Chapter Text
Candle walks over to the cliffside, eyelashes fluttering. The wind was stronger than it usually was today, but that wasn't a big deal for her. Candle sat down, flattening her mat as she lit tinier candles She put on her wired earbuds, and then played the soft tone she played every time she meditated. Today, she was feeling for a more outdoor session, as being inside meant being interrupted by other contestants. Candle breathed in and out, a tiny smile emerging on her face. She was feeling good about herself today, because she had gotten new lavender candles, even though she had the exact same scent. "Ahh," Candle softly moaned at the smell. The wind blew Candle's flame around a bit, but that was fine. Her flame grew a bit at the inner excitement from herself. She listened to the wind softly speak to her.
"Hello again, Miss Candle..." the Wind said, speaking in a tone that only Candle could hear. The voice was as if Candle would've been a male. "Hello, wind..." Candle said, softly speaking with her low-toned voice. That was how she always spoke to everyone, even though she could speak in a higher toned voice. "How are you and your girlfriend doing? I hear your relationship has recently spiked..." the Wind asked. "Yes, it did. I'm glad you asked! Me and my dear Clover have been dating a lot more, so that's nice! How are you? Did you get your chamomile tea back?" Candle replied. She was always polite to most people if they reciprocated the kindness back to her. The Wind was no exception to this rule, answering, "Aha, yes, I did! Thank you for asking, Candle. I'm doing very good, dear." Candle giggled. She loved talking with the wind. Suddenly, she felt another spirit talking behind her. Oh no. It was the Attacker, the spirit that would visit once every month. The Attacker would taunt Candle and make her lose her self-esteem. "Heeeeey, Candy!" the Attacker said. "Attacker, you know only Clover can use that nickname on me!" Candle replied, opening her eyes. Her soft smile was replaced with her baring her teeth. "Ohhh, really? Well, explain this!" the Attacker pushed the Wind to reveal a collection of past memories, in which people are calling Candle "Candy" in a mocking sense.
Candle quietly growled. "Stop lying to me! I know it's all fake!" the Attacker then said, "Damn. It took you that long? Maybe everyone's mocking you because you lost your spark."
Lost your spark?
Lost my spark?
It can't be.
No. No. NO!
Candle started breathing heavily and hyperventilating, entering her subconscious.
Oh, please, don't let it be! Don't let my spark be lost! Oh, is this because I stopped believing in HIM? Oh, I'm indubitably sorry! Oh, Lord! Hear my pleas for help, oh, please! Save me from this monstrosity! I don't want to lose my spark! Lord! Oh, lord! Please! Let me succumb to you! I'll exalt you again! PLEASE! PLEASE!
Tears started falling from Candle's eyes as she breathed more heavily. The Wind was now in the Attacker's control. The Attacker swished the wind around, and Candle could feel raindrops start to fall from the clouds. Candle winced and moaned in pain as her flame lessened and lessened. The wind started pushing Candle off of the cliff, and the little candles fell to the bottom, making a huge fire. As Candle was tossed around, she hung on to her mat. Suddenly, the "wind" heavily pushed Candle off of the cliff. Candle started screaming as the flame at the bottom grew bigger and bigger. She knew MePhone4 was gone. She couldn't be recovered. Ever. She tried to grab on any of the branches, trying to hold on to any. Suddenly, she hit the ground, and burst into flames. Candle screamed louder in pain, and she started melting under all of the heat and the pressure that she was facing. "Oh, Lord Cobs! Save me! SAVE ME!" Candle screamed as she melted into a weird purple goop.
About an hour later, Clover had begun searching for Candle. She was usually not gone for this long. "CANDLE?" Clover called out. Clover could barely live without Candle at times, as she had heavy outbursts sometimes. She had borrowed Test Tube's geolocator to find Candle after begging a lot of times, to which Test Tube sighed and gave in. She handed Clover the geolocator and trusted her with it. Clover frantically put Candle's details in the search bar, and--
CANDLE
LOCATION: CRAPPY CLIFF, BOTTOM
STATUS: DEAD
The word DEAD rang in Clover's ears like an annoyance. Over and over again it went through her head.
