A single person can be afraid of many things, many dangers can be encountered. But nothing is more dangerous than close people leaving you behind in false trust when such peril appears.
It was a stormy night outside and the rain turned to be a real nuisance as it was fairly limiting the sight. "Are you sure we should do this?" Lifty asked his brother once again, he could tell that Shifty got evenly distressed at the thought and he secretly wished that they both could make a turn and just don´t do this.
"We´ve gone through this, as you could see we have nothing left to eat and the rent for our home has to be paid soon." Shifty repeated. He knows too well that Lifty is anxious about stealing from Flippy again. But something must happen. In this repetitive and well-known cycle of death and resurrection many deaths are gruesome and horribly painful, but also short.
Starving is evenly horrible but definitely not short. And that is something he is afraid of the most, a long and agonizing demise. "Besides, we know now all too well what went wrong the last time! Now we just focus on a few valuable things, steal just enough to fetch us something to eat for at least a week and ensure that we are "allowed" to live in our apartment just a month longer! No big deal".
Shifty tried to assure his brother.
"Yeah, I know but… I´m just afraid that we will goof at something and he´ll wake up, flipping out once again and... you know… do stuff to us. His murders are not really something I would describe as a pleasant feeling you know? But I guess you´re right, we really do need something, and his sleep is one of the deepest I´ve ever seen."
Lifty chuckled a bit unsure if he found it amusing that not even a television-trumpet can wake him from his slumber or if he´s just unknowingly trying to calm himself. He remembered the last time they were trying to steal from him. He speaks to his brother about the dolorous deaths they incur,
but one thing hurting him the most is the treacherous fact that if danger really occurs, he can be sure that Shifty is trying everything to save himself and has not any scruple to leave him behind, to leave him to perish. This topic was often brought on the table when they had breakfast.
The dawn is the only thing he´ll ever witness after dying. He doesn´t even know when, how and particularly why he gets resurrected every time, but he most certainly knows that when he´s greeted by the dawn, that he most likely bit the dust even before the dusk of the previous day. This thought was gradually getting to him, especially because this was sometimes caused by his sibling.
"We will work together this time, right?" He asked Shifty, a little bit unsettled
"Of course, we do! We always work as a team. Why?" Of course, he would say that. That´s the standard answer he always gets but Lifty knows it the better. He knows that, if they are about to encounter Flippy on his "flipside" again, he would have to most certainly ensure on his own to survive.
"Is it because I left you behind the last time? Please don´t bring this up again. I already told you that I´m sorry! Besides this time, we won't even face danger…" Shifty got his face close to Lifty's "We know it better this time, he won´t even know that we were in."
Yeah sure…, he thought, we´re living in Happy Tree, a place whose name is already its own paradoxical. There will be surely nothing bad happen, he sarcastically told himself. Lifty closed his eyes in the hope to get some sleep before the heist. "This is a hell of a nighttime job" he purred and slowly dozed off.
"Wake up we´re there". Shifty tapes his brother on the shoulder and got out the van. Thankfully the rain and wind eased perceptible, so they won´t get their green fur drenched with water. Suddenly the moment he tried to put out the van the exhaust pipe let out a loud bang, waking Lifty instantaneous as he shrieked at the sudden outburst of their "old but gold" driving vehicle.
"You´re sure he´s asleep?" Lifty knew the answer for himself, the signs are literally everywhere. The lights are out, the blinds shut and the door, how could it be any different, locked.
But still he got this uneasy feeling that something is wrong.
"No, I bet he´s just waiting behind the door for you to jump out and kill you instantly." Shifty taunted his brother putting on a cocky smile on his face.
Sometimes he wished Lifty would be less timid concerning the things they´re about to do. Sure, things must get planned to be smoothly done but he´s often exaggerating with his thoughts of caution.
"Oh, shut up…" he hissed at his brother, not amused as this joke gave him the chills out of pure imagination of that thought.
Shifty chuckled "Well, let's get started before it´s actually daytime."
With that said he took his lock pick and went for the front door.
"Wait!" Lifty said quietly but harsh. "Last time we went through his chimney to get in his house, if we go this way inside again, we can open the door naturally from the inside, so we leave less marks behind and he´ll have less evidence to prove that he got raided again."
The thing that happened now was something so rare that Lifty sometimes thought he should mark such moments in his calendar.
"I guess you´re right" Shifty admitted, "It can´t hurt to have at least clean paws if not a clean vest" he stated. "Get the ladder out of the van then, I don´t plan to climb that wall with my bare paws."
"Lifty get this, Lifty get that, Lifty do this…" he mocked Shifty as he gets slightly annoyed by Shifty bossing him around to do the hard work.
But what help does it get him? Somebody must do it, right?
