Do you really believe that every decision is in your hands just because it's in your mind?


"Do you think we should go in?" Lifty asked, quite unsettled by the picture, something´s definitely not right about this. "We have to if we want to put an end to this. I´ve had enough of this, I just want to go home with you and… I don´t know eat something?" He sniffs his body as the serene atmosphere was greeted with a strange smell. "And, yeah, take a bath…or two…"

The hatless brother chuckled at this, sure they never had it easy, but this time it was a real challenge. "Fine, let´s do it then." They both go towards the door, Shifty heads first. The moment they open it the entrance is covered with a black veil. "Come…"

"Did you hear that?" Shifty asked uneased.

"No, what do you mean?"

"Someone just ordered us to come…" They try to get in but for some reason, Lifty is not able to get through the veil. "It is… blocking me…"

"I´ll go alone then…"

"NO! We just found each other!"

"But I have to, whatever wants me to come in it definitely doesn´t want you in there… And I doubt that we can do anything about it."

Lifty got frustrated, the idea of getting separated once again is not appealing to him. "If you think that´s the best idea…" He said in an angered and frustrated way

"No, I don´t Lifty… I just think that we don´t have a different choice to solve this…" He said gazing at the ground. He doesn´t like this himself at all. "I´ll be alright, I promise I´ll come back." Shifty assures his brother, smiling at him genuinely. "You better do, don´t leave me back there with those maniacs. I´ll wait here for you…"

Shifty gives a last nod towards his brother and goes towards the thing which was calling him. He is engulfed in darkness but this doesn´t startle him anymore. Darkness seems to be this place's emphasis to everything, no matter if it´s being the mood or the place itself.

"Come!"

"I´m on my way!" He says slightly irritated. If something is really getting on his nerves, then it is the cryptic demeanor of this place itself, or should he say… his family's mind? Including his own? Suddenly the darkness is ceasing, and the place gets illuminated, but not with a blue light this time. It is a weak, red light emerging from a shadowy figure in the middle of the room

"Really? This again?"


"You´re sure you want to go this soon Flaky?"

"Yes, I have to. Thanks to your aid my wounds are almost healed, and the pain is almost gone. I feel strong enough to go to work. I can´t take off so long, they need me at the diner."

"Alright, I wish you a speedy recovery." Sniffles said waving his farewells towards the red porcupine. He heads back towards the twin's room where Mime is changing Lifty's bandages. Suddenly, he hears a squeal coming out of their room.

"What is it Mime? Something wrong?" But to his surprise Mime is glaring with happiness. The wounds on Lifty's arm almost vanished, leaving only mere eschars. Even no scars seem to be left. "Well, it seems we can stop the infusion, let me check his blood volume…" He said, monitoring the information he needs to make a conclusion.

"Yes, he seems to be out of danger. Whatever Shifty's doing in there, he is doing it right."


Without a warning the shadowy figure leaps towards Shifty. But unlike the bowler hat wearing figure he had to deal with before, this one is wearing a fedora, looking likely as he does. "What is… is that me?" The figure uses his opportunity to strike as it punches him hard on the nose, causing him to fall on his back "OW! You fucker!" Totally aggravated, he jumps to his feet, rising his arms in defense. But his enemy is relentless, sending punch after punch after him.

Shifty looks around the room hastily, giving just enough looks to not miss any hit he might get from his opponent. The more he focuses on his enemy he realizes that between its punches it is standing with the legs apart. Putting on a sly grin he rises his knee and sends it directly into his foe's crotch. A burst of light emits drastically, blazing upon the figure, revealing its form. It is indeed Shifty, the one he saw portrayed on the door's photo. He teleported back to the room's center, raising his gaze with his eerie, manic smile. "Please, make this interesting." Shifty got startled as his second self is standing directly in front of him, he just blinked, but it was enough to get that close to him. "What the…" He got grabbed by his left arm, without any warning he was flipped over and sent down to the ground hard. "Let´s see if I can´t return that favor of yours…" The mad version of Shifty raises its foot, sending it down at Shifty's genitals with all of its force, making him scream in pain.

