The Haunted Candy Shoppe

Chapter 7- Red Dragon

We walked slowly but surely. The sun was barely reaching its peak and the wind was cooling off the molten caramel, so since I was covered in the dang stuff, it became harder and harder to walk. My shoes were sticking to the sidewalk as I walked and they were becoming harder to pry off of the ground. I gave up on my shoes and walked barefoot from there.

The air was starting to smell spicy. Not spicy like chili pepper spicy. Spicy like I put too much cinnamon in the pie. The caramel on my jacket was starting to crystallize, so I took it off. Once I did, I felt small particles scraping my skin as they flew by. The wind began to pick up.

Every time I inhaled, my nose burned. Eva started coughing not too long after that. This may or may not be a bad time to bring up that Eva has asthma. If she stayed out here, I don't know what would happen. I had to get her out of this wind.

Fast.

"Eva, can you try walking a little faster?" In the midst of her coughing, she was able to nod in reply. I know this was probably not a good idea, but we started making our way to Julia's house. It would be at least three minutes shorter to get there. The wind got a lot stronger. The air was so thick that it now appeared red. I knew exactly what was in the wind. I had encountered it during a truth or dare session with the girls.

Cinnamon.

I had done the cinnamon challenge and I had almost died. It burned then and now. Only now it was getting in my eyes and that wasn't any less painful than the lungs, which it was also making its way into. We were approaching Julia's block. It was too hard to see through the haze so I just followed my memory and hoped that it would be enough. I told Eva to put my jacket over her nose to try and keep the cinnamon out of it. It kind of helped. Kind of.

It felt like we had been walking for years when I could finally make out the outline of Julia's house. I desperately hoped that someone was home. I was starting to hack up cinnamon, which wasn't pleasant at all. It burnt. It felt like I was coughing up fire in the form of a red, gritty paste.

I felt my legs turn into jello because I was unable to get any oxygen. I knew they would give out any minute. Trying to walk against the strong wind was really draining them. In addition to my legs getting weaker and weaker, my eyes got watery from all of the powder getting in there. I also felt my nose running and the stuff dripping down my face.

I tried to shade my face with my bare arm to see as far forward as I could. Julia's porch was right there, about ten feet in front of us. The hope of finally being able to get out of this mess drove me to walk a bit faster.

That was a big mistake.

My legs gave out and I collapsed onto the hard, cold sidewalk. My brain was frantically tell my legs to stand up and hurry, but they wouldn't listen. Eva screamed into my jacket, not wanting to take it off of her nose. Black and red spots formed in my vision and Eva's muffled screaming grew faint. I then felt something on my side. It pulled me upright and dragged me to the porch.

I then felt the vibration of something banging on a door. I assumed that it was Eva trying to get in to the house. I then heard a small growl. I felt sharp stings in my toes as if something was gnawing on them.

All I could do lay there limply.