And here goes chapter one!
Enjoy!

Carnage Paradox.

Chapter One: "Don't talk to strangers!"

The moment she jumped out of the car; she felt like her life was taking a 180 degree turn already. The little town that was a few miles away from the camp looked extremely welcoming and bright, people walked with a cheerful expression on their faces, some couples held hands while little kids played tag and ran practically everywhere. The marketplace had quite the amount of shops; each and every one of them sold various items of cheap prices, things that you wouldn't find in the city.

The little red-head smiled widely, despite her face being covered by her spiky and messy bangs, she still managed to see it all. Her being a city girl made it all the more fascinating to her big black shining orbs, surprisingly enough; this new atmosphere didn't make her feel uncomfortable at all, on the contrary, she actually felt at ease for the first time in her life.

Her mother gave her a small smile from inside the car, "You sure you're going to be okay, sweetie?" She asked, fully concerned about her daughter's current state. The little red-haired dandruff girl nodded eagerly, her green suitcase still at hand, "Yeah, I'm going to be okay."

Her mother grinned and did a cheerful thumbs up, "Do your best, okay? Try to get yourself a cutie while you're at it, I still want to be a grandmother someday!"

She gasped and hissed in a low tone, "Mom! D-Don't talk about that!" she blushed, averting her eyes from the now laughing mother. The woman waved her hand while winking at her embarrassed daughter, "I'm just joking, dear! Have fun and try to make as many friends as possible! Don't forget to call me frequently too!"

"I will, mom."

Smiling at her one last time, she blew her a kiss; "Take care, honey-boo." She waved.

The red-head smiled and waved her back, "Take care," she said sweetly as she looked at the car that was now driving away. She sighed and looked at the cheerful little town behind her; it was the first time she was left alone all by herself out in the middle of 'nowhere'. Of course, it didn't seem or look bad; it was just... something she wasn't ready for. Most of the time, she'd be at least be accompanied by someone, often by her cousin or mother, but this time—it was different, completely different.

As absurd as it sounded, she was the one who wanted to join the 'Happy Tree Friends' summer camp, despite her mother's opinions and her saying how childish it looked; she figured that starting off with something lightly might help her become a little bit more social and less shy. She was distant her whole life and mostly accused of being anti-social by her classmates, even if it was partially true, it did hurt a lot. Deep down she thought if she really needed friends, that having people invade her privacy was a good idea. But despite these negative thoughts and doubts, she figured that having a go at this wouldn't hurt.

When her cousin came in her house and told her about it, she couldn't help but wonder what made him so excited, it looked like a regular summer camp, just what was it that made it so special?

Turns out it wasn't as 'normal' as she thought it to be, seemed like the whole idea was based after a 'game'. The founder claimed that the winner would get some kind of reward, reward which was still labelled as unknown until now.

Indeed she was curious, but not to the point of joining and finding out. Soon after, she informed her mother about it, who showed very little interest and simply joked; "A summer camp? You're no grade-schooler, dear!"

She was right, in some way. But things just got even more complicated after numerous accidents at the university, accidents in which she was the victim. Her having been bullied often was also a problem, and the lack of friends and acquaintances made it all the more worse. Whenever something odd happens in class, they'd accuse her, and because she was always quiet about it, she never denied having done anything or not. Because of that quiet and confined personality of hers; many misunderstandings got in the way and only complicated things to a certain extent, worrying her mother and the rest of her family. Eventually, they were all afraid that it'll affect the little red-head mentally, and so a week later, they had a discussion about it. It didn't last so long, but it ended up quite well. Her mother agreed about her leaving for some 'childish summer camp' and made sure to prepare her stuff, noting that summer wouldn't last long. The red-haired dandruff girl thought for a moment and concluded that being adventurous at times was a good thing, and 'Happy Tree Friends' sounded like a good thing as well. She was most definitely up for it.

Smiling to herself, the spiky-haired dandruff girl walked cheerfully towards her destination, taking time to admire the many shops and people she passed by. She didn't know why, but something made the little town near the forest unsettling. Perhaps was it just her imagination?

She shook her head, again... with her delusional suppositions. She seriously had to stop thinking so negatively.

As she walked and walked aimlessly, she realized that she actually had no idea where to go or where to actually find the camp. Figuring that asking someone for directions would be the wisest idea, the little spiky red-haired dandruff girl looked left to right for someone who would be kind enough to show her the way, she noticed an adorable old couple walking towards the park and thought that asking those two wouldn't be really difficult, they also looked like they knew quite a lot about the little town.

She jogged towards them and waved her hand meaning for them to notice her, surprisingly, they didn't bat an eye.

