BIG BLACK DOG: Chapter I: The Naughty Man and His Bloody Rabbit

Before Jason went to bed each night, he would stand naked in front of the full length mirror in his bedroom and breathe deeply in and out. He would suck the air in, expanding his chest, thrusting his ribcage forwards and upwards, then slowly exhale as his belly gradually sagged. He did this for five hours, then he would sleep for three hours and wake up.

It had been his birthday three weeks ago. He had dreamt of running through a poppy field with his pet rabbit, Buster, by his side; leaping across small pebbly rivulets and dancing with the butterflies. When he awoke in the morning, he found himself covered in blood; he had accidently rolled over Buster while sleeping, causing the rabbit's guts to squirt out of it's arse and make a mess on the sheets.

His first reaction had been one of shock. Buster had been his pet and best friend for three years, and now the creature that Jason confided in - lay there, stiff and hard from rigor mortis. He stared at Buster for a few minutes, feeling guilty and slightly nauseous. He stroked the soft fur of his dead rabbit for a few seconds while humming the lullaby that his mother used to sing to him when he was a child. A tear ran down his cheek, some snot slid along the curve of his pout and he unconsciously licked it away.

He got up off the bed. 'Alright then, I have to clean up this silly mess,' he said to himself in a matter of factly manner, 'ho hum, just killed my pet rabbit, yeah just killed my pet rabbit... all I have to do now, is scoop this silly mess up, yeah scoop this mess up.' He grinned and stared at the rabbits intestines that looked like big slimey worms on the white sheets. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as he did so, he inadvertently sucked some saliva into his lungs which made him cough uncontrollably. He looked into the mirror and wiped spittle from his chin with the back of his forearm.

'Okay,' he said as if to steady himself, 'must remove the dead rabbit...' He returned to his previous position by the bedside and took a deep breath, this time it was a successful inhalation without any mishap. He bent down slowly, lowering his upper body to level his chest against the top of his mattress. He reached forward, firmly grabbed the intestines and pulled, adhered to the sheets with blood and pus; they made a peeling sound as they slowly separated from the cotton fabric. Jason smiled. The end of the intestines remained attached to the inside of the rabbit, he held the torso down while he gave the innards a quick tug and something tore inside releasing the string of intestines.

Jason examined the intestines. One end was shiny and slippery, while the rest was dry and sticky. He brought the guts up to his nose and sniffed. It smelt rabbity. At that moment, he had a sudden flashback of a biology lesson in school; he was with his best friend Jeanine Farrow at school working as a pair to dissect a frog. The teacher Mr. Humphries had shown the class the order in which he wanted the students to cut up the frog, 'Slice it down the middle, and pull open the flaps of skin...'. Jason and Jeanine were both holding scalpels; he had been too squeamish to cut the frog's skin so he stood there gripping the blade loosely while he watched Jeanine turn the frog onto it's backside.

Jeanine moved her little finger over the frog's genitals. 'Look, it has a little weiner!' Jason looked, and saw that the frog did indeed have a penis. He smiled. Suddenly, Jeanine violently slapped her left hand over the top half of the frog and with a rapid sawing motion with the scalpel, sliced the frog's penis off. The little piece of flesh fell onto the wooden work top and rolled to a stand still. Jeanine giggled and picked up the frog's reproductive organ between the tips of her thumb and forefinger, dangling it before Jason's eyes. She suddenly grabbed his head and forced the piece of frog into his ear canal.

He was deaf in one ear! He tilted his head to oneside and smacked his palm against his head, hoping to dislodge the foreign body that now resided within his ear canal. It didn't move. While he attempted to scrape the object from his ear, he watched Jeanine pick up the scalpel and repeatedly stab the frog in the chest and stomach. Bloody juice sprayed from it's stomach. She repositioned the scalpel within her hand and proceeded to randomly slice the frog's limbs off, first it's finger and toes, then at the elbows and knees, and finally at the shoulders and hips. She then started slashing the frog diagonally, half it's head came off, then across it's torso, it's innards blossoming outwards like a flower in springtime as her blade opened it's body.

Jason snapped out of his daydream. He didn't enjoy recalling that memory from his childhood which he had pushed to the back of his mind, hoping that it would eventually disintegrate from neglect. He looked at the body of Buster. 'It's just a dead rabbit,' he said loudly but monotonously to himself, 'Hello Buster! how are you today? would you like some breakfast?' He angled his head coquettishly and fluttered his eyelids as he stifled a girlish giggle. 'Oh my god! Oh my god!' he yelled as his hand grabbed Buster's dead body, and peeled him off the bed sheets. He lifted Buster into the air and held the corpse above his head, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, 'I will always love you Buster...'

An ambulance siren screamed past his house then faded away into the background of his next door neighbour's lawnmower engine noise. He looked at the clock; two thirty-six in the afternoon. He stood up, as he dropped his arms so he held the rabbit before his face. He brought the rabbit to his nose, and took a sniff... 'Phewwwww!!', he shouted angrily, 'you stink of fucking shit!' and pushed the rabbit away from his nose. He stared at Buster and smiled, 'Hehehe, you're dead Buster, I killed you while I was dreaming, it was a good dream.' He catapulted Buster into the air and caught him, he did it again, on the second journey upwards, Buster's body ricocheted off the ceiling with a dull thud and the stiffened limbs snapped and unlocked themselves. The body landed in his hands, 'Ha ha ha, you're dead!'

Jason, tired from all the action, decided to collapse onto his bed on top of the red stain where the rabbit was. He tossed the limp body onto the floor and grabbed the remote control from his bedside table, and clicked the television on. He surfed the channels for awhile before settling on the Music Television Channel, Aerosmith's 'Love in an Elevator' video was playing; he sang along. During the song, he kept increasing the volume; at one point, the neighbours were banging on the wall in complaint but he did not hear them. The song finished, and he turned the television off. He had forgotten about Buster, but he caught a glimpse of the rabbit's foot from the edge of his bed. He sighed, and sprang out of his bed to pick up the rabbit again.

He pressed Buster's behind against his face and inhaled the pungent stench of death. 'Mmmmmmm, you smell so good!' he screamed, then licked Buster's face. He placed Buster's body on the bed to open the bedroom window. The air was fresh, and it was sunny outside, his neighbour was mowing the front lawn, he called out to him, 'Hey Marcus!', Marcus looked up and waved, 'Guess what?' shouted Jason hoarsely, 'My fucking rabbit died!' and put on a sad frown, the edges of his mouth twitching as if trying not to break out laughing. He brought his head in, paused, and stuck his head out once more to shout at the top of his voice, 'MY FUCKING DEAD FUCKING RABBIT. IT SMELL SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!', then slammed the window shut.

Jason tore his pyjamas off as if they were on fire. He grabbed the rabbit and stood naked before his full length mirror. He laughed, 'I am possessed by Buster!' he whispered to his reflection, 'I do not know what has come over my poor little self!' He laughed hysterically, almost insanely. His breathing became erratic and he stared at his glazed pupils in the mirror. He watched himself lift Buster's body towards his open mouth, teeth coming down into the flesh of the creature and biting a chunk off. Blood streamed down his chin and neck while fur protruded from his mouth. He began chewing with a big grin on his face. With his mouth still full, he shouted, 'I AM FUCKING EATING MY FUCKING DEAD FUCKING PET FUCKING RABBIT!'. Blood sprayed from his mouth onto the mirror as he spoke. He had an erection.

to be continued...