Chapter Text
This is the world of the stickpeople. You all are familiar with what the stickpeople call the real world, where human beings live on planet Earth. But that doesn’t mean that the stickpeople world isn’t real, does it? The two worlds are rather similar, to be honest. Both got quite good technology. Computers, cars, cameras, electricity and stuff like that, but phones were still being worked on. The stickpeople world is cartoony but the real world is… well… you know how it is since you are probably from there. But there’s something in the stickpeople world that isn’t in the real world. A frun. It’s like a gun but it shoots ice. Maybe you’re familiar with it, or something called a freeze ray. Well here it’s a frun. Fred has been making these fruns and selling them. But that’s not relevant anyway (for now…).
Len Boatley was on one of those beach chair things and was just chilling. It was a beautiful day, nice sun, just the perfect temperature. He could feel the seaside breeze, rushing in his face. So peaceful until he heard someone call his name. “Len! Len!” Len sat upright with a jolt, and looked around. Who must’ve called him? He then saw Ben, his best friend. He had a horrified look on his face. “Why the weird face, Ben?” Len asked.
“I have some terrible news. Really terrible!” Ben replied.
“Terrible? TERRIBLE? Tell me what happened!”
“Well… your parents…” he paused for a while. “Your parents… are… dead!”
“Dead? DEAD??? What the hell?! How did they die?!”
“This nasty stickman was sunglasses shot them to death with a gun.” Guns weren’t in the stickpeople world, so Len had no idea what a gun was. “What’s a gun?” he asked.
“It’s like a frun but has a much higher chance of killing you. It shoots a bullet really fast and it’s so deadly!”
“This murderer is gonna pay for his actions. I’M GONNA KILL HIM!!!” Len yelled, tears of anger rolling down his cheeks.
“Whoa, Len. Calm down. I’m sure we can sort this out in a non-violent way-”
“NO! I won’t calm down! You’re my helper, you gotta be on my side!”
“But it’s wrong to be nasty to get revenge!”
“I don’t care! I don’t give a shit about that! Just please be with me!” Len was on his knees now. He was desperate for Ben’s help. After what seemed like ages, Ben finally said, “Fine… I’ll help you. But once we kill him… WE GO BACK TO BEING GOOD!”
Len’s parents got divorced when Len was 2 (now he was 20). He stayed with his dad until he was 18 and went off to live his own life. He didn’t know why or how they got divorced. And if they were both killed, had they got back together? Temporarily? Just to say hi? He didn’t know.
Len and Ben walked together on the street and saw the frun shop. Len decided to go inside and Ben followed. They opened the door and there was a very strange and long tunnel, a neon tunnel. “Whoa this is sick!” Len exclaimed.
“I totally agree!” Ben replied. They carried on walking and then they saw another door. They opened it and inside was a stickman. “HEYO!” He yelled.
“Uh… hi. Are you Fred?” Len asked.
“YE! I IS FRED! OW MU DOINS?” Fred said.
“Well he sure speaks weirdly…” Ben whispered.
“We’ve come to get two fruns please.” Len said.
“Freezin’ gunz! Be rit back!” Fred said. Then within a few seconds he was back and said, “Yo catch!” And he threw one frun to Len and one frun to Ben. Ben was experimenting with the frun when he accidentally froze Fred. “Oh no… I think we should go.” Len suggested. Ben was just standing there looking at Fred and shaking his head. “Well at least we don’t have to pay!” He said. They ran through the neon tunnel and back to the street. Then Ben saw the murderer! “THAT’S HIM!” He yelled. The pair got out their fruns and both shot the murderer which instantly froze him. Out of the corner of Len’s eye, he saw the police. He didn’t even warn Ben. He just legged it away from the police. Ben shouted out, “Len? Where are you going?” He was about to follow him but he was caught by a policeman. “Well well well…” he said. “Ya goin’ ta jail!”
“NOOOOOO!!!” Ben screamed as he was handcuffed and taken away. “LEN! WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME! NOOOOO!!!”
Len reached his house and the newspaper had been delivered. He grabbed it and went to his bedroom. He opened it and saw something that made his blood run cold. The newspaper read:
“Attention! Local citizen Ben has been sentenced to death for freezing an innocent stickman called Nick. He was with someone, but that person is unknown. It may be Len, as Ben keeps having fits and shouting ‘Len.’”
“Oh shit! Damn it!” Len yelled. “I feel so bad about just running away. I should have at least warned him or something! Now I must save him before death!” The stickpeople police were strange, yes, but that was just how the world was. Len then decided that he was going to somehow save Ben.
Inside the prison cell was Ben. He was handcuffed, legcuffed and his whole body was tied to a chair. Ben furiously tried to get away but he wasn’t able to. Two policemen opened the cell door and walked in. One of them was holding a strange looking hat which was called The Electric Hat. The stickpeople used it to execute people, just like how humans use the electric chair (or used to use it). The policeman holding the hat tried to put it on Ben but Ben was wriggling about too much. The other policeman held Ben’s head still. Ben wasn’t as strong as the policeman and in the end he had to keep his head still while the other policeman put the hat on Ben and adjusted it to fit Ben’s head. He did all the straps, buckles, everything and put a key in the hat, twisted it so that there was no way it could come off. Another policeman came into the cell with a remote which controlled the hat. There were 4 modes of electrocution - light, moderate, heavy and deadly. He pressed the deadly button. The hat could talk and it said in a robotic voice, “Deadly mode selected.” Then he set a timer. When it reaches zero, the electrocution starts. The policeman put a 15 minute countdown. “15 minutes until execution,” the hat said.
