“But what?”
“But I just can’t think. For some reason, with the Jabberwock, my head can’t think. I don’t know why. There is this big fog in my brain.”
Rabbit gently stroked my cheek. My eyebrows furrowed. That was the second gentle touch I had received from Rabbit. “Rabbit?” I asked, unsure what I was really asking.
“You just kill him,” he said. “No messing around. You go in there. You choose your weapon, and you slaughter him. Don’t let him hurt you. Just kill him. Then . . .” He closed his eyes.
“There is only one more left,” I finished for him.
He opened his eyes and nodded.
“Rabbit?” I held his hand tighter and looked back over the water. It was so quiet. “We are nearly at his home, aren’t we?”
Rabbit tensed, but nodded again. “It is about ten minutes down this road.”
I breathed in through my mouth, then out through my nose. I wasn’t sure how long we sat in the car, looking out over the water, but as a bird swooped high in the sky, I turned to Rabbit. “I’m ready,” I declared, hearing a shaking in my voice.
Rabbit, in his third act of unexpected chivalry, closed the distance between us and kissed me on my lips. My heart skipped a beat at the feel of his lips against mine, so gentle and kind. There was no blood. No biting nor harshness, simply peace and softness.
It stole my heart.
As he pulled away, he left his hand on my cheek. “Rabbit,” I whispered breathlessly and fluttered my eyes open. Rabbit swallowed, his cheeks flushed. There was a strange look in his eyes. One I couldn’t decipher. But if I had to guess, I would venture it looked like . . . some kind of . . . happiness.
Rabbit slid back over to his side and pulled the car onto the dirt road. As we passed the water’s edge, I clutched my knife in my hand. I closed my eyes and let the awful things he had done to Ellis fill my mind. Not only had Ellis told me what he had done to her, she had also shown me. So I replayed the images one after the other. I let Ellis’s cries fill my ears until they rang with pain. And I let myself feel the Jabberwock between my legs, thrusting and making Ellis scream.
Anger, more anger than I had ever experienced before, began to fill my body. I felt it like quickfire, shooting down my arms, my legs and my chest. It reached my fingers, which tightened their grip on the knife. I embraced the anger, so much that when we pulled up to the house, surrounded by dark trees . . . a dark forest, like the one that imprisoned Ellis . . . I didn’t think, I acted.
Guided by the rage bubbling in my stomach, I burst from the car. And I ran and I ran. I ran over the lawn and straight up to the house. I raced up the steps and slammed my way through the front door.
I didn’t wait to see if Rabbit was behind me. A red mist had coated my vision. I had to follow my anger’s path to the source: the Jabberwock.
I ran down the hallway, searching all the rooms for any sign of movement. Someone jumped out at me from the third door. I plunged my knife into his chest . . . and I kept running. I didn’t even stop to see who I had killed. I just knew it wasn’t him. I instinctively knew I would recognize him when we found him. I could never forget the ugly, evil face that Ellis had etched on my mind.
Another person caught me by the hair as I ran by them, wrenching me back. When I turned, a man, dressed in black, stood before me. I stabbed my knife upward through his throat into his brain. Blood immediately hit my face, and his hands fell from my hair.
I turned, searching the large house for my next kill . . . and then I heard it.
“Ellis!” A voice called out from the top of the stairs. “Ellis!” My blood cooled. I knew that voice. Ellis had let me know how that voice sounded . . . and worse . . . he was calling her name.
The Jabberwock, the nastiest of them all, was calling Ellis’s name. Taunting me. Mocking me . . .
He was going to die.
I ran up the stairs two at a time. I raised my knife above my shoulder, ready to strike. When I reached the top, I heard footsteps. Whipping my head to the right, I set off at a sprint. I chased the sound of the footsteps until I entered a darkened room. I narrowed my eyes, searching for the monster, when he called her name again. The Jabberwock was across the room, standing in the shadows.