Disclaimer: "Happy Tree Friends" is a copyright of Mondo Media

[Wow, I didn't realize my songfic (Happy Tree Friends: Alice Of Human Sacrifice) would get that many views in a few days…]

Happy Tree Friends: Camp Sanguine

Chapter 14 – Inner Demon

Rustle…rustle…

Grr…HOWL~!

Flippy ran faster, tears brimming out of fear in his grass-green eyes. He didn't dare look back, but he knew who – or rather, what – was chasing him. In his previous dreams he had encountered Possessed Flaky and Possessed Splendid, both of which had him killed mere seconds before he would wake up and realize it was just another nightmare.

And this time, 'it' took the form of his sister.

"Get back here!" Possessed Moonlight yelled, "I won't hurt you. I'll just kill you quick and easy!" That only made the teen soldier run faster, adrenaline burning through every muscle in his body. Tense had tightened every ligament and before he knew what happened, he suddenly tripped on his own feet and smashed his neck against a rock.

Paralyzed from the neck-down, he helplessly watched her tantalizingly walk closer before crouching and putting her face inches from his own. "You know that you can never escape this camp…" she purred, glowing-red pupils glaring, "Even if you did, you'll be dragged back until you join the rest of us in Hell."

He was then dragged by the collar to the edge of some dark pit, in the middle of a large deserted clearing. Pained wails and whispering voices echoed from the deep abyss. Using her demonic strength, she lifted her physically-frozen brother and hurled him into the hole; giggling evilly as he screamed falling into a spike pit.

"UGH!"

Spikes had been poked through his arms, legs, and parts of his torso as he landed. In his dying vision, he noticed the corpses of Splendid and Splendont lying to his left. The moment they turned their heads with a sickening C-C-CRACK, Flippy screamed – louder than the laughing skulls that cackled at him.

Flippy yelped and jolted awake, his head hitting a pillow tied to the underside of Russell's bunk. "Yar…that be a good idea you did," the teen pirate mumbled sleepily, "I was getting tired of being bumped awake." The army-clothed teen gulped and padded quietly to the bathroom to inspect for any new self-inflicted injuries.

To his surprise, there were none – no bruising on his neck from the impact in his dream; his clothes weren't torn and there weren't any blood stains from being impaled by large metal spikes. He took off his shirt and kept twisting and turning, seeing nothing but bare skin and his own toned muscles. 'Not a scratch?' he thought, 'Well, this is a first.' Managing to breathe a bit easier now, he quietly took a shower to clean off the sweat clinging onto him.

Something darted at the corner of his eye. He swiftly glanced at the window and sighed in relief – it was only the swaying tree branches outside. He then averted his eyes to the bathroom mirror and stifled a yelp; slipped on a water puddle and conked his head on the floor, knocking himself unconscious.

…

…

…

"Hey, get up!" echoed a seemingly unfamiliar voice, "Flippy, get up! Are you okay?"

"Ugh…" groaned said teen as he sat up and rubbed his head. He was about to ask why he was on the floor when he suddenly remembered; glanced frighteningly to the mirror while panting furiously. "Whoa – hey – calm down," Shifty soothed while helping him up; Lifty tossed the confused soldier a towel to cover up his 'lower regions'.

"How long was I out?" Flippy asked as he rummaged his locker for a fresh set of clothes. "Long enough – you missed breakfast," Lifty replied, "None of the guys noticed you were on the floor since the alarm blared." Shifty then asked how he got there in the first place.

Flippy replied that after he was done with his shower, he saw something in the mirror. Usually he'd see his alter-ego making rude faces at him, but this time it was different – it was still him, but he had glowing red pupils and his smile stretched from ear-to-ear, revealing canines longer than Flipqy's. "First question: why were you in the shower that early?" Lifty asked, "Second question: are you sure you weren't dreaming?"

"I was all sweaty from that stupid dream and no, I wasn't dreaming," Flippy insisted, "Whatever I saw was for real." Shifty then explained that he could've been slightly disoriented and he scared himself with his own reflection. "Guys, I'm not making this up!" the teen soldier argued. "It's true…I saw the same thing," Lifty muttered miserably.

