17. 2022

EMMA

"Living the life I have, if anyone had told me they developed a connection so strong that fast, I'd laugh and say they were delusional—out of their damn minds."

"Kind of what I was thinking," I chuckle, remembering all the boys I swore were the one after a week of dating. It's nice to see Officer Cyrus agreeing as well, nodding, embarrassed in his little corner.

Pressing her palms into tired, sunken eyes, Bunny's laugh slowly fades into something more nostalgic. I can feel the memories passing through her mind, the weight behind them—the connection she speaks of.

"Fuck, and you know, maybe we were. Maybe we lost our senses. Maybe we were just two kids desperate for something other than darkness…but we found it. In that moment, we found a light that had been stripped from our lives."

"Just like that?" I ask, unable to hide my grin. I blame it on writing wedding pieces for so long or that I'm an emotional person who loves love. "You knew it from a touch?"

Looking toward the ceiling, she tips her head to the side and contemplates my question.

"Yes," she responds after a moment, careful with her words. "But it was more than that. It started with a look when he walked out into that ring. He didn't feel like the butcher everyone was cheering for. Did he kill? Yes. Was it brutal? Absolutely. I was terrified when I saw it for that first time. I was horrified when Marone's minions threw me in that room. But the minute he was there…I don't know. I knew I was safe."

"Okay," I start, jarred out of the naivety by her comment. "But Cade Harris wasn't safe. He was a murderer, a vicious one at that."

"Yes," she agrees. "We both were. For very good reason."

"Right," I deadpan. I'm not ready to get into that debate. "So knowing he was a killer, because you just saw it, how on earth do you rationalize that and find comfort in a touch covered in blood?"

My question is met with a boisterous laugh in my face, as if I'm a fool for asking such a thing.

"I was in a room full of people wanting to see a slaughter. I was taken by a man who wanted to sell my body when he could have easily hired escorts. I was surrounded by monsters, and you want to know how I found the comfort in one?"

"Uhh—"

"Why do you think he's a monster?" Bunny asks, defense rising in her tone. I hear the warning and instantly back off as fear twists around my throat.

"I'm not trying to offend you. I'm only saying?—"

"Why?" she interrupts, eyes sharp.

A scoff is all I can manage when the answer seems so obvious. "Because he killed multiple people in violent, gruesome ways." You both did.

"And they killed hundreds in ways you will never imagine."

My face must change when she says that because, for the first time during this interview, I see true anger in her eyes.

"Hundreds. Girls, boys…animals. No one was safe in that hellhole."

"But you were," I remark, hoping to steer her off the provoked course she's on and fall back on track. "At least for that night. You were safe?" I pose it as a question because, obviously, she's here, but safe? That's not a guarantee. "What happened that night?"

She smiles. "I fell in love."