Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait! I got my booster shot and stuff so...
Pastry opened her eyes to be greeted with darkness. Rolling over, she glanced at the clock. It was only one in the morning.
How did I wake up this early? she wondered, turning onto her back and staring up at the dark ceiling. Oatmeal's quiet snoring came from the bed on the other side of the room.
Pastry tried to fall asleep again but just couldn't. She sighed loudly, then looked over at Oatmeal's bed in alarm, straining her ears to sense if there was movement
All serene. She gently swung her legs over the side of the bed, curling her toes on the soft carpet. Pastry felt pretty hungry since she hadn't eaten much last night, Reverend Mother had sent her back out to go searching for cakehounds.
Pastry lit a candle in the hallway and set off towards the kitchen. As she padded quietly along, she glanced at the pictures that were engraved on the walls. The painting looked so much more different at night. Darker. More mysterious. It felt like the witches' eyes were trailing after her and she shivered involuntarily, speeding her pace up a notch.
After a few minutes of walking, Pastry reached the kitchen. She coughed as she was hit in the face with a cloud of dust as the doors swung open.
She used her candle to light up all the candles in the corners of the room, illuminating the large area. White and peach colored stuff covered the tables, glowing a dim orange under the firelight.
They didn't clean up the kitchen? Pastry wondered. She trailed her fingers across the table, causing dark marks to appear on the otherwise powdered surface. When she pulled her fingers away, they were covered with the stuff.
"Pasty Cookie," she said to herself as she wiped her hand off with a cloth. Pastry got a larger towel and started wiping off the tabletop. After she finished the table, she swept the floor. As she was trying to get a few specks of dust that were stubbornly collected between two small cracks in a shelf, her stomach gurgled loudly. Pastry had completely forgotten why she was in the kitchen in the first place. Yes. Food.
She opened the fridge, searching for anything good. A jar of cakehound eyes... leftover cakehound legs... cakehound grilled tongues... cakehound sandwiches... Pastry shut the fridge quickly. She just couldn't see the food the same as before after the tower. Especially after she saw Red Velvet.
Red Velvet...
Pastry thought of the cake monster who was locked in the dungeon. The Reverend Mother's right hand was hidden in her sleeve after she came up from the dungeons... Pastry did not know if that meant anything.
Pastry glanced at the char siu cakehound buns that were leftover from yesterday's supper. It was Pastry's favorite food, she ate at least ten of them a day. Now she couldn't even stomach a single bite without thinking of Red Velvet and how affectionate he was with his cakehound.
She flipped through the guide of the kitchen and recipes that the Mothers had made so that the cookies who were on cooking duty could find all the ingredients.
Cakehound crisps... cakehound fried rice... cakehound tart jampie... No, I need to find something with no cakehounds needed for the recipe. Cakehound prime rib, cakehound skewers, Philly Cheesecakehound, cakehound hater's pizza, cakehound meat tenderizer, roasted cakehound-in-a-blanket, cakehound eye soup, cakehound cheese crispers...
"Ah-ha!" Pastry cried out with joy. Bare Bear Sandwich! That shouldn't require any cakehounds. She glanced at the recipe. Ingredients: 2 Bare Bears- "Dangit! We don't have any Bare Bears left in stock. I should order some from The World's #1 Bare Bear Trafficking Center (Totally Not Suspicious) (Totally Not A Blackmarket) (Rated Five Stars Because We Kill Ones That Say Otherwise Or Threaten To Eat Their Families)." Pastry frowned in defeat. What was she going to eat, now?
"Pastry Sister?"
Pastry Cookie turned around to see Honey Toffee munching on a handful of cakehound eyes.
"Hello, Honey Toffee Sister," Pastry tried to ignore the fact that she and Honey Toffee both had neglected to put on their veils, "I came for a late night snack."
"Me too!" Honey Toffee said. She suddenly looked worried. "You won't tell the mothers, will you?"
"No, I'm here as well, am I not? They never said the kitchens were off-limits at night."
"But Reverend Mother #3 said that if we came here, we would get punished!" Honey Toffee frowned, "Or was that Reverend Mother #8?"
"They did?" Pastry asked, surprised. She was not aware of that rule.
"Oh, she must have told you, then," Honey Toffee still looked worried. If it had been a few weeks ago, Pastry would have reported Honey Toffee to the mothers without hesitation. Now she wasn't so sure.