"SHIFTY!" Lifty shouted after his brother. He can´t see anything but he can hear his brother's laments of agony. Before all of this he just got desperate, exasperation would be feeding on his chest. But the last encounter has changed him, he is feeling something different, and this feeling is wrath. The veil is growing thinner.

Holding his crotch as pain is seething through his body, his evil counterpart is grabbing him at the chest. "What…are you?" He asked in shock as he realized the scar in his objector's face. "I am you… and more than that!"

Then pain was still severe, but he gritted his teeth as he manages to grab the disputant's throat with both of his paws. He musters all strength he has left to dig in his nails as strong as he can, causing blood to spurt out. The room gets set bright again with the red light.

It seems every time I land a blow he gets set back to place, huh? How did he get at me so fast last time?

Shifty tries to stay as focused as possible at his detractor, but the moment he blinked again he was held by his throat. "You have the right ideas, I should try them either." The evil fraud said as he was starting to dig in its nails into Shifty's throat. He tries to stay strong, but he feels tears welling up in his eyes as the pain in his throat is filling him with dread. Flailing as he is held up in the air, getting desperate.

"LET GO OFF HIM!" Lifty shouts as he throws himself right onto his brother's tormentor. Fixating its head by grabbing the snout he raises his fist and strikes him as hard as he can.

"YOU´RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"

Once again, the figure is send to the room's center.

"Lifty! Try not to blink, he will teleport if you do so!" The evil counterpart is indeed not teleporting, in fact it is doing nothing. Suddenly the figure is deforming into a massive creature, but not like Lifty's hatred before, its head is turning massive, blocking the rest of the bode. Giant hands emerging from the sides. Suddenly, the room turns into a corridor, a very long corridor. The raccoon twins are standing there with their eyes pried open in shock. "What the actual fuck!"

"Lifty?"

"Yes brother?"

"As I first entered this hellhole, I had a conversation with Sniffles he mentioned two options two me."

"What were these options?" The monstrosity sends a load roar towards them.

"Well the other one doesn´t matter, but one of them included running, interested?"

Without taking this conversation any further, they both skedaddle, taking a 180-degree spin first. As one of the giant hands comes down, only missing them narrowly, they do something in unison, and that is screaming.


Mime is gesturing Sniffles to come over as he witnessed changes in the vital signs of the brothers.

"Hmm, the heart rate is pacing up and they both start sweating extremely. It seems they are in great distress. Mime, please watch them and alarm me if anything becomes alarming."

The assistant nodded determined. He is proud and happy. Working with Sniffles means that if you´re looking for compliments, you must be attentive for them. He is not giving them rarely, but you have to understand them, like the fact that he trusts Mime to watch over patients while Sniffles is getting some fresh sheets to swap them. Even in state of unconsciousness, sleeping in sweaty sheets isn´t pleasant.


The monstrosity is right after them, causing them to run after the end of the corridor, that means, if there is any end. Both are panting and wheezing. On a sudden the monstrosity manages to get a hold of Lifty's ankle with its right hand, twisting it as he brings him upside down, making him groan in pain. "LIFTY! Let go off him!"

"Run! I will be resurrected! There is still a chance for you"

A pain strikes Shifty's mind, running away, selling his brother out this was always in his mentality with no problem.

But he came that far to lay off his bad traits, to be a better brother. The time before he wouldn´t have hesitated if there was a chance to get away alive, but he doesn´t want to get away anymore. Not without his brother.

"No! I came this far and managed to see you again! I started it! You interfered! And we will end or fail this together!" Shifty jumps onto the monstrosity's right arm, struggling his balance, the only thing keeping him alive is its curiosity. Taking advantage of the monster's perplexity he jumps at its eye, scratching at it as hard as he can.

