Tale of the Bunnyman
The town of Clifton, Virginia has a dark secret. In 1903, there was a town hall meeting called to discuss the insane asylum located near their town. Some of the residents were concerned about the dangerous nature of the inmates that were being kept there. It wasn't the kind of place that the average citizen could check themselves into, it was a place that people who had committed violent crimes were sent after being diagnosed with a mental illness. Medicine at that time was not very effective, and it was widely known that there wasn't much hope for any of the inmates getting the help they needed. The final decision was made to move the inmates to a different facility because the residents didn't want them to be that close. The inmates were herded onto buses that were driven out of town like a caravan, one right after the other. Shortly after their trip began, one of the buses lost control and the driver could not stop them from running off of the road and crashing in the woods. There was mass hysteria and confusion and in the chaos some of the inmates got out of the bus. The police were able to find everyone but two of the inmates; Douglas and Marcus.
The search continued for these two, but the police were unable to find them. They were unusually adept at covering their tracks and making sure that there was nothing left behind to give the police officers any clue about where they were going. The only traces that were left behind were the bodies of half-eaten rabbits. After searching for a few days, the officers found a large bridge that caught their attention. There seemed to be something hanging from it, and as they got closer it became clear what that something was. They have discovered the dead body of the missing Marcus and he was hung by the neck with his stomach ripped open and gutted like an animal. Even the more experienced officers that had seen more than a few crime scenes were sick to their stomach at the sight of this display. It was just one man, but the amount of blood and gore that had fallen from the open wound that used to be his belly and poured onto ground below. With approximately twenty-five feet of intestines falling out of him, it was hard to believe another person could stand to look at this, let alone cause it.
But still, Douglas was nowhere to be found.
The days-long search became weeks. Then fruitless weeks turned into months. Still, Douglas was nowhere to be found. There was no trace of a human presence to be found anywhere. He left absolutely nothing behind but the half eaten rabbits. While nobody wanted to just give up, the search eventually came to a close. Everyone was sure that if he wasn't already dead, it was only a matter of time before Douglas The Bunnyman died from exposure, was eaten by a wild animal, or was found in another town. There was no way that a mentally ill inmate that had proven that he couldn't control his view on reality or his actions would be able to survive out in the wilderness. Even a boy scout trained, organized man with the comfort of having planned to live out in the woods would likely turn back or die within a week. With the years, the tale of The Bunnyman became a local legend. He was somewhat of a myth, someone that some people didn't believe was real. Local teens with something to prove would make their way to the Bunnyman Bridge and bet on who would chicken out and run instead from the dare to call for The Bunnyman while standing beneath the bridge.
One particular group of mischievous teenagers on a mission to prove they weren't scared actually did what they set out to do. They stood beneath the bridge, puffed out their bellies to pull their diaphragms tight in order to fill their lungs to capacity, then called out for The Bunnyman three times in near-unison. The lights on the bridge went out in an instant; not flickering, not buzzing, they just shut off. The teens shifted in position, placing themselves back to back to back to back, huddling together in the darkness. Undeniable fear gripped each and every one of them, making them shiver from something more than the cold, but they weren't scared and alone in the dark for very long. Soon, they were scared, but they would all agree with the fact that they were definitely not alone in the dark. They could feel someone or something there with them.
The only sound that made its way out of that terrible darkness were their agonizing screams.
Sometime after the sun came up the next morning, their bodies were found by the police, hung by the neck and gutted like animals. Their faces were frozen in terror, their stomachs mangled beyond recognition with their organs dropping out of them like fruit falling from trees. This time was just as mysterious as the previous infamous murder. There were no trails to be followed to track the killer this time either, save for dead rabbits that were half-eaten and left throughout the surrounding woods around the Bunnyman Bridge. There was nobody that they could logically pin this murder on but The Bunnyman, but nothing but the modus operandi actually pointed to him either. There was no solid evidence. No fingerprints, no blood or other biological evidence that belonged to anyone but the victims, even the signs of struggle at the crime scene were difficult to distinguish. It made no sense that one person would be able to kill the whole group of teenagers without at least being made to bleed himself.
To this day, The Bunnyman is still at large. Some people believe that this previously mortal human being caused enough trauma in his life that he was able to grip the Earth like a leech and clings to purgatory.
