Oh! It’s so beautiful! The wonderful rides as they spin around! The bright colors popping from every corner! The beautiful music that is pouring into my ears! All of these beautiful sensations are just flooding into my mind! Oh. How I’ve dreamt that this day would arrive. After years of mistreatment by mother, I finally have my wish. It was all thanks to my friend Krim, and the plan was so simple.
Mother was always so terrible around the house. While father was off on business trips, she would invite other men to our home and perform strange acts with them. I hated how distant she had become with me and with Father. He sent us a telegram before asking how mother and I were, but she lied to him and said that everything was fine. Our servant, Alfonso did his best to cheer me up, but Mother would drown herself in drink succumb to her sorrow. Her sorrow would often turn to fits of rage and she would unleash her rage upon our home and upon me. Alfonso always stood there as a friend to me and protected me from her at times, always there to clean up the mess she made after she had fallen back into sorrow.
Alfonso was a good friend, but not the one I needed. I needed a friend who would be able to show me fun and help me find the joys in life. That’s when I one day met my wonderful friend Candied Krim! Mother had thrown another fit of rage earlier in the day and was alone in her bedroom. I sat outside in our large garden and noticed a candy-colored boy walking by my home in the nearby fields. I called him over to see if he would talk to me. “Hey! You there! Can I talk to you?” The figure lifted up its head and looked over towards me. This boy was the strangest one I had ever seen in my entire life.
His entire body was covered in some striped red and pink colors, almost like his entire body was made of candy, including parts of his clothing. But what stood out to me besides just his candy body was his piercing green eyes, that shone bright like the most beautiful emeralds that my father brought home as a gift to my mother once. He looked like he had been walking for awhile, so I called Alfonso to the garden so he would hopefully bring this boy some water, but Alfonso never arrived, so I went inside. I went to the cupboard to fetch this boy a glass of water. I went back outside to the water faucet to begin pouring the glass, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the boy in the garden, smelling the roses and orchids in my mother’s garden, taking in deep breaths and truly smelling their fragrance. I came over to him with a glass of water in my hand. He was much larger than me and somewhat felt a bit threatening, holding more authority than my mother ever cared to offer me. “Here is some water to quench your thirst.”
His voice spoke with a sickening sweetness, almost forcibly sweet, “Thank you.” He happily sat down on the ground and began to drink the large glass of water. He drank with a force that would make any other person who watched him feel thirsty as well. “Is there anymore?”
I nodded yes and took the glass back as he handed it to me so that I could go and refill it once more at the fountain. He followed me to the drinking fountain and watched as I pull the lever and pumped him out some more water. I quickly pumped to have it out as quickly as possible. I handed the glass back to him and watched him drink the entire glass again, but he showed a slight bit more restraint this time. “I appreciate your kindness.” He then showed me a grin of gratitude that both seemed pleasant and sent a large chill down my spine as I saw the most wicked and unnerving teeth I had ever seen. His teeth were abnormally perfect.
He spoke to me again with his sweet voice, “You are alone out here? But why? A boy like you must have friends.”
I lowered my head in disappointment. “I am afraid not. Mother does not permit me to have friends, and Alfonso cannot help me find a way to play with any.”
Krim knelt down next to me and locked his bright green eyes in a gaze with mine. “Would you like for me to be your friend? My name is Krim, Candied Krim.”
I could not believe any of what had just occurred. I had finally made a friend and a very special friend at that. One who I could look up to and almost call a brother. Krim would come and visit me in the garden from day to day. Our routine was simple, but one that was very important to both of us. Both Krim and I would meet at 3 o’clock sharp in the garden. I would prepare him some water, and we would both sit in the garden and play games. Krim would also share his candy with me every day, his sweet and wonderful hard candy that he would keep in a small satchel in his pocket. His candy was unlike anything I had ever tasted, and every time I had a piece, I craved for more. So we made it a routine for us to meet every day and for us to share the way that we did, almost like true brothers.
One day Krim asked if we could go to the carnival, but I knew my mother wouldn’t allow for me to go on my own, and she had no knowledge of my new friend. “Your mother will not let you go? But it is a wonderful place, full of candy, laughter, and fun beyond your wildest dreams!”
“My mother will not allow me to go, and she will be very cross when she learns about you.”
“Then I will wait for nightfall for us both to go, and you can show me to your mother, I believe she will understand.”
We waited until nightfall came and dusk had nearly passed to ask my mother. My mother was in another one of her fits. I went to ask my mother but was met with a horrible surprise. I went to my mother’s room and came face to face with her lying next to another man. She was enraged by my presence. “Hanz! Leave this room, now!” But before I could make quick enough haste, she chased me down and kicked me in the side and sent me flying against the wall. Her lover came running as well and began to beat me as well.
“Rotten kid. B*****d needs to be taught a lesson.” He stood up above me with his foot raised, ready to lead a final blow, but that was when Krim showed his true, and beautiful colors. Krim rushed in with his large candy blade Exodus, engraved with its name in a deep, crimson red, and toppled mother’s lover to the floor, covering him in blood. Krim looked to me for a response.
“I can end this, all I need is your word, Hanz.”
I looked at my mother, seething with rage and hatred. No love emanated from her eyes, nor remorse. She was a cold and heartless being, with no love or care for anyone. She wanted me to die more than anything her lover could provide her, and that fear drove me to make my decision.
“End it.”
