The Evils of Candy and Cookies

Jessie awoke slowly. She didn’t want to open her eyes and confront another day of school. Trying to find a comfortable position, she attempted to pull her blankets over her head. Frantically she searched around her legs for the warmth of her turquoise bedspread, yet she couldn’t find it. All she felt was the cold, moist dew sitting atop blades of grass.1

The dampness on her back made her more aware of her surroundings. Jessie opened her eyes lazily but quickly. The light blue sky and pink clouds greeted her.2

“Pink clouds?” she mumbled while rubbing her eyes. No matter how hard or long Jessie rubbed, the clouds were still looking down upon her.3

Remembering the wet of the dew on her back, she looked down at the cause. Blue grass. Jessie was starting to become frightened.4

“Where am I?” she asked herself, and was astonished and scared when she received a response. 5

“You’re in Candy Kingdom of course!”6

Jessie arched her back to look behind her to see the one who had responded. A small boy confronted her. He looked to be about six years old. 7

“Who are you?” Jessie asked confusedly.8

“I am the almighty Roscoe!” the boy said while pumping his fist in the air.9

Roscoe was a chubby boy with long, ropelike hair. His face was smeared with melted chocolate.10

“What am I doing here? Why aren’t I at home?”11

“Well,” Roscoe said nervously, “you are at home. You are just asleep right now.”12

Jessie laughed at him. “Then why can I feel the wetness of the dew on my back or the sun shining down on my face?”13

“You fell asleep outside yesterday, don’t you remember?”14

Now that she thought about it, Jessie did vaguely remember doing so just as the boy had said.15

“Come,” Roscoe demanded, “there is something far away that you want to see.”16

Jessie didn’t hesitate in getting up and following him. Her neck hurt from having to look up at the boy.17

Along the way, Jessie bombarded Roscoe with questions.18

“Why are the clouds pink?”19

“They aren’t clouds,” Roscoe replied. “They are weightless balls of cotton candy.”20

This seemed odd to Jessie, but she didn’t mind. Being surrounded by candy was a dream that she had always wanted to have.21

“Why is the grass blue?”22

“No one knows. It is the only thing in our land that isn’t edible. The grass is poisonous.”23

The two walked on for hours. As they strolled, the clouds started to disappear. Roscoe started to put on a stocking cap. Jessie realized that the top was cut off of it. 24

“Why is the top cut off of your hat?”25

“So I can catch the mallow in it. Gosh you’re being silly. This whole land is a combination of all of your candy daydreams.”26

“So it’s going to snow? How could it if there’s not a cloud in the sky?” Just as she finished her question she saw small white globs of snow falling from the sky. Jessie stuck out her tongue to catch them, and was amazed at the taste when the “snow” hit her taste buds. This “snow” was actually mini-marshmallows! 27

“Look! Over there!” Roscoe exclaimed while pointing to the right.28

So Jessie looked to the right and saw a massive amount of melted chocolate on the ground. The gooiness smelled delicious.29

“What happened to it?”30

“There was a fire in our chocolaty woods. Our trees are grown with 100% dark chocolate. Sweetened. They all melted. That’s why it is so cold over here. We can’t have our trees melting away can we?”31

Roscoe was sounding to sound more and more mature. Why would a six year old know all of this?32

“Feline!” Roscoe called.33

“Where is there a cat?” Jessie was confused until she saw a green, plump kitty walking towards them.34

“Feline will lead us to Queen Isabella’s castle.”35

“The cat’s name is Feline? How creative can someone be?” Jessie said mockingly.36

“I didn’t name her. Our beautiful Queen named her.”37

“Well, why is she green?”38

“She is made of mints.” 39

Now that Jessie thought about it, the overly large house cat really did look like it was made out of dinner mints.40

The cat started to walk away, swishing its green tail this way and that. It looked almost pale against the white, marshmallow covered ground.41

Jessie looked down at Roscoe. His hat was overflowing with the mallows. She grabbed a handful of them and popped them into her mouth.42

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The cat led them directly to the castle. There was a moat around it that was filled with hot chocolate.44

“Come in, come in!” Jessie heard a friendly feminine voice call out from high above. Looking towards the sound she found a very beautiful lady holding a lollipop wand. She was wearing a violet colored dress, and it highlighted her majestic and radiant white hair astonishingly. 45

Feline led Jessie and Roscoe over the bridge made of Dots into the amazingly frosty castle.46

“Why is it so cold in here?” Jessie asked with difficulty die to her shivering jaw.47

“The castle walls are made out of Popsicles! Didn’t you know?”48

Jessie followed the green kitty up countless flights of stairs. She was out of breath when she finally reached the middle platform, and she was almost positive that she would suffer from hypothermia. She was uncontrollably shivering, and she felt as if she were going insane. She felt this way until a warm blanket was wrapped around her. 49

When she looked down, she noticed her bedspread from the real world draped around her. The turquoise color soothed her, and she no longer felt like she was crazy. 50

Jessie turned around to see who had given the blanket to her. Before her stood the Queen.51

Isabella was much taller than Jessie had first assumed. She looked to be about 5’9”; she was very gorgeous and skinny. Her dress hugged her body tightly. Jessie was astonished that the Queen could even move in it, yet she had elegantly descended at least the same amount of stairs that they had traveled to meet up with them.52

