Father's Day

by cerealkiller78

Chapter 3

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.

Comments

[cerealkiller78]

10882884
"Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared." It's a series of six videos on youtube. It was made by independent film makers Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. It's a combination of puppets and animation, and these videos are SO detailed. It was originally supposed to only be one video. But it blew up, so they decided to make more videos. They funded it through a kickstarter. The videos always have a cute catchy song, and make you think it's some foreign version of sesame street, but near the end of each video, it goes completely off the rails. There isn't much detail as to what is really going on as far as plot in these videos, so there are a LOT of theories out there. Check out the one by the film theorists on youtube. That's a good one. Anyway, one of the main points in these videos is that the calendar always says it's June 19th, which has been confirmed to be Father's Day in the videos. The videos, when they were being released online, were always released on June 19th. It has become so popular, it is even getting its own tv show.

[cerealkiller78]

10882884
the main trio of puppets don't actually officially have names. They are just known as "Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck." Literally. Their names are never mentioned in the videos. So the names I use here are just fandom names.

All the props and puppets in those videos are all made by them. It's very impressive.

[cerealkiller78]

10882884
The Film Theorists video is called "The HIDDEN LORE of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared"

[cerealkiller78]

10882884
There is even a really catchy song for the series by CG5 on youtube called "Father's Day". Check out the videos first, then listen to the song.

[PrinceOfDarkness]

10882947
Red guy is my favorite.

I love DHMIS.

"I am a file and...you put documents in me. Doo, doo, doo, a file. Funny. Silly file, doo doo doo. Y'know, I did it like a song-" Employee Red Guy

"No. That sounds really boring."-Red Guy's boss.