The marshmallow puppy sees Franklin crying and crawls into his lap. It looks at him with a panting tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. When it barks it sounds more like a human impersonating a dog, like a voice actor who plays a dog in a cartoon.
“Circus Peanut likes you!” Jujy says, as she walks through the door carrying a blackened rabbit corpse.
“Circus Peanut?” Franklin says, looking at the puppy. He didn’t realize it before, but the puppy does look a little bit like a circus peanut. He has a subtle orange tint with peanut-like indentions on his back.
“He’s my little munchy,” she says.
She takes Circus Peanut from his lap and squishes him into her bosom. Franklin watches in repulsion while she speaks baby language to the animal, making kissing noises, and revealing her gory teeth as she smiles at it.
Franklin goes to the table to inspect his meal. Aside from skinning the animal, she did nothing to prepare the meat. The head is still on it, charred eyeballs looking at him. The outside is overcooked. The inside is still slightly raw. The peppermint stick melted while it was being cooked, giving the meat a minty center.
Although it is one of the worst things he has ever tasted, he eats as much of it as he can. Jujy went through a lot of trouble to make it and he knows she will be upset if he doesn’t eat it all. Halfway through, he asks himself why he cares whether he hurts her feelings or not. She is a monster and must be killed. But he continues to eat. He needs to stay on her good side, at least for now.
There is a knock at the door. It is Licorice. Jujy opens the front door a crack, but does not let him in.
“I saw smoke,” Licorice says. “Somebody built a fire behind your house. Was it you?”
“Yes,” she says. “It is not against the law to build fires.”
“Fire is dangerous,” he says. “If a fire is too close, you could melt your skin or even your house. You shouldn’t be starting fires.”
“You don’t have to tell me about fire,” she says. “I’ve worked closely with fire before, in the candy mill. I know how to use it without melting my skin.”
“There is no point in starting fires,” he says. “Why did you need it?”
“I was cooking some meat.”
“Cooking meat?” he says. “Why were you cooking meat?”
“I made it for Sour Apple,” she says. “He likes his meat cooked.”
“He likes his meat cooked?” Licorice rubs his black chin hair. “It is funny that he eats cooked meat in the way that humans eat cooked meat.”
“There isn’t a law against cooking meat,” she says.
“But it is suspicious,” he says. “Humans eat cooked meat. Perhaps your mate is really a human?”
“You saw him,” she says. “You know he is not human.”
“Perhaps he is a human in a candy disguise,” he says. “You know it is against the law to associate with humans?”
“Yes,” she says, “but I do not associate with humans. Did you know that it is against the law to interrupt a mating cycle?”
Licorice frowns and steps back.
“You have entered my nesting area,” she says. “If I report this you will be severely punished.”
“I only came because I thought it was an emergency,” he says.
“But as you see it is not,” she says.
“I’ll be back,” he says.
“If you come back I will be forced to defend my nest,” she says. “It is not against the law to kill one who invades a nest.”
“This won’t be a nest for much longer,” he says from the caramel road.
Franklin curls into a ball in his bed on the floor. He believes it is actually a doggy bed, because every night he shares it with the marshmallow puppy that sleeps against his armpit. His skinless chest beneath the candy coating burns with so much itchiness that he doesn’t want to be conscious anymore. He wants to rip off his candy skin and pour rubbing alcohol all over himself to kill the bacteria that is infesting his wounds. He smiles as he envisions laying his skinless body into a tub of hot water. The thought of the peaceful warmth calms his nerves and numbs his body a little. But before the pleasant dream pulls him into sleep, a thought jerks him back into awareness. He thinks about how painful it would be to remove his candy skin. His flesh has already grown together with his sour apple coating. If he were to rip the candy from his body he would also be tearing off a thick layer of his flesh.
Franklin hopes he will get used to the intense itchiness in time. For now, he just has to survive. Once he escapes he will be able to find a doctor who will remove the candy and make him human again. He wonders if it is possible for him to look human again. He is missing limbs and much of his skin. He’s not sure if doctors will be able to replace all of the parts of him that he has lost.
He wonders how he will be able to escape and bring the body of a candy person to the police. It will be difficult enough just trying to escape. If he has a body with him it will be next to impossible. If there was night in this place he might be able to escape under the cover of darkness, but the purple lights beaming down from the ceiling of the enormous cavern never dim.
Franklin wonders if Jujy should be the candy person he brings to the police. She would be the easiest one to kill. She is the one who killed his brother and sisters and ruined his life. He knows he should kill her. But something deep inside of him becomes sad at the thought of killing the girl. Even though she murdered his family, removed pieces of his body, turned him into a monster, and keeps him as a prisoner in her home, he still doesn’t like the idea of ending her life. She is not the monster he thought she would be. She is not a vicious killer. She just doesn’t know any better.
He wonders if it is possible for him to bring her to the surface alive. Perhaps if he can gain her trust she will take him to the surface with her during a hunt. Then he can knock her out with his cane and bring her to the police.
As he lays there cringing he promises himself that he will gain her trust. He will get her to the surface. And he will make the world believe in the candy people. The only problem is he isn’t sure whether the submissive member of a coupling is allowed to go on hunts. He doubts it. He is also worried that she won’t take him on hunts because he doesn’t eat the meat of children. To completely gain her trust, he will need to become one of them in every respect. Franklin understands that he is going to have to do a lot that he doesn’t want to do in order to gain her trust. He isn’t sure he’ll be able to go through with all of it.
Circus Peanut catches a Cadbury creme egg in his mouth. He brings the chocolate ball to Franklin. Franklin rolls the egg into the next room. Circus Peanut chases after it.
Franklin discovers that his itchiness isn’t so bad when he keeps busy, so he plays ball with the marshmallow puppy. He kind of likes Circus Peanut. Even though he is a strange creature that looks a bit like a living cartoon, he thinks the dog is cute. Having a puppy around comforts him and makes him miss Crabcake a little less. Franklin always feels better when he is around animals.
When Jujy arrives with their food, one bag of chocolate and another bag of dead children, she has a worried look on her face. If it were a couple days ago Franklin would have ignored her, but now he needs to establish a relationship with her so that he can gain her trust.
“What’s wrong?” Franklin asks, pretending to be concerned.
Jujy drops the bags onto her table, cracking one of the chocolate wafer boards. She groans in an annoyed tone. Her cotton candy hair is frizzed in the wrong direction.
“Licorice came to me in the park,” she says. “He still wants to end our coupling.”
“What can he do?”
“It is not against the law to end our coupling if we do not produce offspring,” she says. “If we do not breed he will be able to claim me as his mate.”
“What are we going to do?” he asks.
“We are going to mate,” she says.
“But you said it is impossible for humans to breed with your kind?”
“We have to try,” she says. “It is against the law to breed with humans so I have never heard of it being
