“They’re going to be in a fight all weekend,” Edward said. His hand found my leg and began rubbing it. I could feel the strange golden heat emanating from the tips of his fingers. Stop it, I told myself—just enjoy the moment.
“Why do they have to do that?” I asked. “They always press each other’s buttons. It’s like they like it or something.”
“Relationships require work,” Edward said simply.
I turned to him. “Why doesn’t ours?”
He smiled, rubbing his hand up my leg. “Because what we have is perfect.”
I crossed my legs before he could get to my waist. “I have to go home today.”
“Are you mad at me?”
“For what?” I asked.
“For beating you at fencing.”
“What?” Yes! “No. No! Not that mad, at least. More mad at myself than anything.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Edward said. “I used to take it up as a hobby back when I was a young angst-filled boy.”
“When was this?” I asked. “You’re only eighteen.”
He smiled. “Listen. Forget all that. Are you sure you don’t want to come over tonight?”
“Definitely. Yup. I have to get to the library early tomorrow.”
“The library,” he muttered, pulling his hand away. “The library. I have a feeling that’s going to take up a lot of your time this summer.”
I suddenly felt guilty. Here I was, going crazy, and I’d completely forgotten about Edward’s feelings! Looking back, I could have killed myself. “Look,” I said, turning to him. “I promise we’ll get together tomorrow night.”
“The track boys are putting together an end-of-the-semester party on the beach, remember? We’re invited.”
“You are or we are?” I asked.
He smiled. “It doesn’t matter, darling.” His soft fingers caressed my cheek. “Stay the night tomorrow. Tell your mother you’re staying over at Tricia’s.”
“Maybe,” I said.
He took a deep breath and sighed, pulling out of the driveway.
“Don’t be annoyed,” I told him. “Please. I’m just … a little frazzled, that’s all.”
Edward was silent a moment, weaving the car around the twisting road that led to the other side of the little subdivision. “I can wait,” he said finally. “I can be as patient as you need me to. But I feel like this is right. Don’t you?”
I didn’t know. I mumbled a less-than-encouraging “Yes.”
My house was coming up on the right. I unbuckled, anxious to escape the car. I felt like I was completely losing it now. I knew for a fact that if I turned and looked out the rear window, that same glowing trail would be sitting on the road, leading back from Seth’s house. So what did all this mean?
“Should I pick you up tomorrow evening?” he asked, pulling into the empty driveway.
“Sure. Yes.” I leaned over and kissed him on the lips. He returned the gesture, opening his mouth. When our tongues touched, I didn’t get that warm tingly feeling that I usually got—and that was an understatement. “Morbid disgust” would be more precise … it took every ounce of control to keep from throwing up in his car. What the heck was going on?
“What’s wrong?” Edward asked.
“I just don’t feel well,” I told him quickly. “It’s a girl thing.”
He nodded. “Do you want me to run to the store and get you anything?”
“No. No. That’s so sweet, but I’m OK. I’ll be ready tomorrow by six.”
“Six-thirty,” he said. “Good?”
“Good.” I leaned over and forced myself to kiss him once more. Quickly. No tongue. Get a hold of yourself, Alice. Guys like this never come along.
Inside the house, I locked the door, watching him pull away from the driveway through the little diamond-shaped window in the door. It was a nice car. He didn’t act spoiled, though. I think that probably would have turned me off a little early on in the relationship. I like to think that now, at least. Maybe it wouldn’t. Oh, who am I kidding? I fell head over heels for him. Before he started glowing like some sort of McDonald’s sign, before that last kiss almost made me puke, I was ready to marry the damned guy.
“That you, dear?” my dad called from the living room.
“Who else?” I asked, walking through the hallway. Our living room was not like anything you might find in Edward’s house. There were no statues, no ancient books, no paintings that could buy four years at Harvard. All we had was a cream-colored couch, a glass coffee table, a small TV and a big bookshelf. The bookshelf was full of books, family pictures, old clay models I made in middle school, and just about every magazine any of us had read over the past three years.
