Your thoughts may be free, but you are not free of them


"Am I really in my brother's head now?" I look around in confusion, it all appears so strange. I´m not able to fathom it completely.

"No not in his head, but in his mind!" Where the fuck did that come from?!

"Sniffles is that you? You can actually hear me?" How is this Brainiac doing that? "And, just for you to notice, don´t you ever scare me like that again! Like jeez what´s wrong with you?!"

"Calm down, this is only possible because part of your mind is still in the real world. In a few minutes we won´t be able to communicate again. Just remember what I told you. In this world you will be resurrected directly after you died, but you will suffer the pain of your demise, so I highly recommend you not dying in here."

Wow, what a hint…

"Furthermore, there is something I experienced last time, you will have to decide carefully whether it´s the best to run or to stay sometimes…"

Wait, what?

"What do you mean by that? How does all this manifest-thingy work? What will I be about to face down here, or in here, or…ugh whatever you know what I mean! Hello?" I´m getting no response anymore, I guess that´s it then, I´m all on my own. Damn it´s dark, I can only see the minimal amount to be able to see at least which direction I´m going. Well let´s see… There are four corridors I think I´ll take the left one and I´ll go from corridor to corridor then…

The moment I take a first step in the corridor I sense a real strange odor emitting from it. It smells like something, or someone, died and was left to rot in the sun… Yuck! That smell is killing me, it makes it hard to breath! And why do I even need to breath if I´m not really here? Why can I even die? Well… I can worry about that later now I have to focus. Wait… Why does it feel so mushy down at my feet?!

"What the…" It feels like someone's… intestines. And I constantly feel like being watched… And what is this sound of a…greasy shuffling I constantly hear? What is wrong with your mind Lifty? But considering what you just did I shouldn´t be surprised that this place is literally fucked up badly… Just keep on going, just… Damn how long is this corridor? Hey, I can see a light far back there… great… that just means that this is indeed a long corridor and… for FUCKS SAKE! I´M LITERALLY WALKING IN SOMEONES INTESTINES! Wherever I look, there are intestines and blood on the floor, on the walls and… of course… I mean really? On the ceiling either? Well first it was terrifying but that´s just ridiculous… Well, I guess it would be best just to deal with it… wait! I hear someone crying! Like a little child! Literally I mean! I follow the noise, there isn´t even another option to do, I just have to use every hint and sign Lifty's mind is throwing at me. I see something, it is indeed a small child! A raccoon child to be specific. I can´t believe it, although it is turning its back towards me I would recognize that green fur at any time. This child looks like a miniature version of my brother! Wait it turns around?!

"WHY DO YOU HATE ME?"

"What? I don´t…" Aaaand away it runs… great… "Wait, please! I have to talk to you!" Damn it, why is he so fast? And why exactly are here two different directions available now? Where did this confluence come from? Fuck logic in this place! Seriously! Wait! I hear that sobbing once again. He must have stopped there. He sobs in the same position as one moment before, kneeling on the ground.

"WHY DO YOU HATE ME?"

"Please, wait!" Why must he run away again? Please I´m not that exercised to run endlessly after a crying toddler…

"I don´t hate you! Come back! I promise I won´t do anything to you just wait please!" But of course, my pleading is futile… "Please! *pant* wait *wheeze* for me…*pant*" That´s enough I can´t run anymore! I just need to… need to catch my breath… It should suffice if I just walk after him for a moment.

"GO AWAY!"

"Yelp!" How did he appear directly behind me? Wait why does this corridor turn now? Where is top, where is below? I just cannot fucking comprehend the way this corridor turns! What is even happen… "ouoaAAAAGH!" ow… why did I fly towards the ceiling now… And why did I have to land on my back? Now I´m all full of blood and who knows what else… fucking great… Just keep it cool Shift… heh… You can do this! You can get through this you just have to go on! There is the sobbing again and… the ceiling is the bottom now… OKAY! WHY NOT?! This time I´ll get you! And you better do not run off again I´m fucking pissed right now! Please, just give me a break! There he is… Just approach slowly… don´t make him notice you this time… Slooooow and quiet!

"I don´t want you here… I said… GO AWAY!"

Suddenly the little raccoon child grows rapidly in size and Shifty now stands before a giant deformed version of his brother. Madness in the eyes and his razor-sharp teeth are as big as Shifty is. He just flicks his tongue and winks with his left eye "Well I guess this is the perfect moment Sniffles just mentioned before to RUN THE FUCK AWAY! HELP ME!"

But the moment he turned around the giant green furred abomination grabbed him with his right giant claw and holds him tight, very tight…

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU´RE GOING? YOU WANTED A TALK RIGHT? SO, LET´S TALK!" Shifty wants to cover his ears at the volume of the monstrosity, but he has too much struggle in his grasp, he´s literally being squeezed.