"It's okay. Just don't do this again," Pastry decided, "I will not either since I did not know of this rule before."
"Thank you, Sister!" Honey Toffee groveled.
Pastry nodded in acknowledgment. "Are there any meals that don't have cakehound in them?"
"Yeah... why, though?"
Pastry swallowed as discreetly as possible, trying to hide her discomfort. "I don't feel very well after the incident at the cake tower." She decided to tell Honey Toffee an approximate truth. Maybe not the whole truth, but that was more believable than a blatant lie.
"Ah, okay." Honey Toffee stopped shoving cakehound eyes into her mouth and turned to look at Pastry guiltily. She shoved the jar back onto a shelf.
"Would you like to take a walk in the gardens? Or is that forbidden as well?" Pastry suggested.
"No, Sister," Honey Toffee said, "there is no rule against it. I would love to walk with you."
...
Soon enough, the two of them walked in silence, admiring the view of the gardens. It was so different in the dark, with just their candles illuminating the shrubbery. (They were not admiring each other as the suggestions on google doc suggested, no sirree.)
"This is like a whole new world..." Pastry breathed, her voice gliding through the silence. Honey Toffee nodded, a wondrous expression on her face. The candlelight turned her hair such a shade of gold that it practically glowed.
The serenity was interrupted by a scream and crashes as something barged through a nearby building. Pastry pulled out her crossbow, staring into the darkness as she tried to find the source of the noise. Honey Toffee whipped out her knives, twirling them like pistols. Pastry was not sure why she always did that.
The sound got closer and closer.
"HELP!!"
Pastry realized that it was Oatmeal running towards them in the darkness.
"Oatmeal Sister?" Pastry asked incredulously, "What are you doing here!"
"The pr-risoner! The cakehound general, he... he injured Lava Cookie Sister!" Oatmeal sobbed.
"What?! How did he get out?" Pastry questioned as Honey Toffee sucked in a sharp breath.
"N-no, he's still inside. I think. We were feeding him."
"Why would you be feeding him at this time of day? Did Lava Cookie pressure you to do so?" Pastry gritted her teeth. Lava Cookie Sister was one of the most stupid nuns in the monastary.
"Well, I was going to the bathroom and Lava Cookie caught me. She told the Reverend Mother that I was wandering around at night and she gave me a tray of cakehound to give to Red Velvet."
"The Reverend Mother? Asked you?" Pastry was both appalled and confused, "Why?"
"I didn't ask, it was probably my punishment." Oatmeal clasped her hands together and looked up at Pastry tearfully. "Please, I need your help! Lava Cookie Sister is hurt!"
"Alright, I'm coming," Pastry told her. Oatmeal ran back towards the buildings.
"Should I come along?" Honey Toffee asked.
"No, I don't think it's necessary," Pastry responded, calling over her shoulder as she ran towards Oatmeal, "I've got this covered." She was too far away to hear Honey Toffee's response.
As Pastry dashed after Oatmeal, she thought about the situation. Lava Cookie Sister was injured. Wow. So impactful. It was not like Pastry would care about that. Red Velvet was the one that attacked? That made the situation a bit more complicated...
Pastry did not think that Reverend Mother would kill Red Velvet, he was too important of a pawn. Pastry remembered Reverend Mother hiding one of her hands after she went down to the dungeons to negotiate with their prisoner. Maybe Red Velvet had attacked her and she was trying to hide it.
Oatmeal stopped in front of the dungeon door, gasping for breath. Pastry, who was less winded, accepted the keys from Oatmeal's outstretched hands and unlocked the door. The cold of the stone steps cut through Pastry's slippers and she regretted not changing into her boots.
The light of the torches cast eerie shadows on the walls, making Pastry more creeped out than she would have admitted. She grabbed the small rectangle that Oatmeal had been holding and palmed it.
At the bottom of the steps, she saw a lump curled up against the wall of the cell. Lava Cookie Cookie's unconscious body lay near the far wall. Her head was bleeding and she had a weird smile contorted on her face.
As Pastry approached, Red Velvet did not respond, still burying his head on his knees. He only looked up when Pastry unlocked the cell, slamming the door into the wall. He glared at Pastry, scratching his chest with his free arm.
"What are you doing here? Trying to force me to become a cannibal again?" Red Velvet asked coldly, with no hint of emotion in his voice whatsoever.
