Three Lost Kids & the Death of the Sugar Fairy, The (3 page)

The moment we stepped into the cave, I was suddenly—completely—alone. Not even TayTay was by my side. We'd made a huge mistake.

M
y wet clothes clung to me and I shook from the cold. My sores ached and tears leaked out of my eyes. Ten-year-olds should probably be braver than this, and while I'd learned a lot about being brave when I helped end a Fairy war on Maddie World, in that moment I just wanted to curl up in my mom's lap and sob, and let her hold me and tell me it would all be okay. If she were here, she'd know what to do.

The cave glowed an eerie blue and large crystals stuck out from the top and sides of the cave. If I hadn
't been alone and scared and in the dark, I might have thought it looked really pretty.

E
verything was too spooky to be pretty, at that moment.

"
Bella! Lexie! TayTay! Where are you?" My voice bounced off the walls and echoed back to me, making my voice sound empty, like a dead person.

What had the
Fairy said about the caves? That our nightmares would trap us in here forever? I so did not want to spend forever trapped in my nightmares.

I
tried to remember my last bad dream, but couldn't. Was it the one where everyone died and I was all alone? Even as I thought it, my sisters and parents and dogs and cats all appeared.

"
Mom! Dad! Help me."

They laughed and smiled and hugged me
. The scent of lavender on my mom comforted me as I clung to her.

T
hen a giant snake grew from behind them.

"
No! Go away. Don't hurt them."

It opened its huge mouth and first plucked TayTay from the ground, gobbling him up. I sobbed and fell to
my knees on the floor. It ate my pets one by one. Then it started on Lexie –little Lexie, so cute and smart and sweet. She screamed as it ate her, its belly getting bigger as it shoved my whole family down its mouth. My mom looked sad as it ate her last, leaving me alone with the vision of my whole family killed.

I shook and cried and tried to remind myself it wasn
't real. My parents weren't even on this world. I rocked on my knees. "It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's not real."

In the next moment I looked down and
discovered I was naked, and not in the cave anymore. I stood in front of my class, and every single student pointed at me and laughed. "Maddie's naked, Maddie's naked." Even my normally kind teacher snickered and pointed, and then made me turn around so everyone could see my whole body.

I covered my body and cried more.
"No! I'm not here. This isn't real."

What other horrors would this cave pull out of me? I didn
't want to relive all these terrible things.

Just when I thought I
'd go crazy, Lexie's rainbow light slashed through the darkness and made a trail to me. A whisper of her voice moved on the beams. "Follow this, Maddie. Follow the light."

I loved my sister so much in that moment. The rainbow beam didn
't stop the nightmares. I still felt and saw every fear I'd ever known, but it kept me from getting lost in that fear, and gave me hope as I let the beam lead me to Lexie.

When I reached her, both TayTay and Bella were there too
. I ran to them and hugged them all, sobbing so much that all of my Halloween makeup was totally ruined. "I'm so sorry I've been mad at you a lot. I love you so much, and don't want anything to ever happen to you."

Lexie clutched our hands and used her light to lead us out of the cave. If felt like forever that we walked down the crystal blue pathways, our nightmares throwing themselves at us like those Sugar Bugs had
. Lexie's power kept us safe, even if each of us cringed from time to time because of an especially horrible vision.

The night seemed bright as we fell out of the cave and landed on our hands and knees. I laughed and cried
, and so did my sisters, as we rolled around on squishy grass and hugged. I didn't ask what they saw, and they didn't ask what I saw. We all wanted to forget everything about that cave.

I did have one question
, though. "Lexie, how did you do that? How did you break the spell it had on you long enough to use your powers?" I hadn't even thought to pull my sword, or use my Fairy power.

"
My unicorn necklace lit up, and I remembered about how fear is just an illusion. I knew that if I could use my rainbows, it couldn't get to me. But I was so scared, Maddie. So scared. I never want to go to sleep again. Ever."

Her little lips
curled into a pout that shouldn't have looked as cute as it did, and I laughed.

I knew
that by the time we got home, her vows of no more sugar and no more sleep would soon be forgotten, but I didn't say anything. She'd just saved us all, so she could say and think whatever she wanted.

I hugged her hard.
"Thank you!"

Bella whistled.
"That should be the hardest part, right? What else do we have to worry about?"

Leave it to Bella to jinx us all.

We skipped merrily along, as if saving the Sugar Baby would be so easy now, but I couldn't help fear a return of the Sugar Bugs. My heart still skipped a few beats when I thought about what I'd seen in the cave. It was bad enough to dream those things when you were sleeping, but to see it while awake, as if it was real.... That was horrible!

