Sweet Nightmares: A Monstrous Beginning

Mint: Popsicles And Chocolate [Chapter Ten]

Alice took the lead up the path first, which made me feel a lot better. 

 Walking behind her, I could see what she was doing. I wanted to trust her, I felt like I should, but I just couldn't.

  How can I trust someone who won't tell me the truth about themselves? 

 The way she avoids talking about her past, she's obviously hiding something. 

 My eyes moved to Caramel, tightly bound to the killer but it looked like she was still breathing. As long as she was safe. 

Cocoa suddenly slipped on some water along the path and I quickly grabbed his arm. He smiled softly in thanks. 

 Alice suddenly stopped. "Wait." She whispered and began to look around. 

The killer looked back in our direction with a frown. "Something isn't right."

 I tilt my head questioningly when she faced forward again and lowered her body more to the ground. "This cave feels a little small for a yeti."

"Maybe it's a b-baby?" Cocoa suggested aloud. Alice responded in a hum and gestured for us to be quiet, as if we didn't already know. 

I know what I saw. A monster, a big one. 

She continued the climb up the path where the ice became brighter. Drops of water slid down the walls ever so gently where they pooled at the ground. I could feel a chilly breeze up ahead, telling me the exit wasn't far now. 

The path widened out into a large room, as big as a ballroom. 

 And the very top of the cave seemed to go so far up, it was hard to imagine so much of the mountain was hollowed out like this. We must be right under the summit. 

 The exit was right up ahead, I was ready to run right for it when a pull on my sleeve stopped me first.

 Cocoa pointed right, and I followed his gaze where a small, odd looking grey ball sat in the corner.

 What... Was that?

We all found ourselves staring at the thing until two ruby red eyes shot open. 

 We flinched, but it didn't move. 

 It blinked. Once, twice, and then two small arms crawled out of the fur. 

 Following after were two feet with three small toes each. 

"Wh-"

 Before I could ask what it was, Alice had wrapped her hand around my mouth. 

 It can't be anything good then. 

"Slowly... Back away towards the exit." She whispered in my ear and began to lead us away. 

"Can't you fight it?"

"Not while holding her." She nodded to Caramel.

 The small ball of fur struggled to its feet before slowly inching closer to us. 

 This was...

 I had no idea. 

Suddenly it stopped, its red eyes twinkling with fury. 

It opened a mouth that had been hidden beneath its fur before letting out a roar. 

 It was like a windstorm, I could barely stay on my feet. The smell of blood was on its breath. It sounded like an explosion, or the roar of a dragon for such a tiny creature. 

 I had to turn my head away.

When it had finally stopped roaring and I looked back, the tiny ball stood in front of me as a massive monster, almost as big as a building. 

Yup.

 That's what I saw earlier. 

Empty, soulless voids of eyes, and a gaping mouth, drooped so low of its face, you'd think it was broken. They way its horns curved under its ears reminded me of mammoth or elephant tusks. And so thin, so thin like its never eaten. I could see the ribs, even under the thick coat of fur it dawned.

 It stood before us like a statue, and in return we stood still as well. It was silent, I could only hold my breath. 

  "You think it s-saw us?" Cocoa suggested, filling the silent air. Alice merely let out a single "Ha!" behind me. 

  Well, it couldn't see well, right? It knew we were here though, that's for sure. 

The monster took one step forward, shaking the cave when it did. 

"Time to run." Alice suddenly went for the exit only to be blocked when it slammed its arm down before her, as big as a tree. 

The monster roared again, sending Alice flying back. 

I almost called out to protect Caramel but when she hit the ground once more, I spotted her long arms holding her, as if her tendrils weren't already doing that too. 

  I guess... Maybe she really does want to protect her. I'll leave it to Alice then. 

  The yeti stomped towards the killer and I did the only thing I could think of doing at that moment. 

"Hey!" My voice echoed around the cave, stopping the monster in its tracks. 

  It turned to face me with its sharp red eyes, jaw swinging open.

 Turning away from Alice, she took the chance to run for the exit and vanished to the outside light. 

The Yeti made a grunting noise and rose its paw. Before it had the chance to bring it down onto Cocoa and me, I rose my arms and turned away. Perhaps it was instinct or stupidity, but when I felt the impact on my tentacles, I felt no pain. 

