Story 28 — Rabbits

Paranoid Letters
Sep 6, 2018 · 16 min read

You know, when you woke up from your sleep, you’d barely remember what your dream was. And even if you did, you remembered it just hazily, only small pieces of it.

That happened to me too. Except for those days in my life.

I was never a popular student at the school, nor in my neighborhood. So, you could say, I don’t have any friends. I spent most of my time alone in my room. My mom even often yelled at me to get out and make some friends. Well, it wasn’t because I can’t. It was more like people didn’t like me a lot as they were more to avoid me than to befriend me, despite I didn’t do anything to them.

Okay, okay. Maybe I just can’t.

Now, with that fact in hand, it surely awfully weird when I had a dream one day, and it involved someone I knew when I was in elementary school. Someone I never close to. Someone that I had lost contact with, since the graduation day, 15 years ago.

And I remembered every detail of that dream, as clear as the bright blue sky in the summer day.

Which added the weirdness to everything.

I was 27 years old when the dream occurred, but in that dream, I was 11 years old. It was as if I went back to my elementary school years.

It was late at night, and I was working on my homework, in my room. My bedroom’s window was facing toward my parents’ front yard, so if I had a friend paid me a visit, they could just knock on the window and jumped through it. If I had one. But I never had one. So, it surprised me when that night in my dream, I heard a knock on my bedroom’s window.

My desk was facing the wall beside the door, right across from the window. So, when I heard the knocking sound on it, I turned my chair around. I sat there for a while. Thinking that it might be just me and that there wasn’t actually a knocking.

But then I heard it again.

“Knock… Knock…”

At first, I suspected it was a squirrel, or a bird, or anything like that. Until I heard someone called out my name from the other side of the window.

“Sasha…”, the voice called, softly whispered, followed by another knocking sound on the window.

I immediately stood from my chair and walked toward the window. I slid the curtain open and surprised to see one of my former schoolmates, standing behind the window.

“Linda?”

I was surprised to see Linda stood there on my parents’ front yard, right on the other side of my bedroom’s window. Linda and I were classmates 2 years prior. We weren’t close, but still, we were classmates.

“Sasha… Sasha… Please… Help me… I’m sorry… Please…,” Linda stuttered. She whispered in frantic as if something terrible had happened to her.

Her being whispering throughout her words made me think of someone, or something had been following her. Or did something to her.

“Help how? Why are you here this time of the hour, Linda?”

I immediately looked around the block, outside of my parents’ front yard, and onto the street. I was looking for something, or someone, that might be chasing her. On the way looking around, I accidentally looked down at the ground where she stood.

“LINDA!?” I screamed in panic and horror.

“Your legs! What happened to your legs?!”

I stared in horror at Linda’s lower body. Despite her still maintaining her normal human upper body, her lower body was not of a human. It was of a rabbit. So Linda was like half-human, half-rabbit.

“What happened to your legs?!” I asked her again in panic and horror.

“Sasha… I’m sorry… I’m so… Sorry…,” she was sobbing and crying in a whisper as if she didn’t want anyone, or anything, to hear.

“Sorry for what, Linda?” I asked her in frantic.

Right at that moment, I felt a strong sense that someone was watching me, and in reflexed, I turned my head. There in the middle of the road outside of my parents’ front yard, I saw a man. It was too dark to see his face, but whoever he was, he was wearing a blood-red cloak with a hoodie. Extremely eye-catching in the dark of the night like that. And he was facing toward me.

Just when I was about to pull Linda into my room, I saw the cloaked man raising one of his hand, and all of a sudden, I awoke in my bedroom, back to reality.

I checked on the clock on my wall and looked out the window. It was already 6 am.

“What the hell was that?” I thought to myself. I pulled my hands up and stared at them. My hands were full of sweat, and I was shaking.

I didn’t think of it any further that morning. I woke up like I usually did, and prepared myself to go to work. Just when I was walking on the sidewalk, not far from my parents’ house, I felt something grabbed me. At first, I thought it was a squirrel, there were a lot of them in my neighborhood. But when I looked down, I didn’t see a squirrel. I saw a rabbit, scratching my jeans in panic.

When I was about to pull the animal off my leg, I saw a hand grabbing the rabbit, and pulled it up.

“I’m so sorry my dear. Did she disturbed you?” I stared at the man who just grabbed the rabbit off the ground. An old man, with grey hair, mustache, and beard. But he was neat. He was wearing a suit. A blood-red suit.

“Oh, no, sir. Not at all,” I replied.

“The rabbit was probably just wanted to play with me, but I’m in a hurry. Gotta get to the office on time.”