After finally getting in their line of sight, she smiled sheepishly and called out; "E-excuse me, b-but could you sh-show me where—"

Without even noticing her, they went past her and ignored her completely, continuing their conversation. A feeling of hurt attacked her weak heart, if they didn't want to be interrupted, they could have at least apologized, but ignoring her like that was too cruel.

Sighing, she looked again at the pedestrians and searched for someone who looked kind enough to help her out, this time; a young mother holding hands with her 4-year old daughter caught her attention. Again, she made her way towards her and tried to look as friendly as possible, waving her hand slowly; "Um, hello? Excuse m-me but I—"

To her great dismay, she was completely ignored as the smiling woman started a playful conversation with her daughter. Purposely ignored twice in a row, what a nice start.

She hoped it was some sort of coincidence, if not then she had no idea what made them distance themselves from her, was she that weird? Was it the dandruffs, did they think she was dirty? She asked herself many questions but lacked the ability to answer them herself.

Biting the tip of her finger nervously, she took out of her pocket her cell phone and thought that calling her mom would be a good idea, she probably didn't go that far anyway, and she'd rather search in the comfort of the car with her mother's pleasant company instead of asking unfriendly townspeople for directions. But as soon as she noticed her mother's name in the list of contacts, she realized that calling her would mean relying on her again, something she truly wished not to do anymore.

She closed her cell and looked at both directions, surely; at the very least somebody would be kind enough to help her. Her dark orbs caught a group of kids running playfully at the park nearby; she smiled heart-warmingly and walked towards them, making sure not to scare them somehow.

One of the kids, a 9-year old boy stopped playing as soon as he saw her coming, his eyes widening with astonishment. The rest tilted their heads curiously at their friend's interesting change of expression, they turned and noticed the little red-haired girl running towards them, did the same.

"H-Hello." She greeted happily, still out of breath from her unusual running. The group of children all looked at her, wide-eyed, as if she was some sort of abnormal being. She, however, did not care, as long as they didn't ignore her.

Realizing they didn't reply to her greeting, she decided to cut through the chase and pointed at the brochure she was given the day of the interview, "Um, do you children perhaps know where I could find this camp?" She asked sweetly.

The 9-year old boy bit his lip and furrowed his brows at one of the kids next to him who smiled and nodded happily; "Yup! We do!"

He hit him hard on the head and glared, "No, we do not!" he hissed at the now whining little boy.

She gasped at the act and came closer, squatting next to the injured boy and caressing the back of his head softly, "Are you okay?" she asked then tilted her head towards the culprit, "What's wrong with you?!"

For a split second she swore he showed her his middle-finger, something she did not want to believe. For her, children meant innocence, sweetness and kindness, but not this!

When the ill-mannered 9-year old ran away, the group followed him immediately, all not bothering to look back at the perplexed red-head who was still crouched. The little boy next to her smiled sheepishly then shrugged as he stood up, "Sowwie, we can't help you, pretty lady."

She blinked twice, "Eh? W-Why?"

He looked at her silently for a moment until his lips curved into a warm and sweet smile, "Cause' that's law!" He said as he fled as well.

Eh?

Law?

Was it some kind of joke? She didn't know but it mostly sounded like it, these are children we're talking about, so something like this isn't supposed to be surprising.

But it wasn't a coincidence, first the old couple, then the young mother with her daughter, and now the children. Something's up, something's... wrong!

Standing up abruptly, she didn't bother in the appearances again and this time went ahead and asked whatever person was in her line of sight. She asked a highschool girl, but was again ignored completely, a young business man who was passing by; again... then there was this nice-looking shop-keeper, but again and again—she was ignored.

This freaked her out to the extent where she couldn't even breathe evenly anymore, the summer heat was killing her, and her running everywhere wasn't helping either. The words coming from the little boy haunted her, a law...? What kind of law forbids you from talking to... strangers.

She didn't know why, but it sounded childish, incredibly childish.

She ran and ran, stuttering excuses as she pointed at the camp's image on her brochure, helplessly looking for at least somebody who would mind showing her where to go.

Not bothering to see what's in front of her, she continued running and asking until she bumped into something hard and fell backwards. She stood on a sitting position and rubbed her behind painfully, opening an eye slowly to see what she bumped on; she assumed it was either a pole or a wall. But her assumptions fell on the ground as soon as she saw the tall and strong scary figure in front of her, her eyes widening as she began to tremble in fear.

"I-I... S-Sorr..." She stuttered, not able to make a proper apology. The man looked at her with a slack-jawed expression, she thought he'd ignore her as well, but to her great surprise; he smiled sheepishly at her and crouched to offer her a hand, "Sorry! I didn't really see where I was going!" he said while sticking out his tongue meaning that it was my bad. She blinked twice in surprise and glanced at his offering hand as if it was the weirdest thing. After processing what had just happened at the moment and a few minutes back, she finally smiled happily and grabbed his hand, allowing him to pull her up. Finally! Someone normal!