"Mint!" The hybrid yelled in surprise. As I looked up, I had managed to wrap the Yeti's arm, stopping where he stood. The monster tried to pull away but I couldn't let it happen. 

 I pulled back in the opposite direction, suddenly feeling angry. I feel it... This anger that most octokin used to be cruel to others, the one that I suppressed long ago. I felt so strong!

The Yeti lost its footing and before it had a chance to fall on us, I released his arm and pulled Cocoa with me. 

 It hit the ice with a booming thud, and that's when I felt it. Something was crumbling, and then I remembered...

  "We uh... Didn't put out the fire, did we?" I looked to Cocoa who shook his head. 

 The heat must have been slowly melting the already thin ice. That explains why the path up here was dripping so much. That fall probably sped up the cave's collapse though. 

 "We really need to go." I urged the boy towards the exit where he stumbled with walking but left as quick as he could. The walls around me began to c***k, the mountain itself seemed to be shaking. I turned to follow him out when something grabbed my pants, throwing me to the ground. I looked back to see the monster had hooked a claw to my shorts. It seemed to be grinning, but I must have been seeing it wrong. 

"The demons!" It roared out. "They want you!"

  A chunk of ice fell from the ceiling, and I could only see the shadow of it on the ground before it slammed down on the Yeti's hand. It let out a shrill cry, releasing my leg, but it was already starting to climb back to its feet again. 

 "Mint!" A familiar voice called out behind me. I looked back to the exit where Alice rode one of the dires, arm outstretched. "We need to go right now!" 

 It was hard to hear over the noise of the cave coming down, but I didn't need to be told twice. Just then, the Yeti charged at me, and without thinking, I shot my arms out and slammed them against the side of its body. Like paper, the monster was flung back into the cave. 

 What... What did I just do? 

  I looked down to my arms, back to their normal size again. Was this the distortion perhaps?

 I heard the calling again and decided it would be better to think about that later. I hurried out of the crumbling cave and took Alice's hand. She pulled me up to her wolf to sit behind her, and the group of dires took off into the skies. I only looked back once, seeing the Yeti trying to crawl out of the cave exit before a block of ice fell onto its head. 

  I had to flinch and look away from the gory sight, but it was hard to feel sorry for it.

 The cave's collapse caused an avalanche, and the last thing I could see was the snow rolling down the mountain as if it were painting the world white. The entire mountain was hidden beneath the cold earth, and with it, the Yeti.

 I heard laughing and rose my eyes to Alice. "That was amazing, Lollipop! Where'd you get that strength!?"

"I-" I looked down to my hands again. "I don't know. I didn't even know I could do that. Am I being distorted?"

 "The distortion only alters you physically." She turned around to face me. "It doesn't give you super strength. Whatever you did, you already could."

 I didn't know how to take this information. How am I supposed to even react to that? 

 I've never been all that strong before and suddenly I have super strength? 

  "Where ar-are we going now?" Cocoa asked.

 "Right to the labyrinth!" One of the wolves barked. 

 Suddenly, I recalled something. "Alice?"

 The killer hummed questioningly. 

 "About this expert. The 'night prince', As the dires called him before. "Will he be wanting the demon's reward too? Even the Yeti knew about it, how many of them are hunting us? What if he doesn't want to help Cocoa? What if-"

"Calm down." She interrupted me quickly. "I trust him." She looked back, offering a small smile. "He's not going to sell us out."

 How much is her trust worth? No, I couldn't think like that. She's proven she could be trusted, right?

 I exhaled and matched her eyes again. "I'm sorry." I started. She looked confused, going to ask what I was talking about, but I didn't want her to interrupt me again. "For calling you a monster and a killer. I wasn't thinking straight, I don't know what I was doing. I hope you'll forgive me."

 Her shoulders drooped and she reached around to set her hand on my head, keeping her claws from touching me. 

"Love makes you do crazy things." Her voice lowered. "You love your friend, nobody can fault you for that."

  I felt a little more relaxed but still bothered. I wanted to say Alice was my friend too, but I couldn't speak the words.

 My body suddenly urged a yawn, which she apparently heard and chuckled at. "Go to sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there."

 Well, how could I complain about that? When we land, I'll make sure Caramel is warm, we'll find the expert, get to the demon castle, go home, and all this would be over. I rested against Alice's back and closed my eyes. 

