The Haunting

By

Flaky2.0

A/N It is really amazing how my stories work; most are in a time line event where the next I write has every one of my OC's from one prior to it. Well this one is a bit different, I hope you enjoy and the other characters all made up, no importance too much, but may be shown again in another story… Maybe…

A little light blue raccoon with pink tipped ears and a black stripe around her waist was sitting in a classroom of fifteen people, she looks around at everyone just keeping her eye on most of them since she knew most of them are con-artists, thieves, and serial killers in the making, she just couldn't wait until that bell rang to signal them to go home, once it rang she jumps out of the desk and runs to the door.

She heads down the hall, down the stairs takes a right turn ending up in the cafeteria with the name HappyTreeIntermediateSchool. She sat under the letters staring at them every Monday through Saturday despising the name.

"Hey Rose what's going on?" a golden brown badger with a dark brown lightning mark on the side of his face, came out of no where and grabbed Roses attention, she turned and saw him walking towards her, she wanted to turn and run, but what was the point the badger wouldn't give up chasing her for anything.

"Nothing Nick, now leave me alone I have to wait for the bus." Nick looked at her confused, "A bus, you really ride in one of the roach infested, peasant mobiles?" Nick said slightly holding back a snicker. Rose just shook her head and turned back to looking at and despising the schools name.

"Nick! Rose! How are you two doing?" an orange bat with a green stripe around her ears and wearing sunglasses to see in light, coming out of no where and barely swooping down and crashing into Rose, but he lifted up and landed perfectly fine on top of a medium sized pillar surrounding the cafeteria. "Nothing Lisa, just talking to Rose here about busses." Lisa looked astonished that Rose was waiting for a bus instead of taking a walk home.

"You do know the stories about those, right?" Lisa said looking at both Nick and Rose, they just looked at Lisa and shook their heads, "The word itself is cursed, and you two will have bad luck if you keep saying the word." Lisa smiled Nick and Rose both laughed because the smile Lisa gave was just a bit comical and they couldn't take her seriously.

"Lisa I don't think saying the word 'Bus' will make anything happen…" She looked outside the window of the cafeteria and saw her bus leave without her, "Oh no I missed the bus." Suddenly the lights in the school go off, "What the hell is going on?" Nick said looking at the darkened room getting darker with each passing second.

"The school has an automated timer to shut off lights when they think no one is left in the place, so yeah according to the time the school should not have anyone in here." Rose said as she just completely didn't want to go home in the dark. She sighed, turned around and went to the door and tried to open it, the door wouldn't budge.

"Well it seems the doors are automatic too." Rose said while trying to put her full weight into pushing the door, everyone knows was a push or pull to open, she stopped pushing and grabbed the handle and pulled, Nick and Lisa both helped and all three pulled the door, but nothing happened.

"Well we are stuck here… Now what?" Rose said looking around, "Oh I know we can go to the principles office and look at the confidential files that we could never look at while the teachers are here." Lisa said finally able to take off the sunglasses and have her perfect sense of sight back. Nick and Rose smiled wanting to do that, everyone nodded in agreement that, that is what they should do.

Rose went to the door of the office she tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Crap it is locked." She looked at the other two who started to think of ways to unlock the door when Nick had an idea, Rose moved out of the way letting Nick give his try. Nick turned the knob of the door making a click sound and he pushed the door open. Rose looked at him dumbfounded that he opened the door and she could.

"What the…" was all Rose said, until Nick stopped her, "It's all in the magic touch my dear." Nick walked into the office followed by Lisa, Rose was just sitting there trying to think 'How the hell did he open the door, but she couldn't.' then she took her foot and stepped into the door then could have sworn she saw a little young squirrel in the window of the office, she continued her walk inside to see if she could see him, but once she was inside the squirrel was no where to be seen.

"Did you see that?" Rose said looking around the room, Nick and Lisa both sighed, "Rose, its okay the dark is just messing with your mind." Rose looked around and nodded in agreement "Yeah, maybe you are right." The three started to look around for the record room. Rose saw out of the corner of her eyes in the nurse's office down a small hallway inside the office, she saw the squirrel sitting on the bed smiling at her.

