COTTON CANDY

Her one and only true friend have always been her phone. Sticks by her when everyone else leaves. It has everything she could ever need; Films, tv shows and books. She pours her whole soul into her phone. Fully reliant on it to remember when she can’t. Passwords for really important things memorized in the system. She gave her fingerprint away and now it wants to know her face. What more did it need? It even held her friends. She’d never had much luck at keeping friends. She’d ask them “remember when we did this and that” and they always reply “no I think you’re mistaking me for someone else”. Most of them would be offended and end up drifting apart. She tends to be bad at keeping relationships; She prefers to be isolated because of this. She has tons of online friends though. They make her feel fully understood in a world of confusion. Little does she know she’s been talking to bots her whole life. Her online friends and boyfriends have all been fake. She’s thought of this happening but is in full denial of course. It couldn’t possibly happen to her. Not her friends. 

One evening, she spontaneously went on her way to an interactive group workshop she saw an ad for. She knew absolutely no one there. They played a game of never have I ever. “Never have I ever... played spin the bottle” The person next to her reveals. She puts one finger down but doesn’t drink. She thinks it fogs up her memory. She recalls the time in junior high. She spun the bottle and it landed on her crush. Except in this version whoever was chosen had to have 7 minutes in heaven. She went in with him and they just awkwardly stood there for the first few. Then their hands fell in position and their lips with it. She remembers the kiss being wet. It was her first kiss. What’s funny though is that she can’t even remember how she dressed or the details of her crush’s face. After a couple of more games, she said her goodbyes to the group and took a walk to the park. The sun was setting, filling the sky with a wonderful colour palette. She sat on the first bench she saw and pulled out her phone. She wanted to start a new ebook. The summary said it was a composition of various short stories within a single novel, called an anthology. She decided to start from the beginning instead of reading the stories randomly. There must be some significance as to how the stories were placed. She read until she felt something tap her shoulder. It was an average looking man holding cotton candy. “I’m selling cotton candy for cancer. Would you like to buy one for only two dollars? You could have a sample if you’d like,” The man said with a warm smile. She saw his cotton candy machine in the park gazebo surrounded by a few children. “Well, there's no harm in trying a sample for free.” She took a bite of the cotton candy. It tasted authentic, yet, her stomach started to hurt and her eyes felt weary. Before her eyes closed, she felt the man's hands on her. 

She woke up to find herself in a strange location. The man took her phone from his back pocket and lifted her by her hair. “See if anything happens when you scream”, he rips off the duct tape from her mouth. He placed the phone in her face. It unlocked. Even when she was full of tears and bare-faced it identified her. It accepted sorrow without judgement. “Not only are you a kidnapper but you’re a plain ole thief” She scoffed. “Oh, those are just my side jobs, sweetie. This is the real money maker” he pointed to a big machine with wires connecting to two chairs, one on each side. “I’ve recently created a memory/dream machine. I don’t have a name for it now but that’s a problem for once everything’s perfect. Anyways, my creations are going to make me super-rich. I haven’t had the chance to test it out on another person though. That’s where you come in” he went to pick up the headphone gear placed on the chairs. “No, Stay away from me! Stop” she wiggled herself with as much power as she could. But it was of no use. He already held her head between his hands. 

