User blog:SaenihpNnylf/Curse This Town! Chapter 5

'''Zombie apocalypse time! This chapter was very interesting to write and I hope you have as much fun reading it as we did writing it. So, start the story!'''

The next morning, Flaky sent a glare to her alarm clock. She didn't have to wake up, she'd been awake all night crying as evidenced by her eyes which were as red as her fur. What's the point in even getting up? Cuddles was dead. Giggles was dead. Toothy was dead. By the sounds of it, most of the town was dead.

Then she realized that her alarm clock wasn't set. The ringing was the telephone.

She rubbed her eyes. The phone couldn't be ringing... who was there to call her? After all, everyone was dead... right? Flaky got up and grabbed the phone warily, gulping. Maybe someone had survived, as unlikely as it seemed. She found her voice and cleared her throat "H-hello?"

"Flaky! Thank god you're ok!" a familiar voice said, making her withhold a scream of terror and confusion. It was Cuddles but it didn't make any sense. It was literally impossible. Cuddles is dead! She saw his body; he had no pulse. "Flaky, are you still there?" Cuddles' voice asked again. "Are you alright?"

Flaky shook her head to herself and finally came to the only logical explanation. "Yeah, I just had… a really crazy nightmare last night." Yeah, a nightmare. That must be it.

"Nightmare?" Cuddles asked "Funny, I had one too... but what happened in yours?"

She thought back, but found herself not wanting to. "I... y-you... T-Toothy... Giggles..." she stammered, trying not to cry. But if Cuddles was alive... maybe the rest of her friends were too.

The line was silent for a few seconds but thankfully, Flaky could still pick up on his breathing through the speaker. "It felt so real," Flaky admitted, just barely loud enough to be heard as she looked down at her feet. "I thought you were dead." More silence. "Cuddles, please, say something."

"I-I..." Cuddles' paused trying to collect himself. "Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this on the phone. Just stay there and I'll come right over, okay, Flaky?"

Flaky wasn't sure what to think of her best friend's reaction but the idea definitely appealed to her. Maybe if she saw him in person, safe and sound, she could put this whole nightmare scare behind her. After all, it had to have been a nightmare, it was the only explanation. "Yeah, that sounds good, I'll see you soon."

"See you soon, Flaky," Cuddles' voice came hollowly before hanging up.

Flaky let out a breath returning the phone to the cradle, feeling much better than she had before the phone call. However, there was still one thing gnawing at the back of her head, demanding her attention but she couldn't figure out what it was. Suddenly, she returned to her bedroom and took a good look around the room listening intently for a familiar noise that was eerily absent.

If it was all a nightmare, where was Cheep?

Her little chick, where was he? She began to search, but couldn't find him. It was strange; Cheep never usually left her bedroom. Then she thought back to her nightmare, about how she saw what the pets could do and... and threw Cheep out the window. Flaky raced to the window and looked out, looking for her chick, but found nothing.

That was, until her eyes fell on a small yellow and red mangled mess on the road. "Cheep!" Flaky screamed, staring out the window with wide eyes. It can't be. Yesterday was just a nightmare so how could this be staring back at her? It didn't make any sense. None of it made any sense.

She sat back on her bed, hugging her knees. This couldn't be happening. She'd seen death in her nightmare, and saw the bloody mess of what appeared to be Cheep. She remembered throwing him out the window in a fit of fear, seeing him get run over... and seeing his bloody mess the next morning told her that somehow, her nightmare was more real than she thought.

No matter how much her brain told her it was stupid, she made her way back to the telephone and started to dial Giggles' number but there was a knock at her door before she could finish dialing. For a second, she forgot that Cuddles was coming over.

She ran to the door, cautious not to trip over anything, not that anything was on the floor. She paused before opening it. What if this was just another nightmare? She shook the thought off and brought herself to open the door, seeing her yellow rabbit friend there. He was smiling until he noticed the worry on her face. "Flaky... is something wrong?"

Frankly she had no idea. "Um... come inside, there's something I need to show you." Cuddles frowned, and entered trying to figure out what she could have to show him that would have his normally so calm friend this worked up.

"Cuddles, at the end of my nightmare, I threw Cheep out the window where he wound up ran over by a car." Flaky explained, leading him into her bedroom. "This morning, after our call, I looked for Cheep and couldn't find him anywhere..." She gulped, walking over to the window and motioning out. "Until, I looked out the window."

Cuddles followed her gesture and saw the bloody, mangled mess she insinuated was Cheep. He froze. That couldn't be Cheep, could it? Nobody normally died in their town, not without great notice but... Cheep was dead. "I-is that..." he began, shaky.

Flaky nodded "Yes. It's Cheep." Flaky swallowed a lump in her throat, forcing her voice to sound strong and steady, which was surprisingly successful. "That's the same exact spot he died in my nightmare."

