Thievery and murder are considered great sins, but do you see it as sins if despair brings you to it?


"No way. You´re telling me that you were skipped by the train because you two idiots weren´t paying attention to how much gasoline is still over? Well that is a little bit satisfying to know" Handy is chewing his salad, enjoying the story of the twin's failure thoroughly.

"Yeah… The best thing actually is that we got stuck in an argument the moment the car stopped running. We could have gotten out if we just have payed attention to where we actually got stuck… But no, we didn´t and got crushed."

"Heh, at least karma struck right if it were not for this stupid moose. I swear even this sugar addicted lunatic has more brain cells than this idiot incarnate endangerment of a police officer." Clenching his new gained fists, Handy empties his cup filled with coffee.

"You have some history huh?" Ian said, his expression growing a bit darker. "Care to share what kinds of "activities" you´ve done else?" Lifty noticed the soupcon of contempt in Ian's voice, suddenly he stands up. "Anyways, I´m finished eating, thank you Handy for the treat. If nobody minds I think I´ll be the first one to take the shower…"

"Sure, suit yourself." Handy assured, munching his salad totally oblivious to Ian's sudden mood-swing. "Well, my brother and I have to tell you something Handy." Shifty starts to speak up. "Oh yeah?" gaining interest, he decides to listen.

"Lifty and I decided to…well… give up on our former thievish lifestyle. We want to try to earn money honestly. Do you have any idea where we could find any opportunities for a job?" He senses a shimmer of delight rising inside Lifty. They smile at each other.

"Heh… Well it is true that you two don´t have the best past but you don´t have the worst reputation out of all here. Maybe you could ask Russell if he has use for two goof-offs like you." Shifty remembers his conversation with Flaky and her story about her occupation in his restaurant. Maybe it is indeed worth a try.

"Heh… speaking of that… who could possibly have a worse reputation than we do?" Lifty wondered, he always thought that he and his brother would be the most despised beings in town. "Well isn´t it obvious? Who would be worse in your opinion heh? Two larcenous rodents or a homicidal maniac enjoying himself on his killing-spree?"

"Wait, Flippy is the most despised being in this town? He is even really nice outside his mad-mind. Why would everyone despise him that much?" Now it was Handy who wondered at such a stupid question. "How can you feel any sympathy with someone totally randomly murdering everyone?"

Lifty knows the reason, but this isn´t his cup of tea and he already knows that Flippy wouldn´t like anyone to know about this, for whatever reason. "I guess you´re right…" The pattering emitting from the bathroom stopped and its door opened shortly after. Ian stepped outside the bathroom without appreciating a glance towards his new-found brothers.

"Shifty? You can go first. I wanna talk to Ian in private for a moment." Giving a nod, Shifty heads towards the bathroom for his long-desired bath. Ian stands before the window of the balcony, the moon is blazing a blue light directly upon him. "A calm night outside, huh?"

Ian looks up to him, but Lifty can´t quite make out if his expression is just neutral or if he senses a slight melancholy in it. "Yes, it is rather serene outside tonight…" Lifty sits down next to him, well Ian isn´t going away, that´s progress, right? "Ian… Don´t get me wrong… I am really glad to know to have you as a brother. Even though I don´t know you for long I already enjoyed your company quickly."

Ian returns a weak smile but decides to let Lifty speak further. "But ever since we met you you´re avoiding a very important question to me. Would you mind telling me where you come from?" Ian snorts contemptuously, turning his head away from Lifty. "I´m sorry if this is somehow unpleasant for you, but since I know that you´re our brother I am even more curious about you!"

"It isn´t only about the question being unpleasant to answer… I barely even know you two and the first stories I hear about you is about your criminal life. I just got here for whatever reason, I don´t even understand it myself, find you two in a twisted world like this and have to hear about the turpitudes you two committed for money. I don´t even know if I can trust you…"

Lifty got startled at this, he wants to counter something, but he can´t. "I am so tremendously confused about all of this… I don´t know why I am here, I don´t know how we three are related to each other without knowing about each other's existence ´til now. And I don´t know anything about you and your past, not even your motives for being thieves."

Before Ian could say anything more he gets hugged by Lifty. Somehow, he doesn´t get disturbed by his smell of old sweat. He remains silent, unknowing what to do about it, but returns the hug slowly after. "Ian, I understand, ok? But Shifty and I didn´t have it easy either you know? Shifty and I don´t know any shit about our origin. Everything we know is that we live in poverty, thievery keeping us alive."

