Well, here we are again. It's always such a pleasure XD.
I know it's been quite a while since I've updated, but I've been busy - going though a very stressing move to South Carolina, then back to Jacksonville for school... so yeah, I've been busy! Not to mention another one of these came up:
UM...YEAH. JUST SO YOU KNOW IMMA GIRL&I DO HAVE A ACCOUNT BUT ITS NOT UNDER THIS NAME SO DON'T GO LOOKING FOR ME. =P I AM NOT GOING READ CH 20 BECAUSE ITS SO OFF THE PLOT! ITS NOT EVEN AT THE FREAKING HOSPITAL! FLAKY IS NOT IN IT. THE ONLY REASON WHY I AM READING THIS STORY IS BECAUSE FLIPPY&FLAKY! MY FAVORITE PAIRING! AND YOU JUST REMOVE THAT CHAPTER OFF THE STORY. =P
- FXFCRAZIEZ
Charming, isn't it?
But I'm in too good a mood to be angry (which is odd, because I just finished the Book Thief and HOLY JESUS THAT BOOK MADE ME SAD. I cried. Really hard . It was such a good book... Also, on the note of the Book Theif, I'd like to mention in advance that the style of this chapter might be a little strange. I was probably influenced by the books own style of narration) so I won't rant about it.
Anyway, I'm just going to write this chick off as a troll, so there's no use letting her idiotic comments bother me. I just wanted to let her know that comments like hers are very disrespectful, especially when it's to someone whose work you like to read and appreciate. An apology would be nice. (Also, if you wouldn't mind, could you re-state that final sentence? Your horrible grammar - or rather, your lack thereof - makes it difficult to understand. If you're going to leave an offensive comment, it might as well be one I can read correctly).
And with that happy note *coughsarcasmcough*, here's Chapter 22 of Blissfully Ill.
Read, Review, and Enjoy, my lovelies :3
Chapter 22
For the longest while, all she could do was stare. The snow battered her, tugging at her fur, trying to lead her away from the empty, silent hole in the ground. Flaky stayed. It was not until she lost feeling in her toes and fingertips that the porcupine was able to move.
She climbed to her feet.
"Evil?"
There came no answer. Only the whisper of what had once been there.
Flaky's body was shivering uncontrollably, and it seemed as if her body was convulsing, the spasms shook her so. The sound of wind and chattering leaves filled her ears…
Slowly, Flaky headed for the hospital-tree, despair slowly consuming her.
She didn't notice how warm it was inside. Her attention was caught by Flippy. She thought that he shouldn't be out of bed; it was silly of him to be walking around with only his thin clothes and a small blanket. He needed to get back upstairs. The same thought accounted for Petunia, who was also walking around, hunched over, a few coughs escaping her mouth as they called and chattered. Who were they looking for?
Oh. Probably her.
"I'm here," Flaky said, her voice week and aimless. I'm very lightheaded, Flaky thought to herself, ignoring Flippy's words of relief and question when he finally noticed the red female standing in the icy doorway. Pulling her in, he said something to Petunia, and the squirrel closed the front door.
Don't forget Evil, Flaky thought, her face frowning when Flippy coaxed her unresponsive body to sit down. "Wait, no, he's not following," the porcupine muttered to the table before her. She could just see Handy clumsily going through a large pile of bagged and canned food. The beaver glanced over his shoulder, nodding at Flaky and offering a small smile before turning back to his work.
"What?" Flippy asked. His voice dripped with worry. Flaky's body was rigged, her skin and fur deathly cold. How long had she been out there by herself? She could have died. "Did you say something, Flaky?"
"Evil…" The porcupine closed her eyes and whimpered, her expression similar to that of a child who had forgotten something important and couldn't remember. "He went for food…"
Her body started shaking again, this time not from the cold, though that worried Flippy too. The war bear quickly instructed Petunia to fetch more blankets, and he pulled a chair to sit beside Flaky. "Flaky? I want you to listen. I think you're going into shock."
"Shock?"
