AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you TheRanger101; glad you liked the chapter. Campion's fate will be revealed in this chapter.
Chapter 68: Camp 95.
"We want danger
The thirst has become a need"
-Feather in a Pillow, Efrafa
Campion landed in a bright sandy substance. As he looked around him, he immediately recognized the area: the Shadowlands. He was dead again. He took one step forward, when suddenly he felt something tighten around one of his front paws. He looked down, and saw that it was a shadowy snare. It tightened considerably, and he was unable to move his paw, until the snare suddenly loosened. Campion awkwardly raised the paw and started to lick it, easing the pain, but he did not notice that the snare was moving; by the time he realized what was happening, it was tightly wrapped around his neck. He would have squealed, but he was unable to. The snare dragged Campion for a long distance, along the ground and into the air, until it finally loosened in mid-air, causing him to fall to the ground.
Campion could hear a rumbling sound, not unlike that of the train he had encountered the previous day. He also noticed that he was hovering a short distance above the ground, which seemed to move under him very fast, faster than he was able to run. He turned around; the Black Rabbit of Inlé was behind him, also floating and moving, at the same speed as Campion.
-"Hello. What's happening this time?"
-"YOU'RE DEAD AGAIN. SHOULDN'T IT BE OBVIOUS?"
-"Yes, I know that, but why are we moving?"
-"THIS IS AN ELABORATE SYSTEM THAT MAKES IT EASIER FOR ME TO TRAVEL THROUGH MY OVERWORLDLY EMPIRE. IT CAN BE QUITE USEFUL SOMETIMES, IF I NEED TO CHECK UP ON SOME REMOTE PARTS THAT I HAVEN'T VISITED IN A WHILE, OR SIMPLY WHEN I AM STRESSED AND NEED TO CALM DOWN."
-"You're stressed?"
-"THAT'S AN..."
-"I know, it's an oversimplification, but essentially true."
-"ACTUALLY, I WAS GOING TO SAY 'THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT'. OF COURSE I'M STRESSED. YOU'VE DIED HRAIR TIMES IN THE PAST FEW DAYS."
-"That's not what I meant. I was just surprised to learn that you have emotions."
The two creatures were still moving over the ground, when suddenly they made it over a deep trench with high cliffs. Campion awkwardly looked down, half-expecting to fall in the river of blood that flowed at the bottom. As he paid closer attention, however, he noticed that there was a rabbit in the river, struggling to stay afloat, but unable to make it to shore due to the large groups of elil of all kinds on both sides. To make things worse, there was an eagle flying over the river, ready to snatch him should he keep his head above the surface for too long. With that, the path led Campion and the Black Rabbit away from the trench, before taking a slow turn to the left.
-"Are you not going to help him?" Campion asked.
-"WHY WOULD I? HE LED A BAD LIFE AND DESERVES EVERYTHING HE'S GOING THROUGH RIGHT NOW."
-"How long will he go through this?"
-"FOREVER."
-"Have you no pity?"
-"THREE THINGS. ONE: HE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE HIS WAYS, BUT HE REFUSED. TWO: I MUST NOT LET FEELINGS INTERFERE WITH MY WORK. THREE..."
-"Not let feelings interfere with your work? But you just said that you're stressed over me!"
-"AS I WAS SAYING, BEFORE I WAS SO RUEDLY INTERRUPTED. THREE: YES, I AM STRESSED OVER YOU, AND THAT SIMPLY SHOWS JUST HOW MUCH YOU'RE HURTING ME. IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT YOU STAY ALIVE? DID I NOT SEND ASPEN TO PROTECT YOU?"
-"I'm sorry you're going through all these problems because of me."
-"YOU SHOULD BE SORRY. NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?"
-"I'll try to be more careful."
-"TRYING IS NOT ENOUGH."
-"I promise I'll be more careful."
-"YOU ALREADY MADE SUCH A PROMISE, BUT YOU STILL ENDED UP BREAKING IT."
By that point, the path had led the two creatures in a tunnel of some sort. Campion could not see anything around him in this darkness, other than the Black Rabbit's two red eyes in the middle of an endless sea of blackness.
-"So what do you expect me to do?"
-"YOUR PAIN WITH THE SNARE WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT THE PAIN IS IN THAT RIVER."
Campion gasped, as he realized what the Black Rabbit was implying.
-"You wouldn't throw me in there, would you?"
-"I JUST MIGHT. HOPEFULLY THE FEAR OF THIS HAPPENING WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE NECESSARY MOTIVATION TO STAY ALIVE."
At that moment, the two creatures exited the tunnel, and kept travelling. Campion carefully studied the Black Rabbit's position.
