Chapter 2 – The monsters within

Bonnibel Bubblegum lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. Although it was dark, her room was gently lit with lava lamps. The bubbles inside the lamps pulsed slowly, and usually calmed her – she figured it must be to do with the soft lighting and the gentle colours. But not that night. She was too freaked out by the day's events. She reached to her bedside table, where a white envelope was sitting. She peeled it open, and took out a creased piece of paper. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to think through the situation.

First question: Who was Queen Bonnibel? After LSP had left that evening, Bonnie had gone to the royal records, where she had poured over every book she could find on the year 00. The information in the book 'The First Royals – Candy Rulers from the year 00 to 10' she found to be most useful, and she had taken the book to her room with her to read further into. And she felt that this was the time to read it in more detail. She swung her legs out of bed, and stumbled over to the corner she had left it in, before picking it up and dragging it back to bed. It was a large, hardback book that was quite heavy, so it dragged on the floor making a loud noise. Fortunately for Bonnie, it didn't wake anyone up. She hopped back into bed, pulling the book into her lap, and pulled the duvet over her legs. She opened the book to the page on the year 00, and began to read under torchlight.

'YEAR 00,' the page read. 'was the first year of established royalty known in post-apocalyptic times. Although no written records were given early on in this year, word-of-mouth has led researchers to believe that the first ruler was a Miss Catherine Caramel, otherwise known as Queen Caramel of the Candy Kingdom. Despite that she had no definite kingdom to rule over at this time, the desperate state the land was in called for some kind of order, which was later seen to be a good move on her part.'

"This is boring." Bonnie muttered under her breath. "There must be SOMETHING worth reading in here." She flicked through the pages, yawning, when her fingers stumbled over something – a folded corner. She tutted – she hated it when people folded corners in books. She was about to unfold the corner, but stopped. Inside the page on the rule of King Frosting was a piece of folded paper. She unfolded it, and scanned the page. It was handwritten – not typed, like the file was, but the topic was one and the same: the extinct creature.

'I have uncovered something that will be the downfall of candy royalty. I have come across information proving beyond doubt that Queen Caramel was not the founder of the candy kingdom. Let it be forever recorded on this paper that the creator of the kingdom was Queen Bonnibel the first, otherwise known as Queen Bonnibel Bubblegum. Due to a cover-up by the second ruler – Queen Catherine Caramel – the first ruler was wiped from history as she discovered something that scared the remaining citizens of Ooo, a crea_ of t_ _ec_e_ _.'

Bonnie sighed loudly in exasperation. Her first real lead and the bottom of it was damp. She slammed the book shut, and threw it on the floor. It made a loud bang as it landed, and she heard the sound of footsteps running towards her room. "Uh oh." she whispered as the door started to open. She bent over the side of the bed, and shoved the heavy book under, then quickly put the paper she found with the file in the envelope. The light flicked on, and a teenager walked in. She was very skinny, and had pale skin. Her black hair was only slightly longer than shoulder length, and covered her pointy ears completely. She was wearing a dark rock shirt with some sort of snake on it, and wore blue jeans with it. Her knee-length red boots were usual attire for her, and Bonnie had grown accustomed to seeing her in them all the time. Her cheeky grin that she had seen many times was gone, replaced with one of concern.

"Bonnibel? What's going on?" the teenager asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Um…nothing?" Bonnie replied – the tone making it sound like a question.

"Yeah, right. Bonnibel, what are you up to?" the teen asked, unable to keep a badly hidden smile off her face. Guilt must have been imprinted in big letters on Bonnie's forehead, because the teen began to search the drawers, check the windows and cupboards. She was about to check under the bed, when Bonnie stood up and knocked the desk. The teen stood up, and looked over.

"I think I knocked the desk." It sounded pretty weak, even to her own ears, so she looked up with big wet eyes and whispered "I had a nightmare."

The teen walked over, and bent to her level. "Oh Bon-Bon. It'll be al'right. It was just a dream. Come on, let's get into bed."

The teen guided Bonnie to her bed, and tucked in her duvet. In a mock-sleepy voice, Bonnie said "Marceline – when will my parents get back?" Marceline laughed softly, said something about them returning the next day, kissed her forehead, then walked out and switched off the light. Bonnie heard a voice coming from downstairs – a male voice. He said "Hey Mar-Mar. Come outside – I learnt a cool new trick." He heard the door open, and just before it closed she heard 'Mar-Mar' say "Oh Ash, you sweetie!" Then the door shut, and she was alone in the castle. She was too annoyed with the book to pick it up again, so she rolled over and closed her eyes, realising that she was tired after all. As she drifted off, she could hear voices outside in the grounds, and the last thing she remembered was a blue flash illuminating the window.

Bonnie awoke from her nightmare to the sound of voices outside her room. She wiped the sleep from her eyes, and got up, intending to go over to her door, but she could hear well enough from her bed anyway. She recognised the voice of her mother, and the voice of the doctor.

