"Chapter 1"

"Chapter 1" was published on February 17th 2021.

### Description

Chapter 1 is the first chapter of the stories series. It follows Bunny as he runs around and does stuff.

CW/TW: Mention of murder, swearing, weapons, anger and screaming.

### Original

Here is the link to the original story, although it has been copy-and-pasted onto here for simplicity and nothing has been changed. Please note that in this chapter, there is the usage of various fonts which do not copy over to this website. For optimal story-telling (and for a major plot point to make sense) please read the story in it's original format, as it is linked here.

### The Story

*Date: February 2021*

*Time: Early evening, present*

*Place: The Mansion*

*...*

*Chapter 1*

*~~~*

Everyone was somewhere in the house, but where exactly was was out of my knowledge. The only person I knew the whereabouts of was Annie, but that was only because we were sitting together on my bed in my bedroom watching an anime that she suggested we watch. Annie was noisily munching on some popcorn that strongly radiated the smell of dill pickle seasoning and butter. She was propped up on her elbows with the metal bowl tucked against her chest with her head half-way into the bowl where she was just eating the popcorn like a horse with it’s feeder. Her eyes were glued onto the television hanging on the wall at the end of the bed as she swung her feet around lazily. She wasn’t wearing shoes, as I had made it quite apparent that there was a no shoes on the bed policy, but she was wearing socks to cover her feet- unlike me- so  I didn’t need to worry about anything. Her coily bangs kept falling into her eyes, so she kept having to adjust and tuck her hair back behind her ear. I sat there and watched her accidently eat some of her hair, then promptly spit it back out in disgust. I laughed.

“What’s so funny, huh? If you had longer hair, you’d end up eating it too y’know,” she said, playfully aggravated. I casually turned my head to draw attention to my ponytail, and she scoffed. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Now take it out of your man bun and eat it,” she said, throwing a handful of popcorn at me.

“Hah, yeah, no thanks. And it’s not a man bun- it’s a sophisticated choice of fashion,” I said, “but it’s not like you’d know anything about that sweetheart,” I said with a wink. Annie gasped and launched herself at me, knocking me off the bed and onto the floor. She loomed over me, pining me to the ground beneath her. She leaned in close to my face and whispered.

“You take that back you mother-fucking country-ass son-of-a-bitch Bonanno-family dropout, you got that?” I widened my mouth in surprise, and in fake anger.

“How dare you say I have a country ass! I was born in the city, raised in the city, and died in the city, *thank you very much*,” I replied snarkily.

“I like how that’s the part you comment on,” she laughed, standing up and lending me a hand to pull me up. She dusted off her cerulean mini dress and picked up my red trench coat off of the ground and draped it over her shoulders once more. She resumed her place on my bed and zoned out as she continued watching the television. I glanced at myself in the little mirror I kept beside my bed and brushed my white and silver hair out of my eyes and fixed my low ponytail. I had been too lazy to get a haircut since January, so my hair had grown out quite a fair bit. Annie and Rose said it looked good on me, so I kept it and decided to dye my hair snow white with the addition of silver streaks throughout it, and I think that I looked pretty hot so I left my hair like this. I sat back down beside Annie and stole some of her popcorn.

“Yeah well, the rest of it is pretty much true. Except the Bonanno dropout thing- I was never a part of their shit and besides, I didn’t drop out of my own group either.” I shrugged.

“Whatever. You ran away like a pussy so that’s all that counts. You dropped out and ran away like the little baby you are,” Annie stuck her tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah right, maybe if you were there, you’d understand my situation.”

“I’d need to have been born first though. You’d died before I’d even been born you boomer,” Annie said smiling.

“I’m older than a boomer you insolent ignoramus. I’m from the lost generation thank you very much,” I said in retaliation.

“Dinosaur,” she said. The conversation died off there as her focus completely returned to the show, and we continued watching it in silence. After a while, I stood up and stretched, walking towards my bedroom door. “Where’re you going?” She asked.

“Washroom. I’ll be back,” I smiled.