Rose was about to walk over to the squirrel and ask him questions, but Nick and Lisa both shouted they found the records room. Rose turned her head for a second to look down the back hallway the other two were, but then she looked back at the nurse's office and the squirrel was missing. Rose shook her head, 'It's just the dark, messing with my mind. It's just the dark messing with my mind. It's just the dark messing with my mind.' Rose closed her eyes for a couple seconds and said it a couple more times then she opened them, the squirrel was still not there, so she turned smiled and went down the back hallway to the records room.

Rose caught up with Nick and Lisa and saw that they were having trouble opening the door to the room, Rose smiled and laughed "Well, well, well. Look who can't open a door when they first try to open it, now watch this." She walks over to the door knocks on it and grabs the knob, she then slowly turned it while telling herself 'Please do not work, please do not work.' When she turned the knob the door was still locked. "Phew, I'm glad I didn't get it opened." Rose smiled as Nick and Lisa look at her a bit confused.

Rose just smiled innocently at the two, but then behind him she noticed the squirrel was walking into one of the work room offices that the principles work at when they are not patrolling the school to make sure that the students are only in line when they watch them, so that they are not liable to be sued if anyone in the school died, so when they patrolled the school was safe, but when they get to their work places in the office, the school was blown to hell.

Rose shuddered a little because seeing the squirrel again this time inside the office, it was a different feeling it gave her, "Uh, Nick do you mind going to that door right there?" she pointed to the main principle work office door, Nick looked back at Rose "Umm I guess I could." Nick turned and stopped right in front of the door, "Okay now open it." Nick touched the door knob and slowly turned it, Rose was getting anxious to see what would happen, Nick kept turning the knob until it wouldn't turn any more, and he pushed the door open.

Rose ran over to him and looked around in the office; she found a set of keys just sitting on the desk. "Wow, something really wants us to look at the records." Rose said as she smiled and grabbed the keys, but the second she turned around Nick and Lisa were gone, she still had the keys in her hand, she walked out of the office and saw it was the middle of day and school was going on, but something was different, there was a brown deer working the secretary desk instead of a purple that never talked.

She walked over to the deer, "Umm hi, I was wondering what's going on here." the deer gave Rose a heavy and disappointed look and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and started to drag her through the school, everyone was just looking and staring at her, but she knew something was off. She never knew any of the students this time, except one.

She was being dragged past the squirrel she saw in the corner of the office in the window, in the nurse's office and going into the main principle's work space office. "Hey you, what's going on here?" The squirrel looked at her a little frightened, and then he was immobilized by fear as the deer was getting closer and closer to someone that Rose knows she saw before.

It was a jet black raccoon, with a white mask and a Blue stripe around his waist. Rose knows she saw him before then it finally hit her "Great Granddaddy." The deer kept dragging her over to the one she recognized as her father, she couldn't believe what's going on. "Mr. Ferdinand, This little beast was in your office with your keys and skipping working role call." Mr. Ferdinand looked down at Rose and then he sighed "What were you doing in my office little squirrel." Rose looked around and then she looked down at her fur, it was a graphite gray and somehow she transformed from a raccoon to a squirrel, but not just any squirrel, the squirrel that Rose kept seeing.

"I- I don't know sir. I- I'm new here." Rose said, but it wasn't her normal voice, it was a males voice. Mr. Ferdinand walks close to Rose and grabs her by the tail and lifted her up. "Now, now, little squirrel, this school doesn't take too kindly to thieves, liars, or intolerable little beasts like yourself." Mr. Ferdinand dropped Rose she felt the pain like she was actually there, then suddenly she felt a kick to the chest as she flew down the hall and into a water fountain, she was cut up a little, but the major damage was the fountain spout digging into her occipital bone, and a possible hemorrhage on her brain.

"Now let this serve as a lesson to you all, don't lie to me, don't try to steal, and don't do anything intolerable and you will be safe, but screw up like this squirrel here…" He walked over to Rose again picked her up and shown off the beaten and bloodied squirrel that was half conscious and half wishing he would just finish her off.