“Are you hungry sweetheart?” the Queen asked Jessie. 53

“What do you have to eat Isabella? Do you mind if I call you Isabella?” she replied.54

“I don’t mind at all. It is my name of course,” Isabella stated with a chuckle. “Come to the banquet hall with me. We have absolutely everything that your heart could ever desire. Food wise.”55

With that, the lovely Queen led everybody back down the stairs that they had just ascended. When they reached the bottom, Isabella led everyone down a hallway that was located behind the spiraling staircase. 56

The banquet hall was exquisite. The scents of all things gooey and chocolaty blended together into a scent that smelled exactly like pork chops.57

“It smells delicious in here!” Isabella exclaimed. “My chefs are the best in the Kingdom. I could brag about them for hours, but I won’t bore you. Pick out what you would like. There is enough food here for a thousand people.”58

Jessie looked around the room for something to eat. A buffet of all candies and cookies imaginable surrounded her and her companions.59

“What should I eat first?” Jessie wondered aloud. She went over to grab a plate from the nearest table. She looked at it oddly.60

“Why is there only half of a plate?” Jessie was curious about everything here, especially how you could fit so many delicious treats on just half of a plate. “Why are they all broken in half?”61

“Oh!” the Queen exclaimed. “My extraordinary chefs discovered that with half of a plate you only eat half of the calories then you would have with a whole plate! I had them all break every plate that they could find in half. That’s why I’m so slim. I hardly ever eat any calories!”62

This didn’t make any sense to Jessie at all, but she saw with her own two eyes that Isabella was scrawny. She herself wished that she was the Queen’s size.63

She walked over to the eating utensils and found a stack of plastic forks.64

“Why do you have plastic forks? Isn’t everything in Candy Kingdom supposed to be edible?”65

“I’m sorry it usually is, but licorice forks are so expensive nowadays.”66

“You had licorice forks?”67

“They were very delectable,” Roscoe piped in.68

Feline meowed at her master who in turn handed her a gummy fish.69

Jessie traveled around the buffet tables until she found her absolute favorite dessert. Homemade fudge. Well at least she saw the label for it, but there wasn’t actually any food under the label. She asked the Queen if there might be any extra in the kitchen. 70

Isabella called to her chefs, and less then fifteen seconds later a short blonde headed child walked out of the kitchen holding a tray of fudge. The girl was wearing a Minnesota Vikings Jersey, which Jessie found odd. She didn’t think much of it because the kid had brought her fudge after all. 71

After the adolescent had left the dining room Jessie grabbed some weirdly shaped and colored cookies. A few were blue and they smelled weird, but the teen would have eaten anything in Candy Kingdom.72

Jessie mindlessly started eating what was on her plate after she had sat down at a hardened caramel table. She spotted a doll in a corner.73

“Why doesn’t that doll have a left arm?” she asked curiously.74

“I ate it off when I was small. It was my favorite lollipop doll. Cherry flavored.”75

The teenager was starting to like Isabella more and more. It seemed like they shared the same brainwaves. 76

A while later Jessie’s half plate was almost emptied of all of its contents. All that was left was the odd blue cookie that she had picked up. She slowly took a bite, chewed it, and swallowed it. The cookie seemed to stick in her throat.77

She threw the rest of the cookie down on her plate which caused everyone to look at her.78

“What was in that cookie?!” the angry teenager choked out. She was wheezing now and she felt as if a large bag of bricks was repeatedly being thrown onto her chest. Her lungs were burning for air.79

“Blue grass of course. Didn’t you read the sign?” The Queen looked at her evilly. Roscoe was chuckling mysteriously.80

The whole dream seemed like it had suddenly turned into a nightmare.81

“You guys wanted this to happen?” Jessie was in tears. Not only because of her breathing difficulties, but because her “friends” had betrayed her.82

“Of course! Isn’t it obvious? This is the funniest thing we’ve seen in a long time. You should see the shade of purple your face is turning.” Roscoe said while laughing at her.83

“Aren’t you guys my friends?” Jessie felt lightheaded and could feel herself beginning to pass out.84

“We were never your friends. Why would you think that? We gave you candy. Wow, we’re really close now!” Roscoe chuckled creepily. His face, along with Isabella’s, was starting to become demented. They looked like monsters out of a horror film.85

Jessie saw them start to surround her before she slipped into unconsciousness.86

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Jessie awoke slowly. She didn’t want to open her eyes and confront another day of school. Trying to find a comfortable position, she attempted to pull her blankets over her head. Frantically she searched around her legs for the warmth of her turquoise bedspread. She found it by her toes.88

Suddenly she remembered her dream. 89

She opened her eyes and found her auburn hair knotted around her neck, which was making it difficult for her to breathe. She quickly untangled it.90

Jessie sat up and looked around her room. She thought about what had happened to her the day before.91

She remembered having a major headache and deciding to lay down on the grass because it was semi-cold. At that time it was around 3 in the afternoon.92

The female looked at her glow-in-the-dark watch and was shocked at what time it was. 8:05 on the same night. She could hear the low mumble of her parents talking downstairs. Jessie knew that she would be safe if they were around. She drifted off to sleep once again, unafraid of the evil things that might have confronted her in her dreams. 93