“Take a weapon just to be safe. I mean, if you care, that is.” Annie said, eyes still glued to the television. I looked up at the walls of my bedroom. Every single inch of my walls were covered in weapons from knives and daggers to guns of all types. I had maces and ball & chains, survival knives and pistols, chains and ropes and machine guns, and every single type of offensive weapon that’s ever been created since the early 20th century. I guess you could say that I went a little overboard, but then again, you gotta have lots of supplies when you’re the head of a large famous mafia gang. Or, I was when I was alive. I grabbed one of the silver daggers by the door and left the room, toying with the dagger in my hands as I walked.

I couldn’t remember much about my past life, but from what I did know wasn’t that surprising. Apparently, I was the head of a large mafia group that existed in the early to mid 1900’s, and it was thrilling. I can’t remember much else, except the fact that I was caught one day and brought to court where I was sentenced to death, but everything else is a complete blank to me. It seems normal, but when you really dig into it, it seems just a little strange that everyone here can’t remember what their past lives were like. Well, some of us at least. Corbin and Biocide seem to remember, so that’s something good, but nobody else remembers and it’s a little suspicious to be honest. We’ve actually discussed this topic in some of our old meetings, but nobody could really come up with any theories as to what might be the cause of this. S.P. always suggested that maybe it’s a side effect of being ethereal, but Cyrus always dismissed it like it was nothing. The other most popular idea was brought up by Biocide that maybe there’s something of a traitor among the group who was the cause of everyone’s amnesia, but Cyrus never liked that idea either. Cyrus never liked any of our ideas, so I always had a doubt in my mind that maybe they’re the traitor or something, but I never brought it up because I don’t think that Cyrus would do anything like that to us. I sighed and stuffed the dagger into my jacket pocket as I entered the washroom and did my stuff. I fixed my ponytail and popped a mint into my mouth, and left the room. However, I was surprised to find someone standing outside the bathroom waiting for me.

“Oh! Uh, hiya Biocide. Whatcha’ doin’ here? Need the washroom? It’s free now, if you need,” I motioned behind me. Biocide’s light brown eyes were glazed over and she wore a frown on her face. Her long black hair was pulled into two tight braids that hung down on her chest, except for her one piece of bangs that curled over her right eye. She wore a mint color bra top with balloon sleeves, and a black mini skirt with an ankle-length see-through fabric that hung over it. She also wore black heeled sneakers and a few metallic bracelets on her wrists, along with a black choker around her neck. She was leaning up against the guard rail for the staircase and staring right through me as if I didn’t exist. These days, Biocide never smiled and was always quite . . . dull? That’s not the right word, but she was acting pretty much the exact opposite of how she was before the whole Snap thing. To be fair, she was being hunted by Cyrin because of her past relationship with S.P., but either way, it’s done a number to her. I rubbed the back of my neck and looked around, obviously uncomfortable in the awkward silence that stood between the both of us. Biocide shifted her body and I caught a glimpse of the black notebook she was holding behind her. “What’s that?” I asked, craning my neck to try and see it again.

Biocide didn’t respond to me, only hid the book from me once again as she turned and left. I let out a sigh of relief as I returned to my room and laid down beside Annie, who was currently exiting out of her show and turned her attention towards me.

“What’s the matter? You look exhausted,” she said.

“I ran into Biocide on the way back. She’s just as creepy as ever,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“I’m telling you, the poor girl is traumatized from everything. Being hunted isn’t exactly child’s play y’know,” she said.

“I feel like it’s more though. It’s just . . . the look in her eyes is . . . well it’s not the look of someone with ptsd after all. It’s something different but . . . I just can’t pin it.” I sat up and returned the dagger to its rightful place on the wall.

“Bunny, please. I know that if there is something wrong with her, then it’s just trauma. How else could you explain how she seemingly just like . . . I dunno . . . completely switched personalities? If she had some sort of multiple personality thing going on, I’m sure that we’d all know it by now,” Annie chirped.

“Maybe but . . . agh . . . it’s just confusing, that’s all,” I sighed.

“Well just, take a break. Stop thinking about it for a while, okay? Give it a rest and let it go. It’ll only bother you more if you dwell on it,” she smiled and rested her hand on my shoulder. I placed my hand on hers and smiled. “I need to go do other things now though, so could you walk me over to the kitchen?”

“Why the kitchen?”