The abomination shrieks fiercely, letting Lifty drop. He grunts as he lands back first at the bottom, bruising him slightly. "Lifty!" He runs after his brother, trying to help him up but the monster gained consciousness way too fast. There is no point in running anymore. The brothers cling to each other, awaiting the death blow the monster is about to give as it reaches its hand towards them.


"Yarr, Flaky! It´s good to see you here! Are you well enough? It is no problem for me If you need to take some more days of ya know?" Russel, so kind he is, so worried he was about Flaky's well-being.

"No, it is fine, really, thank you though…" She smiled at the blue otter. Before they could start talking to each other Flaky got ambushed by an overexcited pink chipmunk and a melodramatic blue skunk. "Oh, we missed you so much darling. How have you been? What happened after Flippy attacked you so fiercely?" Petunia asked, you could tell from her expression that she mostly has problems to work the sensation of being killed by Flippy out. But who could blame her? Would you have another attitude towards dying if you would come back every day after?

"I sure hate this green, fuzzy-eared maniac! It is bad enough to die because of the curse! Why is he even doing it? What purpose do we give to him?" The three women agreed about that, only Russell remained pondering. "Ya know, everyone may have his own reasons for his actions. I´m sure Flippy isn´t doing it on purpose. Comin´ to think of it. He sure is a good fella sometimes. Sometimes just acting a bit fell."

"That does not justify it. I have enough of being left in fear and anxiety. I can´t stand the fact that he just stabbed me over twenty times, sending me through all of that horror back at the hospital instead of just killing me." Giggles and Petunia gasped at this as they interrogated Flaky further about the happenings.


"Are we… dead yet?" Lifty asked, confused why they didn´t feel any pain. As they both looked up they couldn´t believe their eyes. In front of them stands the blue raccoon female who introduced herself to them as their own mother. The monstrosity stands still as if it is paralyzed.

Linita is slowly taking off her ribbon, causing the monster to shriek, it reveals her dark eyes, the gaze full of scorn. She rises her hand, suddenly barbed wire is emerging from the corridor's walls, wrapping itself around the abominations extremities. Tearing through its flesh, ripping it apart. Many pieces of rugged fur, muscles and tendons are flying past the twins who are only able to witness the happening dumbfounded.

The monstrosity begins to shrink as it gets equally mutilated by Linita's contempt. As soon as nothing of the abomination was visible anymore, the wires disappear slowly, revealing the body of a brown furred raccoon who kneels on the ground. He looks up, hatred and disdain carved in his face.

"This is… I saw him once!" Shifty spat out, recognizing the scar and the bowler hat. Although the figure didn´t introduce itself properly, Lifty and Shifty already got an idea who it may be.

"I can´t get through his hatred, his emotions are too strong." Their mother said without turning her face towards them. Suddenly she points at Shifty.

"You have to approach him."

"WHAT?! You saw of what he´s capable! What if he just kills me?"

"You either saw of what I am capable. If he makes a move, he will regret it."

"If you say so…" Not liking this idea at all, Shifty got up slowly as he reluctantly approaches the grunting figure. As he got close enough he could sense the negative energy emerging from it, making him feel uneasy. To his surprise he sees his own reflection in the tears welling up from the battered raccoon in front of him.

"I managed to give us a good live for so many years, but I just had to let my greed destroy it. We had it decent, we had a roof over our head, we could ensure that there is always enough for us to eat and I had an amazing wife. Sure, as a thief I wasn´t a paragon, but I was no murderer. I thought of the curse as an advantage, not to perish permanently.

I got fooled by it, my own stupidity sending us to this ordeal. The curse spoke to me through a bronze statuette, promising me great prosperity for a price it sure didn´t mention. I agreed to it as I always craved to live prosperous, happily for the rest of my life together with my family. After the agreement the first heists went perfectly fine, improving our standards massively. But the curse came to claim its price. As soon as I received the prosperity, it demanded the life of my and my wife's children. I got scared but thought of me as superior, so I declined.

