I never really give much thought to the news in my town. It’s a small(ish) town, with a population of a few thousand, that’s surrounded by cornfields and forests. It’s really an odd mix between rural and suburban. There used to be a huge factory just on the town limits, but it was closed about 25 years ago due to the company moving overseas. Now some blocks sit dormant and abandoned, while others are well kept and updated.
There’s always been an odd popularity contest going on within the town. Theres maybe 5 or 6 notably large family trees that have taken root in the town over the years, and oddly enough they all seem to be in positions of power. The mayor, the fire chief, the police chief, the school superintendent, all positions that belong to those various families.
I have a few friends from different trees but ultimately I’m small potatoes in the eyes of everyone else. And while it can get sort of “game of thrones” around here, it still is an incredibly quiet town. Small events like fights or car crashes take the town by storm, so you can only imagine what it felt like to watch the news this evening.
I sat in the living room with my dinner plate on my lap. I gazed over at the couch to see my parents quietly enjoying their food. The local news was on tv and a bright red and white flashy “breaking news” title card appeared in front of us. All three of us quickly looked up from our meal.
A news anchor in a dark blue suit began sternly unveiling the events of the night. He went to discuss two kids who had gone missing this morning. I remember hearing a rumor about something happening with two kids who probably missed the school bus or decided to play hooky for the day, but that was it. The gentleman on the screen continued as he revealed the supposed whereabouts of the young men. I don’t honestly remember much about what he said, but I do recall keywords such as “bodies not found” and “search continues”.
I wasn’t too sure how everyone was so certain of the kids demise if they hadn’t even been found. I just remember all of the parents of the town demanding their children be home immediately after school. My own included in that insistence.
I got to school that day and saw my friend Andy walking in the building. It was a brisk fall day so I decided I could just walk to school instead of wait on the bus. I ran up to him slightly out of breath. “Hey did you hear about Franklin and Tyler?” he told me with a shocked expression on his face. I shook my head no in denile. “My mom told me they found them super early this morning. Apparently it was a pretty gnarly scene. Tons of blood and stuff!” he said.
My friend Andy was never known as someone who’s good in a crisis, so it was no surprise that when people we knew, REAL people, got hurt or worse, it was still like a movie to him. “Way to beat around the bush, dude” I told him.
Andy and I walked to our first class where our teacher Mr. Thomas sat solemnly on his desk and quietly told us to take our seats. Once most of the class filed in, he began his impending message. “I’m sure some of you have heard stories or lies about what’s happened to our missing classmates. I want you all to know that they both have unfortunately passed away, but that nothing more has been told to us by police or officials, and it’s important not to trust or believe anything you may hear in the locker rooms or from other students. This situation is one that no teacher or young adult wants to go through, so if any of you would like to discuss your feelings or just want to unload some things from your minds, the guidance counselor is available all day and her door is open.” He told us, while pacing back and forth.
The rest of the day went by strangely quick. None of our classes seemed right because people couldn’t stop talking about what had happened, not even the teachers. Again, one of the many traits of a small town. The bell rang at 2:30 which meant everyone was supposed to go home. But the bell was cut short by an announcement from the school principal. “Students, please adhere to this message, and go home and stay there. It’s been a hard day on all of us, and Sheriff Walters is asking you all to stay off the streets for the next few days until this situation is figured out. Until further notice, all clubs and practices are suspended to allow everyone to be with their families. Thank you, and have a nice day” the intercom buzzed.
Andy looked at me in awe and we both headed for the doors. “Dude! Something must’ve really shook this town up!” He told me. “The only other time they cancelled football practice was when Coach Young broke his leg falling off his roof” he chuckled. He looked over to me, pulling a crumbled bag of chips out of his backpack. “So what do you think killed Frank and Tyler? A serial killer? A cult? Maybe it was a drug deal gone wrong!” He told me excitedly.
“I’m not sure, my vote is on the drug deal. Tyler’s whole personality was pot as he was the school stoner at the ripe age of 16” I told him. Just then we looked over to see a woman falling to her knees at a police officers feet. We recognized her immediately, it was Franklin’s mother. Me and Andy both fell silent in shame as we swiftly walked towards my house.
