{"sf1_id":1666406,"sf2_id":"bebWpqAm","title":"The Leaves of Fall Act 2: Fear the Nobodies (Part 24)","author":"Oliver_Hart","words":2623,"posted_at":"2020-12-28T02:08:22.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Alternate Reality","Anon","Boy","Brother","Bunny","Classroom","Couple","Emo","Fight","Girl","Green text","Greentext","HMOFA","Halloween","Heterosexual","High School","Hmofa/","Human","Kissing","Plot Development","Rabbit","Siblings","Slow burn","Young Romance","anthro/human"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1666406-the-leaves-of-fall-act-2-fear-the-nobodies-part-24","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/bebWpqAm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/ec/11/ec1144d7-e9c9-474c-a2bf-2a88bb3bab5c","description":"You've never really 'fit in' with the heavily divided Ranchview High School crowd. Jock, Goth, Prep, Cheerleader, Nerd... you were never any of these. But as Halloween approaches, strange things start happening, and a dark ritual begins with the finding of a curious red book. It's a race against time for you and your friends to stop a group of students from ushering in an age of darkness, and to also figure out just what the hell is wrong with that rabbit.  \n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  \n  \nAbout this version: originally, The Leaves of Fall was split into two pastebins to compensate for the length of the story. Given that pastebin has chosen to censor this story for ambiguous reasons, it will forever be stored here and on AO3. This new version contains spelling, grammar and content fixes. Please understand that the content is all the same as the earlier versions minus some sentences being changed and fixed up. I cannot stress this enough: no new content has been added. It's my hope that this is a cleaner, easier-to-read version of the story.  \n  \nCover: [https://imgur.com/a/vZS4Q](https://imgur.com/a/vZS4Q)  \nSam (drawn by Akella of /hmofa/) [https://imgur.com/a/nk3t1wT](https://imgur.com/a/nk3t1wT)  \nFan art collection: [https://imgur.com/a/SCCSIQv](https://imgur.com/a/SCCSIQv)  \nAccompanying playlist (WIP): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9aXlzDRA49QKxgYsOV2JuDd410\\_nI-0J](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9aXlzDRA49QKxgYsOV2JuDd410_nI-0J)  \nAlternative link: [https://www.sofurry.com/view/1479078](https://www.sofurry.com/view/1479078)  \nTotal word count: 147,552 words","content":"\\\u003eWhat do you say?  \n\\\u003eI mean, really, WHAT DO YOU SAY to this guy?  \n\\\u003eYou don’t say anything for a few moments, your mind spinning at a thousand miles-per-hour, mulling over every possible dialog choice   \n\\\u003eA few hours earlier this guy was kicking the shit out of you  \n\\\u003eNOW he calls you?  \n\\\u003eSo, what do you say? Something to really hurt him  \n“Hi Mike.”  \n\\\u003eAh, that’s right. You’re still a pussy, so you settle for neutrality in your response and tone  \n\\\u003e”Hey man… How are you doing?” Mike replies with a VERY awkward pause in the middle of his sentence  \n“I’m doing… Not great. I hurt all over. And I think I’m being targeted.”  \n\\\u003eMike laughs a little. “You and me both, dude.”  \n\\\u003eThere’s a long gap where none of you speak  \n\\\u003eYou only listen to him breathe over the phone  \n\\\u003e”Listen, I called to tell you something, and I want you to know this time I really mean it.”  \n“What do you mean this time?”  \n\\\u003e”Just… Shut up for a second. Wait, no, don’t shut up. Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”  \n\\\u003eThere’s a long groan on the other end of the line, and then the sound of Mike taking a large, fortifying breath of air  \n\\\u003e”I called to tell you I’m sorry for kicking your ass.”  \n\\\u003eYou shake your head in confusion  \n\\\u003eThat’s only barely scratching the surface of what a cunt Mike has been to you recently  \n“Annndddd…?” You trail off, hoping he takes the hint  \n\\\u003eHe does not take the hint  \n\\\u003e”And what?” He replies with genuine confusion in his tone  \n\\\u003eYou scowl, and it feels good, even though Mike can’t see you  \n“What do you mean ‘and what?’, dude? You’ve been an absolute, self-centered dickhead this entire time. How do you NOT see that?”  \n\\\u003e”I- I know. I was getting to that, fagtron. This isn’t easy for me.”   \n“I don’t care if it’s not easy for you. My nose STILL hurts,” you say with an audible sneer  \n\\\u003eAnd Mike audibly winces  \n\\\u003e”I got you good, huh?” he says in defeat  \n\\\u003eGot you good? Bro, he FUCKED you up  \n“Yeah, you could say that. So… Where’s the rest of my apology, bitch?”  \n\\\u003eMike summons another deep breath, and then begins slowly  \n\\\u003eHe’s never been good with words, or articulate  \n\\\u003e”This afternoon I thought my life was over. I didn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything. I was angry, and stupid, and I hurt people I cared about because of that. But you know what? I fucking need you guys. I need you, and Alex, and Jenna, and… Is Sam with you?”  \n\\\u003eYou shake your head  \n“He just went to class.”  \n\\\u003e”Well tell your boyfriend that I need him too. I need you guys to be my friends.”  \n“He’s not my boyfriend god damnit, and I am not gay.” You grind your teeth  \n\\\u003eNow isn’t the time!  \nHis voice drops to a submissive whisper “We’re still friends though… right?”   \n\\\u003eSurprisingly, despite the pain radiating all over your bruised and bloody body, you have an answer for him almost instantly  \n\\\u003eThat’s hardly even a question  \n  \n“Of course, dude. You may be a fucking asshole, but we’re still friends.”  \n\\\u003e”Thanks, you big faggot.”  \n\\\u003eYou missed this. A smile starts tugging at the corners of your lips  \n“And we’re going to put a stop to this shit, aren’t we?”  \n\\\u003e”Shit yeah we are.”  \n\\\u003eYou break out in an even wider smile  \n“And we’re gonna get you to college, right?”  \n\\\u003e”Right!”  \n\\\u003e”And you’re gonna fuck some prime freshman poon?”  \n\\\u003e”Fuck yes man, and you’re gonna tap that bunny’s sweet, sweet ass.”  \n\\\u003eYour smile collapses like a star at the end of its life  \n\\\u003eYou have only thought about sex with Sam a FEW times  \n“Mike, when I see you next time? I’m going to punch you in the face. I want you to know that,” you say  \n\\\u003eMike laughs on the other end of the line  \n\\\u003e”I think that’s only fair,” he says  \n  \n\\\u003eMike ends the phone call by telling you he’s waiting at the old white oak door church  \n\\\u003eYou agree to meet him there after school  \n\\\u003eYou sigh heavily and take a moment to gather yourself  \n\\\u003eNo matter how vulnerable you are out here, the weight off your shoulders outweighs that vulnerability  \n\\\u003eGOD you’re glad to have patched shit up with Mike  \n\\\u003eAnd you have so much to tell him and Jenna and Alex  \n\\\u003eSo much has changed  \n\\\u003eYou push down those lingering feelings of guilt at having left Gloria with the goths  \n\\\u003ePush it down into a little ball in your stomach that you’ll surface later  \n\\\u003eYou promise to yourself that in some way, shape or form, you will rescue her  \n\\\u003eAlright, show time  \n\\\u003eJust make sure Sam is okay  \n\\\u003eYou open the door to Mr. Bolm’s class and slip inside, posting up against the closed door  \n\\\u003eAlmost in unison, the class turns their heads to face you  \n\\\u003eMr. Bolm, stretching his arms to reach the top of the whiteboard, directs a questioning glare your way  \n\\\u003e’Biological Diversity Week!!’ is written in huge bubble letters in the center of the board  \n\\\u003e”Mr. Anonymous?” He looks like a shocked gopher  \n\\\u003eYou wave shyly to the class  \n“Hi Mr. Bolm… class. I had a free period (which is a lie), so I thought I’d just audit this class for a day,” you say, blushing from the sudden and direct attention  \n\\\u003eThe teacher, still bewildered, says “That’s… fine, I guess. Just so long as you don’t distract any students.”  \n\\\u003eYou nod and take an empty seat next to Sam, who sits in the back, near the window  \n\\\u003eJust like an anime protagonist lmao  \n\\\u003eHe shyly waves at you before returning to his present task of scribbling on a loose sheet of paper  \n\\\u003eIt’s hypnotizing to watch him draw, but not hypnotizing enough to distract from the knots of anxiety tightening around your lungs  \n\\\u003eYou can feel every eye on you, sharp and piercing and judging  \n\\\u003eWell, to hell with them, you say to yourself  \n\\\u003eAll that matters is protecting this bunny  \n\\\u003eMr. Bolm carries on  \n\\\u003e”As I was saying earlier, humans don’t have heat cycles like most anthros have. Hence why we don’t need to use estrus blockers. And our noses aren’t as sensitive as a herbivore’s, so we don’t need scent masks either. So from everything, it may sound like humans have little in the way of natural talents, but that’s just not true. Remember how I said that humans are crafty and cooperative?”  \n\\\u003eHe turns around excitedly to face class  \n\\\u003eSomeone coughs and you swear you could hear crickets chirping in the distance  \n\\\u003eAll the exuberance drains from his face  \n\\\u003eHe coughs, tugs nervously at his collar, and carries on as admirably as he can after getting shot down  \n\\\u003e”Anyway, humans are often said to be crafty. Researchers have noted our ability to be a cooperative group, even when circumstances should prevent it. That’s not to say other mammals don’t cooperate, but a human’s natural state is to… cooperate?”   \n\\\u003eHe weakly smiles at the rhyme. Guess he’s making his own fun at this point  \n\\\u003e”Moving along then… relationships! Fun stuff, right? Now, let’s just make this quick and dirty: most species mate for life. No species eats their young. Interspecies relationships…”  \n\\\u003eSam drops his pencil  \n\\\u003eHis posture stiffens up, and he directs his attention towards the front of the class  \n\\\u003e”… Are uncommon, but possible. They will rarely yield offspring. Hybrids are not possible — they’re one species or another. We don’t know how this is possible, but we’re working on uncovering the reasons behind this miracle. Science!”  \n\\\u003eMr. Bolm pauses, as if awaiting a response  \n\\\u003eMore crickets  \n\\\u003eYou’ve only ever given a passing thought to interspecies romance  \n\\\u003eLike in the hall, when you saw that stacked sow  \n\\\u003eIt’s not something you’re OPPOSED to, necessarily  \n\\\u003eafter all, you’ve been battling mysterious gay urges for Sam this entire week  \n\\\u003eShouldn’t that count for something?  \n  \n\\\u003eWhat you end up doing is tailing Sam around school — sneaking into his classes or waiting outside like a lost puppy  \n\\\u003eYou don’t care how creepy it looks or how awkward the judgmental looks from the other students make you feel  \n\\\u003eYou have to keep him safe. Now more so than ever  \n\\\u003eVanessa and her merry bunch of morons want Sam to complete the ritual after he fucked it up the first time  \n\\\u003eYou need him — and the Book of Rite — to stop it  \n\\\u003e(Also, you’d like to keep him safe, but that’s besides the point)  \n\\\u003eYour head is on a swivel as you scan the hallways  \n\\\u003eHell, you even do quick sweeps of the classrooms  \n\\\u003eThe only thing you notice is the incredible hostility between each of the school’s various cliques  \n\\\u003eTension