Disclaimer: I don't own HTF. I just own a laptop and have a brother who introduced me to the show.
AN: I'm really glad that everyone is reading my story. I know the last chapter was a bit short but I just felt I needed a gap there, it was kind of a tension thing. Special thanks to everyone who's reviewed and anyone whose had a guess at who the murderer is.
Chapter 9: Roses are Red (Giant saws soon will be)
Consciousness returned slowly as usual. First the sharp pains, like the one in the back of her head. Then the dull throbbing pains, like her right arm. These were followed as usual by the normal feelings; then hearing, some sort of grating sound in the distance. Then smell, a natural smell, something sort of comforting and outdoors-y, sawdust. Finally she was ready to open her eyes, colours danced infront of them in an indistinct swirl, obviously sight wasn't ready yet.
She blinked and the colours danced slower, settling into a pattern... Something red... Red and large, and blobby... No not blobby, spiky... Something Red and large and spiky and getting closer. A person. Someone she knew, no not just that, a friend... Flaky.
"Flaky," Her voice sounded weak and far away, "What's going on? Where am I?"
Flaky jumped, turning on the spot she span to face her, a look of terror on the porcupine's face, but seeing the chipmunk she smiled nervously, "Oh, hey Giggles. I wasn't expecting you to wake up so soon. I kinda wasn't planning this."
"What do you mean?" Giggles tried to move towards her friend, only to realise that her legs were chained down. In fact chains spiraled across her chest and legs, pinning her arms by her side and her body in place, they were spread haphazardly across her, obviously tightened quickly and careless but no less effectively, she couldn't move. "What's going on?" Flaky began to turn away, "Please Flaky, help."
Flaky walked to the other side of the room, turned back to Giggles and frowned nervously, "I'm really s-sorry Giggles, b-but I just can't." She looked backwards and forwards, "You might tell someone."
"Tell someone what?" Giggles was confused, her mind was starting to piece this together, but she still hadn't got there, "What's going on?"
Flaky giggled nervously, "Well you see the thing is..." She looked round, "Oh god!" She fell to her knees, rocking slowly, "Oh god, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry about all of this Giggles. I liked you, really, we were friends. But you'd just tell someone- you almost did- and then..." She broke off, whimpering, before breaking into a wide and slightly creepy smile, "Which is why I'm going to kill you. I'm really sorry, but there's no other way." She giggled again, her smile twitching slightly and dashed back to a control panel in the wall. Laughing slightly manically.
Giggles struggled with her chains, her mind may not be clear but she could tell something was wrong. She pulled against the chains but only caused them to rattle gently, "Flaky, what are you doing? Help me!" But the porcupine just frowned, still laughing and beginning to sing under her breath.
"Rockabye, baby on the tree top," Her voice wobbled slightly, trying to block out Giggles' screams, "When the wind blows the cradle will rock," She hit another button, raising the thing Giggles was tied to, a log. "When the bow brakes the cradle will fall," She laughed slightly, flinching, her eye twitching again, "Down will come Giggles, cradle and all." She hit another large button, dropping the log down hard onto a conveyor belt.
Giggles struggled and screamed, trying to get free, but Flaky just smiled, "I'm really sorry Giggles, I didn't want it to happen this way. You're my friend after all, but you'd only tell someone. Then..." Her eyes glazed and she stared from left to right, skipping slightly on the spot she let a look of horror spread across her face, "They'd do horrible things Giggles, I can't go... I can't go... They'd... Oh god, I'm so sorry." She leaned against the control panel, tears streaming down her face, hugging herself tightly, she began singing shakily again. Sobs shook the porcupine's frame as her voice sounded quietly, "Rockabye baby on the treetop."
"I wouldn't try talking to her Giggles," The voice snapped her away from the porcupine's quiet sorrow. She looked sideways to see Cuddles, chained to yet another log right next to her. "She's lost it, she spent ten minutes talking to me about nothing and singing nursery rhymes." He tried to shrug but ended up just shaking his chains. "But Giggles, I want to talk to you. I wanted to say I'm sorry."
Giggles frowned, "Why do you need to apologise?"
Cuddles looked down at his feet, or he would have if he could have seen them, he sighed, "I should have told you."
Giggles tried to sit up, or to turn round to look at him, but since that was impossible she just turned back to the ceiling, "Told me what?"
