CHAPTER I
Winter... Winter was just another season that laid dormant in the fall and would soon awaken spring. And with spring came celebrations, new love, and the restart of life. Everything would die and then resurrect almost magically in nature. The same could be said for the town that had some unnatural and sadistic side effects to the way of life. Dyeing and being revived was the burden of the town, or even when those who carried it far away from home, it would happen either way. There was no escaping the demise of everyone in the town that would happen every week, some more than others, some more painful and agonizing... But it was a way of life. On the bright sunny side, winter offered comfort with friends who would be bundled in their blankets and savor the time they had after their never-ending cycle of death. Just about everyone looked forward to the snowing holidays, cheerful and ignorant to spend time with their dear friends. But not all of them spent the weeks of winter inside with someone close.
One's self happened to be a small light green bear, with a tiny beret, and even a little military coat to match. He strolled out as the ice and snow made small crackling noises from under each step. He pulled onto a rather large heavy duty coat to decrease any coldness from penetrating his fuzzy body. The bear shook slightly letting out a crisp, 'brrr', before moving on. He was in a bit of a hurry but no one would dare run in the frosty night like this, unless they wanted their lungs to tingle and burn from the harsh cold air. The bear finally made it to a rather large tree like structure that resembled that of a restaurant. Once entered festive nick-knacks surrounded the inside, along with freshly made hot cocoa and several snack bowls that were filled with a numerous amount of tasty treats.
The lime coated bear took off the over-sized coat, reviling his normal military jacket. After placing the coat onto a rack he walked over to a rather large light blue moose with a constant gaze that seemed as though he were looking in two places at the same time. The taller friend wore that of an over-decorated Christmas sweater, glitter would occasionally run off the sweater and onto the tiled floor. In fact he was so decorated that his uneven antlers had wreaths on them.
The other friend who sat behind a counter was just about the same type of blue, but very different to the dumbfounded moose. The blue colored aardvark was considered the most intelligent friend in the whole town, strapped with a pair of dark blue tinted glasses that had some type of bandage around them in the center between his eyes, probably from being broken so often. The aardvark looked up to see his fellow green friend and smiled at the bottom of his elongated snout. With a flick of the wrist, he pulled out a nice pen that had been snuggly kept into a front pocket. Often others had wondered how the pocket stayed on him, but they never made a fuss, and besides it wouldn't be out of place since the friend had on a white coat.
" Ahh, I see you actually over came yourself and went through to show up here with all your courage, Flippy." The blue clad aardvark gave a warm smile to his friend.
Flippy chuckled nervously as he rubbed his arm, " Ehehe-eh-yes-yeah... Thanks Sniffles, the medication is doing wonders! ... So far." His voice lowered down during the last bit, hopefully that way Sniffles hadn't heard him. Fortunately he had gotten away with it as Sniffles filled out a piece of paper, who then passed it onto Flippy, along with the pen. As Sniffles went on about the 'great medication' news, Flippy signed the paper before handing it back over to him, as well as the pen. With this Flippy decided to look about the cozy place before a slight worried look appeared on his fuzzy face. " Uhm... Sniffles? There might be a problem."
Sniffles adjusted a number of papers firmly, " Yeah, I know. The whole Blind Date is in ruins, sorry but aherm... Someone didn't pay attention to friends who would show up!" He increased the volume as the sentence was said. Glaring daggers at his fellow friend, Lumpy, indicating that the plans had went array from him. Lumpy only looked down briefly then back up into nothingness, but it finally sank in and that glance turned into a stare at Sniffles. He worriedly smiled as he rubbed the back of his neck, apologizing faintly.
Flippy sighed as he walked down a set of small steps that were merely for decoration, like those you would find at the mall's food court. His green lit eyes scanned the unfortunate company, wondering if he could get out of this pickle. The ones who glanced up, hoping for something only looked back down in a small bit of hopelessness. One was a fellow green colored friend, with matching ears and buck teeth, but unlike Flippy he was a squirrel with a rather unusual lazy eye that dangled about. The squirrel was known for being an addict when it came to anything with sugar, but for tonight he had trimmed himself up nicely with a tie and a combed tuft of hair, unlike his casual wear of scattered candies.
Several other friends varied to an otter like pirate who had instead wore a Santa hat for the occasion, a pinkish mole who adjusted his dark glasses and tapped the floor with a cane that had a present bow on it. To the other side were two other bears, one who was tan and puffed out of a small pipe, with a another with a large fro who had shut in from ever getting the word that Disco was dead. And finally the last sat near the back who waved lightly to the bear overlooking. This one was yet another squirrel, with blue fur-as if there weren't enough blue ones here- wearing some red glasses and had a nice warm coat on. With a deep regrettable sigh Flippy sat down at a table that was far away from anyone else. Sniffles was right, the Blind Date Night went horribly wrong as every member including the guy who kept the documents were all male. Sniffles thought he would actually get lucky, poor nerdy little kid.