Not a pretty bookshelf, in other words.
Dad was sitting on the couch, watching a sports show on TV. “Can you do your chore this afternoon? How were exams?”
“Yes. And good.” I watched the TV for a moment. “I thought you were working today.”
“Already done,” he said. “Your mom wants me to do some yard work out back. I’m procrastinating.”
“Well you better hurry,” I told him, walking into the kitchen. “It’s supposed to rain again this evening.” I opened the refrigerator door and grabbed a cup of strawberry yogurt, then grabbed a spoon from the drawer next to Mom’s new favorite appliance: the new dishwasher. White, sleek, runs like a jet engine. She was easy to please.
“Where’s Mom?” I called out.
“Working on an ad project all day,” Dad called out.
I went upstairs to my room, tearing off the top of the yogurt as I went. I opened my door and tossed the top in the wastebasket next to the dresser. I sat down at my little desk, opening my laptop to check the ol’ social network. Status updates were an important part of the afternoon.
“Ahem.”
I spun around. There, leaning against the dresser, was the rabbit.
“You look surprised,” he said.
“I am!”
His whiskers twitched. “I don’t see why. It should be painfully obvious what’s happening at this point.”
“Please tell me!” I said with a laugh. “Am I going crazy?”
“No, no,” the rabbit said. What was his name again? Briar. That was what his friends called him, at least. A giant talking rabbit with friends. “Far from crazy. Nor am I a made-up figment of your imagination. If I wanted to, I could walk right downstairs and reveal myself to your father and he would see me, too.”
“Oh my gawd, please do that.” I laughed again. “I would love to see that.”
Briar shook his furry head. “I’m not interested in giving your father a heart attack. And as much as I enjoy a good laugh, I think right now would be a bad moment to engage in such distractions.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re in a serious mood.”
The rabbit meandered over to my closet.
“Don’t go in there!” I ordered.
“Good gracious!” he exclaimed, stepping away from the open door. “How many clothes does one young girl need? And the shoes!”
“Every single pair of shoes is important,” I said, walking over to the closet and shutting the door. “Flats, pumps and tennis shoes all have their place. And I’ll have you know forty-five tops is on the low end of the scale.”
“That’s a terrifying prospect,” the rabbit said. He sighed. “Lots of purple, I noticed.”
“Indigo. It’s blue with a hint of violet. It’s my favorite color.”
“It’s a nice color, although I must admit your shirts leave little to the imagination.”
“V-necks are hardly scandalous. I have a nice neck. Lots of girls hide their necklines. We get weird, annoying pimples at this age, if you haven’t noticed.” I sat down on my bed. “I feel like I’m in a nightmare.”
“Ah yes,” the rabbit said, stuffing his paws in the little pockets of his comical-looking pants. “Denial. Refusal of adventure. The second step of the journey of the hero.”
&nb
sp; “The journey … wait, what hero?”
Briar chuckled. “I’m getting ahead of myself, I know. If I had to guess, I would say right now all you’re thinking about is that strange trail left by the boy of your dreams.”
My heart sank. “How did you know about that?”
“Because I can see it too,” Briar said. He drew back the dark blue curtain to look out the window. “Gosh, it would be nice if your neighborhood didn’t have all these twisty-turning streets. Easy to get lost if you’re a rabbit without a compass.”
“How did you do that?” I asked. “Draw back the curtain, I mean. You’re not real.”
“I am real,” the rabbit said. “And I can do a great many things, young lady. I just so happen to be an amazing cook.”
“The trail,” I said. “What is it?”
“A hint.” His whiskers twitched. “A skill honed by generations of heroes.”
“A hint to what?”
Sunlight gleamed in the rabbit’s dark eyes. “A hint to know who doesn’t belong.”
