CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
BUNNY
Tucking the last section of hair into a low, spiky bun, I avoid my reflection in the bathroom mirror, absently staring at the sink to will away the tears still burning at my eyes.
Who would do that? My alarm clock was one thing. I easily got over that. But to take my money? That’s low.
I put on my favorite cut off overalls with a jaggedly cropped tank top and have been getting myself ready for the day, hoping it would take my mind off it so that I could bring it up without freaking the heck out.
But the vexation turned to despondence, and now I just feel upset someone would do that to me.
A soft knock rumbles the door. “Baby bunny? Can I come in?” Aries asks, her usual abrasive tone soft and fragile.
Why would you be coddling me if you didn’t know something was wrong?
Clearing my throat, I start packing away my makeup. “Come in.”
The door cracks open, her braids swaying around her waist from the hunched tilt she’s in to peek inside. Seeing that I’m fully dressed, she’s pushing the door all the way open and leaning on the doorframe. “You didn’t come eat. You okay?”
Asking someone if they’re okay when all that’s holding them together is Band-aids practically picks at the adhesive and reopens the wound.
My chest sinks, my face inflating away from my skull. I try to blink away the water welling, fighting the zipper on my makeup case, but my waterlines are clamping out droplets that splash on the sink. “Someone took my money.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she seethes.
“I wish I was.” Grabbing my makeup, I blot my eyes with the back of my finger, wiping the streak of mascara off onto my overalls “Someone also cut my alarm clock last week.”
“What the fuck?” Vaulting straight, the fire she’s made of twists her around, her furious feet stomping into the hallway. “Who’s fucking with Bunny?!”
Her shouting escalates my anxiety with the situation, nervously moving around her and keeping my head down as I get inside my room.
Ora’s halfway upright with black strands of hair crosshatching her drowsy face, her bangs sticking straight up in a fan. “Huh?”
“Y’all heard me!” Aries rages, her rough voice carrying through the walls. “Who’s doin’ it?!”
Setting my makeup down on the dresser, I move fast to get my sneakers on, giving Ora an awkward, flat grin while leaving the room.
“It’s okay, Aries,” I say quietly, slipping past her and into the living room.
Duse and Gwen have stopped cleaning the kitchen, both sharing looks of confusion with each other, their rubber gloves dripping all over the floor.
“No, it’s not fucking fine!” Aries comes after me, stopping in front of the door to prevent me from going anywhere.
“What happened?” Duse asks.
Waiting for me to answer, Aries lifts her brows, propping her hands on her hips. “Go ahead.”
Being put on the spot pollutes me, my veins shuddering to the scatter of roaches.
“Uh…” Swallowing hard, I try to focus on Duse and Gwen staring at me, but the possibility of one of them being the culprit is wavering my vision, sending my attention all over the place.
“My alarm clock was cut last week, Razor’s pants went missing with something important, and now my money is missing. ”
Leaving it at that, I don’t stay to pick apart their expressions. I move around Aries and head out the front door.
I don’t have anything to do. So, I’m not sure where I’m going or how I can fill time without someone possibly herding me like a loose sheep.
Xene and Cash are coming back from… whatever they were doing, which riddles me with another question I don’t have room for right now.
“Hey, Bun,” Cash smiles, coming up the stairs as I start going down them.
“Where’s Razor?” I cave and ask, pausing on a step and doubling back to the sensual performance Xene is trying to give me from the grass.
“Said he needed to do something,” Cash shrugs, escaping any further questions by leaping up two steps and dashing across the porch.
Do something? Do what? Where?
The screaming door tears through the silence, doing nothing to ruin the fake strip tease Xene has moved on to. It probably looks like I’m interested in the show, but wondering about Razor is crowding my mind, instituting paralysis.
Rotating his hips and lassoing the air, Xene’s hand falls stiff and he slowly bows my direction. “She is Bunny.”
“Yeah…” Double blinking back to reality, I pat the sweat already forming on my forehead, taking the rest of the stairs and leaving Xene to… be Xene.
“What?! You didn’t like it?!” Xene hollers after me.
“It was, uh…” Rolling my lips over my shoulder at him, I lose all interest in ego stroking, going back to my thing without finishing my sentence.
I know I shouldn’t, it’s probably a waste of time, but the idea of checking if the office door is locked has me biting my nails and pushing into a mission through the tunneled trees.
“I shouldn’t,” I huff, stopping and spinning around on the trail, almost taking the initiative to head back to the house.
But I’m pivoting back toward the park, crunching grass and twigs that seem so loud over the sounds of a busy afternoon.
“I have to. I need to. It’s, like, the only thing that makes sense to do…
Or I could go back to Odder Than an Oddity. ”
Getting through the gate, I step out onto the pavement, into the weaving streams of mechanical bodies going in opposite directions, and start oscillating over my options, murmuring, “The office is closer. I could go there, check the door, and if it’s locked, I’ll go see what the spines are about.”
Now that I’ve made up my mind for what seems to be the first time ever, I wait for a decent opening and then fly past Admission, entering the chime of the gift shop and hiking up the stairs.
Not expecting the doorknob to turn, the rush of adrenaline has me exerting too much force I predicted the mechanisms to resist against.
Climbing the last step at the same time as my aggressive twist, gravity projects my body forward, following the swing of the door that was supposed to be locked.
My stomach plummets, flailing quick enough to break my fall with my hands, my shin banging off the edge of the doorway.
I’m too embarrassed to let out the yelp of pain squeezing my throat.
Even if it was just the ghost that haunts this room that saw, it’s still pretty debilitating to even think about hobbling out of here with a big, giant knot protruding from my leg bone.
