Memories Of A Monster: The Red Eyed Rabbits

--- Booker H. Freeman, Past ---

The face of a white rabbit with red eyes grinned at him from the car’s window as he made himself presentable to his coming audience, just like he had for every other audience before this.

Stitchwork crissed and crossed all over the rabbit’s face, making it look like an elaborate mask to anyone who saw it, a mask made from the dozen’s of rabbits he killed over the years. (Then again that isn’t too far from the truth.) Even if it was technically his real face.

Off to the side a dark figure with glowing red eyes waited for him, as he straightened his duster out and put a cigar to his lips before snapping his fingers.

The dark figure lit a match and with it his cigar, before stepping back and acting as the muscle he’d been brought along for.

He took a long drag of the cigar, hoping that this new brand would offer him something that all the brands he’d grown bored of couldn’t, only to find it lacking. (Let’s get this over with…)

Turning on his heel, he started walking along the wooden boards of the docks, illuminated by the occasional lamp hanging several feet above opposite from the dark river rushing several below him.

When he got to the warehouse he snapped his fingers again and his muscle stepped forward before gripping the metal door and dragging it open with a single hand.

“Oi, the boss is here!” A young voice called, making the smile on his face a little more genuine as he made his way inside.

A young boy of maybe fourteen ran up to him, wearing a button up white shirt, suspenders, a paper boy cap, and most notably a black leather rabbit mask with red eyed lens that the boy had spent far too much on to fit in.

“Me and the boys found the guy boss!” The boy audibly smiled up at him.

“Good job, lad.” He smiled at the young man, knowing that while the boy had ‘led’ this little task, it was ‘the boys’ who did the heavy lifting.

Walking past a number of figures shrouded in darkness save for their glowing red eyes he made his way to the center of the warehouse where he found a man sitting unconscious and looking more than a little roughed up beneath the single light hanging from the ceiling.

“This the guy?” He asked redundantly, already knowing the answer. (But the performance must go on… No matter how many times…)

“Yeah, boss. Took us a minute to track him down, but once they saw the rabbit mask everyone knew to answer all our questions.” The boy assured him while looking quite proud of himself.

“As it should be.” He nodded, having long since cultivated his reputation within his territory. The fact that the kid could borrow it was just an extra benefit, he was happy to allow the lad to indulge.

He snapped his fingers and said. “Wake him up.”

One of the figures stepped into the light, revealing a muscular man in white and suspenders wearing what appeared to be a black rabbit with red eyes over his head, before punching the bound man in the stomach and holding it there for the second it took the lack of breathing to wake the man up.

The man in the chair started coughing as consciousness returned, unaware of the rabbit man who with his orders done stepped back into the darkness where they belonged, red eyes the only thing still visible.

“So, you’re the man who thought he could break my rules in my territory!” He smiled with no small amount of false cheer as he stamped out his (boring) cigar under heel.

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“Wha- Who, who are you?” The figure asked, still clearly concussed from where ‘the boys’ had roughed him up.

“Oh, I thought my award winning smile made me quite well known around these parts.” He admitted, pinching his chin as he stepped into the light like he’d done (a thousand times before…)

The man’s eyes widened in recognition. “You’re the Red-Eyed Rabbit…”

“Well, that’s one of my many titles.” He admitted beginning to pace and deciding he just didn’t feel like listing them all out today. “But they’re not important right now! No… what’s important is you broke my rules!”

His yell echoed throughout the warehouse, before he straightened himself out easily enough because while he was upset, he wasn’t ‘no survivors’ upset, and the man in front of him very likely was too unimportant to ever push him to that point. (Just like everyone else before him…)

“W-what? You can’t be upset about this! I mean you’re a Dealmaker!” The man (pointlessly) tried to defend.

“True, but my deals are entered willingly while knowing the price.” He pointed out. “And none of them are as… indefinite as your own form of… employment.” He spat out that word that did not fit the situation at all.

“W-why do you care about a few worthless Sinners, they’re nobody important!” The man yelled.

“Nobody important…” He repeated with no small amount of distaste, before catching sight of the boy watching him and deciding that a… correction was in order as he slipped a fang filled smile onto his face. “Did you know everybody who lives in this district knows me? That I have talked with everyone here to make sure that they deserve to be under my power. And I’ve decided that each and every last one of them, does for one reason or another. Which is why it should go without saying that each and every last one of them is important, because they’re my PEOPLE!”

The entire warehouse was flooded in his power as everyone was reminded of why the Rabid Red-Eyed Rabbit was so feared, before he pulled it all back in with an inhalation and let none of it out as he exhaled.

“But given how that apparently needed to be said, I’ll also go ahead and tell you that you need to be punished for breaking my rules, and what that punishment would entail.” He concluded, being sure to note how the boy was watching him in awe apparent even with that mask.

“So what, you’re going to kill me?” The man asked, looking nervous but unafraid.

“No. In a place like this where death is… ephemeral, I’ve come up with a special punishment for people like you.” He confessed, as on cue his men brought out a couple of cement blocks.

“You’re going to drown me?” The man frowned hideously in confusion. “That’s it?”

“That’s it?” He chuckled. “You know on earth, dying is considered a peaceful way to go, but that is of course ignoring the way your lungs slowly burn for oxygen, the biting cold eating away at your limbs, and the choking of water with every breath that brings you closer to death.”

“And the best part?” He leaned forward with a whisper and a grin. “It kills you slow enough that this place heals you just as fast so none of that ever ends. I wonder how long you’ll drown for before the rope snaps? Days, months, years, decades?”

Now his victim looked suitably scared.

“You-you can’t do this!” His victim pointlessly cried.

“Oh, I can, but I’m not going to be the one doing it.” He admitted, before snapping his fingers. “That’s what this lot is here for.”

From the shadows over a dozen men with black rabbits for heads stepped into the light each of them grabbing onto the bound man before dragging him off for a suitable punishment.

And so with the knowledge his victim knew exactly who was responsible for this he turned to the boy. “You handle this.”

The lad gave him a salute and a cry of “On it boss!” before rushing to make sure the man was properly executed.

Once alone in the warehouse, the rabbit he brought with him offered another cigar and he couldn’t help but sigh as he accepted it. “How many times do we have to go through this song and dance I wonder?”