Chapter Two

My master sighed and stood in front of the gaping hole in the wall. Rubble laid everywhere, and upon seeing this, I began to pick up the massive bricks and laid them in a neat pile. My master said nothing, because this was how it was supposed to be. He mustn’t need to give me orders for me to follow them. I was supposed to exceed his wishes without him having to waste a breath.

“Lord Jayin, are you alright?” A woman’s voice sounded from beyond the broken wall.

She ran in a hurry, and her armour shone from the red sun beaming down on her. Her amber hair was short and complemented her green eyes. She entered through the hole in the wall and walked over to my master. 

“I’ll have my men come over and repair this mess, there’s no need to stress, my lord.” 

The woman snapped her fingers.

  “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”

The woman glanced my way. I was still hauling the rubble to the pile, as I was supposed to. Sweat ran down my face, and I had to remove my shirt. I felt that someone was looking my way, so I turned towards the feeling. I immediately met the gaze of the woman. I had known her since I came to the Underworld. I found her extremely annoying. Her eyes lit up, and she rushed to my side. 

She repeated with joy,“Vita! Vita!” 

“Go away!!” I screamed as I ran away from her. 

“Vita, I heard you wore a dress to the meeting of the lords. Can I see you wear it? Please!” 

The woman grabbed for me, but I dogged every attempt. I was still holding the massive brick, and I quickly made my way to the pile to put it down. 

“Vita!! I’ve got you cornered!” 

The woman went for a hug from behind, yet I predicted this. I leaped up into the air with ease and flipped over the woman. I then kicked her in the back of her knees. She fell to the ground and looked up at me with a sorrowful expression.

“If you wanted to see me wearing a dress, you should have come to the meeting. Yet you were too busy hanging out with your girlfriend.” 

The woman gasped. 

“How did you know?”

The woman grabbed my wrist and lowered her expression. 

“Don’t tell anyone about me and her. You know what would happen.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Audrey, I won’t tell anyone. There’s no need to ask that of me.” 

Audrey grinned and hugged me while I was unprepared. I tried to push her off of me, but it was impossible. She was far too strong.

“Get off of me!!” I begged as I pushed her head away.

Audrey and I continued to fight while Jayin ordered Audrey’s men around. 

The red sun disappeared behind the towering city, and the dark blue sky turned into a void with sprinkles of white scattered everywhere. Jayin sat on his throne once again, only this time he wore a dark expression. Something in my gut told me that I must talk to him, so I took a deep breath and approached him.

“Master, why do you need me?” I spoke with hesitation.

Jayin’s eyes shot arrows through me.

“I thought it was obvious. I need you for your curse.”

             I furrowed my brows as I began to get annoyed.

“Why my curse? There are definitely more creatures with worse curses than mine.”

“If you can find someone with a worse curse than yours, then I will let you go.” Jayin said with a grin.

             I felt as though I had fallen off a mountain. My hands shivered, and my rage grew immensely. 

“So I can leave if I find someone to replace me!? Why did you stop looking for others after you found me?”

Jayin sighed, and I knew that it was time for me to stop talking.

“If I send you to Earth, I will let you search for a curse worse than yours. That is all I am going to say about this matter. Do you want to go or not?”

My heart sank into the earth, and I knew that something did not feel right. The air was so tight that I felt claustrophobic. I slipped my shirt back on and clenched my fists. I was so excited that I wanted to punch another hole in his disgusting temple.

“I want to go, master.” 

Of course I did.

Jayin snapped his finger, and I fell into space.

I blinked, and I was somewhere unfamiliar. Humans wandered the streets, and all of them looked as though they had a place to belong. Everything was different, yet somehow familiar. Strange moving carriages were everywhere. I tried to decipher my surroundings, but the carriages' loud booming noises were too intimidating for me to focus. A ginormous carriage was approaching me, and I stood staring at it. I thought, “Surely they can just stop the horses… Wait, where are the horses?!” 

I put my hand out to stop the incoming carriage, and a hand grabbed me and snatched me out of the road.

“What the fuck are you doing in the middle of the road? You moron!”

I was shocked by this sudden appearance yet annoyed at the same time.

“I had it handled, there is no need to worry, redhead.”

The man who supposedly saved me had wavy hair that was cut just above the shoulder. He wore a navy blue sweatshirt and light brown pants. His eyes were a beautiful bright blue. It almost seemed like he was wearing makeup, yet I could not be certain. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he seemed to be holding back a scream.

“What do you mean you had it handled? That was a semi truck in front of you. What is your hand supposed to do? Were you planning on punching it?!”

I scoffed at his short temper and pulled my hand away from his, and I was about to leave before I saw a bottle of alcohol on the ground. My self-proclaimed saviour also seemed to see this bottle too. I could tell by his expression that he was embarrassed about my findings.

“Is this yours?” I asked as I handed him the bottle.

The man looked flushed as he grabbed it back and stuffed it in his messenger bag. 

“Yes.” He said hesitantly. 

 I watched him hurriedly walk down the bustling streets in utter confusion.

“What a weirdo.” I remarked as I began to look around the city for anyone who had a curse worse than mine.

The red-haired man ran into a convenience store and quickly grabbed a water bottle. As he was handing the money to the cashier, he thought to himself that he should have bought this a long time ago. He knew that one day a situation like this was bound to happen. He exited the store and began walking down the busy street.

“Andrew! Andrew!” Yelled a man with a joyous grin.

The red-haired man jerked his head towards the person calling him. 

“Will?” 

