Candytown – Part I

Rollie was up first. Rollie was ALWAYS up first; it was the only way he ever got to eat. Between his older brother David being in whatever mom called “puberty” and the fat twins gorging themselves on whatever they could find, Rollie’s life had gotten much hungrier. He didn’t dare complain to David, and if he tried to take either one of the twins food he was liable to lose a finger.

So he got up early.

Mom was gone already, of course; she always had to start early on Saturdays. Rollie didn’t remember the last time he had seen his dad. Was it this birthday? Or was it two birthday’s ago?

It didn’t really matter. He wasn’t much of a dad the few days he WAS around.

He tiptoed to a cabinet, straining himself to reach the ceramic bowls inside. They tinked softly as he removed a neat stack and set them on the tiled kitchen island. A vague sense of disappointment followed him to the pantry.

Cereal choices were typically few and disappointing. One of mom’s coworkers had been filling her ears with granola nonsense, insisting that bleached sugar would melt her children’t brains or cause them to bleed from every orifice or something else, so the GOOD cereals had been slowly disappearing from the shelves each morning. Rollie’s finger traced the facing edge of each box absently until he paused.

There was a new cereal in here.

He pulled the box from its resting place and carried it with him to the kitchen island. Rainbow colors assaulted his sleep-crusted eyes from every facet of the carton.

Games.

Fun.

A surprise in every box!

…and most importantly…

SUGAR.

“Whatcha got there twit?” a raspy voice whispered in Rollie’s ear, making him jump.

“Ha ha scared you!” David had approached silently on socked feet while Rollie had been captivated by the promise of a sweet sacryine adventure for his taste buds.

“Mom must have gone shopping. Look, real cereal!” Rollie held up the box  and David snatched it from his grasp.

“Cool,” David’s eyes caressed the radiating swirls of the carton, “we’re eating good today little brother!”

Rollie set another bowl out from the stack and in a rare display of magnanimity David poured the milk over two servings of the multi-colored nuggets. They each took a high stool and sat at the island, spooning in the sweetness as though it would disappear.

And it might, Rollie thought, as he heard the footsteps of the fat twins on the kitchen stairs.

Belinda followed Tad down the final steps, both rubbing their eyes. Each took more to their father’s side of the family, Rollie thought, which was to say ugly and overweight. With a grimace he recalled David, in one of his eviler moods, straddling them both on the floor so they couldn’t escape and poking them repeatedly in their cheeks yelling “Marshmallow marshmallow marshmallow!”

Ah, to be the sibling of a tyrant.

“Whassat?” Tad mumbled, still barely conscious.

“Mom got new cereal, but its for all of us so don’t eat it all fatty,” David said.

Tad made a nasty face at David, who laughed it off, while Belinda pulled two more bowls from the cupboard with the help of a nearby step stool.

“Same goes for you Belly,” David said to Belinda.

“Shut up stupid,” Belinda replied, pouring her own milk and handing the carton to Tad.

David laughed.

They ate in silence for awhile, David reading the box silently, Rollie keeping to himself, and the twins shoveling it away far faster than the two older boys. Belinda, her eyes on David, broke the pause.

“What’s it say?” She asked David.

“See right here?” David pointed at some writing on the box, “it says ‘Learn to read!’”

Rollie looked at the area David had pointed at, a small sentence held in a rippled yellow dialogue cloud. He read it out loud for Belinda.

“Wish on the box and you’ll arrive, safe into Candytown there reside. Candy for all and for all it is free, wish on the Candytown box and believe.”

“Wow, free candy, ” Tad spoke up. “I wish I could go to Candytown.”

“Hey!” David yipped as the cereal box sprung from his hand and landed in the center of the island.

“Careful Dav…” Rollie started to admonish him, but trailed off.

The box was moving by itself.

Slowly at first, but increasing in speed as it went, the cereal box began spinning like a top at the center of the table. The four children, unsure of what was taking place, sat transfixed as the carton became first a rainbow blur, and then something else entirely, collapsing into itself and opening up a swirling purple-black vortex.

