The Demon Of Sweets

 I'll never forget the time our school was attacked by a demon. It was during my 6th-grade year. My language arts teacher gave us an assignment. It was to write a five-page essay on what our favorite breakfast food was and present it in front of the class.

Naturally, I chose Cinnamon Toast Crunch due to its superior flavor, texture, and milk flavoring capabilities. However, when I mentioned this to some of my other classmates I was met with hostility. I was challenged by none other Jim. He and I had a rivalry that began in second grade when I beat him in an intense 3rd generation Pokemon battle.

"Cinnamon Toast Crunch is nothing compared to Peanut Butter Crunch," I heard him call out to me.

He had insulted Cinnamon Toast Crunch's honor. That was something I could not allow. I stood up, slamming my hands on my desk in the process.

"Please if I wanted peanut butter cereal I'd go with Reese's Puffs. It has chocolate in it and doesn't make the roof of your mouth bleed," I shot back at him.

A look of rage passed over Jim's face. He and I started hurling insults at each other until our teacher, Mr.Cane stopped us.

"That's enough. Whoever says anything else without me calling on them will be sent to the principal's office. Am I clear?" We nodded. "Good. Now if you want to settle this debate do so outside of class or write a better report than the other person."

A sly smile came over Jim's face. He raised his hand.

"Yes?" Mr.Cane said, slightly annoyed.

"Could we possibly demonstrate which food is better?"

Mr.Cane thought for a moment.

"I don't see why not," he said.

Jim sat down, still smiling. I knew he was up to something. I just didn't know what. All I did know was that I had to step my game up if I wanted to beat him. No matter what, I couldn't let Cinnamon Toast Crunch down.

What Jim had in store, though I never saw coming. A week later our reports were due. I accessed a thesaurus for words that would do the quality of Cinnamon Toast Crunch justice. All the other kids went before me and Jim. At last, though I was ready to present. I got my papers and went in front of the class.

I won't post the entire essay I wrote here. Just know it involved me comparing Cinnamon Toast Crunch to God, saying it's the true ambrosia, and how it's what truly makes life worth living. The class was in awe of my report. I sat back down, fully confident of my victory.

"Uh, that was certainly something, Karl, "Mr.Cane said to me. "Jim, you're up next."

To my surprise, he didn't look the least bit worried. My brilliant report hadn't phased him at all. Another thing that surprised me was the grocery bag he had with him.

From the bag, he pulled out five items. The two things were one of those plastic square containers of cereal. One was Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the other Peanut Butter Crunch. The other items he had with him were two plastic spoons and a bottle of milk. He sat these things down and started drawing something on the board.

"Jim, what are you doing?" Mr.Cane asked.

"It's for my presentation."

What he had drawn was a pentagram with a bee above it.

"Mapul, I offer these items as tribute so that I can summon you," Jim loudly said.

Mr.Cane looked like he had about enough of his tomfoolery. Then told him to either give a proper report or sit down. As he was talking to him, though the lights began flickering. The image Jim had drawn started glowing. Smoke was pouring out of it that was forming a humanoid shape.

It turned into a creature that looked like a humanoid bee with the face of a clown. We were all stunned into silence. Mapul looked around at us. Then asked who had summoned him. We all pointed to Jim including Mr.Cane.

"I...um want you to determine which of two things taste better," Jim said.

"And what two things would that be?"

Jim pointed to the things he had brought. Without words Mapul grabbed them. Then tore the cereal containers open, opened the milk, and poured into them. He didn't use the spoons. He just dumped the cereal into his mouth.

First, he ate the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Then the Peanut Butter Crunch. He savored both cereals before swallowing them. He let out a loud burp and turned back to us. With a wipe of his mouth, he began speaking to us again.

"As the demon of sweets, I have determined that this cinnamon flavored treat is superior."

"No," Jim yelled, falling to his knees as I burst out laughing.

"Now where is my offering?"

"I already gave it to you."

"That was to summon me. You need to give me one so I can leave."

"Oh. I don't have anything right now. What do you want?"

"More of those treats you gave me would be nice."

"Okay well, I'll get you more."

"Can't wait., cravings."

Mapul drew in a deep breath. Then blew it out. A cloud of pink smoke came from his mouth when he did. Unsure of what was happening we stood up and started backing away. Not fast enough to escape the smoke, though.

Mr. Cane breathed in the smoke. The result was him shaking uncontrollably. Bits of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Peanut Butter Crunch began popping up on his body. He screamed as he was fully transformed. His body was now fully cereal.

