Jackalopes Are Threatening

Ted cried out, squeezing his eyes shut as he watched one of the tar-covered, clawed hands reach towards him. He felt the lightest of brushes against his skin, and when the sticky feeling of the tar turned into an intense burning sensation, the presence of the tar creature disappeared.

Hesitantly, Ted cracked an eye open in time to see the nightmarish beast flung back by an invisible force, sending it crashing into one of the sinks. The ebony sink shattered. Before Ted's eyes, he watched the tar-like substance drip off of the body. The monster shrieked a gurgled, pained cry that gradually came to sound more humane as the beast's tar coating disappeared to reveal the human form of Pride. The demon's shrieking died down, but he continued to shake like he was suffering from pain.

Guilt washed over Ted despite the previous threat Pride had posed. He watched in confusion as Pride continued to change, his body convulsing as he grew fur and a pair of antlers, and shrank. In a matter of seconds, he had turned into a white jackalope. The jackalope passed out and went limp.

"What?" Ted muttered to himself. He waited for another change to take place or for Pride to come to life. He had said that he had no need to sleep, after all. But nothing happened. He wiped his face when he realized it was wet, surprised to see that he had cried. "I guess that's what happens when you think you're going to be eaten alive by a creature covered in tar." When Pride still hadn't moved, Ted stood up, wincing at the pain in his back. He approached the little ball of fur, gently picking it up and nestling it behind his coat.

Standing up straight and donning a confident expression - the lying of actions - Ted exited the bathroom just as another student entered. He did his best to maintain a cool expression knowing the student would see the broken sink inside. Ignoring the table where Charity and Eric were seated, Ted made a beeline for the closest exit. Ted had never played hooky before, so while his exterior remained cool, he was having a mental breakdown internally.

When Ted had reached the school parking lot, he stopped abruptly. Now what? he thought. He looked around the parking lot searchingly as if it might provide an answer. He stopped, seeing Rhiannon, one of his classmates. In a way, he knew her very well, but at the same time, he didn't really know her at all. He never really talked to her and didn't know anything about her, but they'd been in the same grade since preschool. Now that they were seniors, a sudden connection seemed to have spawned between himself and all of his classmates.

Taking a leap of faith, Ted bounded across the lot to where Rhiannon was getting in her car - an old muscle car that wasn't quite well taken care of enough to merit the name. "Rihannon," he called, holding Pride tighter to his chest.

She looked up from unlocking her car. "Oh, hey Ted." A small smile crossed her face. "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

"Yeah," Ted agreed, leaning forward as he panted to catch his breath. "Hey, do you think you could give me a ride home? I only live-"

"Yeah, sure! I know where you live."

Ted looked up in surprise. "What? How do you know that?"

Rhiannon opened her door and leaned in to unlock the passenger door from the inside. "Remember when you had that birthday party when you were twelve? I remember how we got there because I live in an apartment complex really close by."

Ted hurried around the car and hopped into the passenger seat. He looked up when he felt the drooping ceiling fabric brushing his head. "Cool," Ted muttered absently in response to Rhiannon.

"Why are you holding your side?" Ted watched as his classmate tried (and failed twice) to start the car. When it did sputter to life, Rhiannon carefully eased out of her parking spot to maneuver her way towards the main road.

"Oh! Uh..."

You have a stitch in your side, a voice whispered faintly.

"Yeah! I've got a stitch in my side. I just, uh, I need to catch my breath."

Riannon laughed, which was more of low-toned chortle than the high-pitched giggle generally associated with beautiful women. "Well you were running pretty hard earlier."

"Yeah," Ted breathed.

Ted cradled the jackalope behind his jacket, finagling it so he could let it rest against his left arm. An awkward silence ensued between Ted and Rhiannon, and the boy twiddled with his fingers silently.

Out of the silence, Rhiannon laughed again, surprising Ted. He looked to her curiously while she kept her eyes glued to the road. "Speaking of that birthday party you had, you remember when Derek Hansen dared Brock Stokes to eat ten slices of cake?"

