Chapter Text
Pure vanilla cookie woke up out of his weird trance, Gingerbrave and Wizard gathered around him and White lily was helping him get up. Dark Cinnamon was still rubbing her eyes from the sudden blue fire that combusted all around the Faerie Kingdom and Chili Pepper put her hand on her shoulder.
“You good?” she asks
“Yeah, I’m fine. Now who in Hell- !!!”
Dark Cinnamon stood there silently, looking directly at Shadow milk cookie who so far hasn't recognised her.
“But I- I thought I was just- everyone else can see him right?” she stammers
“I mean, it’s kind of hard not to.” says Chili, not recognizing Cin shaking in fear
“Well then, let's see… I said hello to Pure Vanilla Cookie... That's one. A few Faeries... Two.
Some teeny-tiny Cookies... Three- ! Oh, sillysillysillysilly little cookie, where did you find that~”
Dark Cinnamon was quivering in place, but confused by what he said.
“W-what are you talking about?”
Shadow milk spawns in front of her and grabs her necklace, pulling her neck.
“THIS”
Chili pepper jumps forward and kicks Shadow milk away from Dark Cinnamon
“Leave her alone! The hell is even your deal!?”
“I-I found it in the mines! I was rummaging through some stuff and found it there!”
Shadow milk chuckles to himself slightly and just says, “You really don’t know? It’s okay, I’ll deal with that later… Now where is he! Or did he crumble from old age?”
While Shadow milk is busy taunting Elder faerie, Dark cinnamon starts panicking, she feels a deep pain inside of her chest, she can hardly breath and can only exhale short breaths, her heart starts racing and she starts muttering under her breath “C-could it be a coincidence? No, the appearance is too similar, everything lines up, I-I don’t even know” Chili notices this and gently puts a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” she asks
Dark Cinnamon tilts her head and makes eye contact, barely. “I don’t feel- I’m gonna go…” She bit her lip and just ran in a random direction.
“Hey! Wait up!” Chili shouts, running after her “We have to stay together!”
They both ran in the (now corrupted) Library in the Faerie kingdom. Dark Cinnamon ran out of breath and sat on the floor beside a bookshelf. Chili pepper finally caught up and sat down next to her. Cin attempts to take deep breaths by counting with her fingers until she calms down and rests her head against the bookshelf, it’s not comfy but it’ll do for the time being. Chili scootches over and tries to get answers out of her.
“Babe, what’s wrong?”
“...”
“What I saw was not normal at all, especially for you. I don’t have a clear idea of what happened now, but I want to help you. So can you please explain?”
Dark cinnamon sits there silently, she tilts her head away and gets up.
“It doesn't matter right now, I don’t wanna be here anymore.”
“But-”
“Let’s just find a way to leave, the sooner we end this the better.”
Cin gets up and walks off, so Chili had no other choice but to follow her.
They both were wandering around the Faerie kingdom, or rather what’s left of it. Fires were combusting left and right and Faeries that lived there became distorted and didn’t act like their true selves.
Dark cinnamon got more and more agitated as time went on, as they were walking around, every bump every trip only increased her annoyance. One time she tripped on a rock and got mad so she grabbed it and threw it off in the distance. Chili pepper knew that something was wrong, but knowing she probably won't get any answers, she ignored it and continued on looking for the kingdom gate.
Chili hoped that things would get better and that Cin would calm down, but she didn't. Several unpleasant thoughts circled around her mind, wondering why Shadow milk was here, and why he was after her necklace? She didn’t remember doing anything wrong, so she just got more irritated trying to think about it.
Cinnamon eventually stopped in her tracks, grabbing her head trying to think about something, ANYTHING else. It gave her a headache.
“Cin,” Chili pepper grabbed onto Dark cinnamon’s arm “You’re not doing okay, you need to calm down!”
“Calm? How the FUCK, DO YOU EXPECT ME TO STAY CALM RIGHT NOW!?” the fact Chili said that tipped her over the edge “YOU DON’T JUST SEE YOUR SLEEP PARALYSIS DEMON, ABOUT AND ABOUT, AND EXPECT ME TO TREAT IT NORMALLY!”
Chili was taken aback by shock, she knew that she wasn’t okay but anyone would be taken off guard by this. “I swear Chili, if one more thing happens, IM GONNA FUCKING LOSE IT-” she abruptly stops, she felt something around her ankle, what resembled a feral butter tiger was nibbling at her ankle bone, it was small and young, it didnt even hurt, it barely grew any teeth. She lost it.
“ARGH!!”
“CINNAMON WHAT THE-”
Dark cinnamon grabbed her hunters knife and stabbed it right in the middle of it, killing them in one blow, but it wasn’t enough. SLICE! It still wasn’t enough, not enough, not enough, not enough, notenoughnotenoughnotenoughnotenoughnotenoughnotenough-
The only thing left were bread crumbs. She used her sleeve to wipe off the excess on the blade and put it back in her satchel. She stared at Chili pepper who was still paralysed by shock. Right when she was going to look away, Chili grabbed her hand and stared back, not with an expression of anger or disappointment, but concern.