“What the hell?” David hollered, kicking his chair away from the table and backing up.

Rollie had never heard his brother curse before.

Tad and Rollie backed away as well but Belinda stayed in her chair, frozen in fear.

“Belinda! Move!” David screamed at her, and in the most heroic gesture Rollie had ever seen from his brother, started towards Belinda to pull her bodily away.

But the vortex was quicker, and with an audible growl it surged to swallow the four siblings whole.

Rollie’s ears woke before the rest of him to a sound like water running. As his senses returned he cracked his eyes to find that the sound wasn’t water, but a breeze blowing through the tall flowering stalks he lay in. Blinking against the bright sun he moved slowly to his feet, body aching as though he’d taken a tumble. He was in a field of some sort, crushed stalks soft beneath his stocking feet. Vibrant green to the point of glowing, the field went on for as far as he could see in all directions save one. Behind him a short distance away a forest ran beyond sight in both directions. The plants of the field thinned almost immediately at the forest edge, giving it the appearance of a wall.

“Uhhhhh…” A quiet moan came from Rollie’s left. David’s head poked up among the stalks. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Rollie said, rubbing at a vague soreness permeating his shoulders. “I think we got sucked through a black hole or something.”

“Black holes are only in space, stupid,” David replied with a grimace.

Rollie was no longer listening to him. His eye had caught on one of the flowering stalks that made up the field. He bent closer to examine it. Something about the petals struck him as familiar….

“Marshmallows!” Tad’s voice rang across the meadow.

“Tad! Where are you? Is Belinda with you?” David yelled.

“Over here Davie!” Rollie could just see Belinda’s outstretched hands visible over the swaying flowers.

Rollie and David pushed stalks aside with swimming motions as they walked the short distance to where Belinda and Tad were. Tad sat on a pile of crushed stalks, plucking flower petals one by one and shoving them into his mouth which already had the appearance of a stuffed chipmunk.

“They’re marshmallows!” Tad repeated around a mouthful of white chewy goo. “And the middles are like gumdrops!”

Rollie pulled a nearby flower from it’s stalk to examine it more closely and saw that Tad was right: Each flower ‘petal’ was a perfectly formed colorful marshmallow, like the ones he would spit at David around the house. The yellow center of the flower was firmer and looked to be coated in a fine layer of sugar. Gingerly he pulled a single marshmallow from a flower and chewed it. It tasted fresh and sweet, like it was from a newly-opened bag.

A perfect marshmallow.

Belinda plucked a green stalk from a flower and shoved it whole into her mouth.

“Mmmmmmm!” she said, and grabbed another.

David slapped her hand, and Belinda jerked it back.

“Stop!” He yelled. “Tad you idiot! You don’t just go eating things because they LOOK like marshmallows. We don’t know where we are or what these are!” he gestured wildly to the field around them. “They could be poisonous!”

Tad stopped chewing and his eyes filled with fear.  Belinda spit out the mouthful she was working on.

“Well if they are, three of us have eaten them already. Nothing we can do about it now,” Rollie said.

David cast Rollie a withering look but ignored his comment.

“The first thing we need to do is figure out where we are, and more importantly, how we get home,” David said.

“We were eating, and then the hole showed up and we fell in.”

“Wait…no…that’s not right,” David shook his pointer finger absently as he thought. “We were reading the box, Rollie read that wish to be in Candytown…”

“…and then Tad said he wished we WERE in Candytown…” Rollie continued his brother’s train of thought.

“…And THAT’S when the box freaked out and opened the black hole!” David finished.

Rollie, Belinda, and David all stared at Tad.

“What? I didn’t know!” Tad said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rollie said. “So we think we’re in Candytown. The box was magical or something. If wishing to be here got us here, maybe wishing to go home will do the same thing?”

“I wish I were home!” Belinda yelled.

The children all paused a moment, listening. Nothing happened.

“It was worth a shot,” Rollie smiled at Belinda.

“Maybe Tad should try it?” Belinda offered.

“Since its his fault we’re here?” David said.