As if it couldn't get worse, Lumpy walked over onto a high stool, making him even taller than he already was. With a clearing of his throat he held up a paper, " Okay, let the blind date night begin! You all have eight minutes to chat with another before your done and move along!" He called out happily, he was just cheery that he thought he had done a great welcome to the others. Sniffles reluctantly set the buzzer that was made to have the sound of Jingle Bells playing, for safety measures.
For the first few minutes Flippy had to start with the normal hyperactive squirrel. Who soon wanted to get away from saying anything and just go to the snacks to nurse on anything sweet. His prayers were answered once Sniffles called out that he could just go to the snacks. Nutty happily ran to the snacks before feasting on them, with the supervision of Lumpy since none of the others wanted the addicted friend to eat everything. Next went to Sniffles, who only discussed to Flippy where the others might have been.
" Well I know Cuddles and Giggles are going out. Even Petunia went with Handy, remarkably their happy together. Truffles is in the friend zone with Lamby, but their getting there. Cro-Marmot is a solitary type of ice cube-I mean guy. And well, Shifty and Lifty are just moronic kleptomaniacs. I'm unsure about the others, but I wouldn't let this get you down Flips... Things just happen."
The friend nodded sadly, " Ye-yeah... I-I Know... I was just hoping that-"
He was soon cut off by a small name, " Flaky would come?" Flippy's round ears went down along with a small tear.
It was true, that they had gone out before, but it all stopped once he took some hard advice from all of his friends, to just let her go. He felt like he had found love, but the constant shadow in the back of his mind had always made the two weary. If there was anyone he never wanted to harm was the red tomboy porcupine with hilariously cute bad dandruff. But that never held up since her deaths were quite frequent like the rest, most of them ending in Flippy's paws, along with many others along the way to her deaths. This of course tore him apart inside, and made it harder to be there for her when he was the one causing problems. Flaky herself had feared him for quite a while ever since she watched him slaughter the others and had even ended his life by accident a few times. But when together she had grown accustomed to dyeing from him. And that was why he couldn't stand it, it might have been alright with her, but with him, everything seemed to clash against his heart of it not being right at all.
Sniffles patted his green friend's paws before moving on, " Hang in there Flips..." With kindness from a friend, Flippy felt he could continue to pull threw, hell he always had before. Pop soon filled in Sniffles place with a small smile, he had probably been listening in on them instead of even daring to chat with the other fellow bear.
Pop stopped the small fire in his pipe, not wanting to return to his child in pieces, " Hey... Look, you're a really nice guy, just listen to Sniffles. We're here for ya' buddy. Lots of things are hard for everyone one of use, but at least all of us are still friends, even you and her."
With saddened look at the tanned bear, Flippy wiped water from his eyes with his greenish sleeve. The look soon returned with a calm smile, " Thanks Pop. Some say you might be a bad parent, but when Cub grows up, he'll have a wise old man to listen to." Pop simply ignored the parent part and chuckled kindheartedly about the old man bit. " Reminds me... Why are you here? Where's Cub?"
The older bear smiled to Flippy, " I was here hoping a new gal might have come into town. Try to get a missus for young Cub and I. Simple family matters really. And don't fret, Cub's filled his chart for this week, it's Mime and Toothy I'd be worried about since their watching him." There was a small pause, Pop was always trying to keep an upbeat attitude, especially when it came to, 'The Charts'.
The Charts were made by Sniffles, to keep track of the regularly deaths, which happen to be every week. Some had more frequent deaths than others per week. Once they were killed by horrid accidents, friend slaughter, cruel nature, awkward designs, or in some rather small cases suicide. Once all the deaths were done for the week, that friend was able to enjoy life without having the fear of death. It's how they were able to cope with themselves, like working all week and then getting off on the weekend. Sure they might see others in peril and get a broken bone or two, but nothing would be able to kill them until the next week, not even another or suicide. Those were always derived from the target the friends always wore. Each death meant resurrection within hours in their homes into their beds.
Next was Russell who only would joke with Flippy with the normal older male adult humor, the scurvy otter was one to really lighten the mood. After that was Mole who began to talk casually to Flippy until he broke the ice, " M-Mole... It's me, Flippy. In fact all of us here are guys." The poor blind friend instantly stopped talking and swerved his head around as if he was trying to look around but that didn't fall into his favor.