The fedora-wearing teen turned and cocked his eyebrows at his brother. "It was two years ago," Lifty explained, "About a month since we were dumped here. I've been having nightmares about being chased by some monster and getting killed one way or another. Then just like Flippy, I woke up to go to the bathroom and there it was – staring with its scary red pupils and grinning like the Cheshire Cat –"

"Blah, blah, blah – you guys were hallucinating," Shifty interrupted, "Just forget it." As the sea-green twins turned to leave, Lifty snuck one last glance behind him and gave Flippy the 'I'm-not-kidding!' shrug. Said teen soldier quickly dressed up and walked back to the mirror as if to prove it wasn't his imagination.

Sure enough, Flippy only saw what he half-expected: his slightly-unkempt lime-green hair hanging wildly under his beret; confused forest-green eyes paired with a frown. He almost got startled as Flipqy appeared the moment he blinked, concerned golden eyes staring back at him. "Just let it go, kiddo – don't let it bother you," his alter-ego calmly told.

"When did you start acting so 'nice'?" Flippy asked and earned sneer in return – a sure sign he was only playing with him. "Fuck this…" the green-eyed soldier mumbled, turning and heading out of the cabin without looking back. 'Maybe Shifty was right – I was only seeing things because I didn't get much sleep…yeah…' he thought.

Back in the bathroom mirror, glowing-red pupils stared out of the glass and a huge grin spread across an invisible face, snickering before it slowly faded away…

"None of you will be safe much longer…"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Team 'Mole': Cuddles, Giggles, Flippy, Flaky, Handy, Petunia, Splendid, Moonlight, Lammy & Mime

Team 'Cro-Marmot': Disco Bear, Lifty, Shifty, Lumpy, Nutty, Pop, Russell, Sniffles, Splendont & Toothy

"Alright, let's get this straight – we get the 'frozen diner cook' as our goalkeeper while they get the blind counselor?" Splendont objected, "Why are they even playing in the first place! And why is Lumpy in our team too? He can't even kick a soda can one inch close to his foot!"

"We have the exact number of players to participate in today's game – that's why Mole and Cro-Marmot are included – and Lumpy was a high school soccer champion in his days," Pop calmly argued, "He's a tad bit rusty today, that's all." Said boys' counselor shrugged and chuckled sheepishly.

Splendont still wasn't happy and demanded to have the 'useless' players removed. "But the girls will be so upset – they're not that useless," Disco Bear insisted. "I believe our only 'use' – to you, especially – is so that you can stare at our behinds while we run," Lammy pointed out.

Mime couldn't help but laugh as the 70s teen gulped and hid behind Splendont. "I-I w-wasn't planning to do that in the first place – I swear!" Disco Bear stuttered. "Oh really?" Cuddles prodded; turned to his pink-haired girlfriend and asked, "Giggles, who was peeking through your window this morning?"

Disco Bear claimed he was only passing by when the girls (who happened to be changing out of their pajamas that time) caught him at the window. "Liar, liar, pants on fire~!" Giggles and Petunia sang accusingly. "You wanna go through the 'Claws & Nails' ritual again?" Handy threatened, "I'm sure Flippy and Moonlight's 'evil twins' would love that."

Flipqy and Eclipse snickered in said twins' heads the second they heard him. "Handy, keep that to yourself next time…" the green-eyed soldier growled; his sister added that although she vaguely remembered anything from that night, she agrees anyway.

"Back to the original argument…" Splendid interrupted, "I think it's more unfair for my team because our cook can easily block – his ice cube covers more than half the goalpost. There's no way our ball can pass through that!" Splendont then claimed their goalie has better hearing and will block their goals 50% of the time. "I'd put that close to 85% – just a rough estimation," Sniffles noted. Mole shrugged indifferently; Cro-Marmot just stared.

"Yeah, way to go, nerd!" Shifty commented sarcastically. "You just gave them a hint about who's really gonna win!" Lifty continued for him. Nutty and Toothy both did a facepalm as most of the players began arguing among themselves – some insisted they should still remove some players and re-arrange the teams; others say it's unfair and should –

"JUST LEAVE THE ARRANGEMENT AS IT IS!" Flaky shouted, stomping her foot as hard as possible on the grassy field. Her little 'tantrum' had set everyone straight and stopped the arguments. "You're…not on your period, are ye?" Russell asked, breaking the awkward silence and earning gasps from the female campers.

SMACK!

"Yar…sorry…" the teen pirate whined apologetically after receiving Flaky's hard slap across this face. "Who would've thought she has a temper?" echoed Flipqy's voice, "I wonder if she could also be the 'naughty' type…if you know what I mean~!"

