INSaNUTTY Chapter 2

By Lolitafreak88

For a few seconds, Nutty could only look at Flaky, Giggles, Sniffles, and Mime with the most perplexed and horrified expression. Their eyes glowing, their hands glowing, their faces looking bizarre and demonic, had they sold their souls for arcane power? Were they secretly wizards? Could they make candy appear out of thin air if someone asked? Mime probably could but considering he had orchestrated all this to get Nutty to come here into this dark and decorated dungeon, there was no way that he would listen to anything Nutty had to say. Mime looked like a mastermind, like everything had gone according to plan, and his expression had the same menace that Fliqpy often had. Flaky looked a bit vengeful, as though Nutty had done something to her and she was about to make him pay for it. Perhaps she had gained more confidence in herself through this magic but all magic has a price. Maybe she lost her sweet spirit and become angry and short-tempered. Giggles had a very sadistic expression, and even giggled a bit like she was on a sugar rush. Nutty's sugar rush-induced laughter was natural but to see Giggles laughing like him out of some twisted form of excitement was no joke. Sniffles expression was more calculating, like he was currently thinking of something. If Nutty wasn't unnerved before, this was now the appropriate time to do so.

Finally, the four Tree Friends nodded and then stuck their right hands out in front of them and their respective magical energy flashed like the first rays of a sunrise piercing through the darkness. Nutty shut his eyes quickly to avoid being blinded and when he felt the slight heat of the magical flashes disappear, he opened them. Floating above their hands were cards. They appeared to be the same type of cards of a poker game that featured the Tree Friends. The girls had once gathered together to play such a game and it ended badly. But the incident also supported Lammy's innocence and that it was her supposed imaginary friend Mr. Pickles that was responsible for the deaths Lammy supposedly caused. At the moment, these cards seemed to have a different purpose than simply being used for a game of poker. That thought was scariest of all to Nutty. He read what the cards said, his teeth chittering in worry and fear. Giggles had the Queen of Hearts, Flaky had the Eight of Spades, Sniffles had the Three of Diamonds, and Mime had a Joker. Giggles laughed hysterically and jumped up and down in happiness, apparently having gotten something good. Flaky smiled a bit while Sniffles clicked his tongue in some annoyance. Mime seemed very pleased with his result though, whatever it meant. Mime then bowed politely and gestured for Giggles to move forward. Giggles muttered something like 'with pleasure', her voice now suddenly distorted and her hands and eyes glowing with magic again.

Nutty finally started to sense the full danger he was in. It seemed they were about to toy with him with their magic and they had just now decided the order. Nutty started to crawl backwards in fright and then eventually turned around, got to his feet, and hurried straight towards the door. There was no telling how advanced their magic was and the only reason he was caught by the previous spell was through eye contact. So if he wasn't looking at them, would that make him immune to whatever spells they casted? Tragically, this was not the case. Nutty then heard a noise that sounded like something emerging from the ground roughly, like if built up water burst out of the ground due to pressure. But it didn't sound like water, more like some kind of plant, plants in fact as he soon heard three sounds identical to the first sound follow quickly afterward. It was a bizarre sort of rhythm. Giggles had summoned four thorn-covered vines from the ground, strong enough to burst through the stone and only leaving small, straight holes with no cracks around them. She was clearly thinking of entangling Nutty with the prickly plants for some sadistic reason. Then with a gesture, the four vines pursued Nutty and at a much quicker pace than Nutty's run. Nutty had nearly made it to the doorknob before realizing the door could be locked and so he hesitated a slight bit. This was the vine's time to strike and they did so.

The vines wrapped themselves firmly around Nutty's wrists and ankles, the thorns piercing deep into Nutty's skin and drawing blood. Nutty's typical response to pain was a mix of a cry and giggling and so he did such. Giggles laughed like a kid at a circus and clenched her fist. The vines started to extend, wrapping around more of Nutty's body before they firmly wrapped around Nutty's whole body, all drawing blood, causing drops of blood to spill to the ground from his legs, arms, and torso. Nutty was starting to find it harder to speak and his giggling grew quieter and was reduced to mostly groans of pain. The vines then firmly moved their way around his neck and squeezed harshly. Nutty started to choke and gag at the sheer strangling of the vines. But this was just what the vines and Giggles wanted. In a flash, the thorny vines found their way into Nutty's mouth and then spread throughout his body. The agony was immeasurable. The thorny vines were pressing and slashing his internal organs and he suddenly felt like he was rapidly losing control of his body and like there was only pain.

