It's getting impossibly close to the end, have you planned to say goodbye to your furry ears? Because the Easter Bunny Apocalypse will consume us this Sunday! 20 writers are telling the tale. You better read it, perhaps you will survive. Perhaps Chapter 18 will tell you how. (Read how it started here.)
Please welcome our 18th author, Catherine Scully, (aka @CatMScully). A fan of monsters that you kill versus ones that you date, Catherine is a Writer and Illustrator of all things dark and whimsical. Currently, she is the Editor for the Horror Writers Association Young Adult blog and has had short fiction and poetry published with literary magazines The Nomad and Vision and Voice. She’s represented by Carrie Howland of the Donadio & Olson agency.
Photo by Brooke Shaden
EASTER BUNNY APOCALYPSE
Chapter 18 by Catherine Scully
“I swear. On the goddess Inanna.”
The sound of a boy’s head exploding shook the walls of the deep cave. Water fell from stalactites on the ceiling and disturbed the water’s surface of the pond beneath them.
A body stirred in the dark. It stretched, languishing on the cool of the glassy surface, poised like a sleeping spider in the center of its watery bed.
“I have not heard my name spoken in many ages,” a voice purred. “Not down in the depths of this infernal world at least.”
A woman, bare-breasted and adorned with every size and shape of lapis lazuli upon her, rose in one smooth glide from laying to standing. She rubbed herself up and down, feeling the curve of her waist, the fullness of her breasts, and the heat on her neck. Her jewels jingled back pleasantly from her collar bone, the many belts on her waist, and the spirals of gold coating her arms.
She stepped one foot at a time across the darkened water until she reached the shore. Turning, she lifted her arms. The cave rumbled in response. The dripping water ceased and instead turned upward. When the pond stilled, she dropped her hands. Images flooded the room through the reflections of the pond. In them, she saw a boy, praying to her before taking a bite of an egg. Not a moment later, his head exploded.
She smirked. Carnage she could handle, but the boy was not a ritual sacrifice. No one had spoken her name before death for thousands of years. She waved her hands over the water’s surface, scanning upward and outward. And did not like what she found.
Armies of rabbits snuck into houses carrying poisoned eggs, owls dropped candy acid onto people below, and rabbits screamed as their throats were torn open by cats. People’s heads exploded by the thousands. She mused at the display, until human children were being taken captive and surrounded by hordes of rabbits in cities all over the globe, some of their parents' bodies lying down in the mud, bone and skin exposed from the steaming acid.
“This is not the way of things. This is not the way of Ostara. Her prized creatures should not be falling on her sacred holiday. The lapins are falling from their own folly. Surely Ostara must know of this.”
She waved her arm, dismissing the cloud and summoning her, pleading that Ostara would show herself.
A voice as light as summer rain responded and filled the cave and her mind. It called to her, “Inanna. You summoned. I can barely see you in the underworld. My voice won’t last for long here.”
“Ostara, have you observed what has befallen your people?”
“Indeed. I have seen it. The fallen are many.”
“Do you not think it a waste? I am always ready for war and chaos, but not at the expense of the lives of innocent lapins or even the misguided humans in all their greed. Without them, our world turns to dust. The immortal cannot survive without worshippers. You know this to be our greatest weakness and yet you allow your creatures to almost overtake the globe, destroying all.”
“Inanna, you speak plainly. In all my anguish over my day turned to this new faith and its sheep-like worshippers, and in my hatred toward those who forgot the true namesake of their holiday, I sowed the seeds of destruction. Whether the humans die and we disappear, or I am destroyed, this age is over.”
“You planted the idea in Easter. You sent them on the path.”
“Yes.”
“And you do not lament this?”
“No.”
Inanna’s eyes narrowed. “I cannot abide this. This affects all gods and goddesses. Though hidden we may be, survive we must. Until the next age and the humans fall to our rule again.”
“I care not. I came only to tell you that the earth will die. Then we shall perish. There’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
Silence filled the cavern.
Inanna pursed her lips. She knew she must call her. There was no other path. She prayed her sister would come in time.
P.S.: This is the 18th Chapter of EASTER BUNNY APOCALYPSE. Here are other Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, and Chapter 17. Furry toes crossed, let's hope that Chapter 19 will be published tomorrow.