The Man with the Bunny Mask

 Photo by Blake Lisk on Unsplash

“I really have to pee, Dad!”

Thomas peeked at his son, 12-year-old Lucas, through the rear-view mirror. It was easy to tell that the kid meant every word he said.

Just when he thought nothing could top getting lost in the dead of night, far away from the nearest civilisation, this happened. How in the world did things end up like this?

The GPS kept telling him to turn right at each turn as if it was pre-programmed to do so. Not to mention he had nothing to rely on but this stupid machine getting on his nerves.

There was no use in bringing a map, either. He wouldn’t be able to read it. His generation was one of the first who got access to the digital world, and by the time he reached adulthood and grew his own family, all the things the generations before him learned by heart, got lost somewhere down the thread of life.

“Dad! I can’t hold it in anymore!”

“Hang on, bud! We’re almost there! I promise!”

“You said that, like, an hour ago! I- I can’t keep it in!”

With bated breath, now visibly more antsy than moments before, Thomas pulled the car to the side of the lane lined with towering trees and thicket and hit the brakes. In the chaos, he forgot to turn off the engine and dragged his son further into the woods.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Hmm! But Dad?”

“What is it?”

His son hesitated. “Remember that time I asked if I could put on that pumpkin costume for Halloween? The one Mum brought?”

“I do. Why do you—”

“Mum didn’t buy it for me.”

“She didn’t?”

Lucas averted his gaze. “The thing is… I- I was going to tell you! I really was! But he told me not to!”

“He?” Thomas couldn’t help but lean forwards upon hearing the distress in his son’s voice. “Who are you talking about?”

“The man with the bunny mask! He said you’d be very angry if I told you about him!”

“The- the man with the bunny mask?”

“Hmm! He said he’d prepare a gift for me if I kept my word! And it worked! Dad, it really worked!”

“Hold on a sec!” he said, no longer able to hide the confusion in his voice. “What- what do you mean? Lucas?” His voice trailed off as he turned around to follow his son’s gaze. “What are you looking at, buddy?”

There was no one there save their car with the headlights on.

“Lucas? Lucas, what are you looking at?”

Lucas’s voice fell to a whisper. “He brought Mum. Look! She’s right there! In front of the car! Dad, can’t you see her? She’s…” His eyes grew narrower. “But why’s Mum crying? She’s supposed to be happy!”

Thomas spun around in place. The harrowing cries came from all directions. But it wasn’t a cry of despair or joy, it was one fraught with horror.

The headlights switched off. Everything plunged into darkness.

“Wait a minute! That’s not Mum! Dad, that’s not Mummy! He lied to me!”

“Lucas? Son? Look at me. That’s right! What… No, don’t cry. There you go… Let’s… let’s calm down and have a chat, okay? Lucas? You gotta answer me.”

“Y- yes, Dad.”

“All right… Good boy. Now, tell me what’s going on. Who’s the man in the bunny mask? What did you… did you promise him?”

“He- he said he’d bring Mum back! But he lied to me, Dad!”

“I know. I know… It’s okay. You didn’t know he’d lie, right?”

The screams grew louder.

“He’s- he’s hurting her, Dad! We need to do something!”

Thomas seized him as he was about to return to the single-lane road plunged into pitch-black darkness.

“We gotta stay here and not make a single sound, okay?”

“But- but—”

“Lucas, promise me. Hmm?”

He nodded. Thomas loosened his grip and placed a kiss on his head before letting go.

“What did you promise the man in the bunny mask, Lucas?”

Lucas leaned in and pulled him by the ear. “He said Mummy’s in pain and that she doesn’t like being cold. If I… if I only did as he told me, he said he’d bring her back to us and that- and that we could become a family again!”

“What did you do, Lucas?”

“I…”

“It’s okay, buddy. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. I certainly did when I was your age. You can tell me…”

“That pumpkin costume. He said Mummy’s cold and needs to wear it. I- I knew you would be angry, so I didn’t tell you!”

“You… went to the graveyard? When? Lucas! When did you go to the graveyard?”

“Are you upset with me?”

