We were in the kitchen. Derek sat on the floor, pulling out things from the package, and I kept my mouth shut, throwing annoyed looks at the rabbit man. He was still covered with fur, and his ears twitched from time to time as he watched Derek with a smile.
There was a new game controller, a few games I could never afford, and a trademark set of blocks I had once looked up, knowing Derek wanted it. All of this combined must have cost a fortune.
Not only had the stranger not left, he was now in the house, and he’d given my son all the toys I couldn’t buy for him. I couldn’t throw him out without upsetting Derek and making him hate me. After all, what kind of evil person throws out the Easter bunny?
I had gotten myself into this one, too. I should have protested as soon as the stranger appeared. Before Derek even saw him. Or given my son a dose of reality to protect him. After all, his safety was more important than childish beliefs, right?
Boy, had I fucked up.
So I couldn’t blatantly tell the stranger to leave. I also couldn’t call the police.
Yes, officer. He says he’s called Easter Bunny. He has bunny ears, and he gave my son presents. No, it’s not a prank, officer, I swear!
And even if I said there was a stranger in my house without elaborating who he was, they still wouldn’t do much. Unless he attacked us or something, which was why I watched him like a hawk, a handy frying pan waiting by my elbow.
Derek unpacked everything, grabbed the controller and a new game, and ran to the living room, squealing. I glanced at the pile of toys on the floor and the ripped packaging, and sighed.
“You can call me Bunny, you know,” the stranger said, turning to me. “And I will call you Alice.”
I gritted my teeth and threw him an ugly look. He flinched, looking confused, and his ears flopped gently from side to side.
“Unless… you don’t like your name?” he asked, blinking at me with wide, golden eyes.
“What I don’t like is the fact that…”
“BUNNY!” Derek yelled, interrupting me. “You have to play with me!”
He gave me an apologetic look and slid off the chair. I watched as his fluffy tail twitched, so adorable above that nice piece of male ass that I was not ogling. Not me, sir. It’s the other crazy woman in the room that’s watching his ass instead of telling him to leave. Not me.
I grabbed my frying pan, following. Crazy or not, there was no way I would leave those two alone.
“Here,” Derek said, giving Bunny a controller.
Bunny took it and turned it in his hands, looking at the buttons closely. He glanced at Derek and copied him, holding the controller exactly like my son.
The game started, and Bunny stared at the screen with his forehead pinched in concentration. Derek moved his character, jumping, gathering coins, and avoiding the baddies, while Bunny just sat there, holding the controller away from his body.
A moment later, his character turned into a ghost after being touched by a baddie.
“What are you doing?” Derek said. “Don’t just stand there, you need to jump over them!”
“Right,” Bunny said.
He got up off the couch and bent his knees, staring intently at the screen. Derek paused the game and looked at him with a shout of protest.
“No! In the game! You jump in the game! Here, I’ll show you. This button is for jumping.”
He tugged Bunny back to the couch and showed him the right button. Bunny nodded and gave me a sheepish look before returning his attention to Derek.
“Well, see… Where I come from, we don’t have any games like this. So I’m afraid you will have to explain it all to me.”
He glanced at me again, and his cheekbones, where the fur was fine enough to let the skin peek through, grew decidedly pink. Was he… blushing?
“But I learn fast,” he returned his eyes to Derek, bracing his broad shoulders with determination. “Will you teach me?”
Oh boy. He had just opened the floodgates. Derek adored his games and could talk about them incessantly if I let him. I didn’t care for the subject much, and quickly grew tired of his explanations, though I always did my best to listen.
I wondered how long Bunny would last.
Very long, as it turned out. I watched with mixed feelings as Bunny listened to Derek’s explanations, asked questions in an excited voice, and followed instructions with absolute trust. Soon, they were playing, both shouting with excitement. Just like two boys having the fun of their lives, except one was well over six feet tall.
I hadn’t seen Derek so happy in months.
Bitter tears gathered in my eyes, but I held them back, gripping my frying pan so hard, my knuckles turned white. What was I even doing? I had let this stranger in, and now he was stealing my son away. Not by kidnapping him, but by making him happy in ways I could never do.
Stop this, I told myself firmly. Just make him leave, and everything will be fine again.
But Derek laughed in such an unguarded, joyous way that I held myself back, faffing again without a clear decision. I couldn’t deprive him of this. Because who knew when he could have this kind of fun again? Richard never played with Derek. He said his games were boring and childish.
“You are an excellent teacher,” Bunny said after they got through another level, and he put away his controller. “Your mom brought you up well.”
