Bunnies
Justin Cawthorne
Smashwords
Edition
Copyright 2009 Justin Cawthorne
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Bunnies
by Justin Cawthorne
Katarina walked down the road to Brendan's house, holding the box carefully in front of her. It was starting to get heavy, but she didn't mind. She loved being out at this time of year, she loved the way the air was bitter and full of mischief. It would be getting dark soon and she loved that too. The change was always good: from light to dark, from warm to cold, from living to dead.
Inside the box was a gift for Brendan. It was the first gift she had ever given him, so she hoped it would be a surprise. She was almost certain it would be.
Brendan was her friend. He was one of the first people she had met when she moved to this town, and they had been friends ever since. She was used to living in new towns and meeting new people. Sometimes they liked her and sometimes they didn't, but Brendan was the first person at school who had said hello to her: she had liked him for that and always would.
On that first day Katarina had been asked by their teacher, Mrs White, to stand up at the front and tell the other children a little bit about herself.
"But why?" she had asked.
"Because everyone wants to know about you," Mrs White had lied to her. "Tell us about where you lived before. What's your new house like? What sort of things do you do when you're at home?"
Katarina was used to this as well: every time she started at a new school the teacher made her talk about herself. She knew that no one really wanted to hear about where she lived before, or what her house was like, or what she did at home. She didn't like talking about herself either, so she told everyone about her bunnies instead.
She bought a new bunny every time she had to move to a new town. It was supposed to be a special reward, but she knew it was really her mother's way of saying sorry for taking her away from all her old friends. None of that mattered to Katarina because she wasn't worried about friends, not people friends in any case; her bunnies were her best friends and now she had four of them. The newest one was Grendel and the other three were called Bugs, Fluff and Toto.
"Most of my bunnies like each other," she had told everyone, "except for Fluff. The others don't like him much because he's not very clever."
"And how do you know that Katarina?" Mrs White had asked her.
"Because that's what they told me," she had answered. "They say Fluff is backwards."
The other children had laughed, not loudly but behind their hands. It didn't matter, Katarina could still hear them.
"Katarina, rabbits can't talk," Mrs White had told her.
"They're not rabbits, they're bunnies, and they don't talk to everyone, only to me."
Then Mrs White had stood up. "It's not good to lie about things, Katarina, you'd better go back to your desk now."
As she walked back someone did an impression of Bugs Bunny: "Ehhhh, what's up, doc?" The whole class laughed, even Brendan. When Katarina sat down she could see that Mrs White was smiling as well, even though she told everyone: "That's enough now, time to open your books..."
Later, her mother had asked her about her first day at school and if everyone had been nice to her. Katarina told her about Brendan saying hello but said nothing about everyone laughing at her. Every time she started a new school her mother asked her the same question, but Katarina always lied now. One time she had talked about a girl who had been mean to her and, the next morning, her mother had come to school with her and told the teacher. Katarina hadn't even wanted the girl to get into trouble, she'd only talked about it because she didn't have anything else interesting to tell her mother. After that the girl had been even meaner to her, so Katarina didn't tell her mother about those things anymore.
It didn't really bother her in any case. After she had been at Brendan's school for almost a week some of the other children had gathered around and started calling her names. They danced in a ring and looked like fairies - except fairies didn't usually look as stupid. Katarina would have waited until they got bored, but Brendan saw what was happening and told them all to stop. After that they started shouting at him instead, but they'd left her alone. For a while.
The box was starting to get too heavy and she still had three blocks to go before she reached Brendan's house. She stopped by a fence and rested the box on top of it for a minute. The box was wrapped in paper with dragons and rainbows on it; she didn't know if Brendan liked dragons and rainbows, but if it wasn't wrapped up then it wouldn't be a gift.
