that."
Judy jumps in before he can continue, "Yes, but I've been thinking that you are going to have to see them someday. They ask about you all the time and I'm running out of excuses. It's starting to look suspicious."
Nick lets this process for a moment and tries to come up with some kind of rebuttal, "Well I..."
"And," Judy interjects, "I have developed a plan. My parents are ok these days with foxes, but if I told them I was in love with one and have no plans of ever being with anyone else. Well, they might actually disown me. Seriously, my mom would probably end up in mental hospital."
Nick can't help but smile, "Ok fine, let's hear this plan of yours," He waves a hand above his face magically, "wow me."
"Ok." Judy puts on a straight face, "So I call this the 'Wilde-Hopps Indoctrination Inclusion Initiative," she is already failing at this point not to giggle a little bit, "Also known as 'Whiiiiii!'"
"So far… loving it. Please continue."
"Right, so the plan is basically to deny we are dating, while at the same time over the course of multiple visits, make it ever more obvious that we are. We are slowly but surely going to plant ideas in their heads. First, Judy and Nick are in love. Second, Nick Wilde is awesome and upstanding. It'll be a... what do you call it? A long con. So when it finally comes time to tell them we are together they won't really be surprised. In fact, deep down, they will tell themselves that they knew it all along."
Nick lets out a short laugh, "The name of the plan should include, 'Inception' in there as well I think."
Then the smile fades from Nick's face as he looks at her curiously. His usual mask of self satisfaction fading, "Hopps, you really would have excelled at a life of crime. Back in my hustling days, me and you, I can only imagine the jobs we could have pulled. I almost feel bad. It's like you are absorbing all my old wiles by osmosis."
"That's right!" Judy laughs as she gives him a quick kiss on the lips, "Underneath this svelte bunny exterior is a sly vixen, and beneath your crusty hide is the soft beating heart of a bunny."
"A bunny am I?!" Nick exclaims as he rolls himself over top of her, pinning her beneath him, "If I'm a bunny then allow me to remind you of what bunnies do best."
The kiss begins slow but quickly becomes passionate. Judy is about to put a stop to it.
"Now is not the time. I'm still pretend sick. I need to sleep."
But as Nick pulls up her shirt and begins trailing kisses down her chest, focusing here and there with a flick of his tongue or a feathery soft nip of his teeth; she is undecided. Eventually, the affection migrates further south, focusing intently. At this point, Judy decides that actually, now is the time. And, for a short while she forgets about fear-she forgets about danger and death.
Nick Wilde awakens from a light slumber. Judy is still lying peacefully on his chest, sound asleep. Careful not to wake her, he checks the clock and once his eyes are able to focus, he sees that they have slept the day away.
It looks like if they are going to Bunnyburrows tonight they will have to take the evening train.
Nick blinks his eyes in the dim room. Outside the sky is dark grey. It might even be raining, although he can't yet tell.
Slowly, he feels awake enough to try and do a little simple math. He can leave now and gets some clothes from home, shower, and come back. It'll take about an hour if he's quick. Then, they will have enough time to grab a bite, get to the train station, and board the last train to the burrows. It'll be a bit tight though.
Nick, moving as sloth-like as possible, slowly slides Judy off his chest and onto the bed. She makes a few adorable squeals of protest but never fully wakes.
He lies next to her for a while longer. Listening to her breathe as she falls back into a deeper sleep.
Confident that he will be able to sneak out unheard, he dresses.
Before he leaves, he spots the food he brought still sitting where he left it on the floor. He doubts it's any good now so he grabs it and lets himself out of the apartment with a soft click.
As he pushes his way outside onto the street, Nick notices a strange smell coming from the oatmeal. Opening the container he looks inside and is amazed to see a mold has grown over the surface.
Unbelievably, he spots what look like little black worms.
"Those are definitely worms." He recoils in disgust. "Jesus Lion Christ! It's filled with effing worms!"
Repulsed he drops the container onto the sidewalk. In his haste he dumps the tea he is holding as well. And once again he spots wriggling within the green liquid, long slender bodies coiling and twining into a loose, glistening tangle.
Although he won't admit it to himself, Nick is slightly nauseated. He is also flabbergasted.
"How did they get into the food?"
Quickly walking away from the spilled containers he makes a mental note to call the health inspectors on the cafe where he bought it. He even has half a mind to stop there on his way home and go ballistic. "What if Judy had eaten that!?"
