Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He jumped excitedly out of his bed, almost falling to the floor in the process and quickly ran to the window of his room, with his tail wagging from side to side, he watched the rising sun. Sighed deeply before carelessly marching through the rest of his house, in search of his favorite ball. 

Dogday was determined, today he was going to have a great time with his friends, it had been a long time since they could get together and play properly. The orange dog was going to change that, no matter what.

First, he made sure he had everything in his house ready, lots of toys of different kinds for Hoppy and Kickin, extra comfy pillows and blankets for Bobby, interesting books for Bubba, large amounts of yummy food for Picky and even a whole collection of markers and other art supplies for Crafty! 

However, he noticed that something was missing from their little friendship sanctuary, something very important for someone very important. 

Dogday giggled in amusement at the thought and proceeded to pick up a large wool pillow, put it on top of one of his tallest furniture and covered it with a soft blanket. He sincerely hoped that Catnap could use it as his bed, knowing that the cat would most likely take a nap for the rest of the day instead of playing with them. 

Taking a couple of steps back, he watched with satisfaction at the result of his hard work. He was sure everyone would love it and thank him for putting in the effort, he just hoped Pickypiggy doesn't make a mess of food in his kitchen like last time. Dogday nodded to himself and walked out the door of his house, ready to start another day. 

"What? Catnap what's that?" 

The purple cat jumped in fright, quickly flipping over backwards, surprised to see the little bear behind him, looking a bit curious. Catnap let out nervous giggles and hid the strange object on his back, in an attempt to divert Bobby's attention. 

"Bear-bear! Hi! What are you talking about?" 

He said nervously, eagerly waiting for his friend to play along and ignore the careless behavior. Catnap should have known those were impossible hopes, if there's one thing Bobby Bearhug is incapable of doing it's ignoring secrets, always preferring to stick her big nose into other people's business, especially her friend's business.

The bear looked at him accusingly, crossing her arms and glaring at him, snorted and then launched herself on top of the feline in search of the object, not really caring if she ended up rolling on the ground with him in the process. 

"Give it to me! I want to see!" 

"No!" 

He shouted in desperation as he struggled on the floor against his friend, who was already holding the strange object in her hands. Bobby Bearhug watched carefully and very interested in the VHS tape now between her claws, it was a deep red color and it was obviously old, with dirt everywhere. Confused she tried to move away from the purple cat, however Catnap was quicker and in one swift movement, took the tape from her. 

"Don't do that!!!" 

With his long purple tail he caught the little bear's legs in an attempt to make her fall.  

"It's mine!" 

Bobby groaned in annoyance as she bumped her nose on the soft grass, sighed when saw the kitten hiding in his hands and angrily stood up. 

The bear slowly approached her friend and carefully stroked Catnap's little head in an attempt to calm him down. 

"Hey, calm down, I didn't mean to stress you out." 

She cooed to the kitty lovingly, seeking his permission to give a comforting hug, with a nod of his head Catnap allowed it and sooner than later Bobby hugged him protectively, apologizing over and over again.

After a few minutes of this, the cat calmed down enough to move away and, with Bobby Bearhug following his footsteps they sat down together on a tree floor. 

"Can I ask you something, Catnap?" 

The feline looked at her and nodded, without the need to say anything more. 

Catnap was always quieter than the rest, only speaking when he felt it necessary preferring to always communicate with gestures. 

"Why did you freak out so much about that silly tape? Where did you find it?" 

The cat thought about the answer for a few minutes, opened and closed his mouth in search of a way to explain his earlier crisis, but finding nothing he simply sighed and shrugged. A clear 'I don't know'. 

"It showed up at my house." 

"It showed up at your house? Out of nowhere?" 

Catnap nodded again, looking apprehensively at the named old tape in his hands. Then he looked back at Bobby and smiled at her. 

"Let's see it." 