Krim threw out a puff of candy powder from his hand and blinded mother as he went back to work on her lover, who was beginning to stand on his feet. Krim unleashed slash after slash, painful cut after painful cut against the man’s center mass, until he toppled over. Then Krim kneeled over the man and began to drive Exodus deep into the man’s chest and began to hack away at the man’s bleeding chest until the heart was exposed. Krim removed the still beating heart, blood pulsing quickly out of the tough muscle, and he threw it at mother’s blinded face, sending her stumbling backward and falling to the floor. Krim then removed a lollipop from his pocket and placed it in the man’s mouth and turned his focus on to mother. Krim took a special bottle out of his other pocket and began to pour some of it down mother’s throat. “Here is some of Candied Krim’s ‘Special Sour Brew’ of candy pop.” Mother began to convulse and shudder in pain from Krim’s delicious drink and her breaths began to grow weak. As her final breaths grew near, Krim ran out to deal with Alfonso and began to dispatch him like the man who was found with mother. I could hear the screams and cries for help from Alfonso as his bones cracked from Krim’s onslaught. I moved closer to mother and looked into her dying gaze.
Her final breath was painful to hear, but one that reminded me of why she deserved her fate. “I always wanted to die, ever since you were first born.” Mother then closed her eyes and grew stone cold as the footsteps of Krim began to emerge from down the hall as he carried Alfonso’s head with a lollipop in Alfonso’s mouth. In Krim’s other hand, he carried another lollipop that he quintessentially placed in mother’s mouth as well and exclaimed with joy as he had completed his work.
“Ah! At last, you are free to enjoy life with me, Hanz! Together!” I smiled as Krim and I went to go and cleanse Krim of the blood from his body and began our venture towards the carnival. We arrived as the lights had just begun to show at their brightest, illuminating the night sky. We began to run to the entrance and quickly ran inside past the gate and started to run through all of the stands, screaming like wild children, overjoyed to finally be at the carnival. Krim and I first went to go and grab some cotton candy and enjoy our sweet taste of freedom.
Our next venture was to go and play at one of the stands. The stand I wanted to play at was a ball tossing stand, but the owner of the stand blocked every throw that Krim tried to throw at the bottles, desperately trying to knock them over. We were eventually told to leave the stand as Krim was told that he was “not welcome” by the stand holder. After a bitter retreat from the ball throwing stand, we made our next venture was the apple bobbing contest. Both Krim and I entered the contest and did our best to bob for apples. I could only get two in my mouth, while Krim held an impossibly high number of five, having fit all of them inside of his outstretched mouth. Krim had truly won the contest, but he was disqualified by the contest host and told he was “not allowed to compete.” Disheartened, our final venture was to ride the Ferris wheel, which Krim told me would be the most fun I would ever have at a carnival.
“From the top of the Ferris wheel, you can see all the world around you for miles in any direction.” I was overwhelmed with excitement to ride the Ferris wheel and hoped to be able to participate in this venture, but we were both denied at the gate by the carnival owner.
“You two freaks are not allowed here. You need to leave.” Two of the carnies who stood by him threw me out of line and pointed towards the exit. I began to walk away crying. All I wanted was to have fun and taste freedom for once in my life, but I was being denied time and time again. The world truly hated me, and I hated it.
Krim saw the tears that streaked across my saddened face. “I hate to see you sad, Hanz.” His voice turned from one of sweetness to a heated anger, one that wanted to strike vengeance against the carnies. “I can make it all better, all you have to do is tell me to do it.” My pain was cured before by Krim, and after him freeing me once from my torment, I would no longer deny his efforts to help.
“Do It.”
Candied Krim went to work once again and began to stab and throw candy bombs at carnies and rude people alike. “Head to the Ferris wheel and get on, Hanz! You’ll be able to watch everything from up there.” I ran through the gate as Krim brutally stabbed the carnival owner in the neck with Exodus and began to make short work of the carnies. I got in a cart on the Ferris wheel and began to watch the carnival as I ascended into the air. From above I could watch Krim begin to turn the once slightly dim carnival into a beautiful crimson wonderland. The music could be heard from down below and drowned out some of the horrified screams of the carnival staff and people running in fear. From up atop, I could see the beautiful crimson red scene laid out before me. Some people were burned alive, others were slashed open, and others were poisoned by Krim’s lovely treats. As I made my way down my eyes grew locked with his. His gaze towards mine was one that was more animalistic than human and his wicked grin across his face showed his true nature. Exodus was dragging along the metal railing of the Ferris wheel as he made his way towards me, his beautiful bloodlust finally seeming to have been fulfilled.
“May I join you for a ride, Hanz?” He extended his blood drenched hand towards me as if a friendly gesture for me to pull him inside of the cart. I did so and he took the seat across from mine. We made our up above the carnival and Krim let out a loud sigh of relief. “Take a look at the beautiful carnival, Hanz! The scenery below is simply to die for!” After mentioning the scenery, Krim began to wipe Exodus off with a handkerchief and after wiping it off he pulled out a lollipop out of his pocket. His sickening smile and maddening eyes glared into my very soul. “Do you want to have one last bit of fun, Hanz?” I looked nervously at the blade, but I have too much trust in him. He had already given me the tastes of freedom, sweetness, and friendship. Anything that was to happen to me now was all worth it. Krim gave me more than nearly anyone else ever did in my entire life and offered me gifts that I would never forget. In the end, I never regretted anything that Krim did, or what happened next. After all….
It was all too sweet to resist.
