Trying Too Hard [Bunny Love Story]

►Chapter Eleven◄

This might come as a surprise to some people, but I used to be somewhat scared of the dark. It was bad enough being in an unlit room during the day, but something about the nighttime always made things a little creepier to me. To this day I'm not exactly sure why that is, but I've since gotten rid of that fear. For the most part. I mean, yeah, places that are so dark I can't even make out shadows will still scare me. The only real difference is that I've learned to love the night. From the midnight air to the lack of people. The less people there are, the less I feel alone. While this might sound a bit odd to some, I know others could relate at least a bit to where I'm going with this. See, whenever I'm in a crowded area, it constantly reminds me that nobody actually likes or pays much attention to my existence. Walking alone in the halls of a crowded school really brings down my self esteem, but when I'm alone it's a little different. Without a group walking by and having fun with their friends, I don't feel as left out.

So it was a bit of a relief when I walked outside that night, mask secured to my face and the cold breeze hitting against what little skin I've got exposed. The duffel bag that I had ended up using duct tape to fix was close to my side as I walked down the darkened streets of South Park. I wanted this last bit of information to be somewhere public, where everyone could see it. Then maybe someone would actually piece it together. There really wasn't a lot of options, as there were little buildings other than houses that were in this town, and the ones that would definitely be seen by Kenny were ones that I already used.

My feet led me to the school and I found myself just staring at that stupid realistic heart. I still believe I could have done way better, but overall decided that it wasn't worth dwelling over and walked around the building. I didn't know where the school cameras were, if there even were any, but I figured that if there actually had been cameras set up then they weren't in the very front of the school at least. I would have been caught by now. My eyes widened when I came to the realization of something I had long since forgotten.

Didn't Eric set up cameras somewhere?

If that were true then I was really in for it now, because I was certain that I had been caught on tape somewhere sometime. Eric Cartman was almost as smart as Kenny when he needed to be, which was starting to scare me at this point. But then I had to calm myself down and explain to the panicked side of me that even if I were to be filmed, they had no real proof I did it. It could be any blonde! I was wearing a mask for goodness sakes, there's no way they'd see that it was me!

I let out a huge sigh of relief and walked up to the front of the school in an attempt to open the doors. As expected, they were locked. Again I rounded the building, sure that I saw a window somewhere that looked into one of the classrooms. It didn't take too long for me to find it, and when I tried to open it found that it was locked as well. I stood there for a minute, silently trying to coerce myself into doing something that I wasn't exactly sure I wanted to do. I could get in loads of trouble, by both my parents and the police.

Well, it's not like they cared before. Why start now?

I unzipped my duffel bag and took out a spray can. After taking several deep breaths and mentally calming myself down, I eventually took the bottom end of the can and ran to the window, where it then made contact with the glass. The only thing that ended up happening had been the feeling of pain shoot through both my arm and my ears. The window did not break. I took a minute to regain myself before sighing and putting the container back into my bag, zipping it up once more.

"Man, I was sure that would work!" I quietly sighed. I decided to continue my walk around the building, only to stop when I saw a window had been cracked open. A huge grin spread across my face and I rushed over, immediately swinging it all the way up so that I could climb inside. I turned around and carefully shut the window behind me. Some kid must have left it open during their last period and it must have slipped the janitor's mind to double check if it had been closed all the way. Looks like it was my lucky day!

Turning back around I was met with darkness. A classroom sure did seem a lot spookier when it was only being illuminated by the faint moonlight from a small window. Taking a few deep breaths, I braved it out and walked toward the closed classroom door. I let my hand rest of the doorknob for longer than I should've, and when I opened it was then met with the pitch black hallways. Finding myself staring into nothing but darkness, I swallowed a lump in my throat and cautiously took my phone out of my pocket. I turned on the flashlight setting and saw that directly across from me stood another door, leading to a different classroom. Room 102.

Good, I'm not that far from the locker rooms.

I left the door open as I stepped into the hallway and flashed the light both ways. It felt like I was in a horror movie, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was about to get killed by some murderer/pedophile living in the school, who got his meals by eating any left behind scraps in the teacher's break room. I knew I was just being paranoid, but when you're raised to be wary of these things it's not a hard thing to think up. I could hear my footsteps echoing through the halls while I was making my way through the building. Turning corners proved especially scary to me, but I found myself relaxing a little when I stopped in front of a set of lockers. While I didn't know Kenny's exact locker number, I did know that it was somewhere amongst this specific cluster.

As I unzipped the duffel bag yet again, I found myself wondering what type of graffiti art I should use for the last message. There weren't a lot that I could think of doing right on the spot, so I decided with a simple Throw Up style and got to work. I painted with one hand and shined the flashlight with the other. Trying to make the lettering as big as I could so that it would end up fitting on every single locker on that side, I failed and ended up only getting the ones in the middle. Once I was finally finished, I dropped the cans back into my bag and shone the flashlight back onto my work. 'K.M.' was what it read, and it looked more like a signature than anything else. If Kenny were to try and lie to me again about this one, he could do so easily by claiming he was simply spelling out his initials as a sort of territorial act. Because if it makes him happy to continue on lying to me about this whole thing, then I was filled with a bit of joy as well. Even if I'm not actually happy.

Sighing, I threw the bag over my shoulders and made my way back down the hall. The moment I rounded the corner and saw the bit of moonlight shining out of that classroom door, my phone rang. It was from an unknown number and, fearing the worst, I answered it while slowly walking to my destination.

"H-Hello?" I asked.

"Hey Butters, it's Kenny," said the person on the other line in a hushed voice. "Dude, your voice is kind of echoing, where are you?"

I felt relieved and nervous at the same time, which was a weird combination of emotions for someone like me to experience. "O-Oh, well... I-I'm just.. You know.. Uh.." I couldn't think of a good enough lie and soon I entered the classroom. "A-at.."

"School?" asked Kenny. The words haunted me for more than one reason. The first being that he actually knew where I was, and the second being that it didn't just come from the speakers of my phone. It came from the corner of the room I had been standing in that very moment.

"K-Kenny?!" I spun around to face him, pulling my phone away from my ear and staring at him with wide eyes. He hung up, stuffing the flip phone into his pocket, and inched toward me, looking menacing with his hood up and the darkness of the room shadowing his face. I couldn't even see his eyes very well, but I just knew they were examining my every move.

"Butters," he greeted casually.