 "Hey?" I started.

 She hummed once more, urging me on.

 "Have you ever heard about a manticore?"

 "Nope."

"It has the head of a human and body of a lion." I felt myself starting to drift off but wanted to finish anyway. "In some stories, it has the tail of a scorpion or tusks too..." 

With sleep pulling on my body, I found myself too tired to continue talking about it before everything went black. 

... The next thing I felt was soft nudging.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a white face in front of me. Cocoa smiled and took a step back, giving me room to sit up. I found myself lying on the back of one of the dires who also seemed to be sleeping. 

 Good... Giant evil flying dog.

 "Where's Alice?" Even as I rubbed my head, I couldn't shake the groggy feeling. Wasn't she supposed to wake me up though?

Cocoa pointed out behind me, and I followed his gesture to a small crackling fire in front of the large hedge maze entrance. 

I could see Caramel laying beside it, softly breathing. Alice sat next to her, watching her intently. 

 She really cared about Caramel, huh? 

 As carefully as I could, I pulled myself off the back of the dire without waking him up and made my way over. Alice rose her large eyes to match mine when I approached. She didn't smile, but I think she was happy? It was hard to tell.

 "How's she doing?" I nodded to my friend before making my way around the fire and kneeling next to her.  

 The killer shrugged, putting her hands out to warm by the fire. "Better. She was in pretty bad shape, you did help her though. Warming her up in that cave gave her a fighting chance."

Pulling my eyes away from my friend, I examined Alice, but her interest didn't waver from the fire. The bright flames flickered across her face softly. Alice... Was like an enigma.

 It was silent, yet I felt like the world around us could have been screaming.

She didn't have to say that, not to me. I know I messed up. As softly as I could, I reached out and pressed my hand to Caramel's cheek. Warm. She was getting better. Once I saw for myself, I felt like I could finally calm down. I moved around the fire and sat on the opposing side to have both girls in my sight. 

Still, Alice didn't pull her eyes away from the flames. I noticed a twitch upon her lips as if she were aware I was watching. 

 My curiosity set in and I looked back to see Cocoa comfortably nestled into one of the dires, fast asleep. Once we were in good condition to enter the labyrinth, they'd probably take off. I didn't want to tell him and ruin that though, he seemed to be close to the wolves. 

 My attention moved back to the killer, and she suddenly let out a sigh. "I'm guessing you want to say something?"

 How did she know? There was so much I wanted to ask, but how would I do that without bothering her? I cleared my throat, trying to find my words. 

 "If I'm going to trust you, I need to know more about you." Yeah, that was a good starter. I just hoped it didn't come across as though I were scared, because I was without question. 

  Alice rubbed her hands together before facing them towards the fire. Something in her eyes flashed and it was all too obvious to see she was upset. After a drawn-out silence, she looked up to match my gaze. 

 "Ask." Her usually monotone voice ushered. 

I pulled my knees up to my chest in small attempts to get warm. What should I ask first? Something that wouldn't upset her, probably. 

 I drifted back to looking at Caramel, and it reoccurred to me how she had been protecting her. Yeah... That's something I want to know.

 "Why are you helping us? You could've killed us the moment you saw us walk up to your cave. We left, and you found us and saved our lives. What changed?"

Alice tensed up before exhaling, closing her eyes calmly. I didn't know what answer I was expecting when she opened her mouth, but what came next wasn't it. 

"For too long I have been surrounded in blood, and death, and murder. You were right... I was spending my life getting drunk and trying to drown my pain. And what luck it was... To see surviving otherworlders wanting to go home. I plan to follow you." She paused to pick a stick off the ground beside her and toss it in the fire, causing small embers to fly out. The stick cracked as it burned. "Even if your world at the moment is hell, it has to be better than here, where everyone is tearing each other apart."

"You want to go to our world?" I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. Even earlier she said she would rather be here, so why the change? I understood how she felt, but just looking at her, I couldn't imagine it well. She was, well, a monster. But I guess... So were we. 

 I readied myself for the next question, though I felt unsure about asking it until it left my mouth. 

"Who were you? How did the demons find you?"