I knew I was supposed to be hurry to the office, but that old man’s appearance really caught my attention.

“Is she yours?” I asked.

“Yes, dear,” the old man answered, “Not until yesterday, but yes, she’s mine now.”

That was one hell of a weird explanation.

“I… I don’t mean to be impolite, sir, but I… I gotta go. I can’t be late to the office,” I said to him. I immediately turned around and resumed my walk to my office. Only a few steps ahead, I vaguely heard a voice, softly calling my name.”

“Sasha…”

The voice sounded like it was echoing in the air. What I heard next, sent the chills down my spine.

“Sasha… I’m sorry…”

The voice was softly whispered, but I was sure it was Linda’s voice. In an instant, I turned back, and I still saw the old man with blood-red suit standing on the sidewalk, with the rabbit in his hand. Staring right at me.

In just seconds after I turned back, I saw it with my very own eyes, the old man and the rabbit suddenly vanished into thin air.

I did what a normal human being would do in that kind of situation. I ran fast, straight to my office, a few blocks from there. The neighborhood was quiet at the time of the hour, and I didn’t see anyone else at that time. So, I wasn’t sure if there was anyone else seeing what I saw.

For days after that, the incident kept haunting my thought. I thought the encounter was already weird enough, but it appeared that I was wrong. It got even weirder. Just about a week after that, I heard it from my Mom who was just having a call with other parents from my elementary school, that Linda Burnley was passed away.

“Wait, what? Why?” I asked her in shock.

“From what I heard, she died from cancer. It turned out she has been sick for the past 2 years,” my Mom explained.

“But why are you seemed to be so shocked?” she asked, wondering. “I mean,” she continued, “you two never been closed, and as far as I’m concerned, you’ve also been lost contact with her since the graduation day.”

“Well,” I murmured, “nothing, really. I just had a dream with her in it, just about a week ago.”

“That was odd. For someone who has never been closed, and has been lost contact for so many years, how did she end up in your dream, all of a sudden?” my Mom asked again.

“Yeah, mom”, I replied, slightly annoyed, “I’m asking exactly the same thing too.”

And then suddenly, something hit me, so I asked something again to my mom.

“When was exactly the day she passed away?”

“About a week ago. July 7, if I’m not mistaken”

My Mom went silent for a few seconds, before she asked me again, “that was odd. Why do you care? You never care about someone you never closed with. You barely even care about me.”

I didn’t answer her question. My mind floating into the air, remembering the fact that the day I saw the rabbit that grabbed my leg that day, was July 7. The day I met the strange old man wearing a blood-red suit, was July 7. The man claimed the rabbit wasn’t his until the day before. The day before was the day I had that dream where Linda paid me a visit, where I witnessed her lower body had already turned into those of a rabbit. And then…

And then there was a man with a cloak. A blood-red cloak. Blood-red.

I skipped the absurd thoughts that were flowing into my mind. It couldn’t be happening. Those ideas were so goddamn weird. So I thought, that might just be a pure coincidence. Or, was it?

Well, days had passed and I slowly forgot about the incident.

It had been one year and a half since that day, and I never saw the old man, the rabbit, or the dream, ever again. So, I thought, that was just one weird day in my so normal life.

I was wrong.

After 2 years since the weird dream and the encounter with the neat yet strange old man, I had that dream again. I was still 11 years old in that dream, but the location wasn’t in my bedroom. I was on a school trip.

I never went on any school trip ever, so that was absurdly weird.

While everyone, including the teacher, is having fun in the camp, I walked out of the camp and went to the lake nearby instead. I sat on the edge of the lake all by myself, while throwing rocks onto it, making it jumped 2 or 3 times before it flopped and drowned.

“Sashaaa!! Sashaaa!!” I heard a voice screaming my name.

I immediately turned around and saw Kensi and Lana running toward me. I sense a horror in their scream. I wasn’t close to neither Kensi or Lana, and I usually didn’t care either. But when someone screaming in panic and horror, running toward me, asking for help, of course, I would go and check on them.

They kept running as if had been chased by something. And in just a few meters from where I stood, both of them suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. As I stood up and trying to get close to them I noticed it that their lower body had also already turned into a rabbit. Kensi’s lower body was a rabbit with a completely brown fur, while Lana was white with yellowish spots all over the thighs.

“What happened? Your legs?!” I screamed in panic and horror, not knowing what to do or what should I say.

“Sasha… Sasha… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” they cried while grabbing each of my hands, shaking hard.

“What happened to you guys? How did this…,” I panicked.

“Sasha… Help… I’m sorry… Please… Help…,” Lana begged me while grabbing my left hand’s jumper tight.