"Ahah.. gck... AHHHHAHHHHHAAA!" Nutty's sudden mortifying wail came from two thorny vines piercing through each of his eye sockets, popping out Nutty's eyeballs and sending them falling to the ground. Nutty was now blind and by now blood was practically pouring down his body, but he wasn't dead yet. He didn't know if it was the result of magic or him simply being alive. But then he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, like something was stabbing it and pulling on it at once. And then... his heart seemed to snap, or it felt like it was now displaced. The other two vines that Giggles had summoned were far from finished. They had pulled out Nutty's heart fiercely for some sort of reason but Nutty was still magically alive to feel the agony of it. The vines dragged the heart out of Nutty's mouth, the other two vines forcing Nutty's mouth open to help pull the heart out of his throat. Nutty had no idea what was going on, all sanity and possibilities to react gone. He was completely helpless, a puddle of blood under him.

Giggles then had the vines finally release Nutty and thus Nutty finally was allowed to 'die'. Nutty fell to the ground, a bloody and mutilated mess. Flaky looked very proud of Giggles, Sniffles seemed to approve of Giggle's method, and Mime seemed to acknowledge what she had done. Giggles then had the vines bring the heart she had pulled out of Nutty to her and they did so. She grabbed the heart, petted it as though it was a kitten and then tapped it with one finger. Another heart, identical to the initial heart, appeared above Giggles and one of the vines grasped it and held it. But interestingly, the vine's thorns disappeared before it grabbed the heart, likely to not slash any holes in it. Then something very intriguing happened to the heart that was in Giggle's hands. It turned into a mysterious red energy and it seemed to be absorbed by Giggles. Was it some kind of magic? Was this how their magic was renewed and strengthened? Too bad Nutty, currently deceased, did not see this. But after Giggles smiled with a refreshed look on her face, Flaky stepped forward aggressively, shoving Giggles out of the way. Giggle just laughed, the feeling of magic having driven her insane at this point.

The vines vanished into thin air and Flaky took the cloned heart that had been held in its grasp before stepping towards Nutty's corpse. When she was standing over it, she dropped the heart onto Nutty's corpse and then made an elegant gesture with her hand. The heart glowed a bright green the same color as Nutty's fur and then it went into Nutty's corpse in the same spot where his heart would be and the whole corpse suddenly glowed the same color. Wounds and cuts vanished, his eyeballs returned to their rightful place, and the blood that had drenched his body disappeared. In a matter of seconds, Nutty's corpse was restored to a living body and as proof, Nutty suddenly awoke. He took a deep breath of air and started panting. The feeling of brutal pain from the thorny vines was still fresh in his mind and it did little to calm his nerves. Now he KNEW exactly what he was dealing with and was horrified and scared. But he knew he was completely helpless. Their magic defied all reality and had unlimited range. Flaky still wore a vengeful look on her face that Nutty had never seen from her before. Was this even the real Flaky?

Flaky seemingly confirmed this possibility by doing something quite stunning. Her hand glowed with red energy and suddenly turned into a metal material, like steel. Then with that hand, she reached back and pulled out one of her porcupine quills out of herself but had no pain whatsoever as the metallic hand was invulnerable to the sharpness of her quill. She didn't even show any pain of it being removed from her body and she smirked unpleasantly at Nutty. Nutty attempted to get up but Flaky then pierced the quill through Nutty's right foot with ninja-like speed and pinned it to the ground. Nutty cried in pain, though he felt a bit tired of crying in pain. Especially since it seemed that was all he would do for the next few minutes. Flaky stepped back a few paces which didn't calm Nutty at all as he knew she was still intent on doing something torturous to him. Flaky then raised her arms to the heavens and gave a powerful shout as magic discharged from her fingertips. Nutty tried to move but the glass shard was strong and was implanted deep into the ground and his foot, like a nail. He watched as large, rectangular mirror appeared above him and started descending down quickly. It crashed with a thunderous noise that bounced off the walls of the dungeon. Glass shards shot out towards Nutty like arrows.