"Will she be ok? I know what Ash did to her."

"Right now, I am not so sure, but her injuries were pretty bad."

What? Bonnie thought. Ash? Wasn't he the one who Marceline had left with last night?

The voices continued. "It seemed to be a magical spell tha-"

"How dare you? Spells don't exist! Your words are highly inappropriate."

"…My apologies, your majesty. I…I will go and check on her now."

There was a sound of footsteps padding away quickly on the carpet outside. Bonnie heard her mother sigh, then heard her footsteps click way in the opposite direction. She listened for a while longer, before walking to the door and looking out. The corridor was empty. This was her chance – she had to find out what happened to her babysitter. She ran along the corridor, her nightgown flapping as she ran, heading for the hospital rooms. Fortunately, the rooms weren't far from her bedroom, so she didn't have to avoid many people on her sprint. She reached the hospital doors just as the clock chimed 2:00 in the morning. If she stood on her tip-toes, she could just about see through the clear glass in the large swing-doors, and she could see lots of people rushing in and out of one room in the middle. Bonnie guessed that this was the room Marceline was in. Carefully, she opened one of the swing doors, being sure to stop it from banging shut behind her, and she crept towards the door. Someone rushed out, scribbled something down in a pad, and then rushed off down the corridor. Bonnie leapt into an empty room and waited, before going back into the corridor. It was a lot quieter as she walked towards the room, and the room appeared empty as she looked it. Defiantly no rushing doctors and nurses. She walked in nervously; the atmosphere of the room was weird. Like a sort of pressure was on her shoulders. It was silent too, more silent than the library in some way. And it was so…white, too. So bright it hurt. There was a heart monitor in the room too, and it was connected to something in the bed – but it wasn't on. Bonnie, even with her tiny knowledge of the circulatory system, knew that the line on the monitor was not meant to be flat. That meant no pulse. And that meant…

Bonnie ran over to the bed. White sheets covered the occupant of the bed, and one pale grey hand lay hanging out. The cuff attached to the monitor was on this wrist, and from this two things were clear. Number 1: The occupant of the bed had no pulse. And number 2: the occupant was Marceline.

Bonnie uncovered the sheet. Looking back at her with closed eyes was her babysitter, her normally pale skin had a sickening grey pallor to it and her black hair even darker than usual. A tear formed in the corner of Bonnie's eye – the face that looked at her now would never smile cheekily again. At this thought, she couldn't hold back the emotion. Greif, raw and pure, tumbled from her eyes, soaking the sheets around Marceline. She howled loudly, choking on the sadness. Through the tears, she could see what looked like two spots of blood on Marceline's neck, and at the back of her mind she wondered how a corpse could be bleeding. She wiped some of the tears away, and tucked the hair behind Marceline's pointed ears. It was defiantly blood on her neck – rich and red, not the colour of dried blood. Curious (and thankful to have something else other than grief to concentrate on) Bonnie touched the spots, and looked at her fingers. The blood didn't come off. It was as if it was dry. Bonnie rubbed the spots, and the body jolted. Bonnie started – and looked at Marceline's face. Her eyelids had jerked open, and a pair of blood red eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. "M…Marcie?" Bonnie said, reaching out to touch her face. Marceline's head turned sharply towards Bonnie, and a pale hand grabbed hold of Bonnie's shoulder. Bonnie struggled to get free, but somehow Marceline had grown very strong. Bonnie remembered that she was quite weak before, but now…it was like there was a different person in the bed. Marceline's mouth opened, and Bonnie went to scream, but no words came. Inside her mouth was a pair of very long fangs that had definitely not been there the night before. Marceline's eyes widened and a snake-like tongue slivered over her teeth. A hiss escaped from her throat, and she leapt at Bonnie's neck. Bonnie shrieked, and dived under the bed. There was a SNAP as the wire connecting Marceline to the monitor broke, and a loud beep as the monitor announced that its patient was absent.

Bonnie lay there, shivering with fear now, as she heard the monster prowl the room, hissing. What had happened last night? There was a crash from the corner of the room, a thump; then Marceline's legs vanished from sight. Bonnie was slightly confused, then there was a slurping sound and a sigh. There was a sound of confusion, then a sigh that sounded all too familiar. Bonnie crawled out from under the bed, and gasped. There, hovering in mid-air, was Marceline as Bonnie remembered her. Her skin still had that greyish tinge too it, but it wasn't as pronounced as before, and her hair was the same as before. In fact, the only things different were her eye colour, fangs and the floating thing. Marceline herself looked less glassy-eyed and more confused – she was staring down at her hands, inspecting them almost, and there was a very small tear in the corner of her left eye. Bonnie found she had the same small tear. What was wrong with Marceline?

Marceline looked down, and saw Bonnie staring at her. "Hey Bon-Bon! Guess I had a pretty crazy night last night, huh?"