'Shut…up…' Flippy thought, growling as his alter-ego snickered. "Alright, it's settled – let's go!" Pop announced, joining his team as both sides discussed strategies. If only they remembered Splendid and Splendont's advanced hearing were more focused on their opponents' whispering…

Nearly 30 minutes into the game: neither team had scored – as argued earlier, Cro-Marmot's massive ice block wouldn't allow the ball to get through; Mole kept blocking / catching the ball with such accuracy. And the red-and-blue twins weren't making the game as exciting as they expected since they've already heard each other's moves.

"Grr…we're going nowhere like this!" Cuddles whined as he ran his hands through his blond hair; ranted excessively before being calmed down by Handy and Toothy. "Let's just call it a day then," Pop sighed exhaustedly, "Besides, Cub might be hungry. I left him napping alone in the cabin."

While Pop strolled away, Lumpy and Mole decided to join Cro-Marmot for some ice cream (leaving some campers to wonder how a man in an ice block move the second they blinked). Nutty was pigging out on a box of 'Rainbow Nerds' and was sharing some with Mime. Russell – feeling he didn't want to sit around and do nothing – decided to go fishing in the lake along with Sniffles (who wanted to do some aquatic study while at it).

Meanwhile, Disco Bear had gone back to the boys' cabin and changed into a pair of tiger-print swimming trunks. "What on…" Lammy mumbled as she watched him climb a tree before making a somewhat-stylish dive into the lake. "Heh, I can do better than that," Splendont boasted. "Yeah, right – as if!" Splendid snorted.

"What? I'm not kidding."

"Says the red-haired lazybones who skipped swimming classes at school."

"I could swim better than those puny amateurs any day!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

"My trunks aren't laundered yet."

"Is that an excuse? How lame!"

"You're the one who wears the same boxers one-week straight!"

"That's not true!"

"Is to!"

"Is not!"

"IS TO!"

"IS NOT!"

"My boxers are ALWAYS cleaner than yours!"

"Right now, they smell like SHIT!"

"BED-WETTER!"

"AM NOT!"

"ARE TO!"

"AM NOT! And take that back!"

"Aha! So you DO wet your bed!"

"SHUT UP!"

"I think we should get out of here…" Giggles whispered to Petunia. Both girls then tugged their boyfriends away before either of them could coerce the still-arguing twins into a fight. "Seriously, you two…" Flippy sighed, doing a facepalm, "Why can't you guys just get along?"

"YOU STAY OUT OF IT!" the red-and-blue twins yelled together. "NOBODY YELLS AT ME LIKE THAT!" Flippy fired back, engaging in a three-way argument by this point. Flaky and Moonlight sighed and were about to break it up when Lifty and Shifty nudged their shoulders. In the fedora-wearing teen's hand was the Dark Magic Book – he explained Pop lent it to them for safekeeping as Cub nearly tore out some pages.

"No…just no," Flaky replied flatly, folding her arms. "You seriously think you can just stop their argument with bare hands?" Shifty prodded, "No offence, but neither of you are fit enough even if you worked together." The girls knew they were right – there's no way they could easily pull the three boys apart, especially since Splendid and Splendont have superhuman strength; Flippy could flip out if they handle him the wrong way.

"All yours – you understand it better than we do," Lifty commented as he handed Moonlight the book. Said white-haired teen studied the table of contents before flipping to a certain page. 'This should do it – it's harmless enough,' the part-albino thought before chanting out ancient Latin.

Almost immediately, the skies had darkened and the slight summer breeze turned into a windy gale. 'This isn't right!' Moonlight thought, 'It's supposed to knock those three out, not summon a –' She then realized she was one page off and chanted the spell before proof-reading it. "Uh oh…" she muttered.

Rumble…rumble…

The boys immediately stopped arguing as the ground beneath them began to shake uncontrollably. "W-W-Whoa~!" they yelped as they were thrown to the ground, wincing as they landed hard on the grass. "Kya!" Flaky screamed as she fell forward and landed in Flippy's lap. Lifty and Shifty were yelling at Moonlight, but she couldn't hear them properly due to the loud rumbling and the fact she's more focused on staying on her feet.

C-C-Crack…crumble…

"Flippy!" Moonlight shrieked as the ground opened up. Said teen soldier happened to glance down and gasped as he realized the ground was cracking up. "GAH!" he screamed, grunting as he grabbed onto the edge seconds before he fell into a flaming pit; Flaky had rolled away, her hands barely managing to grab her boyfriend's as he nearly slipped. Splendid quickly pulled him up before grabbing Flaky; Splendont snatched up Moonlight while Lifty and Shifty managed to follow the red-and-blue twins on foot.

