At the border of your attempts you have to believe to go on


It is this time again that I catch myself in insecurity. The task itself is supposed to be very easy, but how can I be sure about this? Sure, the witch which name is still unknown to me, guaranteed us a granted success just if we manage to keep the ritual going, but I still have my doubts. And that rumbling sound combined with her sudden panic doesn´t help that situation at all.

Just keep calm, Ian. The only thing I need to do is to keep eye contact with him, it´s not that hard. I wonder how long the ritual will take? Gosh! The rumbling doesn´t cease and the earth keeps shaking for some reason! I´m not allowed to avert my look at him! I must tense up or the shaking will push me over! I wonder if this is going on outside as well.

"This isn´t supposed to happen! I have no clue why we´re suffering this sort of earth quake, but you two have to try to keep your glaring. And try to remain on your spot!" Geez, thanks for speaking the obvious… Sweat is running down my forehead, flowing into my eyes. It hurts a bit, but it is surely not enough to distract me completely! Shit, I hope I´ve put the right stakes here!

I have to focus, I have too… But suddenly a great burst of an aftershock burst into the room, catapulting the two fellas high into the air. Ian gets smashed head first into the ceiling. The moment he falls down on his back his vision gets blurry, limiting his sight drastically as he rubs his head in pain. "What the… Guess the witch was right. My wounds will not heal, great! Wait, Flippy where are you?"

Ian looked around the room with his heavy eyes, the impact was almost forceful enough to send him unconscious. But no matter how hard he tries to see anything, he can´t see Flippy anywhere, that is as he suddenly feels someone grabbing him by the fur of his neck, lifting him up slowly. "What the… Let go! It hurts!" He gets grabbed by his throat with another hand. The moment his vision regains some clarity he can make out two pairs of emerald eyes, piercing him with devilish intent.

"You know, you should play a game by its rules if you don´t want anything to hurt you…" Flippy tosses Ian to the ground, giving a grin with his sharp teeth. Ian stands up as fast as he can. The moment he got thrown to the ground he realized the terrible mistake the impact caused him to make. "Shit, I lost eye contact…" It was no longer just mere uneasiness he was feeling now, Ian was now tremendously frightened.

"Flippy! Please I know the other side of you is somewhere inside of you! We don´t have to fight! We can work through this!" But the green maniac only chuckled at his pleading. "Well, but I´m eager to fight you. You know, we still have to even the odds for the branch you used to knock me out. That was not very nice of you." He gazes at the puzzled raccoon with his insane, wide-eyed grin, licking his sharp teeth.

"this isn´t good…" Flippy only chuckled again. "Not for you maybe, but I will enjoy this hugely!" The green furred loony dashes towards the raccoon, sending several punches at him. Ian only manages to block them by backing away at the same time. Flippy's attacks increased on speed rapidly since last time, and this time, Ian doesn´t have any element of surprise on his side, neither by his mediocre fighting skills, nor by his immortality. Last one is gone for the period of the ritual.

"Hey! How long has the ritual to proceed until it´s done?" The witch rises her hands in despair. "I didn´t see any of this coming! The whole ritual was supposed to go without any problems! You´ll have to figure something on your own." The despondency in her voice is only underlining her perplexity. Ian keeps blocking the relentless attacks, slowly aggravating Flippy.

"Stop evading like a coward! Fight back!" But this would go against any plans Ian had in mind. His softer side was thrown in lethargy because he was stigmatized as some sort of monster, how is he going to convince him if he fights back? Is this even the right way? "I don´t want to fight you Flippy! Please let us deal this in another way!"

Flippy paused his attacks, causing Ian to lower his guard. "Please, I beg you! I really don´t…" Suddenly Flippy rises his foot, kicking Ian right into his stomach. The force of the blow is sending him right into his knees. Ian wheezes in pain. "As you may have figured, I am not interested in a conversation. Now fight if you want to postpone the beat up!"

Ian looks up in dread as his opponent lifts his knee, aiming right for his face. He manages to block it barely by raising his arms in defense. The impact sends him back, but he tries to use the swing to get up to his feet, almost falling down in the attempt. It seems that fighting is the only choice now. "Keep eye contact Ian. Only then the ritual can succeed…" He talks to himself quietly as he focusses on his counterpart.

