The dark green van slowed to a stop on the opposite side of the street from Happy Tree Town's jewelry store. The driver pointed to the door, took the hand of a certain red head, and pulled her out of the vehicle.

While they were opening the back of the van and grabbing the equipment, the male in the passenger's seat stayed staring out his window, emerald eyes glaring at the side view mirror where his brother and the girl were talking. The brother's hand was resting on her arm as he held out a mask similar to theirs to her like everything was normal, but the mean smirk he was sending at the mirror said otherwise.

xXx

Lammy was whistling cheerfully as she dusted the shelves that held necklaces in glass containers. The TV in the right corner of the store was on and the town's news station was showing; some reporter was talking about how the rowdy kids had to stop cow tipping on Lumpy's farm. She was about to change it when a photo popped onto the screen, causing her mouth to open and for her to drop her duster.

Because on the screen was a picture of her best friend, Flaky, with the word "MISSING" in bold letters above her head. Feeling her heart begin to beat louder, she turned the volume up and sat down behind the counter, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

"And in other news," the reporter's voice came, "we have now received information that confirms the red headed girl in the picture is, indeed, missing. Witnesses and close friends have said that she is usually very social, nervous at times, but always around her friends. She was last seen three days ago, leaving her house to go to the store. But after she didn't come back when dusk fell, a neighbor by the name of Splendid claimed to have gone out searching for her."

Splendid appeared on the screen, rubbing the back of his head while he spoke, "I got worried because I noticed that she was going by herself and without a car. I offered to give her a lift, but for some reason she denied and told me to go on with my day . ."

Well, yeah, Lammy thought. Everyone knew that whenever Splendid tried to help someone, he always screwed it up and ended up killing the person he was trying to assist.

"People just don't go missing like that!" Nutty's face popped up in front of the camera as he grabbed and started shaking it, screaming. "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHERE FLAKY IS!? AHHH! THE WORLD IS GOING TO END! SHE BUYS MOST OF MY CANDY!—" The screen turned into bars of various colors, a line of beeping was the only noise.

When it came back on, she could see Splendid in the background tying a screaming Nutty to a tree.

The reporter cleared his throat and apologized for the interruption, "That's all the details we have for right now, but we'll get back to you all when more evidence rises to the surface." The news went to a commercial break then, leaving Lammy to ponder on what she had just seen.

"Oh . . my God . ." She covered her mouth, worry for her friend filling her. What if she went outside of the town borders where the curse didn't reach? Knowing how clumsy and accident prone Flaky could be, she could already have been dead for all they knew . . .

Lammy was about to cry, thinking that her friend would never regenerate again, when bullets shot through the window. She screamed when she heard the crashing and hit the floor, using her arms to cover her head to protect herself. The glass of the shelves shattered and littered the floor, some pieces hitting her arms and slipping to the ground.

What was going on!? Just ten minutes ago she had been dusting the shelves, and now she would have to sweep up the excess glass! . . If she got out alive . .

"MR. PICKLES!" she cried out and, caring more for the safety of her stuffed toy pickle than her own, crawled over the glass towards where she had seated him on a chair. "Don't worry! I'm almost—!" A bullet flew past her and hit the plushie in the stomach, sending fluff everywhere as she stared at it, her face stuck in a silent scream.

She felt the tears rushing to squeeze out of her eyes as she crawled the rest of the way over and gingerly held him in her hands. "M-Mr. Pickles!" Holding him to her chest, she began crying for the loss of her toy—the thought of being able to buy another one not passing through her mind—barely picking up the sound of shoes stepping on glass.

Shushing her crying, she pushed aside the shards, shakily peering from behind the counter to see who had either came to see what had happened and help her . . or who had committed the act and came to finish what they had started.

Lavender eyes turning fearful, she spotted who she recognized to be one of the twins who everyone said they distasted because the two stole anything they could get their sneaky hands on. Not having lived in the town long, she had never really met or been face to face with them, but things changed, like they were right now. She brought the bits of Mr. Pickles up to her face and tried to be comforted by him, but seeing his button eye popped off along with half of his body torn away just made her condition worse.

Shifty looked around the store with his eyes, thinking that maybe he had shot the owner when he had showered bullets down onto the store. He kicked the caps from the ammo to the side wherever he walked, bent on finding the body and seeing who it was he had killed.

He didn't feel very guilty, things like this usually happened during robberies, and it wasn't like the person was permanently dead; they were merely napping while they waited for the next day to arrive so they could walk freely once more. Giving up the search when he saw the glittery surface of a diamond necklace, he grinned and raised his hand up, motioning someone inside.

Lammy didn't know what to do, did she call the cops, or try to get out of the store herself? But if they caught her trying to leave . . would they shoot her on the spot? She touched the middle of her forehead, wondering if it would hurt to be shot directly in the head.

She turned her attention on the new arriver, a short, slender—perhaps it was a female?—person who was wearing an eye mask similar to the Shifty's own and a scarf covering a big portion of her upper body. The only thing that stood out about her was the shortly cut fiery red hair that stood up straight in some angels. But what was in the hair was caught Lammy off her guard.