“Oh, Rose promised to teach me how to crochet so we’re meeting up in the kitchen before we go elsewhere.”

“I want you to take a knife though, okay? Stay safe.”

“Believe me, I’ve died more times by Cyrin’s hands than I’d have lives if I was a cat. I’m not afraid of her, and I’ll just respawn again anyways.”

“None of us know how many times you can die here, so what if she kills you again and that’s it? What would you do if you didn’t respawn?” I asked.

“Well, then I’d expect y’all to put up a grave in the backyard for me.” Annie laughed and shrugged, choosing a knife and tucking it away in her trench coat pocket. “Believe me, I’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about me.” Annie walked over to me and placed a gentle hand on my cheek. “Besides, worry doesn’t look good on you.”

“Good to know, but still. Keep an eye out for Cyrin, okay?” I said, frowning. Annie sighed.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll watch out for the murderous yandere, yadda yadda. You don’t need to go over this a hundred times. Now let’s go, I don’t want to keep Rose waiting.” With that, Annie and I left my room and headed downstairs to the kitchen where Rose and Corbin sat drinking tea. Annie greeted Corbin with a half smile and hugged Rose, and I gave Rose a quick kiss and nodded in Corbin’s direction. I wasn’t the biggest fan of him, as he was always whining about some pretend monster under his bed or the scary shadow demons coming to get him, but it’s not like I couldn’t get along with him if I needed to.

“It’s lovely seeing the both of you here together. Corbin and I were just talking about how lovely it would be if we could get out of here and go to the beach for a day off, or something of a similar manner,” Rose smiled.

“I-It’s not l-like it’s important or an-anything. It’s just an i-idea, that’s all.” Corbin stuttered and fiddled with his half empty tea cup.

“It sounds awesome dude. We totes gotta do it once everything’s settled down,” Annie said enthusiastically. Corbin smiled and took a sip of his tea.

“Anyways, let’s do this. See ya later Bunny, Corbin.” Annie said, nodding towards the both of us as she left the room with Rose, their voices softly echoing as they walked away. Corbin and I stood around for a few seconds in yet another awkward silence.

“Y-You can leave. I-I’m just going to c-clean up and then leave,” he said. I nodded and left the kitchen, leaving Corbin alone to clean up the teacups and silverware for his and Rose’s daily tea drinking session. I wandered the halls of the first floor for a little while, quietly whistling a tune as I walked, when suddenly I noticed something laying on the top of the coffee table in the frontwards of the living room. I walked over to it and picked it up, then sat down on the couch. It was a small black leather notebook with a small pink ribbon hanging out of it, acting as a bookmark. It looked like the book that Biocide was carrying earlier, so I flipped it open to the page that was bookmarked and began reading what was written there. It was in fancy cursive, so it was a little hard to decipher, but I managed to do it anyway.

*“Today I decided to let Rose go from her exile prison. Everyone was surprised when she returned, but I don’t think anyone other than Bunny actually remembered who she was. I don’t blame them, as that was the plan from the beginning. Everyone was ecstatic and I believe that this excitement will last a little while longer, but then it’ll very quickly fade. They’ll get used to her once again and that’s that. Today at dinner though, SP remarked that it, quote, ‘ Would be cool if there were more people who eventually came around that none of us remembered.’ Nobody would remember it of course, but what will their excitement be when they learn of the other three people that are locked away right now, waiting to be released at some point in time? Will they be overjoyed, or will it cause nothing but chaos? I’m thinking that if it will end in total chaos, I might release them at the end of this month, or possibly next month. First, I’ll have to see how everything goes over with the reintroduction of Rose, then I’ll make my call. To be honest though, this HQ is too small to fit another three people within it in a comfortable living arrangement, so I’ll see if we get a bigger house or something first. Rose was discussing it with Cyrus earlier today, so we may or may not be getting a new house soon, like a mansion or something. That’d be neat.”*

I looked up from the book and took a moment to regain my posture. There are . . . others? Others that have been locked away? I refused to believe it. There’s no way that there are more people, otherwise we’d have memories of them existing, right? I looked back down at the journal and read the next page.

