Free For Love of Mister Cotton Tail: An Apocalyptic Fairytale (Single) by Serena Walken Page A

toward the door, but she didn’t move. He would just have to come to her.
    “Candy.” Cotton bowed politely toward her. “We have some unfinished business.”
    “No, we don’t.” Candy gestured to her mother and sister at her sides. “It was all an elaborate setup by them. I refuse to fall for anything more. I am getting married to Darren and that’s final. Leave.”
    “Candy,” Cotton tried again. “We need to talk.”
    “Leave.”
    “You have to be with him !” Her mother whispered sharply in her ear. It was loud enough though that Cotton heard it. Candy didn’t care. “Candy!”
    “The apocalypse is not about me and Cotton doing it, it was about helping bunnies save the world by entertaining children!” Candy yelled at the both of them. Candy looked toward Cotton , and then back at her family. “It’s because of you two that I can’t be where I really want to be.” Candy left out the door. There was nothing more Cotton could say.
    * * *
     
    Cotton strolled over to Momma and Poured Sweet with purpose. “What prophecy? What have you been doing?”
    “Everyone knows it. You should know it too , it’s just that no one knew who it would be for. Or, exactly what it means sometimes.” Momma Sweet sighed. “It’s been around since civilization began.”
    “Every prophecy isn’t how it sounds,” Cotton argued. “Tell me it. Pretend I’m an idiot.”
    “I think Candy is the idiot,” Poured interrupted. “Even she knows it. There’s nothing about bunnies or anything. Nothing except the name. How did she come up with helping bunnies?”
    “Prophecy, now .” Cotton didn’t have time to waste.
    “Sweet Candy, Candy Sweet. Delicious power with Vegan treat.”
    Candy’s name was in it, but Cotton didn’t hear anything else in it.
    “That’s just part one of the currently accepted translation. Its rhyming in parts, mostly its just mish mashed words. It’s complicated, and the translations are what most people go by in the back. Whoever came up with it was mad.” Poured moved over towards the counter and brought a large book over to Cotton. “Here you go.”
    “This whole book?”
    “Yep.”
    That wasn’t a prophecy , it was a book. It was decorated with a religious flair and inscriptions on the sides. He opened it and flipped through the middle.
    “Candy coated chocolate bunnies. Egg. Ending. Hole. Bunny Hill. Queen. Not mad. Mirror. Fall. All fall. Fire. Winter. Egg. Chocolate. Candy. Wonder. Rabbit. Hatter. Red. Hearts.” Cotton handed the book back. “Who wrote it?”
    “No one knows. It’s the oldest piece of literature we have.” Poured placed it back behind the counter. “It’s like that through most of the book, but there are some sections that make sense.”
    “ There is a part of the book that predicts that a woman named Candy Sweet must be with a man named Cotton Tail,” Momma Sweet answered. “It could have been anyone, but at five years old my little girl had a vivid dream no child ever should. She had never even known about the book of prophecy at that age.”
    “Spring is Winter, Winter is Spring. Time was getting closer,” Poured said softly. “It’s all over if she marries the wolf.”
    Cotton shook his head and headed out the door. The book was definitely by someone who had written their own prophecies, but they were focusing on different sections. Whether it was Candy’s world’s prophecy, or the bunny’s prophecy didn’t matter. He just knew he couldn’t lose Candy.
     
    * * *
     
    Even though it was cold outside, children were hanging by windows and by their doors, showing off their baskets.
    “This is crazy,” she heard one mother note. “It’s a candy filled basket. All the kids have them.” Candy noticed the mother glance at her. “How?”
    “It’s all over the TV,” another one commented “Worldwide. Baskets filled with candy and eggs hiding around the house.”
    Candy couldn’t help a small smirk. Egg hiding, how ridiculous, but