"Th-that doesn't make any sense," Cuddles stuttered, still looking at the window. "How does that even happen?"

"I don't know" Flaky said, voice still strong. "But... but he's gone..."

Cuddles sighed sadly "It reminds me of what happened to my mouse..."

The porcupine looked to her friend "What? What happened?" she asked.

"After he scratched me, a few times... he ran outside and... and a bird got him. I thought it was a nightmare, but... but..."

"But what?"

"But I woke up with a dead mouse on my pillow..."

Flaky paled almost looking more pink than red. Not just at the presence of the dead mouse but drawing the connection to her own nightmare. "At the beginning of my nightmare, I came to your house and your arm was bandaged up from your mouse scratching it up." She gulped, shaking her head. "No, this has to be just... a long string of coincidences."

Cuddles wasn't buying it. It was a lot to just happen by chance but the alternative was hard to imagine to be possible. Fearfully, Cuddles asked, "What happened after that?"

Both were fearful. "W-we went to Giggles' house a-and she was... was..." Flaky couldn't bring herself to say the word, but Cuddles knew exactly what she meant to say.

Pale faced and grim, he raised a hand. "Stop... I... I know... but this can't have happened..."

The porcupine wanted desperately to believe her friend, but deep down, she knew this was all too real.

There were a few second of tense silence before Cuddles suddenly said with a sense of urgency, "We need to call Giggles, Toothy, too." Cuddles held the speaker to his ear, hearing the phone ring. He hoped with all his being that his girlfriend had not died.

"Hello? This is-"

"GIGGLES!" Cuddles cried, cutting the chipmunk off "I'm so glad you're ok!"

There was kind of an awkward though more confused giggle on the other end. "Well, yeah, of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

Cuddles chuckled feeling relieved. "Well um... I had a nightmare last night; I just needed to hear your voice."

There was brief silence before Giggles spoke again "Nightmare? Did it involve... death... by any chance?" Silence reigned. "It's just…" Giggles started awkwardly. "I had a nightmare, too. In it Mittens suddenly went crazy and started mauling me to death."

There were a few more seconds as Cuddles looked deep in thought. Flaky was surprised and confused when a huge genuine-looking smile suddenly crossed her friend's face. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that but I'm just really glad that you're okay!"

While the rabbit gushed on and on about Giggles being ok, Flaky paused her pacing to look out the window. Everything, besides the red mangled Cheep, seemed perfectly normal. No fallen trees or buildings on fire.

It almost looks like everything has... reset, Flaky thought, feeling a chill go down her spine. Does that mean today is going to be the same? She wondered looking out the window and her question was answered when a tree fell killing several Generic Tree Friends. Flaky screamed.

Cuddles looked at her quizzically and Flaky just pointed out the window. "I have to go, Giggles, but I'll talk to you later. Everything's going to be okay. Love you, Giggles." Cuddles said over the phone before turning to Flaky with a laugh. "Don't you get it, Flaky? Don't you see what this means?"

Flaky was shocked by the question and his attitude overall. "What this means is that people are dying and being reset! This is terrible!"

Cuddles laughed and shook his head. "No it's not. What this means is that we're basically immortal!"

The porcupine didn't like the look in her friend's eye, it was too... crazy. She shivered "N-no, it means we're going to die over and over and-" Cuddles immediately picked up the phone again, dialing a number. "Who are you calling?" Flaky asked nervously.

The rabbit looked to Flaky with a grin. "Toothy has got know about this!"

"Cuddles, you can't possibly think this is a good thing!" Flaky said, trying to talk some sense into her currently insane friend.

He laughed "Of course it is! We don't need to be so scared of death anymore! We're just going to come back again! Isn't that cool?"

Flaky paled "No it isn't! I don't w-want to d-die!" she said, feeling lightheaded, imagining the life ahead of her. Die, be reborn, die again, be reborn again... forever.

"Hello?" she heard Toothy say from the receiver at Cuddles' ear. She had to warn everyone. This was no nightmare.

"Toothy! You'll never believe this! You had a nightmare last night, right?!"

"Well… yeah..." Toothy hesitated confused. "How did you know that?"

"It wasn't a nightmare! Flaky and I have proof! But now we're back to life! Isn't that so cool? I always wanted to be immortal."

Flaky gulped, feeling sick to her stomach. Both Cuddles' enthusiasm and the sense of death floating around made her queasy. But before she could do anything, she felt Cuddles grab her arm and run to the door with her stumbling to keep standing. "What are you doing? Where are we going?" she screeched, not wanting to go outside into the dismay and death.

He grinned "I wanna test a few things out now that we're immortal. Like that skateboard ramp you told me not to try or else I'd die."