 I had expected her to get mad, or clamp up and go silent, but she instead released an airy chuckle. "It was so long ago. They caused my family's car to verge off a mountain path. After they died, I was left injured. One of the demons posed as a doctor for my treatment, and when I was knocked out, they killed the doctors and did the surgery on me themselves." She tapped at her open body, the long claw making a hollow noise against one of the pipes. "Then dragged me down to this world before I woke up. What would you do... Waking up from an operation that would have made you whole again, to instead find a room smelling and looking of death?" She raised an eyebrow as she locked her eyes on me. How could I imagine something like that? Dead bodies, blood, that scent... I only returned a shrug. Could anyone really know exactly what they'd do until it happens?

 Alice chuckled again and shook her head softly as she turned back to the fire. "The demon castle can alter its appearance as it pleases. And for me, it pretended to be the hospital. When I found the exit, I was already here with no way to go back. You see... The worlds have rules, and once I left that castle, I couldn't go home."

 Rules? I tilted my head to question it, but Alice fell quiet. What rules? How could she just go quiet like that? There's so much more I needed to know. 

 She reached for another stick. I expected it to be thrown into the fire but she began to sketch something in the dirt. I crawled over next to her to see what it was. It looked to be three ovals, stacked on top of each other. She pointed to the one on the bottom. "This would be our world." She explained slowly, then moved the stick back up to the middle one. "The human world is above ours. That makes traveling between the two a little bit easier, but regular monsters can't enter the man-made portals. Perhaps if they still had a sense of being human. Go inside... And..." She crossed an X over the oval. "Incompatibility. You would die. Very strong monsters can handle the pressure though, such as the unicorn and chimera, as you've heard. But even then, the rules are hazy. Big enough portal, stability to carry long distances, you know?"

 I nodded at her explanation. It was a little confusing, but I felt like I could get it. 

A soft smile crossed her face and she looked back to the drawing. "Now, between our two worlds, they follow a different set of rules. You were able to come through for two reasons." She dragged a line through the top and bottom oval. "One, you're compatible with the magic portals there, having been born there. And two, there's the falling method. You don't need a second portal here because you were simply dropped, like dropping a rock." She drew a second line outside the shapes, skipping the middle oval as she connected the two. "Now imagine the portals like hands. One hand can release you, and you would fall. That would be your world to ours. But without a portal opening over there as well as here, it would be throwing the ball up, and expecting it to stay in the air without someone to catch it. It simply wouldn't work. Between the human world and the dark world, it's similar to walking up some stairs, thanks to the worlds being so close together."

 "So we'd need a magic portal open in our world too?" I examined the drawing as much as I could. Yeah, I'm starting to understand. 

 The killer nodded and sighed, setting the stick down once more. "Yes, and only the demons can open magic portals. Once we get there, I can send you three up first. You open the portal, and I can follow. Is that a deal?"

 Of course, we'd open one, and bring Alice with us. Easy. But then something doesn't add up. 

 "How would we get through if you can't?"

 The girl looked up the sky, smiling as she did. "Remember when I talked about the compatibility? It makes you lighter, with a better chance of holding a single portal to get there. If I went through without a second one to grab me, it would be like throwing a brick. I'd fall right back down and die. Do you promise me?"

"Promise?" 

 The killer sighed, lowering her head once more. She looked solemn and sad just then. "Promise me you'll open that portal and bring me with you."

 I examined her face and small features. The soft breeze ruffled her dark brown hair, and the fire reflected in her glass eyes. 

"I promise." I finally concluded. Though if only demons can open magic portals, I may have to... Steal one of those balls the mayor has. 

 She was a monster, and so were we, it wasn't her fault she was in the accident or fell to the demons, she just wanted to be happy, who could fault that? Plus she's shown she could be trustworthy plenty. 

It was hard to tell, but I think her face lit up with joy. 

Suddenly there was a rustling noise and my attention shot to Caramel. She shifted where she lay and made a noise that sounded like a whine.

 I didn't waste a moment in hurrying to my feet and rushing to her side. I watched every moment she made before setting my hand on her shoulder. "Hey, time to wake up." I tried to keep my voice clear but I'm fairly sure it cracked. I couldn't care a less about that though. She was going to be okay. My best friend was going to be okay. 

 The small slime opened her green eyes that seemed both happy and tired. I can imagine how tired she would still be after such a temperature drop.

A smile spread over her face before she giggled. "Good morning!"