Flippy nodded, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Yes Flaky. I think something happened and you're a little surprised by it. Did anything happen when you went outside? There was an earthquake and it woke some of us up – did you feel it?"
"There was no earthquake," Flaky muttered. Flippy frowned, but he was actually very pleased. The light, distressed tone was replacing the dead, confused one. She was coming back to life.
"Yes there was," Flippy insisted. He wanted to keep Flaky talking, and when Petunia returned with a small armful of blankets he carefully wrapped them about Flaky's shivering frame, rubbing her arms as he spoke. "It was outside. Why were you outside, Flaky?"
"It wasn't an earthquake," Flaky stated, her voice holding more force. It was Flippy's turn to be confused, and Petunia was standing behind him, fingers wringing with worry.
"It was… Evil." Flaky's tone faded as she said Evil's name, as if memories were coming back and she needed to stay silent so she could hear them. Her ears twitched. Her scarlet eyes slowly widened when she realized what had happened less than ten minutes ago. "Evil. They took him."
Fear. It was coming back, and for once it wasn't irrational. Flaky embraced it, for it spurred the porcupine on. "There was something outside. Evil, he went out to get food earlier… There was some sort of attack, you remember? There was no more food, and Evil… he volunteered to go out and get more. I'd fallen asleep at some point…"
"You fell asleep on the stairs," Flippy told her. "Don't you remember? I brought you back down here, and Handy fixed the door. You were half asleep the whole time."
"I woke up," Flaky continued, nodding to him, "and you were gone. There was a fire. The fire was going out, and I didn't want it to go out, it was so warm. I went outside."
Petunia shook her head, a worried frown etched in her forehead. She obviously didn't like the fragmented way Flaky was telling her story. "Why would you go outside if you didn't want the fire to go out?"
"I wanted a match," Flaky said. Her posture was straightening now. "I went out to Lumpy's truck to find a lighter or match…"
Her voice faded. Flaky closed her eyes and whimpered again, leaning forward into one of the blankets. She slowly remembered the earth shaking beneath her, the truck falling back and into the ground, her body being flung backwards and through the glass. Those glowing eyes in the darkness. The cold hand on her ankle.
"Flaky?" Flippy's voice was gravely but soft. The green bear took her cheek and whipped away some of her tears, gently looking at her when she opened her eyes. He said, "Flaky, what happened to Evil?"
She muttered something that no one could catch, and then her mind collapsed.
XxXx
In all of the time she'd spent in the hospital, Flaky hadn't had any coherent dreams. She'd remember snippets of colors, maybe characters who had played a part in her imagination, but never anything important or specific. However, when Flaky woke up nearly two hours later, with Flippy, Petunia, Handy, Mrs. Giggles and a disgruntled and very tired Sniffles sitting around her, there was a thought, an image, which stuck to her conscious.
"Evil… Voices…"
Her mutters were not understood, but Flippy had heard her voice. The bear ended his discussion with Sniffles and twisted in his chair, eyes glistening with worry and relief. "Flaky?"
"I had a dream," she muttered, trying to sit up. Her body loudly protested, and she only managed to get to her feet with shaky limbs and a few audible grunts. Flippy followed her, trying to push her back down. "No, Flaky, you're not in any kind of condition to be walking around. Sniffles said–"
"Sniffles shouldn't be out of bed," Flaky told him, a frown painted across her mouth. The accused anteater frowned somewhat guiltily at her words, but the porcupine wasn't focused on him at the moment. She tried pushing Flippy away, finding his touch constricting. "Let me go. I need to see Splendid and Nutty."
"They're both asleep," Petunia stated, following Flippy as he chased after Flaky, who was making her way up the stairs as quickly as her body would allow her. "Nutty hasn't woken up for days, you know that!"
"I'll talk to Splendid then," Flaky stated desperately, her body finally responding to the urgency of her realization. The moved swiftly up the stairs, forcing Flippy, Petunia, and now Sniffles to hurry after her. The anteater himself was having issues getting upstairs, but called after his friend. "Flaky, it's not safe for you to be moving so much. Your body is too exhausted!"