I flinched at the compliment. Derek groaned with disappointment and urged Bunny to do another level, but to no avail.
“No. You haven’t had breakfast,” Bunny said patiently. “Come on, you need to eat. And I could do with a bite, too.”
I pressed my lips together, my patience running out. So now he wanted me to feed him…?
But Derek positively ran to the kitchen, dragging Bunny along to treat him to his favorite cereal, and I reigned in my emotions once again. Normally, it took a lot of convincing to get him to eat breakfast on holidays, and at least now he went willingly.
Derek directed Bunny around the kitchen, telling him where his favorite cereal was, and which bowls to take. Derek put in the cereal and told Bunny to pour the milk. Which he did, splashing it around when it hit the spoon in the bowl.
Derek laughed and grabbed a dish cloth to help Bunny clean up.
“Don’t pour on the spoon!” he said, and Bunny only nodded solemnly without a hint of annoyance.
A sudden memory of Richard flipping out when Derek corrected him about something flashed in my mind. He had been so impatient, always convinced he was right about everything. If you corrected him, or even just disagreed politely, he would throw a tantrum.
I couldn’t help but compare. Bunny was patient, eager to learn, and… and he was a weird stranger wearing a bunny disguise, whom I should get rid of.
Right.
After they finished eating, I would ask him to leave. I watched, tapping the frying pan against my thigh, as Bunny ate, closing his eyes in pleasure.
“Thish ish good!” he said with his mouth full.
Derek laughed and wagged his finger at Bunny.
“Swallow before you talk,” he said, repeating the rule I had to remind him constantly.
Bunny nodded, swallowed with difficulty, and grinned.
“You know all the human rules, don’t you? Excellent, I need a teacher. I’ve never lived among humans, you know.”
Derek got all excited, telling Bunny about all the rules he had to follow at school. I listened, curious. Derek hadn’t been so talkative in ages, and usually I had to drag all the details of his school day out of him… Now, he shared willingly.
Finally, they were both done. Bunny cast a longing look at the cereal, but Derek was too excited to notice, and I refused to take the hint.
This was getting ridiculous.
“Right, I had breakfast, and it’s Easter, so I can have something sweet,” Derek announced, rushing out of the room.
Bunny looked at me with a smile, and I couldn’t help it. The corners of my mouth lifted in response, because the more he stayed there and interacted with my son, the less of a threat he seemed.
There was something hard to pin in the way he behaved with us. A certain familiarity, as if we’d been old friends. He seemed… authentic. I gripped the frying pan’s handle harder and tried to sort through my feelings.
His eyes were locked on mine, the smile still stretching his strange, yet weirdly attractive, face. I wondered what the fur would feel like, and I desperately wanted to give him a gentle flip on the ear and see if it bounced.
Derek came running in, a box of his favorite hard candy in his hand. He took one, threw it in his mouth, and offered the box to Bunny.
“You offer first and only then take one for yourself,” I reminded Derek, watching Bunny’ twitching rabbit-like nose. Bunny lifted out a pink candy and sniffed it, finally putting it in his mouth.
I smiled despite myself.
Derek gave me a bright smile, opened his mouth to speak… and froze. The grin on his face remained, while his eyes grew round and startled. He tried to cough, and no sound came out.
I dropped the frying pan to the floor, the crash barely registering. I grabbed my son’s small body from behind and pushed at his diaphragm. Once, twice.
Derek still didn’t make a sound. He didn’t struggle against my grip, just stood there, his chest tense, his throat producing choking half-sounds that tugged somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach where the fear for my child lived.
It rose all at once, a dark, heavy shadow that had talons and fangs, and it filled me with a desperate clawing need to save my son.
I pushed again, harder this time, and Derek flopped in my grip, still choking. How long did I have? Two minutes, right. No time for an ambulance to arrive. If I failed now, it was all over.
As if through wool in my ears, I heard Bunny’s voice, muffled and distant. I struggled to understand his words as I stood up, lifting Derek with me, so I could push more effectively, a wild panic spreading coldly in my limbs and locking me in an adrenaline-fueled frenzy. I squeezed Derek, who hung helplessly in my grip.
Still no use.
“Is he choking?” Bunny’s question came again, making it through this time.
“Yes. The candy stuck in his throat,” I answered, my voice sounding strange and distorted as I tried the Heimlich maneuver again, my child still not making a sound. I could see his head from above, his hair wet with sweat, his skin red.
Oh God. Oh God, please. Please, let this work!