Rose shut her eyes when she opened them again she was in the nurse's office, staring at the pearly white ceiling and a white curtain around the bed, "Wh-where am I?" he voice was still the males voice she had before." "Your in the nurse's office, now keep your mouth shut you delinquent" Rose slowly got up and opened the curtain she then felt the urge to run, she ran out of the nurse's office and down a hallway, she found a door that she didn't notice before she opened it and went down a flight of stairs.

Rose looked around and saw she was in a locker room, she looked in the mirror and saw exactly what she feared, she was somehow living the life of the squirrel she kept seeing, but why, she didn't know. She heard a couple noises behind her and she ran over to a locker and tried to squeeze her body into the locker and she barely closed it, just enough to look closed, but was still open so she could get out.

"Wait until I get my hands on that new kid, he pissed off Mr. Ferdinand so much that I have to pay three times as much to do what I normally done cheap." A black bear said to his friends a pink chipmunk Rose recognized as Giggles, but she didn't have a bow in her hair, then she remembered this is the past, so it was Giggles' mother but she didn't understand why she was dressed like a guy.

And the other she recognized as Splendid, but he wasn't wearing a mask, then she tried realized it was his father, Rose looked around for another, because she remembers times like this anyone with a group of friends always had four at the least. She then heard another voice. "Rick, just shut up, my father runs this school how he wants, and I give him the financials as they work, so the price you pay was my doing, not my fathers."

Roses jaw dropped as a sky blue raccoon, with a black mask, and black stripe around his waist came into view. Rose was just staring at this scene shocked that her father and grandfather destroyed the reputation the school had with being a peaceful one. Rose felt something crawling on her leg and it scared the hell out of her. She jumped out of the locker and fell onto the ground.

"Hey it's the fresh meat." The Rick said as he walked over to Rose, he picked her up by the scruff of her neck and slammed her into the wall just once and held her there. "You are only slightly lucky you little piece of…" "Hey now the cameras in here have sound, so watch what you say." Rose's father said. "Shut up Daren, you are just as bad as this worthless piece of shit." Rick punched Rose in the face and broke her jaw, after he punched her he released her and let her drop to the floor.

Rick and everyone laughed and then Rick picked up Rose again, but this time he threw her into the lockers Rose was just barely conscious when Rick grabbed her arm put it in one of the lockers and then slammed it shut nearly breaking Rose's arms.

Suddenly the principles walked in and grabbed Rick and slammed him into the wall, "How many times have we warned you punk, in this school you do anything intolerable while we are watching and listening, you will be punished." Rick sighed, "Whatever I have had my fun and it was worth it saying shit," Mr. Ferdinand grabbed the bear by the ear twisted around and then picked him up and tossed him into one of the showers.

"Now I will not have any one else saying that word, or any other am I clear?" everyone else, but Rose and Rick nodded. "Good now get cleaned up, factory work class where everyone makes me money is about to start, and you don't want to end up like Rick over there right?" Every again but the two nearly beaten unconscious nodded.

Rose started to feel her heart slow down, just getting slower and slower, she just couldn't take it much any more, her mind wanted her to live, but her body was just giving up on her, she started to struggle to breath, until she just didn't care to try any more, she just said 'Go to sleep and things will be better.' She closed her eyes and re-opened them again.

She was back in the office with the keys and Nick worriedly shaking her. "Rose, Rose… What's the matter, please say something." Rose started to feel a little dizzy from the shaking; she grabbed Nick's hands and pushed them away from her. "Stop shaking me, you're making me very dizzy." Rose figured it would be best to down play every thing that just happened so she didn't say anything to Nick. Nick smiled that he finally got a response from her, he gave her a hug.

Rose sort of liked the badger, but she wasn't in the romantic mood of things, so she didn't accept a long one, but enough to show she was appreciative that he tried to hard to snap her out of her daze. They both left and went down to get Lisa. "Okay we have the keys, but first before we go in there there's somewhere I want to go, that I will go alone to so will you two mind waiting here until I get back?" Nick and Lisa looked at each other, and then nodded, "Good because I need these keys to get in the room."

Rose walked out of the office having a feeling the squirrel was dragging her in the direction she needed to go, she saw that the room was bricked up, after her granddad died in a plane crash. Rose tapped on the bricks and heard tapping on the other side, she scooted back enough to give her room to run a little, she jumped into the wall and the bricks collapsed since it was very hollow behind the wall.

