The headlights cut through the darkness as the car wound its way down the empty road. Inside, Alice and Lenny sat in heavy silence, the weight of everything that had happened pressing down on them like a physical force. The car's engine hummed softly, almost apologetically, as if trying not to disturb their thoughts.

  Finally, Lenny's voice broke through the quiet, rough with exhaustion. "It's over."

  "Thank you," Alice whispered, her words barely audible over the gentle rumble of tires on asphalt.

  Lenny's hands tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckles white in the dim light from the dashboard. "I'm sorry I couldn't save your friends." The words seemed to catch in his throat, heavy with regret.

  "It's over now." Alice's voice was hollow, emptied of emotion. She couldn't bring herself to feel anything more, not yet.

  "Yeah..." Lenny's response trailed off into nothingness, leaving them both adrift in their thoughts once more.

  Alice turned to the window, watching the dark shapes of trees blur past. Her reflection ghosted against the glass, pale and drawn, a stranger's face staring back at her. The countryside rushed by in shadowy waves, anonymous and endless.

  The sound came without warning - a sharp, violent pop that shattered the silence. The steering wheel jerked beneath Lenny's hands as the car lurched sideways, the sudden loss of control sending them into a sickening spin. Alice's world tilted, the ground and sky trading places in a nauseating whirl of motion. The ditch rose up to meet them with terrifying speed.

  Then, nothing. Darkness swallowed everything whole.

  A high-pitched ringing filled Alice's ears as consciousness slowly returned. She found herself suspended upside down, held in place by her seatbelt. Warm blood trickled down her forehead, and the metallic taste of it filled her mouth.

  "Oh shit..." she mumbled, her trembling fingers fumbling with the seat belt buckle. It finally released with a click, sending her crashing onto the roof of the overturned car. Fighting waves of dizziness, she dragged herself through the shattered window, broken glass crunching beneath her palms.

  Alice attempted to stand but her legs betrayed her, sending her sprawling onto the cold ground. A sharp pain shot through her thigh, and in the dim moonlight, she could see a large shard of glass protruding from her flesh. Without allowing herself time to think, she wrapped her fingers around it and yanked it free.

  "GOD!" The scream tore from her throat, followed by uncontrollable sobs that wracked her entire body. But her cries were cut short by something that made her blood run cold – a deep, inhuman roar echoing through the darkness.

  Moving purely on instinct, Alice limped behind the nearest tree, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Through the darkness, she watched as it emerged – the Rabbit. Its grotesque form moved with an unnatural grace as it approached the wreckage of their car.

  With horrifying strength, it reached into the wreck and dragged Lenny's unconscious form out onto the ground. Lenny's eyes fluttered open, awareness returning just in time to register the terror before him.

  "No! Stop!" Lenny's plea was cut short as the Rabbit's massive hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground as if he weighed nothing at all.

  "What are you!" Lenny's final words came out as a strangled gasp.

  The Rabbit's response was swift and brutal. It leaned forward, its monstrous jaws unhinging, and in one savage motion, tore away the top of Lenny's head. The wet crunch of bone and tissue seemed to echo through the forest. With casual disregard, the creature tossed Lenny's lifeless body aside like discarded trash.

  Alice backed away, fighting to keep her terror silent. But fate had other plans. The sudden snap of metal was deafening, and white-hot pain exploded through her leg as the bear trap's teeth clamped down. Her scream pierced the night air as she collapsed, the world spinning around her.

  When her vision cleared, she found herself looking up into the soulless eyes of the Rabbit looming over her. The moonlight cast its grotesque form in silvery shadow, making it appear even more otherworldly.

  "Son of a-" The words died in her throat as the Rabbit's massive foot lifted above her face. The last thing Alice saw was the bottom of its boot rushing down toward her.

  Then, nothing but darkness.

  Consciousness returned slowly to Alice, her vision swimming into focus. A single yellowing light bulb hung above her, casting sickly shadows across what appeared to be a concrete floor. She lay there for a moment, every muscle in her body aching.

  "What the hell?" Her voice came out hoarse, echoing slightly in the darkness. She pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the pain that shot through her trapped leg. "Where the hell am I?"

  Moving cautiously through the shadows, she found herself entering what appeared to be some kind of study or research room. In the center stood an old projector, its presence somehow ominous in the dim light. Alice glanced around the space, taking in the musty smell of abandoned papers and old electronics, before reaching for the projector's switch.

  The machine whirred to life, casting a flickering beam onto the wall. A man's face appeared – Dr. Leon, his name badge indicated. His clinical tone filled the room.