Dandruff flakes. And a lot of them. They were scattered throughout all of her head, the scarf sliding off to reveal them. There was only one girl that had so many flakes in her red hair . .

"Flaky?" Lammy asked in a whisper tone. "Is this where you've been—" She froze as she heard a clicking by her head, then the barrel of a gun pressed against her forehead temple.

"Now what do we have here?~" She was jerked up roughly and spun around to face the second twin, Lifty. "Maybe it was smart of my brother to tell me to go through the back, he must've known you'd be hiding~" He pulled her out from behind the counter and whistled. "Shifty! Look who I found hiding."

Shifty looked away from where he was dropping jewelry items into a bag that Flaky was holding up and smiled wider. "And who's that? Is she the girl who everyone made such a fuss about when she moved here a few months back?" Chuckling, he walked over so he was in front of her and turned her face from one side to another in his gloved hand. "I heard that she's a psycho, just another freak."

Lifty grabbed the shot up body of Mr. Pickles and pulled the rest of the stuffing out so it landed on the floor, making Lammy cry more as she watched him. "And did you get an eyeful of this thing? What a crazy bitch."

Flaky was standing to the side, watching with a hurting heart as the two mocked her friend and her psychological disorder. Making sure that she coughed loud enough for them to hear, she pointed to the van, asking if they could leave.

"Not so fast," Shifty grinned evilly as he took the gun from Lifty and held it out to her. "We don't want this girl to go ratting us out to the police, do we? Let's just, ya know, wipe her sleight clean before we clean out this store and leave."

She stared at the gun, then at her trembling friend who was mouthing a quiet please not to. Feeling the sting in her eyes, she shook her head. She would've screamed out no, but the twins had made it clear that she couldn't speak during the entire heist, lest someone figure out it was her.

Frowning, he took it back and handed it to his brother again, "Fine, Lifty take her in the back and do it. I don't want to get blood on my shirt like last time."

Lifty nodded and started pulling her along, and that's when Lammy started screaming. "SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!" Her cheeks were tear stained as she looked at Flaky, her lilac eyes boring into Flaky's own scarlet ones. "Flaky do something! I know it's you! What did they d-do to your hair!? Don't you know that people are looking for—" She stopped yelling when Lifty smacked her.

The timid girl's hold on the bag tightened as she stood and watched her friend get carried away to what she knew was her death, and she was letting it happen. People were looking for her? They had noticed her disappearance, how long had they been searching? She dabbed the tips of her fingers to the corners of her eyes to catch the tears as the door to the back shut behind them.

Silence . . . Silence . . . Then . . .

Bang!

The younger twin came back in minutes later, wiping the specks of blood off of his face and muttering how now his shirt was ruined.

Flaky stood quietly as she stared at the wild scene, knowing that she had let one of her best friends be killed. It was a guilty feeling, would Lammy get over it . . .

"And we're back with more details on the missing girl that goes by the name of Flaky."

Gazing at the screen, she saw Flippy looking into the camera, worry written across his face. "Flaky, wherever you are, we want you to know that we miss you and we won't stop searching until we find you. Everyone here is looking everywhere we can, don't worry. You'll be home soon."

She felt herself tear up more as she removed the eye mask and let the scarf drop to the floor. "F-Flippy . ."

His tone grew more emotional as he continued, "I won't stop looking for you until you're safe in my arms. You're my best friend, so just know that we all love you, I lo—"

The screen burst into electrical sparks and falling glass, making her scream. She turned and saw Shifty holding up the gun that he had used to shoot the screen. "What a ton of shit," he muttered. "Let's just put everything in the bag so we can get out of here."

For the first time since the night of her kidnap, Flaky was beginning to fear for her safety. She finally understood that what the twins had done was wrong; they had kidnapped her.

And they weren't letting her go.

"Take that! And that!" Shifty and Lifty were laughing as they pushed Cuddles down and started kicking him. "That's for not giving us your money! We know you have some!"

Cuddles covered his black eye, crying loudly as he pulled out a few dollars and three quarters from his pocket. "I-I'm sorry! I was gonna take Giggles to go eat ice cream and—"

Shifty swiped the money and put it in his shorts pocket, delivering another kick to the blonde's stomach. "Well now you can't! She's too fat anyways, so she doesn't need no ice cream!"

"Yeah! Next time when we ask for your money, you give it to us!" Lifty added on. "Got that, bunny boy?!"

Nodding, Cuddles pushed himself off the floor and ran away from them, his crying fading away the further he got.

"What a stupid head. Didn't Toothy tell him what happens when you don't listen?" They laughed together before walking away to go spend the money.

From behind a tree, two wide crimson eyes followed them. Flaky dug her hand into its bark as she covered her beating heart, re-watching the beat down she had just seen. Yes, it was true that Cuddles was her friend, so why hadn't she done anything? Why had she stood on the sidelines and let them get away with it? She had let them do it . .

Aha so I was in the writing mood. Crystal, YOU WILL FOREVER BE IN MY DEBT YOU BITCH xD Bahhh I am somewhat not into this story anymore. Should I put it on hiatus? Push it to the side? What do you guys think?