They woke up in the house again. Everything was back to normal. Robin started panicking.
"Why, why are we here?? We died! How are we alive?!"
"I don't know Robin. We need to stay calm."
We just DIED Harry!!" Robin shouted. "We have no clue where we are, and how was a matchstick alive and singing to us?!"
"I don't know ok??" Harry snapped. "But panicking is only going to make it worse. Let's just...get something to eat, and calm our nerves." He suggested.
"But-"
"Robin, please..." Harry pleaded. Robin finally conceded.
They went to the kitchen, and found some raw meat on the table. They searched all the cupboards, but there was no other food. The kitchen had appliances. There was a stove, a microwave, a toaster...but none of them worked. The fridge was also devoid of food.
"Well...we could cook it over a fire." Harry suggested.
"And have that matchstick burn us all over again??" Robin said incredulously. "No thank you."
Harry looked out the window. There was a forest not far from the house.
"We could go look for berries." He suggested.
"Better than eating raw meat." Robin agreed, so they went out to the forest to find their own food.
But, as they began to pick the berries, a giant sentient choke cherry suddenly appeared.
"Tsk, tsk, are you picking berries?" It asked. They all froze. "Why, what if you happen to pick the poisonous ones? Don't you know the dangers of poisonous berries and plants?"
"We- we can tell the diff-" Robin started, but was cut off as the choke cherry began to sing its song.
"Nightshade and Hemlock, Doll's Eyes and Foxglove. Poisons and toxins inducing convulsions." It sang. It then turned its attention to Manny. "You should only eat what daddy gives you...cause if you don't..." It forced a handful of various berries in Manny's mouth, and made him swallow.
Within seconds, Manny fell to the ground, convulsing, and trying but failing to breathe.
"Manny!!" Harry and Robin ran to their friend. Manny's breathing slowed to a stop.
The choke cherry tsk'ed. "Such a shame. Those poisonous berries will kill you dead. From now on, only eat what is given to you...how it is given to you." With that, the choke cherry disappeared, and they were back in the house, sitting in front of the raw meat. Manny was also there as if nothing had ever happened to him.
"Ok..." Harry finally said after a long silence. "Picking berries...bad idea."
"I am NOT eating raw meat." Robin said with finality.
Harry sighed. "We really don't have a choice. Besides, I've heard raw meat is healthier than cooked meat anyway...it still has the nutrients in it." He hesitantly took some of the raw meat. "We...we're just going to have to adjust until we find a way out of this place."
"Roy..." Robin seethed.
Harry paused. "Huh?"
That choke cherry told Manny to only eat what his dad gave him...This is all Roy's doing. I don't know how, but it is."
"How?..How is he making these things come to life?" Harry couldn't understand it.
"I don't know...I just don't know."
The memories continued after that. Everytime they tried to do something independently, something would come to life, sing to them about why they shouldn't do that, and it would always end in death, before everything was put back to normal, like nothing ever happened.
Sometimes, they wouldn't even do anything wrong. These creatures would just show up out of the blue to torment them for fun.
They soon felt like they were stepping on eggshells with everything they did, thinking that it was always going to trigger some kind of punishment. Even complaining about...anything would trigger a punishment.
After they had been given raw chicken to eat one time, and had gotten salmonella poisoning from it, they decided to try starting a garden, to grow their own food. That...had been a bad idea.
Having broken the choke cherry's instruction to only eat what was given to them, they were forced down into the basement, which they didn't even know the house had until then, and...things happened.
Their lives became nothing but "lessons" from these creatures...the teachers, day in, and day out.