Chris and the ghost girl

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Rabbit creatures” and is based off a character from one of my “25 Christmas tales”. So you can read stories under my folder “25 Christmas tales” if you want to connect with this more. Gacha Club character designs are underneath my forum titled “My character designs<33”. Enjoy!*

Introduction

On Christmas Eve, Chris danced in the snow, catching a glimpse of a ghost girl staring at him.

But one quick glance and she was gone that day.

Only for that day. The girl didn’t cease to haunt Chris…

Chapter One

Chris opened his eyes, the hazy golden light sliding in from the cotton curtains. Apparently they were around since the house was built, but never replaced. Chris’ entire house was a relic, antiquarian items living strong throughout the years.

Chris turned around on his side, to see if it was there.

Yes, there it was, on the pillow next to him. A rabbit skull. Virgil always left rabbit bones for Chris to find.

Chris took the rabbit skull from the pillow and placed it on his nightstand. She collected all of the bones of a rabbit, but what for?

For fun?

Or for something else?

Chapter Two

At the corner of his room, a pale girl around his age with black hair tied into two separate braids stared back at him from a white veil.

Virgil herself, in ethereal, dreamy white.

She reached her hand out towards Chris, her pointer and ring finger missing, dried blood on her sallow skin.

Virgil only appeared for a few times, like an imaginary friend. Never did she extend her hand out for Chris, did she offer to take him with her on an adventure.

Nevertheless, Chris accepted, for if Virgil wanted to open up to him, then who was he to judge?

Chapter Three

After only a few minutes, Chris was in a garden of dew-dropped flowers and weeping willow trees. The sky was a deep velvet blue dotted with faint white sparkles. The wind had a slight, pleasant chill.

Virgil wasn’t with him, either. Instead, there was a white rabbit, dotted with spots of blood.

Off it went, Chris following closely behind.

Chapter Four

When the white rabbit stopped, Chris was staring at Virgil, except she was lying on the ground, breathing haggardly, blood spewing from her black dress, her veil barely concealing her scarred face.

What is going on? What’s with the rabbit? Why is Virgil bleeding?

Virgil got up from the ground and ran further off. Chris and the rabbit followed, Chris wondering how she could move at all from how much she was bleeding.

Chapter Five

Virgil stopped, staring at the window of a white, delicate mansion adorned with pink blooming roses. The rabbit next to Chris became a girl with curly scarlet hair and a cotton yellow gown, her eyes a pale pink just like the roses that grew.

“Her mother did not like creatures like me.” The red-haired girl said, her voice a lilting melody.

Inside the window, a woman had her brown hair tied up into a bun and a wore a long white cloak, washing her bloody hands in the sink.

“What are you?” Chris asked the girl.

“Does it matter?” The girl asked.

Well, did it? She may have been Virgil’s friend, but did it matter what she was? She was still dead, and nothing would change that fact.

“I guess not.” Chris said.

Perhaps soon, it would all fall into place.

Chapter Six

Virgil cracked open and crawled inside, Chris and the girl following her.

“You think that you can just kill me? Mom, I can’t die. Danielle helped me. Can’t you put aside your hate and let this go? I mean, how long are you going to spend your life trying to erase them?” Virgil asked.

The brown-haired woman’s eyes widened. She took hold of Virgil’s wrist and strapped her to a white table, Virgil crying out in pain.

“You’re alive only from evil. Sweetheart, I’m doing this for your own good.” The brown-haired woman seethed, digging a knife into Virgil’s wrist, paying no mind to the girl’s screams.

Chapter Seven

“I have to purge the evil out of you!” The woman screeched as she dig deeper and deeper into Virgil’s skin, where her blood and intestines glistened.

Chris felt bile coming out of his throat and turned away, but the girl-Danielle-turned his face again to the scene.

“What’s the point in showing me all of this? That Virgil died horribly? Is that what this is about? Are you trying to scare me?” Chris asked. He only got fragments of what he was seeing, the bigger picture wasn’t yet concise.