"Please…uff…let go *pant* off me…hrks!" The abomination, much to Shifty's surprise, looses it´s grasp a little to enable him to breath.

"What… are you?"

"I AM LIFTY'S HATRED! ALL THE FRUSTRATION AND SCORN HE BOILED UP IN HIMSELF! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHY DID YOU COME IN HERE! YOU ARE NOT WELCOME!"

At the last sentence the monstrosity let Shifty feel the fact what it actually is and rapidly tightens it's grasp once again, causing Shifty almost to throw up

"I… I´m here too *wheeze* I´m here to… apolog… urks… to apologize…"

Apologize, the monstrosity gets startled by this word.

"REMORSE! IS PERFECTLY PROVEN WITH COLD SERVED RETALIATION!"

He throws Shifty down with super strong force. He smacks hardly his back at the bottom, screaming in pain as his pelvis breaks.

"SO, TELL ME! ARE YOU TRULY SORRY? ARE YOU TRULY WILLING TO ACCEPT ANYTHING I MAY DO TO YOU? THE ACTUAL LIFTY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO HURT YOU ON PURPOSE. BUT I´M HIS PURE MANIFESTED HATRED!"

Shifty gritted his teeth, suppressing his cries. "The atrocities I´ve done to him are far worse than anything you could do to me! If you really see the need to take vengeance, so be it!"

The monstrosity pulls Shifty up on his tale, breaking every vertebra in it during its process.

"Aw fuck, that hurts!" He whines but as he sees the monstrosities actual plan he pries his eyes wide open as he´s coming closer to its teeth. It is too late to turn back now all he can do is accept his fate and scream at the top of his lungs.

Just a few seconds later the abomination brought him into his mouth now chewing pleasurably him. A few asphyxiated screams emitted from him as he was literally eaten by his brother's hatred.

The monstrosity licks its teeth

"LET´S SEE IF YOU COME BACK…"


"What is happening to him!?" Flaky screams in terror as Shifty's body, which is wired up at the bed, begins to twitch rapidly like its having a seizure.

"Well, he just died I guess. He is just an hour in there and already died. Whatever is in there, I´m now glad that I didn´t have to go in there…"

Sniffles earned a scowl from Flaky at this. She sure could understand his point of view, but is it really that hard to show some empathy instead of… this?

"Will he be fine?" She tries to change the subject.

"Yes, he will. Like I said he will be resurrected shortly, but will feel the pain of how he deceased in every little detail… this sure won´t be pleasant…"


"AHAOW! FUCK AHAHA! THIS FUCKING HURTS! AAAAH!" Shifty crawls on the floor, unable to get up. The sensation of maybe hundreds of knives piercing his body, sending pain in every little muscle and joint. He turns on his back and lies down spread on the floor. Tears welling up in his eyes as everything he can do about the tremendous pain is cry and scream. "Ngh… I have to get up… I have to get up…" Repeating this mantra inside his head, he actually manages to stand up, slowly, getting on his feed. He goes a few steps but almost trips as the pain flows through every fiber of his body. He grunts as he tries to endure the pain and shuffles slowly back to the left corridor. "I´m not finished with you yet…" With that said, he goes on, once again wandering straight to his doom.


He can sense it. He feels every tiny bit of it. He is still unable to move, yet not even able to open his eyes, but he can feel it deep inside his chest. This unadulterated loathing, hatred in its purest form. It is clouding his mind and darkening his thoughts.


"Hey! I´m back! What else can you throw at me? I dare you to come out! You want retaliation? Here I am! Retaliate as much as you want I will always…" But he was cut short as a pair of claws suddenly reached for his feet pulling him once again upside down. The first time this rather intimidated him but now he´s just irritated. "You´re enjoying this?" Without a word the abomination smashes him face first against the wall, the splattered intestines definitely softening the impact, but his nose gets bruised nonetheless. Dazed by the smash he tries to say something but doesn´t get the opportunity as he gets smacked down to the ground, pinned down by the abomination's giant foot.

"SO, YOU REALLY CAME BACK HUH? TELL ME ARE YOU STILL SORRY FOR ALL YOU´VE DONE? DO YOU EVEN FEEL SORRY BECAUSE YOU REGRET THE THINGS HAPPENED IN THE PAST OR DO YOU JUST REGRET COMING IN HERE!"

Shifty, struggling to muster the air for any words as the giant, deformed and, definitely ugly, version of his brother is resting its foot on his chest and belly.

"Does…*pant* both count?" He mocks the monstrosity, earning him a forceful punch in the face, breaking his nose with a crack.