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
"What? No, no, no, this has gotta be fake, right?" Clover muttered to herself.
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
DEAD
CANDLE IS DEAD.
Clover fell to her knees, crying. Apple and Bow noticed the crying wood sorrel and ran over. "What's wrong, Clover?" Apple asked. "Yeah, girl? What's the tears for?" Bow chimed in. Clover managed to say something instead of her unintelligible blubbering, which was: "CANDLE'S DEAD!" Apple and Bow gasped. "Oh gosh, Clover. I'm so sorry," Apple said. "We can talk if that's what you want, girlie!" Bow offered. Clover politely declined and asked to talk later instead. Apple and Bow both nodded and patted Clover. "Let it all out." Apple told Clover. "Thanks, guys," Clover said as she let out a series of small sobs. "I love you guys." Bow smiled a bit and said, "Of course, girl! We're, like, always here for you!"
As Clover sat down in the first seat of the first row, she saw multiple drops of rain fall on Candle's reconstructed body. She grumbled something about unluckiness in the air, but nobody could hear it. She wiped her tears with a handkerchief she borrowed from Candle's best friend, Silver Spoon, the fanciest guy everybody knew. He would have been considered a gentleman to some if he wasn't so pessimistic to most people in the third season of the show. In fact, he's now dating his former archnemesis, Paintbrush. Clover looked at Silver Spoon and Paintbrush conversing about serious topics about Candle, and waved at them. The pair looked up and qaved back, a sullen expression on their faces. A huge photograph of Candle is displayed on an easel, and Clover is using every gram of her strength to not cry. Suddenly, a painful ringing noise is heard around the cemetery, and Clover looks up. It's MePhone4, the host whom she had admired a lot. She still likes to talk with him and converse with him through text, but autocorrect can not correct MePhone's heavy spelling mistakes most of the time. MePhone4 was tapping the microphone to check if it was working, and he began speaking.
"Ahem… Candle… was not just a contestant to us. To many, she wasa friend, a helper, sometimes even a witch. But, she was considered another half to another contestant. Clover, would you like to say a few words?" MePhone offered. This was unusual, as MePhone was never this polite, but she could not decline this offer. She nodded and walked up to the stage, noticably trembling. "Candle… she was… a beautiful soul. Every day, I would feel her aura encapsulate in our hotel room, and… she… she was an amazing girlfriend… I… I…" Clover tried spitting out the words she needed to say, but physically couldn't. "I… I'm sorry-!" Clover said before retreating to her seat, quietly sobbing.
There were some empty seats next to her, and MePhone4 decided to sit down next to her. They were not best friends, but they were not enemies. As Cammy, MePhone's boyfriend, began his speech, MePhone sighed. "I'm really, really sorry for your loss," he said. Clover said a quick "thank you" before looking down at the rain patter on her knees. "If you would like to, you can talk to me later." Clover said thank you again, and the two sat there awkwardly, listening to Cammy finish his empowering speech.
After the funeral had wrapped up, Clover had walked back to her hotel room. She fumbled with her keys and opened the room, still smelling lavender. Because of muscle memory, Clover dodged everything that Candle had to not disturb. Oh, right. She's gone now. She'll never-
1 New Message from "2 Contacts"
"Hm?" Clover said as she opened the message up.
Apple: hai cluver, ist me! appel! bow end miii disided to make a geesee fur yoo! to tolk, obvassily!
Bow: hi cloves! ~`_`~ its me, bow!! sorry abt apple, as u know, shes SO dyslexic. ill transl8 for you if thats okay!! :3
Clover: oh hey! '.' i think my luck can be put to understanding apple :P
Apple: bo
Apple: wat ees dislegsyx
Bow: it means you cant spell correctly… u should know by now
Apple: i cent cpel? :(
Bow: no :/
Apple: awswwwss
Clover shut her phone off and sat it on her nightstand. She turned off the lights, and her conciousness started fading… and fading… and-
Clover wakes up. She stares at the light reflecting from the window behind her. She doesn't even bother getting up anymore. All she wants is her girlfriend back. She stares at the ceiling with pure emptiness in her eyes. She turns over and grabs her phone. It's been 3 days since she's done that, and that was the day Candle died.