“Is that all you care about? You’re disgusted? That’s a young girl! That’s my friend, and look at what she is being reduced to! Look at what her own mother is doing to her. If only I could go back and change things…but I can’t. I have to show you.” Danielle said sadly.

Virgil screamed, thrashing underneath the binds, just like a mouse would in a glue trap.

Glue traps. They were everywhere in Chris’ house. Dad set them, to get rid of the “rodents”, because the house was older than Chris’ own grandparents, but sometimes…

Sometimes, the mice were still alive. They screamed as the glue ate at their skin and bound them to their doom.

Just like that, Virgil screamed.

Chapter Eight

“Have you ever heard of the Rabbit Demons?” Danielle asked.

“Rabbit Demons? No, not until now. Is that what you are? Is that what Virgil is?” Chris asked.

“Rabbit Demons” sounded like something straight out of a horror movie. They sounded like things that would snatch children away at the dead of night.

Danielle smiled, her blue eyes glimmering sadly.

Without another word, she took Chris’ hand and the world spun in colors.

Chapter Nine

And Chris wasn’t inside the house anymore, he was in the garden. Virgil wasn’t in her veil, only in a crisp pink dress, petting a white rabbit.

The white rabbit twisted, morphed, and grew…

Into a rabbit girl mutant. Danielle, but with fur stitched along her skin and rabbit ears protruding from her head.

“Gah?! What are you?” Virgil asked, eyes wide with shock.

If Danielle wasn’t a full rabbit, then how did Virgil keep giving Chris rabbit bones?

Danielle grinned, some teeth pointed, other teeth human.

“A rabbit demon. I know, I know. I sound evil, but trust me, I’m not. You can call me Danielle.” The rabbit girl said, reaching out a clawed hand for Virgil to shake.

Virgil hesitantly accepted, watching her warily.

“How are you…here?” Virgil asked.

“Magic. I came from magic, but that’s a long story. What’s your name?” Danielle asked.

Somehow, the way she said “magic” made him think of the kind of magic that involved bloodshed and pain, but goodness, why did such a cruel image flicker in his brain?

“V-Virgil.” Virgil stuttered, face red with embarrassment.

“Virgil! What a lovely name! Come now, let’s meet my parents!” Danielle exclaimed happily.

“What?!” Virgil asked, shocked at how sudden Danielle was.

Parents…parents…parents… Why did that leave a sour mark on Chris’ mind?

Chapter Ten

Danielle took Virgil’s hand and out they went, farther to the garden, Chris following them, until they reached a rabbit hole, where two white rabbits crawled out, transforming into rabbit humanoids, one man and one woman.

“Who is this child you bring us?” The woman asked, touching a strand of Virgil’s hair with her claw.

Virgil jerked away from her, the woman had a slightly hurt expression on her face.

“She’s my friend, Virgil!” Danielle said with a smile.

“Virgil…How lovely it is to meet you. You may call me Poppet, and my husband Cupcake.” The woman said softly.

Both had claws, but their claws seemed to hold only kindness within them.

But why did they have completely different names than their daughter?

Chapter Eleven

Poppet and Cupcake didn’t waste a second. They took Virgil’s hands and brought her to a table of sweets and pastries, cookies and candies that she could indulge in.

All of which she tried, never stopping till her eyes went white, till she fell in the arms of Danielle.

Just like a classic tale of a girl running off to a land of many secrets… Chris couldn’t help but think.

Chapter Twelve

Danielle bit into Virgil’s neck, and Chris watched as parts of her body became covered in fur, as she grew pointed teeth, as rabbit ears formed at the top of her head.

A man and a woman flashed in his mind, the man leaving the woman in their house, off into the night.

What was he seeing? A horror movie playing out? It felt too much to be real.

Chapter Thirteen

“What happened? Why do I feel so sick?” Virgil asked, eyes slightly dazed.

“You’re one of us now.” Danielle said softly. Poppet and Cupcake grinned even wider, a rabbit face of sharp teeth.

Virgil tried to run, but Danielle held on.

Chris couldn’t leave, either. No matter how much he wanted to, he was firmly planted in the past.