Bobby Bearhug laughed in agreement, she was also very intrigued by what might be on that old tape. She quickly got up from the floor and excitedly lifted Catnap forcibly, carrying the cat.

She had completely forgotten the real reason she had gone looking for her purple companion, and that was that Dogday had invited them all to a sleepover at his house and Bobby offered to catch Catnap. 

"I think Dogday has a VHS player! Gotta see it!" 

And so, both Critters excitedly ran to their doggy friend's house, eager to solve the mystery now in their hands.

Chapter Text

“Yes! Movie night! So exciting!" 

Night had already fallen on Cheeryland, the last rays of sunshine bidding farewell to everyone before disappearing into nothingness, with the stars already shining brightly overhead, Catnap was already regretting his decision.

It had been a few hours since he and Bobby had appeared at the doors of Dogday's home, with big smiles on their faces they explained their plan and showed the other Critters the VHS tape that had so intrigued their friends. 

Bubba Bubbaphant volunteered to look for a player that could work, since Dogday had everything in a mess. 

Meanwhile everyone else set up the living room for a movie night, with blankets everywhere and sweet popcorn, courtesy of Hoppy. Everyone found themselves extremely excited for this opportunity, it's not like every day an unknown and mysterious VHS tape shows up on your doorstep, is it? 

The cat sighed deeply in a vain attempt to calm his growing nerves, for some reason watching that tape made him anxious. 

"Napy, what's wrong?" 

Dogday, his best friend and also the most unbearable one, asked him with concern. Apparently Catnap couldn't hide his doubts enough regarding this movie night, not wanting to bring down the dog's mood he simply smiled tiredly at him, indicating that he was just sleepy and would like to go to sleep. 

"Ohhh, but kitty! You can't sleep now, we're about to solve the mystery of the movies appearing out of nowhere, aren't you excited about that?" 

Now that the little dog's tail started wagging even faster than before, it did hit KickinChicken behind him by accident. Amused by this, the purple cat smacked the dog with its own tail in its face as a way of shutting it up and went about simply observing the new chaos appearing in the room. 

Kickin had gotten up from the couch very annoyed and pushed Dogday to the floor, his eyes clearly showing that he had a very big malevolent plan. Hoppy Hopscotch also suddenly appeared and, as a team they began to tickle the defeated puppy, who couldn't stop laughing at any moment. 

Pickypiggy, seeing this began to laugh uncontrollably and clap her hands for the tickle attack to continue, all this while Bobby watched in annoyance from a corner, fed up with the screams of others. 

Before the little bear could yell something to shut them up, Bubba appeared through the door with a strange device on his left paw and the VHS in his right one. He smiled at Catnap, curious about the unexpected scuffle happening on the carpet, the cat simply shrugged and pointed to the device the elephant was carrying with him, a question clear on his features. 

"This is the player, it's kind of old but I think it will do for now." 

He said proud of himself for finding the device, walked over to the television in the center of the room and began connecting wires and other various things of the sort. Meanwhile, Dogday, Hoppy and Kickin had already split up, now looking for comfortable places to sit and watch Bubba work. Craftycorn joined Bubba, helping him in any way she could which really wasn't much because Bubba wasn't a fan of asking for help, but oh well. 

Picky calmed down enough to grab Catnap roughly and throw him into her cold lap, while Bobby Bearhug came over to pet him. All this to cause purrs from the kitty. 

“Well, folks!" 

Bubba spoke excitedly as he turned around to look at the rest of his companions, laughing as usual at their nonsense.

Craftycorn, who had already finished sorting the wires by color, jumped up full of joy and shouted to the others. 

"Who's ready for movie night!?" 

"We are!" 

Shouted in tandem the 5 Critters already comfortable on and around the couch, however one of them didn't look so excited. Catnap looked without apparent excitement at the TV, very tense with what he sensed they might see there, the bad feeling still wouldn't go away and he hoped that whatever was on that VHS was just a goof. 

