13. 2022

EMMA

"Ihad never seen a dead person before. It wasn't like the movies where the light quickly left their eyes. Instead, it dimmed slowly, the pain of his injuries still fully present while the pool of blood grew underneath him." Pausing, Bunny licks her lips. I don't think she realizes she's tearing at the cut on the corner of her mouth, nipping at the scab until a light trickle of blood flows.

I try to motion to the newly opened wound, but she continues without a wince. "Everyone was losing their minds, screaming and howling with laughter. They were so loud that I swear my eardrums had busted, and yet…"

"And yet what?" I ask, utterly consumed. It isn't just me. Officer Cyrus stands in the corner, his arms crossed over one another while leaning intently into Bunny's words.

"And yet, over all that noise…his final breath was louder." She wipes away the strip of blood running down her lip with the back of her hand before adding, "I remember feeling as if I was the only one to have heard it. Its crackle was a pin drop in my mind."

"I can't imagine what that must have felt like. What did you do?"

"What could I have done? I was surrounded by men beating on the cage, thirsty for blood, guards with guns who were more than eager to put their rifles against my head and pull the trigger, and a chain shackled around my throat by a madman who kept us prisoner. I wasn't exactly in the position to save anyone."

"So, what did you do?"

She sits there, finger lightly brushing the forming scab, mulling over her words.

"I stood still and watched as two men went into the ring, wearing white protective gear. They took him by limp limbs and carried him through the crowd, where men climbed over one another to get a piece of the dead man."

Her description of the event is enough to churn my stomach. Imagining men behaving like a committee of vultures, brawling and grappling to tear this brutalized man from his bones, makes me want to crawl out of my own skin. But I have to know… "Did the night end after that? Were you given to the winner?"

"No," Bunny responds, throwing herself into the back of the chair. "The night had just begun."