“I didn’t know!” Tad repeated.

“No stupid. Because he was was one that made the first wish. Maybe it will only work with him now.” Belinda scowled at David.

“Right. Well go on, try it you little toad.”

“Ok, here goes.” Tad took a deep breath. “I wish I were home!”

The meadow remained unchanged.

“Wait! Ssshhhh! Listen…” Rollie shushed them.

Drifting over the marshmallow fields, a high-pitched squeal, almost lost to the wind, began to resolve itself.

Into voices.

David crouched down, motioning to the other children to do the same. He glanced wildly about them for the source.

“Where’s it coming from?” he whispered.

Across the field Rollie saw a shadowed blob floating above the field coming from the direction of the sun. As the amorphous shape twisted and moved he could make out arms, legs, and torsos.

“There,” he pointed to the blob, drawing the attention of the other children.

“Get down!” David hissed.

The children all crouched lower into the stalks of marshmallow flowers while trying to maintain a view of the approaching mass. As it grew closer its shadowed appearance began to dissipate, resolving itself into several cherub-like creatures flying together in a small pack. Their dragonfly-like wings beat furiously, carrying their chubby childlike bodies in tight aerial maneuvers. Over the drone of their wings the sound that had gotten Rollie’s attention became more audible.

They were singing.

“Candytown, Candytown, most delicious place around; Candytown, Candytown, no boy or girl can wear a frown; Candytown, Candytown, yummy treats for all to eat; Candytown, Candytown, shining land of sugar sweets…”

Their squeaky voices continued to extol the virtues of Candytown as they flew, each occasionally zipping down to the field to pick marshmallow flowers which they placed into baskets hung from the crook of their elbows.

“Maybe they can tell us how to get home?” Tad whispered.

“Ssssshhhhh!” David shushed him.

The cherub’s flights all stopped as they cocked their head to listen.

“Did you hear that?” one of the creatures, clothed in a pastel blue loincloth, asked its companions. Its voice was high-pitched to the point of being shrill.

“Spread out,” another commanded.

Turning their backs to each other the creatures began drifting cautiously away in a growing loose circle.

Rollie looked to David who’s face was clenched in fear and anger. He saw what David saw: at least two of the creatures would soon be in a position to see their hiding spot.

Tad evidentially saw it too, because he stood up and said “We’re lost. Can you help us?”

His appearance threw the cherubs into a frenzy of acrobatic swirls and excited chattering as they all maneuvered to fly towards Tad.

“Dammit Tad…” David hissed, but the cherubs had already drawn close enough to see all four children. Cautiously, David stood up, motioning to Belinda & Rollie to do the same.

“Snackfriends! Snackfriends!” Rollie heard awed whispers fly back and forth between the creatures almost as fast as their wings beat.

“Can you tell us how to get home?” Tad asked again, this time directing his question to a cherub in a purple loincloth.

“Home?” the cherub squeaked.

“We don’t know where we are,” Belinda offered.

“Where you are?” the cherub repeated. “Why, you’re in Candytown! The most specialist land around!”

The four other cherubs nodded to each other, some mumbling agreements, as though this answer made the situation forthright.

“I don’t think you’re understanding us,” David offered cautiously. “We don’t know how we got here, and we need to get back home. To our world, or… whatever.”

“Back?” the cherub in the purple loincloth asked. “Why would you want to go back?”

“Maybe to get more Snackfriends, Binnininnius?” a cherub in green loincloth asked.

“Good idea, Fiddlefark!” Binnininnius looked from Tad to David. “Yes, to get more Snackfriends?” he asked.

David shook his head, “No. Look we don’t know how we got here. We don’t want to be here. We just want to go back.”

“The witch might know…” Fiddlefark started to say.

Binnininnius cut him off with a glare. “The witch doesn’t like Snackfriends. She eats them.”

“But she still might know,” Fiddlefark retorted.

“She… eats us?” Tad’s eyes were swollen with fear.

“Oh yes,” Fiddlefark answered, oblivious to Tad’s fright. “She’ll send her sweethounds out after you. When they catch you they drag you back to her home, and she cooks you in a big pot.”