Lifty tightens his hug. "But Shifty and I want to try to be better, we really do. After this night we want to go to Russell's restaurant, hoping that he can use two more to run it. I know you don´t trust us and I don´t expect you to do it but… could you give us a chance? We just met each other and it wouldn´t be that cool if we would stay in conflict like this…"

Ian hesitated, slowly loosening his hug. "So please let me try this one last time. I won´t bother you anymore, if you don´t wanna talk about it that´s okay, but it would be so important to me to know. Ian, where do you come from?" Shifty finished his shower, getting behind them without being noticed. He does not intend to interrupt their conversation.

"I come from a different place. My gift, it was well known there. But as I presented it as gift on this world, it was a curse in the other world… Back there I was raised in a forest by a yellow monkey. I don´t even know the name of the person who raised me…

Well it doesn´t matter that much anyways… I lived peacefully there until I got twelve, that was the moment everything turned to the worst for me. I have this gift since my childhood, but I couldn´t handle it properly and even now I´m not able to understand it completely."

"You´re talking about your gift of healing yourself and others?" Lifty intervened, making sure he will get everything that´s told. "Yes exactly. But that´s not the only point of it. The gift…prevents me from dying. It will keep me alive no matter what will happen to me… no matter how gruesome the mutilation will get.

And this is the moment where the things can get pretty ugly. Can you imagine how bad a torture can become if your tormentor isn´t able to kill you?" Lifty gulped at this imagination. Thinking of Flippy, endlessly torturing him, is a hard thought to bear.

"One day my provider got gravely injured as we got attacked by some sorts of martial art specialists, I had to witness how he got slaughtered before my eyes. I can heal people, but I cannot revive them, at least I didn´t figure out how I am supposed to do that.

So, I was forced to watch as he got his intestines ripped apart, his gargling screams where the last thing I heard from him, and this was the moment things should be turn to the worst for me. They took me with them, to a small temple. A little pig-lady was waiting in there, she promised me to hone my skills.

I was so scared back then, I didn´t know what to do, but I was supposed to know soon. She said that the ability of reviving others would depend on my will to do so." Suddenly tears are welling up in his tears as he begins to continue his story with a trembling voice.

"To "test" my volition, they brought little children inside the temple. I could see the fear in their eyes… The parents and relatives of them were supposed to stay behind, witnessing what was about to come next. They slaughtered the children by slitting their throats. They didn´t allow me to heal them in time, I was supposed to revive."

Ian tries to speak further but is interrupted by his sobbing. The reminiscence of this atrocities overwhelming him. "But… I… I fucking couldn´t do it! I was so scared, all of this happened so promptly. But they only said that it was my fault, that they died because my "volition" wasn´t strong enough. It was my fault that these children remained death! If only I wouldn´t be so dense and would understand my abilities, they would be alive…"

Shifty remains silently behind leaning against a wall, his fedora hiding his face. "But I failed, and for failure came punishment. They knew that I couldn´t die so they strapped me upon a desk and force-fed me." His sobbing is shaking him thoroughly as he suffocates single outcries.

"They gave you something to eat? What could be so horrible to eat to make such a fuss about it?" Lifty wondered. "Myself…" A chill went down the twin brother's spine. "Wait…You mean…" Ian nodded violently. "Yes, soon after they strapped me upon the desk they ripped chunks of flesh out of my abdomen and ribs and fed me with them.

Every time I tried to keep my mouth shut they just dug the knife deep inside my legs, arms, or even my crotch to make me scream. So, they kept on dissecting my flesh until they got to my intestines before my gift was healing the wounds, keeping me from unconsciousness… I screamed and screamed only to get fed with my own flesh and fur… No begging, no pleading could do anything. I had to endure this full three hours every time I failed to revive a child. I had to suffer this ordeal until I was nineteen. Since that day, the voices of the children I failed to save were haunting my mind…"

"They were? Not anymore?" Lifty asks, his thumbs turning. "Yeah until today. Somehow the witch we encountered freed me from them. She removed the voices, but not the lingering guilt inside me. If only I could understand myself…" Lifty suppresses the urge to console him, he needs to get this of his chest.

"You said you had to suffer this crap for seven years, what happened after that?" Shifty tilts his head a little, remaining unrevealed in the background. Ian eyes widen in fear as he begins to reminisce the excruciation. "I…It began directly after my last failure, as the frustration of my new "provider" became too vast."


"Bring this filthy waster onto the cart! I can´t stand his pathetic expression anymore!" A female pig with fitting pink skin yells at her assistants, black cloths are covering her body, leaving her face revealed only. She brings her face menacingly close towards the scared grey furred raccoon. Thrusting her knife in his side, she digs her claws deep into his throat to suffocate his screams.

"I cannot believe that you really let all these children and people die! I TOLD YOU it only depends on your volition to revive them! Do you believe that these people deserved to die? You are not even worth the time of torture anymore. You shall go where all the filth like you belongs! Pin him down!"