Crafty walked over to the comfortable piece of furniture and settled down next to Bobby Bearhug, who hugged her lovingly. Meanwhile Bubba placed the VHS in the player, and then rushed out to the others, to settle down next to Dogday.

They all watched with bright eyes of curiosity as that old TV started to turn on in a dirty white color. They waited patiently until, after a few seconds, strange letters appeared on the screen. 

"The Hour of Joy?" 

KickinChicken read in confusion. 

The purple cat felt a very big shiver all over his body at the sound of that name, not knowing why he started to want turn off that fucking TV, terror already clouding his mind. Hoppy Hopscotch stroked him gently as she noticed how tense Catnap was, she smiled reassuringly. 

A loud bang snapped them out of their little world of affection, excitedly they watched as the picture on the television changed again, followed by an extremely annoying sound of static that drilled into the heads of all who heard. 

A strange black and white being appeared for all to see. It was large, with overly long legs and a strange upward hairstyle that was vaguely reminiscent of Kickin's hairstyle. A strange tattered sign appeared in the corner with a simple name 'Huggy Wuggy' which, they assumed, was the name of the strange beast. Picky trembled with fear as she saw the next thing to happen.

The monster, once still and standing, was now attacking the people around it with no mercy whatsoever. Everyone watched in terror as it devoured everyone with its large mouth full of teeth. 

Craftycorn covered her eyes, traumatized by the scene in front of her, that terrifying thing had grabbed one of its victims by the neck, to then start eating him little by little and as slowly as possible. The guy was apparently screaming in pain, but the VHS was too broken to let out any sound other than static.

Another one of those people had his head squeezed so hard that his pretty brown eyes shot out of their sockets until they ended up crashing into the screen, leaving a trail of crimson liquid all over the place. 

Dogday got up shaking and ran to the bathroom to vomit, while the rest of them simply watched in shock as the camera changed places. Now it showed a different place, where a strange woman covered in blood was brutally attacking a group of people who were trying to run away from her. Another poster just like the previous one appeared on the side of the screen, with a new name 'Mommy Long Legs'.

Later they watched in apprehension as the so-called woman threw a group of men from the roof, killing them in the process. 

Catnap could slowly watch the rest on the room, all terrified and in tears, unable to stop shaking but also unable to go and turn off the TV. Catnap felt the morbid stirring inside him, wanting to see where all this horrible slaughter was going to end, despite his growing urge to vomit.

By the time the picture changed again Dogday had returned, depressing tears in his eyes. 

And so they stood for hours, watching horrific images of various monsters, blood and bones pouring out of their human bodies as those watching barely held back the urge to run out and smash that stupid TV.

KickinChicken and Hoppy Hopscotch were crying inconsolably as they hugged each other, Pickypiggy was hiding behind the couch, trying not to cry. Bubba and Bobby were in shock, unable to take their eyes off the video playing, holding their breath and hugging themselves. Dogday on the other hand simply stood in the middle of the room, paying no attention to anyone or anything. 

At some point Catnap watched as the video changed once again, but now it showed a strange new place, with houses and lots of children's toys. However, upon seeing the monster of this place....

It was some kind of cat, extremely large and tall, with its bones escaping from its filthy fur. Craftycorn stifled a scream of fear at the sight of the sign with its name on it. 

"Catnap...”

Chapter Text

She couldn't believe it, didn't want to believe it at all. 

She clutched her head tightly, tears falling from her eyes, unable to get that horrible image out of her mind. Craftycorn simply could not understand what they had just witnessed, she couldn't.... She couldn't explain to herself the fact that she had seen a monster with the face of her cat friend doing such horrible things. That... Thing was mocking in front of its victims, using its sharp claws to tear them apart bit by bit as it laughed in their faces. 

She watched as the Catnap on the television slowly approached the screen, with its grim and oh-so-characteristic permanent smile, its vacant eyes stared into the camera as if it knew they were there! 

