I was now outside the dressing room, holding the little rabbit in my arms. So soft, so warm. It’s short white fur reminded me a lot of Leo. Its breathing was gentle, like a flower swaying in the breeze.

“Yeah, that’s Bunny.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“On God, you’re holding Bunny right now.”

I looked at Biologist, hoping she would help me out. Instead, she just nodded enthusiastically.

“Bio, you’re literally like the guardian angel of animals.”

“Not really.”

“You’re close enough to know this rabbit isn’t human.”

“Rose found her hiding under a shelf somewhere in the mall. She recognized her as Bunny immediately.”

“This little guy probably just escaped from the pet store in all the chaos.”

“Actually—”

I didn’t hear the rest of Biologist’s sentence, I was too distracted by the smell of smoke that was beginning to engulf the room.

“What the fuck are you doing!?”

Rose was standing in front of the dressing room covered in flames. She must have set it on fire some time ago for the fire to have gotten this intense.

“Calm down, I’m fixing everything.”

“What do you mean fi—”

“Mina, what color is this dressing room curtain?”

“It’s an ashy black.”

“Before the fire, I mean.”

“It was blue.”

“What kind of blue?”

“Dark blue?”

“Which is…?”

Indigo. One of the colors of the rainbow. Fuck.

“The dressing room was the chromatic beast…?”

God, I’m glad it didn’t eat me when it had the chance.

Biologist stood beside me, watching the fire burn into the ceiling.

“After you left, Mina and I theorized about what was going on. The most logical solution is that the dressing room is the Indigo Beast. It must be like a sort of printer for organisms. When one goes inside, they’re scanned, and then replicated en masse. It was even detailed enough to reproduce clothes. Of course, Bunny didn’t enter it hundreds of times. It must have learned how to create realistic-seeming Bunnys, like training an AI. That would explain why the Bunnys reverted to normal when they died—the AI stopped providing them resources.”

“Wow… You guys were, uh, really effective without me…”

“It is still just a theory. We won’t know the truth until—”

A huge weight started to press down against my forearms. It must have been at least 100 pounds of force. My body wanted to plummet straight onto the floor, but I stayed standing. Instantaneously, and without warning, the bunny had turned into the actual Bunny. I was holding her in my arms fireman-style, which was appropriate given all the fire.

“B-Buns… You’re back.”

She didn’t smile, or frown. She didn’t seem interested, but she didn’t turn her eyes away from mine. She just sat there in my arms, content with this whole situation. Biologist whispered something in my ear.

“You know, Bunny was pretty anxious when Rose was holding her. As soon as you started holding her, she relaxed.”

Rose, having confirmed she burned the entire dressing room down to ash, stomped back over.

“WELL, looks like a couple ‘best friends’ are off to flirting again!”

“Come on, let’s leave before the firemen get here.”

I could tell she wanted to, but Rose didn’t respond sarcastically. I think she may have forgotten that part of the equation. We snuck out the exit in the back, and seemed to go mostly unnoticed.

“Bunny, that white fur I found in my couch a few days ago… You’re actually a rabbit, aren’t you?”

She nodded gently, still in my arms.

“How did you become a human?”

“A magic spell. Rose was lonely.”

So a spell is keeping Bunny a human… I guess the magic in the dressing room canceled the spell, and returned Bunny to her normal animal form. But still, Rose turned her pet rabbit into a person just because she was lonely? I turned my face to Rose, but she wouldn’t make eye contact. She seemed ashamed, but I’m not sure at which part exactly.

“You know, I think I remember you as a rabbit. When I would study at Rose’s place during college, she would always get jealous at how you would let me hold you.”

“I remember. You brought me a carrot once.”

“Did you like it?”

“Not really.”

By then, we had made it back to my car. I needed to give Biologist and myself a ride home before any strangers saw us and got suspicious. Bunny gave a very emotionless wave goodbye, and began walking back with Rose to wherever they parked.

“Hey, guys. Just leave your car here. Come home with us.”

Bunny remained as unreadable as always, but Rose has never been able to hide a smile from me.