We walked in and mom was in the kitchen making food for our churches potluck tonight. I guess they decided to alter it to make food for the two boys’ families instead. I told my mom we were heading up to my room, and Andy had to call his dad to tell him he made it here, especially after last night.
Me and Andy spent most the evening playing videogames and watching movies. When it was time for Andy to go home, he called his Dad and told him he was on his way. His dad worked second shift and didn’t get home until around 11 o’clock at night most days.
I felt somewhat uneasy being home alone now, so I made sure to lock the doors just in case. I went back up to my room and grabbed a comic book from my desk and laid back down. An hour went by, and then mom and dad got back home. “Did Andy get home okay?” my father asked. “I’m sure he did” I replied. Another hour rolled by and we got a phone call. It was Andy’s dad.
“Andy left for home 2 hours ago but he’s not here!” He abruptly said to my father who answered the phone. They discussed back and forth for a moment. “Maybe he got lost, Norm. You know how Andy can be!” My father said, likely knowing what could have happened but not letting on to spare Norm’s feelings. “We live 3 blocks away. It doesn’t take 2 hours to cross town, let alone 3 blocks.” He argued to my father.
The rest of the night was a blur. Dad and his friends started a small search party, and Mom sat me down with an officer to answer some basic questions. Everything seemed pretty generic, but then officer asked me a question that was too specific to be random. “Did your friend ever tell you about seeing a purple rabbit or man in a rabbit costume?” He asked. I stared at the cop with a confused look and told him he hadn’t. The cop wrote something and then thanked us for our time. He said to call the station if Andy shows up tonight at our house.
I shuttered at the thought of Andy ending up like Franklin and Tyler. By now word had surely spread like a wild fire. We got a call that night around midnight from our school. The following days’ classes were cancelled, and by order of the local sheriff’s department, there’s a mandatory curfew after 5 pm for anybody under the age of 18 until further notice.
My spine tingled as I started to put the pieces together in my mind. Missing kids, dead kids, and a rabbit man. What was this? Some kind of Easter horror movie gone wrong? Why had the cop asked me such a specific question? It was as if he was seemingly confirming that this “rabbit” was at the center of the disappearances.
I woke up the next morning to mom wiping tears from her face. “Oh honey…come here. Me and your father need to talk to you” my mother said weakly. My father put his arm around her and looked at me softly. “Son they found Andy this morning. We aren’t sure what happened but he’s passed away.” He told me. I was frozen at those words, but I’d be lying if I said I was vastly shocked. With what had happened to the first two, as soon as I knew my friend was missing, hope fell from me like a fire being squelched.
I stayed in my room most of the day, trying to process what I had been told. So far all I could make out was that Franklin and Tyler were caught off guard because they seemingly were the first two victims of this “rabbit”. Andy was taken next because he didn’t take it seriously and set himself up for a perfect ambush from our big eared culprit. I sat in bed that night still pondering the idea when something made a crash in the alley beneath my window. I slowly got up and look down at the road to see a trash can knocked over and shaking. I saw a cat bolt out from the container as I breathed a sigh of relief. I spun around to go back to my bed…when I froze in fear. Something WAS watching me. In the corner of my eye I saw two large ears sway in the night wind outside my other bedroom window. I panicked and spun to face it. But it was nothing more than a trick of my mind. It was just two branches in the dark. Whatever that cop had told me had gotten in my head. I felt like whatever I saw or heard was the rabbit.
I couldn’t take even staying in my room. I felt like a sitting duck just waiting for this thing to come for me next. What I decided to do next was simultaneously the dumbest and boldest choice of my life. Young me thought I had a better chance of survival if the hunter were to become the hunted. Mind you, I still had no idea what I was up against. For all I knew there was no rabbit or serial killer running around, and there was really just an entire secret group just abducting kids. Either way, my gut told me to start fighting back against something I was certain I had made up in my head anyways.