The monstrous creature began to laugh hysterically, its almost unintelligible, static-filled voice causing a huge headache in everyone present, especially Catnap himself, not because of his hearing so superior to the rest, but because of the shock of seeing himself in such a terrifying form doing such incredibly horrific things. The purple kitten hugged himself tightly, his own claws hurting himself, scared of his counterpart on the screen. 

The named monster sighed deeply, expelling a large amount of red smoke, the same smoke his own Catnap used to help them sleep. It looked down and, in one motion, tore the neck of a woman already on the floor while mockingly tearing the person's face apart, only to minutes later show the former worker's bloodied head to the camera. 

"IT'S TIME FOR A DEEP SLEEP, DON'T YOU THINK?" 

In its chilling voice it began to laugh maniacally, with the desperate screams of children decorating the background. With a flicker the screen went dark and the Critters began to cry out in terror.

Dogday put his gaze on his purple best friend, who was crying inconsolably as he began to bleed from his self-inflicted wounds, decided to approach and, without saying anything to Catnap, grabbed his paws to avoid further injury. 

Catnap looked at him terrified and speechless, frantically shaking his head and whispering like a mantra 'I'm sorry' as if repeating those 2 words enough would suddenly make everyone forget that VHS. The dog watched him softly, still saying nothing, knowing that if he dared to open his mouth he would not be able to shut up again.

Instead he simply squeezed his dear friend's paws tightly, trying to let him know that it wasn't his fault, trying to explain... That horrible monster they saw on the screen wasn't necessarily the same kitten that was now trembling on his hands. 

However, not everyone thought the same way about it. 

"Y-you... You wanted us to see this, didn't you!" 

Pickypiggy suddenly shouted, shakily pointing her hand at the mangled Catnap on the couch. The pig was also a tearful mess, barely able to stand without falling over, but still determined to make some kind of sense of the horrors they had just seen, completely forgetting her friendship with the feline she now sought to blame for this. 

After hearing this, Bobby Bearhug jumped to defend Catnap, who was now uncontrollable and choking back tears, hiccuping apologies every few seconds. Kickin slowly approached him as well and, trying to make him feel better, stroked his cat ears. The chicken watched with satisfaction as the hysterical bear began yelling at her pig friend. 

"How dare you say something like that! You know Catnap, he would never do that to us on purpose!!!" 

"Well! Excuse me for not knowing what to think after seeing Catnap cold-bloodedly murdering so many people!" 

"That wasn't Catnap!" 

"What do you know about that, huh?!" 

The fight between the two girls was escalating fast, with both of them venting their frustrations and fear in the form of screams so loud that they managed to break the eardrums of Dogday, who was desperately trying to restrain the purple cat with the help of KickinChicken. Angrily he turned his annoyed gaze to the two fighting Critters and growled loudly at them as a warning to shut up.

Both women ignored him, beginning to fight more violently, with Bobby slapping her pig friend across her face. 

When pickypiggy felt this, she lunged sharply at Bobby's body, driving her to the ground and started to fight hard. 

Bubba Bubbaphant got up quickly, knowing it was best to stop them both before they ended up hurting each other more than they probably already did. The elephant needed only a little strength to lift the piglet into his arms and away from Bearhug, waiting for Craftycorn to approach her, help her up and inspect if there had been any damage. 

Bubba turned his hard gaze back to Picky, who when realized what she had done began to cry pathetically as she sat down on the floor next to her friend. 

"Are you serious Piggy? How could you even think of saying something like that?" 

He questioned calmly, looking her in the eyes with annoyance and pain. He always hated when his friends fought, but it wasn't such a rare thing, after all it was normal in a group of friends as diverse as theirs to have conflicts. But this? He never thought he would've to stop such a violent fight between his two more adorable friends, and on top of that, a fight that started because Pickypiggy thought Catnap would do something so horrible as to traumatize all of them on purpose and for fun. 

