I called out after him, startling Hallie as I did so.
“What’s going on?” she garbled as she woke, blinking forcefully to try and wake up. Her eyes flashed to my forehead, where I could feel a warm trickle inching its way down. I put my hand up to it and then inspected my fingers as the world spun dizzily around me.
“You’re bleeding,” Hallie informed me, looking panicked.
“Yep, I just got that, thanks,” I retorted, waving my bloody fingers at her as I tried to get my bearings.
“What happened?” she asked, impatiently.
I groaned as my head pounded, “Some fucking guy, he’s got one of our packs. He hit me and took off with it.”
Hallie looked around frantically before wailing out, “He’s got mine!”
“Hallie, we can replace it-”
She cut me off as she jumped to her feet, “It’s got Bunny in it!”
The thought sobered my daze immediately. I tried to get to my feet but I was still seeing stars.
“Hallie,” I grabbed at her arm, but missed. She tore off in search of him as I called out her name at her retreating figure. Fucking idiot, she’d get herself killed. I stumbled to my feet and staggered after her, one hand clutching my throbbing head.
“Dammit Hallie, stop!” I called out, blindly trying to follow her. The world was slowly becoming less disorientating and I could make out Hallie ahead of me, so I picked up my pace, hammering my feet into the sidewalk as hard as I could. As my head became clearer, my speed picked up and I soon caught up with her.
“It’s not worth it,” I hissed, grabbing her arms. She spun on the spot, glaring up at me with fire in her eyes.
“Of course you don’t care that Bunny is gone. You never cared about either of them and you don’t care about me,” she bellowed, enraged that I’d dared to stop her.
“He’s got a knife, Hal,” I reminded her, but she just shook with anger.
“He’s got Bunny,” she yelled, pausing between each word for effect. Her face suddenly crumpled. “Bunny is all I’ve got left.”
The sorrow emitted from her deep brown eyes penetrated through my shield of common sense and prodded at my heart. I only had a split second to decide what to do.
“Ah, fuck it,” I relented, before starting off towards Felix’s distant figure.
“Auntie Maz,” Hallie shouted after me. I didn’t stop, just called over my shoulder to her as I sped away.
“Get back in the alley.”

The air began to sting my lungs, and a stitch twinged in my stomach in complaint as I ran as hard as I could. The silhouette I was pursuing was becoming clearer though, so I pushed through the dizzying breathlessness. As I just got close enough to almost touch him, he spun around with a yell, raising the cleaver at me.
“Get back, you crazy bitch!” he roared, sending flecks of spit flying my way.
“Wait,” I pleaded, trying to catch my breath. “Please, I need something from the bag.”
I stretched my hands out towards him and he swiped his weapon at me. My reactions were too slow, and before I could recoil, he’d sliced my palm open. I grabbed my hand with a yelp. He turned to run again, so I called after him.
“I just want the stuffed animal,” I shouted, my voice desperate as I panted with exhaustion. “You can keep everything else, but please, I need the rabbit. You had kids, right? So, you know how it feels to lose them.”
He stopped in his tracks, slowly looking back over his shoulder at me as he considered my request. Hesitantly, he eased the pack from his shoulders.
“Don’t come any closer,” he ordered, brandishing the blade at me. I held my hands up, one of them now dripping red from his attack, and stayed fixed to the spot. He lowered the pack to the floor, frequently looking up to check that I hadn’t moved, and undid the clasp. Bunny wasn’t difficult to find, it was directly on top of everything else that had been shoved in, just waiting to be handed over.
“This?” he asked, pulling the stuffed animal out by its ear and dangling it in front of me.
I swallowed and nodded, “Just that. That’s all I want.”
He tossed it at me and then slipped his arms back into the straps of the backpack.
“You follow me again, I’ll kill you,” he warned, stepping back from me, still holding the cleaver out.
I picked up Bunny from where it had landed at my feet and held it close. After a few steps, he turned his back on me and he jogged away.

As I drew close to the alley way that we’d been hidden in, I could hear soft sobs from behind the dumpster. Hallie looked up as soon as she heard my footsteps, her eyes instantly drawn to the grubby pink rabbit in my hands.
“You got Bunny back,” she exclaimed, her tone a mixture of gratitude and disbelief. I held the teddy out to her, and she eagerly grabbed it from my hands and pulled it in close, inhaling its scent deeply. As I watched her, I felt my already-broken heart break a little more, as though someone was grinding the shattered pieces into the floor with their heel. I swept the feeling away by digging through our remaining possessions for a first aid kit.
Hallie brought her face up from the pink fabric and smiled weakly at me, “Thank you.”
I nodded back at her as I placed a pad against my wound and began winding a bandage around it to hold it in place. She watched me with a look that vaguely resembled concern.
“You’re hurt. He hurt you,” she frowned.
“It’s nothing,” I waved her off, “the most important thing is that we have Bunny back.”
She approached me hesitantly, and knelt down beside me, looking closely at my handiwork.
“You did that for Bunny,” she whispered, “for me…”
“Of course I did. I do care about you, Hal,” I insisted, softly, pulling her close and wrapping my arms around her. For the first time in months, she returned the gesture, hugging me back tightly.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled into me.
“So am I.”