A smile broke out on Ted's face, and he laughed. "Yeah! He got through six slices before he threw up all over you and- Oh! And you started beating him up!"

"And then Sarah got all huffy 'cause they were 'going out', and-"

"And then Aaron got mad because he had a huge crush on you!"

"Yeah! Oh my god, and then, didn't someone get a black eye?"

Ted burst into raucous laughter. "That was me! 'Cause I had a crush on you too! And Aaron hit me because - ha! - because I told him you didn't like wimps."

"God, what a soap opera!"

The two dissolved into comfortable laughter together. "Why do we never hang out?" Ted wondered aloud. "I forgot how fun you were to talk to."

Rhiannon shrugged. "Meh. I guess we just fell into different crowds. When we get older, we get this stupid notion that we can't be friends with everybody. Here we are!" Rhiannon pulled up next to the sidewalk in front of Ted's house, putting the car in park.

He positioned the jackalope so he could support it without looking suspicious. "Thanks for the ride!" Ted unbuckled and started to exit.

"No problem! We should see each other more often."

"Yeah," Ted agreed, ducking low to give Rhiannon a smile. He closed the passenger door and watched her pull away. Then he frowned. "Wait. Did she mean that or was she being polite. Does she like me?" As Ted pondered the mystery of Riannon, he felt Pride shuffle behind his jacket and hurried inside.

When he was safely in his room, he removed the albino jackalope from his jacket and placed it on his bed. Pride stirred, gradually coming to consciousness, sitting upright.

"Ugh. I feel like s**t."

"I thought you didn't need sleep," Ted said.

The jackalope looked up at him and then reared back so he was standing on his rear legs - like a cute, furry, antlered person. "Not like humans, no. But just like when you get tired, you sleep. I live off magic. Generally it regenerates faster than I can use it. But you sapped it, you little a*s."

Ted cocked his head. "Why... What was that... thing you turned into? Why did you attack me? And why do you look like a jackalope?"

Pride side, putting his little paws on his furry hips. "I took the shape of my own creation. Great for scaring humans and attacking. I attacked you because you controlled me with your magic. You forced me to say something I didn't want to, which personally pisses me off!" His voice grew angry and his stance turned threatening, but as much as Pride's demonic form had terrified Ted earlier, the angry jackalope only amused the teen. Pride opened his mouth to continue, but Ted broke in.

"I didn't do anything to control you. I just stomped on your foot because you were making my friends suspicious."

Pride scoffed. "Some friends! That Eric guy had nothing but criticizing thoughts about you. He knows you like his lady friend, and he's real territorial about it. And everything about Charity is fake! All that stuff about acceptance is an act. It's something she forces. That's not what being a good person is about! Being a person means really feeling the love you want to spread."

Ted glared at the jackalope when his crush had been insulted. "What do you know about being a good person? You're a demon! You're the embodiment of evil!"

The teen watched in surprise as Pride's little body rippled as he apparently tried to change shape, then slumped when he failed. "I am not a representation of my kind! I am not just some simple-minded creature with a single emotion! I'm not an animal running off instincts. I am a powerful entity that has lived for thousands of years! I've been through s**t you couldn't imagine in your worst nightmare." Pride's voice lowered to a whisper. "I've lived a hundred human lives, and I know what it means to feel. What the hell do you know? You're just a kid." Pride pointed an accusing, furry finger at him.

Ted sighed, struggling to be offended by the angry little jackalope. "Sorry," he said sincerely. "How did I control you? You said I controlled you."

Pride crossed Ted's bed to where a bag of cheetos were sitting on his nightstand. He pulled them down and dug through the bag to start munching on the cheesy snack. "I thought you knew how you were doing it. There's an equal chance that having a little control over me is part of the summoning you used or that you subconsciously used magic to control me. Or a bit of both. We should explore that," Pride muttered as he stuffed cheeto after cheeto in his cheek pockets.

"So why are you.. this shape? I get you're low on energy. But why? And why were you... You were screaming, I think, whenever you reverted to this shape. Why did that happen?"