Everything started to look the same as we walked
—the tall trees and low bushes. "Bella, you sure you know where we're going?"

She nodded.
"Yup. We're close. Don't worry, we'll be fine."

My heart didn
't believe her. Neither did my sweaty palms or buzzing mind. My fear only got bigger as we approached two large trees.

Bella pointed.
"Past those, we'll be in the clearing where the flower is."

Lexie looked up, then back.
"Hey, um, how are we getting back to the house? Won't we see all the bad stuff again?"

I hadn
't thought of that, and Bella's dropped jaw made it clear she hadn't either.

"
We'll definitely avoid the caves, and hopefully the bugs are full and napping or something." Lame, but it was all I could think of.

W
e walked past the big trees and into the open field, and there stood the guards the Sugar Fairy had spoken of. Giant—and when I say giant, I mean house-sized—Gummy Bears wielded sharp looking candy cane swords.

I did a quick count
: ten of them and three of us. Four, if you counted TayTay. He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow, as though he knew I'd almost dismissed him.

I ruffled his head.
"You up for this, boy? Maybe you could eat them."

He barked.
"You want me getting sick, too?"

I shook my head.
"No, I guess not. Okay, Lexie, Bella, any ideas?"

Bella shrieked.
"Um, run or fight, because they're coming right at us."

I would have run, but then
a glow rose from behind them. The Sugar Flower was right there! So very close. Surely we could handle some oversized candy after everything we'd been through.

This time I remembered my sword, and sliced at them with all my strength, hovering above ground to give me more height
. Still, I couldn't reach their bodies. Their candy canes must have been made of steel or something, because they didn't even crack.

They roared and bellowed
, and spit gummy wads of saliva at us that were just so gross. The big orange one swiped at me with his candy cane, then followed-up with his big hand. I blocked and ducked to avoid him, but his blow landed on my leg and threw me out of the sky. That would be a big bruise in a few hours, it hurt so bad.

Lexie cried but didn
't run. She tried to wrap them up in her rainbow power, but the rainbows went right through them, making them light up like Gummy Bear glowworms.

Bella blazed them with fire from her hands, but it wasn
't enough for such big candy, and there were so many.

The pushed us back into the forest, against the trees and away from the
Sugar Flower, which grew brighter with light. The bud of the flower peeled back in small bits, and I wondered if the baby would come now, while we died at the hands of the worst candy ever.

I looked at Bella, who still looked
only part Dragon, and an idea hit me. "Bella, you need to turn into a full Dragon, to use all of your power. Then you can melt them."

Flames licked her fingers and she squinted her face, then sighed.
"I don't know how."

"
Try to focus. You have the Dragon scale necklace that Emerald gave you in Bella World. Use that to ramp-up your powers. I know you can do it. It's our only hope." My sword arm burned and I needed to rest, but we had to keep fighting while Bella tried to go Dragon on them.

It seemed to take forever, but she started glowing, like someone
had lit a candle inside her. Then she got bigger and looked much more Dragony, until she was the size of an adult Dragon. She roared and stomped and then sent flames shooting from her mouth.

I
t was a bit creepy seeing my sister turn into a Dragon right before my very eyes, but.... Wow, was it cool! She totally turned those Gummy Guys into puddles. Each one she flamed melted to the ground, and I giggled as I thought about the Wicked Witch from
The Wizard of Oz
screaming, "I'm melting, I'm melting."

When only bubbling pools of gummy goo was left, we cheered and high
-fived Bella, who, to our great relief, resumed her humanish body and hugged us.

"
You are so amazing, Bella, and so brave. I'm really proud of you."

"
Thanks, Maddie! Now let's save the Sugar Baby." She ran to the flower.

I
t got so bright we couldn't look straight at it for a moment, then it dimmed slightly, and the petals peeled back to reveal a beautiful Fairy inside. She didn't look like a baby, exactly; she looked a lot older.

We walked up to her, ready to take her to her mom and save Halloween, when we walked straight into some kind of invisible wall
. It sparked and threw us back onto our behinds.

My hand burned from the shock
, and I sighed again. "Oh no. What now?"

We couldn't break through whatever shield stood around the flower. Bella went Dragon again and breathed her fire at it, but it bounced off and lit up the night in sparks.

Lexie flashed her rainbow power only to find that it glowed and faded out again.