The tall green-haired man scratched the back of his head nervously, a small smile engraved on his perfect face. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt that revealed his well-shaped body and muscles; she figured he was the type of guy who would go frequently in a gym to start a workout, that is until she noticed his dog tags and military outfit.

She realized that she's been checking him out for some while now and averted her eyes shyly, "S-Sorry," she finally apologized. The man shook his head, "Don't be! I was the one at fault, I should have looked where I was going, heh."

She smiled and unfolded the brochure while mumbling, "I-I'm glad you're n-not ignoring me."

He blinked twice, staring at her blankly until he finally spoke; "They've been ignoring you as well?"

The red-haired dandruff girl nodded, "Yeah, a-apparently..."

"Wow," he breathed out, "I'm glad I'm not the only one, for a split second I was going paranoid, thought they were scared of me or something..."

And then it struck her, "Are you from around here?" She asked. He shook his head and took out a familiar brochure, "I came here to look for the happy tree friends summer camp."

She gave him a blissful smile as she pointed at her brochure, "M-Me too! I'm already a member!"

"Really?!" He smiled back, "That's great! We can go and look for it together then!"

She nodded with a large grin, happy that things were now going well. This small encounter taught her not to judge people by their appearances.

He swung his backpack on his shoulder and tilted his head, "So? Got any ideas on where to go?"

She shook her head while picking up her suitcase, "No, if I did then I don't think I would've ran like crazy looking for help this whole time."

He chuckled, "I guess so," he said half-heartedly as he began to walk, the red-haired girl catching up, "By the way," he began; "What's your name?"

"I'm—"

He cut her off, "And by name I mean the one they gave you," he smiled.

She looked at him for a moment, her lips curving into an 'o' as she tried to remember what they named her; "F-Flaky, I guess."

The war vet laughed, she didn't find it all that funny though, "What...?" She pouted. He waved his hand carelessly, "Sorry! I'm just happy that I'm not the only one who got a kiddish name!"

Flaky raised an eyebrow; he wiped off a tear from his eye, "I'm Flippy, apparently." He said while reaching out his hand for a shake, Flaky smiled and accepted his gesture, "Nice to meet you, Flaky!" He grinned, she nodded shyly, "S-Same...

...Flippy."

After walking for what seemed hours, they finally found the bus stop and the town's map, Flippy smiled triumphantly as he threw his backpack on the bench. Flaky sat quietly and admired the young war vet that was reading the map carefully; she was lucky, unexpectedly lucky. If she didn't bump into him then god knows what would have happened. Her not being used to socializing and staying in crowds resulted in her building some sort of trauma, something she wasn't proud of. Surprisingly enough, Flippy did not seem or look terrifying to her judgemental eyes, on the contrary, she felt very safe and secure when he was around, not only was he extremely nice, but he also looked really tough. When she hit his chest, she seriously thought it was a wall or a pole, one of the two.

He smiled frequently and was the one who started the conversations, he talked about many things and Flaky just listened attentively, he had a comfortable and reassuring presence, something she has rarely seen.

"This is it," He said happily, bringing her back to reality as well. He turned to face the red-head, "The bus will come in about ten minutes, we're pretty lucky it's the last one."

Flaky smiled while nodding, "G-Guess it wasn't s-so bad huh..."

"Wha?" he chuckled, then tilted his head curiously, "What are you saying?"

She started twirling her thumbs while looking at the ground, "Well... I mean, nobody wanted to help u-us and—"

"Feh," he snorted, rubbing the edge of his nose with his index finger, "We didn't need their help anyways, and we managed to do perfectly fine without them."

"Y-Yeah, but still... don't you find it—"

"Weird? Yup," he responded as he opened his bottle of water, Flaky gulped and glanced at the road. They were right in front of the forest's entrance, waiting patiently for the bus to come and pick them up. Both of them remained quiet, Flippy was simply drinking on his bottle while Flaky took the time to text her mother, saying that everything was going on just fine. A few minutes later, her mother responded, saying that it was great and that she hoped her daughter would grow a backbone, in which the red-head responded that it wasn't needed at the moment.

She smiled and closed her phone, stuffing it back in her pocket and sighing quietly. She was about to throw a glance at Flippy until she realized that he was already sitting right next to her, eyes wide and a small smirk on his face. The startled red-head nearly jumped, "W-Woah! You scared me!"

Flippy chuckled as he patted her on the head, "Sorry! I guess I have a tendency to scare people without even trying!"

Without realizing that her face was already flushed red from embarrassment, she averted her eyes from his gentle gaze and murmured, "D-Don't worry a-about it..."