  "This is B43G - The Rabbit." The image changed to show the creature she'd encountered, its form somehow even more disturbing in the clinical setting of the footage. Dr. Leon continued, his voice matter-of-fact as he discussed the subject – a boy from Ladysmith, only twelve when they took him. Alice's stomach turned as she listened to the doctor describe their experiments, the DNA splicing, watching footage of their subject demonstrating impossible physical abilities.

  "Giving the subject the ability for extreme flexibility and agility, thus allowing extremely athletic and extreme strength," Dr. Leon's voice continued over footage of their test subject moving through what looked like a military obstacle course with inhuman grace.

  The doctor's tone grew more concerned as he continued. "There have been some side effects of these forced improvements. He has seen some mutations. It seems the Rabbit DNA spliced with his cells have done something-" The footage deteriorated into static before cutting out entirely.

  Alice's attention was drawn to a stack of documents on the table beside the projector. As she began to read, Dr. Leon's voice seemed to echo in her mind, overlapping with the written words before her. The story they told was tragic – a ten-year-old boy standing in the rain at his parents' funeral, black umbrellas surrounding him like carrion birds. His parents' car accident in 1995, the semi-truck that had stolen their lives, and the son they left behind.

  The documents detailed his arrival at the orphanage, page after page marking the passage of time as he remained unadopted, unwanted – or so he thought. Until the day a nurse led him down a sterile hallway, her voice bright with false cheer: "Someone's here to adopt you!"

  The final pages revealed the cruel truth – Dr. Leon, acting on behalf of Noir, had been the one to claim him. The photograph showed the doctor's smile, a predator's grin as he took the boy's hand, leading him not to a new home, but to a laboratory where childhood would end and experiments would begin.

  The yellowing light flickered above Alice as she processed what she'd discovered, the horror of it all sinking in like a stone in her stomach.

  Alice emerged into a dark hallway, the walls slick with something she didn't want to identify. Distant screams echoed through the corridor, their source impossible to pinpoint in the maze-like structure. Before she could process the sound, the Rabbit materialized from the shadows, its massive claws slicing through the air where her head had been moments before. She threw herself sideways, her survival instinct taking over as she scrambled to her feet and ran.

  Her flight came to an abrupt, horrifying halt as she collided with something soft and yielding. In the dim light, she made out the bloody, mangled forms of Verb and Emma. A scream caught in her throat as she pushed past their bodies, forcing herself to keep moving.

  The corridor opened into what appeared to be a prison block, rows of cells stretching into the darkness. She slowed, breath coming in ragged gasps. The screams she'd heard earlier suddenly made terrible sense – the cells weren't empty. Desperate faces pressed against the bars, hands reaching out like pale spiders.

  "Oh my..." The words barely escaped her lips before a bone-shaking roar echoed through the building. The Rabbit was coming.

  She sprinted down the corridor, the occupants of the cells erupting into a frenzy of motion and sound. "Girlie!" they screamed, their hands shooting out between the bars, grasping at her clothes, her hair, anything they could reach. Their fingers scraped against her skin as she pushed forward, their desperation following her like a physical wave.

  The prison block finally opened into what must have been the orphanage's main hall. Freedom beckoned through the front doors, but her rush toward escape was cut short by a sharp command:

  "Halt!"

  Soldiers materialized from the shadows, their weapons trained on her with unwavering precision. Alice's mind reeled, trying to make sense of the militarized response. "What is going on?"

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  Dr. Leon appeared from behind the wall of soldiers, his face twisted with urgency. "Where is he?!" The question exploded from him like a gunshot.

  "You guys are the ones behind all this!" Alice's accusation echoed off the walls.

  "WHERE IS HE?!" Leon's control shattered completely as he drew a Glock, pressing the cold metal against her forehead.

  Alice's voice remained steady despite the gun at her head. "He's inside... waiting." A simple truth that carried the weight of a threat.

  Leon lowered the weapon and strode past her, his previous fear masked by determination. The soldiers moved forward, rough hands grabbing Alice's arms, dragging her away as Leon ventured deeper into the building.

  "Come on out!" Leon's voice bounced off the walls as he stalked through the abandoned orphanage. His confident stride faltered as his foot landed in something wet. Looking down, he saw the dark trail of blood snaking across the floor, disappearing into the shadows ahead.

  "Gotcha," he whispered, following the crimson path like a hunter tracking wounded prey. But in the back of his mind, a nagging voice wondered who was really hunting whom.

  Leon spotted the padded room at the end of the blood trail. He kicked the door open, weapon raised. "Where are you?!"

  The door slammed shut behind him with a terminal click. A harsh light blazed to life, illuminating walls covered in photographs – a gallery of death. Each victim's picture was marked off, like items on a twisted checklist. Only two remained unmarked: Leon's own face staring back at him, and Alice's.

  "Oh..." The word escaped him as understanding dawned.