Brendan had brought her a gift for her birthday and he had wrapped it up in paper with robots on it. Inside had been a toy bunny. She didn't like it as much as her real bunnies - for one thing it didn't talk - but she had given him a kiss anyway to say thank you. She had seen her mother kissing the men who brought her things, so it seemed like the right thing to do. It didn't mean she wanted to get married to him or anything. Later on she had seen some of the other children asking him about it, maybe they thought it made him special.
She picked the box up and started walking again. She had been carrying things all day: this morning she had carried Grendel, her newest bunny, to school. It wasn't actually school, it was the Easter holidays so there wasn't any school. Instead she had to go to Holiday Camp - it was the same place as school, but they gave it a different name so they could pretend it was more fun. She had to go because even though it was the Easter holidays her mother still had to go to work. It wasn't really so bad. This morning they were allowed to bring in anything they wanted from home so they could paint a picture of it. Katarina had brought in Grendel, her favourite bunny. She knew she wasn't supposed to have favourites, but Grendel was the one that talked to her the most.
Brendan was also at Holiday Camp; he had two parents but they both worked.
"Is that one of your bunnies?" he had asked.
"Of course it is," she had told him. "His name is Grendel. He's the one I got when I moved here."
Brendan looked at Grendel for a long time. Grendel looked back at him, then got bored and started eating instead. "Does he talk?" Brendan asked.
"Yes, he talks all the time."
Brendan stared at Grendel again. Grendel carried on eating. Finally Brendan said: "I wish he would talk to me..."
"He was talking to you," Katarina told him. "He was wondering what you were looking at. When you didn't say anything back he got bored."
Then a voice from behind them said: "He also said you want to kiss her again, because you liked it the first time." Brendan turned round and his face went red when he saw that it was Anna. She was supposed to be one of Brendan's friends except that she wasn't very nice to him most of the time. Katarina knew Brendan liked Anna, sometimes she could see the two of them talking together in the playground.
"No I didn't!" Brendan shouted and quickly went back to his table. After that Anna started saying something else to her, so Katarina just turned away and started to get her paper and paints ready instead.
She was only a block away from Brendan's house now but her arms were really starting to ache. She walked over to a bench and sat down, keeping the box on her lap to make sure it didn't fall off. Across the road she could see a girl riding around on her bike. After a moment she realised it was Anna.
Anna saw her and cycled over, stopping her bike by the side of the pavement. She just stared. Katarina had nothing to say to Anna so she just stared back. Then Anna started chanting "Crazy Kat! Crazy Kat!" and started riding away. She looked back, still chanting, to make sure Katarina was still watching her, which she was. Katarina was also looking at the parked car which Anna was about to ride her bike into. A second later she hit it, her head made a big crack in the windscreen and something on her bike cut her leg and made it bleed. Anna was quiet after that.
Katarina picked up the box and carried on walking, leaving Anna in the road. It wasn't the first time she had been to Brendan's house, sometimes she went there for tea because their mothers worked together, so she knew exactly where to go. Brendan also knew where her house was; she had seen him there earlier. He had been riding away on his bike just when she got home, but he hadn't seen her.
She didn't know why he had come to see her until later. Before they left Holiday Camp that afternoon he had come up to her in the playground and given her something. It was a present, all wrapped up in Easter paper, but he had pretended as if he didn't want to give it to her. She had given Brendan a kiss to say thank you and then gone to the park with Grendel to open it. It was a picture book of bunnies; none of them looked as clever as hers, except for Fluff of course, but she liked it all the same.
After she finished the book she had gone home. She went to see her bunnies first of all, as she always did, and knew straight away that Brendan had also been there to see her bunnies; they told her about it, and what he had done. Then she put Grendel back in with the others and he had told her exactly what to do next.
She walked up the path to Brendan's house and rang the bell. A moment later Brendan answered it. He looked surprised to see her, Katarina enjoyed the way his eyes went wide and how it looked as if he'd forgotten to breathe for a minute.
"Hello Brendan," she said.
Brendan stared at Katarina, not knowing what to say. In the end he just said: "Hello."