Suddenly two bulky apes appeared from her side, fixating him on his back with his arms and legs spread out. He observes with dread in his eyes what the lady is about to do. Screams are emitting from his fast-recovered throat as she hammers in nails through his palms and feet, even his tail to keep him fixated, preventing his gift to recover him fully on these spots as the nails are an obstacle for the growing tissue.

"Illinoy, we are ready to go!" One of the apes who is driving the cart pulled by a horse said, eager to go. "Fine! Let us go to get rid of him!" The pain is stinging through his entire body as the gift is desperately trying to heal the spots the nails are hammered in, without success.

I´m so sorry, I´m so sorry, I didn´t want them to die! I didn´t… ugh the pain, I can´t bear it any longer! I want to cry but… No, I have to stay silent! The consequences would only result in more pain… Why did all of this happen in the first place? Why did they slaughter you?

The rain comes down heavily, soaking his fur completely in its icy veil, it is a cold rain coming from cold days. The heavy drops only worsening the pain in the hammered spots. It is a very hilly way, every little impact caused by the wheels driving into a little road-hole is intensifying the burning sensation in his extremities.

After a long while, the cart finally stopped. Illinoy gets to Ian promptly, grabbing him by his chest. But she didn´t let him enough time to think what was about to come next as she grabbed his fur, pulling hardly. With her other hand she grabbed his tale and pulled equally hard, causing his wrist, feet and tail to be ripped from the nails, causing extreme injuries in it.

His endurance promptly fades away as he cries out in severe pain. Ian gets thrown to the ground. "Move!" He tries to do as he is told but fails to get up as the injured spots aren´t yet healed. He crawls forward slowly. "I said MOVE! GET UP DAMN IT!" Illinoy yells at him, kicking his back hardly with her heels.

He grunts as his back is now aching. Luckily for him his wounds are now closed, and he can get up walking. He thinks of just running away but this dream gets crushed as he gets chained, like a dog on his leash. Before him is a giant gate slowly opening, revealing a rather big house. Before the house stands a panda, his belly's size equals Ian's fear of what is about to come next.

"Now, what do we have here? You bring another toy to me Illinoy?" Nobody would have been able to think that her expression could get any colder, but it could. "This idiot is capable of not much, but one thing exists he´s surprisingly good at." The panda cocked his head with an amused mien.

"And what could that be?" He asks with a widening grin. The black veiled pig almost left the place, at her last steps back to the cart she turns her head. "He can suffer pretty well, this "toy" is indestructible. So, he will be in for a fun lasting a lifetime."

Ian can´t stop shaking. Why is he called a toy now? What will he do to him? Suddenly he gets pulled up gently, the gigantic paw of the panda is engulfing his waist completely. "Now, you sure are afraid… Illinoy was not gentle on you huh? But you have too less wounds for a mutilation. You have none in fact…"

The panda cooed, not really easing Ian's dread. "Wh…What are you going to do to me?" He couldn´t bear the suspense any longer, this long period of nescience about his fate is literally driving him insane. "Hush, I´m gonna have fun with you, first things first. Mind to tell me your name?" He hesitates, but what does it matter now anyway? "I…Ian…" His voice trembling. "Ian, that is a nice name. Well Illinoy told me you are indestructible, is that true?"

His eyes are widening in fear once again. "Please… Let me go! I beg you, please!" Ian finally breaks down once more, unable to endure this whole situation. "Oh, what a disappointing answer… I guess I have to test it then…" Ian swallows his breath in fright as he gets smashed against a wall with massive force. His vertebras in his back broke, he lies on the ground groaning, unable to move.

The panda cocked his head, once again smiling. "Now I see that you can get injured. Where does the indestructible trait kick in?" He was about to turn away in disappointment, ready to leave him there to die as he could suddenly see Ian stand up on his feet. He cowers down in fear, wrapping his arms around his face.

"Now, that is interesting. I should have known better that Illinoy would never lie to me. Now, I think it is time for the actual fun part…" He grabs Ian by his tail, ignoring the fact that this sends him through another ordeal. As they entered the pandas house, Ian notices many corpses nailed to the wall, sending fear through his body once again.

But it weren´t the bodies itself who are nailed to the wall, it was a sordid collection of skins. This maniac flays his victims, maybe after the fun is over? The panda stands before a bed, many flayed animals are cushioning the mattress. Upon a closer look Ian recognizes the skin of a raccoon on this bed, but before he could make anything out of it he was thrown down on his back, rightly on top the raccoon fur.

He gets pinned down on his back and before he could make a move the panda sits down on top of him causing him to emit a moaning scream as any remaining air was pressed out of him. He could not speak anymore, only observe what was about to come now.

To his further shock the panda is opening his pants, revealing his crotch. "Now, behave and swallow…" But Ian refuses to open his mouth. The pain caused by the pressure is now replaced by a prickling sensation as the inability to breath is slowly taking its toll.

