Easter Story Special Thing! With Jakebe!

“CONGRATULATIONS! You have been selected as this year’s EASTER BUNNY CONTEST WINNER! Please click the link below to accept your DUTIES and be awarded your PRIZE!”

Jakebe looked at the email with a raised eyebrow. How did spam this blatant make it past his filter anyway? He scoffed and clicked delete. No reason to give that a second thought. The jackalope scratched behind his ear. Another uneventful Easter. Another day spent stuck at home, afraid to go outside. Jakebe was a slightly different sort of rabbit altogether. Sure he had all the usual parts to be expected: long paws, long ears, a cute cotton tail. But he also sported a wide rack of antlers. On any other day that might net him a few joking comments about being a ‘coat rack’ or something similar. But on Easter, when everyone was focusing on the rabbits in their lives, it was magnified 10 fold. Jakebe wasn’t leaving his house today, not for anything less than a proper fire-and-brimstone apocalypse. There was simply nothing to be gained from facing ridicule all day.

Instead, Jakebe forced himself to focus on his computer. Playing video games, answering emails from work, the usual. The IT department needed someone to be on call from home for any issues over the holidays and Jakebe jumped at the chance. It gave him a much-needed, plausible excuse to not take part in the Easter festivities.

A notification popped up in the corner of his web browser. The same spam email arrived in his inbox, word for word. The rabbit furrowed his brow and readjusted his seat. Nope, he’d have no part of Easter today. Deleted.

No sooner had the jackalope done so that another one appeared in its place. Now he was getting annoyed. He spent a minute deleting the email each time it returned. Then he tried to adjust his spam filter to block the messages entirely. But still they came. Jakebe was forced to throw his hands up in defeat.

“Fine, I’ll click your stupid link,” the lapine sighed. Maybe that would be enough to get the emails to stop. He’d already tried everything else by now. The cursor hovered over the link, and with a click the screen went totally black. Jakebe’s ears twitched. Oh no. Was that link a virus? He cycled the power on his computer monitor to no avail.

Great. Just what he needed. Before he could reach down to flip the power switch on his desktop tower a sharp jolt of electricity jumped from the computer to his finger. Jakebe recoiled and fell to the ground. Hitting the floor bruised his tail slightly, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as the shock. It felt worse than simple static; the numbness traveled up his arm leaving behind the sensation of pins and needles.

He rubbed the tender spot on his backside where he’d fallen. “That’s going to bruise tomorrow,” he muttered. As the jackalope rose to his feet again something felt off. He wasn’t quite able to pin point just what was wrong right away. Rolling his shoulders to loosen up after the tumble, seams pulled apart across his shirt. Brown chest fur beneath the fabric appeared as the buttons popped off his dress shirt. That crystalized the situation in Jakebe’s mind: he was growing. He didn’t know why, or how, but there was no denying it when the proof was literally destroying his clothing.

The jackalope knew he wouldn’t have much time; if he wanted to keep his furniture or house safe, he needed to get outside pronto. He started to walk, not run, toward the front door. If he moved too quickly he could accidentally damage something. He’d read enough stories of giants and collateral damage to know that the trick was to stay calm, and not move too quickly. The front of his pants split wide open and pooled around his feet, nearly tripping him. Jakebe hopped over the trap though and landed a little too hard on the floor. It cracked under his increasing weight. Okay, no more hopping. Walk, don’t run.

Surprisingly, the most distracting part of his escape wasn’t the lack of clothes, or the way his head steadily rose toward the ceiling. No, it was the bulking of his muscles that proved the greatest distraction. His thighs rubbed against each other with every movement forward. When he placed a hand on the upper side of a doorframe to carefully walk through, he watched a mound of biceps and triceps flex on his arm. He could’ve kept walking but he had to pause for a moment just to admire it. Damage to his house aside, this was a nice change. He could enjoy it more once he was outside though.

The front door was so close. Just a few feet further… but Jakebe’s head jerked backward suddenly. “Gah!” he cried. It felt like his antlers were stuck on the ceiling. Craning his neck around the ‘lope was able to see the ceiling fan dangling from his tines. Now was absolutely not the time to be dealing with distractions. The growing rabbit grit his teeth and yanked his head forward, tearing the fan away from its base in the ceiling. But the sudden movement threw Jakebe off his balance and he tumbled forward. Throwing out both his arms to catch himself did nothing to help as he was tangled up on furniture on the way down. With a yelp he landed face first into the ground. The world spun for a moment and then went black.

Moments later, though how long later Jakebe couldn’t tell, he came to in the ruins of his house. He placed a hand against his head and tried to shake the drowsiness out of his mind. “Owww. What’s with all the pain today? Isn’t Easter supposed to be my day?” he asked aloud to no one in particular.

Sitting up spread a fine layer of dust and rubble over the neighborhood as it all fell away from his back. He looked to the ground and found that his house was completely in shambles, not to mention a few of the neighbors’ houses too. That might take a toll on their insurance… but on the positive side, he estimated he was probably a good 100 feet tall. Give or take a few feet. Jakebe’s cheeks turned a bright shade of red as he realized he was totally naked, out in the open for everyone to see. He was built like a tank too. Beefy enough to make even his husband a little jealous. A mixture of embarrassment and being slightly turned on fluttered through the ‘lope’s brain.

Brushing off his shoulders and back, Jakebe tried to take stock of the situation. He still had no idea what did this- Wait. Down by his foot. He bent way down and squinted at the small basket left on the ruins of his front porch. It looked like it was filled with eggs. Multicolored, pastel Easter eggs. And a tiny card with ornate writing on the front.

“To our Easter Bunny: Enjoy your special day, you deserve it! Please hide these eggs to the best of your ability. After that you’re free to do as you please. PS. No, it doesn’t wear off. Sorry!”

Jakebe looked at the card with a raised eyebrow. “See, this is why I don’t go outside for Easter.”