“Help how?” I asked again, more panicked than before.

Then, I felt it again. The feeling that someone was watching me. I looked up and there I saw the man with blood-red cloak standing only a few steps in front me. I instantly freaked out, and in panic, I crawled back in terror.

Who was that man, and what would he do to the three of us?

The cloaked man slowly walking forward toward Kensi and Lana and stopped right there. While Kensi and Lana were shaking and sweating as if they were having a fever, the cloaked man suddenly put on dog collars on their necks, while the man holding the chains that kept them from escaping in one hand.

I was consumed by terror, and I couldn’t move, even just a bit. If the cloaked man was just about to do something to me, that was it. But no, he didn’t even make any step closer, instead, he put up his other hand, and faced it toward me. And in an instant, I suddenly awoke, back to reality.

I stared at my hands. I was heavily sweating. I looked around and realized that I was in the office. I remembered I was having an overtime at the office, and it seemed like I fell asleep. It was already 9 pm, and no one even bothered to wake me up.

I wasn’t surprised though.

Then I got up from my chair, packed my stuff into my bag, and went home. My parents’ house wasn’t too far from the office, only a few blocks away. So I walked my way home while enjoying the night breeze.

Just when I turned in one corner, at a glance I saw a familiar figure, sitting on the sidewalk across the street. It was the old man with the blood-red suit. When I first saw him, the old man seemed to be quite friendly, but after I watched him vanished into thin air, I should have to run quickly when I saw him again that day.

But something caught my eyes.

The man wasn’t sitting alone. He was sitting on the sidewalk, with a small cage placed in front of him. A cage that usually used to keep a small-size pet, like hamsters, or birds.

Or rabbits.

My curiosity got the best of me. I didn’t know why, but couldn’t hold the urge to walk across the street, just to see what the old man had kept in that cage. So I did.

The old man stared at me, but he didn’t say anything. I kept my distance from him, just in case. It was quite dark that night, but with the help from the streetlight, I could see what was inside the cage.

Inside the cage were 2 rabbits. Upon taking a closer look, I noticed that one rabbit had completely brown fur, while the other had white fur, with yellowish spots all over its thighs.

The dream just occurred less than an hour ago. I still remember clearly, what Kensi and Lana’s rabbit legs colors were. They were one complete brown and one white with yellowish spots on her thighs.

I froze for a while until the old man’s voice broke the silence.

“They weren’t mine until about an hour ago, but, they are now,” he was smiling a friendly smile while saying it.

Something hit me hard. I quickly turned around and ran back home as fast as I could.

A horrifying thing had filled my thought. I never closed to both Kensi and Lana, but knowing that they might die still kept me uneasy.

“Moooommm… Moooommm…” I called her out loud as I reached home.

“It’s 9 pm at night, and you’re not a 5-years old kid! Quit screaming!” she yelled back at me. “Mom… Mom…,” I panted from running, “do you have Kensi and Lana’s mom phone number?”

“Kensi and Lana from your elementary school?” she asked back, “yeah, I guess. Why?” My Mom seemed confused over my question.

“Give me their number!” I said, hastily.

“Wow! Why, honey? You never closed to them, and you never in contact with them since graduation,” she said, trying to calm me down.

“Their number! Now!” I raised my tone.

“Wow! Hey! What is this about?”

“Oh, my God! Mom, please! Their number!”

“Okay! Okay! Here…” she grabbed her phone on the table and handed it over to me. She let me know which ones are Kensi and Lana’s Mom number. Kensi’s Mom number is the first to show up, so I called her first.

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Sidney. Um… What is it?” I heard the voice of an old woman from the other side of the phone. She spoke softly and slowly. And her voice was a bit shaking. She sounded like she was just done crying.

“Mrs. Brown? This is Sasha. Sasha Sidney,” I told her.

“Oh, Sasha. Sorry dear, I think this is not the right time. Whatever you want to talk about with me, you can call me again tomorrow, okay?”

“Kensi…,” I said slowly, “is Kensi okay?”

It was silent for a few seconds, until she responded, “Kensi just passed away, Sash. She was caught in a car crash while driving home with Lana from a party just half an hour ago.”

“What?!” I said loudly in shock.

“Um… I mean… I’m so sorry, Mrs. Brown,” I stuttered, “I… I will call you again tomorrow. Or… Well…” then she hung up.

“Okay, Sash. You have a lot to explain now,” my Mom said to me after I put down the phone. I stared deeply at her, not sure how to explain the situation. But nonetheless, I should. So I told her everything that had happened, from the very beginning.

After I was done with the story, my Mom and I just sat there on the couch in our living room, right across to each other. We went silent for a few minutes, but it felt like hours.

