Chapter 18: Music Fright, Part 1

Disco Bear flashed a grin to the audience, winking as a bonus for the groupies on the front row. As the crowd screamed wildly he whipped the mic close and began to sing:

Baby,

Oh-oh-oh baby,

Oh-oh-oh baby,

Oh-oh-oh—

Don't, don't be up here callin' my name,

Talkin' 'bout more of the same

Won't, won't you come and stoke this flame, old girl?

Oh, oh you've got me lookin' lame,

Playin' that long old game

Know, know that you're the best dame, with that pearl!

Singin' pleasures 'till the dawn.

Let's go get it on.

But, don't be rushin', tryin' to get long gone.

Babe, aren't you tired of singin' our song?

It ain't need to sound this wrong.

But, we can gather some love and get along.

Oh, what's that?

You're taking a call?

I hope it's from the phone hangin' a little on down the hall!

Oh, baby, don't be taking this fall.

Sing our song!

You old sly cat,

You're faking a bawl.

I'm singing, wishing that I never knew you any bit at all!

But, I know, I know my true call.

I'm never wrong!

Flippy was bouncing so hard on his feet that he had to be careful not to fall off the chair. Now he was glad he agreed to this.

Several days before, when he was in a slump, Lumpy had come to him with the proposition of being the bassist in their music group. Flippy hadn't wanted to have anything to do with it. He hadn't even known how to play the double bass!

Lumpy was too eager to let it go so soon, and maybe he realized that Flippy wasn't in the best of moods. So, he'd literally drug the bear out of his downer mood and whisked him over to the music hall. Flippy hadn't fought it for a single moment. Maybe, deep down inside he'd known that going out and being productive was better than sobbing under the covers all day.

Learning the double bass as a beginner wasn't that hard and he'd picked up the basics quickly. His parts were rather simple anyway. Over the following days he realized he was having a lot of fun plucking strings. The thought of being on stage with an unfamiliar instrument had made him nervous.

But tonight, when they'd started playing, Flippy just snapped into focus and dissolved the butterflies in his stomach. With one of the widest smiles he'd had in a while, he glanced over at his bandmates. They were having as much fun as he was, but Disco Bear's natural energy and performance really drove the show. The crowd was going crazy.

Someone tapped him on the knee. Flippy stopped playing and leaned down, raising a brow.

It was The Mole. He handed something over and Flippy took it, confused.

A photo? It looked to be a still taken from one of the security cameras. Flippy squinted at the strange…thing in the photo. It creeped him out a lot…wait.

The thing was tall, pale…had no fur…Flippy lowered the photo, then blanched and let it slip out of his fingers. The Thing.

Lifty and Shifty were running from backstage, being chased by that Thing!

One of the raccoons barreled into Flippy's chair. As the bear toppled off backwards he lost the grip on his instrument.

Flaky glanced over, puzzled by the commotion, and then jumped back to avoid Shifty…then she noticed the large double bass tipping towards her. Before she could scream, it pinned her flat to the ground and her clarinet rolled out of her limp hand.

Lifty, who was right behind his brother, stepped on the clarinet. He slipped and slid like crazy—missing Lumpy—and crashed into Toothy's drumset, tumbling away with the largest drum.

Toothy swung and hit air. "Hey, what the—!" he cried, his overenthusiasm causing him to spin round and round on his heel. He dizzily stumbled sideways and bumped into Lumpy.

The moose staggered off balance. He managed to avoid falling on Flaky but wound up tripping over Flippy instead. With a shriek he flew headfirst into the wall, getting stuck all the way up to his neck.

Meanwhile, Shifty hadn't watched where he was going. A thud and crash later, he was wedged in Nutty's xylophone, receiving several strikes to the head before the squirrel noticed something was off. That was when Lifty and the drum bowled Nutty over, sending them both careening towards Giggles.

The chipmunk shrieked, covering her head. Lifty and Nutty flew harmlessly over her and knocked Cuddles off his keyboard.

Giggles held her heart. "Whew..." She then took a step back and slipped on the banana peel that Lumpy had tossed earlier.

