I face the shore, looking for the sun in a haze of gray clouds that hang over the water. Sleet lashes the water and my hair is matted and wet, plastered against my face.
I step towards the water and the waves reach for me. My hands sink deeper into their respective coat pockets and one closes around a cell phone. I take it out to look at the small machine. The screen lights up and I purge the connection, throwing the phone hard into the waves. No splash is made, only a tiny seam in the wave that it disappeared into.
“What are you doing?”
I turn to face the small voice behind me. The bunny is there. I pull away from the waves and kneel in the sand, wrapping my arms around him.
“Where have you been?”
“ I’ve been here.”
“All this time?”
“Of course. I told you I would be.”
“Where do you go when it gets dark?”
“Wherever you are.”
“I haven’t seen you…” I unfold my arms from the bunny and he shivers in a gust of wind. “Come here,” I unzip and guide his small white body into my coat. The bunny tucks his hind feet under himself and rests his fore paws on my side, looking up at me with little brown eyes.
The rain has turned to sleet and pelts the sand leaving millions of tiny craters behind to trace the path of the weather. I see the lake swirl dark and violent, angered by the phone now littering its floor. Beneath the waves the light on the screen dies away and the water slows its pace.
“We have to go.”
“You’re taking me?” The bunny pushes off my side with his paws and his ears pop up and point towards me.
“I want to,” I zip my coat leaving a small amount of room open at the top for the comfort of his head. “I have to.”
I feel the little paws fold underneath his body and the bunny’s ears twitch back as he rests his head against my side.

Luciana, 25