Forgiveness is your own choice. But do you even need to seek forgiveness from a forgiving person?


Flippy's head hurts as if he ran right into a wall with immense speed. He groans as he tries to open his eyes which are tremendously heavy. Ian notices his groaning and looks over, rather concerned. "Ow… Where am I? What happened?" Flippy asks in confusion, the pain in his head worsening with every little attempt to get up.

The sun has reached its zenith, but the cooling wind vanishes the warmth emitting from the rays. It is autumn after all. "Wait, don´t get up too hastily." Ian said in a soothing tone, supporting Flippy as he sits up. "I hope your head does not hurt too badly, sorry for that by the way." The grey furred raccoon scratches the back of his head sheepishly. Violence was never his strong suit, but he learned to do what is necessary.

Flippy, before he could answer anything to that, notices that Ian's chest and throat is completely manky with dry blood. "Woah, what happened to you?" He wonders, although the blood is attached to him he can´t see any wounds on his body. Is it even his own blood? But he got surprised by the nonchalant answer. "Well… You happened to me."

This was the moment the memories are flashing in. He remembers the fear coming up inside his chest as he pleaded Ian to go away, he remembers his demon who emerged. "Did… I kill you?" But that wouldn´t make any sense. Flippy's voice is shivering as he is barely able to fathom this situation. "Well… Yes and no… You can´t really kill me…"

Ian got startled as Flippy suddenly broke down. "Oh no, I´M SO SORRY! PLEASE I AM SO FUCKING SORRY! YOU MUST HATE MY GUTS RIGHT NOW…" Ian watches him for a moment, unsure what to say except for the truth. "Flippy… I don´t hate you…" But he could not reach through the desperate wailing of the anguished green bear.

"Flippy please listen…" But his sobbing was too loud. "FLIPPY!" He smacks him out of his lethargy which caused Flippy to fall back on his butt. He stopped his lamentation at once taken aback. "I do not hate you! I am just… tremendously confused. One moment you are a shy but nice guy and then you become a murderous and ravaging beast. I didn´t even have the feeling to encounter your true self anymore, hell, even your teeth were changing. Listen" Ian got near to Flippy as he gazed directly into his perplex eyes.

"I actually have the intention to help you, but for that I have to know more about this… Phenomenon…" He feels the gnawing fear rising in his chest once again. "Why do you want to help me? Hanging out with me is dangerous, you experienced it even just a few moments ago!" Tears are welling up in the corner of his eyes again as he clenches his fists. "I don´t deserve any help from anybody! I should just perish and die, but this damn curse keeps bringing me back to life every time I try to redeem myself!"

Ian crosses his arms defiantly. "And you think that the only way to achieve this "redemption" is by offing yourself? That is a pretty dumb thing to say if you ask me." Flippy gets encountered with various feelings, his voice trembling even more, almost stuttering. "You don´t understand how this is! You don´t understand how it is to kill countless people, getting stuck in a delirium while some demon inside of me kills people without my volition! You can´t imagine how shameful I feel, living with this guilt of murder!"

Ian only hardened his expression. "And you are who to be able to tell me this? You are who to judge my past you don´t even know? You don´t know anything about me and yet you dare to say that I don´t know anything about guilt? You may accidentally kill countless of people, but the people you kill on this place come back, am I right?" He gets closer to Flippy, a little bit irritated by him. "I come from a different place, a place where the people don´t come back after death. I HAD to kill someone on PURPOSE! And this person is never going to be alive again! Even though it was self-defense I can tell you that I am INDEED able to feel guilt!"

Flippy couldn´t find any words to argue with that, but he didn´t get the chance even if he had found some. "That left aside I am sure that you´re not able to handle this on your own! Well, as you can see, permanent death is not an option because it isn´t going to occur! So, you need another way to help you with that and for that you´ll need HELP! Well, here I am, offering you the help, I am estimative the only person willing to help you!"

With a heavy sigh he breaths all of his anger out. "I know how it is to live in solitude, or with no one near caring about you. You may think that this is a deserved fate for you but that is bullshit. I don´t know what is wrong with this fucked up place but I am sure that there is a way to help you, we just have to figure out how. But we can´t do that if you´re not willing to help yourself."

