Rabbit

Chapter 1

Brenna muffled her screams with her hands tightly pressed across her lips, as the taunting sounds of the machete's blade slid along the contours of the building she hides in. She knew she couldn't go back into the woods. The sprung traps the killer laid out are still glistening with the blood and entrails of her friends. This is not the weekend they planned for; it was supposed to be a nice fun-filled and relaxing weekend away from everything and everyone who is not us. Now, everyone is dead.

“Hey Rabbit,” Henry called out. “I know you’re in there. I just want to play! Your buddies weren’t much fun. They bled out too fast. They didn't - fight like you!”

Warm tears streamed down Brenna’s face. She had to keep it together. But her thoughts kept going back to her friends.

“Rabbit!” the monster yelled. “Don’t make me come in there!” The crazed man began to pull on the door.

Brenna searched the darkness with droplets of tears hitting the ground as she tried to compose herself. Looking for anything to secure the door. She wanted to yell for him to go away, but fright kept her silent - accepting that her hiding spot was now her grave.

Henry continued to ram into the door, until the frame started to give way. “ I’m going to skin you alive, Rabbit,” he yelled.

Brenna could no longer hold in the screams. “Go away, please!”

“Yes! Fear makes the meat tender,” Henry said with a stutter.

“Pull yourself together,” Brennan said to herself. She sniffles and clears her eyes. To her horror her bowels give way to the tensions and knots in her stomach. Dirt and grime stuck to her legs as she tried to search for a weapon.

“Damn it!” she yelled in a cracked voice. She couldn’t see anything, but Brenna was reminded of hope as her hand grabbed a shovel laying on the floor. She backed into the corner as the door finally gave way. She was going to die.

Henry crashed through the door. Holding his nose. “I can smell you, darling! Did you shit yourself?” Laughter coming from the demonic man.

Brenna stayed huddled in the corner, silently lying in wait.

“Hey my pet, come on out,” Henry said. Don't make this harder then it needs to be.”

Without hesitation Henry swung the machete toward her hiding place. Brenna brought the shovel up to her head just in time. The metal on metal banging together made her hands tremble. A Burning pain shot through her arms. Henry steadied himself for a second swing.

“Get away from me!!” yelled Brenna.

In a heated rage Henry took his swing. Brenna managed to kick him in the groin, dropping him to the ground. The machete was still clutched in his hand.

“You killed my friends!” She landed another blow. This time the blade fell from his grasp.

Brenna turned to run but he grabbed her by the ankles. Knocking her off her feet. she lands face-first into the ground. Henry jumped on he. Pinning Brenna down to the ground, with his knife pressed to her throat. He was so close she could feel the heat of his breath escaping his broad menacing smile. His tobacco spit slid down her face as the crazed man started making small cuts on her face.

“Help me! Somebody help me!" she cried out.

He held her face like a lost love as he smiled gleefully.

“Sweet sweet rabbit. It all will be over soon.” Henry said in a harsh whisper. He raised the knife. The tip of the blade gleamed in her eyes.

Something or rather; someone, kicked the man off of her

“Alex?” Is Alex still alive? But she thought he died in the traps. The thought raced through her mind.

Alex knocked Henry to the ground. “Get off of her!” Alex exclaim.

Henry, looking dazed and confused, scurried to recover from Alex's brute force to his face.

Brenna backed away to a safe distance. She watched all of Alex's efforts to turn Henry's face to mush. When he finally stopped, she jumped into his arms.

“We don’t have time for that.” He grabs her hand and pulls her back towards the woods.

Brenna pulled back. “We can't go back that way. We'll die."

Alex yelled over his shoulders. “We don’t have a choice. Now come on!”

Brenna could hear Henry's screams in the distance. “RABBIT!! RABBIT!! Noo! Come back! I am not done with you yet!”

The two ran blindly into the forest, hoping for a chance to escape this nightmare once and for all.

“Alex” Brenna cried, “Alex! I need to catch my breath!”

Alex didn’t slow his pace. “Come on!”

Brenna was on the verge of throwing up.

“Watch your step,” Alex said.

Brenna saw a shimmer of a tripwire.

“Just a little bit more, then we can rest,” Alex said in a strange tone.

Brenna had no clue where they were headed. She only knew she wanted to leave this place. She saw a light up ahead. Is this nightmare over?

“No!” Brenna cried. “We can’t be here!!”

He led them back to the cabin.

Alex turned and faced Brenna sinisterly. “Welcome, home rabbit!”

Brenna’s world turns black.

“Rabbit, Rabbit, wake up!” Alex said. All the while slapping Brenna in the face.

Everything was blurry. What’s going on? She couldn’t feel her hands. Then she remembers Alex covering her nose and mouth with a dirty cloth.

“Alex, what’s going on?” Out the corner of her eye. She saw Henry walking up behind him, knocking Alex to the floor.

“Why did you hit me so hard boy?!” Henry hollered over Alex with his fist clenched.

Alex fired back at Henry. “You were going to kill her!”

Henry just shrugged his shoulders. "Well sorry, I was in the moment."

Brenna didn’t understand what was going on. The two men stopped arguing and turned to face Brenna. Henry stepped toward her. She tried to back away but her restraints kept her in place. Flashes of her murdered friends rushed to her mind as she stared them down. All her friends are dead, except Alex - why?

“Well howdy, Rabbit, it's been a long long time. I’m your daddy!" Henry did a ridiculous bow. "You already met your brother Alex.”