Cuddles groaned turning to her with tears on his cheeks, "Told you that I was old! That I'd been here forever, since the curse began. I was just... scared. I was so scared okay."
Giggles shook her head, "Why?"
Cuddles voice cracked for a second, "I just wanted you to think I was cool. You never would have liked me if you'd known how old I was. I didn't want to be special, I just wanted to be your friend." He sighed, and for a second Giggles could easily believe that he was as old as he said.
"Why would that matter?" She asked, "I mean I'm friends with Cro."
Cuddles turned away, "Yes, but Cro's a genius. Cro's strong and fast and he's interesting. He has basically every book ever and..." He tailed off, before beginning again, "All I've got is my looks, my awesome blush-marks and my great bunny slippers." Giggles laughed but he kept talking, "You would have gone off with him in a second if you'd known and I would have been alone." He sniffed slightly and fell into silence.
Giggles smiled, Cuddles could be funny sometimes, she would have put her arm out to comfort him but she couldn't, so instead she just turned her head to him, "That's ridiculous, you're my friend, no matter how old you are." He opened his mouth to speak but she shushed him, "You don't have to worry about anything else you haven't told me. Right now I think you should worry about where this conveyor belt is heading and what that grinding noise is."
Cuddles laughed, "Oh that's just the huge saw at the end of the tunnel. I think we're in the old saw mill." He continued smiling for a second, before realising what he had just said and struggling frantically with his shackles.
"I wouldn't struggle to much if I were you." Cuddles and Giggles looked up to see the little red porcupine leaning against a wall above them. She frowned slightly, "I'm really sorry, b-but if you just, um, s-sit back I'm sure..." She mumbled slightly, "It'll be less painful." She sighed and flopped down, leaning heavily over the iron bar of the walkway. "I'm sorry guys, it's just..." She lent forwards her eyes bulging with terror, "I'm scared... I can't do it, I just can't do it... They'd hurt me... So much." Tears streamed down her face and Giggles felt herself feeling sorry for the girl, she called up to her.
"Flaky, you don't have to do this, whoever you're running from, we can help you." She yelled.
The porcupine just shook her head and stepped backwards, sitting down and curling herself into a ball, "No, you can't," She smiled slightly, "But when you recover we can still be friends." She sighed, her voice filled with fear, "If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise..." Her voice was carried away and into the distance as the two captives moved away, once again into the covered belt. The voice died away and only echoing grinding sound could be heard.
The conveyor belt had now widened and more logs moved into the way. Upon one such log was tied a large cube of ice, Giggles smiled to see Cro. Cuddles meanwhile turned away, obviously still annoyed with the caveman. Giggles looked up at Cro and frowned slightly, "Why did you do it Cro?..." She frowned, "Don't look at me like that you know exactly what I mean. If you knew it was Flaky why didn't you just tell everyone, why did you make me say that stuff?... About Cuddles." She frowned still more, turning away from him with a look of horror on her face.
Cuddles looked surprised, "What did he say?"
Giggles mouth moved wordlessly, then finally she managed to put the words together, "So it would be like a book." She fell into silence, staring at the roof. She sighed then she heard the voice again.
"Sorry guys, I'm so sorry." The red porcupines voice floated down from yet another walkway above the conveyor belt. Giggles stared up at her, a look of shock spreading across her face.
"If you're so sorry about this, then why don't you help us?"
Flaky staggered backwards from the edge of the walkway, "You don't understand... Ugh, no one understands." Tears streamed unrestrained from her eyes, "I can't... I mean..." She fell back further, curling herself into as small a place as possible, as if she wanted to disappear. "I just wish." She cast her eyes around with a look of absolute terror again, her whole body shaking, "I wish you'd all stayed dead." She turned and walked slowly from the platform, her head in her hands. Sobbing, Flaky struck one of the levers next to her and the conveyor belts speed doubled.
Cuddles groaned, "Why did we make this conveyor belt so slow?" He began yelling at the top of his voice, "I mean come on. Whys this death so damn slow? If your going to kill me get it over with!" His chains rattled and shook as he writhed but still they didn't budge. He arched his back and pulled his arms as with all his strength, the chains didn't move. Suddenly a wrenching sound echoed across the belt and Cuddles gave a scream, tears ran down his face and he stopped struggling, "I can't die like this... Not like this." He twisted his head to look at Cro, "This is your fault, all your fault." Cro just stared at the ceiling, "Why won't you talk to me!"