The pain in his head vanished by the time they argued. The flickering of the nearby fireplace Ian has erected is underlining the short moment of silence they´re currently having. "Ian… I don´t understand… Why are you willing to go through that for a person you barely even know? I even stabbed you through your jaw to your head and yet you´re so caring about me?"

On the stick above the fireplace are several fishes hanging, cooked enough to get eaten. Ian removes one and hands it to him. "Wanna have a treat?" He takes the fish without hesitation. He sure is hungry after all this. "You know… it just bugs me, in the diner I saw you glaring at me while I was singing the ballad, completely isolated from everyone else. The imagination of someone being hated from the entire town is really… unsettling…"

Ian takes a fish by himself, sitting next to Flippy. He smiles at him genuinely "You know… My brothers don´t share the greatest past as well, they were thieves committing several crimes on purpose. You consider yourself a murderer, but the crimes you committed weren´t done on purpose. I managed to see above that for my brother's sake. They want to make a new beginning. I already told you that I don´t care about the happenings of the past, I care about the present time, the here and now!"

He places his paw on Flippy's shoulder. "So, what do you think? Interested in an attempt of a new beginning?" An odd feeling is emerging inside of him. Suddenly, he feels courage building up inside of him. "You sure are a smooth talker, aren´t you?" They both snicker lightly. "Well, I guess it can´t hurt to try. Don´t have to lose anything anyways…"

He looks back at Ian, with a lot more confidence than he could muster before. He looks at the raccoon who sits next to him just in his shorts. His fur is clotted with blood and sweat, dried by either the sunlight, or the cold but blowing wind. The night sure will be hard. "It may be strange to ask but, why don´t you have any scars on you? Not even a wound! I stabbed you and you just got up like nothing happened, got my evil side by surprise luckily and overpowered me shortly after."

Ian let out another sigh, sure, if he wants to help Flippy, he has to know more about him, but it wouldn´t be a fair exchange if he asks him about his past without telling him about himself. "Well, it is a long story, but we have time anyways… It all began years ago in my childhood. I noticed this "gift" in me but I didn´t manage to understand it thoroughly. Even ´til today I didn´t figure everything out…"

As he takes the last bite from his fish, he tells Flippy the story of his past until the moment he got in the place he is now. And this time, it is much easier to him to share this story.


"Take her body to the morgue." Sniffles said nonchalantly to Mime, but suddenly he sees tears welling up in his eyes. They really want to help and prevent death, but sometimes it seems so pointless. The people will be back the other day and sometimes even Sniffles has to question himself where the point in all of this is.

But nothing is harder to bear than the feeling of guilt, the feeling of being responsible, the feeling that something preventive could have been done if the act was just done in time. "You know what? It is okay, I´ll bring her to the morgue. You have a well-deserved rest and break." He is totally grateful for Mime being such a great assistant and he sure wants to console him, but comforting assistance is not one of his strong traits.

As he transports her via the barrow he notices something strange on her skin. "Postmortem lividity… That never occurred on this place… Strange…" But the curiosity didn´t last long. On this place there is not much to wonder about any deaths and occurrences accompanying it. Mime sits down at one of the chairs near the hospital's entrance.

He rests his head on his hand, drinking some water. Cub sits on the floor directly next to him, cooing some gibberish nonsense. But the infant notices Mime being gloomy and crouches towards the depressed looking deer. He tugs on Mime's jeans, craving his attention. Mime picks him up, looking into his face. Cub emits a sweet smile, touching Mime's face with his tiny paws. Cub rubs Mime's cheek gently, lighting up his emotions a bit.

The moment he got out of his melancholy he takes a balloon and forms an animal with it. The years of being a showman kicking in as he forms it at an incredible pace. Just a few seconds later he is finished and presents a balloon with the shape of a cute teddy bear. Little does he know that he should have taken another animal. "Daddy?" Most of his words are gibberish, but this one cut in like a blade.

Now it was Cub to pout. Mime remembers his father, the split skull causing the strange way the car was driven. Suddenly the balloon burst loudly, several tiny pieces were falling onto the ground. Now the infant wailed in the need of comfort. "Gosh, what is this screaming all about? It´s loud enough to wake the death!" Mime looked confused at the source of the voice. Lifty stands in front of him scratching his forearm.