But Flippy granted him only a short break as his attack-frenzy went on, sending several punches and kicks at Ian's direction. Suddenly he strikes out towards him. Ian tries to dodge his attack as good as he can but Flippy's fist is still grazing his cheek. Ian aims for Flippy's nose in hope to startle him, at least for a few second to get a break. Ian indeed landed a hit, but Flippy only grinned through the pain and grabbed his hand, twisting his arm to his back while causing him great pain.

"Agh… Flippy please!" It seems that Ian's pleas are only piquing his bloodlust. "You are fragile Ian. I could break this arm with no problem." Ian flinched but is unable to get away. He feels this sense of dread rising inside of him once again. "Or how about I just dislocate some of your joints?" He closes his eyes in preparation for great pain incoming.

But to his surprise Flippy lets go of him. "No! Let him be! Don´t harm him!" Flippy suddenly clasped his hands over his face, holding his head like it was going to burst. He screams while falling down on his knees. He manages to reveal one eye, looking at Ian in exasperation. "Ian! Please go! I´m a monster! Please go you get yourself killed!"

Ian's doubts about the plan were rising any minute, but the sign that Flippy managed to fight back for a short duration gave him hope. He can´t run away from this. The ritual has to be done. "I just have to be careful to not get caught by you… Or maybe I have to be caught so your unwillingness to harm me will win your berserk side over!"

Speaking of which, it didn´t took his bad side long to reappear. "You should have run, you… What are you doing?" The scenario that presented itself confused him. Ian just stood there with his arms spread out. "I won´t fight back. If you feel the need to hurt me, then do it." Flippy's face twitched as it seems to be divided in two parts. The one half of his face showed a frown in despair, while the other half emitted the disturbing grin reminiscent to his lunacy.

Ian gulps as Flippy slowly makes his way towards him, covering his despondent half of the face. "Do you really think that this will work? The only thing you´ll accomplish is getting you hurt." But despite his threats, Ian remains focused, keeping his gaze towards him. "If you feel the need to hurt me…" He gulps at the sentence he is about to finish. "Then do your worst!"

Flippy gave a menacing smile at that. He sends a forceful kick at Ian's chest, pushing him down to the ground. The bruised coon gasps for air as the kick pressed everything out of his lungs, giving him the feeling as if he was about to suffocate, the burning sensation in his lungs only underlining his predicament. Ian remains on the floor, looking at Flippy determinedly.

Flippy, however jumps down, landing on top of him. "You are really no fun you know? I could kill you easily and you´re doing nothing about it…" Flippy pretended a pout as he pondered his next move. "The stories you told me about your past was… Intriguing. How about some torture instead?" Ian's eyes widened in shock as Flippy dug his sharp claws in his sites. He relives the ordeal Illinoy put him through before his eyes and starts to panic as small blood clots are forced out of him.

He suddenly manages to free one of his legs and kicks Flippy off of himself, he gets up fast and tries to send a punch directly at Flippy's face. The maniac was still reeling from Ian's punt and couldn´t manage to block the blow. He achieved to land a hit directly at Flippy's eye, sending him to the ground. Ian pants heavily, not because of the pain but because the dread and distress evoking in him.

Flippy only managed to get up slowly. "Did I hit him too hard? I can´t imagine that…" but the war veteran began to look at him with an emotionless expression as his eyes began to glow unexpectedly. The world around them began to blacken and the witch seemed to disappear. They stood alone in a sort of black and dark void. "Flippy?" But he doesn´t seem to hear him. He just lies on the ground, piercing Ian with his glaring.

His silhouette began to blur, but shortly after this Flippy's body began to distort completely, as if he was about to shatter. "What the fuck is going on now?" But this event wasn´t lasting long and they found themselves back in the witch's basement. "That was a good blow Ian… Now it is my turn." He stood up with his megalomaniac grin. "I´m so glad that you decided to fight back!"

It was this moment that Ian began to doubt whether his pacifistic way was really the right one. He readies himself. "Ok, if this is really the way you want to go, then let´s do this!" Without wasting any more seconds, Flippy rushes towards him, continuing his frenzy. Ian doesn´t even try to block them and just dodges by going backwards. Flippy tries to kick him once again, but Ian evades to the site and attempts another blow to his face.

