For Shits and Giggles (complete first draft)

Chapter 02

"What the hell happened," Splendid yelled, crashing in through the open bedroom window. Giggles wasn't awake yet. She was always awake at this time. He was coming to offer her a lift to work, the same way he did every Wednesday morning. Toothy's paper route took him in a different direction on Wednesdays, and so it was the only morning Cuddles wasn't there. Usually. Splendid waited several moments for Giggles to come outside, when he spotted a gloomy Cuddles and Petunia through the second-story window. That could only mean one thing.

"Did she die?"

Splendid didn't have to ask, he knew the answer. Her usually flushed cheeks were pale, and her lips had lost their pinkish color. She was breathing very faintly.

"Yes," Cuddles answered, glaring suspiciously. He hated seeing Splendid in her bedroom so casually. He was sitting on Giggles' bedside when Splendid came stumbling in through the window. He was holding her limp hand, stroking the top softly with his fingers.

"How painful was it? Did Flippy do it? I'm going to fucking k–"

"No," Petunia interrupted him, her voice was low and her hands were resting neatly in her lap. She wore two white gloves for protection. She was ready to rip those gloves off at the slightest speckle of dust or dirt. The white color made it easier to spot any imperfections, before they got worse. She found solace in that. In knowing she was completely clean. That was her curse. Petunia was Giggles' closest friend, after Flaky – the three of them were inseparable during college.

"It was Handy's truck," Petunia continued. "There were some tools in the back, giant metal sheets... you know, his construction stuff. I don't know how it happened exactly," She took a deep breath, her voice steady. "But next thing I knew, Giggles was on the ground sliced almost in half. We were just walking home. It was awful."

Splendid's mouth dropped just slightly.

"Fuck," he mumbled to himself mostly. He thought about her pain in those brief moments before death took her, and his blood began to boil. Her fading smile flashed in his mind, then her tears. He thought about her shocked, terrified face; her mangled corpse decorating the sidewalk. He thought about how hopelessly in love he was. He thought about how he could have saved her, if only he were there– how he was the only one who could have saved her. The only one who still can.

He gripped his fists, his nails digging into his palms enough to draw blood. There was no one to blame, not truly. But he turned to Cuddles anyway, who sat comfortably by her side, "Why the fuck weren't you walking her home?"

Cuddles flinched as Splendid yelled, but he didn't move. He held Giggles' hand tighter.

"Splendid I..."

"You follow her around like a lost puppy all day and for what? The one time she actually needed you..."

Cuddles was opening his mouth to respond when Giggles began to groan. She shifted her body in her bed and opened her eyes. They were a deep, golden color.

Everyone knew Giggles' eyes changed colors; from their naturally deep red, to a bright, shimmery yellow-gold, and then back. Many assumed it was a random shift. As far as body curses went in Happy Tree, this was one of the better ones. Some people lost their sight or their hearing completely, some ran until they collapsed because their bodies wouldn't let them stop. They would die from exhaustion, then wake up the next day to begin running again. It was an endless cycle. Eyes that changed color and nothing else; she was one of the lucky ones.

But it wasn't so simple. The change in her eyes wasn't random at all. Splendid had figured it all out. Her eyes were red: when she was truly, genuinely herself. Red. The beautiful red eyes she'd been born with, the ones he'd been so enamored with all these years. But as the curse progressed, he saw those eyes less and less frequently. He noticed it immediately. The curse forced her to laugh; forced her to nod, to appease, to be passive in every situation. She could no longer fight, could no longer argue or advocate for herself. Instead, she would eagerly accept anything and everything done to her. That was her curse, and that was the secret behind her eyes. When the curse took over her body, took over her words, that's when her eyes were golden like the yellow leaves on the Tree. Golden, just like they had been when Splendid had refused to save Flaky the previous morning.