 *“Everyone here is a complete and total utter idiot. The smoke alarm went off today because Cyrin accidently set a bunch of pasta on fire when she tried to make lunch, and then Bunny cursed and swore as he struggled to turn off the alarm for the next fifteen minutes. No wonder the creator trusts me with all this information, because everyone else is way too incompetent to actually be trusted. Bunny is too hot headed, and Cyrin wouldn’t care enough and would simply forget this very important information. Annie can’t keep a secret if her life depended on it, and SP is the same way and would tell everyone right away. Rose is kind of an airhead, and Corbin would probably have a mental breakdown if he learned all of this kind of stuff. Cyrus is pretty much the only eligible one to entrust with this, but they’re already too suspicious as it is, and Caelan is just … not an option. This leaves only me, the only one of whom the creator can leave all the secrets of our pasts and our memories. Sometimes I wonder why I’m stuck with this group of idiots.”*

I couldn’t believe what I was reading with my own two eyes. Adding up the fact that Biocide is the only who wasn’t mentioned in that list, plus the fact that I saw her holding this book earlier points to the fact that this is her book and that she wrote all of this. But if she wrote it, then what does that mean for the info in here? Was she lying and is this a decoy book with fake information, or is this real and all that is true? If there were truly more people that existed in our group, then why don’t I remember it? Why don’t I remember them? Now that I think back on it though, I don’t think I even remembered that Rose ever existed back before she reappeared, so would it be too far of a stretch to think that there’s more people in our group? I closed the book and stood up, ready to run off and find someone to talk to who could understand this, but instead, I ran into the one person I really didn’t want to see right now.

“Be careful,” she said, looming over me. Biocide’s face was blank and dead as usual, and her hands were tucked behind her back. “Knowledge is dangerous, after all.”

“Y-You . . .” I said, stepping back. A million thoughts raced through my head at once.

“I know what you’re thinking Bunny. Yes, everything in there was written by me. Yes, it’s all real too. Ask the creator if you want, and tell them that I sent you. They won’t believe you, so tell them that the password is **2754**, got it?” Biocide held out her hand in front of her. “Now, can I have my journal back? There’s some things that you don’t need to be reading about and learning quite yet. You’re not ready to learn everything.”

“H-How? W-Why?” I stammered out half questions, unable to form full sentences due to my shock. Biocide stepped forwards and towered over me. I felt . . . scared and frightened. Overpowered and defenceless. I hated this feeling.

“Stop with your useless questions Bunny. Everything will be answered in due time, I promise,” she said, her face hovering in front of mine. I was dazed and dizzy, and nothing made sense as of right now. Biocide took the journal from my hand and left the room, and I collapsed to the floor. I didn’t blackout or anything, but I did feel like I might puke. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate surprise twists that come out of nowhere and make no sense? No? Well I do.

I stayed there on the floor of the living room for a while longer, trying to stabilize myself and make sense of everything in my head. I breathed in and out, listening to the quiet ticking of the seconds passing from the clock that hung on the wall beside me. Everything was silent until I realized I was screaming. I flipped the coffee table and tore up some of the pillows that sat on the couch, and I continued destroying the living room as my anger took over. I heard fast footsteps coming down the stairs and then suddenly I felt someone’s arms around my body, pinning my arms to my sides. I looked down and saw Annie with that fearful but determined look in her eyes. I continued screaming and thrashing as Annie continued to tell me to calm down and to take a breather. Eventually I calmed down enough that Annie could get go, and I collapsed to the floor once again.

“Bunny?! What happened?” She asked, helping me off the floor and onto the torn-up couch. I took a moment to regain my thoughts and to calm down.

“Biocide, she . . .” I started

“Again with Biocide? Didn’t I tell you to leave alone?” Annie said.

“SHUT UP!” I growled, and Annie leaned back.

“Bunny . . .”

“Look, Biocide is up to something and I know it. I found her diary and read it-”

“You read her diary?” Annie asked.

“Shut the fuck up,” I growled again.

“Okay. Sorry.”

“Biocide has this diary. She wrote stuff in there. She’s working with the creator, whoever that is, and I think she’s the reason why we all have amnesia and can’t remember our lives.”

“So?” Annie questioned.

“We’re not the only ones. There’s more of us that she's hiding. More of . . . them.”