Now, Flaky was terrified. "Cuddles, you can't be serious! Have you gone insane?!" Flaky asked trying to fight against his grip. "Don't you see that it's even more likely to kill you now?!"

Cuddles stopped turning to her still grinning madly. "No, think about it, Flaky. If we come back to life, is it really dying?"

"Yes! Of course it is!" the porcupine screamed. Cuddles had made it down the road, dragging the stumbling Flaky with him, to the skate-park.

She saw the huge skate-ramp even from where they stood, and she felt a wave of dread wash over her. She wished with all her might that he couldn't really want this... but he did.

"No it isn't, Flaky. Death, by definition, is permanent, it's the end of your life. Which is why everyone fears it and grieves it for other people but if it's so temporary, which it is in our case now, what's there to be afraid of? Missing a few hours? Like I keep saying, we're basically immortal now! How could you not think that's cool?"

"I don't want to die!" she screamed "I want to live a good life then die happy!"

Cuddles sighed. "Flaky, look, dying's not that bad, I just did it yesterday and I'm perfectly okay now."

Flaky felt her eyes prickle with tears. "Don't do this," she said quietly "don't do this to yourself."

He let go of her arm "Listen Flaky, I'll be fine... tomorrow! You don't have to try it, but let me at least!" The rabbit went to run to the ramp but remembered that he'd forgotten his skateboard "Oh crap... I'll be right back!"

Cuddles ran back home to get his skateboard leaving Flaky petrified in her place staring at the skate ramp that her now clearly insane best friend was about to go on… voluntarily!

Her eyes closed trying to will this to be another nightmare. They were doomed to die then come back to life over and over again for the rest of eternity. And the pain! She hadn't experienced it herself yet but it all looked and sounded extremely painful. What if all the deaths for the rest of time were physical torture until it finally ends… for the day.

Cuddles couldn't possibly see this as a good thing. It was a true, living nightmare.

"I'm back!" Cuddles said, running up beside her with just his skateboard. No helmet, safety pads or anything else. Somehow Flaky knew he was going to do this.

"Cuddles, where's your helmet? A-and the knee guards?" she asked, twiddling her thumbs, fearful of the answer.

He shrugged. "It's not like I'm going to need them. I'm immortal!" he fist pumped.

"Please don't do this to yourself," Flaky begged taking his wrist and looking him right in the eye. "You might come back to life but it will hurt like nothing else until then. You're so fragile now, who knows what could happen? Yesterday, you broke your leg from stomping your foot!"

Cuddles had a look of indifference on his face, but he still had a tiny bit of worry evident "So? It was yesterday, and I'm fine now! Look, just watch. You'll see, I'll walk away without a scratch!"

Flaky shook her head "No, no you won't Cuddles. I don't know if it's just me... but somehow I doubt any of us is going to walk away from anything..." she said, sounding less like her normal cheery self by the moment.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Cuddles stupidly asked.

In response, Flaky started to list surprisingly well, "You could be skinned, disemboweled, your limbs ripped off, impaled on that poll over there..."

Cuddles paled, gulping, but he shook it off. "As if I'm going to let that stop me."

He ran to the stairs of the ramp, climbing up and preparing to skate down it. Flaky felt tears well in her eyes "No! Don't!" but it was too late; he had already kicked off and was skating down it at a high speed.

Flaky screamed louder than should be humanly possible when a skateboard wheel landed by her feet, followed by another one. He's only on two wheels! Flaky's thoughts yelled as she just kept screaming though she was soon interrupted by someone else's screams, this time, clearly of pain. Well, he's clearly not only on two wheels anymore.

"CUDDLES!" she screeched, running over to see his mangled body, a skin and blood trail from the ramp following him.

He was barely alive, clinging onto the last remnants he had left "F-Flaky..."

She couldn't speak, or move or do anything other than stare in horror. Her heart thudded in her chest. Then, with one final breath and whimper of agony... Cuddles stopped moving. He was dead.

"It's my fault. I should have tried harder to spot him. I should have…" before Flaky had anymore time to go about blaming herself for Cuddles' death, Cuddles' now two wheeled skateboard came obediently following it's rider cutting past Flaky, literally. A now bare and razor sharp axil ripped right through her abdomen, hooking onto her small intestine and taking it along on the skateboard's path.

'''I probably would have dragged that on more if it was ANY other character. Also, note that in less than three weeks, Sacredheart will be gone for six weeks. We will try to have the next chapter by then but if that doesn't happen, we're sorry. Next chapter will focus on a character that was cheated out of the first day so mull over who didn't appear in any of the first four chapters and isn't Cro-Marmot or Lammy/Mr. Pickels and you'll find your answer. Until then, please comment and I greatly appreciate constructive criticism if you have any.'''

Also I leave you with a poll: Though neither are likely to convince the other, who has the best arguments? Flaky Cuddles