His body is severely bruised, one eye covered in bandages, along with the head, the other one is encircled with a black eye. His jeans are totally ragged as he stands there shirtless. His shirt was destroyed due to the events anyways. His chest and arms are filled with scratches. Through his swollen eye he recognizes Pop's son, uncontrollably wailing on Mime's lap.

"What´s gotten into the toddler?" He asks, sighing in slight annoyance. His head is still tremendously hurting and the high-in-volume lamentation isn´t helping one bit. He approaches the two, he lifts his tail towards Cub and tries to tickle him with the tip of it. "Now now… What´s the problem little one?" He coos, pretending ministration as good as he can.

But much to the men's surprise it worked as Cub suddenly stopped crying. It didn´t help rather much as Lifty suddenly began to scream, the toddler pulling on his tail roughly. He bites his lips, trying to endure the sensation of fur being ripped off. With the new beginning he intends to show some empathy, and Cub being here on Mime's lap can only mean that his father won´t be among them for the rest of the day.

Sniffles finally managed to come back after he put Giggles' carcass to its rightful place. "Oh, you´re awake. To a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?" he asks the obligatory question, readying the painkillers. "It is a straight twelve! OW! Not so hard!" He bleated to Cub only to be greeted by welling tears. He smiles meekly, emitting a shivering laughter. "Hey, hey… Lifty didn´t mean it that way… It is ok, pull it as hard as you want… hehe…"

Mime snickered a bit as Lifty began to talk in third person. He swallows the rest of his water, throwing the empty bottle precisely into the trashcan. He looks at Sniffles questionably, unsure what to do next. "Lifty, can you take care of Cub while I check onto your brother?" The bruised raccoon takes Cub in hope that he will ease the pulling and tearing. It didn´t work out.

"Ye… OW! Yeah I think I can do that…" He says, glaring at the toddler. He sighed as he only can imagine how bad it must be for the kid. He sure misses his dad and he will have to wait until tomorrow to see him again. Whoever he is, Lifty is sure that Cub wouldn´t even want to see his father in the state he must be in right now.

He keeps the kid on his arm and decides to follow Sniffles to the room he came out from. He goes towards the window, only to be greeted by an odd incidence. On the meadow in the outside is a snake, eating up its own tail. But suddenly the snake gets interrupted by a brick falling on top of its head. Lifty got startled a bit at this but he assumed that it must have fallen of the hospital's roof. As he looks back at the snake the head was completely mushed into a pile of goo, leaving the snake to look like a broken ouroboros loop.

"This place just gets weirder and weir… OW! DAMN IT!" He screams once again, thanks to a hard and strong pull committed by the innocent toddler. "Gosh, what is this screaming all about? It´s loud enough to wake the death!" Shifty said, rubbing his hurting head. "You know, it isn´t such a surprising phenomenon that you two look the same. But sharing the spots of your bruises and scratches is plain ridiculous."

The ant eater states, caring and washing Shifty's wounds while changing the bandages. "Shifty! I´m glad you´re awake!" Lifty runs over to his brother, embracing him in a tight hug. "Yo, Lifty… Glad to see you either. It sure was a blast at Russel's, eh?" He starts joking, as he notices that a little infant was placed on his arms. Lifty must have placed him during the embrace.

"What the? What is Pop's son doing here? And why isn´t his stupid father… OW!" Lifty snickers at his brother's outburst, definitely glad that he gets a break from this tail-pulling. "Cub's father died on the way to the hospital." Mime lowered his head as Lifty asked slightly dumbfounded. "Did you transport him too?" Sniffles always has his way with words, but this time was a more complex situation to evade. "Let us just say that… He crossed the wrong path."

He looks out of the window, the orange light of the sun gets dimmed by the hospital's venetian blinds, giving their room a somber atmosphere. "Could you two take care of Cub for the rest of the day?" But Shifty interfered. "Our brother got blasted away over the sea, we have to find Ian. He flew away with Flippy and that isn´t really a pleasant thought if you ask me."

Sniffles pondered the situation. "Well, I think I can help you out with that. I invented some kind of teleporting machine, you say that he got tossed over into the sea?" They both nodded. "That´s all we got to see before we got our own problems…" The scientist leaves the room. "Hey, wait for us! We want to help too or at least want to know what is going to happen!"

