When you’re in a dream, the whole world feels like it tilts. There are still things that are nearly the same, from the real world, but it’s your mind so you never know what might happen in this transfixed state. I, Lizzie Bronze, know precisely how this feeling makes you react because I am endorsing it at this very moment. It’s winter. Snow’s drifting and flurrying around as if they are cattle, being forcefully led with an iron fist by the ominous wind. Nothing else stirs, for that matter, and it is peacefully silent until my eye catches the sight of a hare. It appears from behind its cozy, nesting hole in the fluorescent white snow. Her fur is fluffy with a striking white color, easily visible and graceful. She hunched over for a second, almost like the Hunch Back of Notre Dame, and then swiftly rose up as if something had stirred.



I analyze the sounds around me, but only the whispers of the wind seemed to be cascading toward my ears. I kept trying to hear something but silence was still in my presence, the kind of silence that happens in a horror film before- I quickly cut the thought from my mind, knowing that if I kept thinking of this it would truly happen in this dream. I stared at the hare in confusion. It was still in its position, but her eyes seemed abnormal. Like it was gazing at something that had caught her eye but her gaze started to blur in a hazy mist of thoughts. For a moment I thought the hare was looking at me so I quickly said, “Why are you staring at me?” Now in the real world I knew that if I had spoken this the hare wouldn’t respond and people would think that I was surely a nutcase giving me a what-the-heck-is-wrong-with-you kind of look. But I gave it a shot anyway, and unfortunately there was no response. The chilling winds aroused and grew harsh, as if all the stubborn snow had gone crazy and then the wind grew frustrated with its pathetic attempt at controlling them. Frost was nipping at my hands and I had become like the wind, frustrated. I kept looking into the hare’s eyes hoping to find an answer. Finally, I noticed something; she wasn’t looking at me but looking behind me. I started to shift and shuffle around when I noticed the drastic change of temperature. The blazing heat was compressing the crystal clear ice and burned through the reflection of me that I saw in it. It was burning me away.