It didn´t take misfortune long to strike after my ignorance as the next heist went wrong. As soon as I got busted in the jewelry shop I killed the owner of it. I was cursed back then, even more than before. I didn´t think much of the murder as I believed him to come back to life but he didn´t. The curse caused all my mistakes to have a permanent effect. Guilt was overpowering me, I killed someone who clearly didn´t deserve it and caused my woman who couldn´t divorce from me to suffer stigmatization. We lived as criminals.

The curse soon took a benefit from my weaker growing mind, crawled into it, possessing me. As I refused to hand over my children the curse possessed me to take them itself.

But your mother was smart enough to prevent that, she killed me, so you could live."

The brown raccoon went into quiet sobbing, guilt overpowering him once more.

"It wasn´t over with that, Jaran. The curse gave me the ability to kill you permanently, in exchange our children got cursed with immortality."

Lifty goes to his brother, standing right next to him as they both watch their former parents hugging each other.

"So… I really hate to break the cooing silence here, but what will happen now? Are you coming back with us?"

Linita is looking at them, her face is creepily emotionless.

"No, we can´t, but you, in fact can end part of this curse."

"How so?" Lifty asked curiously, fearing what is about to come.

"Kill us." Jaran suddenly spoke up. "By doing so you will free yourselves from our influence and you will finally manage to live a little bit freer."

Both gulped, they are supposed to kill their nonexistent, yet somehow existing parents? They barely even know them and must kill them off right now? But Linita does not give them the time to ponder the situation as she handed both of them a dagger. They have plain decorations on their grip with a jewel at the end of it. Lifty's dagger has a blue sapphire in its grip, Shifty's a red ruby.

"The cursed must kill the source. Shifty you have to end your father, I have to be killed by Lifty."

"But we have so many questions!" Suddenly a bumping sound is heard, and their vision is blurring for a very short while before its getting normal.

"You don´t have much time, do it now!"

"Kill me first." Jaran said sternly. Shifty walked over to him, laying his knife at their father's throat. They look each other in the eye, suddenly his father musters a last question with watery eyes.

"Just… may I ask… Can you three ever forgive me what I have done?"

Lifty and Shifty nod as Shifty speaks up "This all is just a twisted mess, but I forgive you, I´m sure my brother and our mother will forgive you too."

Shifty thrusts his dagger through Jaran's throat, gathering the strength for his last words.

"Your mother will never forgive me…I just hope Ian will…"

As Jaran's body falls lifeless to the ground its essence disappears in small streams of red light. Shifty feels a great burden leaving his chest, freeing his mind.

Linita didn´t bother to talk anymore, she walked towards Lifty giving him a nod as a sign to end it. Lifty nods as well and perforates her chest. She falls on her back vanishing in streams of blue light. Suddenly Lifty feels free from this numbing sadness, relieved from this exasperation. Once again, a big bumping sound appears repetitively, blurring the vision of them more and more. They hug each other tightly as they wait what is about to come.

Mime unwraps Lifty's wrists, he is about to lift them together with Sniffles onto another bed with clean sheets as both simultaneously sit up taking a deep gasp, causing Mime and Sniffles to shriek in shock.

"You two are finally awake! How are you?" The twins cannot believe that this nightmare is over. "Are we really awake?"

"Yes! You are as far as I´m not hallucinating and I´m sure of it! I can say that you are indeed awake!"

They smile at each other as they get out of the bed, stretching their out of inactivity aching muscles. There is much to tell.


It is a stormy night outside. He is laying still on the ground as he regains his consciousness groaning. "W… Where… a… am I?" The grey furred raccoon stuttered anxiously. He is lost in the woods. At the top of the hill in the distance he sees a small mansion. "I… I ho… hope I can get sh… shelter in th… there…" He enters the mansion closing the door silently. "Looks…forsaken…"