At this, Flaky stopped. Everyone behind her halted as well, uncertain if Sniffles' words had brought Flaky to her senses. Hesitantly, Petunia asked, "Flaky, are you alright?"
With a surprising amount of energy, Flaky twisted around, nearly flying down the stairs, and stopped right in front of Sniffles. Her face was twisted with concern and anger. "Why? Why don't you ever listen when I tell you to stop?"
"What?"
"You know what!" Flaky broke into tears. "I told you to stop working so hard, I told you to rest, but no, you had to ignore me and keep working and collapse, and leave me to worry over you when you were asleep. Do you know how upset I was? I was the only one who could take care of anybody… If you'd just listened, it never would have happened!"
"Flaky, I–"
"And you should still be in bed! Why would you get out of bed and start working after what happened? Are you stupid? I thought you were dead!"
They were all stupefied. No one could say anything. But Flaky wasn't done yet. The words were already out, and she wasn't in the mood for restraint. She allowed her frustration to break free.
"If you had just listened to me, maybe I wouldn't be so tired, and maybe I wouldn't be falling asleep every five minutes, and maybe I wouldn't have to worry about my body being tired because if you'd just listened to me, maybe you could have found a damn cure for this damn disease so we could all go home and I wouldn't have to keep babysitting you!"
Before she could even feel sorry for saying it, Flaky stomped back upstairs, down the hallway to the heavy ward. She left two speechless Happy Tree Friends behind.
One continued to follow.
Flaky threw open the door, not even trying to keep from making any noise. She flipped the light switch and scanned the room. Spotting Splendid's bed, she stomped over to the sugar-glider, roughly shaking his limp body until his eyes finally opened. "Huh? What?"
"Wake up Splendid," Flaky snapped. The tone of voice didn't match up with her face, and Splendid forced his body to sit up. He was too shocked not to comply.
"When you and Nutty and Lumpy were Reborn," the porcupine continued, ignoring as Flippy barged into the ward, awaking a few other sleeping animals, "you all said something about being in a dream, right?"
"Yeah…?" Splendid said, his voice still weak and raspy from sleep.
"And some things were the same in all three of your dreams. Splendid, do you remember anything about your dreams? Voices, figures… monsters? Anything?"
The desperate and urging tone was enough to force the flying hero to really concentrate. By now others were sitting up, despite their headaches and coughing, and most seemed relatively sane. Flippy was soothing a confused Giggles, but kept an ear turned to Flaky and Splendid's discussion.
"Um… yeah. There were lights, and a cave, maybe." Splendid closed his eyes, holding back a round of hot sneezes and coughs. His next words came as constricted gasps. "We saw two blobs talking in a language we couldn't understand. Nutty didn't remember blobs, just lights. And… Lumpy said something about black and white colors. I don't know; why is it important?"
Flaky said nothing, moving away from the bed and clasping her hands worriedly, trying to think. Two figures. Maybe the monsters? No, no, Splendid had said they were talking in the dream, and the monsters hadn't said a word when they attacked Flaky.
Flaky suddenly remembered something. That giant beaver… He had looked familiar. So did the other creature, the one with the blue skin and the club. Why did they remind her of something… or someone…?
A purple beaver…
Oversized teeth…
"Flaky?" Flippy made his way over, gently touching her shoulder.
"Toothy."
"What?"
Flaky felt a jolt run through her body, and her mind was assaulted with shallow memories, of a beaver who wore a smile, with purple fur and a gap between his teeth. She remembered a few of his deaths, even. He had been here, at the hospital, when no one knew how serious this disease truly was. He'd been there. His name was Toothy.
She knew him.
"Flaky!" Flippy had lost his patience, it seemed, and moved in front of Flaky. He held the porcupine's shoulders, shaking her gently until she finally focused on his face. "Flaky, please tell me what's going on here? Where is Evil? What is so important about Splendid's death?"