It was a house, a bricked tulip colored house. An emerald patio was by the front and the whole house sat on evergreen grass. The grass was lush and full of life unlike the bare grass on the other side of me. But there was a silence here too. There was heat and exposing light from inside, and I noticed something. It was fire. Drastically combusting fire everywhere from inside of the house. I crept over to the window, making sure I had missed stepping over the rose bush, with its prickles gazing out to my skin, and I saw a bedroom. It was a bedroom with glazed walls of paint, all the color of teal. But the bed to the side of the window was rose pink, like the ones in the garden. There was a walk-in closet against the wall to the left of the bed and then to the right of the closet was an oak polished door. Dropped-dead paintings of flowers and people surrounded the room. But the most eye-catching one was a painting of a chartreuse tulip to the right of the bed on the wall. As I was staring at all of this I noticed it had made me exhilarated, in a blissful state, but I didn’t know why. The paintings, the closet, the wall, the door, the bed- and then I had noticed something, something unimaginably horrifying. On the bed, in the bedroom with fire already deluging through my door was a girl. A girl with long blonde curls coming up against her blonde eyebrows, where just underneath were her crystal blue eyes. Her fuchsia lips pursed against her necklace with the engravings of “L.B”. That girl was Lizzie Bronze. That girl was me.
At the sight of this my body reacted first before my brain, and I was running over to the icy, bare land that was behind me. That hare was still there but not hunched. Instead, it was sitting down and her eyes had grown a violet color. She looked at me longingly as if trying to explain something. As I was looking at the hare, my whole body started to burn. Heat was scolding my whole body and I could feel my blood bubbling. Horror shot me in the eyes and me told exactly what was happening. This was a dream, but the fire wasn’t. I was looking at my house, in my real bedroom and saw my real self in real life. And I was really in a fire. And soon enough if I didn’t wake up, I would surely die.
My brain was uncontrollably confused, but the only thing that could come out was tears. Those tears cascaded down my face, onto the snow and disappeared. Then I came to a halt. If I wake up, I can save myself….and my family! I sprinted over to the windows to see how much time I had left. The fire had spread to half of my room so I had only about 3 minutes. Something then caught my eye like a hook on trout’s mouth. In the front of the house were fire trucks, ambulances and polices cars. I couldn’t hear the wailing or the agonizing screams, but I saw my family. My older brother, Jeff, I could see but not hear, was screaming. Both of my parents were conversing with the firemen both looking horrified because in seconds they were going to lose their one and only daughter. I was about to die. I kept thinking how to awaken from this nightmare. I kept abusing myself physical and mentally. Telling myself that this was a dream and I would soon be in my cozy abode where my mom would be making fresh blueberry pancakes with crimson red cranberry juice on the side. But it was all becoming a distance thought now. I was trying to pinch, punch, and pull myself out of this dream but no streak of hope was coming forth. I wasn’t going to leave my bed or this dream. I climbed down to the bare grass, accepting my fate. The hare was there, watching me live my last two minutes on earth. Or where ever I was, for that matter. Suddenly, a breeze of air fell over my face for me to see that the hare was hopping to the other side of the land, toward the house. Quickly emerging to a stance, I followed close behind. The air kept smacking me in the face as I violently ran, leaving streams of now distant tears across my face. When we got to the house, the rabbit trudged through the rosebush. Me being smarter, I just went around to see the hare burrowing itself into a tiny hole in my wall. So that’s where all the bugs keep coming from. But I soon noticed the hare wasn’t there just to admire my paintings, but to save me so I can live to make another.
She got into the room and was already wheezing from the smoke. She looked at me and gave me a smirk saying “I know what I have to do” I began to shriek and yell that she didn’t have to risk her own life to save mine. But unfortunately, bunnies aren’t very obedient these days and she was trying to anyway. The hare hopped onto the window sill and was trying to budge open the windows. Wondering why she didn’t go for the door, I quickly saw that my dresser had barricaded the door. So that’s why no one could save me. They couldn’t get through the door, the house was falling apart and the windows were too small. So why was the hare going for them? Remembering the small hole, I realized that the fireman could break through the wall with their axes with that. Without that, the whole wall would’ve fallen down if they tried breaking it without the hole and probably some other walls too, killing me and/or the fireman. Suddenly there was a loud Crack and I saw the window fly open. But then I saw the hare. She was hopping, but on one leg. The other one looked like an accordion, all jumbled up and unfunctional. The hare hopped some more and had fallen into the fiery pit that is my room.
All that could escape from my throat was a whimper and soon fell over and watched the hazy fireman flood the windows, because they had seen the smoke. I heard someone yell “Hey! There’s a hole right here!” Simultaneously, the fireman got their axes and carefully destroyed the drywall, piece by piece. They scattered in and took me to the ambulance. But I didn’t want to follow. Instead I decided to stay with the hare, just like she had stayed with me. The rabbit squinted open her eyes and her violet was fading but to me it was still shining. Just like her bravery.
I opened my eyes to see shady figures surrounding me. Doctors, I noticed. I also noticed that there was a bloody bandage on my head. Weird. Still looking around, I saw the monitor next to me and on it was a bunch of steep hills. The hills that I had to climb to save myself. But I was breathing now and I had survived. My bed started moving forward and I propped myself up on a pillow. I saw my parents. I smirked as they told me that I was out for a day. They told me everything that had happened, like I didn’t already know the story. Apparently, a piece of dry wall fell on my head and I was sent into a coma. Also, I had sprained my right wrist too. “It’s time to go, honey. You’ve been in the hospital long enough.” My mom said with a smirk. I smiled too. Good old mom, knowing how to cheer up a horribly bad time with just one sentence.
“Yeah. All the blood around here is starting to make me queasy” my dad replied. We checked out of the hospital, the doctors giving me pain killers, and we left. As I was striding toward the car I realized all of the tragic events that had just occurred. I froze and then told myself to ask my parents on the way home, not immediately. That hare…..she was just so brave. And I can never repay her back, for killing herself to save me. On the way home, I counted to a minute and then started off the conversation smoothly.
“What was damaged..?” I asked quaintly
“Oh, just some furniture, walls, and unfortunately they had found a rabbit. Probably made that hole that the firemen used to save you.” My mom said uneasily. My stomach twisted, making a knot that sealed the idea of the hare not surviving.
“Is it ok?” I finally got out.
“We don’t know. After you had gone to the hospital, police and firemen came to inspect the house once the fire was put out. After seeing the rabbit, they called the SPCA. They came to our house, retrieved the rabbit and brought it down to the nearest animal hospital.” Horrified, I tried to think of a solution to unspeakably horrid mess, and to try to save the rabbit. Just like it saved me.
“Can we stop by the SPCA” I pleaded.
“No, the first think you need to do is relax and take it easy.” My dad responded just as we rolled into the driveway. Days went by and I couldn’t stop thinking, drawing, and writing about rabbits. Friends started floating away from my grasp because of my burnt fatigue, lonely stare and my antisocial personality even though my wrist was almost healed. Finally, after my parents had seen my depressed figure, they took me to the animal hospital after my physical therapy with my wrist. On the silent ride there, I kept thinking about the rabbit. Is she ok? What if she’s dead? What about her leg?
As we came to a halting stop in the empty parking lot, I swung open the door and started into a sprint. I impatiently came to a stop as the sensor-detecting doors opened. Once they opened, I was like a cheetah rescuing one of her kits and not letting anything get in her way. I flew down the hallways to the designated room she was being held in. I already knew what room she was in because I have been calling about her and her status since I woke up. As I ran I saw blurs of red and white coats with those people having horrified faces. Doctors, I said to myself, I’ve been seeing way too many of those lately. I quickly skidded to a stop. Almost falling, I regained my balance and sidestepped into the room I was looking for. It was a pale room with doctor certificates hanging on plaques everywhere. At least I know these guys are professionals. “Ms.Bronze?” said from behind. I quickly jerked back to see a doctor by the name of Dr.Duffy and two melancholy humans behind him. My parents.
“What were you thinking?” Yelled my father.
“I wasn’t I just wanted to see her!” I screeched.
“The rabbit is perfectly fine” Dr.Duffy said as-a-matter-of-fact like. He pointed at a cage. Inside was a tiny, fluff ball with a bionic leg. It was her!
“Is….she ok?” I asked, stunned.
“Again, perfectly fine” Said Dr.Duffy once more, but I just couldn’t believe the reality of all of it. I turned to stare at my parents and breathed in deeply.
“Can we keep her?” At first I thought the response was going to be a long one ending with no. But my mom said quickly
“Yes.” Joy filled over me and my heart rang blissfully. “Do you know what you want to name her?”

“Brave.” I responded. After this my life felt fulfilled. I was a girl with a rabbit. Her name was Brave. We’d met in a life or death dream that was completely and utterly real. She saved me in the dream and in real life was a real rabbit. We took her in. Now we are the best of friends and I really don’t care about anything else except her and my family. I love my life.