Candies in Wonderland

- Chapter 2 -

"... What the hell..?" I narrowed my eyes as I stared at her.

"You surprised?" She asked, her tone sounding almost mocking. "Well, well, well! Don't be, friendo!" She wrapped her arm around me, and I just got slightly more uncomfortable.

"You see," she said, beginning to walk me down the path. I could feel my ankle beginning to hurt even more with her forceful assistance. "As the Candy Wonderland mascot, (assigned by the hard candy leader without my consent...) I'm here to assist you on your journey though this wonderful sweet (and horrible) wonderland of ours! My name's Smarties, by the way." She suddenly stopped in front of me, holding out a hand for me to shake.

"Thanks, but..." I politely denied her handshake by pushing her hand away. "My main priority is to get help... and you.. don't seem like the very, uh, 'helpful' type."

Smarties blinked. "Not questioning my name is certainly a first," she said as she stared at me. An awkward silence followed.

"Okay, I have more important priorities," I said suddenly, breaking the silence. "I need to... ow.." I tried to limp away, but it seemed that I dropped the licorice stick behind me. I turned, going to grab it. But before I could, a pale rainbow accented hand grabbed it for me.

"You want this?" She asked, beginning to play with the stick by tossing it up and down.

"Yes," I said, trying to grab it. "I need it. Give it bacK-!?" Smarties suddenly moved backwards, causing me to fall into my face. I let out another groan of pain, lifting my head from the gummy to see my blood dripping onto the floor, and the taste of iron flood into my mouth.

I spat out blood, realizing I had managed to bite off a chunk of my tongue from the fall. Isn't that just great. I tried to steady myself enough to stand, but strength had seemed to leave my body entirely.

"Hmmm," Smarties looked down at me, and I looked up to her face. "I dunnooo... I would help you, but as you said! I'm not the most helpful person!"

I groaned loudly. "FINE! I'll accept your tour... thing... whatever this is. Just... help me, goddamn it!"

"Alright, alright, (moron...)" she held out a hand and I took it clumsily, stumbling my way onto my feet. Smarties handed the stick to me, and then wiped her finger over my bottom jaw, licking the blood that came on it.

"Oh.. so you are human! Okay, I can work with this." Smarties then started skipping her way down the path while I followed, slightly confused at the "human" comment.

"What do you mean, 'human'?" I asked her as she skipped along.

"I meaaan," she said, turning around and somehow managing to skip backwards. "You're a human, aren't you? Last time I checked, a candy didn't have greasy brown hair or looked like a homeless person! (Despite what it may seem, anyway...)"

"Candy?" I raised an eyebrow, "Last time I checked, people weren't made of candy."

"It's in the name, stranger!" She turned back around. This time I wasn't quite able to hear her mumble an insult.

"Eden," I corrected, "my name is Eden."

"Yeah, you look like an Eden, too."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked her, narrowing my eyes. I was beginning to get quite sick of her attitude.

"Nothing important!" She said suddenly, "GOD, can't you just ask NORMAL questions like a NORMAL human?!"