Hot anger bubbles inside him most of the way home. Though, once it fades all that is left is a deep feeling of disquiet.
As he steps into the elevator in his building he is feeling strange.
Arriving back at his apartment he shutters, a deep dread building inside him.
"I shouldn't have left her alone."
The feeling begins to intensify, and stuffing what he needs into a duffle bag he decides to skip the shower altogether.
Back on the street he realizes that he is sweating from anxiety.
"What is wrong with me?"
He decides to forgo public transit altogether and hails a cab. Handing the cabbie a big fare, Nick tells the driver to step on it. And, bewildered, but filled with a terrible certainty that Judy is in danger, Nick finds himself speeding back to her apartment some thirty minute since he left.
Looking out his window he watches as the storm finally breaks and a cold blanket of rain descends upon the city.
A creaking whine follows a loud wooden crack. The sound awakens Judy from a deep sleep. Opening her eyes she finds herself in total darkness.
Even before forming coherent thoughts, Judy's inner ear is sending her strange information.
"The bed is on an angle."
She gropes around blindly, hovering her hands across the nearby surfaces. She finds her bedside table. It is also on an angle. The wall is tilted. Somehow, the whole goddamn room is tipped backwards forty-five degrees.
Unseeing, she searches for her phone, accidentally knocking her lamp onto the floor in the process.
"Damn!"
Her breathing is coming heavily now-as if she has just been running. Adrenaline pumps through her every vein.
"Where is Nick?"
She has touched every surface of the night table. By intuition, she tips it on its face and runs her hands down the wall, hoping to find the phone. For long moments she slaps at nothing, but then her small nails scramble over the familiar plastic surface.
Instantly she grabs it up and thumbs it on; illuminating the pitch black room with a thin blue light.
"NICK!" she calls, but the sound of her voice is muffled, as if she were yelling from beneath a pile of blankets. She waves the phone in front of her and gets small glimpses of the room's four walls.
The window, which even during the darkest night should be open to the ever present lights of Zootopia is completely void. Beyond the glass might be a solid wall or an infinity of starless space. Regardless, it gives Judy a thrill of terror that even cuts through her pounding adrenalin high.
The space around her closet door is filled with some kind of crawling mass. In fact, looking closer the floor seems to be bustling with tiny black shapes.
Judy stands, one foot on her bed and the other bracing against the wall. Her breathing reaches a feverish pitch, accentuating a building horror that threatens to overtake her senses.
The fun-house room suddenly shakes violently. Judy tips towards the wall. The bed rises before her, so that to get to her door she will practically have to climb the mattress.
With a crunching shudder, deep new cracks begin to form in the ceiling.
Looking for any means of escape, Judy turns her attention to her front door; or lack-thereof.
Near the end of her bed, which is now five feet above her, is what looks like a huge, slick, funnel; like the shape of a whirlpool or a black-hole. It stretches outward like the skin of a balloon, becoming narrower at its center.
Another violent tremor shakes the room and a voice inside Judy's head screams at her, "Move idiot!"
With a speed that is partly her birthright and partly blind panic, Judy scrambles up the bed holding her phone in her teeth.
With a great leap she hurls herself straight into the center of the tunnel which should be her front door. The surface of it is slick and rubbery, it vibrates under her feet like fatty meat.
She takes no time to think on the awful texture under her paws, or the insects which are flowing out of its narrow depths. Instead, she scrambles and claws against the sides of the thing, unaware as she dislodges one of her toenails in her frenzy.
Going head first, arms forward she squirms her way upwards. Quickly, the space around her diminishes and becomes nearly vertical. Still kicking her legs frantically, and with a great heave, she wedges herself in on all sides; the fleshy tube squeaking in against her body.
Judy tries to draw in breath but finds she can barely fill her lungs. A crawling something, wiggles deep into her ear. She is powerless to stop it.
Horror envelops her mind.
"It's crushing me! It's crushing me!"
The tunnel is pressing down; stretching thin or perhaps collapsing. The pressure becomes so great that she hears her joints pop in unison. Her mouth presses open involuntarily, her eyes bulge in their sockets.
Her phone falls from her teeth and flickers on.
Just inches ahead is the unmistakable white washed exterior of her bedroom door, but she is unable to even process this information, because her blood is being pressed through her body and into her brain. Flashes of light burst across her vision.