Pastry felt Oatmeal's eyes turn on her. She knew that Oatmeal was relying on her to... do whatever she was supposed to do to Red Velvet.
"Listen, cake monster," Pastry tried for a commanding tone but she faltered against her will. What WAS she supposed to do? Shock him? Her fingers twitch too lightly to activate the electrocutor or stunner or whatever machine that was that she was probably supposed to zap Red Velvet with. Reverend Mother hadn't gone into too much detail when she announced that it had been equipped on Red Velvet.
"See, I knew she couldn't do it!"
Red Velvet shrunk into himself defensively, staring at the cookie that was standing behind Pastry with hate in his eyes. Without even turning around, Pastry knew who it was.
"Lemon Meringue Sister, I-" Pastry tried to think of an excuse, or to ask Lemon what she was even doing here and who told her that Pastry couldn't "do it."
Lemon Meringue snatched the device out of Pastry's hand so quickly that Pastry clenched her fist in backlash as her palm throbbed painfully. Lemon stomped towards where Red Velvet sat, leaning over him.
"You're going to cooperate," she said in her scary mode tone. Pastry knew that Lemon Meringue was trying to unsettle Red Velvet deliberately as even she got the shivers.
"You think I would? You nuns literally tried to feed me parts of a cakehound!" Red Velvet growled at her.
"So? Cakehounds are essential parts of our diet. Right, Oatmeal?" Lemon Meringue said, unfazed.
Red Velvet stared at them with hatred, his shoulders heaving slightly before resting to a stop, as Oatmeal responded to Lemon Meringue's question.
"Pastry, how come you haven't been eating your favorite char siu cakehounds?" Lemon Meringue asked, turning onto her. Pastry knew that Lemon Meringue was trying to agitate Red Velvet. She probably suspected that she had some sort of different relationship with Red Velvet and was trying to make her look bad in Red Velvet's eyes.
She knew that she should come up with a snappy comeback; a few dozen were already there on the tip of her tongue. But she just couldn't. It was like there was a char siu cakehound bun stuck in her throat.
"If you cooperate, we won't eat your cakehounds anymore." Lemon Meringue added.
"How do I know that you aren't going to break your promise? I order them all to be rounded up, and then you decide to eat all of them?" Red Velvet asked.
Lemon Meringue held her arm out to Red Velvet as if she was offering to help him up. Red Velvet did not oblige; he was staring at the rectangle in her hand. Then Lemon Meringue tapped the button daintily and Red Velvet clenched his teeth immediately, eyes twitching slightly.
Pastry watched in horror as Red Velvet looked down at the floor, breathing loudly.
"How do you like this, Red Velvet Cake?" Lemon Meringue asked.
"I will cooperate! I will cooperate! Please, just stop!" Red Velvet screamed, pain laced throughout his voice.
Pastry never thought she would hear this amount of desperation in Red Velvet's voice. She wondered how much the machine hurt and what it had even done to him. There was no obvious effect of what was happening when Lemon Meringue pressed the button, just Red Velvet's facial features to clue them in.
"See, Pastry?" Lemon Meringue called, her voice cutting through Pastry's horror, "That," she flicked the switch again, causing Red Velvet to collapse on the ground, gasping for breath as his fingers twitched, "is how you deal with him."
Oatmeal screamed. The events of today were probably too much for her to bear and she collapsed into a heap of sobbing. Pastry rubbed her shoulder as she glared at Lemon Meringue.
"Get Lava Cookie out of here," was Lemon's only reply.
"Yes, Lemon Meringue Sister," Pastry said in defeat.
Oatmeal was still sobbing as Lemon Meringue left. Pastry felt a twinge on the side of her head as she comforted Oatmeal and she turned to find Red Velvet staring at them in what could be described as dazed amusement.
Pastry did not know what to say to Red Velvet. She decided she had to be suave and cool and all that stuff.
"Goodbye," she told him.
"Looking... forward to working with you?" Red Velvet slurred as Pastry dragged Lava Cookie across the ground.
Pastry knew that he had to be lying. There was no way Red Velvet would have given up and decided to cooperate that easily. She needed to be on her guard.
"See you later!" Red Velvet called as she tried to walk calmly through the prison door, Oatmeal following close behind and Lava Cookie dragging across the floor.