Shifty ignored his sibling's tomfoolery and grabbed the ladder. It did not take them long to climb on the roof of Flippy's home.
"We should check his chimney first before we climb through, just to ensure it isn´t booby-trapped or something like this." "on all accounts" Lifty assured and took his flashlight out to scrutinize the chimney thoroughly. He then took a piece of paper and let it descend slowly just to check if the transit has any motion sensors on it.
They may act paranoid on this heist, but regarding the "victim" they are about to relieve of personal, and most hopefully valuable, things, you can´t be paranoid enough.
"It seems fine." Lifty affirmed "Fine, you go first." Shifty commanded, earning a scowl from his brother.
He hated it, he hated it with every seam of his existence, this was one of his brother's demeanor he didn´t only have a slight glimpse of resentment for, but an unaffected scorn.
"Sure, no worry. If there is anything of danger I´ll make sure to jump into the fray myself before you have to take the effort to throw me in!" Lifty jangled peevishly and climbed down without giving his brother even the opportunity to react to that.
With an annoyed sigh Shifty rolled his eyes and followed his cannon fodd… I mean brother.
"Did you have the possibility to check where exactly some things of value are? It would be mostly prevenient if we have to turn everything topsy-turvy to "prosper" ourselves." Even though Shifty had many bad traits in the sight of his brother, planning was none of it.
"You bet I had! The last time Flippy got visited by his friend lumpy, although I don´t have the slightest idea how anyone could befriend that out-of-stupidity-murderous moose, I managed to place a tiny whiny little camera on his twisted antlers. The most valuable thing is placed in his bed room."
Lifty got puzzled "Ok two things, you expect us to steel something on a location he is most likely present just now? We both know how that turned out last time! And second." A long and unnecessary pause was made, "what the heck did Lumpy do in his bedroom?"
They both stared at each other silently and shook their heads to get rid of the sudden thought they got.
"Well…" Shifty took the word again "I don´t care about the last one and I definitely don´t want to know!"
Shifty shook his head in disgust once more and started to explain smugly "But in his bedroom, I noticed a strongbox and I noticed Lumpy handing him money and…"
Lifty, slightly annoyed by the fact that his brother got in his "I explain everything step by step to you so that even the dumbest infant can understand this" mode and interrupted him
"Yeah I got it okay? Just let us make sure that this will be a swift in and out operation without rousing any suspicion okay? So, before you send me to do it I´ll go to his bedroom. Instead of having us both inside let me snatch the strongbox while you look for something else. I´m sure you noticed" He couldn´t help but putting a smirk on the last word "anything else of value, right?"
Shifty chuckled nervously and started to sweat a bit on his forehead "Yeah sure! Why would you think I didn´t? Heh…"
Lifty ignored his brother's sudden nervousness, it is bad enough that he sometimes has to die because of being the involuntary sacrifice, he will most certainly not die because of his brother's ineptitude, and the following prementioned consequence.
"Anyway, the Strongbox is in the drawer of the little cupboard next to his bed, you can´t miss it. So, you go fetch up his money and I go… to the bathroom! I noticed many valuable things there." Shifty proposed way too overconfident.
Lifty knew his brother for way too long to get fooled but this doesn´t matter right now. He just hopes that the content of the strongbox is enough, enough to live a month longer with a roof over the head.
Without talking to his brother any more words than necessary, Lifty went to Flippy's bedroom as silent as he could and opened the door as slow and quiet as possible. Every little creak caused him to sweat a little and made him wish he could just curl up with his striped tail and wake up in his bed, realizing that this happening right now was just a mere dream, but it was pure reality.
Finally, after a perceived eternity the door was open enough for the raccoon to enter the room, but he froze in terror as he saw Flippy's bed…without Flippy.
Lifty wasted no time and quickly but still as muted as possible went for the drawer and opened it wide.
In there was indeed said strongbox.
But below the strongbox was a folder with a tag "Medical record folder".
Curiosity getting the best of him he grabbed the folder and opened it
Patient: Flippy
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Specific disorder: PTSD/Posttraumatic stress disorder
Special note: If his posttraumatic state gets triggered, the patient becomes an exorbitant hazard for every living person surrounding him. Any factors triggering him must be avoided. Factors triggering him are sounds and situations reminiscent of war.
"So… anything reminiscent of war huh? The friendliest person in town gets crazy by a popping balloon or an opening Champaign bottle or… a banging exhaustion pipe! SHIT!"
But his sudden realization came to late as he heard a scream from a different room "Shifty!" Lifty immediately left the strongbox where it was and dashed towards the source of the noise to see his brother Shifty, struggling to breathe because of Flippy's choking grasp on his throat.
