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 crème 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 done before. It might be possible. We must try.”
“But we can’t actually mate,” Franklin says. “If the child comes out half human they will know.”
“We still must try,” she says. “Otherwise you will be killed and Licorice will chain me to his bedpost. I would rather mate as a dominant to a human than as a submissive to such a horrible-tasting man.”
Franklin breaks eye contact with her and pets Circus Peanut, squishing his hands into the marshmallow fur. He suddenly realizes what a big deal this is. He’s going to have sex with the candy woman. It is like having sex with the boogie man. Not only that, but they will try to have children together. Franklin never wanted to have children. He is uncomfortable with the idea of having children. Now he is going to have one with the creature from his nightmares. He doesn’t even know how it is possible for the candy people to have sex, since they don’t have any sex organs.
“We should start in the soontime,” she says, sucking on a little boy’s toe.
“I won’t kiss you,” Franklin says.
They are sitting on the bed together. Franklin sits with his legs crossed. Jujy sits with her knees open like a frog. Both of them are awkward and not sure where to start. Franklin has always been awkward in sexual situations and Jujy admits that she has never mated before. The candy people only have sex during the coupling period and she has never been coupled before.
“Why not?” Jujy says, pouting her gummy lips at him.
Franklin forgot that he was trying to get on Jujy’s good side. He knows this is a good opportunity to get her to like him. He is about to become her lover. It will surely help gain her trust. But the idea of kissing her gory, rancid mouth disturbs him.
“I’m sorry,” he says, uncomfortably petting her shoulder. “I just don’t want to taste the dead children in your mouth.”
“I can wash out my mouth with watermelon soda,” she says.
“I still think I would prefer not to,” he says.
She gives him an angry look and her voice becomes firm. “I am the dominant. It doesn’t matter if you dislike my taste.”
Franklin nods his head. He rubs his prosthetic candy leg nervously and looks down at her crotch. He notices that she doesn’t have a vagina. Her crotch is coated in red hard candy, like she is wearing strawberry jolly rancher panties. But the panties are not clothing, it is part of her skin. The males of their species are also coated in candy down there. He doesn’t understand how they are able to have sex. There is a small hole at the bottom of the panties for going to the bathroom, but he doubts that can be used for sex.
“How does this work?” Franklin says. “You don’t have a vagina.”
She opens her knees wider and looks down at her crotch.
“It’s because I’m a virgin,” she says. “Only those who have mated in the past have exposed genitals.”
“I still don’t understand,” Franklin says.
“The first time mating,” she says, “partners remove each other’s candy coating from their genitals. I don’t have to remove yours since your genitals are already exposed, but you must remove mine.”
“How?” Franklin asks. “Do I break it open?”
“No,” Jujy says. “That would be painful and cause me to bleed.”
“Then how?”
“Use your tongue,” Jujy says. She opens her gory mouth and licks the air with her long snake tongue. “You lick the candy down until the genitals are exposed.”
“It’s under your candy?”
Jujy nods her head. Franklin looks down at her smooth red crotch. She widens her knees a little more. Franklin now recognizes that she has been sitting in this position so that he would have easy access for licking. Franklin doesn’t move or speak for a few awkward moments.
“It’s good,” Jujy says. “It’s strawberry. It’s not a gross flavor like black licorice.”
Franklin looks her in her pink eyes for a minute, then breaks eye contact. Although his mind is still a bit foggy and
intoxicated, every once in a while he has a moment of clarity and realizes this is really going to happen. He is actually going to have sex with this monster from his youth.
“It takes a while to lick through it all,” she says. “You should start now.”
Franklin nods his head. As he leans closer to her, he can tell that she is releasing a lot more of her intoxicating strawberry scent than usual. It’s coming from between her candy cane legs.
“Your smell is making me dizzy,” he says.
She smiles. “Do you like it?”
Franklin nods his head sluggishly. “What is it?”