Sour Candy

Recoveries and revelations

I finish  the sweeping movements of the tail feathers and move onto the talons. I've never had a knack for drawing but this raven's going good. But now the talons look like fingers. He could be sitting on someone's hand. I draw an arm, some fangs, long, black hair, feet not quite touching the ground...I sigh. Somehow all my drawings end in Marceline Abadeer. How she looked destroying the Vampire King. Her long hair flowing as she flies at night. Her eyes full of excitement when she plays in the Scream Queens.

It's been three days since the break-up. My hair's nothing but a glob of gum, My clothes are the same dirt-smeared ones I wore in the tree and I haven't washed. Peppermint Butler brings me food but I hardly eat. Finn and Jake come to visit but I hardly talk. BMO tries to entertain me but I hardly laugh. I feel gone.

I toss the raven drawing over my shoulders, joining the twenty plus others. I sigh again and listen to the mutterings outside my door. Always muttering...I can't think...haven't thought...don't want to talk...don't want to think...

"Does she know?"

"I don't think so...she was in the Candy Tree..."

"But she must suspect...tell me again how she acted." I vaguely realize it's Pepper and Finn.

"Yeah, it was like she was a new person as soon as I said Bonnie."

My head snaps up and I dive for the door. Wrenching it open, I almost shout, "Say that again!" 

Finn cowers and says, nearly whispering, "It was like she was a new person as soon as I said Bonnie?"

"Yes...yes!" I laugh and sprint into my lab, Peppermint Butler and Finn worriedly following behind. I haul myself into my lab and grab the jar that still contained the electronic goo. As much as it hurt me, I tried to remember and sing Marceline's most recent ballad;

"Umm...You're kind of a dictator in a way/ I should say... umm...I'm so glad that I woke up/ I'm sick of living under your thumb..." I stop, my heart racing like I just ran a marathon. The goo pulses brighter than before and seems to act happy. Then, in a robotic voice, it sings the next lines;

"I'm so glad that I woke up/ I don't really care about your stupid candy kingdom. I-" I smash it, electronic sparks flying everywhere. I can't hear that song again. Finn and Peppermint Butler just watch, dumbfounded.

"So...that wasn't Marceline?" Finn asks, rubbing his neck.

 "No," I say, panting, "it was this." I kick the pathetic mound of goo on the floor. Then, "Get Jake. And your sharpest weapons. We're going to battle."