The Decease

Chris stared dumbly at the quill that he had just pulled from his backside. A red quill…who did he know who had red quills? A sudden rush of memories from the previous day flooded his mind. “Agh! Blorch!” he yelled as he hurled chunks of partially digested food all over his bed. Coughing he sat up and threw his head back. He suddenly remembered it; his first death. How his brother, two friends and he had died. He remembered Simon; drove off a cliff and exploded. Dusty; eaten alive by a bunch of black birds. Bobby; sharing the same fate. And he; …how did he die? Looking at the red quill, he figured that whatever had killed him must have been something with sharp red quills. He tried hard to remember what had killed him, but the memory had left his mind. A sudden voice caught his attention. “Yo! Chris! Get up; we’re going to be late to the welcoming party! If I come up there, you had better be dressed!” Chris recognized the voice immediately to be that of Simon, his brother. Happiness filled his conscious as he realized that his brother was alive! “’Kay!” he yelled down. He got out of bed and walked over to his dresser. The same dresser that he had owned all of his life. Now that he had died, was he just getting the dresser again? He quickly got changed and ran downstairs. It was nighttime, around 7:00. The last light of the day was departing, and some of the neighboring houses began to turn their porch lights on. Simon was standing there, his hair slick and combed, a suit made of something worth more than he was, and a small rose attached to it. Simon took one look at Chris and started nagging. “Chris! Where are your manners? Where your BEST clothes!” he yelled. Chris frowned at the sudden change in atmosphere. “These ARE my best clothes! You are too cheap to buy me good ones!” he protested. Simon sighed and stormed out of the door. Chris followed.

The trip was normal; nothing happened. They reached the party hall without a scratch. Stepping out of the car, Chris could see multiple others gathering: Cuddles and Giggles, walking arm in arm, Flippy, horsing around outsides with firecrackers. Not such a great idea to be around him. Everything seemed normal…but something was missing somehow. Some empty spot, not filled and it was making him sick. He needed something to be happy, and it just wasn’t there. When he was least expecting it, something small and red flew up behind him and attached itself to his arm. He yelled out in shock as he was bowled over and went sprawling onto the hard rock pavement. From the ground, he looked up and saw a small red porcupine laying on him, crying and squishing him with bear hugs. Her high-velocity scream gave him a headache, but he didn’t seem to noticed. He gaped at her red quills; the same he had pulled out of his back. He didn’t know who she was, but he was sure that she was related to his death in some small shape or form. He suddenly snapped to his senses when she started to kiss him, yelling stuff like, “Worried”, “So sorry”, and “Love you.” “H-help! She’s  going to kill me again!” he yelled, pushing the red pincushion off of himself. She was startled at first, but then she looked angry, to the point where she threw herself upon him at stared punching him softly. “You don’t think I feel bad enough?!”  she screamed as she patted his ribs. This crazy stranger was beginning to draw attention, Chris’s least favorite thing. He pushed her off again, and ran like crazy. “Hey, where are you going?! I’m not done with you!” she yelled after him. He was faster, due to his training in combat. She took chase, raising her hands as if to take hold of him. She chased him for a few minutes, until he finally tripped on a rock. He fell hard, stumbling, rolling, and bowling over a few others. He sent Nutty flying into a nearby tree, a tree branch going up his nose and out the back of his head. Blood squirted all around like a sprinkler. The crazy porcupine pinned him to the ground before he had a chance to get up. He started screaming again, yelling for mercy. “Stop playing games! Chris! It’s me, Flaky!” she yelled in his face. He stopped screaming and looked up at her. “Flaky? Who’s that?” he asked innocently. She stared into his eyes, checking to see if she could see a hint of a joke. She only saw fear and confusion, and immediately knew what was going on. “Oh, Chris!” she yelled, throwing her arms around him again. Mood swings. “You have decease! It makes whoever dies forget all the memories about the thing that killed him! But whoever has that usually stays dead! You survived!” she began to sob happily. This made no sense. It did nothing but creep the hell outs Chris. He waited until she wasn’t paying attention when he darted out from underneath her and took off into the party hall. She sat there, smiling and relieved.

Inside, tables were set with delicious foods, exotic cakes, pastries filled with steaming custard, and bowls of small caramel candies. Chris sat down at his own table, away from everybody else. He waited anxiously for someone to try and sit next to him, but nobody dared go near an emo. He sat there, hungry and sulking, but refusing to eat. Simon sat at a table, laughing hysterically at a joke that Petunia had just muttered, ignoring Chris completely. Chris felt so alone, so left out. He sat, cutting his wrists under the table, enjoying the feeling of physical pain instead of mental pain, for once.