But this time Flippy saw it coming and grabbed his hand and forearm. With a smugly grin he spins around and throws Ian over, sending him down to the ground hardly. Shortly after, he grabs him by the fur of his chest and pulls him up, sending a forceful punch right into his stomach, causing him to vomit as he goes down to his knees. Ian wheezes and coughs in pain as some of the stomach acid are blocking the air passages. He looks up to Flippy in fear as the berserk is going to punch him in the face, but Ian doesn´t manage to block it this time as he is still holding his aching abdomen and gets hit directly in the face.

He yelps in pain and falls on his back. His limps begin to tremble as his body is aching thoroughly and his vision blurring again. He fights hard not to lose his consciousness. He can only make out Flippy's silhouette, approaching him slowly. Ian is overwhelmed with dread and fear for his life and begins to crawl back in despair. "Pl… Please stop…" He pleads "You should try harder…" Flippy cooed nonchalantly. "Flippy please! I am no match for you! This is futile I can´t defeat you! I barely even manage to land a hit!"

But he only earned a lunatic grin covering his beseech in self-induced cowardice. "That is the fun part you know? The prey is giving its best to survive but recognizes the futility of it." He licks his teeth utterly aroused. "And gets desperate…" Despair is the key word as Ian's eyes begin to water in exasperation. He gets pinned down by Flippy. The war veteran lowers his head in an attempt to whisper something into Ian's ear, but Ian uses this moment to his advantage and sends a dynamic headbutt directly into Flippy's nose.

He lets go of him and bursts out in laughter. "THAT IS THE KIND OF DESPONDENT DETERMINATION I´M TALKING ABOUT!" Flippy seems to be overwhelmed by his own lunacy and dashes towards Ian face-first. "This time… I will get this right…" Ian talks to himself as he focusses. He thinks back the moment he tried this as he got attacked by Flippy on the island they got stuck on. He waits for the right moment. Flippy was now only a few feet away, Ian spins around and kicks directly at Flippy's face, but this time way faster than the last time. Flippy didn´t bother to guard his face and got hit by full force. He falls back a few inches.

Ian waits for Flippy to get up again, but his eyes are glowing again, this time Flippy doesn´t appreciate him a glance. The witch standing outside witnesses them paling away into nothingness, as if they just vanish. "There must be something I can do to help them! My oath won´t be fulfilled if he gets himself killed!" She said to herself. Suddenly her claws caught green fire and she carved some sorts of runes into the solid ground of the ritual's circle from the distance. She mumbles some kind of spell in an otherworldly language.

Ian and Flippy find themselves back in the black void they got stuck just moments before. The darkness surrounding them seems to be infinite. Flippy is kneeling with his back turning against him. He seems to sob but the void seems to swallow every kind of tone. Ian is reluctant as he barely manages to keep his stand. His whole upper body hurts massively and even his legs began to get sour.

But he slowly approaches him, Flippy doesn´t seem to notice him. Ian rest his paw on one of Flippy's shoulders and cowers down to be on the same level. Flippy seems to quit his sobbing and looks towards Ian with his tear-filled eyes. They stare at each other for a while as Ian suddenly surprises Flippy by hugging him tightly. Flippy returns the hug hesitantly and continues to cry as the void around them slowly starts to vanish again, leaving them back in the ritual's room.

"Ian… I´m… Sorry…" Ian closed his eyes as he is still hugging him but screams in pain as he feels Flippy's sharp claws digging into the flesh of his back. Flippy rips his fur with the skin away, leaving a gashing wound on Ian's back. Waves of agony are surging through Ian's body as blood is pouring out of the spots. He pushes the severely wounded raccoon away from him, sending him to the ground. Ian screams and cries in pain as he is crooking on the ground, the pain blocking any strength to get up again.

Flippy approaches him with an aggressive look on his face, ready to finish him of. But suddenly he steps on one of the runes the witch carved into the ground. His fur gets caught in green fire and he is unable to move. "Ian! Your attacks seem to be working! Punch him again as long as he is stunned!" But his wounds are too serious, he attempts to get up but barely even manages to move his extremities.

