School projects

The Big Ones - Halloween short story

   Everything happened in slow motion. The long, black hand of the clock slowly crept towards nine with each haunting, echoing tick. I could hear the sound of someone crying, sobbing, and someone else shushing them. Tick... tock... tick... tock...

I wish it didn't have to be this way. I haven't been alive for three days! It wasn't fair! I wanted to experience the outside world and make new friends and travel to Australia! But I couldn't, none of us could. They wouldn't let us, they didn't know.

The hand shifted closer to nine. Soon, The Big Ones would be here, snatching my friends up here and there, devouring them with no mercy, distributing them amongst The Littler Ones just so they're satisfied.

Ding dong! Ding dong!

The clock had chimed nine while I was amidst my brooding and dread of The Big Ones. All at once, my friends in the aisle started whispering. Some, like M&M, cried louder, and even Reeses couldn't calm them down. I was then overcome by an abundance of feeling that I didn't know what to think of. My arms became jelly and so did my legs. Well, not literally. My heart raced, and my vision became fuzzy, almost as if I was put in a blender.

The Big Ones entered through a door that invisible hands were pushing, they grabbed the green boxes with holes, then they started seizing all of my friends in the aisle. The brave ones, like Giant Lollipop, let out a roar of protest and tried to take back the unfortunate, but, like all candies, were unmoving, vulnerable, and incapable. "It's true!" some yells.

Eventually, the brave ones realized that they were no match, and the commotion dwindled. And so, we were all helpless as we watched our friends - who we'd known less than three days, get devoured by green boxes with holes.

*****

I don't remember the exact time I became aware, just that I did. I didn't think anything about the ones who put us in the square thing, or about when the square thing started moving. It was dark and stuffy, and I felt movement beside me but didn't feel threatened. Instead, I stayed still. I didn't know what was going on, but somehow, I ended up here, in this... dump?

I wasn't the only one who was confused, seeing that the others started being conscious of this situation. Soon, the atmosphere was filled with voices of wonder.

"What is this place?"

"How-"

"My back hurts-"

"Shut up!"

However, amongst all those voices, one stood out. A grumpy, rough voice.

"Y'all better shut your mouths! I am so tired of hearing you chit-chattering. Do you know what you're in for? Do you know where we are?"

No one had an answer to that, but someone bold enough yelled, "Who are you, crotchety old man? Who do you think you are to boss us around?"

It seemed that his defiance had spread, and the atmosphere was once more filled with voices, not of wonder, but of complaint.

"Yeah, who're you?"

"Bossy, no-good old one!"

"You shut up!"

It went on like that for minutes, everyone oblivious to the fact that we didn't know where we were, or why the old one seemed to make a point. Eventually, though, the noise died down, which only gave the old one a chance to speak.

"You wanna know who I am? I'll tell you who I am. I'm Reeses, and I'm the only one who knows where you are, and what'll happen to you! Don't believe me? We're candy, we're in a truck, and these square things are called boxes."

A gasp echoed throughout the... truck. It was obvious that Reeses was cognizant of basically everything they didn't know. Now that he had everyone's attention, he cleared his throat and continued. "This truck, do you know where they're taking us?" He questioned in a softer tone. "They're taking us to the supermarket. They'll sell us like slaves, but worse, eat us 'til there's no one left!"

At that, everyone collectively let out a whimper of fear, and it was, or so it seemed, tinged with a touch of amusement, as if some didn't believe him. However, the ones who did let into the fear, or collapsed into it, and started bawling. After some solace from others, everyone quieted down again to listen to old Reeses.

"They have this occasion, what's it called? Hallows eve? They buy us, candy, then-"

"Hold on, who is "they"?" Someone interjected.

Reeses squinted in the direction of the voice. "You there, in the..." he squinted more, "white packaging, is it?"

As if on cue, the light shifted and the truck was filled with light. I let out a muted gasp as the light softly illuminated my surroundings. It was beautiful. From where I was, Reeses was surrounded by a spectrum of colors, and what resembled a rainbow reflected off his flashy orange packaging. There was a murmur of appreciation, and Reeses hummed in satisfaction. This was, no doubt, the first time they had seen light, besides Reeses. I casted my eyes down, and, for the first time, got to see what I looked like. I was in mostly red plastic packaging with a white circle surrounding the big red letters Kit Kat. The edges of my packaging were sharp, and when I swiveled my eyes around, caught a fair amount of black words and a black square with dots in weird places. I looked peculiar, and so did the others. Some had shiny blue packaging, and some had white ones with the word Dream.

"The Big Ones are doing this to us," Reeses's sudden voice pulled me back to the direness of the situation. "They have a word for it, h-humans? Doesn't matter, on this occasion, they buy us, and then give them to The Littler Ones - smaller versions of themselves. When we reach the market, The Big Ones'll come, and then that's it. We're done. There's nothing we can do about it."

Nothing was worse for them than that sentence. There was nothing they could do about it. They were going to die and there was nothing they could do about it. Not one person in the truck wanted to believe that, so naturally, they started questioning him. Again.

"Who told you this? How do you know?"

"How are we supposed to know you aren't trying to eat us?"

"Everyone enough!" Reeses yelled. "You don't have to believe me, but if you want to know what'll happen to you, I'm the best source of information you've got. Do you want to know where I got this information? I got it from another piece of candy. Her name was Jelly Bean. The Big Ones got clumsy, dropped me on the floor, and she was right there, at the corner, forgotten. The Big Ones make us with machines, she told me. The particular company that made us was called Cadbury, a company, she stated, from Australia. They sold us to make money, but on that day, they were making a lot more, because it was close to... Halloween! That's the word! At any rate, I guess she thought it right to apprise me of this information. She told me about Halloween, about this truck, and the market." Reeses took a deep breath. "But then The Big Ones picked me up before she could say a word more."

The once beautiful lighting was now one of trepidation and certain foreboding.

During the silence that followed the rush of information, I gathered the courage to ask "Did she say anything else? Something you left out?"

After a pause, Old Reeses looked me dead in the eye, and said, "Que Sera Sera."

*****