In a dark hallway, she faced down this rabbit, whose true identity and capabilities remained a mystery. If this wasn’t danger, then nothing was. And yet she stood against him in full control of her emotions. Perhaps facing him out in the open and so close up had enabled her newfound resolve.
As she backed away, she reached her hand behind her in search of the fire door’s handle. The rabbit tilted his head quizzically. He seemed to be trying to figure out what she was doing.
Her fingers touched cold metal. The fire door, she thought. Her hand quickly found the handle and turned it without a moment’s pause.
The door clicked open.
Hearing the sound, the rabbit shook his head. Letting out an unnatural scream, he sprang into a charging run.
As soon as she had slipped through the open door, she flung it shut. As the door swung closed, the rabbit barreled straight into it. The metal shook, and the impact sent Yukiko flying backward.
The rabbit rebounded, landing in a heap just on the other side. It looked as if he’d been at least mildly concussed.
Yukiko landed hard on her backside. She had to struggle to breathe through the sharp pain, but she managed to scramble to her feet and flee down the stairway.
The rabbit held his hands to his head and arose unsteadily.
Yukiko came running into the staff room shouting unintelligibly. But the dreary, bare concrete room was empty. Everyone had gone up to the roof.
Yukiko’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. The rabbit was still pursuing her, but no one was here to come to her rescue. She turned around to face the door she’d left half-open behind her, and the rabbit suddenly appeared in the gap.
Yukiko jumped and let out a startled peep, then quickly looked around for anything she could use to defend herself.
On the table in the center of the room was a large and heavy glass ashtray. She grabbed it and faced the rabbit, weapon at the ready. The rabbit chuckled. His big, round left eye blinked at her, as did the half-melted right one, its eyelid twitching erratically up and down. It was an utterly repulsive sight.
Yukiko rushed at the rabbit, taking the ashtray in both hands and swinging it hard against the rabbit’s fat head. A startled, muffled grunt emanated from inside the costume, and the rabbit sank down to the floor. Again Yukiko beat the ashtray against the top of the rabbit’s head, and then again and again. She kept on striking him, not even stopping when her arms began to tire and her muscles began to ache.
The costume’s forehead split open, revealing a cotton-like backing. It looked like the rabbit’s gray matter was spilling out, and the sight was oddly chilling.
The rabbit glared up at her and curled up the corners of its buck-toothed mouth into a ghastly smile. Yukiko’s hands froze for a fraction of an instant.
That was all the time the rabbit needed to reach up with his furry hands and grab her around her slender waist. He yanked her down against him. Yukiko flailed with her entire body, but the rabbit’s strength overpowered her, and he drew her into a bear hug.
The idol’s arms were still free. She pushed against his sides and his stomach to try to escape, but he held her firm. The rabbit’s face, sinister and unnerving, was right up next to hers. At such a close range, it seemed absurdly huge. She could see each and every hair, and the melted plastic eye bulged out in gruesome close-up detail, while the foul smell of ammonia and sweat radiated from inside the suit and assaulted her nostrils.
Lifting her in his arms, the rabbit walked to the rear of the staff room and dumped her onto the linoleum floor. The cold tiles pressed into her back.
I have to escape, she thought, pushing herself up from the floor, but the rabbit pinned her in place. The suit’s stench was overwhelming and nearly gagged her.
The rabbit lay down beside Yukiko, as if they were cuddling. He pulled her against his chest. Her eyes were now level with the rabbit’s mouth. In the back of that gaping maw, two small points glistened. She looked at those points—not with any purpose, but because there was nowhere else for her to look. Her eyesight wasn’t perfect, and at first, she couldn’t tell what she was seeing. Then, after a moment, she thought she might know what they were.
They were the eyes of the man inside the costume. That had to be it. They were the eyes of the unknown man who had relentlessly stalked and tormented her. They were staring at her with ominous excitement.
Yukiko saw the obsession in those eyes, and it gave her goosebumps.
The rabbit tightened his arm around her, and with his free hand—an oversized, soft hand—he caressed her long hair.
“Yu…ki…ko…”
His hoarse voice stabbed into her ears. Sticky breath fell across her face. As if that weren’t unsettling enough, the rabbit pressed his giant face against hers, and a warm, sluglike thing popped out from its mouth.
Then, it licked across her face.
It was his tongue, wet and slimy, but also with an animal’s rough, sandpapery texture. The urge to vomit filled her chest, and she pushed at the rabbit’s face with both hands.
“Stop it!” she shouted. “Please, stop!”
The rabbit redoubled the strength of his grasp. With his scratchy voice, he coaxed her, “Yukiko… I love you. I don’t want anyone else to have you.”
Even without all that was happening to her, the freak’s confession of love would have been enough to repulse her to her core.
The rabbit’s hand began feeling at her chest, squeezing her smallish breasts like he knew what he was doing. He let out a deep breath in ecstasy, and his fingers moved down between her legs. Yukiko’s body began to tremble, but certainly not from pleasure. The sheer horror of it all sent shivers cascading through her nervous system.
Desperately seeking to escape from this hell, Yukiko flailed her arms and legs. But the rabbit’s oversized body was all around her, and it would have taken a lot more than that to break free.
The rabbit hugged his arms around her and slithered his tongue across her face. “I love you so much,” he whispered with his foul breath. “So, so much.”
Yukiko managed to wrestle her right arm free. “I don’t want to be loved by someone like you!” she shouted.