She felt like she was falling. Not fast to her death but as if she was floating somehow. Instantly, she landed on something soft. There in front of her was a castle. It was pure white on the outside. It was built on huge fluffy pink clouds, similar to cotton candy. The pink bushes in front of the castle looked to be extremely edible. As she entered it, she saw a handsome man near the doorway. “I’ve been waiting for you, my lady. What took you so long. My passionate affection for you could not contain itself any longer, ``announced a gorgeous young man. “Sorry, have we met somewhere before, sir?” She questioned. She wouldn’t mind his affection at all, still, his feelings felt misplaced. “Annabelle, did I mean that little to you? Please say at the very least the memories we made are not forgotten, but reminisced. Our love was so divine it made the sea rise in gasps of anticipation and fall in sighs of astonishment!,” He exclaimed thinking far off with his hand on his chest. “I apologize dearly. I must have hit the clouds too hard on my way down. How could I ever forget you, honey? “ she said softly while clasping his cheeks. She had not one idea of what he was talking about, but, his intensity affected her. She hadn’t exactly remembered the last or even the first time she had kissed someone. He seized her waist, pulling her into his arms. From this distance, she could finally admire his facial details. Possibly studying it too hard, she realized the man resembled the kidnapper. The only difference was that his visuals and speech were polished to the nines. A wave of panic came over her and she pried herself out of his arms to run out the door. She looked down from the clouds to see an infinite sky. There was no safe way for her to leave this castle in the sky. “ What happened just now? Why did you act as shook as a leaf once you gazed into my eyes?” The young man said through panted breathes. “A horrible memory came to vision. It was someone who tried to hurt me.” She uttered while looking out into the sky. “You must remember I would do nothing to hurt you, Annabelle. I’m not like your past lovers. Your happiness is the bed I rest on” He put his arm around my waist. “I mistook you for someone else for a moment. I apologize again. Since you care about me so much, could you tell me how you leave this castle” she asked. “I’ve never left it. Never thought to since you’ve shown up. I’d say we could just jump together and take our chances” he said seriously. 

“Not going to happen. I’m really scared of heights” I said, looking down chuckling. “Really? Let’s see” He suddenly stood behind me with his arms pushed out. “What the hell!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, instinctively gripping his shirt hard and taking him along with me. We were falling through the sky together. I was facing him, still tugging his shirt scared straight out of my mind. But he was smiling right in my face. “Are you crazy? What’s wrong with you? We’re about to die because of you!” “Don’t worry. Just trust me.” He spun me around by my shoulders so I’d be facing downwards towards the ground instead of the sky. “This is not helping at all,” I said sternly. I felt a nudge to my back. Immediately, a pink parachute, like the clouds, flew above me. Then, he realized he didn’t take a parachute for himself too. “Holy! I really am crazy” He hurriedly grabs her parachute in panic. All he grabs is handfuls of its fluffy material. He fell faster through the sky now. “No, you can’t die! I didn’t even get your name!” I shouted with both my arms out really wishing my hands were capable of pulling people with some sort of magnetic powers right now. “At least I’ll be dying with my love” he happily ate a piece of the cotton candy and plummeted into the ocean below. 