“Time’s up.”
Brian strolled in, his hand already reaching out to the CD player.
“Hey,” I called out, making him stop midway. “Don’t be a party pooper, come join us!”
“I can’t dance,” he shrugged. I rolled my eyes.
“Everyone can dance, Brian. Whether you are good or not is another matter, but we can all do it,” I retorted, stepping over to him and grabbing his hand away from the OFF switch. I dragged him into the centre of the room and began stepping around him while I waved my hands.
“I see what you mean,” he smirked, raising an eyebrow at my moves.
“Don’t be cheeky,” I scolded, slapping at his arm. “Dance, Brian.”
“Come on, Brian,” Hallie joined in, enjoying using his reluctance as a weapon against him.
“I don’t want to,” he protested, pulling a face at our insistence.
“Come on,” I begged, punching my hands into the air.
“Oh god,” he cringed, “got a name for that one?”
“You might have more fun, Brian, if you stopped critiquing and started dancing,” I suggested, moving into a wobbly twirl. He steadied me as I almost lost my balance, chuckling at my lack of skill.
“Are you drunk?” he asked, trying to read the look in my eyes.
I shook my head as I blushed, “I've not had anything. I’m just really bad at dancing.”
He laughed out loud, which only wounded my ego slightly.
“That’s…” he paused, thinking carefully, before giving me an exaggeratedly pitying look. “That’s sad.”
“I swear that you and Jimmy are trying to obliterate my self-confidence between the two of you,” I giggled, kicking my legs out. Brian watched me in amusement as Hallie tugged on his arm, encouraging him. Eventually, and rather unwillingly, he made a little effort to shift his feet back and forth. We teased him mercilessly for his reluctance, and tried to get him to join in more enthusiastically. Just as I was wiggling my hips and waving one of my hands in front of me – a move that Brian was refusing to copy because it was ‘stupid’ – Jimmy’s voice burst across the room.

“I know this one!” he screeched enthusiastically, joining in with the motion.
“Not you as well,” Brian groaned as Jimmy shimmied in front of him.
“Feed the chickens, Brian,” he winked, partly explaining and partly demanding that Brian attempt the move also.
“I’m not doing it,” Brian stated, folding his arms across his chest.
“Come on, Brian,” Jimmy cajoled, still waving his hand about, “the chickens are starving.”
Brian sighed, “Jimmy-”
“Brian,” Jimmy interrupted, cutting him off. “The chickens really need some corn.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Brian muttered under his breath, looking up at the sky as though some divine intervention might save him. He had no such luck though, and Jimmy was quickly becoming far harder to ignore or reason with.
“Brian, start the mower,” Jimmy shrilled, quickly changing position. I followed, as did Hallie, the three of us now synchronising in a circle around Brian.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” Zach’s bemused laughter came from the doorway. He watched for a second and then he grinned. “Ah, you’re mowing the lawn!”
Brian looked at him in disbelief, “Not you as well.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it,” Zach snickered, coming over to join in.
“This must be a joke,” Brian murmured, shaking his head.
Jimmy shifted to karate chopping his hands excitedly, chanting “chop, chop, chop,” as he did so. We all followed suit, causing him to cackle maniacally as Brian made an audible noise of displeasure.
Jimmy led the dancing for the next three songs, thoroughly enjoying both leading his faithful dance troupe and also Brian’s growing irritation. It continued right up until fate took pity on Brian through the form of the album coming to an end.

“Thank fuck for that,” Brian exclaimed in relief, shoving through the small crowd that had been tormenting him and flicking the CD player off. Though he tried to play it cool, there was a hint of a smile on his lips. It was impossible not to enjoy Jimmy, even when he was trying his hardest to be disagreeable. With the attraction of the music gone, people started filtering out. Zach and Brian back to wherever they’d come from, and Hallie up to bed. I hung around, wanting to catch Jimmy alone. Once it was just the two of us left, I approached him.
“I just wanted to thank you,” I began, but he cut me off.
“No need,” he smiled, simply. “You can repay me with more abysmal Bowie renditions on our next drive.”
I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck as a hint of embarrassment left a rosy hue on my cheeks.
“Hallie was so happy,” I smiled, watching him begin to tug at the fairy lights. “More so than I’ve seen in a long time. It was a really nice thing to do for her.”
He paused his activity, and turned to face me, “I did it for you as well, Marina. I’m trying to get you to see...”
He trailed off as he tried to conjure up the words he wanted.
“I want you to realise that the world is still out there for you, for all of us. There’re still smiles to smile, and laughs to laugh. Life doesn’t have to stop for us just because it stopped for other people. You’re allowed to live without them.”
“What if we can’t live without them?” I questioned, looking away to take shelter from his intense gaze.
“You already are,” he shrugged. “And you’ve gotten this far, so you might as well enjoy what you have left.”
I mulled this over for a moment, before giving him a weak smile.
“Goodnight, Jimmy.”
“Night, Marina. Sweet dreams.”

Notes

Tormenting Brian is fun.