"GIVE AN HONEST ANSWER!". He screams in agony but grits his teeth.

"I am still truly sorry for anything I have done to him!"

"YOU´LL STILL HAVE TO PROVE IT!" It closes it´s claws on his comparably small neck, tightening its grip and slowly suffocating him.

"I´m…I´m…" But he passes out, unable to finish his sentence and dies once again, this time out of suffocation.

"He´s twitching uncontrollably again! Does that mean…"

"Yes, that means he just died a second time, only 17 minutes later…"

Suddenly Flaky can´t hold it anymore and begins to cry "Oh no, I hope we made the right choice sending him in there…" She trails off as she got a small look on Lifty's face. His condition didn´t really change to the better but something´s up with his face, he has such a weird expression. An expression full of wrath. His eyes are still closed but somehow, he looks terribly outraged.

"What is this? That is weird I must admit. His blood pressure is rising to some extent." Sniffles said totally puzzled at this… phenomenon.

"Is this a bad thing?" Flaky asked, utterly worried.

"No, it is far from dangerous levels, but it is indeed weird…"

Shifty lies once again on his starting point, once again sprawled out on his back, once again unable to move. He can barely endure the burning sensation in his lungs, the stinging pain in his throat and his entire body is prickling. He silently sheds a tear. He just confessed to Flaky that he is afraid of dying and now he died just twice, feeling the pain of it afterwards worsening the experience. And now, he has to stand up walking towards this monstrosity again, just to die again, maybe.

"I… cannot give up now! There is no turning back I must put an end to this!"

One more time he has to muster the strength to face it. "All good things come in threes… isn´t that true? Heh…" He slowly goes to the left corridor once again but suddenly its bottom becomes askew and he is sliding down, gaining rapidly on pace. He screams in terror as he fears to just splat against a wall and get torn to bloody pieces by the impact. He really doesn´t want to know how this feels afterwards. He tries to grab on the intestines he is sliding on, but they are to slick to get a hold on. Suddenly he stops sliding but begins to fall now. Suddenly the Shute ends, and he falls into pitch-blackness. Fearing the worst, he tries to cover his face with his arms, but a claw grabs him instantaneously, preventing him to splat on the ground.

Once again, the abomination squeezes him tightly, willingly enabling him to speak just as much as necessary.

"NOW TELL ME! FOR WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU FEEL SORRY FOR?"

Shifty struggled in his grasp, but after realizing its futility he relaxed and let the abomination squeeze him, hearing some of his ribs begin to crack.

"I…I´m sorry for… being such… a bad… brother to you, Lifty!" On a sudden the monstrosity lets of him and he falls on the ground, bruising both of his kneecaps and palms.

"I promise I will be better, and if you have to kill me for prove, then you can go on killing me a dozen times more often!" He covered his head, fearing a death blow to come, but to his surprise there was nothing like this to come. The room they are in illuminates and the monstrosity suddenly shrinks and reveals now the infant Shifty was running after.

"Heh, I guess I was right by assuming that you are a child's version of my brother…"

Without a word the little child runs towards him, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you…"

With that said, the child disappeared in a blue gleam of light, but this gleam turns into a small but blazing orb, flying directly at Shifty. Suddenly his vision blurs but he can feel something strange, strange but also oddly pleasant. His bruises are miraculously healing. Regaining his full vision, he realizes that he is now once again at his starting point. The left corridor disappeared, instead there is a wall now revealing a small frame with a picture in it. Upon closer investigation Shifty sees a photo of his brother in his childhood. But he is not alone on the picture. A second raccoon child is shown in there both are hugging each other. As he takes the photo he can see something written on the bottom of it. "I love you"

"Awww, I love you too Lift. Strange I can barely remember any scene from our childhood. What did even happen to me that I could be so cruel to him?"

He was almost about to cry again but he pulled himself together.

"Focus, you can do this! One corridor down, three more to go!"

Without wasting any more thoughts, he goes straight to the corridor next to the one he just went into.

"I hope the next ones aren´t equally gruesome, or worse…"


Something changed. The strong hatred, this incredible scorn suddenly just dissolved away, miraculously subsided. He feels as if a strong stone were now taken off from his chest. He feels a glimpse of joy reoccurring in his body. He is still unable to move but he can open his eyes now. He is still surrounded by darkness. But nonetheless he feels something he has given up a long time ago. A shimmer of hope.


"One hour did pass now and he wasn´t twitching once again since then. All his vital signals are ok. Seems that it is going to be ok for a moment." Sniffles said, knowingly that any positive information can calm Flaky down. She looked out of the window to gather some different thoughts as she realized a sudden change of expression in Lifty's face.

A change from an angered frown into a weak smile.