  A speaker crackled to life, and music began to swell through the room. A woman's voice, mechanical and cold, spoke: "Ten."

  Leon spun around, clawing at the door handle. "Nine."

  His foot slammed against the door again and again. "Eight."

  The gun roared in the confined space as he fired at the lock. "Seven."

  The hollow click of an empty chamber. "Six."

  His useless weapon bounced off the wall of photographs. "Five."

  The present dissolved into memory – a young Joseph being dragged down the orphanage hallway, his screams echoing through time: "Help! Help me!" Leon's younger self pulled the struggling child along, deaf to his pleas.

  Back in the padded room, Leon attacked a ventilation grate with desperate strength. "Four."

  Another memory surfaced: Joseph strapped to a laboratory table, a massive syringe plunging into his arm. His flesh rippled and distorted, fingers elongating as the serum took hold. His screams of agony pierced the observation window where Leon stood watching, unmoved by the child's suffering.

  Now on his knees in the padded room, Leon's own screams matched the boy's. "Three."

  The past shifted again – the Rabbit, Joseph's transformed self, moving with inhuman grace through a testing chamber. Lasers sliced through the air as he dodged and weaved, his movements fluid and lethal. Through the door's window, Leon had watched with a satisfied smirk, proud of his creation.

  "Two."

  "I can explain!" Leon's plea echoed in the small room as fragments of memory flashed across his mind – the crying child, the cruel experiments, the monster he'd helped create.

  "One."

  Light flooded through the observation window. The Rabbit stood there, Eric at his side, both of them watching their prey. "Joseph!" Leon's final word emerged as a desperate plea.

  Red beams of light crisscrossed the room in a deadly lattice. For a moment, Leon stood perfectly still, blood trickling from his mouth. Then his body separated along the laser lines, falling apart like a grotesque puzzle.

  The Rabbit and Eric turned away from the window without a word, leaving behind the fragments of the man who had stolen a child's humanity and created a monster in its place. His loney perfection.

  Outside the orphanage, Noir soldiers milled around their vehicles, an incongruous display of military might against the abandoned building's decay. Inside one of the cars, Alice sat quietly as "Why Can't We Be Friends?" drifted from someone's radio. Her eyes fixed on the orphanage while her fingers worked a hairpin in her handcuffs with practiced precision. The lock clicked open, but she kept her hands behind her back, waiting.

  Two soldiers stood nearby, engaged in casual conversation. "So what kind of movies do you like?" one asked.

  "Science fiction." His companion's response drew a laugh.

  "It's just that's your job. You work for a science company who makes biological weapons."

  "Huh..." The second soldier paused. "Do you know how old the Rabbit thing is?"

  "20? I mean, he was adopted by Noir when he was 15 and that was 5 years ago... He's 20 years old."

  "Nice."

  "Why do you ask?"

  "I think-" The soldier never finished his sentence. A throwing stick whistled through the air, impaling his skull and pinning him to the car door. Alice's scream pierced the night as the Rabbit's claws tore through his companion's face, painting the car window crimson.

  Alice scrambled into the front seat. "Keys..." she muttered, the sound of gunfire and screaming soldiers filling the air. The impaled soldier's body still twitched against the door as she reached through the shattered window, fingers closing around the keyring. "Gotcha!"

  The Rabbit apeared before her, massive hand seizing her hair and yanking her through the window. She hit the ground hard, looking up to see those deadly claws reaching for her – when a gunshot rang out, catching the creature in the shoulder.

  "I would run, ma'am!" A lone soldier stood his ground, firing another shot into the Rabbit's chest. The creature snarled, advancing as the soldier's gun clicked empty. "Oh sh-" The soldier's last words ended in a sickening crack as the Rabbit twisted his head completely around.

  Alice reached the gate, yanking frantically at the chains. Eric appeared on the other side, his face pale. "Eric, help me!"

  "I can't, He's coming!"

  A scream cut through the night. Alice's face hardened. "Fuck." She turned and ran back toward the building.

  Behind her, the Rabbit rose from his grotesque meal, blood dripping from his maw. His breath materialized in the cold air as he roared, dropping to all fours to give chase. Alice reached the ladder to the roof, climbing with desperate speed as the creature pursued.

  At the roof's edge, Alice faced the looming satellite tower. The Rabbit's heavy breathing drew closer. She spun around just in time to dodge his lunge, scrambling onto the tower's metal framework. The creature followed, climbing with inhuman agility.

  At the tower's peak, Alice turned to face her pursuer. The Rabbit lunged, but Alice slashed with the stolen keys, drawing blood. She leaped onto him, driving the keys into his chest. As he roared in pain, she jammed her thumbs into his eyes. The creature's squeal was almost human – a wounded animal's cry.