" Oh shit... A-are you serious? Then-then why did one of them talk in a high pitched voice?" Flippy sighed a little while he held back a laugh.
" That was Pop, he was trying to get you to babysit Cub sometime."Mole looked at him dumbfounded, well from what the bear could tell behind those large shades. " But I'm sure you can mess around with Disco Bear on the other hand."
Mole's pity grew into a small beam of hope, " That sounds good. I can get him back for bumping me out of the way and off the dock into a piranha filled pool. Oh and uhm, sorry but well... Your voice is kinda erm-feminine-just a bit! Don't take it the wrong way." Flippy returned the comment with a shocked face, but seeing as Mole couldn't see anything, he shrugged it off and chuckled, happily making a bit fun of himself. The next friend was someone the veteran had seen from time to time, but not often. Hell, they ever even spoke to each other on a daily bases like the others, it was always something that the new friend avoided Flippy and others by being so busy.
The blue tinted squirrel who gave a small wave earlier was now sitting just on the other side of the table, he seemed like a nice guy and all, but the friends only knew he was busy with work. Flippy broke the silence as he rubbed the back of his neck, " Hello M-Mister Clark." He would normally greet friends he hadn't been around by Mister or Miss to be respectful.
The squirrel adjusted his crimson glasses and put out a paw, " Aw, just call me Wally. It's nice to finally meet you uhm..." His voice trailed off as the bear nervously looked at the extended paw, having a slight flashback to someone he met when his dark side had taken over, thus killing them in the process.
The bear shakily shook paws while looking down somewhat ashamed, " Fl-Flippy... Ni-nice...To meet you..." Flippy kept quiet, not wanting the other to fully hear his name, thinking if this squirrel didn't know him, he surely had heard 'stories' about him. He soon broke out of the name conversation quickly with, " So! I haven't really seen you around much before. That-that's good-I mean erm uh..." Getting away from the 'Hi, stay away from me, because I might kill you' comments were always hard when it came to new friends.
" It's okay, really, I mean I'm always busy with work and such. But I don't get why I wouldn't want to see you around town. I mean, I would love to be friends with you, heck some of the folks don't even know me that well too. You seem really sweet, so I don't understand why you're so scared of me."
The green bear shyly stared down at the table, " No, I'm not scared of you. I'm just... Nervous around those I don't know much about. Your pretty mysterious around most of us in town, but I mean you do seem awfully busy. And if you're so busy, why did you come here? To try and get others to know you?"
With a small smile Wally nodded, " Well yeah actually. But I was also wondering if anyone would even uhm... Remotely hang out with me. Sure I'm busy most of the time, but it tends to get lonely by yourself and when some think your just a screw up. Let's just say, I'm not very kempt with my work." The blue friend looked out the window as he told Flippy, somewhat embarrassed by not being able to have close friends and messing up his work. Flippy felt a bit sympathetic, the same could easily be said for himself, since most of the friends tended to avoid him from fear and normally messing up any job that was assigned to him.
" Yeah... I know where your coming from on that note. If you weren't so busy, I'm sure lots of friends would hang out with you. I mean, I myself would like to but-... It would only put you threw danger. I just happen to be very unlucky." Flippy tried to explain it without letting the other know of what real danger he was capable of.
Wally stopped peering out of the window to look back at Flippy, a bit glad that there was someone in town that was a bit like him in a way. And besides both of them didn't even know each other that well, making a positive output for starting some type of relationship with what they had in common. " Unlucky like how? You don't seem it. No-Not to pry and seem rude but, you die often huh?"
Flippy grew a bit better knowing that such a nice guy cared for his safety, which had never been an issue in the past, " Huh? Oh no. I only die five times a week. I'm lucky on my part-but those around me aren't so much."
The blue squirrel smiled, actually delighted to those words, " Really? Well, I only die well... Ehehehe, once a week. I'm pretty lucky on my part. But others seem to die more often. It's a bit sad in a way but still!"
Flippy had a greatly shocked face, " Wait... You're the lucky one on the charts?! You're the one who only dies once?!" The bear covered his mouth quickly as others glanced over to them but were too caught up in their own conversations to really give a care. There had been a large chart posted in the middle of town ever since Sniffles starting crunching the numbers on the deaths, names of course were hidden for private measures.
Wally scanned the room as well, sighing with relief that no one had paid too much of attention to the two. However the sigh made a small part of his breath icy as it molded into ice on the tile. With a quick gasp of fear he looked to Flippy who had not paid that close of attention. The squirrel sighed again mentally thinking he had noticed the slip up. Speaking of slip... Lumpy walked by them, thus slipping on the ice. With a loud yelp he fell onto his back, startling everyone there.
