Red Rabbit

by Alex Grecian

“Well, I loved her, Andy.” “I loved her, too,” Andrew said. “She was always a good girl.” “She ruined everything.” For a confused moment Cullen thought he was still talking about poor Olivia, but then Duff went on.

I did too and I just burst out laughing.

It was bad luck to mention Sadie’s name. He stuck a hand in his pocket and touched the seven copper coins he kept there. Seven was a magic number and a good ward against witches. “I know we ain’t supposed to say it out loud,” Duff said, “but we’re all thinking it, and I just don’t care anymore.”

they claimed Sadie Grace could hear her name spoken, even from a hundred miles away.

In the first place, she wasn’t certain she needed a husband. Her quiet life suited her: her books, her knitting,

She’s so me

What confused him most of all was the purpose of their journey. Ned had seen men holler “witch” when they disagreed with a woman, but he had never known the accusation to hold any truth.

Unless someone was harvesting sunflowers and arrowfeather, there was no farmer. The land looked as if it had always been wild, never tilled nor planted. This observation led Ned to wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of building such a long and sturdy fence.

Moses had looked up as they entered the clearing, hoping for a glimpse of sunlight, but instead he saw people in every direction, hanging from the trees by their necks, twisting and swaying in the brackish gloom of the deep woods. The dead occupied nearly every branch of every tree in the clearing.

and he wished the old man had kept his gruesome discovery to himself.

But if it’s useful information later on and he hasn’t said anything you'd be angry if he kept it to himself. He was in a no win situation, finding something like that.

“I swear, George, you got to the count of three…” “Jim!” “One…” “Jim, Charlie’s fixing to shoot me! You better—” Charlie pulled the trigger and George stopped shouting. He blinked at Charlie in surprise. “You shot me,” he said. “Well, I said I was gonna shoot you.” “Yeah, but you really shot me. And you didn’t give me a true three count, neither.”

The darkness and loneliness of his surroundings might have been frightening under other circumstances—Joe had always been prone to feelings of loneliness and dread—but he reminded himself that he was already dead, and as far as he knew there wasn’t much worse that could happen to him.

in general their abilities were as poor as their eyesight. Moses had once joked that Ned couldn’t see an elephant if it was right in front of him, but since neither of them knew exactly what an elephant looked like Ned didn’t consider it one of Moses’s wittier comments.

it wasn’t his place to judge. He had, after all, shot his own wife to death while trying to kill her lover.

“I wished I knew for sure if I was going crazy,” he said. “That might be a comfort.”

He had heard of such places, where sadness had leeched into the soil and evil had sprouted from it.

“It’s only a nickel,” Moses said. “Yes, but with a coin in my pocket, I feel I can go anywhere.”

“Of course they’ll die,” Katie said. “John Junior’s been getting things ready to butcher them all day. They’ll be along pretty soon now.”

Not a soul was about, but he smelled desperation and fear in the air.

Fairness and justice had no place in the system of cogs and levers that kept the moon in the sky and the fish in the sea.

She found it hard to meet his gaze, and this made her feel angry, but she wasn’t sure whether her anger was directed at the Huntsman for intimidating her, or at herself for being intimidated.

“That’s a sewing machine,” Henry said. “The only one of its kind in the whole county. I imported it special from—” “I know what it is,” the man said. “What does it do?” the balding man said.

“It automates the sewing process. See that pedal? You work it and the needle goes up and down, making quick and simple work of almost any mundane sewing task. With that beauty you could sew a whole dress in half a day, and never once prick your thumb.”

“So we’re headed into more danger,” Moses said. “I’m sick and tired of heading into danger.”

“Look around us,” he said. “Nothing in that direction, nothing in the other direction, everywhere there’s nothing, but still you people come. You hope to find something in the midst of all this nothingness, and that’s where I thrive, Mr Cassidy. I live in the hope.”

As they made their way north toward Burden County, Rabbit saw that the witch was trying to slow them down.

Rabbit began to wonder whether she needed to go to Riddle, after all. It was possible she had already found what she was looking for in her little band of misfits.

“You’re a bit of a mystery, Rose. You say you love books and you don’t want money.

“But that wasn’t magic,” Rabbit said. “That was the wind.” “What do you think magic is?”

“I made him follow me,” Rabbit said. “I’m sorry.”