"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A shrill, high pitch scream pierces the air.

Now, you may be thinking that this is the start of a terrifying horror story. If that is the case, you would be wrong. You may be wondering why there's a gut wrenching, soul ripping, terrified scream out in the world at this very point in time if a horror story is not the explanation.

The answer would be my best friend, Warren. He's currently running away from a spider. Which from here appears to be the size of my pinky's fingernail, legs included. I might have felt sympathy for him, had I been five and he, well, five. However, he happens to be twenty and I, twenty.

You may be asking yourself 'Why doesn't Warren simply kill the spider? Is he sick, or weak?' The answer to the latter being no, he is not. Rather, at twenty years old, he has become quite a strapping young man. Solidly built at 5'11, with abs and biceps to prove that he's put work in at the gym, and a look of determination (usually) present in his eyes, many would say that he's a picturesque depiction of the small-town heart throb.

"RORY! HELP ME!"

The answer to the first question being that I probably let him rely on me a little too much to do his dirty work.

"Ya know Warren, you can be such a whimp sometimes. That spider," I say, calmly walking up to it as Warren hides behind me, "is extremely easy to just. You know." I pull my leg up in the air and turn my head to look Warren directly in the eyes. "SMASH!" I exclaim as I push my foot into the ground, hard. Warren jumps back a foot out of surprise, then looks at me a little sheepishly. "Well that was a little rude," he murmured. "Did you see the size of that thing, Ror? It looked like it was going to eat me! It even chased after me!"

"Oh Ren, sweet Ren, sweet and sexy Ren." I say as I plop onto the grass. "I've let you get soft. That spider might have actually been able to eat you the way you are now!"

He just sits his butt on the ground next to mine, claiming the spot as his own. "Well now, you think I'm sexy?" He seductively replies, accompanied by an exaggerated eyebrow wriggle. "I do like girls who can fend for themselves. It is pretty attractive." He pauses, making sure I get a good look at his smolder, in a position that really makes his golden-brown eyes gleam.

I just grin and push him over onto his side into the dirt. Chuckling, I say ", You only know that move because I told you girls would go crazy for it!" As a proper wingman should.

Now, don't go getting the wrong idea; Warren and I, we might as well be siblings. Twins, at that. We can say things like that to each other because we're not, but we're so close that the idea of us loving one another in any way other than platonic is, well, ludicrous.

Putting my hands behind my head, I lay back to lounge next to the already downed Ren. We sit silently for a moment, just enjoying each other's company in my ginormous backyard. If you could call it a backyard. My family happened to own a farm, and while I can say it was a wonderful place to grow up with its animals and space, it has become stifling in adulthood. Looking around at the crops just beyond the grass edge, all I can feel is a need for adventure.

"Ren, let's get out of here. Let's just go to some crazy place out of this town where we can put all our skills to good use. You with your magnificently gorgeous violin playing and me with my crazy awesome ninja moves." I say to the sky but addressing Ren who is lying next to me in a relaxed position. Turning to look at me, and I to him in turn, he says, "You know we have absolutely no money, right? Even then…." He trailed off, looking wistfully back at the sky. I grabbed his hand and held tightly, in a warm gesture. "You could do it you know. You're a prodigy. You just have to show the world that. Let them all know how talented you are." I say.

He turns back to look at me in that moment. I can see in his eyes that he desperately wants to share his gifts, just like me and his dad keep telling him to do. I can also see that he just can't bring himself to do it. Partially, I bet, because he started violin for his mom. Partially, I know, because crowds bigger than fifteen people give him terrible stage fright.

I give him a knowing smile and stand. While extending my arms out and giving my body a nice stretch, I say ", I'm thinking we should go get some squeaky cheese from Mickey's, 'cause spider slaying makes me really hungry. Whatchya think?" Mickey's is the cheese place down the road from my house which, coincidentally, is somewhere that my family supplies dairy to for cheese products. It also just so happens to be one of our favorite places to visit in this almost barren, but beautiful, tiny town.

Ren smiles and nods, shaking off the thoughts of faraway places and the past, getting up and dusting off himself. I turn to start walking, and I get a few feet away when I realize that I haven't heard footsteps trailing behind me.

While turning around, I start to jokingly say ", Ren, did you fall into a hole or someth-"

But I stop short when I realize that he's being held in a chokehold by a cosplayer dressed as a white rabbit, that just so happens to be holding a gun to Ren's head.

Taking in a short breath, I look around the two, trying to assess the situation and decide which action to take so my best friend will have minimal to no injuries, all the while hoping that maybe this lunatic isn't as luny as he seems.

"How dare you be so, so… So forward with my princess!" The cosplayer spat, seemingly so enraged that he could hardly move the sentence out.

Now you may be thinking ", Rory must know that rabbit-man is actually really dangerous and crazy, right?" And you know what? The answer to that question would be yes. Yes I do.

Perrin Here. I'm restarting! Yippee! Three years later, three years older, and three years better at writing, I am back! I also felt that this particular fanfiction could use some more depth than it had been given. Now, the original does, deserve some credit. It helped me to put this idea down so I wouldn't forget it later. I'm appreciative that I did too, because the me now has a better grasp on a few of the themes in this story, and more skills to move it forward. I will be leaving for about a two year period in October, without much access to the internet. This means no updating. So, I will be finishing this story by that time. Same rules apply as before. Some of the dialogue won't be as clear as it could be, or as grammatically correct as it should be, but this is all in the name of authenticity to the characters. There is also no such thing as a complaint, only constructive criticism. I mean, don't be a jerkhole and just start chewing me out, obviously. But that's not what I'm referring to anyway. I mean real complaints. If you think something should be different, tell me so!

TTFN. PF

PS – I don't own this series. That is why I'm writing a fanfiction about it.

PPS – I don't own the cover either, not a very good artist. Kudos to both the author and artist of the original series! Love your work.