Once Pitch had gone, reality hit Bunnymund like a truck. He thumped his foot on the ground, the roar of blood in his massive ears drowning out the calls of his friends, the tears in his eyes turning everything to a multicolor blur. He dissapeared down the hole, and ran. He kept running and running down the tunnel and didn't stop until he reached the clearing; the clearing where he and Kari had fallen in love. As much as he didn't want to believe Pitch, something deep inside insisted on it.
"Kari! Sheila!" He cried out. He tore at his fur, and frantically searched under every bush, behind every rock...nothing. He prayed for a sign- for a whisper, a note, a call. He prayed that she was just hiding and had not been taken by Pitch. She couldn't have been. He needed her.
"KARI! WHERE ARE YOU?" Bunnymund screamed. His knees grew weak, and he felt as if he was going to throw up. He collapsed, sobbing, clawing into the grass, the side of his face pressed into the cool, damp dirt. His entire body convulsednwith each choked sob. He was crying, screaming into the ground.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He wailed into the earth, his voice cracking. He couldn't stand it.
The gruff, impulsive, guardian, had lost most of his race to Pitch. He had lost his father, and had almost lost Sandy. He couldn't loose Kari. After all that he had done, all that he had confessed just to be with her, he just couldn't.
The pooka sat up, tears leaking down his cheeks, matting his fur and turning his eyes red.
"Kari..." he whispered into the dark. "I...I promised I would protect ya. Ya said that as long as ya had me, you'd be safe." Bunnymund collpased again, choking on tears.
"But you're not. I failed ya, Kari. And now.." Bunny pulled himself up and looked across the stream, into the night. His words faded into the night, and a single tear leaked down the guardian's cheek, streaking his dark fur.
"Now you're in trouble. An' it's all because of me."