Nutty gave one meek and scared cry as the shards arrived full force, slicing through his body easily, through his head, his neck, his arms, his shoulder, his legs, his torso, but Flaky seemed to be guiding certain shards away from a certain area on Nutty's stomach with her malevolent magic. The pain was a bit more sudden than Giggle's method but still deadly and Nutty died again. The rest of the shards hit the wall behind him and broke in a climatic crescendo. Giggles yawned as though she was bored by the whole act though Sniffles seemed to approve of this technique. Mime looked deep in thought which was quite scary to look at, considering all he had revealed about himself just now. What exactly was he thinking about? The mirror disappeared and Flaky resumed her goal by approaching the sliced remains of Nutty. The scene was disastrous with organs and blood scattered all over, though it didn't seem to bother Flaky. Normally she was pretty timid and also would grow panicked at the sight of this. But not anymore. Flaky found Nutty's exposed heart and did the same thing that Giggles did. She made a copy of the heart, absorbed the original heart of what seemed to be the life essence of it to increase her magic, and then revived Nutty again with the cloned heart. Once again, Nutty's body was reunited and all the wounds that were on him vanished. Nutty groaned in pain as he awoke, the feeling of being sliced like a delicious meat all too present. Flaky headed back into the line with the others and Sniffles took a step forward, indicating he was next.

Nutty started to cry when he realized that Sniffles was the one who was about to torture him, and began pleading desperately. His sugar-induced hyper activeness made his sobbing pleas sound like muffled giggles, whimpering, and pure desperation. Sniffles simply responded with a cold, calculating look like that of a scientist who was making sure an experiment was going according to plan. Sniffles hands then charged with magic and he raised his arms to the heavens. Nutty braced himself for some object or objects to fall on him and screamed, but peering through his fingertips he saw something else. Some sort of construct of magical energy was growing and shaping itself above him. It seemed to be channeling the shape of some kind of creature. Nutty gazed in it with some wonder but mostly fear. He knew he could try to run for the door again but he was now willing to bet it was locked. Even if it wasn't Mime, Giggles, or Flaky could lock it or put some other evil enchantment on the door. Finally Sniffles clenched his fists and the magical construct attained a real form. If Nutty had any sense of humor left at this moment he would've laughed about its irony. It was a giant black ant, it's eyes glowing with the same magical aura as the rest of the mages.

Sniffles was an anteater naturally but he was often plagued by a particular family of ants that seemed to have the same mindset as murderous psychopaths. It may have been because they felt threatened by Sniffles but often times they did very cruel and inhumane things to him. When Sniffles invented something, they turned it on him in a terrifying way. So it surprised Nutty that Sniffles was channeling this aspect of the ants for his torture of him. Yet it seemed to be in character for him, in a twisted sort of way. The ant landed onto the ground, his head right above Nutty's head, staring at him angrily, and its feelers twitching noticeably. Nutty suddenly realized exactly what was going to happen to him and what Sniffle's intent was. Before he could even let out a scream, the ant's mouth was upon his head and it lifted Nutty up into the air, biting through his head and neck. Flaky and Giggles laughed with the same delight as one on a merry-go-round. Soon Nutty's head had been decapitated and then the ant vanished into thin-air, his job apparently done. Nutty's headless corpse fell to the ground, blood splattering yet again. Sniffles then conjured medical gloves and pulled them on firmly and then headed towards Nutty's corpse. He reached into Nutty's belly through the hole that had been created from Nutty's head being bitten off and pulled out Nutty's heart without any remorse or disgust.

Three times already had Nutty died today, no Tree Friend before had died so many times in the same day. These four truly were demons to be able to commit such a ruthless act that defied the laws of life. After replenishing his magic the same way as the two witches before him, Sniffles revived Nutty yet again. Nutty was dazed and dizzy, similar to how he was before he entered this room. His vision was blurry, he could only groan pitifully, and he was barely aware of what was going on anymore. Thorny vines, glass shards, and giant ants had caused a great deal of pain to him and he felt like his life was flashing before his eyes. He saw the visions of all the Tree Friends he knew, the deaths he had faced, the candies and sweets he had eaten, all flashing at an alarming rate. It felt... like he was starting to lose his sanity. But he knew there was still one more mage eager to torture him in some way. It was the one who brought him here, Mime.

Mime stepped forward with a certain elegance to his walk, like a count or a tango dancer. His expression though was quite unnerving, it was a twisted smile of glee which accompanied with his make-up was the thing of horror movies. Nutty's eyes rolled back into his head and he started giggling madly, perhaps as a sort of reaction to such a look and the fact he was in a state of panic. Mime seemed pleased with Nutty's crazy reaction, knowing that magic could definitely affect one's mental state. Like hypnotism or illusions that magicians would make that would stun audiences. Mime had a spell firmly in mind and he began by snapping his fingers. Instantaneously, Nutty's body broke apart into small pieces shaped like that of a jigsaw puzzle with only his heart left intact. Nutty died again yet in a creepy fashion, his open eyes could be seen as certain pieces were part of a whole image. The same went for the rest of his being, he had been turned into a jigsaw puzzle and if you put the pieces together you would see Nutty. Giggles, Flaky, and Sniffles bowed in respect to Mime as Mime cloned Nutty's intact heart to absorb the original heart's power. It seemed that the initial heart had enough life essence to be cloned and also enough to provide a suitable amount of magic to whoever absorbed its essence.

