“Look at me,” Bunny purrs, so I do, but it isn’t me she’s talking to. Her head is dipped low. I can hear her grin. I can feel her fluttering eyelashes. A moment ago, Williams was ready to take her right in front of me. Now? Even in the dark, his fear is unmistakable—so potent I can taste it.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” he stutters, breath racing. “You shouldn’t be out.”
Bunny, a predator playing with food, laughs, “Where should I be, then? Hmm? Back in those rooms? Maybe with your dick in my ass.” This shit is hard for me to hear, but Williams acts repulsed by the notion, as if these aren’t his actions at all. It’s a bewildering act, but undeniably fake. Does he think it will save him? Bunny flips to the side, showing my face. It’s all he needs to know that nothing will save him now.
“Oh,” she whispers, still chuckling, “come on now. Don’t be so scared! What’s the worst that could happen?” The tears forming and blood vessels popping in his throat are proof that he knows exactly the worst that could happen.
He finds his voice. It’s not as confident and boisterous as before. “You killed Colette and Nathan… Were you the cop killer, too?”
Bunny appears thoughtful, head tilting in question before asking, “I don’t know, Mayor Williams. Did they deserve it?”
The question hangs in the air, tainting the space around us until Williams starts to choke. Panic snakes around him, attempting to throw Bunny off, but he’s drunk and weak and helpless beneath her. When he can’t get away, he offers the only thing he has. “I have money!”
He offers her thousands—millions—if it means we’ll disappear, but Bunny and I grew up with nothing. We survived without money once. We can do it again without issue.
“Cade.”
“Yeah, Bun?” Her smile is radiant and bright, much lighter than it was hours ago. With each monster she confronts, with every life she takes, it’s like another piece of her returns. I wonder who she’ll be when this is all over.
How much brighter will she burn?
“Bla-Cade,” Williams interrupts, “Cade,listen!”He pleads with me from underneath Bunny, stare crazed, with handsplastered up at his side. “Yo-you were a prize to us! W-we treated you good!”
“I was your fucking dog,” I bite back, recalling the way they’d look at me whenever I entered that ring. “You’re lucky the cage kept me away from you.” You’re lucky she’s keeping me away from you now. I flash him my blade, wishing I hadn’t cleaned it, so he can see all the company he’ll keep. Like most, the sight is enough to have him shitting his pants.
“Whoa! Wait! Hold on, hold on, hold on! You don’t want to do this! Just calm down!”
While he begs and pleads, I slip the knife into Bunny’s waiting hand. Maybe he would have seen it, had he focused on the right devil. But he didn’t, and now he knows exactly what kind of game Bunny’s playing.
“Why should I?” she asks, pressing the newly sharpened tip to his.
“B-b-because I can help you! I can help you! Whatever you need, I can get it in an instant!”
I can’t tell if it’s fake or real with her back turned to me, but the interest is there. “Anything?”
“Anything!” Williams howls. “Anything. Please, just…don’t kill me.”
I expect Bunny to laugh away the request, to blow him off, and stick the blade straight through the hole of his dick. Instead, Bunny falls silent, as if she’s actually considering his words.
“Bun—” I whisper at the exact moment she rushes out, “Where is he?”Oh, fuck.“Where is Marone?”
Williams understands what she’s asking for, what she plans on doing, and a whole new terror runs through his system. “I-I can’t do that.” The knife enters his limp dick, cutting through the expensive slacks with no resistance. Blood pops and pools inside the material, coming away on her hands as she pulls the blade in and out.
“No! No!” he cries, thrashing in the seat. “Wait! Please! Please!Please!”Bunny slides the weapon into the hilt, sawing upward. “Please!” Williams' shouts sound like incomprehensible cries, “You don’t understand!He’ll kill me!”
“So will I.” To prove it, she rips one hand into her pocket, shoving a bloodied, broken tooth of Colette’s between his lips. “I want Marone,” she hisses for a second time. “You want to live? You get me to him.”
I wonder how Marone would feel knowing one of his top clients folded within moments. And all it took was a little cutting and a few loose teeth.
I write the South Hampton address on a piece of tissue, expecting her to be done when she asks for more. “And the apartments? The one he pimps us out of. Where are they?” He recites that too with a broken, defeated sigh. Bunny looks back at me, almost shocked at how easy this was. Like me, she expected more of a fight from someone who harbored such vile secrets.
“Is that it?! Can I- Can I go now?!”
Williams and I sit in silence, he panicking, but I am curious. What is Bunny going to do?
“Why’d you do it?” she asks. It sounds genuine this time. There’s no sarcasm in her tone, no teasing or playfulness. Bunny sits on his lap, lips close to his, and wonders… as if his answer will breathe some life into her again.
“D-do what?”