The witch gets more and more desperate. "Ian!" But to her appall, Ian isn´t able to move. The beat up and mutilation committed by Flippy were too strong. She closes her eyes and sheds a single tear. "A favor must be returned, no matter the cost…" She engulfs herself and Ian in a dark green light, the light surrounding her forms a beam which is slowly approaching Ian. She closes her eyes as she whispers her final words. "Life… Transmission…"

Suddenly her body begins to decompose rapidly as meat scraps are falling from her face, revealing her muscles and tendons. Her eyes are falling out from the sockets and her clothes are falling off, exposing her skeleton which descends slowly into the pile of rotten flesh as soon as the spell ends. Ian, however, experiences his wounds closing. "What the… I feel… Replenished!"

He gets up rapidly, not used to the new gained strength. "I didn´t feel that energetic my entire life!" But he lays off his astonishment rapidly as he gets torn back to reality from a screaming Flippy, engulfed in green flames which are slowly fading. He doesn´t waste any more time and raises his fist to hit him once again. Flippy tries to block the attack but it was too fast. This time, Ian got relentless as he punches him multiple times, landing one hit after another. Whatever the which has done, it empowered him tremendously. Just the power he needed to finish what they began. With one final kick to Flippy's stomach he sends the puzzled bear down to the ground. Much to his surprise the bear was smiling, but this time it was a genuine smile.

"You´re… doing great…" It seems as if Flippy was composed by two phases. His eyes remain emerald but his teeth aren´t sharp anymore. Is this the balanced state they are craving for? Flippy gets up slowly, but the moment he looks back at Ian, his teeth are sharp again. Ian tries to advance his attacks, but Flippy adapted to his movement. He dodges his punches and kicks nearly effortlessly.

He manages to catch Ian's fist, twists his arm and launches his knee directly at Ian's ribs. Ian groans in pain and is sent back to the ground as Flippy kicks him into the hollow of his knee. Flippy jumps back a little and kicks Ian's back of the head forcefully with his heel, sending him face-first to the ground fast. It doesn't seem anymore as if Flippy is fighting for pleasure anymore, it seems that he is eager to finish him off now.

Despite the dull feeling in his head he rolls to the side rapidly in an attempt to get up. Flippy tries to hit him again with his feet but barely misses him. "JUST DIE ALREADY WON´T YOU?" Flippy gets blinded by aggression and dashes towards Ian. But He manages to remain calm and waits for the right moment to strike. The moment Flippy launches his attack, he sweeps back a little, evading the fist aiming for his face, and launches forward, ramming his elbow right onto Flippy's nose. The bones of his nose crack upon the impact and he falls back down once again, covering his face.

Much to Ian's surprise, Flippy's whole body is emitting a bright light. They are surrounded by the infinite darkness anew, but the bright light from Flippy fills the void rapidly, as if the light is pursuing the darkness. Directly in front of him are two versions of Flippy standing hand in hand. The one version of him shows the intimidated and anxious side of him. The serene side of Flippy is smiling at him with watery eyes.

The other side shows his ferocious and sadistic side. It is just looking at him emotionlessly. Ian keeps staring at them, keeping the eye contact towards both of them. The bright, yellow light almost filled the entire void, banishing every single bit of darkness. The two versions of Flippy slowly begin to melt together. The void seems to implode, they are sent back to the basement, one final time. But Flippy is surrounded by a blurred aura, covering his face as he screams wildly. He uncovers one of his eyes and looks at Ian savagely.

"NO! YOU WILL NOT DO THIS TO ME!" He begins to attack Ian again and although Ian tries to evade them by going backwards as well, his assault is too rapid and relentless. Several kicks are hitting him. He grabs him by the chest, pulls him closer to himself and punches him in the face, causing him to scream in pain. But Ian manages to keep standing, only to get hit by another kick at his kneecap.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?!" Ian tries to escape but the next hit gets him even harder, severely bruising his cheekbone. His solar-plexus suffered a strong impact, causing his diaphragm to cramp and disabling his breath for a short while. But Ian doesn´t get any time to catch his breath as Flippy's rips through Ian's legs with his own and he falls down on his back. Flippy jumps on Ian's stomach and chest. Ian tries to scream but only manages to groan due to the lack of oxygen.

