Into Kandy Land

“Avery would you be willing to show this young man around the school?” my teacher asked me.

            “Sure,” I saw without a second thought. How was I supposed to know that those words were leading me into a world I didn’t think possible? I turned to the new kid, a tall dark boy.

            “Thank you, I’ll be in the teacher’s lounge if you should need me,” the teacher just waves and walks away after that.

            “I’m Avery Heart,” I say extending my hand. The boy shakes it saying,

            “John Smith,” I laugh,

            “That’s funny,” I say. He just smiles. “So what would you like to see?” I ask. Up to this point I’d been helping clean the class room. I’m part of our school’s beatification club.

            “I don’t want to disturb anyone but I’d love to see the library,” he says.

            “That wouldn’t disturb anyone, but since today is Friday I don’t think anyone will be there except the librarian.” I start to lead him down the halls pointing out important things on the way to the library like the lunch room, the cleanest bathrooms, and different club rooms. “Do you like books then?” I ask as we walk into the library.

            “I do. I can remember, word for word, anything I read,” he says.

            “Really?” I ask, “That’s an amazing ability.” I start to walk again so I could show him where the computers are in the library.

            “Not really,” he says. “Where I come from it’s quite conmen.”

            “Where did you live before?” I ask as I demonstrate how to boot up the computer. It’s an older model so it takes some time to warm up.

            “Far away, my parents are still there though. I think I’ll go see them the first chance I get? What about you Miss Heart?”

            “Call me Avery. I live near the school. My family died when I was small. After I turned fifteen I got emancipated and started living on my own.”

            “That’s very brave of you.” He says.

            “What about you? I ask, “Why are you here if your family isn’t?”

            “Too meet you,” he says. I start to laugh again.

“That work on the girls at your last school?” I ask.

“Not really,” he says starting to laugh himself. “Avery may I ask, is that your natural hair and eye color?”

“They are. I know it’s a bit unusual to have white hair and red eyes, but I can assure you I’m not sick and this is completely natural.” The computer is finally warmed up and ready to use. “So if you click on this you can search for books in the library and if you click on this you can search the web.” I say. He moves the keyboard to one side of the desk asking,

“May I?” as he does so. I nod, and he begins typing in the web browser.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said that I came here to meet you Miss Heart. I came here to bring you back with me.” He says. There’s something in his voice, he’s changed from the boy I was talking to just a minute ago into something scary.

“Are you feeling okay? You don’t sound right. You know that really isn’t funny. You should think of some new material.” I say trying not to let the panic rise in my voice.

“Miss Heart, I’m from a place called Kandy Land, a place where you belong. I was sent to get you and bring you back. And I intend to do just that.” Suddenly he stops his frantic typing into the search bar and hits the enter button. You’re time for living on this planer ran out, so please don’t hate me for taking you back.” He says this still looking at the computer. I look at it now too. On the website is a single button, it reads ‘ENTER’. Before I even know why, I try to stop him from pushing the button, but I’m too late, he clicks it. As I try to stand to get away from him I’m suddenly engulfed in white light and I can feel myself being pulled towards something. The last words I hear before I black out are his saying, “Find me in Kandy Land.”