She stood there with a little smile on her face and didn't say anything back. In her arms she was cradling a box, it was brightly coloured and looked big enough to hold a football inside. Brendan didn't think there would be a football inside, he really didn't want to know what was inside.
Katarina carried on looking at him and not saying anything.
"Um, we're having dinner in a minute..." Brendan eventually managed.
"No, thank you," she said lightly. "I need to go home now anyway. I just came here to give you a gift. It's Easter."
Brendan stared at the box. "Oh, I didn't get you anything..."
"Yes, you did. You gave me a book, don't you remember?"
Brendan remembered the book, and he remembered the kiss. Now his breath was starting to come too fast for him to speak properly. He just wanted her to go away so she wouldn't know.
"Okay," he whispered.
"Here is your present," Katarina told him, holding out the box.
Brendan looked at the box, at the funny wrapping paper all over it, at the way Katarina's arms were struggling a little to keep it held out to him. He didn't want to take it, but he knew that Katrina wouldn't go away unless he did.
He reached out and took the box.
"Don't open it until Easter," she warned him.
Brendan shook his head. "I won't."
She stood there another moment. Finally she turned and started skipping away down the path. "Bye Brendan," she called to him as she left.
Brendan watched her go, wondering if he should go straight to the dustbin and throw the box in with the rubbish.
Then he heard a voice from inside the house: "Who was that? It sounded like Katarina."
Before he could even move his mother was next to him, peering out of the door. "Has she gone already? You should have asked her in. She could have had supper with us."
Brendan pushed the door shut. "No, she didn't want to stay, she had to go home, she told me."
His mother looked at the box in his hands. "What's that?"
"It's a... " Brendan started, but he couldn't think of anything to say that would stop her from wanting to look inside. "It's a school project we were working on."
"Can I see?"
Brendan shook his head. "No. No - it's wrapped up, see? It's not finished yet anyway."
"Why is it wrapped up if it's not finished?" she asked, studying the box.
"It's, um -"
"Oh look, it's got a lid!" she pointed out, and before Brendan could stop her she was lifting it off. "Just a quick look..."
"No!" Brendan shouted, and wrenched the box away.
He realised straight away he'd done the wrong thing. He could tell by the look on his mother's face, it was the look he hated the most, the one that made him feel as though she didn't even know him, as if he wasn't her son any more. It only lasted a second, long enough for him to notice, after that she just looked upset.
"I only.... I like to see what you do at school, that's all, you know that, don't you?" she said pleadingly.
Brendan didn't say anything. He was angry. He didn't understand why Katarina had given him a present, and that made him angry. He didn't understand why his mother wanted to look in the box, and that made him angry. But more than any of that, he didn't like that he'd upset his mother, and that made him angrier than anything else.
She reached down and picked up the lid from the floor. As she put it back on the box they both saw what was inside.
"Ohhh," his mother sighed.
Brendan looked down.
"It's gorgeous," she carried on.
The box contained an egg, larger than a normal Easter egg, wrapped carefully in a brightly patterned linen cloth and tied all around with ribbons. Underneath it was a square egg carton, painted red, and a handful of what looked like straw. Brendan put the lid back on.
"Did you give her the book?" his mother asked.
"Yes, of course I gave her the book!" he answered crossly.
She ignored him. "I think we should go round on Sunday and give Katarina something else for Easter... a book's not really enough of a present... let me think of something else we can give her..." As she talked she wandered off into the kitchen, lost in her thoughts.
Brendan watched her to make sure she was gone, then hurried away upstairs, still holding the box.
He wished he had never given Katarina that stupid book. He hated her so much. His mother had found it two days ago while shopping and made him give it to her as a present. So he'd taken it to school like he was supposed to and given it to Katarina. After that she'd done the worst thing ever: she had kissed him. Then Anna had told him he was going to go mad, just like Katarina, because he had let her kiss him.
He didn't want to go mad. He didn't want Anna to not like him because he was mad.