1,038 New Messages
"Ugh… who is it now…" Clover muttered to herself. Little did she know, she was falling into a deep, deep depression.
786 New Messages From "Bow"
114 New Messages From "Apple"
100 New Messages From "2 Contacts"
30 New Messages From "MePhone4"
6 Messages From "Paintbrush"
2 Messages From "Silver Spoon"
Clover clicked and checked through all of the messages, expecting the same thing: "Hi Clover, I'm sorry, can we talk?" It's like she wanted to get up to an imaginary stage and yell "NO!". She was not looking forward to talking with anybody. Her face was stained with tears, and she had barely eaten anything. OJ was sent up to check on Clover. OJ knocked on her door. "Clover? You in there?" Paper was behind him with a fearful expression on his face. Clover sprang up, and said, "I-In a minute!" Clover tried getting off of bed, but she landed face-first on the floor, yet by miraculous luck, her legs held onto the bed, and she hopped down. She ran to clean up every thing in her room before gleefully opening the door. "Hiiiii, guys!" OJ's expression still stayed disappointed. "Clover... please... a lot of people are missing you. This is not okay. Please... come outside for at least one day." Clover's smile faltered. "I... I'll think about it..." OJ smiled a bit, and said, "Thanks, Clover. See you soon." Clover cheerfully said, "Byeee!" and sat down on the floor sobbing. "Candle..." Clover muttered to herself. If only her spirit were here. If only.
1,039 New Messages
"...?" Clover looked at her phone. Paintbrush had texted her again. Why not, she thought, as she opened up their messages tab.
Paintbrush: hey clover, sorry about candle. feel better soon!
Paintbrush: clover? are you good?
Paintbrush: clover
Paintbrush: oh wait
Paintbrush: you're probably still grieving
Paintbrush: sorry, text me when you can.
--
Paintbrush: hello!
Clover decided to respond to Paintbrush, not to the 1,032 other messages. Clover rubbed her eyes from the tears and began typing.
Clover: hai paintbrush! ^_^
Paintbrush: how are you feeling?
Clover: could be better :( you?
Paintbrush: good! im having a little talk w/ silver about some things!
Clover: coolio!
She waited a moment before going to the bathroom. She turned on the lights, grabbed her toothbrush, and started brushing her teeth with the most force. She never felt clean at all. She brushed faster and faster until her gums started bleeding a couple of minutes. She winced from the pain, but continued. She wanted to be clean. She was disgusting. She knew it. "Ugh! Clover! You disgusting freak! Get clean! GET CLEAN!" she screamed at herself. Suddenly, Paintbrush started calling Clover. The phone rang in the bedroom, and Clover looked at it with fear. She spit out her toothpaste and answered the call. Clover said in a much cheerful tone, "Hiii, Paintbrush!" Paintbrush responded with, "Hey, Clover! I've noticed you haven't come out of your room in, like, three days. Is everything alright?" Clover paused for a moment. She didn't know whether to mask herself or to start bawling to a contestant she didn't talk to a lot of the time. She wanted to be as honest as possible, but didn't know what would occur in the following moments if she did. She finally decided to start bawling on call with Paintbrush. "No! Nothing's alright, Paintbrush! Nothing!" Paintbrush suddenly felt a pang of guilt and sadness. "Oh, dear. Would you like to talk to me about it?" Clover waited for a moment before slowly nodding and whimpering, "Yes." She decided to start venting to Paintbrush about everything's that gone on in her life since Candle died. Paintbrush was listening to every word, and was giving her advice on how to continue with certain things. When Clover finally finished, she and Paintbrush found a place to meet and a time, which was this Thursday at 7:30 PM. Silver Spoon would also be there, but Clover hoped it wouldn't turn into a date. She didn't really want to see a couple dating right after her girlfriend had died. Surely, it wouldn't take a lot of energy to get out and eat, right? Probably. Clover flopped back into bed, taking her phone and doomscrolling on the social media app she usually used.
