As promised, Habit lets us out in the morning. We eat rather quickly, and then Habit announces that we are going to start our little game today. What the game is is a complete mystery to me, and Vinny, too.
I think - no, I know - that Habit did this on purpose.
Vinny holds the camera as the three of us walk out into the woods, and Habit stops us at the half-mile mark. He takes me by the hand and turns me to face Vinny.
"Eight years ago is when we started this whole thing. This lovely little game I was playing with my Rabbits, EverymanHYBRID. Eight years later, Jeff is deader than a doornail and Evan and Vinny here are the only ones left. Well, they were. Meet y/ n, the newest addition to the EMH crew!"
Wait, what?
"And to initiate her, we are going to show her just what it is to be a member of our family. Come on, I've got a surprise for all of you," he adds.
I freeze when I see what Habit is talking about. Minnie is there, the bitch who was bullying me. Habit walks over to the gagged and bound young woman and grins at her. She cries and screams as I step close enough for her to see me.
"Oh, you know each other?" He cackles.
"Minnie? Is that really you?" I manage to stammer.
"She can't talk right now, can't you see?" Habit asks me with a dark grin. "It's fun to watch the look on your face, y/ n. You look like a deer caught in the headlights."
"Habit ... what ..."
"Go ahead, use your big girl voice."
"Habit, I - " Vinny starts, only to be cut off.
"I don't care, Vinny. You're just gonna stand there and shut the fuck up because that's what you do. Y/ n, come on, it's your turn to be the person in the spotlight."
"Habit, what's going on? What's Minnie doing here?" I ask finally.
"Minnie's being a good little girl, isn't she?" He turns to her and she nods vigorously. "And you're going to do what every single bullied kid wants to do, y/ n." He walks over to me and bends down in my face. "Want to know what that is? Go ahead and ask. Say, 'Habit, what am I going to do?' Go ahead!"
Swallowing my tears of fear, I do as I am told.
"Habit, what am I going to do?"
"I'm so glad you asked, y/ n. You are going to make her suffer. You are going to make her bleed, and when she is begging for death, you'll give it to her. Oh yes, you're definitely going to do it. Consider it a ... gift. From me to you."
If he hadn't been Habit, I'd have turned and run. But even though my body and mind are screaming at me to run, to sprint from here, I know it'd be pointless. He'd just catch me and bring me back, or do something far worse.
I know what I have to do.
I have to kill Minnie, my bully.
Or I will die.