Would he ever get home?

Chapter Fourteen

Danielle, Poppet, and Cupcake danced in a circle all around Virgil. Her clothes were shifting from casual to black bridal, but she was oh so young.

“You must look like a faded ghost, a ghost memory. Then nothing will harm thee.” The rabbit demons sing-sang.

A sense of nostalgia and sickening enveloped Chris, a feeling like he wanted to romanticize a memory, but the memory wouldn’t let him.

Like glorifying childhood fears.

Chapter Fifteen

“Time to go home, time to go home.” The three of them sang.

Chris and Virgil locked eyes, Virgil with faint tears glistening in her own.

The floor he stood on began to slip and slide, break apart, and fall away….

It all came crashing down, and then, faded away.

Chapter Sixteen

“I can see it in your eyes, I can smell it in you.” The woman said.

Both Chris and Virgil were back at Virgil’s home, her mother standing at the front door, eyes alight with madness.

“Do you not remember what happened to your father?” The woman asked.

“He-he disappeared, didn’t he?” Virgil asked, growing ever so uneasy.

“No. He was killed.” The woman seethed.

Memories of the past flickered in Chris’ mind, but none of them belonged to him.

Chapter Seventeen

The man Chris saw earlier strolled through the woods, picking a basket of wildflowers.

Poppet and Cupcake grinned, sneaking and slipping through the corners.

The man noticed not a thing.

All at once, the rabbit demons pounced on him, ripping through his flesh, relishing in his screams.

Chapter Eighteen

“And now you’re a monster, just like the monsters that killed your father. I’ve studied evil long enough, it’s a good thing I know how to stop it.” Mom said in a tone that sounded somewhat like kindness, but not really. Something was off.

Virgil took a step back. No, they wouldn’t be. They couldn’t be. They loved her, Chris had seen it! They all wanted to be her friend…

Out Virgil ran, Chris reaching out, wishing that she were alive, like him, so that he may comfort her…

Alas, not everyone was so lucky.

Chapter Nineteen

“Danielle? Poppet? Cupcake? Hello? Where are you?” Virgil called out.

No one answered back. It was an empty, green field.

But wouldn’t they answer her? Weren’t they her friends?

Chris balled his fists.

They had lied to her.

Chapter Twenty

“Our hunger had overtaken us, we didn’t mean to.” Poppet sang in a whisp.

Cupcake and Danielle joined her, forming a circle around Virgil.

“Hunger? What do you mean, “hunger”?” Virgil asked, voice rising in fear.

“We ate your father.” Cupcake sang.

As Virgil’s world shattered, so did Chris’.

Chapter Twenty-One

“They didn’t mean to, they were only starving. Please, Virgil. They didn’t know that he was a father.” Danielle pleaded.

But Virgil backed away, looking at the rabbit demon as though she were the most repulsive, horrid thing to exist.

“So? They still ate my father. Ate him alive. How do I know that you won’t do the same to me?” Virgil asked.

“Do you really think that?” Danielle asked, eyes filled with tears.

So the ghost in his house lost everything because of rabbit demons? Because humans were nothing but food to them?

Why people were afraid of ghosts was beyond Chris, for they were just humans who needed help.

Virgil ran off. Already, Chris could feel the world unravel. It wouldn’t be long before he was back in his world, in his time…

Chapter Twenty-Two

And yet, from the blood of the man Poppet and Cupcake killed, there came a small, pale bunny baby, pink eyes wide and fanned by black, curling lashes, like a little doll that could break at any second. It had rogue red hair and a big smile on its lips, like it only believed in what was pure and good.

Cupcake and Poppet stared at the baby, seeming to decide on what would be the best course of action and then…

“You shall be Danielle, little one. Never become us, never have our evil. Be better…be human…” Poppet said shakily, bringing the baby close to her.

Tears cascaded from Poppet’s crimson eyes…

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chris was back in the garden from before, back with the ghostly Virgil.

