Rabbits(44)

They’re disappearing from the world.

This scene felt murky, dark, and far creepier than anything I’d seen in a movie or television show. Something terrible was happening to that person in the chair, and that something was real.

I heard a sound, distant at first, but as I focused my attention, the sound intensified. It was a kind of low whispering voice, and soon it was vibrating in my skull, a warm pleasant tickling feeling. I looked down. The sound was coming from Baron’s headphones, sitting on the floor at the foot of his chair.

I picked up the headphones and was about to slip them on when Chloe pressed the space bar and the video stopped playing.

“Are you fucking crazy?” she demanded. “You wanna end up peeing yourself too?”

The second Chloe pressed the space bar, the video and the link vanished.

I tried to refresh the page, but there was nothing there.

“It’s gone,” I said. The pleasant tingling sensation in my head was suddenly gone as well.

“Good.” Chloe closed the lid of Baron’s computer. “Because we have a little fucked-up something to deal with here.”



* * *



—

As soon as Baron got out of the shower, we sat him down at the table and fed him chicken soup and crackers.

“What’s happening? We’ve been calling and texting,” I said.

“Sorry, I’ve been busy. Working from home a bit.”

“What’s all…this?” Chloe said, pointing at his wall of photographs and ripped bits of paper.

“Work,” Baron said. “I can’t talk about it.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“They made me sign an NDA.”

Chloe took a closer look at the murder wall while I did the dishes.

“So, how’s working with Sidney Farrow?” I asked. “Is she amazing?”

He smiled and nodded. “She is. I’ll introduce you.”

“Cool.”

“You’d better introduce me too, fucker,” Chloe said.

“Of course.”

“Dude,” I said. “Seriously, I’ve been worried.”

“I’ve been working on something…” His voice trailed off. I could tell he’d completely lost his train of thought.

“What?” I asked.

But Baron could barely keep his eyes open. I had the feeling he might not even remember having this conversation tomorrow.

“I’m kind of tired,” he said. “Can we talk in the morning?”

“You promise?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Because we really need to talk about Rabbits,” I said. “We found some crazy shit. Things are getting…wild.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow, Scout’s honor.”

“You weren’t a Scout,” I said.

“What do you want, a fucking pinkie swear?”

I smiled and relaxed a little. He seemed a bit more like himself.

“We’re talking about all of this shit in the morning,” I said.

I heard him yell out “Scout’s honor, muthafuckas” as he locked the door behind us.

Chloe and I left Baron’s place and started walking to her car.

Chloe handed me her phone. “What the fuck, K?”

She’d taken pictures of Baron’s murder wall. The scribbles that covered the scraps of paper and Post-it notes were almost completely illegible, and the photographs were just as confusing.

“Is this even English?” I asked, zooming in and pointing to a couple of scraps of paper.

“It’s complete fucking nonsense,” Chloe said. “Something is way the fuck off with him.”

She was right. It was complete nonsense. And something had been way off.

The next morning, Baron Corduroy was dead.





16


    NO PLAYING THE GAME!


Baron’s official cause of death was listed as cardiorespiratory collapse due to a faulty valve.

Natural causes.

His sister had shown up to take him to brunch the morning after Chloe and I found him watching that weird video. She’d discovered Baron sitting on his bed, back against the headboard, empty eyes staring straight ahead.

A few days later, a memorial service was held at a church downtown.

Chloe and I spent the week following the ceremony doing nothing but playing videogames and drinking. We did everything we could to take our minds off one of our closest friends dropping dead from heart failure before the age of forty.

Because of what had happened with Baron, Chloe and I were doubly worried about the Magician. It had been forever since we’d discovered the WorGames connection, and he still hadn’t sat down with us to discuss what, if anything, he’d been able to dig up about what was happening with the game.



* * *



—

Not long after Baron’s memorial, Chloe and I were eating lunch together in the arcade when the Magician—barefoot and wild-eyed—burst out of his office, practically slid down the stairs, and shuffled across the room to the Robotron: 2084 machine. He pulled a folded old journal of some kind out of his back pocket and made a couple of notes. After muttering incoherently for a few seconds, he nodded in our direction and then scuttled back through the arcade and up the stairs.