"Your mom seems really nice," he said bluntly, a grim expression on his face. Flaky smiled sheepishly while scratching her jaw with her index finger, "Umm, I wouldn't say that... she can become really irritating at times, but I still love her dearly... even though she underestimates me most of the time."

He tilted his head curiously, "Underestimates you?"

Nodding, she continued; "Yeah, she always wants me to rely on her and h-her only. Before my parents divorced, she had some sort of j-jealousy complex; she hated it when I asked my dad for stuff or when I t-told him a few secrets, she wanted me to favour her. I wasn't capable of doing so, since I l-loved them both dearly... but..."

She sighed and tilted her head to give the quiet Flippy a smile, "I guess it didn't really go well... in the end, they just weren't meant for each other."

"Sorry," he apologized, she gasped and lifted both her hands, "D-Don't be! I'm sorry for bringing it up!"

He gave her a small smile before noticing that the bus was already coming towards them, he took his backpack and jacket; grabbing them both and resting them on his shoulder, "Guess we got to go."

Flaky nodded and took her suitcase, the bus stopped and opened its doors, revealing a mysterious old man wearing a worn-out red cap and a dark green vest, his jeans looked baggy and torn, he turned and gave them a weird grin; showing his awful dentition.

"Hop on."

Flippy gave half a nod and glanced at the nervous girl behind him, "You okay?" he asked concerned, she lifted her eyes up and nodded, he smiled in return then entered the bus with her following closely behind. The bus driver closed the doors and drove his way towards the camp.

Both of them were surprised to see that they were the only ones in the bus, while Flippy didn't seem to care; Flaky on the other hand started having second thoughts about her going further on her journey. She didn't know much about Happy Tree Friends after all, and it seemed as though Flippy did not as well.

They talked and talked about things that didn't really seem to matter, Flippy didn't bother bring up a subject related to war, while Flaky didn't mention her 'trauma'. Both of them looked like they were enjoying their trip, and it was a good sign for little Flaky, who worried often about other people's opinions about her.

She found it awkward calling him 'Flippy' and her being called 'Flaky' sounded odd as well, she didn't bother ask for his real name though, since everything was already going smoothly; besides, once they'll be in the camp, they'll have to call themselves by their new names.

After about twenty minutes, the bus stopped near the camp's entrance, both of them took their belongings and bid farewell to the driver, whose grin only became wider.

"Have fun, kiddos." He said as he closed the doors, Flaky only smiled and waved in response while Flippy didn't pay much attention, he was more focused on what lied in front of him.

There was a small wooden sign in the left, written on it was 'Happy Tree Friends'.

Flippy looked at the path that led towards the camp and thus further deep inside the forest, he noticed quite a few amount of bungalows and small houses, there was also a lake nearby that looked good for going on a midnight swim. Looking further right, he saw about two or three tree houses and a few cabins, there was a small playground behind them and assumed it was originally built for kids.

Flaky was trying her best at containing her excitement, this was it... Happy Tree Friends.

She glanced at Flippy who had a deadpan expression; his green eyes fixed the camp with so much intensity that made her shiver.

Before they even realized it, a tall man about Flippy's height walked towards them, he had light blue hair and eyes, pale milky skin and a glazed expression, rather dull-looking. He was wearing a simple outfit that consisted of a simple white shirt, jeans and red sneakers, he didn't look like he was much older than him.

He gestured at the camp, keeping the same dull expression, "Welcome, to Happy Tree Friends." He said calmly, "My name is Lumpy, I'll be your guide."

She didn't think that the workers had to keep childish names as well, but it didn't really matter, if it was part of a certain policy then there was no helping it. They were a little late, and she noticed quite the amount of people near the bungalows, assuming that they were also newcomers to this camp.

She smiled to herself.

It was about time to change, to become someone else.

And this camp was her chance.

But little did she know, that while she was busy daydreaming, Lumpy gave her taller companion a mischievous smirk, that was quickly returned by an ominous light glowing in his eyes.

TBC.

I think I was too explicit on Flaky's background in this chapter, although I did hope to make it short and less boring, inspiration got the best of me and I ended up making this.
I didn't describe Flaky's outfit in this chapter, I thought that leaving it to the reader's imagination would be wiser, (even though I didn't do same for Flippy and Lumpy in here, Flaky's a lot more unique.) But in the future chapters, I'll be sure to describe her outfits.

In my opinion, this chapter was quite boring, but no worries! I promise the next one will be full of surprises! I'll introduce the rest of the characters as well. Don't take this chapter lightly though, since this is a 'Psychological/Horror' fic, I tend to write useful things about my characters, so try and be attentive at their backgrounds... all of them, and not only Flippy and Flaky.

Well! Review! Support! Love!