Judy loses consciousness.
The moment the taxi arrives at Judy's apartment, Nick Wilde bursts out of the car door and charges towards the front entrance. He doesn't even attempt the elevator, instead hurling himself into the stairwell and up four flights of stairs.
"She's dying!"
He can feel it. Deep in his guts he can feel it; more surely than anything he has ever felt.
With the rational part of his mind however, Nick promises himself that if he busts into her room and she is completely fine, then afterwards he is going to check himself into a mental hospital.
Running full-tilt, Nick pounds down the narrow hallway and puts the brakes on, coming to a sliding stop in front of Judy's door. He grabs the doorknob, twisting and pulling at it with his full force, but finds it is somehow stuck in place. Black gunk clogs and oozes around the frame. Nick reaches out and touches it with a trembling paw. It's rubbery and a bit sticky, like tar gone soft in the hot summer sun.
A few more experimental tugs on the door achieve nothing, so Nick pulls a credit card out of his wallet and frantically slashes away at it. Finally, finishing minutes later, sweat blossoming all across his body, and with a great heave, Nick attempts to pry the door open once again.
Nothing happens at first, but then, a tearing crackling sound, and all at once the door bursts open. Nick careens across the floor into the wall, but is on his feet again in an instant.
Before him, is a great, fleshy, undulating blackness. Thousands of bugs begin to pour and wriggle from the centre of what should be the doorway to Judy's room.
Nick feels his vision waver for a moment as his mind fights with the reality of what he is seeing. He grasps for his sanity.
"Dear God… I-I'm not dreaming. Judy... Judy is dying!"
Nick snaps back into full awareness when something clatters to the floor in front of him; Judy's phone.
For the briefest instant he catches a glimpse of two grey paws sinking into the impossible blackness. Before his fear can stop him, Nick dives forward and thrusts an arm into the sucking tar pit. It pulls at him hard, and he claws at the door frame with his other paw and both feet to keep from being dragged in as well.
Then he feels her-an arm. He fights to get his fingers around her wrist in the pressing confines of the greasy, throbbing abyss.
"I've got her!"
With all his might he pulls. Slowly, painstakingly, she is birthed back into the world of the living. Nick's joints pop, his back and arms straining with effort. Judy's head appears and lulls forward. With a final heave, limp and boneless, she slides out from hell's orifice with a wet, sucking pop.
Nick drags her a short way down the hall, away from the writhing mass of insects spreading across the hardwood floor.
Thick brown sludge, the consistency of petroleum jelly, covers her face. Shaking, Nick wipes it away as best he can.
"She isn't breathing."
Nick takes another second to sweep the sludge from her mouth before beginning CPR. One long breath into her lungs is all it takes for Judy's eyes to snap open as she reels to the side; gasping and hacking up thick gunk.
Reaching into her mouth, convulsively, her face a mask of repulsion and horror, Judy pulls six inches of squirming centipede from deep within her throat. The thing writhes and twists in her hand before being hurled away. She retches again, curling into a ball.
Nick is almost sick as well, but is saved from that at least, when a colossal sound explodes from inside Judy's apartment, causing her door to slam shut. The wood cracks and then implodes inwards into the room. The force of it causes the whole building to shake and bits of drywall to rain down from the ceiling. It knocks Nick right off his feet.
Standing slowly, shell-shocked and bewildered, barely comprehending what is happening, Nick takes a few trembling steps towards the doorway. Glancing inside, he sees the walls and ceiling are simply gone. All that is left are beams, and strips of pink insulation. The outer wall of the building is nothing but brick with an empty hole where a window frame should be.
A few of the building's other tenants begin to appear in the hallway. So, slapping first at a spider on his leg, Nick runs back to Judy and scoops her up into his arms. She doesn't seem fully aware of what's happening.
But, after a moment hanging loosely in his embrace she pulls herself up, pressing her face into his shirt; quietly hyperventilating. Nick decides to worry about that later. Right now he just wants out of here.
"We have got to get away from here; far away."
Neither remembering how they got there, Nick powers out the front doors of the lobby, heading straight for the cab which miraculously, is exactly where he left it. Cold rain pours down on them as they step outside. Before he can get them in the car Judy slaps at his hand.
"Dowwnn." Her voice is raw and barely audible. Nick does as she asks.