“Well”, she opened the conversation, “Let’s go to your Grandpa.”

“Grandpa? What is this thing deal with Grandpa?” I asked back, annoyed.

“Your dad could explain what had happened to you, but he passed away 3 years ago. I’m an in-law, I don’t inherit the talent,” Mom explained.

“What talent?” I got even more confused than I thought I supposed to.

“Come on,” Mom said, grabbing the car’s key and got out of the house. On the way to Grandpa’s house, we didn’t talk. Upon arriving at Grandpa’s, we were welcomed by Grandma, who asked us to sit on their house’s porch with Grandpa while she went inside to get some drinks.

“What is it, Pumpkin? It’s unusual for you to pay me a visit at this time of the hour,” said Grandpa while sipping his warm cup of tea.

“Well, it’s actually unusual for you to pay me a visit,” he revised his words, and he laughed. Grandpa was a fun and easy-going person. He always was.

Mom and I sat on the bench next to Grandpa, and I told Grandpa what I just told my Mom back at home. Grandpa didn’t seem to be surprised.

“What was your relationship with those girls?” Grandpa asked me.

“Well, not a friend, clearly,” I answered, half unwilling to speak out the actual sentences that I supposed to say.

“They bullied you back in elementary school, didn’t they?” Grandpa finally spoke out the thing I held back earlier. I nodded. “How was your last day with them? I mean, I know you last met them on the graduation day, but, did they make up to you after the bullying they did throughout your years in elementary school?” Grandpa asked again, a very, very specific question.

“Well, honestly, they didn’t,” I started my story, “even on the graduation day, they still bullied me. Never been a single nice word from them for me.”

“You might be an awkward kid, an antisocial, and having a problem to socially blending in with people,” Grandpa told me, staring at me with his warm eyes and smile, that never failed to comfort me since I was a little girl. “But you were a nice kid. You still are. You always will be,” he continued, “if not, then even in your dream, you wouldn’t try to help them when they asked for help from you.”

We went silent for a few minutes, and then Grandpa sipped his tea again, and then he continued his speech.

“There is this thing running in our family for generations,” he started, “we have this talent inherited from generation to generation. We are the special people. We can see Death itself, at one special occasion.”

“The old man in the blood-red suit and the man with the blood-red cloak was the same man: Death.”

“You know, when people die, they will be cleansed before eventually sent to heaven,” Grandpa continued, “the cleansing in the afterlife, will be a purgatory in hell, or some sort. The cleansing in life before jumping to the afterlife is by apologizing to every single person we ever hurt and never had the chance to make up to.”

“We will be pured before pulled into the afterlife. Pured. Hence the rabbit. It’s a symbol.”

“As we, you mean only our family, those with the talent to see, or do you mean everyone?” I asked Grandpa.

“Everyone, my dear,” Grandpa warmly answered.

“The problem with the people without the talent is that they couldn’t see the cleansing happened. The cleansing came in a form of a dream. A dream where the people who wronged us, who never make up to us, sent in a form of half-human, half-rabbit, asking for our help to forgive them.”

“When they were done sincerely asking for forgiveness, whether the other people see them or not, they will be partially cleansed. And then after all forgiveness were asked, they will be taken away by Death, to the afterlife.”

“But I didn’t hold a grudge against them. I even already forgot that they ever existed once in my life,” I said.

“You may not be holding a grudge against them, pumpkin,” Grandpa said with his warm words and warm smile, “but a mistake is a mistake. It’s not about holding a grudge. it’s about mistakes that were made. And mistakes should be paid.”

“But still, Grandpa, that was horrifying,” I complained, “the dream, seeing them running at me, partially a rabbit, crying and screaming for help.”

“But you actually helped them,” Grandpa continued.

“Helped them? How?”

“The cleansing process in life is no different than the purgatory in the afterlife. It should be a long process, and it should be painful. But if you could see them coming at you for help and you helped them it means that you forgive them. Other people who couldn’t see them, couldn’t help them even if they would. Hence the painful process will be repeated, over and over.”

“Can the dream be stopped?” I asked.

“Honestly, Pumpkin, I don’t know”, Grandpa answered.

“Like I said, despite your terrible social skills, you are always a nice kid,” Grandpa explained, “the dream might be horrifying and disturbing at some point, but remember this: the dream, and the fact that you helped them in it, it cut the painful cleansing process short for them.”

“So, Pumpkin. I’ll ask you again,” Grandpa closed his speech.

“Do you really want it to be stopped?”

Paranoid Letters

weird fiction and psychological horror story author. my facebook fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/pg/paranoidletters

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