“BEGONE, DEMONS!”

Exflibberaguil shooed yet another rabbit away from him. He had stopped at another park, which was rabbit abundant. His ferret was itching to fight the pests, but Exflibberaguil knew better than to let it go. Yesterday, Exflibberaguil had made the mistake of letting his ferret free, and the park ranger made him pay a fine for an injured rabbit.

Money wasn't the problem, of course. Exflibberaguil had mounds of it on demand. But it annoyed him greatly that his time was wasted, and he was afraid that another unflattering picture would be taken of him. It also seemed that Nick’s folks were getting more and more demanding. The online posters that used to say they were ‘Missing’ Nick now said they ‘Wanted’ Nick.

But it was getting ridiculous now. Rabbits kept coming to the trailer, taunting him. Exflibberaguil was sure Cosmo was the one behind it all. The Sodriew in the park kept feeding them carrots and celery. Exflibberaguil had attempted to stop them, but they only frowned with disgust and threatened to report him. Exflibberaguil didn’t understand their loyalty to the pests. He was almost convinced that they were hypnotized by the rabbits, before remembering that all Sodriew had already been hypnotized by rabbit media and this loyalty was to be expected.

“Why are you hurting the bunny?” Nick whined in a babyish voice. Nick had recovered a lot and was beginning to regain her original personality. Her memory was still gone, but Box had said that Nick may recover her memory when shocked. On one hand, Exflibberaguil was secretly relieved that Nick had forgotten everything. He was afraid that she may go back to hiding from him again if she remembered whatever she had been worried about. On the other hand, Exflibberaguil needed Nick to talk with all these strange Sodriew, and that required her to look and talk normally.

Exflibberaguil ended up deciding to keep Nick’s memories away for the time being. She can’t be much help, after all, if she ran away again. Exflibberaguil was also worried that Nick may try to erase her memory again, like how he had done several hundred times.

“It’s not a bunny; it’s a rabbit,” Exflibberaguil snapped. “Two very different things, Nick. Rabbits are much smarter than bunnies. They look similar, but you can tell the difference by the high-pitch sound rabbits emit. Only rabbits can speak Rabbish, a language using extremely high-pitched tones. Some low-class rabbits don’t speak Rabbish at all, but they still constantly emit the tones subconsciously.”

Nick had already stopped listening, but Exflibberaguil pretended not to notice. Another good thing about the loss of memory was that now Exflibberaguil can fill her with rabbit information. He hoped she’d be able to remember the new information better, without all the excess memories. He also just liked ranting. “Pika and hares can understand Rabbish, but most have difficulty producing the high notes. They communicate mostly with body language, which would be harder for Box to translate. However, Rabbits, being the smartest, rule over the entire Lagomorph order, so we only have to defeat their leader.”

Nick stared at him the way the other Sodriew had when he was yelling at the rabbit. Exflibberaguil sighed. “Alright. Just remember this, Nick. Rabbits? Bad. Bunnies? Bad. Hares? Pikas? Cats? Bad, bad, bad. Got it?”

“Oh,” Nick answered, slightly confused. “But why aren’t you killing the rabbit then? Aren’t bad people and bad things supposed to be killed?”

“Well…” Exflibberaguil hesitated. “Yes, they should be punished. That’s the galactically correct way of saying it. When you say killed, it sounds creepy.”

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“But ants, cockroaches, and mice are all bad animals. They’re killed. And some bad people are put in little rooms until they die. Some really bad people are killed immediately.”

“Well, that’s different—”

“So we shouldn’t kill mice but trap them in cages and watch them die? Oh! That’s what scientists do, right? Only they test the mice and cut them open or make them do strange things. It is different.” Nick paused, but not long enough for Exflibberaguil to talk. “Do you suppose these scientists are bad people and should be put in cages and be tested on as well?”

“So Sodriew do that too,” Exflibberaguil muttered, kicking at another rabbit that was nearing him. “I guess that’s another universal thing. Even the most primitive animals have some sort of prison system.”

“Is it because you feel bad for the rabbit? Is that why you don’t want to kill it?”

“No, no. You don’t understand. You don’t remember yet but—”

In a flash, Nick had jumped up and leaped for the rabbit. Her eyes sparkled with a malevolent light. Her face displayed childlike innocence, full of motivation focused on one point. It was strangely disturbing, like watching a baby burn down a house, knowing that the child didn’t and couldn’t realize the consequences of the action.

Exflibberaguil, out of shock, accidentally dropped his ferret he had been holding. His practiced body struggled to free itself from his controlling mind, which told him not to chase after Nick. But he could feel his instincts spark, his fingertips tingling to run and strangle his enemy.

The rabbit was faster than Nick, but its instincts had been dulled from years of being pampered by the people around him. It darted away after a second of hesitation. The ferret, however, had practiced for years learning the same procedures. The rabbit had hardly taken one leap before the ferret caught up. It sunk its sharpen fangs into the rabbit’s back leg. The rabbit screeched and fell. Bright red blood spurted out of the leg, staining the ferret’s white muzzle and the tender green grass.

The ferret dragged the rabbit to the side and lifted it off the ground triumphantly. The rabbit continued to struggle, its ears spinning like a tornado. Nick ran up to the rabbit and pried it out of the ferret’s mouth. The ferret, taken by surprise, released the rabbit without a fight. The red blood sprayed onto Nick’s white face and clothes. She fastened her hands around the rabbit’s neck. Her knuckles whitened as she started squeezing.

The rabbit twitched. Its black eyes began to bulge and contort. Its nose grew and wiggled, trying to breathe. The two sharp white teeth chattered and ground. It no longer resembled a rabbit, but instead some sort of deformity, with an oversized head and its scrunched up face. The rabbit twitched again, weaker and weaker, before it relaxed, paralyzed.

Dead.

Instantly, noise erupted around her.

“Nick!” Exflibberaguil shouted, with no meaning. He couldn’t decide whether to be proud, or disgusted, or furious. He only knew that it was an occasion for some sort of reaction that involved yelling.

Another child who had been having a barbeque had witnessed the whole event. His hiccupped and whimpered, before exploding into screams and cries. A nearby baby, frightened by the noise, began to bawl as well.

A third, rather oversized woman, was holding a large smartphone, standing at a park table occupied by children wearing cone-shaped paper hats. She had been in the middle of filming a birthday party, but the camera was now pointed on Nick. She had an enraged and disgust look on her face. Nick subconsciously remembered her yelling something along the lines of, “Murderer! Villain! Animal abuser!” Nick had regarded her as ridiculous. In her other hand, she had been holding a slice of pizza with giant circles of red pepperoni.

Nick could register another man in a green uniform and a ridiculously oversize souvenir baseball cap approach her quickly. He had a badge pinned to the wrong side of his chest. He seemed furious and yelled something.

All the sounds blended to a strangely soothing white noise. So many things were happening at once, yet Nick felt like she was floating. An odd calm washed over her. The sky was so beautiful.

“Nick! Nick! Can you hear me?” Exflibberaguil yelled. This time his words held worry.

Nick turned her head to look at him, her eyes far and distant.

“I was bit…” she whispered with bewilderment, displaying two bleeding slits on the back of her hand.