"I said behave! Open your damn mouth!" But Ian refuses further with all his strength to open. "Well, well… You will learn that consequences won´t wait long in my house!" With that said he grabs Ian's lower jaw, giving it a forceful swing. With a sudden snap his lower jaw broke and its joints got dislocated.

He wants to scream and cry, but he can´t. His body is a mess of pain and the consequences of oxygen deficiency. Now his mouth stands open and there is nothing he can do about it as the panda is slowly inserting his manhood into his mouth.

Ian closes his tear-filled eyes. The pain is overwhelming as his "gift" is keeping him alive and conscious through this entire session. But suddenly his lower jaw begins to heal but he decides to pretend like it is still broken until it is fully recovered. His fear and despair are promptly fading as his instincts are kicking in, filling him up with hatred and the will to survive.

He makes a quick decision and bites down as hard as he can. "AH! You stupid little…" The stinging pain in his cock is causing him to get up, pulling Ian with him. He spits out the rapist's now lump noodle and clings upon his fur, quickly climbing him up until he reaches the head of the panda, who is three times as big as Ian.

As he reached him he begins to thrust his nails through his eyes, scratching them out with all force. Now it was the panda to scream and wail but it didn´t help him, not the slightest. He tries to grab Ian, but the raccoon's agility is too much for him. As he falls he is completely blinded, his eyes gouged out.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT! WHERE ARE YOU? COME HERE THIS INSTANT!" Ian grabs a large knife which was laying conveniently on the drawer next to the bed of "pleasures" "Oh don´t you worry! I´m almost close to you!" He said with a stern voice. The panda growls in anger and pain as he tries to punch in the direction of the voice.

But Ian dodges the slow punches of the fat and bickering bamboo-eating lump. He rams the knife deep into the mouth, causing his tormentor to gargle in pain. He futile flails his arms around as they finally stopped moving. To ensure his death, Ian repeatedly stabs him until no more movement could be seen, leaving a massive pool of blood on the ground.

His hands are trembling and shaking. He would have never thought of him that he can kill someone. And yet there is a large body, stabbed to death by him. He drops the knife, falls to his knees. He relished the act he committed, but shortly after he feels deeply ashamed. He feels disgraced and nugatory. He ended up being a murderer, after all this years of agony he became a murderer.

He cries, tears streaming down his face as sadness, exasperation and helplessness are overpowering him. Right now, he would end his life, but he can´t. Illinoy always indoctrinated him that his gift depended on his volition, but he has clearly no will to live on so why is it keeping him alive?

Suddenly a blue light is shining directly upon him through the window. For some reason it ceases his wailing on an instant, it is literally consoling him. He feels an urge to go after it. The light leads him out of the house, it seems its source is deep in the woods.

The nearer he gets the brighter the light becomes. He is almost standing in its center, gibberish whispers are appearing in his head, but regarding the fact that he can´t understand them he decides to ignore them. He runs and runs towards it, his mind completely turned off. Suddenly his vision blurs and he faints.

The moment before he gets completely unconscious he hears a woman's voice screaming his name. It sounds oddly jubilant.


"I woke up in a forest near the mansion we three had encountered. I entered it, but it seemed forsaken, so I decided to get in. After getting a little bit comfy in it I decided to take a walk outside. This is where I met you two as you nearly got skipped by a truck."

Lifty and Shifty are left with open jaws, unable to say anything fitting to that story they just heard. "If this place you came from is really filled with such cruel persons, then I´m totally glad that you came here somehow." Ian and Lifty got startled by Shifty's sudden voice-appearance "Not only because you´re our brother, but also because this place here is nothing compared to this you just told us!"

"Shifty I… I didn´t notice you standing there…" Ian said, lowering his head a little. "Well I didn´t mean to eavesdrop. I didn´t want to…" But Ian interrupted him. "No… It´s fine, really. I told Lifty the story and I´m totally fine with you knowing it either." To his surprise, Lifty and Shifty are resting their paws on his shoulders, smiling gently at him.

"Well, how about we forget about this damn past and have a new beginning? I think a fresh start-over would be nice for all of us!" Shifty stated as they all shared a hug together. But an annoyed Handy suddenly enters the room. " I really don´t want to interrupt your brotherly compassion but I would be very grateful if Lifty finally could take a shower so he stops smelling like indigested horse-crap!"

They all burst out in laughter as Lifty finally redeemed his promise he gave handy in unison with his brothers. A few moments later, Lifty got out of the bathroom. "I´m afraid to tell you guys this but I only have one bed for visitors. You have to get along somehow."

The bed was a bit small but still big enough for everyone to fit in. It did not take them long to fall asleep, engulfed by the blue blazing moonlight.