Rose looked at the door, and tried the knob, she was correct she needed the keys she felt if the squirrel wanted her in there he would help show her the way, so she just jingled the keys and she dropped them on the ground, all the keys were moved to one side or the other, except a single silver key with a strange marking on it. she picked up the keys and put the silver one in the lock and unlocked the door, and slowly made her way down the flight of stairs, once she got to the bottom, she looked around, the place looked exactly the same as when she saw herself as the squirrel, the only difference was there was blood stains all along the walls, like there was a war here and instead of cleaning they just let whatever in her decompose and whatever.

Rose looked around and started to have a smell that she knew of, but didn't want it to be true, she took another quick whiff of the smell and she confirmed it was the smell of death and decomposition. Rose looked around, but the room was too dark, "Hello is there anyone here?" Rose said hoping someone was there, but she knew it was a worthless cause, "I know what happened down here, but I can't see, if you are trying to show me something, please turn the light on." Rose started to laugh a little to herself; she doesn't believe in ghosts, she concluded the squirrel was a figment of her imagination.

Suddenly the lights came on, and Rose looked all around, the place was cleaner then she thought, and the stains she thought was blood, was just paint, she looked around, "Wow they were actually trying to repaint the room." Suddenly Rose felt something tug at her arm and started to pull her in the direction of the lockers. Rose looked at all the lockers and saw that one was slightly open, then she remembered that was the one she was hiding in as the squirrel.

Rose slowly went over to the locker, her heart was racing thinking of all the possible outcomes of what would happen if she opened the locker, she stopped when her hand touched it, then she forced herself to calm down there's nothing in the locker. She opened the locker and she found a picture of her father and grandfather, she looked at the locker number 256, she wanted to remember the number she went back up the stairs feeling the place was for some reason lighter, and she left the room.

Rose went back to the records room with Nick and Lisa, she looked at the key chain started to try out all the keys, until finally she found it, Rose opened the door and there was rows upon rows of files of information. Rose, Nick and Lisa all smiled that they have a lot of time until school starts because they just remembered it was Saturday so that meant they had a full day to look at all this information they wanted to see.

Rose was looking around student files, when suddenly a stack of folders and newspapers fell over on top of her, the other two were too busy looking in folders to notice that some collapsed. Rose looked through the newspapers as she was putting them back up on the counter then she noticed the first time the school was made, what many called the "Ground Breaking Ceremony" she looked at the site and then tried to imagine what it was like before her grandfather got control as the main principle, but she saw him in the photo, she was shocked he actually looked happy.

Rose put the newspaper back on the counter, then found one with a terrible news report about the school… Rose looked at it and read it several times,

August 23, 1979

Happy Tree Intermediate School: Worst School in the world

Reports of this infamous school have been brought to light by a nice janitor that was horrendously fired from the preparatory for not cleaning up a mess that it was his supposed job to clean, this janitor explained how several students went missing, how some students were found dead in the locker room, many officials report that the only things they recognized in the locker room after an incident report that many of the students witnessing Mr. Ferdinand, Senior beating up a male student and making a mess of the school, they went immediately in the room and found a pool of blood, and an unconscious bear in the showers, they immediately arrested Mr. Ferdinand Senior and closed the school for re-conditioning. How ever there has been a report by a family that their son went to the school, but was never found, police have examined everything and everyone, no one has any information on the whereabouts of the student…

Rose put the newspaper on the counter and started to feel a little scared now, she looked around the fallen folders and found one she opened it up, she did a quick glance without looking at the name and saw it was a young graphite grey squirrel that was only eight years old attended the school, Rose looked up at the name and saw it was torn out. Rose started to feel sad she may never know who the squirrel is, she puts all the folders back on the counter and then turned to look around, but when she turned back all the folders were back on the floor.

"What in the…" then she put them all back again turned away and looked back, again they were on the floor, she got tired of it and she started to take notes of what fell where maybe it was a sign, she put them back up turned and they were on the ground again exactly in the way they were before. Rose looked at the names on the folder and started to come up with various letters that spell out something.

