The Bunny Institute

The Stranger

Chapter 2

The stranger was an old woman. At least she seemed old, with her silver hair and slight wrinkles, but she acted like she was much younger, 20 or something. She was wearing a long white dress that scraped the ground like a cloud. There seemed to be a neckerchief circling her neck, and a thin silver chain with a smiley face on it was hanging between her shoulderblades. She was also poking around Rose's house.

 "HEY!" Rose yelled, quickly stepping inside the hall and pulling the door closed. It was lucky that her rabbit ears had disapeared, otherwise she might have been mistaken for some sort of freak. Which she definitely wasn't. "OMG, what if I am a freak?" She quietly whispered to herself. "Excuse me dear?" The lady said uncertainly, "Excuse me, trying to have a private conversation here, Mrs Burglar!" Rose yelled suddenly at the lady in the hall. "OMG, OMG, OMG, I'm a freak!" She wailed, "A big pink bunny-eared freak!"

The woman relaxed, and even smiled slightly. Rose could see her in the corner of her eye, and was feeling angry that Mrs Burglar had discovered her secret. Either that or the lady was okay with thinking that Rose was crazy, and Rose wasn't liking either of those possibilities. "Hey, you! Mrs Burglar lady!" The old woman started, as if not sure who Rose was talking to. Rose rolled her eyes. There was nobody else in the hallway, who else would she be speaking to?

"Yes, you. Just to establish, I'm NOT crazy. I'm just..." Rose trailed off, searching for an excuse for shrieking out that she was a bunny-eared freak. Limited range there. Her eyes lit up. "I was practicing for my school play! Yeah that's it! It's this play about a girl who wakes up as a rabbit one day, and she has to go do stuff, as a rabbit, and, yeah... That's a lame excuse, huh." The woman nodded kindly. Rose realised she had been defeated in the battle of the excuses, but she still had to establish why the lady was there.

"So anyway, let's settle into the main things I want to know. Number 1, who are you? Number 2, why are you here? Number 3, if you bother to answer the first two, why should I believe you?" Rose spoke defiantly, even though she wasn't feeling all that confident inside. The old lady sighed deeply, "Finally, I thought you were never going to stop talking!" She joked loudly. Her voice was loud, and not at all scratchy, like you'd expect an old lady's voice to be. It was more smooth, like a practiced public speaker.

 "Ah, Shushy!" She cried out quickly, putting up a finger to stop Rose's inevitable comment on how she definitely had been going to stop talking. "Now, lets get started on those questions you asked me. Number one, My name is Penelope Tuppence. You may call me Mrs Tuppence, Mrs T, or Headmistress. Not Mrs Burglar Lady, okay?!" She frowned, trying and failing to be stern with the last comment. A flicker of a smile had slipped out when she said Mrs Burglar lady. (I mean, Mrs Burglar lady? Come on, you know that's hilarious.)

"Number two, I'm here to try and find somebody. According to my directions, they live in this house." Mrs Tuppence pulled a crumpled map out from somewhere in her cloudy-white dress, and frowned. "Honestly, maps these days. They're like labyrinths." She complained, obviously exasperated. She threw the map over her shoulder, then her whole mood changed and her eyes glinted ominously. "I think this person might be you, Rose."

Rose shivered. She was feeling a whole lot worse than 'less confident'. She was terrified. "How do you know ny name?" She asked. Mrs Tuppence just smiled silkily, not giving anything away."The third reason then?" Rose asked, her voice wavering treacherously, "Why should I believe you?" Mrs Tuppence's smile felt like a posionus fang dipped in honey as it bored into Rose's head, then she replied. 

"Because if you don't, my dear, I'm afraid I shall have to kill you."