-"YOU'RE VERY SILENT, ALL OF A SUDDEN," the Black Rabbit eventually said.
-"I've been thinking. And I have reached a decision."
-"AND WHAT DECISION IS THAT?"
-"I've had just about enough. I'm not going to deal with this madness anymore."
-"YOU MEAN YOU WON'T BE DYING AGAIN?"
-"No, I mean I won't be dealing with your emotional manipulation and physical torture anymore."
Before the Black Rabbit could react, Campion had pounced on him, kicking and scratching furiously. The Black Rabbit did surprisingly little to fight back, and soon, his red eyes faded until they were black like the rest of his body.
After a few minutes, Campion hopped off the Black Rabbit. While he was silent and motionless, the transportation system continued to carry him and Campion across the shadowlands. They moved past what looked like a beach, but entirely devoid of colour: the sand, the sea and the trees were all various shades of grey.
-"Campion!" came Aspen's voice. "Sorry it took me so long to get to you, but I had trouble making it here, the usual method didn't work. Where's BrofI?"
-"Don't worry about it, Aspen," Campion replied. "Who's BrofI though?"
-"The Black Rabbit of Inlé."
-"Oh him. He's right here behind me."
Aspen cast a quick glance at the Black Rabbit. He hopped closer and touched him.
-"What happened here?" he asked, horrified.
-"I taught him a lesson," Campion replied.
-"You killed him!"
-"No I didn't. Any moment now, he'll get back up, insult me, and send us back."
-"Campion, what have you done? The Black Rabbit is dead. This has the potential to break reality."
-"No, that's impossible. The Black Rabbit is death itself, how can he be killed?"
-"I don't know how, but he's still dead."
Campion remained silent, as the knowledge slowly sank in his mind that, yes, the Black Rabbit really was dead.
-"Smack my ears," he eventually said.
-"Why would you want me to do that?"
-"To wake me up. You see, I'm dreaming. There is no other explanation."
Aspen sighed, and did as Campion had ordered.
-"Sorry, Campion, but this is reality."
-"So, if this is reality...what do we do now?"
-"I don't know. I suppose Prince Rainbow will eventually come and sort everything out."
Campion and Aspen waited, as they were transported over a snowy mountain. Unbeknownst to them, another creature further away spotted them, and ran to them. Then, it grabbed the Black Rabbit and ran off, as quickly as it had arrived.
-"What was that?" Aspen asked.
-"I have no idea WHAT that thing was, but I know one thing: it wasn't Prince Rainbow."
Suddenly, the two rabbits found themselves in the midst of a maze of pipes. It did not take long for Campion to be struck by one of the pipes, and Aspen soon followed.
As he travelled through the air, Campion suddenly recognized his surroundings: he was back in Darkhaven. Aspen landed on Granite's back once again; Campion landed on top of Aspen moments later. Granite, with two rabbits on top of him, groaned in pain.
-"What did I ever do to deserve this?"
-"Sorry," Campion said, as he hopped off Granite and moved away; Aspen soon followed.
General Woundwort had observed the bulldozer from a distance away. After it had fallen off the path, he turned to Vervain.
-"You just killed a hrududu, Vervain. That's the first meaningful thing you have accomplished in your life."
-"Really? Thank you sir!"
It was rare for General Woundwort to praise anyone, and Vervain took this comment with great pride, despite Woundwort having also insulted him. The General, meanwhile, slowly approached a white rabbit sitting further away.
-"Ah, Granite. I see you're back. Perhaps you could explain to me what happened with the prisoner?"
-"General, there's something I need to tell you," came the voice of Blueberry from further away.
-"Silence," Woundwort replied. "I'm in the middle of something."
Granite cast an annoyed look at the General. What could he say? He was supposed to bring back the escaped prisoner, but instead he had let her and her friend go free. They did not deserve to be killed. However, it would be very difficult for him to explain this decision to the General, who had said that all prisoners were to be captured and brought back to the warren.
-"I found her. She tried to fight me, and I killed her in self-defence."
-"Liar!" Vervain called out. "There is no way Prim...the prisoner could have defended herself against him."
-"She wasn't alone. She had recruited the help of few other rabbits, and I had to kill them all."
-"Liar! You wouldn't have been able to kill all the outsiders just like that!"
-"What's that you say about the outsiders, Vervain?" Woundwort asked. Vervain gulped.
-"...nothing, sir."
At that moment, Orchis hopped towards the group of rabbits.
-"It seems to me that someone is keeping secrets from you, General," Orchis said.
-"Of course they are," another rabbit suddenly said. Woundwort looked at him closely. This was the same scarred rabbit whom he had met the previous day at Silverweed's execution.
