Not So Sweet Candyland

XV: Happy Birthday

A few weeks of training pushed Berry into a very bad mood. Chase, on the other hand was pumped and with constant training, he passed all of Berry's emergency drills with flying colors. From reflexes to lie readings, Berry taught him everything.

Berry was more exhausting than ever and seemed to have come down with a cold. Or, she was in a very bad state of mind.

It was June 28th, and Berry was bedridden and not out of bed during her usual time. Chase was right outside her door when one of the roommates stopped Chase from entering.

"Don't go in there, she's not feeling well."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

When one of the roommates left, Chase went to try and open the door, but the door was locked.

That's when Chase decided to go outside and he decided to go around town by him self.

The town without Berry seemed a whole lot scarier, because he didn't know his way as well and he saw all of the buildings around that had little to no changes in exterior other than height or width, the smell of cinnamon and smoke flew the air. Everybody looked depressed and scary, and when Chase passed by groups, he was scared that they were going to beat up the life out of him.

There were many more different stores and Chase decided that he wanted to learn his way around.

Burnt Charcoal Market
Rags Laundromat
BUTCHERSON
Shop Pawn
Licorice City School for Misfit Shits
The Clothing Suitcase
THE BLACK MARKET
Post my Office Letter to Everyone

And many more.

He made a little map out of scrap paper with every place and then he stopped right in front of what looked like a bakery.

Black Hearted Bakery

He heard something about it being Berry's birthday and he decided to step in the shop. The bakery was dead, and the only person there looked like he should've been in a butcher stop because he was cutting dough with a butcher's knife.

"What can I do for you?" His eyes were focused on Chase intensely and Chase was so scared that he nearly pissed himself.

"Do you by any chance know a girl named Berry- oh shit, I mean Vanessa?"

"Of course I do, everybody and their mother in licorice city knows who Vanessa is, she practically raised Licorice City and improved on it by a lot and stopped making us all miserable people."

The butcher baker looked at Chase.

"Why are you asking?"

"Is it true that today is her birthday?"

He stopped cutting the dough.

"It is, but it's always a sad day for her."

"Why?"

"Because I do not think that she told you this, but that was the day that her mother promised to come back and get Berry back. It failed because the portal was sealed and Marissa, her mother could not get in, and Berry waited and waited as waited, and she never showed up. That's when she tried to make a teleportation elixir, and it makes her sick and/or depressed on her birthday. But, I won't be surprised if she is both today."

"Do you have something for her?"

"I do, actually."

He went from behind the counter and put on the counter a chocolate blueberry muffin with a black candle in it.

"Here are some matches. Don't burn yourself or her. If you do, you're in big trouble mister."

"I won't, sir."

Chase took the large muffin and he went out into the streets, hoping that nobody would ask for a piece of the muffin.

"Berry? Vanessa? Where are you?" He called out into the streets of empty people.

That's when he found somebody, under a collection of wood blocks and snuggled in between 2 buildings. He came closer and realized it was Vanessa. He took a deep breath and started to sing.

" happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Vanessa. Happy birthday to you."

His singing voice was soft and soothing, and Berry looked at him with tears in her eyes.

She looked at the burning candle flame and she blew the candle out.

"How did you know that today was my birthday?"

"I asked somebody at the bakery. They gave me a muffin."

"Chocolate blueberry?" She asked.

"Yep."

That's when she took the muffin, and started eating it. Berry looked very out of it, and instead of looking tough and having a bit of a bitch face, she seemed like she had no energy and she looked sad. Her nose started to run and that's when after she finished her muffin, she blew her nose into a tissue, threw the tissue away, and hugged Chase.

"Thank you. That was what I needed all day. You're not as bad of an idiot as I thought. At least you have a caring side."

"I would never forget about anybody's birthday, and I think of you as a mentor and friend."

Berry looked away.

"I guess they told you how I got sick? And how I get sick every year on my birthday?"

"Yeah."

"Well, in Candyland, the only way to get diseases is by messing up elixirs. I tried to make a teleportation elixir so that mom didn't have to get me, but it backfired horribly and I get sick every June 28th or depressed even."

"So many things here that don't make sense and some things do."

"Hey, maybe when we get to your world, you can teach me some reverse logic on your place."

"You're more than ready for America."

"You really think so?"

" hey, when we go on the next part of our adventure, whether eventual quarantine is over, I think we could do it I think we could go around and around and around seven times and it still be impressed by how much you could do because you know what you're doing and you're a good teacher although you can be a little bit moody at times."

Berry laughed.

And that's when they hugged each other again.