“Why, just last week they got two of our sisters,” another cherub offered.

Belinda clenched the hem of her jammie shirt. “But why? Why would she do that?”

“I’ll tell you,” Binnininnius lowered his voice and hovered lower towards Tad.

“It’s the meat,” he whispered. “She’s after the meat.”

Fiddlefark joined Binnininnius by Tad.

“Meat is hard to come by in Candytown,” he explained.

Unease settled in Rollie’s stomach. He glanced over to David who wore a strained expression. And beyond David…

…beyond David one of the cherubs, who had slowly been hovering closer to the children, licked his lips.

“Tad…” Rollie started.

“MEEEEEEEEEEEAT!!!!!!!” the cherub screamed.

Binnininnius and Fiddlefark were on Tad before the scream had even ended, tearing into him with viscous feline needle teeth. The rest of the cherubs followed, swarming on him like sharks in a frenzy.

Tad’s shrieks were choked short in a spray of blood. The cherubs crawled over him like ants, biting and tearing at any free patch of flesh they could find, snapping at each other like territorial animals. Fiddlefark tore at Tad’s stomach, wings beating furiously, until he had pulled the boy open, spilling his entrails. A wordless squeal of glee rose from the creatures as some alighted to gobble these too.

Rollie ran.

Only a small part of his mind was aware of his actions. Most was fogged with the shock and horror of Tad’s dismemberment. Yet in that tiny place where his conscious mind still functioned, he felt shame at his cowardice.

And still he ran.

In this distance he could hear Binnininnius yelling at Fiddlefark, “What are you doing? Go get the others!”

“YOU get them!” Fiddlefark replied, “I’m HUNGRY!”

Through the haze Rollie was dimly aware of David running next to him, Belinda thrown over his shoulder. Tears were streaming down David’s face; Rollie couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his brother cry.

The three siblings ran until the initial burst of adrenaline had subsided and they collapsed into the marshmallow flowers. Rollie’s body shook with sobs. And then there was David, holding him like their mother did sometimes, crying with him. Rollie wasn’t sure how long they stayed that way.

“We can’t stay here,” David whispered, sniffing. “Rollie, we can’t stay here. They’re gonna come after us.”

Rollie’s chest heaved even as he sought to calm himself down. David was right. He nodded and pulled away.

They had run almost to the edge of the marshmallow fields. The forest loomed before them some fifty yards away, ominous in its silence. At this distance Rollie could see the trees weren’t pine trees at all; rather, they were made entirely of peppermint sticks, wound red and white like candy canes. The trunks, branches, even down to the needles of the boughs were all composed of the brittle stripped candy.

“Where aaaaarrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee you meat?” Fiddlefark’s voice echoed distant.

“Let’s hide in the forest,” Rollie whispered to David. “They’re scared of the forest.”

David nodded but from the set of his jaw Rollie knew he didn’t like the idea. He was probably having the same thoughts Rollie was: whatever scared the viscous cherubs would likely be twice as dangerous to the children.

David took Belinda’s hand and crouched low, Rollie taking up the rear as they threaded their way through the marshmallow flowers. Occasional yells from the cherubs told them they hadn’t been spotted, though each time the taunts grew closer.

As the children approached approached the forest, David suddenly swore.

“What’s wrong?” Rollie asked, looking worriedly over his shoulder for any sign of the cherubs.

“Something stabbed my foot,” David said. Sitting on the ground he pulled his leg across to look at the bottom of his foot.

Sticking a few inches out like a splinter was a needle of peppermint.

David and Rollie exchanged a look; the danger of the situation was clear. The ground was littered with the offal of the trees just as a normal forest would be covered in dead pine needles. If the children had been fully clothed it would not have been a problem – but they were in socks and pajamas. Walking into that forest would be like walking on spilled nails. Their feet would be skewered instantly.

David plucked the shard from his foot and tossed it aside.

“If the whole forest is like that…” Rollie started.

David nodded, eyes distant with thought. “Give me your shirt,” he told Rollie, pulling his own over his head as he did.