He doesn´t stop in his tracks. "You can do as you please, but I want to hurry. There may be a little chance that your brother isn´t dead already. Regarding the fact that he is left with Flippy, that chance may be lowered drastically." The two raccoons share a glance as Lifty spoke up. "We´re kinda confident that he´s still alive. Our brother is a tough guy, you know?"

He looks back at them, still not slowing down. "Is that so?" The four and the kid proceed to the mysterious destination Sniffles is heading for. Accompanied by several wails of Shifty's pain and a giggling Cub enjoying himself much to the fedora wearing coon's dismay.


"Huh… Didn´t think you have such history… But that explains why I didn´t ever see you till today." Flippy said as Ian finished his story about his past. "Yeah, it was and is all pretty messed up. But I am here now and even though all of you are cursing the curse, I´m tremendously glad to have a break from this torture and pain…" He shivers at the thoughts of his elapsed ordeal. Sure, the witch got rid of the screaming children haunting him, but the past can be its own demon chasing you.

"I still don´t get it though. You clearly have no reason to go through this with me. Why are you so eager to help a random maniac?" Ian looks at the descending sun. "Because I just may know a person or better said… A thing that may be able to help you…" Flippy raised a brow. "A… Thing?" But Ian just nods silently. "It is already dusk. As I managed to catch some of these fishes I also found a sheet. It is rather dirty though, but it is dry."

Flippy noticed a dirty blanket lying on the sand. It is hard to tell if black was supposed to be its natural color. "Well it is at least a big one. We will have to share it as it seems." Ian chuckled slightly. "Well, I hope you don´t mind some manly snuggles then!" Now it was Flippy who burst out in laughter. "If only you would know! I had to experience many times that it is perfectly possible to warm each other!"

Ian cocked a smile. "Care to share?" The green bear tilted his head back, dwelling in stories of the past. "You know, once a friend called "Cuddles" visited me one day. But in the town we´re living in you can always count something gruesome in to happen. We were planning to do something completely harmless, but even this can be fucked up badly. The birthday of our dear friend Flaky was bound to happen the next following day. Cuddles decided to bake a cake. My home is rather well equipped with many sorts of things."

Ian interfered a little confused. "Wait, doesn´t Cuddles have an oven himself for that?" Flippy only chuckled at that. "His oven was stolen from your brothers." Ian lowered his ears, giving an "Are-you-serious?" expression. "Anyways, it was supposed to be completely harmless, but some of the dough was falling onto the ground during the stirring of it. I can tell you, in this place dough can be ridiculously smooth. Meaning that Cuddles tripped on it and landed into the oven himself."

The raccoon's look was now slightly disturbed. "Yeah, I know but that wasn´t the worst part. I tried to pull him out on time, but his skin was already melting against the oven's walls in the inside. I gave not up though, I wanted to save him as burning and cooking to death takes some time. Well as ridiculous as our demises can sometimes get, I managed to pull him out, ripping him literally out of the oven. The pushback was so strong, that we both were skidding into the freezer placed right below the refrigerator."

Ian squints his eyes in disbelief. "Are you serious? How much of bad luck can happen at a single time?" Flippy only chuckled at this. "I know it sound ludicrous, but it was what happened. I´m sure you can already predict what was bound to happen next. The freezer's door went shut, and I mean really shut." He looks at the still perplex coon with a smile. "Well, that was the time I cuddled with Cuddles till death. We were warming each other for quite some time but he passed out after a while. And as his emitting warmth faded, I grew more and more tired until I died as well, waking up in my bed at precisely 8am."

Ian looks back at the sun, it almost descended completely. Time is surely passing fast. "Well, that sounds horrible. How often do people die in this place?" He slowly begins to understand that the agony plaguing this place isn´t any more pleasant than the suffering he had to endure. "Everyday someone is about to die. Your brothers, to be honest, die the most in here. I´m surely not envious about it. Not only are they equally despised, but also they´re the ones dying some of the most appalling deaths."