“Brother?" Brenna looked at Henry confusingly. "No! My parents are Mark and Grace Larson. I have no siblings."

Henry grabbed Brenna by the face. “No! We are your family Rabbit!”

“Stop calling me Rabbit. My name is Brenna,” she said through sobs.

“Your name is Rabbit! And this here is Antler." They both just stood there with sick grins on their faces.

Brenna couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

The look on Alex’s face changed. “The people who raised me renamed me Alex. But I never forgot who I was, Antler”.

“I don’t know you people. I am Brenna Eve Larson. My parents are Mark and Grace,” Brenna said through sobs.

Henry pushed Alex or Antler out the way and screamed in Brenna’s face.

“Your name is Rabbit!! Your mother was my life, her name was Doe. I am your father and this here is your brother!” Henry spat in her face as he spoke.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She remembered the times she and Alex spent together. The kisses they shared. How he would kiss her neck, her stomach. She felt sick.

She spat at Alex.

“If you knew how could you! How could you Antler!” Brenna said through gritted teeth.

Alex just smirked,” I had to play the role. But you were tasty.”

Brenna lost it. She began rocking back and forth in her chair. “Let me go! I’m going to kill you!”

Alex slapped her hard across the face. “Just because it took a long time to find you, doesn’t mean I won’t slit your throat”

“I won’t say anything!” She pleaded. “I just want to go home”

Henry laughed. “Baby girl, you’re already home. I was surprised you didn’t recognize the place when you walked in.”

Brenna remembered walking through the cabin and Mariah laughed at the old picture. “This kid looks like you,” She said. It was a child no older than one, holding a stuffed rabbit sitting on her mother’s lap.

“Your mother, Doe was the sweetest woman. She had a lot of fire. That fire gave us Antler and you Rabbit. Your brother had that spirit like me. You were different. As much as we tried. That spark wasn’t in you. I tried to beat it out of you. Even your brother burned your little fingers. You only cried. Your mama hit Antler so hard. He was knocked out for two days. I thought she killed him. He laid in the corner right over.”

A memory flashed in her mind. She saw a pile of dirty clothes in the corner. She thought she heard it moan.

“So my mother knocked out my so-called brother and you just left him there?” Brenna just shook her.

“The boy had to learn. But when he returned to school, he told his classmates. That school called DSS and took you away from me. Your mother died of a broken heart.” Henry almost sounded sad.

The whole time Brenna was rubbing the tips of her fingers. She remembered the tiny scars but not how they happened.

It was Antler’s turn to speak. “Rabbit, I know you don’t remember much. You were so little when they took you away from us. I tried to give you hints early on. I would leave you presents on your doorstep. But your so-called mother would throw them in the trash. I even found an old dead opossum. Left it right where you find it before you leave for school. You used to like playing with them. What did you use to call them?”

Brenna stopped crying, “Stinky Kitty.”

Henry clapped his hands together. “Boy, I think she is finally starting to remember. We’ll knock those rocks out of your head before long”

Antler walked over to an old chest. He pulled out an old blanket. It smelled of musk and decay.

“Brenna,” Alex said in that loving way he would call her name. “Sorry, Rabbit. This belonged to our mother. She kept it until she died." Small bones were falling from the blanket. "She even kept Stinky Kitty.”

Vomit rose in her throat and began to fall out her mouth. “Why would you keep that?”

“Mother was hoping you’d come back”. Antler said easily.

"I managed to run away. But you were too young. You would forget us if we didn’t find you." Antler stroked Brenna’s hair.

“When you and your little friends rented the cabin it was fate,” Henry said behind Alex’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t fate, Alex drip shit Antler told us about the place!” Brenna said.

Henry just shrugged his shoulders, “Whatever.”

While they were talking, Brenna was trying to undo the knots. She felt the knots loosen. She held her breath. She knew she couldn’t run through the woods. She did notice there was a truck in the back of the house. It was properly Henry’s. The cars her friends drove up in were gone. She needed keys. As if Henry was reading her mind. He tossed the keys to Alex.

“Son, go get the gear. We need to burn and dump the bodies.”

Brenna began to cry again. They murdered her friends. “How could you?”

“Rabbit, you may not understand now but you will. Your friends were a distraction, you're more than you could ever know. You gotta kill the fear,” Henry said.

“What if I don’t want to be free?” Brenna said with a grunt.

“ Baby girl, once you taste it, you’ll never be the same," Henry said.

“I call bullshit,” Brenna spat.

Henry walks over to Brenna and rubs her head, “You wait and see.”

Henry pulls the machete from his waistband. He drops it on a nearby table. Walking towards the back door.

Brenna sprang forward, writhing her body and hands to freedom as her aching hands reached for the knife on the table. Brenna, now free, was on top of Henry. She grabbed his forehead from behind and sliced his neck open. He couldn’t even cry out for help. Blood bubbled out his mouth and throat. Like the dog he was, Henry bled out on the floor.

Brenna slipped behind the door, focused and now hardened from her first kill; she waited for Alex to come and face his judgment.

Alex walked in. He saw his father on the floor. Puzzled, he cried out, “Daddy!” Antler ran to his father’s body.

Brenna took the blade and stabbed Alex between the shoulder blades. Alex fell forward on top of Father’s body. Brenna stood over them and let out a primal cry. She was free, freer than she had ever been. She was Rabbit.