The Hug Toll (DHMIS Fanfiction)

Five

When they arrived, Harry was already tremulous with fear. The place smelled like dirty gravel mixed with smoke and animal carcasses; the torture area itself was already covered with signs of blood from the black figure's previous victims of abuse.

This reminds me of an earlier nightmare I had...

Harry and his two favorite toys, Dennis the yellow puppet and Bert the green duck, were all strapped in their separate chairs in an ugly-looking basement with a red flag above their heads with a green circle in the middle with an X on it's face with the classic eyes and mouth.

"Huh? Where are we?"

"This isn't our house."

"Oh no. We're all tied up."

"Very strange indeed; I have no memory of being tied up or falling asleep in."

"Why are we in my dad's house?"

Harry let out a sigh. "I don't think this is your dad's house."

"Well, whoever owns this place sure needs to tidy up. It smells like rats and gasoline!"

Without warning, a dark brown man with matted fur and a green suit stepped into the basement. The red mope braced himself for what would happen next, even though his arms were still in that devastating position.

"Oh, hello sir. Is this your house? Well, you could certainly get out a feather duster. What have you got there, sir? Is that tape from-"

"WAKE UP, RED GUY!! ARE YOU ASLEEP?!?"

"My name's actually Harry."

"Well then, GET OVER HERE, YOU PEST!"

As Harry struggled along in his chains, he sat in a chair right next to Clarissa. The black figure turned on a camera and started recording as sounds from World War II played in the distance.

"Are you recording?" Harry asked with the fear that the black figure was trying to blackmail them, but his only response was a devious smile.

"Psst, Harry!" Clarissa whispered to the afraid male.

"Yes?"

"I've got an idea!"

"You do? What is it?"

"Are you guys planning an escape plan!?" The black figure's awful voice sprang out of nowhere.

"Well, I-"

"BE QUIET, YELLOW GIRL!!"

"It's Clarissa, and that other mope is Harry."

The black man's eyes crossed in anger. "I know that red guy is Harry, now SHUT THE DUCK UP!!!"

"Woah, man, calm down."

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Now the black figure was getting more and more strict against Clarissa and Harry; Harry knew this would not end well. Now he and the yellow female had to face the pain of suffering of being whipped with the steel chains repeatedly.

"Sir, I swear to all that is holy, me and Clarissa are innocent!"

"Yeah, that's what they all say. They're in a better place now, and you'll be, too."

Harry frowned under his long, red hairs as the black figure continued to vigorously abuse them.

"For some reason I have a sudden urge to go to the bathroom."

"But, sir, do you even have a bathroom?"

"I'm just gonna pee behind a bush; so how about you two shut your traps while I do my business."

"Oh, w-well, okay," Harry stammered under his breath, "we definitely w-won't mind!"

As the two mopes sulked in their chairs, Clarissa's cat Buttercream popped his head out the blindfolded window.

"B-Buttercream! I was worried about you! How were you able to track us?"

Buttercream meowed in response.

"SHUSH!" Harry interrupted the cat. "The black figure's gonna see you!"

Buttercream then mewed a little quieter.

"Harry, I think he's trying to tell us something." Clarissa spoke to Harry as he tried to release his arms from the chains, his scarf dragging itself with the weight of his neck. "What is it? I know no cat language!" Harry replied with some tension in his flat voice. "Well, I think Buttercream has an escape plan for us if we look and listen..." 

Harry and Clarissa watched as Buttercream tried to give them a safe way out through his body language. Buttercream wiggled his tail, shook his fur, and scratched his paw against the transparent glass.

"Hmm..." Clarissa began with a thought. "I think we're gonna have to wiggle our hands out of these confinements, then wiggle the rest of the chains off, and then we just we to evacuate through the window!"

Buttercream meowed in agreement. If the black figure was dumber than this efficient way out, then no one was.

"Hurry up, man!" Clarissa had already freed herself, and now she was calling for Harry to react. "Let me use my time wisely, young lady." Harry wiggled his hands out of the chains and then with his red body, and followed the yellow mope out the window to where Buttercream had been waiting for them.

"Looks like this will end well..."