Will caught up to Andrew, and they both began their daily walk to work.

“Andrew, why do you look so suspicious right now? It’s like someone just uncovered your darkest secret.”

Andrew looked at Will with an extremely concerned expression and thought to himself, “How does he know?”

Will’s face glowed with surprise. 

“Wait really? Did someone really discover a deep, dark secret of yours?! Can I know it too?”

“I really don’t know how you can act so hyper at seven in the morning. I swear you're a demon or something.” Andrew said as he rubbed his eyes.

“I can promise you, I am one hundred percent not a demon. I cross my heart and hope to die.” Will assured as he animated the movements of chopping off his head.

Andrew’s eyes lit up as he remembered something important.

“Speaking of demons, I just saved this weird guy who was standing in the middle of the road. He had horns and a tail, I'm assuming they’re body modifiers, right?”

Will grew a smirk, and his eyelids dropped halfway.

“What if he’s actually a demon and he’s gonna eat your brain!?”

Andrew kicked Will in the leg and laughed.

“That’s a zombie, stupid.” Andrew mocked.

Andrew and Will walked into the Diigo Law Firm. They said their goodbyes and walked separate ways to start their day. Andrew walked into his private office and sat down on his black chair. He poured his bottle of whisky into his new water bottle, and all through the day he sipped on it until it was all gone. 

“Andrew, I'm heading out.” Will said after he poked his head into Andrew’s office.

“I’m just about to leave.” Andrew replied as he turned off his computer.

Will walked away, and Andrew swung his messenger bag over his shoulder and walked out of the law firm. The sky was a dusty pink-orange, and the bustling streets finally started to calm. Andrew walked towards his home, which was only a few blocks away from his work. He took a deep sigh and turned to walk into a bar. Upon entering, he saw a depressing scene. Everyone there looked as though they had little to no purpose in life, and drinking was the only thing that mattered to them. Andrew sat at the bar and got the attention of the bartender.

“Regular, please.” Andrew ordered with a nonchalant expression.

The bartender nodded and began to make the drink. As Andrew was addressing his surroundings, he caught the gaze of a crusty old woman. She had extremely long, braided grey hair, and her eye bags were extremely prominent. Andrew touched under his eyes in response to her gastly appearance. The woman coughed and chugged a whole bottle of red wine. As she gulped down her wine, she would not keep her gaze off Andrew, causing him to get grossed out. He quickly turned around and swung down his whisky. He felt a cold, boney hand grab his shoulder, and he stayed frozen, staring down at his cup. 

“What’s wrong, dear? You're so uptight.” The old woman said as she moved her hand down his body.

Andrew quickly asked for another whisky, and he turned fast towards the old lady. 

“Get your hand off me, you crusty old bag. I’m not here to hook up with a pile of ashes.” 

Seeing as though he said that with a calm face, the woman was extremely angered.

“You are extremely rude. You should respect your elders, young child! You will regret insulting me!” Threatened the old woman as she retracted her hand to her side.

The old woman turned to walk away in defeat, or at least that is what he thought. Andrew began to drink his whisky and continued to order them until he fell into a deep slumber. A hand repeatedly tapped Andrew on his shoulder, and he woke up in agony.

“What?” He grumbled.

The bartender sighed with relief that he had finally woken Andrew up.

“The bar is closing, get out.”

Andrew shimmied out the bar’s door and walked into an alleyway with an absent mind. He slouched against the brick wall of the bar and took a long sigh. 

“Finally, you’re alone.” Spoke a raspy voice from behind Andrew.

Andrew sluggishly turned toward the voice. It was the old woman who had spoken to him prior. She approached him with a limp, but he was too drunk to realise the threat she held. The woman grabbed his neck with her wrinkly old hands. Her nails were extremely long, and they dug into his neck. 

“I curse you.” Echoed a crackly voice in Andrew’s ear.

Andrew fell to the ground, and his surroundings grew larger. He tried to stand up, but it was impossible. His balance was off, and his head boomed with pain. He looked around for the old woman, but she had disappeared. 

“If I can’t walk, I'll have to crawl and find someone to take me to the hospital.” Andrew spoke out loud, since it was too painful to think anymore.

Andrew crawled down the streets, and he felt unusually light. Andrew found a building with glass that met the floor, so he crawled towards it to see what was wrong with him.

“What the fuck?!” Andrew cursed loudly upon seeing his appearance. 

His reflection was that of a red bunny. 

“Surely this has to be a mistake! Maybe I'm so drunk that it’s causing me to hallucinate.” 

A man walked down the sidewalk in front of Andrew and stopped in his tracks.

“A red bunny? I’ve never seen one of those before, and a rabbit in Rome? Maybe he escaped from a zoo.” The man said as he stared at Andrew.

Andrew crawled as fast as he could towards the man, but then he realised that if he were a bunny, he could walk like one. So he hopped on all fours and headed towards the man.

“Help me! Help me! I have been turned into a rabbit!” Andrew yelled.

The man hesitantly reached for his phone and dialled a number.

“Oh, thank God, for a second I thought you couldn't understand me. Are you calling for help?” Andrew asked with anticipation.

“Hello, is this the number for the Rescue and Release Zoo of Rome? I found a red rabbit, and I’m wondering if you lost a rabbit recently.” The man spoke to the person on the other side.

Andrew quickly hopped away from the man and ran into a crowd of people.

“Help! Help! I’m trapped in the body of a rabbit!” 

Yet no matter how much he screamed for help, the response was always the same.