Rose looked at the first names and figured to try the first letter of the names of the folder.

Ben Reynold, Ingred Moranous, Leslie Belder, Lisa Neverao. Rose shuddered at the name of the last folder because that folder was her best friend that was looking through records with her, she opened the folder and found a picture it looked like Lisa and the Squirrel hugging. Rose froze looking at the image. She then started to doubt it was true.

Rose put the folders up and re-read the letters of the first names, B.I.L.L, she read out and she felt someone give her a pat on the back she turned around and nothing was there, then she wanted to try figuring out the last name, but this time only one folder fell and it was Lisa's folder. Rose was looking around… "Lisa… come here quickly please." Lisa dropped the folder she was looking at and went over to Rose, "Does the name Bill ring a bell for you?" Lisa nodded "Yeah he was my brother why?" Rose dropped the folder and stared blankly at Lisa.

Lisa just sat there smiling and then smile had broadened once she realized that Rose figured it out. "Nice job, my dear you solved an unsolved mystery that been unsolved for many years, question is are you trustworthy not to say anything." Lisa looked around, and then smiled "Well if my brother trusted you with this information then I guess you are." Lisa smiled Nick was still gathering things from folders and saw a photo in Roses folder that shocked him.

Rose smiled "What about Nick, does he know anything?" Lisa looked over the direction Nick was in, "No he shouldn't only people my brother trusts know the secrets here so he doesn't know anything." Suddenly they heard Nick on the other side of the room. "Hey Rose, Lisa. Come here I found an interesting picture."

Rose and Lisa went over to Nick as he held up the picture, "Look Rose its your father when he was here and when he was playing football." Rose and Lisa sighed in relief, "That's great Nick." Nick smiled "What have you two found?" Rose smiled, "Just news articles." Nick laughed "Sweet I found the most interesting thing so far." Lisa smiled as she slowly walked out of the record room, she slammed the door shut, with Nick and Rose in the room.

"Lisa what are you doing?" Lisa smiled nothing personal dears, but no one is solving what happened to my brother, and you two know too much as it is, are you two afraid to know this building is actually outside the border of Happy Tree Town, so any death here means permanent." Rose looked a little shocked, "Lisa you wouldn't." Lisa just sat there and smiled as she took the keys out of the door to the records room and went to another room.

Not much later she returned to the records room and started to pour gas all over the door. Nick and Rose both smelled it almost immediately. They ran over to each other and held hands. Rose looked at the door a little worried, but then couldn't bring herself together well until she finally broke.

She grabbed Nick and pulled him in for a kiss, Nick was shocked by this, but then started to get into the mood after he realized that she was the one kissing him, which made his heart flutter with love. Once Rose broke apart the kiss she looked him in the eye, "I'm very sorry I got us stuck in this situation Nick, and I know you love me, but I never could tell myself if I loved you too, but since we are about to die, I always loved you."

Nick nodded and grabbed Rose and pulled her into a hug, and then topped it off with a kiss. Lisa outside just smiled that her trick worked she knew they loved each other and they are going to be happy together. She stopped pouring the gas and looks around "Oh by the way you two this is for saying that cursed word multiple times." She lit a match and set the area on fire. Lisa then quickly ran to the front of the door and used the keys from the office to unlock the door which worked and she got out of the building and looked around at the freedom of being outside of the school.

She turned around to see her brother in the school smiling that his name was finally released, but anger that she was going to kill the only one he trusted enough that he knew was smart enough to figure it out. His body turned from a normal little adorable squirrel into a dark menacing blood thirsty creature then broke the doors and grabbed his sister, crushing her in anaconda like tentacles, while the other part of his body was fighting to put out the fire.

Rose and Nick were just sitting in the room while it was filling with smoke just kissing and praying that they will be together forever no matter what happens, just as they finished making the pact of that, the oxygen in the room was depleted and there was barely any left for the both of them.

A/N Well that was longer then I thought it would be, and I wanted the ending to be like that, I don't know why, but yes this is what Stir crazy does to me, makes me write sad/tragic stories, with little points of happiness. Any way Enjoy and Review please I would like to know how well this one turned out.