When Candle was melting into a messy goop, her spirit was floating into the afterlife. She went up and up and looked as she saw what was her body melt in the fire. Since Candle was now just a spirit, that meant she was just a ghost. She had shamefully used to believe in Steve Cobs for some weird reason, so when she floated up, she met Cobs. "Oh, hello, Candle. Sources show you've recently died." Candle now had a tail since she was a ghost, and that tail faltered. "Hello... Lord Cobs." Candle quietly said. "So... how did you die?" Cobs asked. Candle trembled for a bit before finally responding with, "I... I fell to the bottom of a cliff." Cobs stifled his laughter. "Sorry about that. Was it on purpose, or...?" Candle shook her head. Her voice echoed across the entire... room? "No, it wasn't, tch. I was meditating, and the wind pushed me off." Cobs waited for a moment before saying, "That's bad."
Candle asked Cobs something. "As a... um, believer, can I ask you something?"
Cobs replied in a slightly cheerful tone: "Sure, Candle. Ask away! I wouldn't let a non-Cobbian talk to me! Hah!"
"Thanks.
"Of course."
"So... when I die, what'll happen? Will I stay a ghost? Reincarnate? Go in heaven? What will happen?"
"Oh. When you die, you will have a choice. You can stay a ghost if you want, or you can reincarnate, or you can go in heaven. It's really your choice after all. You know, it's a special part of being a Cobbian, haha! So, what will it be, Candle?"
Candle waited for a tiny moment before deciding where to go. She had lots of thoughts about this before, so it wasn't really challenging for her to answer the question.
"Reincarnation."
"Oh, wow! That was quick, heh."
"Please, Lord Cobs. Reincarnate me into the prettiest butterfly one could gaze upon. Keep my purple color and my sort of confident personality. I beg you."
"Sure. Gimme a sec."
Steve and Candle awkwardly waited until Candle's vision started going out. Then, she saw a little butterfly right next to her. Cobs transferred the spirit to the butterfly, causing a very painful experience for the butterfly and Candle. By the time Cobs was finished, the butterfly had lost all of its memories and Candle had completely taken its body over as if she was possessing something. But instead, she had specially reincarnated into a beautiful and now purple butterfly with radiant wings and way more things that people would not want to stop staring at.
It's been a week. Today, Clover is supposed to meet Silver Spoon and Paintbrush for a discussion this evening. Clover sat down at her desk and looked at her mirror. She was beginning to rot a bit, and she had breath worse than a person who would frequently eat onions. She grabbed her toothbrush, and scrubbed for a bit before slamming her head on the desk. "What's even the point of this?" Clover murmured to herself. She wanted to take a breath of fresh air, but she also wanted to stay inside at the same time. She loved hanging out with her contestant mates, or however she said it, but she was afraid they would bring Candle up, which she did not want to hear. She heard her phone ring for a bit, and saw that Paintbrush was calling her. She decided to answer, thinking nothing would go wrong, but nevertheless, it did.
"Hi, Clover!" Paintbrush said. Clover stuttered with her words for a moment before hanging up. She turned pink from the embarrassment she just got. She walked over to her desk, and saw a bottle of green perfume. She got her perfume, and spritzed it all over herself. She wanted to be fancy on the meetup that she was invited to. But, luck would always find its way into making Clover the cutest yet most beautiful soul on the planet. She was a four leaf woodsorrel, right? She was the embodiment of luck. When 7:30 rolled around, Clover floated down to the entrance of the Reality Restaurant. By floating, it was actually her struggling to fight the wind, but eventually overtaking it in the end. Maybe the wind wanted to reunite with a person or object reminiscent to Candle? Clover thought about that until she saw Paintbrush and Silver Spoon walk to Clover. "Hey, Clover!" Paintbrush. "Greetings, Madam Woodsorrel," Silver Spoon chimed in. A bashful Clover greeted the two back, saying, "Eek! I… Madam Woodsorrel? I… I-I…" Silver Spoon muttered something unintelligible while slightly tilting his head. "Is everything alright, madam?" Clover nodded and laughed before entering the restaurant.
