A/N: I know I said I would write Scrappy Galore in a promo one-shot, but this idea came to me recently, and now I feel I should write this one first. Just to get it out of the way.
So, without further ado…
Nightmares
"Candella, do I really have to do this?" Jubileena asked nervously as the two racers stood in front of the Candy-Tree Forest.
"It was a triple-dog dare, Bing-Bing," Candella reminded. "You and the other racers brought it up in the first place, so you have nobody to blame for this but yourself. Now, enter the glitched Candy-Tree Forest."
The Glitched Candy-Tree Forest took up a massive part of Sugar Rush's candy forest. Dozens of rumours and stories of mysterious happenings taking place in the forest had resulted in the forest being declared off-limits from the racers and candy fans.
But here they were, Candella and Jubileena, at the opening of the restricted forest.
"Seriously, Candella, we're restrained from entering this place," Jubileena reminded. Candella responded by yanking on Jubileena's pony-tails.
"And have you ever wondered why?" Candella asked. "Aren't you a little curious as to why we can't go here? Or are you scared?"
"I'm not scared, I'm just, um…" Jubileena trailed off and Candella yanked on her pony-tails once more, eliciting a yelp from the former.
"You're a big fat chicken, you are," Candella taunted. "Well, technically, we're the same size, so you're actually calling yourself big and fat too," Jubileena replied.
SMACK!
Candella's hand shot out like a slingshot and collided with Jubileena's cheek. The cherry-themed racer went crashing to the ground and put a hand to her cheek. When she removed her hand, her cheek had a white hand-mark on it.
"Go in the glitched Candy-Tree Forest before I telling the other racers you went down on a triple dog dare!" Candella hissed angrily.
Jubileena gulped and slowly got up before nervously tip-toeing towards the entrance of the glitched Candy-Tree Forest. She passed by a damaged sign that read:
Do Not Enter - Lest Your Code Be Altered
Jubileena shivered, then turned around. Candella was standing at the entrance, and motioned for her to continue. With a sigh, Jubileena quickly scurried through the entrance of the forest and inside.
Instantly, Jubileena noticed the differences the glitched Candy-Tree Forest had from the regular forest. The forest seemed very twisted and warped, nothing like the colourful Candy-Tree Forest the racers were used to passing through. The trees were only black with red stripes, and towered over the trees from the regular forest. The forest was very shadowy, and it felt like night time.
In short, the forest looked like the perfect setting for a horror game.
There was a large fog around the entire forest obscuring her view. She could barely see more than two inches in front of her.
"Okay, just enter the forest, and go right back," Jubileena repeated to herself. "Then I'll tell Vanellope what happened, and she'll punish that broad."
She crept deeper into the forest, shivering with each step. A small bit of her fear was replaced with interest. The forest looked terrifying, but there was also something fascinating about it. She almost seemed drawn to it, despite the fact that another part of her was scared out of her wits.
"Okay, I'm in the forest, time to go back," She whispered to herself. She slowly began to turn around to make her way out of the cave. But she stopped herself.
"You know, this forest actually is rather beautiful," She said to herself. "Maybe I could do a little exploring in it. It wouldn't hurt…maybe."
She then turned and began to creep even deeper in the forest. A she continued into the cave, she found that the forest was becoming slightly more colourful. That is, the forest seemed more red than black. The sky was red as well, and there were a few black clouds in the sky. But other than that, she hadn't found anything potentially dangerous.
"Why was this place considered off-limits in the first place?" Jubileena asked herself, twirling around in a circle. "I mean, it doesn't seem dangerous once you spend time in it, and there isn't anything that seems glitchy."
She began running through the forest, somewhat elated. "Maybe this place could even be a tourist attraction or something," She said. "The Black-And-Red Candy-Tree Forest! That sounds like a good name. And it was found by me! Maybe I'll become known across the arcade!"
Then she froze.
Through the fog, she could see a small figure sitting down in the forest. It was too foggy to make out the figure's exact appearance, though.
"Um, hello?" Jubileena said, inching closer to the figure, intrigued. "Do you have a name?"
The figure wasn't responding. It was just sitting motionless on the ground next to a large black-and-red tree. "Can you talk?" Jubileena asked again, somewhat confused. She picked up speed and walked over to the figure.
"Um, excuse me?" The cherry-themed girl said and lightly tapped the figure on the shoulder. Instantly, the figure's eyes opened wide and it jumped up, and Jubileena was knocked back.
She and the figure locked eyes, and Jubileena could now see the figure. It looked just like her, except for one thing. Her color palette was dark gray. She was wearing a dark red dress, with pitch black stripes on her leggings.
For a moment, Jubileena and her copy stared at each other in bemusement, and then, her copy opened her mouth extremely wide and screamed a high-pitched scream, nearly shattering Jubileena's eardrums.
That was all it took. Jubileena ran screaming away from the copy, all the way past the forest. In an instant, all her fear and suspicions of the forest had all came flooding back to her, and she didn't stop running even as she had already exited the glitched Candy-Tree Forest.
She was too busy running and screaming that she didn't see where she was looking and crashed head-first into none other than the president herself, Vanellope von Schweetz.
Jubileena stared at Vanellope and then screamed again. Vanellope grabbed both of her arms to quiet her down.
"What has gotten into you?" The president asked, shaking Jubileena a bit. It was then the cherry racer noticed that nearly all of the racers were at the entrance of the Candy-Tree Forest. She also saw that the scrappy twins, Danet Dimity and Donata Demit, were both holding Candella's arms.
"Citrusella told us about how you got roped into some dare that told you to enter a restricted area of the game," Vanellope said. "But seriously, why were you so freaked out?"
"A gray copy…of…" Jubileena said between gasps of breath. She had never run so fast in her life.
"Spit it out, woman!" Danet shouted.
"There was a gray copy of me in the forest!" Jubileena screamed. Everyone went silent.
"What was that?" Rancis asked.
"I was entering the forest, and then, I saw this girl that looked just like me, but she was gray, and had black hair, and had darker clothing," Jubileena explained.
"She was hallucinating," Candella called out. "Shut up," Citrusella said.
"Look, the arcade's opening soon, so let's get out of here," Vanellope said as the racers took off away from the forest. Vanellope and Rancis, however, stayed at the entrance of the forest.
"A copy?" Rancis whispered. "That can't be true."
"A few hours ago we went up against ice doppelgangers," Vanellope said, reminding him of their adventure at the Christmas game.
Rancis remained quiet as Vanellope continued.
"Something odd is going on in this game," Vanellope said. "And I will find out."
A/N: Well, that's the end of chapter one. Tell me what you think in the reviews.