Judy takes a moment to bask in the rain, rubbing away some of the gunk in her fur and the mashed chunks of insects peppering her clothes. She doesn't waste more time than necessary though, and they enter the cab soaking wet.
Seemingly unconcerned by the water pooling on his seats, the driver turns to them cheerfully. "Well bowl me over! If it isn't the great Judy Hopps and her partner Nick Wilde. What a love'ily day to meet two eminent persons such as yourselves, you can call me-"
The driver is cut off by Judy who manages to rasp out a few coherent words, "Bunnyburrows. We have. To go. To stop. This."
Any plan is better than no plan, Nick decides; what it includes doesn't much matter. He turns to the driver and says, "I'll give you three hundred dollars to take us to Bunnyburrows."
This is met with laughter, "Caw! Caw! Now that ain't right. In my cab, fares fair and fowls fowl, if you catch my drift!"
Nick fights against his residual shock and focuses his attention on the driver for the first time. He's a black crow with a too-large smile that doesn't touch his stony eyes. His wide, sharp beak glitters almost as if it had been waxed. The logo on his shirt says 'Metallica' although, Nick has no idea what that means, and there is a button with the peace sign pinned to his chest.
Leaning forward, quick as a whip, the bird reaches out and snags a huge cockroach that has been crawling along the back seat of the car, before popping it in his mouth with a crunch.
"Trip will cost ya's two-fifty. As the crow flies it ain't no small trip my dearies, and I can't carry you both. Evolution took my wings and gave me arms ya'see. Har har." The crow cackles again with laughter.
This avian strikes Nick as somehow very wrong. Were this a hustle in the old days he would have turned around and fled half a minute ago. He isn't exactly sure why, but thinking on it, Nick notices the crow switching between a slew of accents he's never heard, his mannerisms totally foreign.
Still, the sooner they get away from here the better; no time to gripe.
Nick fishes the money out of his wallet and hands it over to the smiling crow who clacks in approval. "Payment in full. Now I'll hold up my end. Yessir, I will. We'll take the rock-iron-line, it's a very good road so they say."
The cab jumps to life, Judy's apartment receding into the distance. Nick silently swears to himself that they will never return here, not for all the money in the world-not for anything.
Suddenly, Nick feels his muscles lose control and he starts shaking violently. Everything, all that has happened, flashes before him. It feels as if the ground beneath his feet is turning to mud. That the reasonable secure world he knows is crumbling away-revealing a realm of monsters and supernatural terror.
Nick staves off a full meltdown as he feels Judy crawl into his lap. She is shaking worse than he is. The sight of her trembling, grounds him, and he wraps his arms and tail around her.
From the front seat the crow caws with laughter yet again. "You two are, 'special friends' I take it? How wonderful! Daddy always said, 'let not social mores or moral qualms keep us from the things we most desire.' He got that one from the old saturday night gospel down in hell's kitchen, from the good lord boob-tube, don't cha know. Caw caw caw!"
Nick can't begin to know how to respond to what is being said. Judy is all but catatonic, seemingly unaware of anything, so he decides to keep his mouth shut and simply holds her tighter.
The driver pipes up again as they pull out onto the highway. "Folk around here call me Iago by-the-by. Although, in uptown they know me as Richard, and in lowtown I go by Martin. Around-town, they call me Randall, downtown they cry, 'Walter'. My friends nicknamed me Mr. Hardcase, and you can call me what you like, so long as you don't call me late for dinner!"
Nick just stares at the mad birds cold black eyes through the reflection of the rear-view mirror. Every passing moment he likes where they are less and less. "I think me and my friend are going to try and sleep a little, so if you don't mind I'd appreciate a silent ride from here on out."
"All apologies and no problemo podre. I do tend to yammer on, so they say."
"Thanks."
The cab is finally silent. Rain pounds down around them as they leave the city limits.
For Zootopia, something changes as the three travellers depart further into the night. A collective sigh of relief sounds among the millions of its sleeping citizens, as nightmares give way to more pleasant dreams.
A babe, suffocating in its cradle, manages at last to roll away from a stifling blanket.
An end finally comes to a marathon of incoherent screaming conducted by the old, homeless, schizophrenic who lives under the Fifth St bridge.
The darkness lifts.
It is not gone though, nor can it ever be, not truly. It merely shifts southward, travelling at seventy miles an hour, deep into the empty countryside.