“Aaaaaand I’m lost again.” I threw up my arms, falling back on my soft bed. I had an intense desire to sleep … even the most twisted dream would make more sense than what was going on.
“Can I tell you another story?” the rabbit asked.
“Yes, by all means. You’re a good storyteller, at least. You’re a giant rabbit, which is creepy and weird, but you tell good stories.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He removed his paws from his pocket, first smoothing his vest and then licking one paw and matting down the fur between his long rabbit ears. “Now, a long time ago there was a Miller’s boy and a cat …”
“I’ve read that story,” I said, excited. “It’s a fairy tale by the Grimms!”
Briar nodded. “Now that’s true enough. And when those dastardly Grimm brothers wrote down the story using their magic pen and magic paper, you’d better believe all those characters showed up in real life. Not ten miles away from where the Grimms lived.”
“So there was a castle full of cats,” I said, trying to remember back. “And then the Miller’s third boy, Hans, served them for seven years, and then he went back to his father’s mill, right?”
The rabbit nodded.
“And so then a princess appeared with servants and handed over a horse, then took Hans back to a castle made of gold.”
“Close enough, I suppose. Although the way I was planning to tell it would have been more exciting. But what do I know? I’m just a giant talking rabbit.”
I bit my lip, thinking. “There were no bad guys in that story. Unless you count the two brothers who conspired against Hans.”
“No, I suppose you’re right.” Briar glanced again out the window. “But good or bad, they didn’t belong in this world. And that story made quite a mess of things anywho. Seven years after the Grimms put the story to paper, well, the young man Hans and his wife ended up at their castle made of gold. And guess what? There were plenty of folk all across the countryside wondering just where this mysterious princess had come from. Wondering even harder about how much gold they had inside that castle.”
“They took the castle?” I asked, eyes wide.
“Oh, it wasn’t so simple. You see, having that much gold can buy you a great many things. Plenty of men in those times more than happy to take up a sword and shield for just a few scraps. And so when the neighboring lords and kings paid a visit to the princess and Hans, they found themselves staring down a whole army of mercenaries. Pretty soon, every lord within a hundred miles was at every other lord’s throat. And through it all, sweet little Hans and his princess got more and more bloodthirsty.”
“They enjoyed it?” I asked.
Briar shrugged. “Maybe all that gold got to them. Maybe the greed overtook them. Whatever the case, every year that passed they grew darker and darker. Nastier. Meaner. Took over all the land, including the farm the Grimm brothers lived on. Started taking harvests by force. Executing poor folk who couldn’t pay tribute. So the Grimm brothers’ servant paid them a visit.”
“Did he still have the pen?”
“Sure did. The very same one he used to kill the Big Bad Wolf.”
“He killed them?”
“He sure did,” Briar said. “And just like with the wolf, they both burned away into ashes. Gone from this world. Rightly so, I may add. And the servant, he took himself some of that gold from the castle before anyone knew what had happened. And he spent the remaining years of his life searching for the rest of the Corrupted.”
“Corrupted?” I asked.
“Any character from the Grimm fairy tale becomes Corrupted over time because they don’t belong in this world,” Briar explained. “They’re people, only they ain’t like you.” He chuckled. “Sorry, sorry. I’m getting worked up and letting my accent show. I don’t mean to offend.”
“I’m not offended.”
His whiskers twitched. “Well, that’s kind of you. But regardless, I shouldn’t get all excited. Just cause you’re listening to me all spout all this doesn’t mean you’re ready to believe it yet.”
“Say I do,” I said cautiously. “What would it mean? Why are you tell me all of this?”
“Because,” Briar said, “you’re the next hero.”
I sat there, stunned. I mean, who wouldn’t? A man-sized rabbit wearing a swanky old-fashioned vest just told me I was supposed to wipe out fictional people.
“You’re at a loss for words,” Briar said, and the white fur around his mouth pulled back just a bit to make way for a smile. “I don’t blame you.”