He had been nice to Katarina when she first came to their school. His mother had told him to to be nice to her because she worked with Katarina's mother. He had tried, he even liked her for a little while, but Katarina had made it so hard. At first he had thought she was telling the truth about her bunnies, that they really did talk; today he had realised that she was just making it all up. He had waited for her bunny to say something to him, but it was just a stupid rabbit in the end.
Anna told him that Katarina didn't have any real friends, so she pretended that the bunnies were her friends. Anna had also told him that anyone who was friends with Katarina couldn't have any other friends, not any real friends.
She should never have kissed him.
He realised now he should have pushed her away, but the kiss hadn't felt horrible at first, he hadn't wanted to push her away. But afterwards Anna told him that he probably had the pox now and she couldn't be friends with him any more. It was so unfair!
So he had gone round to Katarina's house after school. He'd seen her go to the park so he knew she wouldn't be at home and, because his mother would still be at work, he knew that Katarina's mother wouldn't be at home either. He rode all the way there on his bike and climbed over the back fence to get into their garden.
He was after the bunnies.
He didn't really know what he was going to do. He thought he'd take one of the bunnies, maybe let it go in the park, or maybe just hide it somewhere for a couple of days. He was angry at Katarina; she'd made him angry, and she'd made Anna hate him, so he wanted to make her hurt. He also thought that it might help her, that if he got rid of all the bunnies people might start to think she was normal again. If people started to think that Katarina was normal then they'd know he was normal as well. It would be good for everyone.
He opened the hutch and the three bunnies inside stuck their heads up and looked at him. Two of them quickly hopped away to the back of the hutch, but the third one just sat there. He went to grab it. It turned and bit him. Brendan screeched, but the bunny didn't let go. He pulled his hand out of the hutch and the bunny came too, its teeth still clamped over the side of his thumb. He grabbed it around the throat, trying to prise its mouth open, but it didn't work. Then he tried hitting it against the side of the hutch, the bunny made a funny noise but it kept biting his hand. Finally he picked up a piece of brick and starting smashing it down on the bunny's head.
He didn't realise what he was doing until he stopped.
The bunny had let go of his hand. Its grey and white fur was starting to go all red. There was a big broken wet patch around its ears. It didn't look that much like a bunny any more. It twitched once, then again, then lay still. Dead.
Brendan felt the tears coming, he didn't know what had happened, so he ran back to his bike and cycled away as quickly as he could. When he got home he realised the bite wasn't even as bad as he'd thought, there was only a little bit of blood. If his mother asked about it he could just tell her that he'd fallen off his bike.
When he'd seen Katarina standing on the doorstep he was sure she'd come round because she knew what he'd done, but she hadn't even realised. Maybe she hadn't been home, or maybe she thought that someone else had done it. Anyway, tomorrow morning he was going to go round to Anna's house and tell her what he'd done. He knew she'd be impressed.
Yes, that's what he was going to do in the morning.
scritch
Brendan woke up.
He'd heard something. He listened for a minute, but there was nothing. It was nothing. He closed his eyes again.
scritch scritch
There it was again. He opened his eyes and tried to see in the dark, wondering what it was. Perhaps something on the roof. Sometimes they'd get birds or rats or other things walking around on the roof above his room. Or it could have been a tree knocking against the -
scr-scr-scritch
No. It was something in his room.
Then a different noise. Scratching. Scraping. A sound like something scraping against cardboard. Then something fell. No, it was something moving, a dull thump as if something has jumped, just a little.
It was the box. Brendan already knew it was the box. He sat up. In the dark he could just see the outline of it, still sitting on his desk.
It moved!
