Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 77: brought to you by Bunny Oden

Today on "Zit Popping Rage": Shay broods, Joseph comes back as ground beef, and one-eyed bunny is sweetsauce.

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Shay had nightmares. Curtis and Ryan broken by her betrayal. Baby boys gone to the wilds, never to be seen. Little girls terrified of their father and starved. Muir and Parker gone. Harvey dead.

From there it twisted as dreams do against logic. Life turned modern. Curtis found a mistress once he realized Shay wasn't all that unique, or even all that great. Ryan stuck around out of loyalty, but fell into pornography, addicted to beauty far greater than her. And her children? Her children begged on her with open mouths for things she couldn't give.

She stumbled out of the rabbit hole as the sky to the east blushed gray, brighter golds and blues vanishing behind the mountain peaks. Her hand throbbed something awful and she longed to unbind it, but feared what she would see.

For once, no rabbit guard stood at the door. And for that, she was thankful, as she couldn't bring herself to take Neara's cloak with her. Not only were her legs and stomach utterly bare, but they exploded into goosebumps.

It's only to clear my head she told herself, and stumbled towards the woods, thinking to find some berries while she was at it...or maybe just keep walking until she reached the edge of the world.

The dead strands of grass left over from winter cut at her shins and calves. She could feel every rock beneath the worn leather soles of her shoes. She needed new ones. Any day a hole would wear through.

When the images kept playing through her head, along with the sinking sensation of being swallowed by tar, she cleared her throat and tried to sing to herself. It wasn't very good, and she barely had the will to reach beyond a few notes, leaving the song monotone and as gray as the dawn.

The edge of the woods came fast. The valley wasn't all that huge. She found the berry bush, but ended up sitting next to it, not caring about the twigs and burs sticking into her butt.

The leaves applauded to a faint breeze. The sky lightened, only to be edged by dark clouds. Her skin grew used to the cold. Her fingers went numb. She stopped focusing on her half-mumbled, half-sung songs and ended up repeating the same chorus over and over, soothed more by the vibrations of the notes rather than the words until she grew tired of hearing and went quiet.

Around the time the first rays of sun hit the valley, a contrast of gold against the gathering dark clouds, a rabbit finally found her. Or, rather, he was the first to draw near, as she could still see the rabbit holes from where she sat, and she knew her pink-snake skin top could be seen through the dry reeds easily enough.

She took note of his bandaged face and looked back to staring at the mountains and sky in a never-ending attempt to be swallowed by them.

"Hello, Vincent."

After nodding his head in greeting, he didn't tell her to return or scold her, nor did he sit down. He unrolled a brown and white streaked blanket and draped it over her shoulders. She nearly squeaked at the intensity of its softness. It still held his warmth, and her body started to shiver as it remembered the cold.

"Thank you."

He bowed his head again, one working eye lowering its lashes as well, and gave her a small smile. She expected him to tell her to go back then, especially with the approaching storm, but he didn't. Rather, he took up a position against a tree on the other side of the bush and folded his arms, attention to the skies as well.

She didn't say anything more, nor did she feel the need to. Her patient was a quiet sort, nor had he yet to try and throw his authority about in an attempt to tell her what to do, whether for his own interests or hers. Then again, it had only been four days since her kidnapping. It wasn't like she could say she knew him all that well. But, so far, she could say he was her favorite bunny for no other fact than this unassuming, quiet stance he'd taken on the other side of the bush.