so thicc you could cut it with a knife  \n\\\u003eTeachers and security staff rush around the halls like firefighters, extinguishing brawls and hauling mammals off  \n\\\u003eYou’ve seen humans and anthros alike pulled into the admin office, some even wearing bruises and bloody noses  \n\\\u003eThere’s always been a tension between the various groups here, but never like this  \n\\\u003eThe tension before was a kind of soft animosity, traded only in harsh looks and rumors — seldom in fists and claws  \n\\\u003eYou anxiously scratch as the back of your neck as you stare down the clock mounted in the hallway outside of Sam’s last class: history  \n\\\u003eHurry up  \n\\\u003eHurry up!  \n\\\u003eWhen the doors click open, and the bell finally rings, the floodgates open  \n\\\u003eThe hallways become a fast-flowing river of multi-colored bodies, all of different shapes and sizes and species  \n\\\u003eYou imagine Sam getting lost in the hormonal tempest, his big goofy ears the standing up like a shark fin narrowly breaching the surface of the open ocean  \n\\\u003eYou’re thinking so hard about all of this that you don’t even notice when the little rabbit appears next to you  \n\\\u003e”Hey Anon, you w-w-wanna see my draw-”  \n\\\u003eYour heart jumps up in your chest, and, rather shamefully, you gasp  \n\\\u003eWhich causes Sam to gasp   \n\\\u003eVery manly, Anon  \n\\\u003eGuess a bit Sam is rubbing off on you  \n\\\u003eYou groan at the idea of becoming an anxious, stuttering mess  \n\\\u003eYou look down and see the tiny rabbit, swimming in his over-sized and crusty clothes, clutching a handful of paper, looking somewhat shocked  \n\\\u003e”S-Sorry,” he says  \n\\\u003eHe sounds sad  \n\\\u003eBut you can see a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth from behind his bangs  \n\\\u003eOh, so he thought it was cute and funny that he scared you?  \n\\\u003eYou should do something back to him…  \n\\\u003e… Or just let him enjoy his moment  \n\\\u003eIt’s really…\u0026nbsp; kinda nice to see him smile…  \n\\\u003e… And to see him confident enough to do stuff like that  \n\\\u003e“I didn’t m-mean to scare you. I ju-just wanted to show y-you my drawings.”  \n\\\u003eDamn, this kid is an artistic machine  \n\\\u003eHe probably just does the minimum amount of classwork to maintain his GPA and keep his job and spends the rest of his time drawing  \n\\\u003eWonder what he’s going to do after he graduates high school  \n\\\u003e… And what about you?  \n\\\u003eYou shake your head, drawing a curious look from Thumper  \n\\\u003eNot the time to have this conversation with yourself, Anonymous  \n“I do want to see your drawings,” you start. The little bunny’s expression lights up. “You can show me in a bit. We’re going out.”  \n\\\u003e”W-We’re what?”  \n“Not like that. I meant we’re just leaving and going someplace else. Shit, you knew what I meant. Don’t do that to me.”  \n\\\u003e”I-I don’t know what I d-did!” The bunny squeaks  \n\\\u003eYou put your hand on his shoulders and bend yourself down to his level  \n“Sam?”  \n\\\u003eYou bring your face uncomfortably close to his  \n\\\u003eYour friend tries flinching away from you, but you easily hold on to his slender, malnourished shoulders  \n“Don’t not-not talk back to me.”  \n\\\u003e”…W-What?”  \n“Now that we’ve got that settled, c’mon. We’re going to meet Mike and Alex and Jenna somewhere.”  \n\\\u003eAnd you take him by the hand  \n\\\u003eAnd dive in to the moving sea of bodies  \n\\\u003eNot moving too fast  \n\\\u003eBecause you don’t want to lose him  \n  \n\\\u003eYour car is where you left it  \n\\\u003eOr, more appropriately, where Mike left it  \n\\\u003eBadly parked  \n\\\u003eAnd you know it’s yours by how shitty it is  \n\\\u003ePaint peeling  \n\\\u003eWindows spider-webbed with cracks  \n\\\u003eVisible rust  \n\\\u003eOne of the door panels is unfurnished   \n\\\u003eOh, and the massive indent on the front hood where Sam’s father stomped on your car yesterday during the rescue  \n\\\u003eIt sticks out like a moldy, rusted sore thumb  \n\\\u003eThe chilled air clings to your skin, and the heavy skies that hang overhead like slabs of wet concrete herald storms  \n\\\u003eIt’s surprising that thunder isn’t rolling like a freight train overhead  \n\\\u003eDidn’t the forecast call for rain?  \n\\\u003eYou look about the parking lot as you climb into the driver’s seat  \n\\\u003eNearly empty  \n\\\u003eJust like your soul lmao  \n\\\u003eYou don’t know whether to be grateful or furious that Mike left the car unlocked and the keys in the ignition  \n\\\u003eYou submerge those thoughts in a bath of stomach acid as you survey the lot, feeling hunger gnawing at you  \n\\\u003eCars drift in and out  \n\\\u003eAnthros and humans pour down the sidewalk like lines of ants  \n\\\u003eSam, unrestrained by his seatbelt, presses his nose up against the dirty window glass  \n\\\u003e”C-Colors…”  \n\\\u003eHis voice is a soft wisp  \n\\\u003eThough you’re on a hill, the leaves of fall have managed to drift upwards on the iced wind  \n\\\u003eThey bluster on by like fish being pulled on invisible lures  \n“You could probably draw that,” you remark  \n\\\u003e”I’m n-not very good a-at anything other than f-f-figures.”  \n“Bah, don’t be so hard on yourself. We’ll get you some crayons and a good piece of construction paper and you’ll be set.”  \n\\\u003eThe bunny wrinkles his nose at you as a smile tugs at the corners of his lips  \n\\\u003eGuess your joke sailed right over his head  \n\\\u003eAh well  \n\\\u003eYour car hums to life, sipping on a meager stock of gasoline  \n\\\u003eThe rustbucket is a thirsty girl, so you’ll have to hit a gas station at some point  \n\\\u003eYou’re about to take to the main road and head to the white oak door church when Sam gasps  \n\\\u003eYou turn your head to the passenger seat  \n\\\u003eSam is frozen, staring out the window, shivering  \n“You okay, dude? Forget something inside?”  \n\\\u003e”T-That car.” Sam pokes the cold glass with his little finger. “I-It looks like my d-d-d-dad’s.”  \n\\\u003eYou unbuckle your seatbelt and lean over his shoulder  \n\\\u003eAll you can see is a few students wandering the lot, and a couple cars  \n\\\u003eOne of them being a shitty, rusted sedan (like yours) with dark windows  \n\\\u003eIts headlights burn against the muted gray light of the afternoon, but it doesn’t look like there’s anyone inside  \n“You sure? This is a student lot. There’s about a million shitty looking cars around here.”  \n\\\u003eWhich was only partially true  \n\\\u003eA lot of the suburban kids had nice, new cars that gleamed like polished coins  \n\\\u003eAnd though you were suburban, your parents provided you with a real piece of shit that has nearly killed you twice  \n\\\u003e… Not that you’re complaining  \n\\\u003eA free car is a free car, right?  \n\\\u003eThe rabbit shakes his head  \n\\\u003e”M-Maybe. I-I don’t know.” He swings his head to face you. “C-Can we leave?”  \n\\\u003eSomething about the car is making him nervous  \n\\\u003eWell, it’s starting to make you nervous too  \n\\\u003eRetard, what if Sam’s dad is checking the school for his son? He must know Sam works after classes  \n“Right. Off to the old white oak door church.”  \n\\\u003eYou quietly press on the gas and coast down the hill, out towards the main road  \n\\\u003eSam clutches his drawings close to his chest","series":{"name":"The Leaves of Fall","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1666404-the-leaves-of-fall-act-2-fear-the-nobodies-part-23.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1666409-the-leaves-of-fall-act-2-fear-the-nobodies-part-25.json"}}