Cuddles hurried out of the door as a car pulled in the parking lot. Speaking was heard outside, followed by the sound of people coming closer. Everyone’s attention was focused on the door, which flew open at an alarming rate. Silence. Then in stepped Cuddles, followed by a baby blue female bear. She was pretty, with thin glasses, tight dress, and big, shiny eyes. He had caught the attention of almost every male in the room. Except for Chris, who was moaning quietly in pain from his wrists. Cuddles spoke next. “Hello, everybody. I trust that you know that this little lady is the reason that we have all gathered here today. We are celebrating one of the first in many years to make the fateful decision of moving in here with us!” he said proudly. During that time, the bear had been swaying back and forth, as if drunk. She stumbled around, finally smashing right into Cuddles. He flew backwards, into a dining table. Unfortunately, there had been a tray of silverware on the table. Forks and knives of all shapes and sizes went easily through his head, making brains and blood fly in multiple directions. The first one to scream and cry out was Giggles. “CUDDLES NO!!!” she screamed. Chris had just looked up from under the table. Seeing Cuddle’s dead body, he smirked and looked down again. Giggles had run up to the front and was now crying over Cuddle’s dead body. Everybody else had done the same as Chris and looked down, spare Lumpy. He hadn’t understood what had happened and burst out laughing. The bear surveyed the room in wonder. Looking around, she didn’t see anybody that she wanted to talk to...at first.  She was the kind of person that would have sex with a guy in a moment’s notice, and she wanted to draw her authority at first chance. She almost gave up, and then she saw Chris. The young teal squirrel was doing something under the table. At the moment, he had a grey beanie on, which had a label, ‘Staind.’ She knew that band. She liked a bunch of their songs.  He was also wearing a dark grey T-shirt, grey gloves and boots, and a golden earring wrapped around his ear. Half of his eyes were covered by the beanie, giving him a sinister look. She also noticed that he was sitting completely alone. Nobody else. Just him. She started toward him, but was blocked by a gay-looking bear with an orange afro that looked like he was sucked right out of the 70’s. He winked at her and started to flirt. “Hey, there, chicky. How about hooking up with the coolest disco-man in town?” he asked, started to blow kisses. She avoided them and answered quickly. “Oh, good, there’s only one of you freaks. Now, step aside, puffball!” she tormented. Disco Bear stood there for a second, stunned. Behind him, Petunia had burst into silent laughing, Simon following along. He let her go by, but followed her and kept trying to pick her up. “Uh…I may not l-look it…but I…I’m the h-heartthrob of the t-town!” he stuttered, still burning from the last comment. The bear laughed loudly and kept walking. Disco Bear silently walked off in defeat; he knew at that point that he couldn’t win.
Chris was shocked and surprised when he heard a soft ‘plop!’ sounded beside him on the bench. He looked up in silent doubt and saw the prettiest bear he had ever seen. She was blinking heavily at him, flapping her eyebrows. She was wearing a very tight, revealing dress that showed off her rather large bottom. Her glasses were the perfect size, that they rested lightly on her soft fur. He gulped and looked down. Flaky was now watching in anger as the bear made her move. “Hi, there, little squirrely. Mind if I sit next to you?” she asked sexily. Chris nodded and kept looking down. He was wiping off his wrists on the underside of the table, trying to erase proof. She eyed him and grabbed his arm. Yelping, he let her examine the multiple slits in his wrists, afraid of what she might do. Instead of yelling, she did something very unexpected:
She licked off the blood.
He stared dumbly as her warm, moist tongue glided across his wrist, automatically feeling better. When she was done, a couple of scratches remained, but they were clean. The bear smiled and licked her lips. “I’m Mabelle,” she said. At that moment, Flaky came over, hands on her hips. She had a murderous look on her face, and Chris got the vague feeling she wasn’t going to be asking any questions. “Five seconds and you’re already in need of a room!” she scolded. Mabelle didn’t take notice and continued to touch Chris in odd places. Chris looked uneasy; the strange porcupine’s angry eyes on him and the weird but pretty new girl was now feeling him up. After a few moments, Mabelle answered. “You claim authority over this, my new sex toy?” Chris heard that and began to panic. He barely even knew the girl! “YOUR sex toy? Now, you have to get one thing through your head, whore! Chris is MY boyfriends, and he would never fall for a slut like you!” Chris winced at this. Trouble was brewing. “You’re just jealous that you don’t know how to treat your men,” Mabelle taunted. Flaky shook with anger. Just when everything seemed to become the worst that they could, Flaky dived and knocked Mabelle from her seat. Someone in the audience shouted, “Cat fight!”, thus making this become the center of attention. Chris shivered as he thought of all of the eyes that were now upon him. As the two girls were fighting, Chris heard a soft ‘click’ and turned in time to see Lumpy’s head explode. Brains flew everywhere, joining that of Cuddles’s. The crowd turned to see Flippy with a Machine Gun, full of ammunition. There was a brief moment of silent staring before an all out massacre. Flippy loaded round after round of hot, flying lead upon the crowd, killing all that they hit almost instantly. Handy was blown to pieces by over three hundred bullets, his organs, blood and bones shooting in odd direction. Mime was taken down with three bullets straight to the head, his antlers flying off and going into Disco Bear’s eye sockets. Disco Bear bled to death while Russell got the tip of the gun in his mouth, coming out of the other side. The mole simply walked offstage and broke his neck. Finally, Flippy seemed to notice the two girls fighting. He sat, watching, almost interested in what they might do to each other. He became bored as soon as he saw that the fight wasn’t going anywhere. He lifted the gun and took aim. Chris moved just in time. He felt hundreds of tiny bullets never his body, filling his senses with pain and blackness. He was dead before he hit the floor. The last thing he could do in this world was hold up a tiny metal watch. A bullet hit the watch, broke it, rebounded off, and blew half of Flippy’s head off. He staggered there for a second, blood squirting everywhere, before falling. Mabelle pulled Flaky off of her and pointed. Flaky changed moods so quickly it was scary. “…Chris…? CHRIS!” she yelled at his body. “NOT AGAIN!” She ran over and sobbed onto his bloody chest. Mabelle sat close, her face pale. “But…why did he flip out…?” she asked herself. Then she saw an empty cup of punch lying next to where Flippy fell. She walked over and picked it up. Sniffing it, she nodded. “Someone spiked the punch.”
   Flaky looked over at the bodies of Lifty and Shifty. Both of them had been impaled through the head by the same chair.
       “It was them…” she muttered to herself.