Up until now, Disco Bear had been singing, blissfully unaware of the chaos happening behind him. He just so happened to look over and his words immediately died in his throat. There was a tall, weird-looking Thing coming from backstage! What horrified Disco Bear the most was its fashion sense; what self-respecting person wore argyle sweaters anymore?!

Disco Bear screamed so high and loud that nearly every glass object in the room shattered, then tripped over the mic stand and fell off the stage. His rabid groupies caught him.

Horrified, Sniffles ran out from the other side of the stage. "Wh-What is that!?"

Cuddles hopped up, pointing. "IT'S THE MONSTER!" he screamed. The audience gasped.

Chaos erupted and panic ensued. Animals fled in every direction in a mad rush to get to the nearest exit. Within seconds the entire auditorium and stage was empty, save for the moose with his head stuck in the wall.

"Aw," Oakie sighed. He hadn't gotten to hug any of the cute animals.

Splendid began hearing a lot of ruckus from above. He just knew that Thing was on a rampage and racking up its body count.

As for himself, well, he had to devise a battle plan. From the basement.

He thought a little harder and with more foresight than usual, then eventually snapped his fingers. There was a security system, wasn't there? Its control panel was in the attic. He remembered Sniffles talking about how it could only be used in dire circumstances. An ugly monster on a warpath seemed dire enough.

Splendid blasted off, crashing through the basement ceiling…

SMASH!

Through the first floor ceiling…

SMASH!

Through the second floor ceiling…

SMASH!

And finally, into the inner workings of the building. He gnawed, punched, and tore apart anything in his way as he dug a path to find the attic. He burst out through the drywall and found purchase; there it was, taking up half of a wall—the control panel.

There were screens, knobs, and buttons—worthless details in a perilous time, he thought. He honed into the PANIC button and punched it through the control panel. The entire contraption began smoking.

Splendid heard a echoing of noise, like doors and windows all over the building were shutting and locking. The power went out. "...hm," he pondered. That was supposed to happen, right?

Plenty of time later…

Cuddles was cowering in the attic. When everyone started running, he'd wound up following Sniffles to what he hoped was a safe spot. As they were moving the power went out, so that made things a hundred times scarier.

Right now, Cuddles couldn't hear anyone else. He figured the crowd had jetted, but he was worried sick about his friends. He was sure they'd scattered backstage and run into different parts of the building.

He couldn't stop thinking about that monster. He wanted to get in Sniffles' face and yell 'told you so', but he was just so terrified!

That thing is so scary…what is it? Where'd it come from? Space? Maybe it was born on the moon like I was…

He bit at his nails. He hated thinking that his friends were trapped and didn't have help. What if the monster got them?

Cuddles hopped to his feet, adamant. "I'm going to go look for the others," he decided bravely. Sniffles wanted him to stay there, but the rabbit was determined. He wasn't going to back down…for any longer than he had to.

Cuddles opened the hatch and peered down cautiously before dropping into the dark room. He should've been able to hear that Thing if it came around, at least. The backup lights were the only things preventing it from being pitch black in the halls, but he could still could barely see his own hand in front of his face. On top of that the building was ten times scarier in the dark and the maze-like hallways made his anxiety explode. Cuddles scampered fast and listened hard.

Out of nowhere something jumped out at him. Cuddles yelped and ducked; the axe-head going for his neck embedded itself in the wall.

"Oh!" someone cried. It was Toothy!

They hugged each other, then the beaver explained he'd been waiting for the monster to come by so he could ambush it. That hadn't quite worked out.

"We need to find the others," Cuddles said urgently, as Toothy tried pulling the axe out of the wall. The beaver saw a glimpse of movement over his friend's shoulder and froze, quivering. Something tall and lanky was coming around the corner, light glinting at its eyes.

"D'AH HA!" it screamed. "I see you!"

Toothy screamed, flung the axe, and missed. The Thing picked the weapon up and began chasing them. They both took off faster than they ever had before, running in a blind panic through the dark halls. The Thing had longer legs and easily kept up with them.

Cuddles heard a thud, followed by Toothy squealing. He looked around, horrified. The Thing had pounced on his best friend!

"HEEEEEELP!" Toothy screamed.

Cuddles bounded forward, furious, and came down on the Thing's back. By the sound of several bones cracking in its spine, the monster had hit the pain jackpot.

