Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

I stared at the rabbit on the counter. My entire body felt like it had turned to stone, from my muscles that refused to move, to the crushing stillness in my chest.

"Hugo?" My trembling voice lifted an octave.

Please let this be a joke. Any moment, the real Hugo would pop out of his hiding place, laugh about how thoroughly he'd fooled me, and then everything would be fine.

I scanned the kitchen and peeked over the other side of the counter.

My heart sank into the deep dark recess of my gut.

He wasn't here.

Well, Hugo the hot firefighter wasn't here. Hugo the chocolate-furred rabbit was right in front of me twitching his furry little nose and watching me with the same level of fear I felt.

Unwilling to accept the truth standing right in front of me, I yelled, "Hugo!"

Maybe Hugo had been stashing this rabbit in the fork drawer, and now Hugo was hiding in the bathroom, waiting to jump out and surprise me. He didn't seem like the type to do things like that, but I couldn't accept the alternative.

I took two steps toward the living room then stopped.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the bunny hopping after me to the edge of the counter.

Were rabbits smart enough to know they shouldn't hop off ledges?

Memories flashed through my head, the confusion I'd felt when I collapsed to the ground in a pile of clothes, and then the blackout after. Dream me had turned into a rabbit and completely lost all conscious thought right after.

Dreams weren't reliable sources of information. Still, Rabbit Hugo, or more likely Hugo's pet rabbit, could break his little furry neck. An untimely demise for either was completely unacceptable. No way could I leave him there.

I snatched the rabbit off the counter. His fur was ridiculously soft. His tiny body trembled in my hands, the poor thing.

"It's all right," I told him. "We'll find your owner. Then you can go back to eating clovers and snuggling in your hay bed safe and sound."

When I'd transformed in my dream, my clothes had pooled around me. There weren't any clothes on the counter now. Obviously the similarity between my fake experience before and what was happening now was just a coincidence. Otherwise there would definitely be….

As I circled the counter, I spotted a pile of Hugo's clothes on the floor.

I lifted the bunny up to get a better look. His dark brown fur was similar in color to Hugo's hair. Did that mean something? His eyes were black beads filled with terror, which was either because he was scared that he was a rabbit or scared that a giant human was forcing eye contact. His little nose twitched, tickling my wrist with his whiskers.

I wasn't sure what exactly I expected to see—some sort of unquestionable proof of the truth, I guessed. But I couldn't find anything that told me if this was really Hugo or not.

I called out one last desperate plea. "Hugo?"

My voice sounded pretty pathetic. It was pathetic to hope that Hugo wasn't this rabbit. Which meant by default, it was pathetic to believe I'd imagined the same thing happening to me.

Was it something in the air that had caused this? Was it the carrot cookies? Or worse…my stomach dropped…was it my fault?

If I'd really turned into a rabbit, then I kissed Hugo and he turned into one too, maybe I was to blame. I'd given him some super screwed up strain of bunny herpes— berpes. If that wasn't the universe delivering a sign that I wasn't meant to find romantic love, I didn't know what was.

"Mama?" Ivy stomped into Hugo's kitchen.

I whipped around and smiled despite the emotional tornado tearing through my insides.

"Bunbuns!" Ivy was on me in a second, petting Hugo's soft back. Then she squealed in delight. "You got me my very own bunny, Mama?"

It was only halfway said in question. I opened my mouth to respond.

Summer and Citra followed Ivy into the kitchen.

"Hi," I said.

"Everything okay?" Summer asked, likely picking up on my panicked confusion.

"We heard you yelling," Citra said. "From next door."

My smile widened involuntarily. "Uh-huh."

Citra frowned.

Ivy beamed up at me. "Mama got me my very own Bunbuns."

I shook my head and croaked, "That's not what's happening right now."

"Where's Hugo?" Summer asked.

My gaze flicked down to the rabbit in my arms.

It was like the story of the princess and the frog. Except instead of me being a princess who transformed the prince back to his rightful shape, my kiss cursed the prince.

Reading my expression, Citra whispered, "No freaking way."