Virgil took his hand, and, with her teary, bloodstained eyes, said:

“You live in a house of sorrow that runs deep. Monsters that cannot control themselves, humans that fall from grace. You live with the bleeding rabbit. You live with me.”

So that was what she called herself? A rabbit? A thing to be snatched away?

Well, perhaps he could help her pass on in death…

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chris ran back to his house and ran up the stairs, to his bedroom. How it was still early morning baffled him. Did time not pass when he was traveling through the dimensions?

He opened the door to his room and grabbed the rabbit bones, running back down the stairs hurriedly, but lightly, so as not to wake his parents.

The pink dawn of the day made it all feel like a hazy dream, something to cherish deep within.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Once outside, Chris ran off to the garden shed and grabbed a shovel. The air was calm and still, just enough for him to think clearly.

“Chris,” A voice said.

As bright as the sun, the voice belonged not to Virgil, but to Danielle.

Danielle was…alive?

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Chris, those bones that Virgil gave you belonged to her, but there are more. There are my bones and my parents’ bones. Her mother killed us all.” Danielle said gravely.

“All of you?” Chris asked.

Danielle nodded, her pink eyes shining with sorrow.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Danielle faded away, but Chris walked on, with the shovel and bones.

Right outside the garage were three full bunny skeletons, all waiting to be buried.

There wasn’t a single moment to waste. He had to put them to rest…

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chris dug through the Earth, so that he may be able to bury the bunnies away. In the back of his mind, he heard voices that sounded as though they had lived before but died out, from how hazy they sounded.

“Virgil, don’t go.” A woman’s voice pleaded.

“I’m just going to get some herbs. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” A man’s voice said softly.

They were the voices of Virgil’s parents, from what Chris understood by how they felt so closely connected and tied to Virgil, from the cadence and rhythm of their voices, he could sense Virgil’s own fear beneath.

Before he knew it, he was plunged into yet another memory.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Sofia, come down here!” The woman called out. She had waited for her husband to come back all night, and still, he hadn’t returned. It was possible that the rabbit demons got to him, but she didn’t dare let the thought overtake her.

A little girl in a soft blue nightgown with sweeping black hair stared up at the woman with wide, green eyes.

“Yes, Mommy?” Sofia asked.

The woman sighed and pressed her two hands together, as though in a prayer.

“Your father hasn’t yet come back from his trip. There are monsters where we live, Sofia. Rabbit demons. Half rabbits, half people, all mutant. You are not to go near any of them, do you understand?” The woman asked.

Sofia nodded vigorously.

“And until your father comes back, you’re going to be Virgil. That’s your father’s name, honey. It may be a boy’s name, but it suits you well.” The woman said with a smile.

“But that’s not my name! You can’t just change my name!” Sofia argued, fear in her voice.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. It’ll only be for a few days.” The woman dismissed, waving her off.

“But-“

Sofia couldn’t finish her sentence, for the woman had picked her up and carried her on the stairs, the little girl kicking and screaming in protest.

Chapter Thirty

Chris blinked himself out of the memory. Before him were four individual piles of dirt, where Poppet, Cupcake, Danielle, and Sofia were buried. Clouds of faint white smoke rose from the piles of the rabbit family and to the sky, but Sofia stayed, distress in her wandering eyes.

“Why am I still here? I thought that I would finally rest…I thought that…that…”

Sofia broke off into tears, shaking like someone lost in the cold. Chris smiled softly and said:

“Your name isn’t Virgil. It’s Sofia. Your mother wanted to change your name to your father’s after he died. You’re Sofia, and you always will be Sofia.”

Sofia wiped her eyes, recognition glowing in her face.

“Yes, yes, my name is Sofia…I’m Sofia! I remember it all now!” She exclaimed happily.

“Thank you, Chris!” Sofia beamed.

With that, she became white smoke, rising freely to the sky.

Epilogue

Chris didn’t see Sofia dance in the snow anymore, and the house he lived in felt more like a house and less like a attraction.

Did he like the peace and quiet? Yes. Did he sometimes miss the ghost and the demons? Of course, they had given him company.

They’d never truly leave, as long as Chris thought about them…