"HEEEEEELP!"

Flaky almost died when she heard the scream.

That voice sounded familiar, but she was so shaken up she couldn't place who it belonged to. She wished she were a hedgehog so she could curl into a ball, or maybe dig her way out of this situation.

She heard more noises, thumping, and a wail of pain. Moments later a pair of feet rushed past the room she was in.

Crinkle.

There was a snicker. Flaky turned white and locked up. Someone was in the room with her.

Was it the monster? Did it find its way in there? She waited for someone to grab her by the shoulders and spin her around at any moment. If she saw that monster face-to-face, that'd be the end of her.

Nothing grabbed her but there were more noises and giggling. Flaky finally got it in her senses to move. She had no idea where the door was.

She soon figured it out, only because she heard it fling open. Flaky went stiff and fell over as if she were dead. That was definitely the monster coming in now. A pair of feet calmly approached her position and stopped right next to her. Flaky laid there, pretending to be invisible, and whoever it was pointedly cleared their throat.

She clamped her hands over her mouth and wanted to scream. It was Flippy. She experienced a few traumatic flashbacks in succession, fearfully asking, "You're...n-not...crazy, are you...?"

He let out a deep sigh. She'd known better than to ask. If he had been crazy, she never would've seen him coming in the dark.

Flaky got up, careful not to bump into him. She wasn't surprised that he'd tracked her down since she'd used honeysuckle perfume that night. Another sound made them jump and knock into each other a little. Flaky squeaked out that there was something else in there with them.

"Is, is it the monster?" she asked quietly. "Check! Please?"

Flippy walked forward a few paces, paused, then whistled. Another giggle came from farther in the room and this time it was loud enough for Flaky to recognize it. She groaned.

It was just Nutty. All that rifling and such had just been him eating his gummy worms while he hid in fear for his life.

Nutty surprised her with something he'd discovered. Before, while he was running, he'd found out that the doors and windows were locked.

"How do we escape, then?!" Flaky wanted to know. "The-The monster's locked in the building with us!?"

Flippy took their wrists, pulling them. He clearly wanted to keep moving. Even though the idea made Flaky more anxious, safety in numbers was much better.

Though, as soon as they left the room, Flippy bent over and put his face to the ground. Nutty did too, but that was because he thought the bear may've spotted something sweet on the floor. Flaky fretted with her hands and had no clue what either of them were doing. She was debating on just going back to hide in the room when maniacal laughter sounded in the distance.

A voice yelled, "Was that a door I heard down there?! I'mma coming!"

"RUUUN!" Nutty panicked, and they took off. They didn't know or care what direction they were heading in, as long as it kept them away from that Thing.

Flaky felt like she'd just fall out any second and that would be it. Her knees were wobbly and she wasn't used to running in heels, either. She stumbled, ran out of one of her glass slippers and took a tumble. The barest moment after she hit the ground, Flaky popped back up, shrieking in terror. She put it into high gear and rammed into Flippy (who'd stopped to see what was wrong), clinging tight to him.

The Thing slipped on her heel and crashed to the ground. "My glasses!" it cried.

Flippy quickly pulled something out of his pocket and left it there as a gift. He dashed off, shifting Flaky in his arms to where she wasn't looking over his shoulder. She was too curious and looked anyway. There was a thunderous bang and a bright flash of light that blinded her. She squealed and covered her eyes a little too late, hoping that the Thing would be stunned from whatever that had been.

A little ahead of them, Nutty yelped in surprise. Flippy stopped short and Flaky looked around blindly. "Wh-What? Is there a second monster!?" she asked.

Nutty was scurrying back to hide behind them both. Flippy peered hard, frowning. Something was hurtling towards them out of the darkness. "Need some help?" it asked, hovering up in front of them.

It was just Splendid, and totally not the security guard that looked like him. The superhero sounded ready to take on a horde of zombies. They were safe and protected now!

Then—

"I hear all of you!" the Thing screamed. "As soon as I can see through the blood running down my face, I'm coming to smother you with hugs and kisses!"

Splendid darted his eyes. He punched the nearest wall and flew through it. The others quickly followed him.