Mime then revived Nutty again, all the jigsaw pieces connected to one another in a pattern until Nutty's form was created. Then Mime levitated the fourth cloned heart of Nutty's into the jigsaw pattern and with the heart concealed through the jigsaw puzzle, Nutty's form grew substance and the sugar-loving squirrel was back in reality yet again. Nutty fell to his knees before falling forward to the ground, totally drained from the experience... no, ordeal. Giggles, Flaky, and Sniffles laughed hysterically, feeling rejuvenated and thrilled that they had Nutty to play with. Nutty heard them with a blank, almost dead expression and a single tear fell from his left eye. He doubt he'd ever be able to see the light of day again, and the fact that he had a new role in life that he didn't even want hurt most of all. Giggles then did something unspeakably cruel. As though to emphasize that Nutty was their new plaything, she conjured a brick out of thin air with her magic and hurled it at Nutty. It hit Nutty hard on the head, creating a wound on his head that started to bleed and led him to start to bawl. The mages were done for the day fortunately, or so it would seem as they teleported out of the room, leaving Nutty to cry tragically.

It was unclear what was going on, whether it was some twisted nightmare, or a real event. Nutty often had an outlandish imagination, especially when it came to his candies, but to see him bawling and bleeding in a dark, cold room seemed to suggest that it was anything but a dream. Nutty finally mustered up the strength to get up and, still bleeding and sniffling, he tried to open the door. It was locked indeed. Nutty screamed a chilling wail of sadness and banged his fists against the door desperately. After what seemed like about half of a minute, he heard the sound of teleportation and then felt something hit his head again. It was much lighter than the brick and felt like plastic. He then heard it fall to the ground. After rubbing his head he turned around and saw what it was. It was Handy's hard hat, the one he had dropped when he was escorted to this place. The mages must've summoned it here to quiet Nutty down, though likely out of annoyance than actual concern. The sight of Handy's hard hat was actually very comforting yet depressing for Nutty. It was a sign that he still had a goal to find Handy and return this to him but also suggested what might've become of Handy. Was Handy their last victim? Nutty thought in a rare moment of deduction for him.

"Mmm..." Nutty decided that he better hold onto the hard hat in honor of Handy. It would probably be his only comfort anyway. But as soon as he picked it up, he noticed something had been under it. It appeared to be a grimoire, it's pages glowing with some form of magic. Nutty's curiosity, and desperation for some kind of miracle at this point, led him to open it and peer through its pages. The first page he spotted seemed to be a visual demonstration of some sort of technique. It was talking about how to channel the spirit of one's heart and the limitless energy of one's imagination into magical power. Nutty certainly had both those qualities in spades, maybe even gumdrops. Nutty started to wonder. Maybe if he followed the instructions in this book, maybe he would somehow develop enough power to fight back against the four demons who had done this to him? Nutty decided it was worthy a try.

"HAI!" Exclaiming happily, Nutty began to dive deep into the book. He read intently as the room got darker with the day's passing. Such acute reading and understanding soon produced miraculous results. He meditated, created a chocolate chip out of thin air, created a ball of light to help him read as the room grew pitch dark with the passing time, healed the wound on his head caused by the conjured brick, transformed the brick into chocolate syrup, and even levitated Handy's hard hat and made it dance a waltz around the room. Each new chapter brought him new knowledge and he had the whole night to study and master it. It was vital that he did so, if he didn't want to be killed and revived again and again. Eventually, after Nutty felt like he had accomplished enough, he went to sleep. Despite all the horrors he had faced, he slept peacefully, using the grimoire as a pillow and hugging Handy's hard hat like a stuffed animal. Truly a ray of sunshine in a cold, desolate place.

Sorry about the wait, summer's almost over and my trip to Chicago is almost here so I've been in a bit of a video game mood lately _. Plus this chapter is arguably one of the harshest and darkest chapter's I've written in a story so I just wanted to perfect it to maximum effect. I hope you understand and enjoy ^_^. Nutty seems to have found a potential miracle that could save him. But will it be enough? Or will he be doomed to be a plaything to cruel magic? And the question remains if this is all really happening. Find out what will become of Nutty in chapter 3! Again I take no ownership of copyright and all the rights belong respectfully and eloquently to Mondo Media and Happy Tree Friends. Thank you, and congrats to Flippy on being voted the Most Popular Happy Tree Friend! ^_^ We salute you.