Grr…ROAR~!

An unearthly growl echoed from the deep crack, followed by an explosion of fire and brimstone which rained down and burned everything in its path. "Inside! NOW!" Pop yelled, holding a wailing Cub in his arms, "HURRY!" The seven teenagers immediately zoomed straight into the counselor's cabin, Splendid and Splendont nearly hitting the back wall as they were distracted with fear.

Lumpy, Mole and Cro-Marmot were already safe within the diner along with Cuddles, Giggles, Handy and Petunia – they were just enjoying a little snack when the incident started. However, those who were still outside…

Nutty and Mime were pelted and scorched to death by raining brimstone, the hyperactive teen's candy spilled around them as they collapsed. Russell, Sniffles and Disco Bear were cooked and boiled alive as they failed to get out of the lake – burning-hot rocks had heated the water hot enough to boil a thick-shelled lobster. Lammy and Toothy were trapped in the woods and were cooked alive as burning trees fell over and buried them.

"I lent you the book in order to keep it safe…" Pop growled, "But no, you had to try out a spell." The camp director then looked accusingly at Moonlight as she still has the book in her hands. "Did you have any idea what you had done?" he muttered through clenched teeth. The part-albino was silent and looked away guiltily.

"I…" she finally replied, "I only wanted to knock the boys out to stop their argument. But I turned to the wrong page and chanted magic I shouldn't have."

Flippy asked which one she meant; was silently shown the page she was reading from…and he paled in shock. Written in bold Latin letters were the words "Abyssus Porta".

Translation: "Hell Gate"

"Why the fuck did you do that!" he demanded angrily, uncaring as Pop cringed at his cussing. "I'm sorry!" Moonlight cried, tears streaming out of her ocean-blues as she dropped the book, "I acted too fast! I –!" She couldn't get the rest of the sentence out and was sobbing bitterly on her knees. Flippy snapped out of his anger and knelt, hugging and apologizing as he held his sister close.

Splendont picked up the 'dark magic book' and flipped through the pages, eyebrows creased in confusion as he tried to make out the language. "If you started it, you can stop it – right?" Splendid asked, but was unable to get an answer as his girlfriend was still sobbing in her brother's arms.

Lifty was about to get the book back when the red-haired hero held it out of his and his brother's reach. "Last time, you summoned a tentacle monster," Splendont pointed out, "What makes you think you can stop this mess?" Flippy then handed his sister to Splendid before snatching the book out of the red hero's hands; flipped to a page and chanted, "Subsisto quod reverto ut regnum ex unde vos venit!"

Translation: "Halt and return to the realm from whence you came!"

The furious roars died down and the crack in the ground appeared to seal itself up; the rumbling slowly decreased and the atmosphere was peaceful once again. All that's left behind were a heap of still burning-hot rocks, scorched flora, and a bunch of dead campers littering the area. The survivors breathed a sigh of relief…but Flippy felt something is horribly wrong.

Bang…bang…CRASH!

"AH!" the group screamed as Lumpy and Mole kicked the door down, both grinning and baring demonic canines as they let themselves in. Cro-Marmot was blocking the door, his ice cube marred with deep scratches and what appeared to be half-rotten skulls suspended on either side of his head. The frozen man's body was also marred with deep gashes, bone peeking through the ripped flesh.

Scratch…scratch…scratch…

Flaky and Moonlight whimpered and clung onto their boyfriends as Cuddles, Giggles and Petunia were clawing at the windows, trying to let themselves in. They didn't have to wait long as Handy made an entrance by bashing through the glass using his helmet.

"Guys, what's the matter with all of you!" Shifty demanded. "They're…" Flippy half-whimpered, "They're not who you think they are." Everyone soon realized he was right the moment they recognized glowing-red pupils in the middle of their possessed friends' eyes.

In their dreams, their demon-possessed selves chased them down to the point of either torturing them mercilessly to killing them in the worst ways possible. Then they would wake up and realize it was all just a nightmare…sometimes even accompanied with injuries they had sustained while they were dreaming.

…but this isn't a dream now…

"Thanks for opening the gate~!" Possessed Lumpy snorted, the rest of them snickering along with him. 'What have I done…' Moonlight thought miserably.