  He shoved her off, stumbling blind near the edge. Alice's lips curled into a savage smile. "Fuck you!" She charged, her kick sending him over the edge. At the last second, she grabbed his hand, holding him suspended over the drop.

  Memory crashed over her like a wave – young Joseph being dragged away by Leon, his desperate cries echoing through time: "Help!" His eyes had found hers, a young girl standing in the doorway, watching, doing nothing. "Help me!"

  Present-day Alice looked down at the creature who had once been that terrified boy. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and let go.

  Time seemed to slow as he fell, his body twisting in the air before meeting the concrete with a sound that would haunt Alice's dreams. Blood pooled around his broken form as police sirens wailed in the distance, their blue and red lights painting the night. Alice smiled, a complex expression of victory, regret, and finally, release.

  The darkness that followed felt like mercy.

  Paramedics guided Alice into the waiting ambulance, their movements gentle but urgent. Hopeful morning light painted the sky as they drove away from the orphanage, leaving behind the nightmare it contained. The hospital corridors buzzed with activity, medical staff and patients creating a tapestry of normal life that felt surreal after the horror she'd endured.

  In her hospital room, Alice lay surrounded by white sheets and the steady beep of monitors, her injuries carefully bandaged. The door opened, and her father entered carrying a bouquet of flowers, his familiar presence a comfort in the sterile room.

  "Hey," he said softly, settling on the edge of her bed.

  "How are you feeling?"

  "Like crap." The words came out rough, but honest.

  Her father's gentle chuckle filled the room. "You're going to be okay."

  "Let's hope." Alice managed a weak smile.

  "I'll see you later," he said, starting to rise.

  "Is it over?" The question held all her fear, all her hope.

  "It's over." His words carried the weight of a promise.

  After he left, Alice sank back into her pillows, allowing herself to smile. For the first time in what felt like forever, she believed everything might truly be alright. Alice slept peacefully.

  Red and blue lights strobed across the park entrance, casting twisted shadows through the iron gates. Police officers moved methodically through the grounds, their flashlight beams cutting through the darkness like searching fingers. The sound of radio chatter and distant shouted commands echoed through the night air.

  The Rabbit stood motionless before the gates, his silhouette stark against the chaos beyond. The wail of police sirens carried on the wind, growing closer with each passing moment. He remained still, as if absorbing one final image of the place.

  As he turned and walked away, his feet carrying him down the empty street, a police cruiser glided past. The officers inside didn't give him a second glance, their attention focused on the park behind him. The patrol car's lights painted him in alternating crimson and sapphire as it passed, before disappearing around a corner.

  Across town, Alice's father sat bathed in the cold blue glow of the television screen. His tired eyes were fixed on the breaking news report, where footage of the burning building played on loop. Flames licked at the night sky, while the reporter's voice detailed the destruction in measured tones.

  The Rabbit paused in his retreat, turning slowly to face back the way he had come. His expression carried the weight of infinite sadness, his eyes glistening with unspoken emotion. For a long moment, he stood there, taking in the sight of the park one last time - the place that had meant so much, now swarming with law enforcement. Then, with shoulders slightly hunched, he turned away and disappeared into the shadows of the city, leaving behind the only home he had ever known.

  In the dim light of his living room, Alice's father slumped deeper into his armchair, irritation etched across his features. "Fucking stupid shows," he muttered, jabbing at the remote control.

  The television screen flickered, images dissolving into static and digital artifacts. "The hell?" He sat forward, pressing buttons with increasing frustration. "Stupid shit!"

  The screen erupted in a cascade of distorted pixels, and a bone-chilling scream tore through the speakers. Alice's father clapped his hands over his ears, pain etched across his face. Through the cacophony, a voice emerged, broken and inhuman, each word punctuated by waves of electronic distortion:

  "You... Won't... Stop... The... Show..."

  The television went black, plunging the room into sudden silence. Alice's father rose to his feet, muscles tense with apprehension. As he turned, a bottle materialized from the darkness, exploding against his face in a shower of glass and blood.

  He collapsed, hands flying to his lacerated face. "AH!" Pain radiated through his skull as shards of glass bit into his flesh. Staggering to his feet, he raised his fists in a defensive posture, but his arms slowly dropped as terror paralyzed him.

  Behind him stood The Rabbit, its presence filling the room with suffocating dread. Its paw gripped the back of his head with terrible strength, while the other brought the jagged remains of the bottle to rest beneath his jaw.

  "Oh Sh-!" His final words were cut short as The Rabbit drove the broken glass upward with savage force. The bottle tore through flesh and bone, transforming his face into a ruined mask of gore as The Rabbit dragged the makeshift weapon upward, ending his scream forever.

  Darkness claimed the room, broken only by the sound of dripping blood.

  The End