“Almost...there,” the rabbit said to himself, his breathing quick and shallow. He had been running nonstop for the last ten minutes - ever since he first picked up that box of cereal back in the store. The box he was now holding. His precious Trix.
The kids didn’t want him to have it. Even the adults were usually on their side. “Trix are for kids!” they’d say. Well, these Trix were his. He’d paid for them fair and square. Sure, he had just thrown some money onto the counter and rushed out of the store, security chasing him for the first couple blocks or so, but he was still out the money and they still had the money. It was close enough.
The store’s security had given up and gone back to the store, but the kids weren’t so quick to concede. The first kids had honed in on him from the beginning, seeing him take the box from the shelf and starting after him immediately. Did they just sit there all day? Or were they stalking him? Whatever the case, they were still chasing him even now. Heck, others had even joined them as he ran. There was a veritable crowd of kids after him now.
He had trained for this for months, doing everything he could to increase his stamina until finally he was ready. “Thank you, Bulk Biceps,” he thought. Bulk had graduated high school just a couple years earlier and opened his own business as a personal trainer. When the rabbit had initially started training with him, he had planned to keep his motivations a secret, but they slipped out on the very first day.
“So, what’s your motivator?” Bulk had asked as he showed the rabbit how to do proper calf stretches before running. “What’s the thing that drives you to push yourself? If you ever feel like you’re slipping, if you ever feel like giving up, think about your motivator! Make that your focus!”
The rabbit, distracted by his effort to do the stretches with proper form, had answered, “Trix.” He’d immediately covered his mouth, hoping Bulk might not have heard, but it was too late.
“Trix, huh?” Bulk Biceps said. There was a pause. He stopped doing the stretches for a moment, but quickly resumed. “Cool.”
As time went on, the rabbit had come to trust Bulk. Unlike everyone else, Bulk didn’t seem to care that the rabbit wanted to eat Trix. In fact, he actively encouraged the rabbit to achieve his dream. “You can do it!” he always said.
The rabbit thought back on those days now. “I can do it!” he told himself, and he increased his speed even more. He gulped. “This is it.” If they caught him now, if after all his hard work he still couldn’t escape with the Trix...well, he didn’t want to think about that.
He thought about opening the box and finally trying the cereal while he was running, but decided against it. His first bite of those gloriously colorful sugar orbs deserved more ceremony than that. Things had to be perfect.
He kept running. He could see the school in the distance. Earlier this month, Bulk had told him, “You’re ready.” And then he confided in him about a secret place, a secret portal to another world where everyone was allowed to eat Trix and kids couldn’t just take them away from you. A place called Trixtopia, ruled by someone named “The Great and Powerful Trixie.” It sounded a bit far-fetched, but the rabbit trusted him.
He looked back over his shoulder. The kids were gaining on him, but he couldn’t give up now. He was in the home stretch. Clutching his box of Trix, he kept running. He reached the school. And then he saw it.
“This is bad,” he thought. As he rounded the corner, heading to the statue just like Bulk had said, he was confronted with yet another crowd of kids. Somehow they had known where he was going and managed to head him off. What was he going to do now?
He hesitated, the kids now approaching him from both sides. He took a deep breath. And then he ran. “I CAN DO IT!!!” he shouted as loud as he could without sacrificing too much oxygen, barreling through the crowd of kids with his Trix box raised too high for most of them to reach. “I can do it,” he said more softly, a smile coming to his face as he neared the statue. Only a few more yards. He was going to make it.
Then disaster struck. Just as he was about to reach the portal, he tripped over something and fell, the Trix box flying out of his hand and through the portal without him. “NO!” he shouted. A tear running down his cheek, he looked back to see what had tripped him.
“B...Bulk?” he asked. Bulk retracted the leg he had stuck out.
“Silly rabbit. Trix aren’t for you,” Bulk said with a smile. Now that the rabbit didn’t have Trix, the kids had begun to clear out. A few glared at him, having received minor scrapes when he knocked them over.
“But...but I thought...I...I trusted you! Why?” the rabbit asked.
“Don’t you remember me?” Bulk asked.
“Well, yes. You were my personal trainer!” the rabbit said.
“Think back farther,” Bulk said.
“What?” the rabbit said. He thought and he thought until it finally hit him. “You were one of the kids…”
“Yep,” Bulk said. “I used to hang out at the store every day just in case you might come by and try to get some Trix, and if you did, I’d chase you like there was no tomorrow. It’s part of how I got so fit!” He flexed his biceps, seemingly ignoring the fact that bicep strength had very little to do with his running ability.
The rabbit lay on the cold, hard concrete around the statue. All of the kids had left by now. He looked at the statue, just a few feet away. The box had disappeared, so surely there was something on the other side. If he could make it through...but first he had to know.
“Is...is Trixtopia even real?” the rabbit asked.
Bulk ignored the question. “When you came to my training studio, I recognized you right away. Who wouldn’t? I heard your plan to get the Trix, and I put my own plan into action.” He paused. The rabbit crept toward the statue, but Bulk put a foot in front of him and leaned forward over his face. “I wanted you to make it past the kids. I wanted you to get the Trix through the portal. I just didn't want you to eat them.”
“But why?” the rabbit said. “Why can’t you just let me have Trix? Why can’t anybody just let me have Trix?!” he cried.
Bulk still ignored the rabbit’s questions. “I wanted to have Trix again, I needed it. I’ve been craving that fruity flavor ever since I graduated high school. But I knew that if I bought Trix, kids would be on me in no time at all. I’m not a kid anymore. And ‘Trix are for kids.’” He'd said the last sentence in a mocking tone. “So I used you.”
“But...but that doesn’t make any sense,” the rabbit said. “I’m not a kid, either. They were still chasing me, too.”
“Yes,” Bulk said. “But if I wasn’t the one with the Trix, the kids would ignore me. I could stand right here, right by the portal, and once the Trix was gone, once I’d stopped you, they would leave. And I’d be free to take it for myself!” He reached through the portal at the spot where the Trix had gone through.
“What? Where…?” he said. He put his head through and then pulled it back out again. “It’s gone!” he said. “NO! NOOOO!!!”
Nothing left to do, the rabbit said ironically, “Silly human. Trix are for kids.” He got to his feet.
Suddenly a girl with a blue dress, a purple cape, and a purple hat covered in stars stepped out of the portal. While around high school age, she was technically still a kid. She held a bowl of Trix and a spoon.
“No, Trix are for Trixie!” she shouted, and ate a bite of Trix.
The rabbit bowed.
The End