Rollie did as he asked without arguing, tugging his Batman shirt off and handing it to David. A small part of him found it strange helping David without complaint.

David plucked a thicker peppermint needle from the ground and stabbed at this own shirt with it a few times. The needle broke on the third time and he grabbed another, continuing until he had gotten a big enough hole to allow him to rip his shirt in half.

“Here,” he handed the torn shirt to Rollie, “start spitting on this.”

Rollie nodded and began to spit on the rags, wondering what his brother was up to.

David went through the same process with Rollie’s shirt, stabbing holes with with the sharp candy until he could tear the soft cotton into two. He took the remains of his shirt back from Rollie and handed Rollie’s back to him.

“Keep spitting,” David told him, following his own instruction with his shirt.

Rollie spit and licked his shirt until he had no saliva left.

“I can’t do any more,” he told David.

“Ok thats good enough. Stick out your feet,” his brother told him.

Rollie stuck his feet forward. David took the moist pieces of his shirt and began wrapping Rollie’s feet, trying to cover them as much as he could with the scant strips of cloth before tying a tight knot around each of Rollie’s ankles to hold the scraps in place.

“The peppermint should stick to this, so get as many of those broken pieces and stick them on the bottom of your feet,” David instructed. “We’ll have to walk like we’re tiptoeing, but we should be able to walk without getting too hurt.”

Rollie gathered as many of the broken pieces of peppermint needles as he could, pushing them into a pile and rolling the bottoms of his feet in them. True to David’s plan, the peppermint clung to the wet cotton on his feet. David did the same with his own rags.

“I’ll carry Belinda until we find somewhere to rest,” David whispered, looking again for signs of the cherubs.

Rollie nodded.

“Come on Belly, piggyback time,” David said, hoisting Belinda up onto his back.

Rollie tentatively tested his peppermint-encrusted shirt-shoes. It felt like he was walking on dead grass, but nothing was stabbing him.

“Ok, lets get moving,” David told him.

They headed into the forest in silence, save for Belinda’s occasional sniffles. Rollie had heard of twins having some sort of connection to each other; he wondered if Belinda felt something beyond the sorrow he and David were feeling.

David set a slow pace, taking each step carefully and establishing his balance before taking another step. It was agonizingly slow progress, but the marshmallow fields steadily receded behind them as did the calls of the cherubs.

Rollie found the silence of the peppermint forest unnerving. He had been camping before, once, with his mother, and remembered the forest teeming with noise. Here, save for the crunching of their footfalls, there was no other sound.

They walked for what felt like hours to Rollie, his sense of time confounded by the uncomfortable burning growing in the arches of his feet. The forest had grown much thicker as they had travelled; the sunlight overhead had dimming as the branch density increased. Spying a fallen trunk, Rollie suggested they take a break.

“Ok. But just for a minute,” David said.

Rollie sat down on the rotting peppermint log and Belinda slid off David’s back to sit next to him.

“I want to go home, Davie,” Belinda said to David.

David nodded.

“I know Belly. Me too. But we had to get away from those monsters first. Don’t worry. Me and Rollie will figure it out.”

Rollie nodded, trying to put on a much braver face than he felt.

“We’re going to have to find water soon,” David addressed Rollie. “We can’t keep going like this without it. So keep your eyes peeled while we walk. I’m gonna scout ahead a little bit.”

“Ok. Don’t go to far,” Rollie said.

“I’ll stay where I can see you.”

David trudged off leaving Rollie sitting alone with Belinda.

“I miss mom,” Belinda said, pressing her tearing eyes into Rollie’s shoulder.

Rollie put his arm around her. “I know Belly. Me too.”

A loud crack and an anguished cry caused their heads to jerk around.

“David?!” Rollie hollered.

“Rollie!” David’s pained scream came not far from where he had left them. Rollie trod as quickly as he could, feet pricked constantly as his steps abandoned caution for haste.

