Preface

Truths and Faults

It had been an accident. It was as simple as that. It wasn't her fault that she had gone down the wrong road. It hadn't been her fault that the dark rain kept her from noticing that the sign that red 'road blockage' had been knocked down and left to rot in the churning mud and water. And it definitely hadn't been her fault that there had been a dead body in the road, and that in her shock she had jerked her car to a stop, or that the force from the stop had caused her mane of hair-like quills to get stuck in the driver's seat material

None of it had been her fault. No. It had all been their fault.

Petunia and Giggles had been the ones to build the fence that had cut off the correct road – only God knows why. Toothy and Handy had been the ones to mess around with the stupid axes and cut down the sign, blinded by their own spree of ax filled excitement. Splendid had been the one to attempt and fail at CPR, killing Cuddles and leaving his corps in the middle of the road to startle her.

Oh, it also hadn't been her fault that The Mole had been peeling the skins off of apples an hour earlier, cutting himself. It hadn't been her fault that at that very moment Flippy had decided to stroll past the window of the Mole's home, and see the finger as it fell off of the Mole's hand. It wasn't her fault that Flippy had mental problems and flipped out, turning into Evil Flippy, the war stained homicidal maniac.

It had been a complete and utter coincidence that Nutty and Lumpy were working at the plant that day (Everyone always seemed to be switching jobs) and that they had 'misplaced' nine tons of radioactive waste in a lake just along the border of Happy Tree Valley. A lake that, it just so happened, was lying at the end of an incline on which the road Flaky was stranded on resided.

But maybe, in a way, it had been Flaky's fault. The outcome might never had happened if she had ever learned to control her raging fear. At the sight of a flipped-out Flippy, she couldn't hold the scream that erupted from her stomach. If she hadn't let out that scream, he might have continued on to brutally murder another Happy Tree Friend. But Flippy heard and the grin that followed let Flaky know that she was as good as dead.

He came over calmly, taking his time as the pounding rain darkened his green fur. Flippy's blazing emerald eyes shone like dragon scales and fire. The army bear's sharp teeth shone in the light of the radiation waste, turning them a sickly green as the bear grabbed onto the side of Flaky's car. With a single great heave, he lifted the car and upturned it, sending it and Flaky downwards toward the contaminated lake.

The car tumbled. The wheels exploded from sharp rocks, the roof was crushed inward, nearly crushing Flaky right then. The flying car got caught against a tree that grew on the incline. The car stopped, but Flaky was ripped from the seat and thrown out of the car window. Shards of glass got caught in her face, and the holes where quills had been were now spilling blood. Flaky let out another scream as she tumbled downwards.

But at the same time, all sorts of accusing thoughts entered her mind. Adrenalin filled her, temporarily masking the pain and allowed her to dwell on these new thoughts.

It never was her fault, was it? All of the death, the accidents, the pain - it was all their doing. She hadn't done anything do deserve such treatment. The only thing Flaky was guilty of was getting lost in this wide, scary world and wondering into Happy Tree Valley. That was all. And in a way, she had damned herself.

Flaky could just leave – any of the Happy Tree Friends could. But in a way the curse they all lived under was also a blessing. To die and to come back, no matter how painful was always better than permanent death. To all creatures, death was something to avoid at any and all costs. The drive for survival was greater than any pain that an animal could endure.

But Flaky was tired of it. She was fed up with the constant pain and deaths at someone else's expense. It was all because of their idiocy that she had to suffer every waking day. The porcupine was about to snap.

All of the irritation, hatred and anger that Flaky kept hidden inside, beneath the layers of characteristic kindness and shyness were crawling through the cracks made by such conclusions. Years of pent up emotions began to rise. Flaky's black pacman pupils seemed to shrink slightly and around them grew a band of scarlet.

She landed with a splash in the acid. The burning that immediately followed was like nothing Flaky had ever experienced. It was all of the injuries and deaths she had ever felt put together, and then multiplied by fifty.

Her skin began to dissolve. She opened her mouth to scream, but the acid flowed into her down her throat, dissolving her insides like spider venom. Flaky's quills disintegrated. Her eyelids burned away, and soon she was only a skeleton.

But before the acid made it to her brain, a thought repeated in her head. As the radioactive waste finally met it, the thought was still inside.

It's all their fault. They need to pay. They need to be punished. Every single one of them.