—The Rabid Incident—

Ch.1 Part 1

༺✄༻JULES༺✄༻

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The sky wasn't just grey.

It was actively out to get me.

The clouds had that bruised, swollen look of someone picking a fight, the wind whipped hard enough to sting my cheeks and mud clung to everything with the desperation of an ex who never quite got the hint. 

Even the air felt hostile, like London itself was leaning down to mutter, 'You're not cut out for this, bunny boy.'

And me? I was sprinting through it all, my lungs burning, boots sliding, dodging puddles as if they were landmines. Every step was a near-death experience; one slip sent me skidding sideways and I swore so loud, I nearly traumatised a bunch of pigeons. With some divine intervention, I managed not to face-plant the ground...Thank fuck.

Somewhere to my left, something giggled.

Ew! I don’t even want to know what lurks in this forest so I didn't look. 

And finally, ahead of me, the problem bolted between the moving trees.

A rabbit.

Not just any rabbit, obviously. That would be too easy.

Of course not, why would I be so lucky on the weekend? This one was a beefy, emotionally unstable Angora with the self-preservation instincts of a frat boy three Red Bulls deep.

“Get back here, you sentient lint trap!”

I bellowed, my dignity long drowned in a puddle behind me. The rabbit bolted faster, ears back, a flash of chaotic fluff disappearing between trees. I muttered threats that would get me blacklisted from every petting zoo in Britain, but desperation kept my legs moving.

It darted left. The trees leaned aside for it without hesitation, branches parting as though the forest had quietly decided that the rabbit deserved safe passage.

They did not extend me the same courtesy.

The harsh wind made branches shift just enough to shoulder-check me as I passed.

“Unbelievable!” I snapped, ducking a low branch that had definitely not been there a second ago.

Everything is trying to kill me today.

EVERYTHING!

Then lightning cracked overhead. I flinched, my left foot betrayed me, the right one said, 'same girl', and down I went. Mud erupted around me like confetti at the world's saddest parade. Somehow, through sheer spite, I lunged forward at the last second and tackled the furry fugitive, sliding across the muck, with him clutched in my arms like some war hero saving a fallen comrade.

“Got you, you overgrown hairball!” I gasped, clutching the black fluff to my chest. 

“What now, huh? Gonna start a tiny monarchy? Crown yourself king of the undergrowth? My hand is literally shaking.” 

I let out a breath and for a moment, looked back down at my shaky hand.

The bandages were still there. Wrapped tight, careful, almost ceremonial. Beneath them, there was something wrong. Something that didn’t belong to me anymore, if it ever truly had.

And apparently I haven’t had enough humiliation for one evening, because just as I tried to stand my boot slipped again and I went face-first into the mud so hard I inhaled half a kilo of earth. 

The air pressure shifted before a roar ripped through it.

An angry mechanical scream tore through the trees.

I shoved myself upright, dirt dripping down my chin, and squinted into the rain and I…froze.

A flaming blue dirt bike burst through the trees like it had been chased out of another reality. The forest recoiled around it, branches snapping back, shadows stretching thin to avoid it. Rain bent away from the engine in sharp, unnatural lines.

"You've got to be shitting me..."

The words caught in my throat.

It wasn’t slowing down.

It kept coming.

I tried to get up but my knees betrayed me.

And I was still in its path. 

Frozen.

The bike swerved at the last possible second, missing me by inches, before skidding sideways and crashing in a glorious spray of mud and metal. The impact echoed down the trail, then silence fell. The rabbit sat beside me, perfectly still. Together we looked like two unconvincing crime-scene chalk outlines waiting for a detective to sigh.

"...Did we just kill someone?" 

Dragging myself upright like a hungover raccoon crawling out of a nightclub bin, I staggered toward the wreckage. The rider was sprawled in the mud, limbs tangled with metal, helmet tilted at a crooked angle. My stomach dropped.

Oh God. Oh my FRIKING God. I'd just caused a motorbike homicide!

This was it.

This was my...villain origin story.

"Hey...?" I called, because obviously that's how you check if someone's alive.

No response.

My panic spiked. In a burst of medical brilliance, I found a stick and poked the body. Standard NHS-approved protocol. 

Still nothing.

Steam curled off him in thin, restless threads. Not from the bike. Not from the ground.

From him.

The closer I got, the worse it felt. Heat pressed against my face, sharp and dry, as if he were burning from the inside out.

I stopped a step too close and flinched.

"Oi! Move for God's sake..."

I crouched down, hands trembling, and tugged at the helmet. It came off with a wet schlurp sound that I'm fairly sure will haunt my nightmares forever. Ew.

Surprised by my own shock, my eyes widened.

There he was...

No.

No no no no no.

Fuck, shit, fuck!

No. Absolutely not. It's not happening.

Reality hit me. There’s a person. It wasn’t my imagination. There’s a REAL person under this helmet and I think I killed them.

I slowly lean in to check if he’s breathing, meanwhile forgetting to breathe myself. I let out a long relieved sigh as I can feel air coming out his nostrils. I don’t recognise him. I have never seen this man in my life. What the fuck is he doing in a place like Gora Park? I didn’t think the bike club or whatever they call it would still receive new people.

And yet there he is. Black hair plastered to his forehead, dark smudges beneath his eyes like sleep took one look at him and filed for divorce. The sort of face that belongs in an old haunted portrait glaring at people from the end of a corridor. Honestly, he looks like the Addams Family adopted him and then decided he was a bit much even for them. He has some sharp features, making him look far too dramatic for someone who nearly ate a tree and is still tangled up in his dirt bike. Okay...maybe not too dramatic. I mean...he did crash because of me.

"Oh, for crying out loud" I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose. 

"Why...Why now. Why like this?!" 

I whined to the rain, to the rabbit, to any god watching.

As if to spite me further, his eyes fluttered open. A muted blue. Sea glass caught beneath moonlight. Unfocused at first, drifting slowly towards me. I lean on my arm towards him to check if he's really conscious. I feel like every shadow in the forest is leaning down to witness this with me. 

For a heartbeat he looked directly at me and lightning cracked behind us, flashing in his gaze and just for a second, I caught my own reflection staring back. My chest twisted like a wrung-out rag.

His eyelids dropped shut again.

I stared at him. At the bike. At the damned rabbit who had the audacity to start grooming itself. 

What did I get myself involved in?

Nothing good ever happens in Gora Park.

"FUCK."

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