The moose got up onto his feet reassuring the friends, " It's okay! I'm okay!" After letting the others know he was safe, they tried and laugh it off, wanting the place to be safe and for the odd meeting to have no deaths for once.
The green bear looked back to the other male, shrugging off the fact that the loud yell had spooked him, " So... Y-You don't die easily? Woah yo-you must be really lucky. I mean-it's wonderful in a way." He spoke blushing very faintly as he tried to find the right words to say for this awkward conversation, " What I mean is-uhm."
As the friend had difficulty placing any type of word into his mouth the other chuckled softly, " You would like to hang out, right?" A groan came out from the bear's mouth while the palm of a paw slapped his forehead.
" Ye-Yes! That's what I meant! Ugh, I just cannot talk today!" After recomposing his embarrassing charade the bear nodded, " Yes, I would like to."
" Alright then, it's a date." Wally gave a firm smile along with a thumbs up. Flippy however gave an odd look to his new found friend. " What?" It took a while for the look to pinpoint and strike Wally's mind, " OH! I mean not like a 'date' date. No, like a date as in a 'date'." With a nervous glimpse the bear just blankly blinked to him.
The green friend searched about before placing his paws onto the table and reaching over to the other's face, only to whisper, " Uhm not to be rude but- Are you attracted to guys or something?" Wally face palmed himself, grumbling quietly as well.
" Nnnnno-kinda?" Red covered under his bright blue fur. His hand doing its best to cover up the small streaked blush. " Look don't get me wrong, but well-errr there aren't really that many females around so to be honest I'm open to any ideas of not being alone is all." This however was entirely true, the town consisted of about more than twenty friends, but only four happened to be girls. In a sad twist Flippy hadn't ever bothered counting it up until just now which led his mind travel to the 'Oh...' gutter.
" I... I never really thought of it that way before. Wow... Okay my mind has officially been blown out of proportions. But-I mean. Uhm." There came the word twisters again, " Well I always did like curling up near the fire with my two friends during the war. I was the youngest of them both after all. None of us tried anything but we often talked about our dream girls in a way... Even guys at times-But I thought it was just because we were young and confused and-and hadn't talked to any girls since we were so busy fighting... Huh..." A slight shake of his head and the babbling stopped.
Wally gave a concerned look, thinking the bear had an aneurysm of some kind, or a break down from not being able to get a single word after the 'Uhm'. " Say... You okay there? I mean if you're not comfortable near me, I understand, I can back off and-"
As soon as the squirrel was about to get up the young bear reached out to grab an arm, " No. No, no, no, no, no. I-It's fine really. I really don't mind. I just find it a bit odd-but that doesn't mean I think wrongly of you or anything... I-I'd like to hang out sometime." With his ears down it seemed as though the green bear was practically begging, but he wasn't. Wally sensed that the other was just tired of being avoided for the most part, he wasn't truly desperate but the bear had seemed excited when hearing that he was the lucky one who didn't die so much. " A-as friends?" With a tiny smile from Flippy, the sad look cracked any walls from saying no. Wally could tell he had not spent time with another for quite a while.
A soft sincere smile made its way onto Wally's face, " You can count on it. We can spend time at the festival next week on Friday." With Flippy's paws off, the friendly bear nodded, agreeing to the idea. They spoke about where to meet and what time before the jingle bell ringed over the large room. Lumpy sat back onto his stool with a gleefully smile.
" Okay everybody that's it were all good to go." Just as Lumpy had called the blind date a close, Disco Bear tried to follow Mole. For once it was a good thing Disco Bear had never talked to the blind friend, not even once.
" Wait-Wait can you call me?! Come on please?!" The others had stopped from leaving to watch and indulge Mole even further.
He simply turned around with a high pitched voice, " Hehe-I'm a guy..." He said with his normal tone making Disco Bear run to a trashcan to gag, actually throwing up in the process.
Wally looked to the bear smiling a bit that Flippy hadn't had the reaction when he told him, " I'll see you on Friday then. Also..." It had been a while since the squirrel had even remotely dared to flirt, " You uh-uh have a nice voice." With another odd look the bear actually gave a smile back within a matter of moments.
" Thanks Wally. I'll see you there as well." Flippy walked up the small steps happily while Wally gave out a large sigh, thanking that Flippy hadn't taken it the wrong way. And of course that left more ice onto the floor as the moose walked by, slipping on it again.
" I-I'm okay!" The squirrel looked down at him shocked not realizing the ice breath, and simply let out a frail chuckle before walking out the building hoping no one had noticed anything suspicious from Lumpy falling or the conversation with the bear.