The Bunny Followed Me Home From School Today.

21

I woke to the bunny sitting in the corner, head titled at an angle in such a way that I almost couldn't maintain my screams, everything was blurred, and I found my self unexplainably drained. Unfortunately, I could feel the heavy toxics shooting through my veins wearing down my immune system - I couldn't function properly.

These voices started to blend together in my head, the only thing coherent was Jo's laughter, not the conceding one she'd bark in superiority, but the dorky one that vanished with age and now all that was left was the prettiness of her face mixed with there soft, child like voice I didn't recognize in the moment, but, oh, it was all too familiar.

The bunny never spoke while it sat across from me, and I didn't expect it to, but once it's legs bent and white tail started to rise from the chair, the voices started to scream combatively and I found myself at the mercy of the metal doors that banned me from the outside. The lousiness of my fist as they met the metal reassured the bunny and I that I had become my weakest. Bright pink flashes nearly blinded me, reflecting off a light that, ironically, wasn't there.

I screamed, but no one came, so the bunny moved closer and positioned near me on the floor - directly in front, to be exact, almost as if it was trying to initiate a game of patty cake. I don't wanna play, I whispered.

Still plastered against the cold metal, it held its hand up high and started to clap assuming that I would follow along, but the air in my throat had begun to get caught between silent shouts and actual screams. I sat frozen watching in torment.

I pulled my knees to my chest and cried a desperate scream that I must have been accumulating in my throat - from life within the walls and now life outside, it was ear wrenching, even to myself. I've always believed nursery rhymes were soothing, so for my own sanity I thought of those - my mama those nights when I had to sleep in Jo and I's room without Jo because mama's bad was comfortable.

Nursery Rhymes are for comfort, to put babies asleep, in this moment I needed exactly that - to finally sleep with comfort and hopefully love - or maybe I just needed to wake up back into reality. I too found this comfort in these songs in my head, that I so badly wanted to have without the tightening darkness.

Suddenly, a grunt irrupted from under the head and it caught me by surprise, I wanted to slide closer and remove the mask but the fear was holding me back so, for now, the screams and lullabies were my personal serenity.

"HELP ME!" I screamed, "ITS GOING TO KILL ME!!"

Please.

No one came.

The bunny scouted closer to me, so I decided to close my eyes to block it out because I knew it'd continue to stare through those dark black circles called, 'costumed bunny eyes', unknowingly wobbling its head as the seconds passed. My eyes were shut, and nerves bad, were us overgrown children from Homewood the most insane people on the planet since thats what filled this institute, and seemed to have it worse than the others? Our minds fading from light to dark without us even realizing it, having blackouts, overthinking the important things so we can save ourselves from ever seeing that were imperfect.

I've found comfort in this darkness, though, and I'm finally okay.