The flame crawled higher.
“Please,” I said, my throat tightening around the word. “Give it back.”
The boy looked at the others, amused. Then he looked back at me.
“You want it?” he asked.
I nodded quickly.
He shrugged. “We burn the bunny,” he said casually, as the fire climbed toward its face. “Or we burn you.”
The room exploded with laughter.
I couldn’t look away. The ear curled inward as the flame ate through it. The pink fur shriveled and blackened, melting into something ugly.
My eyes burned—not from the smoke, but from watching it disappear.
Something inside my chest snapped.
I slammed into the boy holding the bunny and bit down on his arm as hard as I could.
He screamed. “Get him off!”
Hands grabbed my shirt. Someone punched the side of my head, but I held on. The taste of blood filled my mouth. Another fist smashed into my ribs, then a kick to my back. My teeth slipped loose and they dragged me away from him.
They threw me against the lockers. My head cracked into metal and the room spun. Boots slammed into my stomach, my shoulder, my face. I curled up with my arms over my head while the blows kept coming.
Finally they stopped.
One of them spat near my face. “Fucking freak.”
The door slammed when they left.
Silence settled over the room. Smoke drifted lazily through the air.
I stayed on the floor for a long time. Everything hurt. My mouth tasted like iron and my nose was bleeding.
When I at last pushed myself up, my hands were shaking.
The bunny lay on the floor near the locker.
What was left of it.
Half the face melted. One ear gone. The pink fur burned black along the edges.
I walked over and picked it up. Ash smudged my fingers and the fabric crumbled where the fire had eaten through it.
I held it in both hands and stared at it. For a moment I thought I was going to cry again.
But the tears stopped somewhere in my chest. They didn’t come out.
I sat there in the silent room, holding the burned bunny, and promised myself that no one would ever take anything from me again.
1
My New Toy
—Kira—