“OK,” I said. “Say I am the hero …”
“Alice?” came a call from downstairs.
I hurried to the door as if I’d just been caught with a boy in my room. “What, Dad?” I called out.
“Could you please, please do your chore before your mom gets home?”
“OK,” I called back. I turned around, but the giant rabbit was gone.
I crossed the hallway into the bathroom, turning on the light and rummaging through the cabinet under the sink for the cleaning supplies. When I got up, there he was again, standing by the toilet. I cried out in surprise, then quickly shut the door.
“You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“Disappearing and reappearing is never easy on one’s mental state,” he said. A little smile touched the corner of his mouth. “Good for a chuckle now and again, though.”
“Well, I need to clean the floor. Stand in the tub.”
Briar pulled back the forest-print shower curtain and hopped in the tub. He lifted one foot. “It’s wet.”
“Just deal with it,” I said, spraying cleaning solution around the toilet. White foam gathered. “Are you going to keep talking or what?”
“Where was I?” His tongue clicked against his large front teeth. “Oh, of course. You’re the hero.”
“OK,” I said, using paper toweling to scrub the white foam away. “Let’s pretend I’m still going along with this. What, exactly, does that mean?”
“It means you’ve been chosen to rid the world of the Corrupted,” Briar stated. “To put it another way: to fix the mistake of those fiendish Brothers Grimm.”
“How do I do that?” I asked.
“Any way you can.”
I crawled backward on my knees, spraying the yellow tiles near the bathtub. “So I find these, these Corrupted, these fictional characters, and I kill them?”
“Kill is such a strong word,” the rabbit said, clicking his tongue. “You simply cause enough harm to their physical manifestations that they burn away into the black nothingness from whence they came.”
I looked up at him, smiling. “So I kill them.”
A sigh from the giant rabbit. “So to speak.”
“And I have to do this because they’re all evil,” I said, wiping down the tiles.
“The longer they remain on this earth, the eviler they get. Might I get out of this tub now?”
“Just h
old on.” I pulled back the ugly white bath mat and sprayed another stream of foam across the tiles. “So there’s only one hero, right? I’m the only one in the world?”
“As far as I know. And some day after you are long gone, another will appear. Then another. Until every Corrupted is removed from this world and the mistake of the Brothers Grimm has been fixed. Now, please?”
I nodded. He hopped out of the bathtub, shaking the water away from his furry feet. “And so they’ve just been running around for hundreds of years and no one’s noticed?”
“Oh, I’m sure some have noticed,” Briar said, examining my handiwork. “Hmmmm don’t forget to get that area right at the base of the sink cabinet … yes, right there.”
“Thank you. About the Corrupted?”
“Ah, yes.” He sat down on the toilet seat and crossed his legs in a very human sort of way, tapping his mouth with one paw. “Yes, yes, yes. I do recall quite a few people here and there discussing some strange occurrences … but you must understand the Corrupted for the most part understand they don’t belong. And those that are still alive have gotten very good at staying hidden.”
“And so who do we kill first?” I asked. “The three bears? An evil step-mother? A griffin?”
“You know who you must kill,” Briar said.
“Who?” I asked. “Please. I really don’t know.”
The rabbit’s ears twitched. “Prince Charming. Of course.”
Chapter 5
I tossed and turned for a long time that night. And when I finally slept, I dreamt. It was an awful dream, so vivid that it felt like I was actually there only instead of inhabiting a body I felt instead like I was looking through a window. I was watching a scene unfold.
It began in a club. I couldn’t tell which club because I’d never been to any of the dance clubs downtown or anywhere else. But it was definitely downtown because it was so diverse and Milwaukee’s suburbs just don’t have much diversity. Everybody was dancing on this little scrunchy dance floor and the multicolored lights above swirled around in circles. Everyone looked sweaty. Everyone was holding a drink steady as they danced. Some danced close together, while others kept space between them.
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