The wind blows his cold gusts over their furs, causing them to shiver. "I didn´t know that… They told me that this place can be ghastly. But not THIS ghastly… Anyways, I´m getting the blanket now." He takes the large layer of cloth to cover his body, sheltering it from the chilling breeze. "You wanna join?" Flippy doesn´t wait long as he envelopes his fur with the blanket. They cling at each other to get fully coated in it. Embracing each other in a more or less intended hug.

Suddenly, Flippy rests his head on Ian's shoulders, trying to suppress his tears. But his silent sobbing didn´t pass Ian unnoticed. "Hey! What´s wrong?" Now the situation got really awkward. Ian wasn´t sure how to act and began patting Flippy's back of his head like he was a crying child who hurt his knee after falling of a bike. Ian couldn´t help but feel a bit foolish right now.

"You know… I´ve got loathed and disdained for countless of years. And suddenly a stranger appears out of nowhere, literally, and I bump right into him. It is just so… overwhelming to meet someone who doesn´t treat you like shit, even THOUGH I flipped out and I cannot stress out how sorry I am for this!" He doesn´t even bother to wipe his tears away. "Hell, I would have even understood if you would just leave me in the cold after this attack but… Here you are, willingly sharing a blanket with me."

Flippy clasps his arms around Ian's waist, surely enjoying the comfort he was given after such a long period of being eschewed. Unsure about what to do, Ian returns the hug, resting his head on Flippy's. "I am… so tremendously thankful for you treating me like a person. Even the people who appreciated me once…" He started to tell further, tears welling up in his eyes once again. "Are treating you like shit today?"

Ian asked, feeling sorry for the former soldier. "No… that is not the problem exactly. Many people who were appreciating me once are still treating me nice… But they began to see me with different eyes… It just hurts so fucking much! I was supposed to be a friend once and am seen as a fiend now!" But much to Ian's surprise he suddenly stopped crying. "Ian, you are right! This isn´t the way I want to live on! But I certainly want to live further! If you´re really willing to help me I promise you that I will do my best!"

The grey furred wannabe-comforter smiled back at him. "Glad to hear that. I am sure that we can find a way. There is always a way out! As I learned from my story I just know that no torment is meant to last for an eternity." They smiled at each other, slowly leaning on one another as they slowly dozed of into sleep with only a blanket and their own bodies to keep them warm.


Sniffles stood before his teleporter, pondering the situation once again. "What´s troubling you? Did you find them already?" Shifty asked, eager for an answer. He doesn´t admit it, but he is afraid for his brother's sake. The twins know all too well about the atrocities Flippy is capable of in his twisted mindset. They just can hope that Ian got on his good side.

"I don´t have to find them, the machine already got them. There is Flippy and a raccoon on an island, I guess it is your brother?" They both nod in unison. "Well see, they´re found…" That only roused their impatience. "Then what is the holdup? Teleport them to us already!" The ant eater sighed. "Well there is one problem. I have to choose one of them to be the teleporting source. That means that the energy is emitting from the medium, pulling the person next to it with it."

Even Mime has his problems to figure out the main problem now. "So?" Shifty asked, but Sniffles sighed once again. "The problem is, that the source is suffering a great rag-doll effect. That means that the source will be smashed against a wall and I am not sure whether any of the two is able to survive that."

But before he could speak further he got interrupted abruptly. "That is no problem, take Ian as the medium." Now his confusion reached its climax. "I am supposed to take your brother? Are you sure of that? I mean…" But he got interrupted repeatedly. "Trust us, it is fine. Choose Ian." He raised his brow, giving a shrug as he gave the machine the order to execute the teleport.

Just a few seconds later a violet star appears in the room, dropping a tremendously surprised Flippy. He falls to the bottom screaming in a mix of confusion and dread. Ian, however, still hangs in the air equally afraid. But his shrieking is cut short as he hits the wall with his back, the impact so forceful that it leaves a crater in the wall.

He lies on the floor whimpering in pain. The blanket which got teleported along with them is slowly falling on him, covering his face, while he remains on the floor groaning. "Well, at least he survived. Mime! Let us tread his wounds! Maybe we…" But Shifty and Lifty meant him to halt and suddenly, to his bewilderment, Ian stands up, stretching his extremities like nothing happened. Sniffles clapped his hands over his head. "I… have so many questions right now…"