"CAN´T YOU UNDERSTAND? RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! I HAVE TO GIVE IN TO IT!" Ian looks at him, struggling to speak. "N… No y… you don´t… Have t… to… give in…" But this only earned him more punches. Flippy makes sure to hit the same spot over and over again, the cheekbone he hit before. He repeatedly smashes on it until it breaks, compelling Ian to scream. Flippy grabs him by the throat and Ian grabs the forearm, the pain overwhelming him he pleads one more time. "Pl… Please… St… Stop…" Flippy suddenly gets of him and pulls the pleading rodent up by his throat, squeezing it a little. "You beg for mercy you certainly DO NOT DESERVE! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" Ian is about to lose his consciousness as he chokes his last words.

"I… I am… Your friend…"

Flippy gets startled, letting go of Ian who just falls down on the ground like a lifeless body. Ian manages to catch a last look of Flippy before he passes out. The blurred aura around Flippy is slowly fading, his sharp teeth are growing back to normal and only his emerald pupils remain emerald. He falls to his knees, holding his head. He pants heavily, his eyes pride wide open.

It is as if he slowly regains control over his actions, as if the veil of fury, aggression and pain is slowly paling away. One moment ago, he felt the thrill of war surrounding him, the need to kill everyone surrounding him, but now, these feelings just vanished.

Flippy looks around in confusion. "What the hell happened? Where am I?" But his obfuscation is cut short as he recognizes a certain raccoon lying on the ground, unconscious and severely bruised. "IAN! Fuck WHAT HAVE I DONE?" Suddenly all the happenings from before are flooding his mind, giving him the horrid realization that he did this to him. But unlikely to his former personality, he manages to keep it together and approaches Ian.

"I did this to you… And I will make sure to fix it!" With that said he grabs Ian and puts him on his back, wrapping his motionless arms around his throat. He bends over a little to ensure that Ian isn´t about to fall off from his back and starts to leave the basement, passing the bones and flesh of the remains of the witch. "I will make this right! I won´t let you die! I just won´t, do you hear me!?"

Flippy runs up the stairs as fast as he can while carrying Ian on his back, but something is odd. The scribblings on the wall seem to melt away. Suddenly, faces are appearing, as if they are inside the wall attempting to break out. Flippy is shortly after greeted with screeches and screams. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" He rapidly accelerates in fear and shock taking two stages at once.

As he reaches the last stage one of the beings manages to grab his ankle, ripping some fur out of it as Flippy pulls his leg out of the creature's grasp. He closes the door fast and wipes the sweat from his forehead. "Fuck this supernatural bullshit…" He turns around, but the entire hallway seemed to have changed while they were down in the basement.

The chandelier on the ceiling crushed down to the ground, all the furniture is nothing more than crushed debris littering the ground. Flippy peeks through the darkness as only the moonlight shining through the windows is enabling him a minimal amount of sight. "There is the exit… finally…" He carefully makes his way towards the front door as the debris on the ground began to shake suddenly, revealing a snake-like creature dashing towards the craved door.

The creature was huge in size, it's scales look like they were molten to a certain point, its fangs are equaling with the size of Flippy's head. Speaking of him, he doesn´t take much time to think and dashes up the stairs in hope to find a spot to hide inside. The creature pursues them rapidly but Flippy took the first door in sight, smashes it open and closes it similar fast. He peeks around quickly and makes a run for the wardrobe standing in between a large bed and a huge desk. "The moment that thing looks for us in some of the spots, I have to run to the door and hope for the best…"

He climbs into the wardrobe, kneeling down while securing the still unconscious raccoon on his back. The moment he closed the door enough to be covered but still open enough to observe the situation, the creature smashed the door, breaking it in the process. Flippy covers his mouth to be as quiet as possible. He tenses up his entire body as the bottom of the wardrobe suddenly began to creak.

The creature heard the noise and approaches the wardrobe slowly. But as if things couldn´t get any worse, a cloud of dust is falling down slowly, causing him to sneeze loudly. "I fucking hate my life… And this fucking allergy!"