-"Camp..."
-"I thought we were rid of you!" Vervain shouted. "How dare you come back after so long? General Woundwort has done very well without you."
-"Silence, Vervain," the General ordered, as he walked closer to his former captain of owsla. "Campion, how did you get these scars? You might have died from these wounds."
-"I died, but the Black Rabbit sent me back."
-"The Black Rabbit sent him back? A clear case of insanity," Orchis said. "And you know what we do with the weak-minded in Darkhaven? We kill them. We put them behind a hrududu, with their mouth around the weird tube. When the hrududu starts making horrible smoke, they inhale it and die."
-"Why do all your execution and torture methods involve hrududil?" Vervain said.
-"Silence!" Woundwort shouted. Everyone immediately obeyed. "Campion, you've clearly had a hard time. You must rest."
-"I can't rest now, I have a mission to accomplish."
-"General..." Blueberry spoke again.
-"SILENCE!" Woundwort shouted, before turning back to Campion. "Campion, forget about your mission for the moment. You're wounded, raving, you can't accomplish anything this way. You must rest. Vervain, Orchis, get some bedding material for him."
-"But sir," Orchis objected, "why should we waste the warren's limited supplies on this rabbit? Look at him, even if his brain functioned correctly, he would never be of any use to the owsla."
-"The mark of a good owsla officer," Woundwort explained, "is the ability to obey the orders they receive without questioning them. DO AS I SAY!"
With a sigh, Orchis left to do as he had been ordered, with Vervain following. Meanwhile, Woundwort turned back to Blueberry.
-"What was it you wanted to tell me?"
-"Vervain shoved me down the pit again while you were away," the kitten replied.
-"Were there any witnesses this time?"
-"Yes, that big white buck."
-"You mean Granite?"
-"Yes, I suppose that's his name."
-"I didn't see anything," Granite said. "Well, I did see SOMETHING. Vervain was lying on the kitten's back, it kinda looked like they were training or something."
-"No," Blueberry said, "Vervain pushed me and..."
-"You really don't like Vervain, do you?" Woundwort said.
-"I don't think he likes ME."
Orchis spent a while carrying straw bedding and other supplies to the chamber that would become Campion's burrow. Vervain did little to help: Campion didn't deserve such a comfortable burrow. Nevertheless, to avoid Woundwort's wrath, he had to at least pretend to help Orchis with the task.
After a while, Campion was comfortably installed in the burrow.
-"Will there be anything else?" said an annoyed Orchis.
-"Not at the moment, you can go," Campion replied.
Orchis stormed out of the burrow. Vervain was about to follow him, when suddenly...
-"No, you stay, Vervain."
-"What do you want with me?"
-"Come closer."
Vervain slowly hopped closer, afraid of what Campion would do to him. His fears were founded, as Campion soon pounced on top of him. He placed one of his hind legs under Vervain's tail.
-"You listen to me carefully now. If you try to escape or fight back, I'll rip your tail off."
-"I won't fight back! Please don't kill me!"
-"Afraid of death, are you? You have nothing to fear. I killed the Black Rabbit, so I don't think anyone is going to die for a while."
Vervain's breathing quickened. As much as he hated to admit it, Orchis was right: Campion was insane. But that only made him even more dangerous.
-"I'm not afraid," he lied pitifully.
-"Do you seriously expect me to believe that?"
Vervain was stammering incomprehensibly.
-"No matter," Campion continued. "I know you tried to kill Woundwort."
Vervain gasped. Had this been any other rabbit, he would have been relieved that someone finally believed him. But this was Campion, his lifelong enemy. To make things worse, he had never confessed to the attempted murder in Campion's presence; how did he know?
-"It was the outsiders..." Vervain said.
-"That's what I thought at first. But then the Black Rabbit set me straight."
-"I swear it wasn't me..."
-"Are you sure about that?"
Vervain could Campion's claws against his tail. He had no choice but to confess.
-"It was me."
-"Good." Campion hopped off the bearded rabbit. "Now go and leave me alone. If you keep spreading vile rumours about me like you did so many times in Efrafa, I'll make sure everyone knows what you did."
-"You think that scares me? I already tried telling Woundwort, he didn't believe me."
-"Oh, but he'll believe ME. I was there, and I saw you do it."
-"No you didn't! I made sure there was nobody watching when I did it."
-"You're right. I wasn't there, but what matters is whether Woundwort believes me."
-"What makes you so sure he will believe you?"
-"Do you really want to risk it?"
This had the desired effect. While Vervain was doubtful of whether Woundwort would believe Campion, he just couldn't risk it. He scurried out of the burrow before Campion could tackle him again.