"What?" Summer looked from me to Citra and back again. "I'm missing something."

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and lifted the bunny ever so slightly. "I think…this is Hugo."

Summer laughed. "You're funny. I like that. But this game is weird."

"It's not a game," I said.

"Okay, I believe you," she said in a way that made it clear she did not believe me.

If I was her, I wouldn't believe me either. I'd lived what happened, and I wasn't sure I believed it. It was too weird to be true.

"Let's head back out, girls," Summer said, casting me one last skeptical glance.

I listened to the door click shut behind them, and I didn't say a word. I took a seat on the floor. Rabbit Hugo couldn't break his neck down here.

I set him on top of his clothes so when he turned back into a man, a naked man, he'd have his cover in arm's reach.

Now there was nothing to do but wait.

He'd turn back any moment and everything would be fine. I mean, how long could it take? I should have asked the girls. Maybe Citra would remember how long it took me. Better though that they were outside with Summer so when Hugo inevitably did turn back into a naked man, they wouldn't be here to witness that.

"Change back now, okay?" I told Hugo.

He nibbled at the seam of his shirt.

"Maybe don't do that." I gently pulled the fabric from between his teeth.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out, grateful for the distraction. Until I saw who was calling—Davey.

I'd been putting my brother off for forever. I could keep doing the same, or I could talk to him while I waited for Hugo to turn back.

I answered. "Hey, Davey."

"Daisy," he said in his new and weirdly enthusiastic way. "So glad to finally reach you."

"Life's been busy lately," I said, which was the truth, even if it's not why I hadn't answered his calls.

"I miss you," he said.

Those words coming out of his mouth carried a shiver up my spine. That was not a thing Davey would ever say to me, at least not the Davey I knew.

"I miss you, too," I said, meaning it in a different way than he did. I missed the version of my brother that never returned after he disappeared.

"What's new? How's life?" he asked.

How's life? I let out a bitter laugh.

"That doesn't sound good," he said. "You should come visit. Bring the girls for a day trip."

"I can't," I said.

He waited a moment for me to elaborate.

I took a breath. I was frazzled. I was too tired to lie. He wouldn't believe the truth anyway, so why not tell him? "I turned into a rabbit. Worse, I turned someone else into one, too."

I expected him to react like Summer had. I expected him to laugh and tell me what a silly kidder I was. Instead, I heard rustling like he was hurrying off somewhere.

"I'm going to put you on speaker in a minute, okay?" he said in a suddenly serious tone.

"Wait, no, don't do that, Davey." I rubbed a hand over my eyes.

More rustling sounds carried over the line.

"Davey?" I said.

I could hear his muffled voice. He was talking to someone else.

"Okay, you're on speaker," he told me.

I sighed.

"Hi, Daisy, it's Brianna," my no-longer-estranged sister-in-law said.

"Hi, Brianna."

She'd never been my favorite person. There wasn't anything wrong with her exactly. If I'd met her under different circumstances maybe we would have been friends. But, over the years she and Davey always seemed to be slightly at odds. She didn't make him happy. They'd settled for each other because that was the next step. He deserved better than that. They both did.

"Tell me everything," Brianna said. "What have you eaten?"

"I…what?"

"Tell me exactly what you've put in your mouth since you woke up this morning," Brianna said. "Was there rabbit?"

"No," I said. "I did not eat rabbit."

"Hmm," she said. "But you turned into one today?"

"No. My…" I looked at Hugo, who was again chewing on his shirt. There was quite the hole there. I again pulled the fabric out of his mouth. "My friend did. It wasn't today for me."

"Okay," Brianna said. "Don't eat anything that doesn't come from plants until we get there. You, your friend, or the girls, just to be safe."

Don't eat any meat products?

She wasn't making any sense. Did she know something that I didn't? Was it possible something I'd eaten had caused all of this, meaning it was not berpes?

I sure hoped so. Alternative solution where I wasn't the villain—sign me up.

"You're not alone, Daisy," Davey said. "We love you. We'll help."

I was almost, sort of, glad to hear that.