I always knew the difference between action and horror was fighting back. So I decided I’d be the brave one and go out there armed to face this threat. I grabbed my dad’s handgun from his vault that oddly enough he always kept unlocked. I made my way outside to the streets to pursue whoever had turned this town upside down.
I decided I’d follow Andy’s path first, maybe this person would try the same tactic with me, only I’d be ready when Andy wasn’t. The first two blocks went relatively quiet and boring, but when I got to the third block, things changed. I heard a faint, high-pitched humming coming from the abandoned lot of houses on my right. It was an odd hum, one that seemed to crack in pitch and stumble over its own notes. Like the singer was scared or discombobulated.
Thats when I noticed a light on in one of the houses. The second floor of an abandoned house had a single lit window gleaming down on the overgrown yard below. I hunkered down behind a trash can to observe the house and the person within it. The humming became more unnerving until it almost became frightening.
That’s when I saw a silhouette in the window. The shape had a long and skinny torso, with seemingly even longer arms. The waist was short and frumpy and the head an odd spherical shape. But the trait that made me stop breathing for a few moments…were its ears. Two long and wavy rabbit ears poked out of the top of the creatures head. I gasped and covered my mouth quickly, but the being spun around sharply to face the window. The humming turned into dead silence at the light quickly flicked off, and the silhouette meshed with the rest of the darkness. Somehow it must have heard me. Terrified, I stood and bolted to my house. As I raced past the houses, I heard a sound that I will take with me to the grave….
thump…thump…thump…THUMP
Behind me…something was gaining fast. Every thump I heard grew faster and louder. Not knowing what to do, I just let out a blood-curdling scream to try and draw out as much attention as I could. But the thumping didn’t stop. I didn’t dare look behind me as I ran faster than I ever have.
I saw the moonlight shadows of rooftops peering down on the road ahead. Dread ran down my spine as the shadows of the rooftops had a large being on them, hopping to the same rhythm as the thumping noises. Every bounding leap the creature was on new a rooftop. At this pace, it would catch me before I could even make it to my block.
That meant with flight not being an option, fight was my only instinct left. Mustering every muscle in my body, and holding back tears from sheer fear, I convinced myself to make a move. Out of instinct, I figured maybe it doesn’t like noise? So I pointed the fire arm in the air and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out through the neighborhood, but the creature didn’t waiver its path. That meant if it wasn’t phased by a warning shot, then the only option left was a direct shot.
I turned my head to see the creature closing in from the dark skies above. As it made an odd diving motion, it looked like it was coming in the for the kill.
That’s when I fired into the dark abyss of night, and prayed God would guide the bullet to my pursuer. All I remember is hearing a thud and an eerie squeal. One that a rat makes when in pain or hurting. I wanted to know if I had hit it, but I wasn’t willing to risk it if I hadn’t.
I turned and ran and didn’t slow for a bit before I got home and slammed the door shut. My parents were scared to death and I unveiled the events that had just transpired.
The next day police investigated the house that I reported seeing the rabbit creature in. They found a wallet belonging to Franklin, a hat belonging to Tyler, and a comic book belonging to Andy all tucked away in a stained basket in the dilapidated home. There was rolled up filthy towels and paper making a sort of makeshift nest or bed for the being. The walls were littered with hidden photographs of nearly every child in the town…me included.
The police obviously never found any remains or identification of this person or animal. They just know that to this day, it hasn’t returned.
As of writing this, it’s been nearly 20 years since those few nights transpired. Most the town has entirely forgotten about it. But I haven’t forgotten, I’ll never forget.
Perhaps the most unnerving thing of all is the public didn’t know that this killer was a rabbit at all, only the select few who were involved knew as the police wanted this swept under the rug as mere disappearances.
Just when I thought I could forget about things and move on, my daughter came up to me yesterday. She told me she was playing at recess and her imaginary friend came from the woods to play with her. I chuckled and asked her why she had imaginary friends when there were real friends all around her.
“Yea but daddy, none of them are bunny rabbits!”