“Bunny?”
Razor’s voice introducing the hustle of shoes across the floor locks me up in a state of panic, my eyes rounding into saucers.
His hands hook underneath my arms, lifting me up to my feet.
Oh, my God, he saw that.
Trapping a whine on the back of my tongue, I steady myself, looking up at him with a flaming face. “Thought that was locked.”
Worriedly searching me, he rubs down my arm, shooting his narrow eyes up. “If you thought it was locked, why were you tryin’ to get in here?”
The faint squeak of the chair splits my focus, stuttering out my answer while taking in a familiar kid playing on the computer. “I just… I-I… I want-”
“Your file,” he assumes.
Hearing him say my answer distracts me from the kid, and the aggravation in my shin becomes a blip in the sea drowning me. I can’t really say anything. I mean, I don’t try to. I just look at him like a deer blinded by headlights.
Skating his fingers along mine, he sighs, patting his thigh before nodding curtly and stepping back.
“You know what? Fine.” Leaning back onto the desk, catching the attention of the kid, he folds his arms up to watch the confusion blanch my face.
“Get in the Globe with us tonight, show me you’re capable of handling something you know is hard, then give me the rest of night to have your undivided attention…
and I’ll sit and go through all that shit with you in the morning. Bright and early.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah.”
Entering a staring contest that seems to be thickening tension opposed to drumming my heart with excitement, the aquamarine haze filtering over him pulls my attention to the empty tank.
“Sounded like they were haulin’ a body.”
What the fu…
They… They wouldn’t. Where would they put him in the trailer? Surely, he would stink rather quickly since there’s nothing preserving him there. Or would they continue to preserve him? Did they cut him up?
Bacon crackles in my head, twisting my stomach with a repulsive thought of that being the breakfast Duse and Gwen cooked for everyone this morning.
“Don’t worry about that, little bunny,” Razor drawls lazily, shooting me a killer smirk. “The fish are safe in another tank so I can clean this one.”
Because the tempting lift of his lip isn’t enough for my brain to remember. He has to add in a wink to engrave the visual of him being in control.
“What kind of fish?” the kid asks, curiously looking back and forth between us, his hand frozen in a claw by the PC like he’s waiting for a disc to eject.
He’s quite literally a child, but the question is convincing my nervous system that I’m being interrogated and it’s kicking the heat back up into my face. I look at Razor, widening my eyes just enough to get him to pull something out of his butt.
Amused with my panic, he cracks a strong smile, keeping his eyes on me while pivoting back to project his voice toward the kid. “Piranhas. Mean little things.”
The kid seems to be content with his answer and gets back to whatever he was doing, which is honestly a huge relief because I don’t know anything about those fish and I’m not sure Razor does either, and what if the little guy is, like, some sort of expert and called us out? Then what?
Sighing, I rub my face to hide from Razor’s gaze for a moment, fighting the urge to bite my nails while resting my arm back down. “Did you mean that?” I ask, using my eyes to gesture to the desk.
Knowing that I’m talking about the files, or at least my file, he lifts up off the desk and nods, threatening me with a recurring ache by taking languid steps toward me. “Yes, Bunny. But I’m being so fucking serious when I say I need to know you can face something you don’t actually want to.”
“I can.” Wanting to avoid a thrum that becomes too desperate, I turn away from him, heading for the door, but the cold shiver of another presence is stopping me.
Instantly, I’m looking off to the corner. But it’s not the gray skin and milky eyes I was expecting. Instead, it’s a tiny red dot that’s bright enough to trigger an alarm under my skin. “Razor…”
Stepping closer to it, moving past the bookshelf, my head cocks, visually tracing the hole it’s watching from.
“Bunny…” he mocks me.
This time, he’s not teasing me. He’s matching my careful steps and figuring out what’s making my bushy tail come out.
Realizing it’s exactly what I think it is, I stop, rupturing at the seams with internalized distress. “Why is the kid from the arcade in here with you?”
“Really? Right now?”
“Yes, please answer me.”
With both of us staring at the little camera hidden in the corner of the wall, our voices are monotone, paranoia becoming prominent in the silence.
“He’s helping me on the computer.”
“Do you think this was here when you…”
“Mm-hmm. I’ve been feelin’ it. Just thought it was two eyes. Not one.”
Dread slithers like acid in my stomach, my temperature dropping and shooting back up. “Do you think it’s Carl’s?”
“Nah, he did too much sketchy shit in here.”
Remembering a memory buried into the depths of soil in my head, my eyes slash over to him, meeting the seriousness draining the color from his suntan. “Razor… Did you ever see anyone come into the house and remove cameras?”
His brows hang lower. “No… Why would you ask that?”
Becoming violently hot, chills tighten my skin, breathing in the density clogging the room. “How did Carl know when we woke up that day?”
Realization relaxes his expression, his eyes widening. “Go. Don’t stop. Just run home. Tell everyone to move everything and start searching the walls, vents, any spot a bug could hide.”
My heart stretches, expanding into a rampant thump. “What about you?”
Cupping my face, his fingers tensing into my hair, he bends down, placing a fervent kiss on my forehead. “I’ll be there after I finish this.”
Nothing’s wrong. Yeah, this is scary and concerning and super confusing, but there’s an evil thread in my brain that’s whipping my chest with robust emotion, like it’s trying to make me worry about never seeing him again.
Nodding, tears brim my waterlines, scanning the kid and Razor, trying to understand what they could be doing on the computer. But answers don’t come easy. I have too many questions stacked up to pick and choose which one I’d like to ask. I’ve kind of just learned to walk away.