Soap was today's greeter and the trio's waitress for the Reality Restaraunt. She was one of some people with obsessive compulsive disorder, but nobody minded unless they made a tiny mess. Then they saw a much angrier side of the waitress. "Hello, and welcome to the Reality Restaraunt! Come with me." Soap said while walking the three objects over to a booth. She grabbed a towel she was holding and wiped a tiny spot of ketchup off of it. "Sorry. You know how some people are, right? Heehee!" Soap tried to be as cheerful as possible as to not offend or sadden any of the customers. She then took the towel from the table and sat everyone down. "So, what would you three like to order today?" Soap said. Clover placed her order for a salad, Paintbrush got "anything Silver wants", in which Silver had ordered tiramisu. "Well, I can't always eat fancy!" Paintbrush guffawed softly and said, "Sure." When Soap walked over to Trophy to exchange the slip of paper the order had been on, the three started discussing about the current state of their host, Fan. The OSC had decided to suspend the game after Fan's health began to immensely decline.
"So... how's your relationship... guys?" Clover asked. She was getting more nervous by the second. "Ours? Uhhh... it's great! You know, we've been, uhh, dating a lot, and stuff like that, hah!" Paintbrush responded. They then noticed Clover's forced smile and decided to question about that. "Clover? Are you okay?" Clover tried laughing it off. "Yeah, yeah I am!" Paintbrush said something, but they were incoherent to Clover's ears. She agreed with everything they said. She couldn't hear her own voice. The tips of her leaves started turning a bit orange. Before it could get any worse, Paintbrush noticed and finished their meal as fast they could, paying the bill and running out of the restaurant. "Ah- guys-!" Soap said. She carefully took an intricate sequence of steps and started vigorously spraying the table.
By the time Paintbrush, Silver Spoon and Clover got in the hospital, her leaves were thirty percent orange. Salt and Pepper had been working on something when they saw Paintbrush holding a faltering Clover. "Oh my gosh! What, like, happened?" Salt asked as she ran to the three. "She's faltering! We don't know what happened!" Paintbrush said, tears brewing in their eyes. Their bristles started slightly glowing, the embers of fire forming. "Okay! Uhh, carry her and follow me!" Salt quickly darted to an empty room with Pepper clutching her clipboard, following Salt closely behind. Paintbrush laid Clover on the hospital bed, comforting her. By now, Clover was in immense pain, and Paintbrush's words were slowly relaxing her more. Salt returned with a sedative to make Clover fall asleep. Since no memories are present when someone is unconscious, Clover would not know what would happen. Once Clover closed her eyes,
Once Clover had gotten out of the hospital, she had decided to go outside and relax for a bit. She always loved being in nature, as it calmed her down most of the time. While it sometimes reminded her of Candle, she didn't mind the memories. If anything, she would smile at the fact that she got to meet Candle, let alone date her. She sighed as she laid on the grass, staring at the blue sky and the occasional scattered clouds. She heard footsteps behind her, and turned over, lying on her stomach. It was Taco and Microphone, the manipulative-turned-popular couple. They were talking about something that Clover didn't hear. Clover did not want to pry into their personal lives nor their discussion, but Microphone noticed Clover turned towards them. "Hey, Clover! Wanna join us?" Clover nodded and sat down next to Microphone. Clover wanted to ask them what they were talking about, but she felt embarrassed thinking about it. Taco turned her head towards Clover and said, "Clover, you know you can talk with us if you want, right? For the matter, it would be sublime if you joined us."
Clover laughed and apologized. "Sooo... what are you talking about?" Microphone cheerfully replied, "Oh, we're talking about a time we saw a weird creature in the forest. Taco was sooo scared." Taco playfully nudged Microphone and retaliated by saying, "No, I was absolutely not scared! I was anything but 'scared', Microphone!" Microphone, in response, fought back. Taco and Microphone continued skittishly insulting each other while Clover stared into the open nature in front of her. She then noticed a purple butterfly fluttering. She walked closer to it. "Clover? Are you okay?" Taco asked. Clover took her finger out for the butterfly to land on, which it did. Clover only muttered one thing to the butterfly.
"Candle would've loved you."