"Leave him alone! Please let go off him!" He screamed and pleaded and ran towards Flippy only to be pushed back harshly, banging his head against the heating placed next to the shower.
"Please! Don´t kill him, I beg you! What do you want I…I´ll g…give you anything you want! Really! If it is in my possibility to give to you I´ll do it but please just let my brother go!"
Flippy glared at him with his emerald eyes, not easing the grasp on Shifty's throat. The struggling of his prey left him in pure relish as well as the sight of tears, either caused by pain, or by despair.
"Anything huh?" The green bear repeated menacingly smirking. "Yeah everything! Just please let him go!" Lifty at the border of crying pleaded and started to feel a glimpse of hope. No matter what he will demand, if he sees a chance to rescue his brother he will surely use it!
"I want you then!"
The green raccoon blinked dumbfounded "You want…me? For what?"
"For a little fun." The green bear stated, remaining in his smugly state of menace. "Either you accept, or your brother will die, look how his green fur gets a mix of marvelous blue…" He said while looking at Shifty who´s struggling now to remain conscious. Flippy tightened his grip as Lifty suddenly yelled "Okay! Okay fine I´ll stay here but please let go off my brother!"
Lifty fell to his knees in exasperation and started crying with many mixed feelings in his stomach. He should just grab the strongbox and leave his brother to die. He will be alive tomorrow anyway, they always wake up in their own bed after dying but… he couldn´t.
Shifty never had trouble to dump his brother, he didn´t even had problem with leaving him to perish in an exploding submarine and had even no scruple to toss him out of a hot air balloon just to save himself. They could have toss out the cow but no, it was Lifty to be sacrificed once again.
But still, seeing his own brother in peril was too much for Lifty to bear, he couldn´t stand the sight of his predicament. It is his fate, it was his fate all along, he sees that now. A fate bound to agony and pain to make the life of his brother more joyful as he could avoid the pain, the torment.
"Do with me what you want, torture me, do your worst. But please… let my brother go…"
"Well…" Flippy finally let go off Shifty "I´ll stand true to my word." He pointed to Shifty and glared to him with a somber visage. "Go."
A single demand, but a clear one. Once Shifty gathered up enough air he stood up as fast as he could and backed away slowly.
He looked over to Lifty who still laid on his knees, sadness and sorrow all over his face "Lifty, I… you…" Without looking at him Lifty responded "Just go… you had no problems to sacrifice me so many other times. Please let it at least be on my purpose this time…"
"But…Lifty…I"
"Just go!" Lifty yelled at Shifty and he suddenly became unsure if his tears were out of sadness or out of rage. Without any more words he nodded, biting his lips, oppressing his tears, and ran off.
"So, now to the actual fun part." Flippy said, grabbing the raccoons tail and pulling him up so he is upside down. He tightened his grip, made a forceful swing and smashed Lifty on the ground as hard as possible. Lifty screams in pain but his outcry is cut short as Flippy jumped on top of his belly, pressing any air out of the rodent, almost completely deflating him. He kneeled on his ribs causing Lifty to moan in agony "I´ll make sure that you will remember this night. You will never ever again pester me here!"
With that said he pulled out his knife and impaled the raccoons hand on the floor. The pain goes through his entire body as he attempts to scream but only gets out a mere squeak as flippy, still standing on him, enables him barely to breath. As he senselessly tries to pull out the knife with his other hand he gets punched in the face, almost knocking him out. Flippy fixates his other hand and impales it as well. Getting off the now sniveling raccoon he raises his foot and stomps heavily on his kneecap. Feeling the splinters of his own kneecap piercing through his flesh and his joint he yowled but Flippy was relentless and repeated the same action to his other leg.
Almost passing out because of the unendurable pain Flippy sits down on top of his stomach one last time, leaning forward right over his bruised face.
"It was fun playing with you…" he purred as he pulled the knives out of Lifty's hand, raising the blade and ramming it right through Lifty's throat. A gargling scream is the last thing he hears from the mutilated raccoon as his twitching hands now lie lifelessly at the bottom.
With a last menacing chuckle Flippy stood up and went to bed, oblivious to the deed he has just a few minutes ago committed.
Shifty ran to his van, his eyes filled with tears of dread. The bear gave his word, but he can´t be sure if he´s true to it. Once in the van he gets it running immediately and dashed home with the highest amount of speed their old vehicle can afford.
Once arrived at his craved destination, he opens the door at an unusual pace, closes it immediately and ran towards his bedroom.
"What the fuck just happened? It was supposed to be fast and efficient. How could he have even noticed us? We were so quiet… so cautious…" With that thought he curled up into his bed, hugging his own tail as he was still scared by the situation, and wept himself to sleep.