Ghosts of Wonderland

Rabbits

Halo Eight: Rabbits:

Christmas Eve

There are weird children in animal masks who keep appearing around the city. At first, they didn't do anything. Not many people could see them.

Nanami looked out across the street to see three masked children staring at her. She shivered as she tried to look away.

"Is something wrong?"

The teacher quickly turned her head. Her colleagues were staring at her. Nanami cleared her throat.

"No," she lied. "Just thought I something weird." Her colleagues stared at her. Ever since the picture incident back in fall, things had been uncomfortable. Nanami cleared her throat again.

"What were we talking about again?" she asked. The other teachers didn't speak at first. They looked at each other as if they were wondering who should be the one to say something.

"Well, Miki was talking about how she's throwing a Christmas party tomorrow," one of them said. Nanami nodded.

"Yeah," she said. Nanami didn't ask if she was invited or not. She didn't want to feel like she was imposing or anything.

"Do you have any plans with Jiro this evening?" another one of her colleagues asked. Nanami's cheeks turned red.

"Well... uh... um..." she stammered out. Her colleagues made faces like they were sharing a secret with each other. One of them tried not to laugh.

"What?" Nanami asked. Her colleagues eyed her. One of them patted her on the shoulder.

"We'll let him tell you," she said. The math teacher sat there, blinking. She tried not to look out the window again at those creepy masked children.

Mari stared out the window. She tried to warn him months ago.

July 17th, 2015.

She sat naked on her bed, looking out the window. Izaya reached for her hand. Mari yanked it away.

"Don't," she muttered. The information broker drew back his hand. She refused to look at him.

"Once the three beggars arrive, I cannot help you," Mari said. Izaya lifted his head.

"Hm? What are you talking about?" he asked. The programmer has told him this before. She shook her head. Why didn't he understand? It always ended the same for him. She counted down to the days when the three beggars were coming. Izaya popped up behind her and pulled her into his arms. Mari turned to break away.

"What are you doing?" she asked. He didn't answer. The programmer tried to push him, but she gave up in the end. There was something else about the beggars that she was keeping to herself. She wasn't going to tell Izaya that part. She couldn't even bring herself to witness his demise.

Christmas Eve

Mari turned her head when the phone rang. It became harder to ignore now that she had to use a landline.

"Yeah?" Mari asked. The call didn't take long. Her eyes started to glow red.

"Yes," she said. "I will be right there." She slowly hung up. Suddenly, Mari snapped back to life. She couldn't get Saika's voice out of her head. She hadn't expected them to sink so low to keep her in line. However, it wasn't a complete loss. When she was alone, the programmer could still fight back in her own way. After all, there was one thing that she still had that she could use to put an end to this game. The Big Three just hadn't noticed it yet.

More children with animal masks popped up around the city. Just looking at them invoked a sense of dread. Who were they? What did they want? Were they even human?