David stood clinging to a tree not fifty paces from where they had stopped, pale and breathing in strained gasps. A vicious-looking beartrap had curled itself around his leg. The jaws of the trap had no teeth, but the force of it slamming closed had broken the bone; Rollie could see an unnatural bulge in David’s leg just above the lip of the trap. David’s hold on the tree trunk was to keep as much of his weight off of it as possible. Tinkling bells, rigged to the trap with an almost invisible wire, were jingling it’s success from their hidden position in the boughs of the tree.

And from nearby a long low howl curled through the forest.

Rollie pulled at the trap with as much force as he could muster but it didn’t budge. David moaned with each of Rollie’s tugs, sobbing from the pain.

The howl came again, this time much closer.

“You’ve…. you’ve gotta leave me. Rollie! You’ve got to leave me,” David pushed Rollie back from the trap with a free hand while still clinging to the tree with his other. “Go keep Belinda safe.”

“But she’s gonna eat you!” Rollie’s face contorted with sorrow. First Tad and now David…

“She’ll eat all of us if you don’t go! Hurry!” David gave Rollie another shove.

Torn with conflict, Rollie hurried to the stump where Belinda was standing as another howl rang out, this one sounding right next to them.

“Why is Davie crying?” Belinda asked with wide eyes as soon as she saw Rollie.

“Shhhh. We have to hide,” Rollie pulled Belinda onto his back and then looked for the thickest tree he could see. David’s cries and the bell’s jingling had increased tenfold. Rollie realized his brother, who had rarely been more than a bully to him, was trying to mask their escape by making as much noise as possible.

“Be quiet, Belinda. No matter what happens, be quiet,” Rollie instructed the small girl over his shoulder. She nodded silently in agreement.

Rollie crept to a the nearest tree he could see David from. Just as he slipped behind it a purple dog the size of a bear padded into sight. It eyes glowed pink as it lowered it’s head and sniffed towards David, curling its lips back to bear its fangs but making no sound.

A pace behind the creature a woman followed, her hand on the animal’s back. She was so tall and so painfully thin she looked like she was made of twigs and then stretched out. Her hair was dark and wavy, but without luster and shot through with grey. Her face was angular, and her eyes….

Her eyes were milky white, without pupils.

Rollie looked again to where her hand rested on the rough purple fur of the monstrous dog. It was subtle, but he could see the woman followed the creature’s wary movements step for step.

She was blind.

“And what has sprung our trap today, Viceroy?” Rollie jumped at the deep sound of the woman’s voice.

The purple hound raised its hackles and lowered its head even more. “A Snackfriend, my lady. Big one too.”

“A Snackfriend?” the woman licked her lips. “A rare treat indeed! Boy or girl? I can’t tell from the whimpering.”

“A male, my lady,” Viceroy growled.

“Tell me, boy,” the woman addressed David, “how did you come to be in Candytown? And answer swiftly or I will let Viceroy have you here and now.”

“Cereal,” David said through gritted teeth. “Some kind of magic cereal box.”

“A cereal box?” she questioned in baritone, “not one of mine then. Strange you would turn up in my forest.”

Viceroy’s hackles lowered a bit. “The boy has no shoes, my lady. Only rags.”

“No shoes?” the woman asked incredulously. “I would hear more of this. Bring him back home with us.” She waved her hand and the trap dropped open to David’s cry of relief.

Viceroy turned sideways before David. “On my back or in my teeth boy. It makes no difference to me,” he growled.

David nodded and gingerly hoisted himself onto Viceroy’s back with his good leg.

“Good. Take us home Viceroy.”

Viceroy stretched his nose out and sniffed the air cautiously.

“What is it?” the woman asked. “Do you smell something else?”

Viceroy turned his enormous purple head and looked directly at Rollie’s hiding spot, locking eyes with a fear-paralyzed Rollie.

“No, my lady. Nothing,” the dog said slowly, holding Rollie’s gaze.

“Onward then,” the sightless witch instructed.

“Yes, my lady,” Viceroy said, holding his stare at Rollie a moment longer before turning his enormous hide and shuffling back the way they had come.

TO BE CONTINUED…