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SugarSprout: *STRING OF EMOJIS* What!? How?

SugarSprout: Fuck-me-on-holy-days. Get out of there right the Hell now, missy. I mean it. You don't want to fuck around with Demons and end up with your very own set permanently melded to your mind like your grotesque.

BabyCakes: Why do you think I’m writing you, woman?

SugarSprout: Right, right. Deep breaths. Okay, I’m calm. Yep, I’m calm.

I glanced at Huff, rolling my eyes, and he giggled.

SugarSprout: Are you focusing on the mating bond?

BabyCakes: Er…Yes, mostly.

SugarSprout: explain *tapping foot emoji*

BabyCakes: Well, the first time I was focusing but it brought us…somewhere unpleasant. We needed to get out of there quickly so I panicked as I forged the new portal. Thankfully we ended up in the Fairytale Realm but weren’t any closer. The third try I gripped the bond and focused as hard as I could but at the last second my mind slipped to Freddy and Marv.

SugarSprout: Who the fuck?

BabyCakes: Bane’s demons.

SugarSprout: *laughing emoji* It all makes sense now.

SugarSprout: Okay, here’s what you need to do. *eyebrow raised emoji* *finger pointing emoji* *whip emoji*

SugarSprout: Focus on your link, but this time, think about a specific memory where you felt wholly connected to Bane. Make sure it’s something powerful that you have no difficulty recalling every detail.

BabyCakes: On it boss lady. *salute emoji* *black heart emoji*. LAMP.

I closed the journal, my cheeks pinkening as the night Bane chased me flooded my mind’s eye and my panties. My eyes darted to Huff and I quickly looked away, pushing up my glasses. Demons screamed and cackled in the distance, threatening to make my mind drift with worries. Rolling back my shoulders, I stood inhaling and exhaling slowly, then turned my focus inward, the sinful memory as fresh as if it happened ten minutes ago.

I scratched Huff behind the ears. “You ready, Huffluff?”

“Yep. I believe in you, Meeky.”

Taking his sweet words to heart, I opened a new portal and blew out a sharp, excited breath as the bond sang and buzzed. This was the place.

We found him.

CHAPTER 35

Is this Real

BANE

Bunch of eejits. Let’s leave him with the dead, that’ll torture him up properly.

Snickering, I limped through the front yard, daylight dappling the lollipop garden as if they were abandoned orphans sick with the pox. They only provided me with an assortment of lock picking options. Who knew bones were so adaptable?

Moseying further into the garden, and ignoring my injuries, I glared at the suckers growing right out of the ground. “I told you I'd be back, arsehole.” My chest thrummed as I growled and took a large bite out of the lollipop mocking me. “Mmm, caramel flavored.” I crunched on the hardened candy pieces. “You deceptive bastard. What right do you have to be rainbow colored but flavored like that?”

Sighing wistfully, I ripped the lollipop from the ground and tossed it into its fellows, whistling as I sauntered, fine, more like hobbled, away.

“Fucking finally. You feel like your old self again,” Freddy whooped with joy, however, it had the opposite affect, darkening my mood considerably as it reminded me of everything I'd lost.

Marv hissed at Freddy, “Look at what you've gone and done now, dumbass.”

I tuned out the rest of their argument, black corroding the edges of my vision and shading everything monotone; Even the pieces of gum drop stuck between my talons looked gray.