Didn't the little piggy see what a weeping, bloody mess Catnap was at this point? Dogday and KickinChicken could barely keep him from hurting himself out of panic. 

"I-I... I-I didn't w-want to..." 

Pickypiggy spluttered through tears as she tried to explain her recent outburst. She shook her head, hugged her knees and rocked back and forth in a vain attempt to calm herself. Bubba sighed defeated and preferred to focus on the other one affected by the fight. 

Bobby Bearhug wasn't doing too well either, hugging the unicorn as tight as she could. He should have known that the little bear couldn't handle such a stressful situation either, after all she always fixed her problems with love and hugs, but this situation just wasn't going to be fixed like that. 

Bobby thought that if she let herself go she could forget the horrors that were now burned into her mind. She thought that if she pretended that the VHS tape didn't exist at all, they would all go back to normal and sleep together and cuddle instead of dealing with all these tears of pain that any of them ever learned to handle. 

So they continued for what seemed like hours, with Catnap now more calm, but still on the verge of fainting; Dogday still holding his friend's little paws and now whispering words of gratitude at Bobby Bearhug too; Craftycorn stroking the little bear's fur while she herself tried to wipe away her own tears; KickinChicken having left his place next to the purple cat to go to Picky on the floor, hugging her tightly next to Bubba Bubbaphant. 

At some point, Hoppy Hopscotch jumped up from her place on the couch, startling the rest of the Smiling Critters by her quick movement. The bunny, who until that point had been unwilling to move or say anything, in complete shock with her gaze lost on the old television, roundly approached to the television itself. Her brow furrowed coldly and, with a lot of anger, she hit it hard. 

She began to kick it, venting all her uncontrollable anger in each of her blows, looking for anything that would help her understand something, ANYTHING about what  just happened. 

In the midst of her rage attack, Hoppy took into her hands a baseball bat she had brought from home to play with KickinChicken, but now she decided to use it to smash that damn stupid television. 

Blow after blow caused glass to fall at her feet, getting the now irreparable artifact to end up on the floor. 

"I hate this!" 

She shouted in frustration, throwing her bat at the wall fiercely. 

The 7 Critters watched her quietly the whole time, afraid to get close and get hit by accident. However, Catnap decided he couldn't keep quiet about it, standing up and approaching his green friend. She looked at him without understanding what the cat was planning to do, until Catnap grabbed her hand and hugged the bunny's torso with his tail.

Thanks to Catnap's move, everyone else decided to come over and hug Hoppy, having a nice fraternal hug between all of them together. Filled with tears, snot and lots of apologies. 

Pickypiggy hugged the purple cat tightly, apologizing for being silly and thinking so badly of him. While Bobby Bearhug was also thinking about apologizing to the piggy for hitting her first. 

Dogday smiled happy to see all his friends better, hugging Craftycorn and Bubbaphant with much affection on his features. 

At this emotional and cute moment, no one noticed how the shattered VHS player began to move on its own. 

No one noticed the strange smoke coming out of it. 

Nobody noticed anything, until it was too late and the Smiling Critters ended up falling unconscious on the floor. Everyone but Catnap, who recognized that smoke, a smoke he was naturally immune to, froze in place as he saw his friends asleep on the soft yellow carpet. 

He slowly turned around, staring at the broken television where the red smoke was coming out and, terrified, noticed how a strange metal hand found its way out of the technological device. 

His heart began to beat fast, that strange hand? Where did a metal hand come from? 

Tick Tack 

The clock ticking, Catnap began to walk away. 

Tick Tack 

Noticing the hand approaching, he began to run. 

Tick Tack 

It was getting closer and closer. 

Tick Tack 

The door's locked! Why is it locked!? 

Tick Tack 

Closer, closer, closer 

Tick Tack 

Can't run away, can't run away 

Tick Tack 

The hand grabbed his tail, and with just one more flick, Catnap fell to the ground.