The Bunny Institute

The Threat

Chapter 3

Rose stood with her mouth open wide, had Mrs T just given her a death threat? No, this couldn't be happening. "W-what?" She stuttered, terrified. Mrs Tuppence opened her mouth, looking like she was about to take a chunk out of Rose... And laughed!

Mrs Tuppence was bent over double, tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. "Get's them every time." She wheezed finally, "Did you really think I was going to kill you?" Rose stood haughtily, her arms crossed. Mrs Tuppence exploded into laughter again, and Rose was infected, a slight smile playing across her lips.

"Okay, so that's the icebreaker over with, now, what do you want with me?" Rose rolled her eyes, "And the real thing this time, if you wouldn't mind." She followed off the sentence with a hard stare at Mrs Tuppence, to emphasise her point. Mrs T straightened up, choking back the last of laughter, and turned to business mode. "Now, Rose, I have actually come here to find you. You've have been chosen to attend our school, The Bunnet Institute, out of thousands of other possible schoolchildren. I realised it was you, after you shouted out a phrase which kind of tipped me off." She raised an eyebrow, and waited for the words to sink in.

Rose just stood there, with her mouth wide open. "If you keep your mouth open like that, something might fly in!" Mrs T exclaimed, and whipped out a flyswatter from nowhere, eyeing the room carefully. "I always find that flies and other insects come into a room just in time to fly into an open mouth," She explained. "That's why I always keep a flyswatter handy." With that surprising sentence, Rose quickly closed her mouth, (You know, just in case something might fly in.) and thought more carefully about Mrs Tuppence's earlier statement. "I shouted out a phrase..." Rose pondered, what phrase could she mean? "Wait..." Mrs Tuppence nodded slowly, encouraging Rose. "Mrs Burglar lady! You knew about my infamous paranoia!" Rose grinned, of course she had got it! Because nobody knew about the other thing she had shouted out unless...

The grin slid from her face as the realisation hit home, Mrs T wasn't here for Rose, she was here for Rose's power. Then she suddenly realised something, "Mrs Tuppence, where's my mum?" Mrs T gestured to the broom cupboard at the back of the hall. Rose stepped forward, and the door creaked open. "You may be too precious to kill, Rose Peters" Mrs Tuppence hissed into the back of Rose's neck, "But your mother certainly isn't." In the back of the cuboard Rose saw her mothers eyes, wide and terrified, and knew that this time, it wasn't a joke.