Just a tiny bit, but it moved, shivered a little bit, then stopped. Then the noise again.
scritch scritch scratch
Brendan stood up and switched on his bedside lamp: he would be safer in the light. He could grab the box and throw it out of the window; as long as he was quick enough. He started stepping away from his bed, walking over towards the box. He just didn't want it in his room anymore, he could get rid of it. He could -
He stared at it. It was still and quiet now, looking just like a birthday present with the stupid rainbow paper all around it. He could look inside while it wasn't moving. He could open it and see what was inside there. He could see what was in there making all the noises, what was making it move.
He had to know.
He reached out, touched his fingertip on the lid. The box didn't move. He let his fingers drift around towards the edge. Then his other hand. Both hands on the lid. He could take it off. He could look inside. He just needed to -
He took the lid off.
In the dim light he couldn't see much. From where he stood he could only just see over the edge of the box. There was something round in there, like the edge of the easter egg he had glimpsed earlier. He leaned over, getting closer, closer, until he could see more of the egg, the cloth wrapping now torn and crumpled, the egg open, inside it was
Something red.
Something red, and furry, and sticky, and dead: Katarina's dead bunny. She had wrapped up her dead bunny and given it back to him. Except it wasn't dead any more: it was twitching. Its dead eye was roving around looking for him. Every so often its back leg would jerk, kicking backwards against the side of the box. It was trying to stand up, but it couldn't do it. Not yet. It wasn't completely alive again yet.
Brendan didn't want to wait and see what might happen when it finally managed to stand up. He slammed the lid back on the box, covering the terrible thing that was inside. He would throw it out of the window. It couldn't get him from outside. He could lock his doors, close his windows, hide under the covers: he'd be safe inside, safe from... it. He picked up the box.
There was a knock.
But it didn't come from the box. Almost straight away there was another one. Another knock. Something thumping against his window. He turned and looked at his door. Maybe he could take the box that way, go to the front door and throw it away. But that would take too long. Also the dead thing inside was moving more and more now. He had to get rid of it quickly, before it -
He looked back at the window; it was quiet there now, the noises had stopped. He walked over, gripping the box hard, always keeping one hand pressed over the lid. His curtains were drawn, they had robots on, robots with lasers, but they weren't going to help him now. He needed to open the curtains, that's what he needed to do; he needed to open the curtains and then open the window and then throw the box outside. It would all be over once he did that.
All he had to do was open the curtains. He put the box under his arm, trying to pretend he couldn't feel all those little movements coming from inside it, trying to pretend the scratching wasn't getting louder. With his free hand he reached over and slowly dragged his curtains open. It was black outside, the middle of the night; he couldn't see anything with his light on, but he really, really didn't want to turn the light off. He tried to look through the glass, to make sure there was nothing out there, nothing that could get him when he opened the window.
Something flew out of the darkness.
It banged against the glass and left a smear that looked like spit all over his window. Brendan's heart started pounding inside his chest, beating as though it was trying to burst out of him. He couldn't move. He wanted to turn around and run to the door, but he couldn't move.
He realised he'd dropped the box. It was down on the floor, lying by his feet. The dead bunny was next to it, still quivering, but now both its legs were kicking. Its jaw was all torn and bloody but he could see that moving as well, its red and shattered teeth trying to bite down. Every time it kicked it moved a little closer, its teeth coming a little closer towards him.
There was loud crack.
He looked back to the window and saw there was now a jagged line across it. Something else flew against it and the line grew bigger, splitting across the glass. Then another. This time he saw what it was: a bunny. But it wasn't like any bunny he'd ever seen before. Its eyes were yellow, full of hate and anger. Its fur was filthy and black, and across its feet he'd glimpsed a set of jagged claws.
And it looked hungry.
Then another one came, throwing itself against the window, and another. The glass broke a little bit more each time, the crack spreading wider and wider. He could see blood over the glass now; they were cutting themselves on the broken window, but they still kept coming.
Two at a time, then three, then more, then so many he couldn't count them, couldn't see out of the window. All he could see were the teeth, the eyes, and what they wanted to do to him when they got inside. They were coming for him.
The glass shattered.
Brendan screamed.
-- the end --