I saw a gigantic object below me. It looked like a whale. “Oh my god, I’m about to land on a whale,” I said gasping for air. I made stroke motions with my hands to steer me away. But it was no luck. The whale was too big and I was coming down at 100 miles per hour. I closed my eyes and braced my legs for the impact. It wasn’t a whale, it was really a cruise ship. Everyone had waited for her arrival. The people on the ship, ranging from the captain to the stewards, believed it was her who killed the body they just found ashore. “The young man had some sort of unwashable pink dye on his palms and around his mouth. That’s the exact same colour on your hands. You can’t lie, we’ve caught you pink handed” the captain complacently said with his chin held up high. She looked down by her sides. It was true, her palms had been dyed pink. The same pink as the clouds. “Oh no, this has been a humongous misunderstanding everyone. That man and I actually both parachuted down from our castle in the sky surrounded by pink clouds “ She quickly explained, “ He just forgot to bring himself a parachute”. The captain laughed “What fairytale are you living in? Do you think we would believe that? Have you not no shame? You’ve already sent this man to his grave and, still, you’re spewing dirt” Suddenly the deck was filled with people filing in from doorways I hadn’t noticed until now. They all walked slowly towards her, surrounding her with mouths dripping vitriol and firm fists forming rocks. Shouts from the starboard and port side reminded her it was her fault, she was guilty and the bridge demanded she dies too. Afraid, she backed away, bumping into the railing. She turned around to see nothing but a bottomless blue ocean. Was there no truth in what the people said? She did have something to do with his death and all the evidence pointed towards her. Maybe she did kill him but her memory was failing her once again? She decided to agree with the people’s verdict. She stomped on the lowest railing and grabbed the highest with her two hands, throwing herself overboard. She woke up laying on a park bench with her phone in her hand opened on one of her ebooks. She sighs her stresses away. It was just a spoiled dream her ebook probably planted in her thoughts. It was all over now. She set her phone aside and stared up at the colourful sunset. She breathed the fresh air, naturally, her eyes closed. Unexpectedly, she sensed a figure moving nearby from the dark hues her shut eyes saw. She opened her eyes to see a person bent by some trees. She could only see their backside, but it seemed the person was wearing a long black robe placing a black bag on the ground. “Excuse me! What are you doing” she walked halfway to the figure. No response. “Hello, I’m speaking to you, sir. This a park. A safe place for kids to play. You seem rather suspicious right now” She walked the rest of the way, tapping the figure on their shoulder. They got up and stood there, back facing me, for what seemed like forever. “I’ve just called the police so I might as well check what’s in your bag to see if there’s a bomb or something” she bent down and unzipped the bag. In it was a hammer and something wrapped in a cloth. She unfolded the cloth to find a colt python. She grabbed the hammer in confusion. “Um, Sir, I get why you're trying to hide your gun but why pair it with a random hammer” She questioned while standing up straight, right hand patting the dirt away from her legs. “I know your secret and so will the police soon so why not spill the details already. Enough with the silence”, she looked up at the figure's face. Much to her horror, it looked almost identical to hers. She’s read if a person were to see a clone of themselves, they wouldn’t completely recognize them since the perception of one's own face is altered by mirrors and cameras. And yet, here she was standing in front of her. Her exact clone. Full of fear, she lost all grip of the hammer, dropping it on the revolver and setting a bullet loose. It collided with her lookalike’s foot. The clone winced in pain almost as if on cue. She could not have believed what she had just done. She stood as still as a wax figure with her mouth open wide, hands out in front of her with its fingers separated as far as it possibly could. “Stop right there, ma’am. Keep your hands where I could see ‘em. We know your weapon went off so we’re fully prepared to use ours in means of protection. I’m going to approach you now and we’ll have a simple conversation, that’s all ” a police officer yelled while getting out of their vehicle and holding a semi-automatic, leaving their comrade to sit in the car and watch. She couldn’t speak. It was like a heavy impact on her lungs, this incident. On her course to preventing a possible murder, a victim became a murderer and the murderer, a victim. “Did you hear me? I asked if you would tell me what happened here, ma’am” The police officer now stood in front of her. With the lasting air in her lungs, she breathed the words “it’s Not. What it. Looks. Like. I’m the. One who. Called”

“Oh, I know, “ said the police officer with a smirk on their face. They took off their shades, revealing a familiar face. It was another clone. She screamed in complete agony, clutching her hair in handfuls. “Ugh, shut up! You’ve been going around without a care in the world saying these experiences were all yours and now you want to cry about it. You didn’t think you would have to face up to your dreams one day. These memories of yours are really just scenes from tv shows and movies you wasted your life away watching. Books you read. Instead of experiencing these moments and feelings yourself, you hid behind a screen in a dark dark room watching others feel it for you.” The police officer exclaimed, then shot herself in the foot. “So much for protection, right? You see, the particular thing you exploit for your own good is traced with your venom, the very venom it will use to bite death into you, slowly but surely. You can’t escape time. Rather, the time has escaped you. Don’t you get it? You must pay for cheating time” the police officer waved their gun around her face. She understood what had to be done. After all, this was simply a dream. A dream that would end once she died in it like the rest of her dreams do. She grabbed the police officer's gun. She positioned it to the middle of the heads' frontal area and pulled the trigger. She felt herself waking up slowly with an extremely blurred vision. Someone took off something on her head and shook her to wake. “Ma’am, are you alright? I saw you get in the car with this strange man and I instantly knew something was wrong. Let me back that up for you, I was the one that worked with the police to track you down and save you. You can thank me later” A woman’s voice said with a tinge of triumph. Her vision got slightly better over time. She could make out the woman and the location. She looked over to her right where her kidnapper was and saw his lifeless body; eyes closed and mouth gaped. What had left him for dead? His own creation, the dream machine, or was it her in the parachute incident. It was better for no one to know, not even to think about the answer. She had hated him, like a child to their step-parents. She had a crush on him, like a student to an attractive professor. She had loved him, like valuable jewelry that couldn't even be bought at the price of sin. And finally, while he was peacefully sitting in his chair, she had kissed his pink dyed lips for as long as she could. Now, having fulfilled her dreams, she was prepared to die at the hands of her own poison. Like cotton candy, it’s sweetness seduces the victim, masking the spreading of its bitterness through a person's veins.