Giggles turned away from the manic bunny and towards Cro, "What do we do?... Nothing, you don't have a plan?" Cro said nothing, but kept staring at the ceiling. His log lay on a separate conveyor and he moved ahead slowly, "What do you mean?" More silence, "Cro what are you doing."
The log moved ahead faster now, now the end of the belt was in sight, three huge saws, hundreds of smaller one lined the walls behind them, carving through wood, reducing it all to sawdust in seconds. The caveman's log moved towards this faster still and Giggles cringed slightly, she knew what was coming... She just didn't want to.
The saws ground, turning reddish-brown with rust. Then the brown tinge disappeared, the red colour spread across the huge saws, the bright red that replaced it seemed sort of... Giggles closed her eyes, she couldn't watch. She just waited for the saws to... But a grating noise began. If her eyes had been open she would have seen the saws shake and grind against each other, their rust catching and they slowed. She opened her eyes slightly to see that the blades had come to a shuddering halt. Ice jammed in joints. She flinched at the sight of the blood drenched over the stationary saws. She gulped slightly as some of the remains slid down and struck the log next to her, hitting Cuddles in the face and snapping him back to reality. Giggles tried to move, but of course the chains held her still. She sighed, Flaky was sure to come this way eventually and...
"You look like you need help ma'am." The voice came from outside her field of vision, it sounded restrained and disciplined and for a second she couldn't place it. Then a section of wall moved, changing colour slowly. A hand stretched out from the section and gripped the chains, snapping them easily; slowly the figure formed, green fur and khaki. Flippy slowly came into focus, smiling, he saluted the chipmunk. "Good to see you're okay ma'am." He snapped Giggles chains and tore them apart, "Now I believe I have somewhere to be." His pupils shrank and a green hue took over, he smiled cruelly and turned away. "No one kills us."
Giggles stood up shakily, that couldn't be good, she crossed to Cuddles and began to struggle with his chains.
"Let me do that," Cuddles slipped his arm out of the chains and placed his hand on the lock.
Giggles looked at him, "If you could do that why didn't you do it before?"
Cuddles looked at his hand and shrugged. "I guess I just panicked." Giggles sighed, and after a few seconds of struggling Cuddles was free. He stood, "Do you think we should get out of here?"
Giggles nodded, turning on her heel and heading in the direction Flippy had gone. No matter what the porcupine had done, you could bet that bear would do worse to her.
... ...
Giggles rounded the corner in time to see Flippy advancing on the helpless red porcupine. The girl had curled herself into the corner, tears streaming down her face, "You don't understand," Her voice was barely a whisper, "They'll..."
Flippy laughed, "You think I care. Well if it'll take your mind off your fears I'll tell you what I'll do..."
He paused for a moment, watching her as she crawled further away, trapping herself still more, "I-it was an accident... Please... I mean, I didn't."
Flippy cackled, "As I said: You think I care. Now, first I thought... blinding," He drew his knife back, "No... Then I couldn't watch your lights go out. Maybe," He smiled, "You'll still be able to scream without a tongue right? Yeah, just about." He took another step towards the girl, "Then I think I'll cut your tendons and... Oh, those ridiculous quills of yours, I wonder just how many you can swallow before you die. I'd like to know that."
Flaky curled up even more, "Please... I was scared."
Flippy grinned, "I hate having to repeat myself, so I guess we'll just start now." He raised his knife and sprang forwards. Only to be hit in the head by a bag of sawdust. He whirled round swearing to face his new enemy, smiling as he saw Cuddles standing there, "You're gonna be sorry you did that kid."
Cuddles flinched slightly, looking back at Giggles before stepping forwards, "Pick on someone your own size."
"Gladly," Flippy twisted, sending a small flip knife spinning out of his sleeve and striking Cuddles in the stomach, causing him to fall back. He smiled and turned back to Flaky, "Now where was I?" He advanced on the sobbing Flaky.
From the ground Cuddles smiled up at Giggles as best as he was able, wincing slightly, "Okay, that didn't work." He turned onto his front and began to get up, but Giggles grabbed him and pulled him back out of Flippy's sight. She sighed, as usual this wasn't working out.
