Sweet Dreams

Chapter Eight: House of Misfits

"You're.. Huh?" I sputtered, wide eyed at Fudge. "What?"

"Did I stutter? Did you not hear? I'm the ruler of this pathetic excuse for a world! But it won't be much more pathetic as long as I'm in charge. Quit looking at me like that." Fudge snapped. As soon as his words hit me, I realized I had been goggling at him like a fool and rubbed my dry eyes.

"Word." Luna said. "Candy sucked as a ruler, there's no way you could be any worse."

"Hold up, you can't just decide all of a sudden that YOU'RE the ruler just cuz Candy's gone! If that's the case then I guess I'm the ruler too! This is stupid!" I cried.

"For once, I agree with the boy." came the unfamiliar voice of a girl. I turned to see her, with pinkish orange and pale yellow curls in her hair, and red gloves and boots. She glared at Fudge and fumed "Nobody voted for you! Nobody agreed to this! Why do you think, Mister Fredrick, that you can just strut on in here and make some rambly announcement about.. How... Oh, you're terrible, Fudge! If anybody should be the ruler during Candy's absence, it should be me!"

"Oh please." Fudge shook his head. "Little Lola Lollipop trying to put an entire world into order? No no, I don't think so."

"Well I'd be better at it than you!" Lola spat. "What makes you think that you'd be so great at it?"

"Hm, I suppose that for starters, you can say I'm heir to the 'throne'." Fudge said, making air quotes with his fingers. "I am, after all, Candy's brother."

Lola hesitated before she practically screamed, "That doesn't make you a good leader, Fudge!"

"Of course not, if anything I think it'd be safe to assume that any relation with Candy would make one a worse leader. But with that relationship comes a great power." Fudge shifted his mask out of the way of his pale pink and blue spiraled eyes that were nearly identical to Candy's. "A power I'm sure nobody else here can compare to. Besides, Candy is far too young to try to do something like this, unlike me."
"And I don't suppose you're that much older." Lola squinted her eyes, and I noticed that the whites of her eyes looked a little yellow.

"Candy's 16. I'm 22. I think that's a good age gap, don't you?" Replied Fudge.

Luna, instead of saying anything relevant, stared wide eyed at Fudge's now exposed face. Afraid she might find him attractive, I was pleasantly surprised to some extent when she gasped, "You look just like Kyle!"
"Huh?" I said.

"What?" Lola said, folding her arms. "You're an idiot, Luna. I think he looks exactly like his sister, wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh, I'm the idiot here now?" Luna scoffed. "At least I'm not freaking blind."

"Ladies, please." Fudge said, refusing to wipe that smirk off his face. "You're both correct, there's no need to fuss about it."

"Wait, huh? I don't think you look like me at all! Or your.... Sister." I said, studying Fudge's face.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." Fudge said, talking right through his toothy grin like a ventriloquist. It was a tactic I was sure I had seen Candy pull off before. "It all depends on perspective. Name your type and I'll look the part."

"Dishonest, narcissistic, and insecure." Lola muttered, shaking her head.
"Insecure?" Fudge chuckled. "My dear, I'm anything but that. Sure, I alter my appearance due to what others define as beautiful, but there's a good reason that has absolutely nothing to do with my feelings."

"And that is?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Well, I always knew that I'd be the perfect leader for this world." Fudge explained. "And let's be honest, don't even try to deny it- we judge others by their appearances, whether we like it or not. We really do. When you watch a cartoon for example, who do you expect to be the bad guy, the innocent looking little girl in her red hoodie, or the fanged, grey, mangy wolf?"