"Because along with those mental shields you mysteriously obtained, you've got a physical shield. I can touch you and nothing will happen unless whatever I - or any other supernatural creature, if I were to guess - did was unwelcome. I tried to choke you, and a blast of magic came off that physically tossed me - hard, might I add - and also sapped my magic reserves. I was screaming because it hurts to have your magic torn from you. And one of the things I do that uses constant magic is shapeshift. Most demons have what you might consider a very intimidating form. I was cursed a long time ago - for being too prideful, if you can believe me. This is now my base form. Intimidating, right?"

Ted reached over and grabbed a couple cheetos from the bag. "So you just need to rest?"

Pride nodded. "I'm surprised you haven't used this opportunity to do something to me. You know, send me away, or trap me."

Ted shrugged. "I mean, at this point, you're not really a threat to me. No offense," he added seeing Pride's hackles raise. "But I'm curious now. I didn't think this kind of.. stuff - magic - was real. And now... I've got irrefutable evidence. I want to learn about this."

Pride looked at Ted sideways. "Be careful what you wish for, Teddy-Bear. The world of magic is a dangerous place. Before you try dabbling in this stuff, you need to understand that using magic is dangerous. Magic is not an easy force to control, and once you extract the energy from yourself to use, it becomes much harder to control. It can quickly take control of you and kill you."

Ted chewed on a couple cheetos contemplatively, but didn't respond. He was licking the artificial cheese dust off his fingers when the voice of Rupert Holmes suddenly broke the silence.

"If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain! If you're not into yoga, if you have half a-"

Ted struggled to get his phone phone out of his pocket, practically tossing it across his room in his attempt to pick up the call. "Hello?" Caller ID had said it was his sister calling, so he had a good feeling about what this was about.

"Theodore Dean Moore! Why the hell-"

Ted tore the phone from his face, grimacing at it as if it was on fire.

"Alice, calm down. I'm home now."

"I know you're home. I tracked your a*s! I want to know why you're not at school!"

"Uh," Ted looked to Pride for help. The jackrabbit cocked his head, swallowing a mouthful of the cheesy snacks. Ted covered the mouthpiece on the phone as his sister went on a rant about the morality of lying. "Help. Me."

"Hand me the phone," Pride demanded, holding out his furry paw.

"-and if you think you need to sneak out to-"

"No! I'm not going to trust you to talk to Alice." Ted reeled back.

"Look, kid. I have no reason to jeopardize my stay here. You're a s**t liar, Teddy. She'll know something’s up if you try talking to her."

"-do you think Mom would have wanted a-"

Ted shoved the phone towards the jackalope, who took it quickly and struggled to hold it up to his long ear. When Pride spoke, Ted almost did a double take at hearing his own voice. "Alice, I'm sorry I left. I really am. I should have called you, but there were these guest visitors or something from that technical college downtown, and they were playing games, and the noise just got to be too much, and I had... one of my panic attacks. I tried to do the counting exercise, but there was just too much noise."

Ted stared in awe, mouth agape.

He heard the hushed sound of Alice responding, now much calmer. Pride fed her a couple more non-committal comments before trying to hang up. His furry paw couldn't hit the button, so Ted took the phone and hung up.

He glared at Pride, crossing his arms. The demon jackalope froze, cheeto halfway into his mouth. He heaved a heavy sigh. "What?"

"How did you know about my panic attack?"

"Teddy-"

"Don't call me that."

"-we've been over this. I can see the memories around this room. And kid, let me tell you, you've had a lot of panic attacks in here." Pride looked around, as if watching those very same panic attacks.

Ted felt his face flush with embarrassment. "Stop it! I don't want you to see those."

"If it isn't obvious, having me around is going to make it a lot harder to hold on to your privacy. Get used to it, Teddy-Bear. I'm here to stay."

Again, Ted found himself pondering the dangers of his situation. He considered looking through that old book from the antique store to find a way to banish Pride. But he would have a hard time getting away from the demon long enough to find his solution.

Author's Note

Just tell me what you think. I live for the input.