“No… don’t do this to me!!! Please don’t!!!” Ben pleaded. He was starting to cry. “Why do you execute people for such small things? I didn’t even kill that guy! All I did was freeze him. Why…”
“SILENCE!” One of the policemen roared. The voice echoed in the room. “Do not question the law!!!” Ben twitched in fear. Tears rolled down his cheeks, but he stayed silent.
Len ran to the prison centre as fast as he could. When he got there he was breathless, panting heavily. He ran to the policeman at the gate and asked him, “Please can I just see Ben for one final time?”
“What is your name?” The policeman asked.
“Uh… Jeremy James.” Len replied, making up a name on the spot.
“Can I see your ID please?”
Shit, Len thought, he didn’t have any sort of ID, fake or real. “Err… I left it at home,” he said.
“Are you really desperate to see Ben?”
“YES! Before he dies I need to see him! He’s a really good friend of mine! Please let me see him!”
“I’ll just go in and check it’s fine if you can come in without ID.” He opened the gate and went in. Len sneakily went in too. The policeman saw this and shouted, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Len punched and kicked him, trying to beat him up. The policeman tried to get out his taser but Len grabbed it and tasered the policeman. Tasers in the stickpeople world weren’t powerful enough to kill but they caused serious injury.
Other policemen came to the scene, trying to get their tasers out but Len was too quick, tasering them all. He went up to one of the tasered policemen, grabbed him by the neck and yelled, “Which room is Ben in?!! If you don’t answer I am gonna TASER THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!!!”
“R-room 24, j-just straight up ahead… on the l-left.” Len released him and ran to room 24. The door was just about open, probably because the policemen had come out of the room to try and stop Len. There was still someone in there, trying to close the door but Len kept pushing hard. He could not let Ben die. He felt a sudden rush of energy and pushed the door open hard, knocking the policeman on the floor. He tasered him for 10 seconds straight, making him completely unconscious, and rushed over to Ben. “Ben!!! Ben!!! Are you okay???!” he said. Ben didn’t say anything. Then Len said, “I am so sorry for abandoning you, I should have warned you or something. I didn’t even know that freezing one person would mean you get the death penalty! Ben, I’m sorry and I’ve come to rescue you.”
“It’s fine, Len. Don’t worry. Thank you so much for coming.”
“Yeah that’s fine now lemme take this hat thing off.” The hat suddenly blurted out, “1 minute until execution.”
“AAAH I GOTTA TAKE THIS OFF!!!” He then saw a keyhole in the hat. “Is there a key to this hat or something?” he asked Ben.
“Yeah, one of the policemen has it. Oh! Is that it over there?” He pointed over to the unconscious policeman. A key was next to him. Len ran to the key, picked it up, thrust it in the keyhole. He still had to undo all the straps and buckles.
“30 seconds until execution.” The hat said. Len began undoing the straps and buckles. One of the buckles was rather stiff. “ARRRRGH LEMME TAKE THIS OFF!!!” he yelled.
“15 seconds until execution.”
“Shut up you annoying hat!!!” Len moved on to the other straps and buckles. The only one left now was the stiff one.
“10, 9, 8.”
Len furiously tried to undo it but it wasn’t working! Time was passing.
“5, 4, 3.”
Len managed to undo the buckle.
“2, 1.”
Len threw the hat away from him and it landed on the policeman’s head, by accident. The hat yelled, “ELECTROCUTE!!!” Then the policeman woke up with a jolt, as the electrocution began. He was screaming, screaming so loudly. He started wriggling about. The hat fell on his body and by then he was in too much pain he couldn’t move. His screaming became quieter, and quieter, until it was no more, and he was dead.
Len and Ben were shaken by that. “Wow,” Len whispered. “I killed someone… by accident? I didn’t even mean to throw the hat in that direction. Now we both are gonna be in a hell of a lot of trouble.”
“Yep… we are.” Ben replied.
“Well I’m still gonna get you outta here. I just gotta undo these legcuffs and handcuffs.” He started undoing them and untied the rope which had tied Ben to the chair. Ben stood up and said, “Wow, it feels so good to stand up again. I thought I wouldn’t get to stand up again!”
“Yeah cool, but we still need to get out of this prison and get back to my house or your house,” Len replied.
“Let’s go to your house, I think it’s closer.”
“Okay then.” They walked out of the room, looking at the dead policeman. His face was completely black, and his body had blood all over it. Len had kept his taser, in case he needed it to stop other policemen. Two more policemen did come but Len tasered them before they could even get their tasers out.
Soon the pair were at Len’s house. “Whoo… what an adventure we had!” Len said.
“Yeah… we’re probably wanted men now…” Ben replied. “Dunno about you but I’m rather scared! I told you to not try to kill Nick! I knew it was a bad idea!”
“Well, we didn’t try to kill Nick. We just froze him. That wasn’t killing him.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“And like I said before, I had no idea that you would be given the death penalty just for freezing someone. I didn’t know the law was that strict.”
“I didn’t know either.”
“Well, sooner or later, Nick is gonna get unfrozen. I will get my revenge somehow. I don’t know if I’ll kill him but I will do something.”
“When will you decide whether you’ll kill him or not?”
“I don’t know, Ben. We’ll see. Anyway, pillow fight?”
“Yeah! Let’s go!” The two of them picked up a pillow each and started to whack each other with them.