Thomas scratched the back of his head, trying to calm his nerves and appear less agitated than he really was.

“No, no… I’m just… surprised.”

“Two days ago. I went there with the man with the bunny mask.”

“You did what?”

“I- I know I shouldn’t have and that you told me not to speak to strangers. But Dad! He’s not a stranger! He said you knew him and that you were good buddies! He even showed me a picture!”

“Picture…?”

Lucas nodded. “He said you’d remember him by his bunny mask!”

Thomas backed away as memories flooded his mind.

It was the 31st of October 2008.

He went trick-or-treating with his friends from school. They were all roughly the same age. Jasper, Lee, and him. The three musketeers. Everyone in their neighbourhood knew they were inseparable.

Lee was calmer in nature than both him and Jasper. He came from a spiritual household and hated religion like a pest. He was also the oldest of them – and the more pessimistic one – who always brought the mood down with his scientific and overly realistic approach to everything.

Jasper, on the other hand, was wild. Literally. Nothing in this world could control or slow him down. It was thanks to him they went on the most absurd of adventures after school. He was an only child and his family lived in the more affluent parts of their neighbourhood.

There was this kid everyone used to bully. Jasper called him ‘The Fatty’. No one knew his real name. Unlike the other kids in their neighbourhood, The Fatty rarely went to school or played outside in the nearby playground.

The Fatty and his family lived in a ramshackle house two blocks from Lee. Whenever they visited Lee to call him outside to play, they would pass by the crumpling building and get the heebie-jeebies.

That night, on Halloween night, Jasper suggested they all dress up as cut-throat pigs and pull a prank on The Fatty. So, they went to the crumpling house and knocked on the just as battered door.

None of them expected The Fatty to join them. The moment Jasper asked if he wanted to come trick or treating with them, he replied ‘yes’ without wasting a second.

The poor thing had no costume to wear and was blatantly self-aware of it as they went from house to house down the neighbourhood. That was why none of the doors they knocked on gave him any sweets.

Lee saw the bunny mask first. It was caked in mud on the pavement and had become soaking wet by the downpour. It was obvious that The Fatty didn’t want to wear the bunny mask, but Jasper kept asking him to wear it. Both Lee and Thomas knew that Jasper wouldn’t let The Fatty off the hook that easily.

To commemorate the fateful night, they even took a picture in front of Lee’s house and printed it out at Jasper’s place. What none of them knew, as The Fatty went around with that hideous mask, was that it would be anything but a plain night.

It was the day after Halloween night.

The school and most other institutions were on break, so everyone was at home. His big sister, Kathy, was the first one who notice that the neighbourhood the news talked about was theirs. She screamed her off telling them to all hurry to the drawing room and watch the news.

His dad worked as a janitor and hadn’t been on a break the entire year. When he left the kitchen, he told Kathy, ‘It’d better be worth my time’. It was.

The Fatty had slaughtered his entire family and then called the police afterwards. They found him wearing the bunny mask still and couldn’t explain why he did what he did. Apparently, after having a chat with Jasper and Lee, Thomas learnt that the poor kid said, ‘The mask made me do it’.

When the authorities brought him to the juvie and locked him up for good, there was but one thing he kept repeating: ‘This is not the end.’

Thomas snapped back to reality. When the memories dispersed, he realised that his son was no longer there. He turned around without knowing why.

The Fatty forced the bunny mask over his son. As they met eyes for the first time in many years, a wolfish grin appeared on The Fatty’s face. It was no longer concealed behind the hideous mask.

As his son drew closer with a knife clutched tight, The Fatty went up in smoke and disappeared. That was when he noticed something. The woman lying on the ground, right in front of the switched-off headlights, it was his wife.

The crooked knife… it was already plunged in crimson blood.

Now it all made sense.

That day, when he went out of town to tend to business in the south, it wasn’t a robber who took her out and made him a widower. Just for how long had his son been in contact with The Fatty? He’d probably never know.

Moreover, what had become of Lee and Jasper? Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t heard from either of them ever since his wife passed away.

What day was it, again? Right… It was Halloween night.

Just like it was today.

The End.