AOTW#2 - Fantasy

 Wasteland in Candy Land written by hiss

 Board games are suppose to be fun, wholesome and innocent. However, for my brother and I, it turned into a deadly game. We opened the attic to find antique items including our childhood board games box. We opened the box with excitement as it was during the COVID-19 outbreak. We were both bored at home and just wanted to do something different. Once we noticed the game Candy Land, we were full of happiness as it was our favorite. We blew softly against the overly dusty table in the attic and place the box of Candy Land down. Once we opened it, everything went black. Little did we know, we entered Hell.
 We woke up shortly after to find ourselves directly in the board game. We started to panic as we didn't know how this was even possible. Then my brother calmed me down, pointing out the sign to go visit the Gingerbread Tree. We shrugged as we had no other choice. We walked slightly into the land, only to see everything rotted and dried out. It wasn't as bright and bubbly as we remembered it. It was dull and bad vibes overall. We finally found the Gingerbread Tree to see parts of his branches and leaves were on the ground. His icing was dripping off him as well as his friend laying on the ground, coughing up this type of blood. But, it was discolored and weird looking.
 My brother and I looked at the tree as he looked at us. Slightly nodding his head, he'd let out a painful groan as his last remaining branch would slowly point to the Rainbow Trail. He was allowing us to skip a few sections. We took the chance as we wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. We headed onto the poorly lit Rainbow Trail. As we were walking, our shoes were squishing onto the deteriorating Rainbow Trail. We made it to the end after a few moments only to see that we were in Peanut Acres. My brother was nervous as he was highly allergic to peanuts. He inhaled deeply as I handed him my jacket, as he was wearing only a T-Shirt. We walked further to find Gramma Nutt on her rocking chair. She had a distant look on her face that sent chills through our bodies.
 We nearly made it out until Gramma Nutt stood from her rocking chair and screamed, "Take some peanuts, dearies!", throwing peanuts at us. My brother attempted to dodge but being frightened by her screaming, his mouth opened due to shock. Sadly a peanut flew into his mouth and lodged into his throat. He fell to the peanut butter mud and began to convulse as well as gasp for air. His throat was starting to close as hives popped up all over his body. I was in full blown panic as we didn't have his EpiPen. I watched my brother died as Gramma Nutt started to cackle in her rocking chair. Full of rage, I grabbed a handful of peanut butter mud and wrapped my arms around her, putting her in a headlock, placing my hand on her mouth and nose. Allowing the sticky and thick peanut butter to go into her lungs. Making her slightly suffocate before throwing her down the Rainbow Trail. She kept tumbling down it as I made my way to every other section.
 I was in shock and in a daze. None of these sections or Candy Land characters would pull me out of it. I just kept replaying my brother dying over and over in my head. I made it to the Chocolate Swamp to see it was full of half drained, mold-like melted chocolate. But, I couldn't care as I hopped over each massive chocolate chip to reach the end. I nearly made it halfway into the Candy Land castle. Until King Kandy stopped me. I looked up at him as he was a rotting and dying old man. He gave me two choices. That I complete the game and enter the castle, or I join my brother in Candy Land Heaven. Standing there, slightly listening, I'd go back to a time where my brother was always winning in the board game. I never won. In that moment, I knew what to do.
 I looked up at King Kandy and looked at his sharpened candy scepter. I grabbed it from his hands and stabbed him through the gumdrop shaped heart. His eyes looked down at me as I kept pushing the scepter deeper and deeper into his heart. He collapsed onto the front of his castle. I walked through the rotting slowly away candy castle to see a portal back to the attic. Tears were flowing down my face as I walked through portal. I looked for the board game to see it still on the table. I closed it and then went downstairs to living room. Placing it into the fireplace and set it ablaze. I listened to the screams of everyone and everything in the Candy Land as they burned. I smiled menacingly as I finally won in Candy Land.