"Evil was taken, I told you!" Flaky said, wriggling beneath the bear's firm grasp. "That monster beaver and another creature took him. I remember the beaver… Do you remember Toothy?"
Flippy tilted his head curiously, and the others all frowned, muttering the name under their breaths, like it was the name of a long forgotten food or book. "Toothy? He… he sounds kind of familiar, but I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone named Toothy. Do you?"
"Yes, yes we do!" Flaky's body jittered with excitement. "Toothy took Evil. They took him underground, in the hole the truck made. If… if Splendid did dream something… maybe it wasn't a dream."
"What?" Flippy shook his head, frowning deeply, trying to move Flaky to a bed. "Flaky, I think you need to sit down."
"No!" Flaky realized that something was terribly wrong, and a horrible feeling was creeping up her spine. "What if it's not just the beaver and the other thing? What if there're more creatures?"
"Flaky!" Flippy forced his voice to be assertive, commanding, and luckily his tone made Flaky pause. He was honestly very disturbed by what the porcupine was saying, the way the words jumbled from her mouth, how strained her face was with worry and fear and exhaustion. "You're tired. You need to rest. I don't know what you're talking about, but maybe if you tell me what happened to Evil I can go get him. Did he fall into the hole you mentioned?"
"He was taken!" Flaky shouted, her voice strained with excitement and anger. Why didn't anyone ever listen? "I saw him get taken away! He saved me from the creatures and they took him underground!"
The porcupine shoved Flippy back, and when his grip still held, she twisted, spiking up her quills and fell down against him. Flippy cried out in pain as small quills cut into his chest and stomach. He released Flaky, allowing the red porcupine to roll off of the floor and fly out of the doorway and down the stairs. He angrily tugged the ends of the quills from his body, scowling at the blood which stained his fur.
"She's gone crazy," Shifty muttered, shaking his head and staring wide-eyed at the doorway. His brother, who apparently knew who he was that night, nodded in agreement. "Yeah. She's really flaky now, huh?"
XxXx
Downstairs, Flaky was pacing up and down the hallway between the stairs and the kitchen. Sniffles and Petunia had moved back into the kitchen, and she could hear their voices intermingling with Ms. Giggles and Handy's own ponderous chatter.
What was she supposed to do now? What did those dreams mean? She faintly recalled tiny snippets, shapes and colors, which had faded away upon waking from her own dreams. She'd forgotten about them at the time, because they made absolutely no sense and she couldn't remember the full dream anyway. But now…
Why had they dreamed so clearly in death? Dreaming during Rebirth had never been heard of, so why now? While sleeping earlier, Flaky swore she'd dreamed of Evil in a cave, with two voices wrapping around his figure like ropes, their fur blindingly bright, and casting shadows in her view.
And then a thought.
A crazy, stupid thought.
On that was too crazy, too stupid to even think about working.
But…
Did she have another choice?
In a way, Flaky felt a sick tickle growing in her stomach as she marched quietly out of the hallway. She ignored Flippy's footsteps, his calls from upstairs, as she entered the kitchen. Everyone turned to say something, but the look on her face – the calm, resolute, desperate look – forced their voices to pause. Her actions led her to a drawer.
Flaky entered the room as she pulled open the silverware drawer and rummaged through for a few seconds. Then she pulled out a knife. A nice, long, sharp knife that glinted in the plastic kitchen lights.
"Flaky."
The porcupine was shaking again; this time it wasn't from her shock, or even the cold. It was from fear, and excitement, and a horribly, horribly deep feeling of hope.
Please let this be the answer.
Flaky turned around and put the knife to her throat.
Flippy was frozen at the doorway, his eyes wide as he watched Flaky contemplate killing herself. The others were silent too, eyes reflecting the image of the blade, which shook against Flaky's body. It grinned at them like a naughty child. The silver contrasted so nicely against Flaky's bright, red fur.
"Don't do it, Flaky."
His voice was a plead.
Flaky shook her head, closed her eyes, and with one more shock of absolute fear, she dug the knife into her throat and pulled her arm away.
She could taste the metal.
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