“Breath with me. In, and out. In, and out.”
They both follow along until Dark cinnamon calmed down. She looked back and Chili, who was just smiling, glad she was okay now. Cin began to cry, and fell into Chili’s arms. They both hugged back, Cin’s sobbing soaked Chili’s vest. She didn’t mind, just glad she was back.
Once she finished crying, Chili whipped the tears off Cinnamon’s eyes. They both looked at each other, smiling. If they could freeze this moment in time, they would. They didn’t want it to end.
But good things never last forever.
They both felt puppet strings wrap around their limbs, they yelped as they got taken into the sky with everyone else.
“A warm round of applause for our new star, please!"
After White lily cookie mended the seal, Dark cinnamon decided to go to a nearby bridge in the Faerie kingdom. She leaned over the edge and stared off into space, she was still trying to wrap her head around everything that happened to her today. Shadow milk cookie, her necklace, why she was even wrapped into this whole mess in the first place. She slammed her head on the guardrail, making an audible grunt. She then felt a tap on her shoulder and got up to look to her left, she saw Chili pepper next to her looking slightly worried.
“Hey, wanna talk about what happened today?” she asked
“Sure”
“Neat”
Chili grabbed some nearby pebbles and was slowly throwing them into the nearby ocean.
“Earlier you mentioned something about a sleep paralysis demon, wanna start there?”
“Oh right, I did say that didn’t I, hehe… Y’know about a month ago, a little after we went through that mineshaft to find anything interesting?”
“Yea?”
“Well, after I got that blue gem and made it into the necklace. For the past few weeks after that. I couldn’t sleep. I kept having recurring nightmares and sleep paralysis, and when I did, I always saw the same shadowy figure. It looked EXACTLY like Shadow milk cookie.”
“O-oh, oh…”
“I only connected the dots now, but I feel like this necklace has something to do with him, considering his well, strong reaction to it.”
“Huh…”
Chili grabbed her last pebble and threw it hard into to the lake
“Any ideas on how to fix it then?” Chili asked
“Not sure, I wanna find out how it started, getting rid of the necklace seems like a good way to stop it, but I feel like it will be important to figuring it out. I don’t think Shadow milk will take destroying it, too well. And giving it to him seems like making him get exactly what he wants, which is never a good thing.”
“Welp”
Chili slightly taps her feet
“Seems like we’re kind of in a gridlock then?”
“I’m afraid so”
Chili pouted, she hated seeing her girlfriend like this, but not being able to help was even worse.
“Well we should prolly tell the others about this, this might be useful to helping defeat Shadow milk,”
She grabbed Cin’s hand and looked confidently in her eyes
“But don’t worry, I’ll help however I can and we’ll get to the bottom of this!”
She grabbed Cinnamon in for a headlock and ruffled her hair
“You hear me!?”
“Hehe, stop~”
“Make me!”
Cinnamon broke free and kissed Chili pepper, who froze instantly. Tastes spicy
“Happy now?” Cinnamon said who looked cheekily at her face
“Y-yea…” Chili pepper blushed and looked away, Cinnamon chuckled
“Aw, aren't you two an item.” Carameleon cookie said as he jumped behind them
“BITCH, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STARING!?”
“DO THAT AGAIN AND I’LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!!!"
“Woah no need to get hasty, just wanna tell you that the Faeries prepared a feast in honour of Elder faerie, I thought you’d wanna come”
“Hell yea, I’m starving! Ya comin’ Dark cinnamon?”
“Y’know what? Sure, I could use a bite”
“So you're telling me, your necklace might be connected to shadow milk cookie!?” Gingerbrave asked in shock
“Yep, everything lines up”
“Then we must hold onto it, we cannot let Shadow milk get what he wants!” Pure vanilla stated
“If today showed us anything, than whatever the reason he wants it must be awful” White lily cookie mentioned
They all finished the feast, and were now heading to their rooms in the Inn nearby that the Faeries happily donated to them. They all sat down and were ready to call it a night. There weren't enough beds so Chill pepper and Dark cinnamon had to share one, same with Pure vanilla and White lily. They all turned off the lights and went to sleep.
Most of them slept peacefully, Dark cinnamon however, had a hard time trying to get some shut eye, she woke up early into the night because of another nightmare, it was the same thing for weeks. She tried tossing and turning but couldn’t get back to sleep. The anxious thoughts were starting to fill her head, that’s when she felt Chili pepper hold her hand, she looked at her who was smiling, her eyes slightly agape.
“I love you Cinnamon” she whispered “and I always will”
They both leaned in for a hug, they cuddled and snuggled up as they both doze off,
And for the first time
In a very long time
Dark cinnamon slept peacefully that night.