I hacked away at the invisible wall with my sword, and only got a sore shoulder for my trouble.

All the while the Sugar Baby waited in her flower, her light fading as she cried silent tears and watched us fail over and over again.

I sank to the ground, staying away from the gooey mess we'd left behind. TayTay curled up in my lap and licked my hand.

Lexie crashed next to me, yawning deeply.
"All this using my power is making me sleepy, Maddie. I can't keep it up."

Bella returned to her normal form and sat on my other side.
"I'm wiped out too, and the Fairy doesn't look good. I think we're running out of time."

Running out of time
and
running out of ideas. I could feel the end coming, for the Sugar Baby, for the Sugar Fairy we'd left behind, and for Halloween. It wasn't even about my birthday anymore. Other people would be hurt by this. The Fairies would be hurt, and all the kids who looked forward to Halloween each year would be hurt.

I
'd been selfish to think it was all about me this whole time.

Lexie
's head popped up and she looked around. "Did you hear that?"

I looked around too, but didn
't see anything, and I hadn't heard anything. "No."

She squinted.
"Someone said something." She paused and a light breeze carried a voice on the wind. "There it is again!"

I nodded.
"I heard it that time, but I can't tell what it said."

Bella stood and strained to listen.
"Shh... I think I can hear it better."

We stayed quiet and still, hoping that it
would come back. A few moments later, a bigger gust of wind sent the voice through the air again. Bella held up her finger to keep us quiet as her lips moved silently.

She smiled.
"I know what it said. The voice gave us a riddle. If we figure it out, we can rescue the Sugar Baby and leave. If we can't, she'll stay trapped forever and die. We only have one chance to guess, so we have to be sure."

I hated tests. They made my heart race and stomach hurt, and this was the worst kind of test.
"What's the riddle?"

Bella closed her eyes.
"Just a sec. Let me think." She pursed her lips. "Okay, here it is:
'I'm very tempting, so it's said. I have a shiny coat of red, and my flesh is white beneath. I smell so sweet, taste good to eat, and help to guard your teeth. What am I?'
"

We all sat in silence thinking until Lexie spoke.
"Okay, let's think about it. It's something red on the outside, white on the inside, right?"

I nodded.
"Yes, and it's tempting and smells sweet, and it tastes good."

Bella opened her mouth to talk
.

I could tell she was going to guess so I shooshed her.
"We only get one chance at this. Don't answer unless you're sure."

She closed her mouth and frowned.
"I think I know. Can't we even tell each other?"

I shook my head.
"Whatever is testing us can hear. Any guess we make could be the only one we get."

"
Well, then how will we decide who answers," Lexie asked.

We both looked at her, and I looked at Bella to see if she was thinking what I was thinking. She nodded so I looked to Lexie again.
"You should answer. You're the best at puzzles and riddles and you're really smart."

Lexie smiled, then frowned.
"But what if I get it wrong and kill the Fairy?" Her eyes swelled with tears.

We were putting
a huge burden on her, but she was our best shot at getting this right.

I pulled her to me.
"Don't worry. Let's talk it through without guessing, okay? So, we know it's red and white and sweet and yummy. But the riddle also said it helps guard our teeth, so it can't be junk food right? Mom's always telling us that stuff will rot our teeth, and we've each had the cavities to prove it."

They giggled and Lexie relaxed in my arms.
"Okay, you're right. So, if it's not junk food, but it is something to eat, and it's tempting and red and sweet...." Her voice trailed off as she talked to herself.

She popped up and smiled.
"I know the answer."

Now I was nervous. We
'd be in so much trouble if she got it wrong, but she looked so sure, and Lexie almost never missed answers on tests. Still, I had to ask. "Are you absolutely, positively sure?"

She nodded.
"Totally. It's really easy. Can I say it?"

I looked at Bella, who shrugged
nervously.

TayTay licked me and smiled his doggy smile.
"Trust her. She's very bright."

I took a deep breath and nodded.
"Okay, Lexie, go for it."

"
It's an apple! Get it? Tempting, like the Garden of Eden. Red on the outside—of course some apples are green or more pink, so that's not totally true, but close enough—and white on the inside. Sweet, smells good, and while it doesn't totally guard our teeth, it does make them feel clean. I mean, it still has fruit sugar, so you still have to brush your teeth after eating them, but close enough, right?" Lexie looked around, waiting for the voices to come back.

The Sugar Flower shimmered
, and the air around it sparkled like magic dust and blew away on the wind.

"
You are correct,"
the voice in the air said.