"Cro said that this should be like a book and everything he's said has worked so far... Except the blaming you obviously." He laughed slightly, once again wincing and she took his hand for a second, "If I get killed, come and visit me."
She began to walk away. Flippy didn't notice her, she could have hit him in the head now, but what with? He'd just kill her. She could hear screaming coming from the corner, she shivered. Flippy's laughter rose above everything, she could barely speak, her mouth felt dry... She was really going to talk to this man? She cleared her throat, "Flippy, leave her alone."
He turned on her, from his feet Flaky looked up, blood flowing from her mouth, she gave a gargled squeak and the tears flowed again. Giggles stared in horror, before Flippy began to turn back. She had to say something, "You can't do this."
Flippy smiled, ripping a quill from Flaky's back and feeling it's point, "Why?" He smiled, satisfied and stabbed Flaky in the stomach with it.
"I wasn't talking to you," She looked down at Flaky, "You can't just give up. Whatever they'd do to you, he'll do worse. Just run away Flaky..."
Flaky tried to stand but fell forwards crying, blood and tears falling from her face. Flippy cringed, "I don't have time to listen to this," He ripped out another spine and turned away, "I have something to do."
"Then listen to this," Giggles took a step forwards, she had to stop him, "She doesn't deserve this and somewhere deep down Flippy knows that... You know that."
Flippy frowned, "You may have a point," He stepped forwards tilting Flaky's head back, forcing her mouth open and jamming the spike down her throat, "But I'll worry about that later." He watched as Flaky fell forwards chocking and smiled.
Giggles recoiled in horror, a scream sticking in her throat, she couldn't fight this guy, she couldn't reason with him... They were as good as dead. But a hand gripped hers and she looked round to see Cuddles smiling up at her. Her confidence restored she stepped forwards again, "Flippy your in there somewhere, you just need to fight back."
Flippy smiled, ripping out yet another quill, he picked his teeth with it, "You would be amazed how many people have tried that, it doesn't work." He smiled and looked over at Flaky, "So, enjoying your meal?" He laughed kicking the porcupine in the head as she tried to crawl away. Giggles persisted, trying to remember what Good Flippy had been like in hospital.
"But..."
"Give up. People have tried and failed to reach my friend, only she's managed it." He pointed to Flaky laughing as he drew out another spine, holding it ready he smiled up at Giggles, "And right now he doesn't even know who she is. You can't stop me you know."
Giggles had stopped listening, she'd thought of something, "Stand to attention soldier," She barked it out as best she could and to her amazement the bear snapped into place, "What do you think your doing? That girl is a civilian."
Flippy blinked, the green tinge falling from his eyes for a second, then it returned, "She's lying, she's the enemy." He blinked again, "NO! She's the enemy... She was trying to trick you." He blinked again, and this time when his eyes opened they were clear, the green tinge had gone, "You said you'd help me." He bent down to Flaky's level, taking her head in his hands and pulling a hip flask from his pocket, "Is this what you call helping?" He looked up at Giggles, "Good to see you ma'am." He helped Flaky to a drink, "Could you lend me a hand?" She rushed forwards, helping him to lift Flaky onto the bears shoulders, the bear took the weight with barely a grunt and frowned, tears running down his face, "I did this Giggles," His memories flooding back, "I always do this... I don't blame her for what she did to me... I deserved it."
Giggles opened her mouth to correct him, but he began to walk away, his mouth a grim slash. He reached a door and was gone. Giggles had no doubt what he had gone to do, Flaky had suffered enough, she'd been terrified and Giggles now realised what she had been afraid of... She had been horrified at the thought of going to prison, of them realising how mad she really was, of being sent away. But someone had to take the blame, Flippy knew that.
She turned to Cuddles, "They're going to be okay Cuddles." She took his hand and helped him to his feet, catching him slightly as he fell forwards. He'd be okay too, once he got his balance back, in a few days. But right now, he just needed a friend. Because Cro was wrong, there was a time for being a detective, for cleverness and poise. But now what they all needed was simple, friends, happiness, and maybe a little love. She took Cuddles' hand and smiled looking up at the skylights. Her right arm was limp by her side, her memory was still not perfect. But these things didn't matter, they might even be good things, her arm would recover, and from what she remembered more memories just meant more death. No, none of that mattered at all, because she was here.
And she was happy.