The Blood of the Rabbit

Chapter 3

The living room was quite nice for being in an ancient building. The furniture looked like it was from the mid-20th century, and there was even a phonograph. The room smelled like the rest of the house, but the stench was the weakest it had been since Martin came into the house. There were two couches with cob-webs covering them, a fireplace missing a few bricks, a few chairs here and there and who were in the same state as the couches, and a carpet with holes in it. There were also windows, but they were boarded up, and a fire mantle above the fireplace. Even though it was a nicer room, Martin didn't want to take any chances sitting on anything. For all he knew, there could be bats in the chimney.

Looking around the room, Martin couldn't help notice that there were more paintings and some photos on the walls and on the fire mantle. The paintings were mostly ripped and the photos were in small picture frames, but the glass was broken. All the photos were black and white. A few of them had a man and a couple of children, but just about all of them had a woman pictured. The woman look familiar, but Martin couldn't place her. In the paintings, she was young, maybe her late twenties? As for the photos, she was older, perhaps her forties or fifties.

Inspecting the fireplace, there was a small rack with a crowbar and some pokers.

"These might come in handy if something attacks me," Martin said to himself.

For now, Martin let the pokers and crowbar be, but he decided to keep them in mind if he needed them later. Until then, Martin decided to explore a bit more. He had recently wandered through the dining room and looked through a closet, but the only things that he took note of was a cane in the closet and a beautiful chandelier in the dining hall.

Martin also couldn't help but pay attention to the ever growing scratching sound. It sounded like claws on wood, like an animal tearing on the side of a wooden house that got locked out of the house. But the only living things he had seen were rats, spiders, centipedes, and the creepy rabbit thing.

That's when he smelled something out of place. It was like the smell of the house, but much stronger. And worse, much worse. It was similar to the smell Martin imagined zombies or carcasses smelled like in movies.

Then he saw the white. Those white fingers. It couldn't be.

"Holy shit..." Martin gasped as he saw it turn the corner in the hall.

The thing that attacked him earlier was at the end of the hall outside the living room. It stood there, staring at Martin. Its blank eyes staring at Martin's. Looking at its face, despite it being covered, Martin felt the rabbit man had the tiniest hint of annoyance.

Martin also noticed that the cloth around the thing's mouth wasn't teared or darkened anymore. But the knife wound wasn't. Ripping his eyes away from the rabbit man's eyes, Martin glanced and remained staring at the cut. It was even bleeding still. The blood had been soaked up in the cloth around it, but it continued to bleed. Then it became stranger.

The thing straightened its back, cocked its head up, and began walking over to Martin as if the gash wasn't even there. It put no effort into covering or putting pressure on the cut. Was it ignoring the wound? Did it even hurt? The blood was oozing.

Martin, without breaking eye contact, grasped one of the pokers. The monster seemed to notice, and began picking up speed. Sweat rolling down his forehead, Martin gripped the poker. The creature leaped. Martin was ready this time.

With a mighty WHACK , Martin slammed the poker across the monster while it was in mid-leap. It fell about a foot from where Martin stood, but it was making a quick recovery. An overwhelming sensation rushed through Martin's blood, and he brought the poker crashing down on the monster's back as it was getting up. It crashed to the floor, but began a hissing sound and attempted to get back up. This time he brought the poker on the thing's head. When the poker and the monster's head collided, some blood appeared under the cloth. Pausing, realizing what he just did, Martin hesitated to hit the creature another beating. This was a mistake.

The creature, unfazed by Martin's blows, reached out with its fast reflexes and wrapped its fingers around the poker. It ripped the poker out of Martin's hand with its one hand and brought it down into the floor with a mighty CRACK in the floorboards.

It let out a scream, just like the one it lashed out earlier. Martin's ears rung, and he fell back onto the cage vase containing the other poker and the crowbar. Martin felt a pain rush up from his ankle, and looked up to the monster who was letting out a menacing hiss. Martin grabbed the poker as the monster loomed over him. It let out another scream.

The poker plunged through the monster's stomach, all the way through to the back of the torso. The creature stumbled back, gawking at the poker with its large, blank eyes. Martin saw his chance and dashed towards the hall the creature originated from, stumbling to his feet. The monster whirled its head at Martin's direction, but Martin was already blasting down the hall. Martin didn't look back to see if his attack killed it. He had a feeling he would see it again.