A stream of honey shot from Mapul's mouth and hit the student. He then pulled him towards his mouth using the honey. The student shrieked as Mapul was chewing him. A loud crunch was heard silencing the student. Mapul then swallowed him.

"That was good but I'm still hungry," he said.

He breathed more smoke at us. We started running towards the door. Some of us tripped over each other in the process. Me and Jim were able to escape along with some of our classmates. The rest of them, however, were not so lucky.

We heard more crunching as we headed towards an exit. When we got outside, however, we found that the parking lot was empty. This was odd seeing as how Mr.Cane’s and other teacher’s cars should have still been there. We shook off our confusion and ran into the woods nearby.

“What the fuck did you do?” I yelled at Jim.

The other students had run in a different direction to find help.

“I don’t know. I thought I could win if I did this,” he replied.

“By summoning a demon? He ate our teacher and like four people in our class.”

“You think I don’t know that? I just wanted to prove my cereal is better. I didn’t want this.”’

“Well, all we can do now is try to stop this. How do we do that?”

“I don’t know. I thought he only needed one offering to be sent back.”

“Where did you learn about him?”

“A book from the school library.”

“And where is this book?”

“My house.”

“Then that’s where we need to go.”

Jim led me to his house. Luckily it wasn’t that far away. He used his spare key to let me in. Afterward, we went upstairs and into Jim’s room. There I saw his room was a complete mess.

“How the fuck are we supposed to find the book underneath all this?” I asked.

“Oh like your room is any cleaner. I’ve seen how you eat.”

“Whatever, let’s just look for the damn book before Mapul finds us.”

“Relax, he probably doesn’t even know we’re here.”

When we found the book Jim opened it and turned it to Mapul’s page. Reading it told us that the only way to get rid of Mapul was to give him something too sweet for any mortal human being. We surveyed his kitchen for something that would meet the criteria. What we had to work with were some Star Crunch Little Debbies, some chunky Chips Ahoy, Oreos, mint chocolate chip ice cream, honey, brown sugar, sugar, chocolate milk, and more of those plastic containers of cereal.

“I have an idea, “ Jim said. “Being everything over here.”

As I gathered all the sweets we could find I heard Jim rummaging around. What he took out was a blender.

“Quick, start putting everything in,” he urged me.

I put in the ice cream first followed by the dry foods, and last every last bit of the honey. Once that was in the blender I poured the chocolate milk over it. Then Jim turned the blender on high power. We watched as the ingredients in the blender began turning into a light brown mixture. As it was blending we heard screaming outside.

We looked out one of his kitchen windows to find Mapul had caught one of the students that had escaped with us. He had managed to catch one of them. We could only watch as he screamed and struggled. Mapul breathed out more of his pink smoke. Instead of turning into cereal like we thought his body began to liquify.

What he ended up being turned into was a mass of milk that was somehow holding a human shape. The bits of brown spots indicated that he had been turned into the milk that the residue of Cinnamon Toast Crunch makes. Mapul then began drinking him. It must have been painful because his screaming got louder. He was consumed before our eyes until there was nothing left of him.

“Holy shit,” Jim yelled.

Despite how loud the blender was Mapul must have heard Jim because he turned in our direction.

“You dumbass,” I hissed.

“Don’t worry. The shake is almost done.”

Jim turned the blender off as Mapul started pounding on the door. It soon gave and swung open. Mapul stepped inside and started making his way towards us. Without words, we handed him the blender. He pulled the lid off and smelled the shake inside.

He looked at us for a moment. Then began downing the shake. He greedily consumed it. When it was gone he licked the inside of the blender to get the leftover residue. When he was done he put the blender down and let out a loud burp.

“Thanks for the treat,” he said, handing the blender back to us.

He then left, closing the door behind him. When he did we heard the sound of cars driving by.

“I guess we’re back from wherever we were taken to,” Jim said.

“They’ve probably realized we’re missing from school. How are we going to explain this?”

“Leave that to me.”

Jim’s plan was to sneak back into the school before someone found us. We were found the moment we entered the school. To make matters worse it was our principal, Mr.Gluco who spotted us. He told us to march our asses to his office. Once there we tried explaining to him that we both happened to be going to the bathroom at the same time when some psycho found his way into the school and chased us.

This wasn’t technically that far from the truth but of course, the fat bastard didn’t believe us. We were given three days of in-school suspension. Mr.Cane along with the rest of our classmates had gone missing from the perspective of everyone other than me and Jim. A week after our punishment, though the police found something in the woods nearby. The remains of two of our classmates had been found.

It was only one arm and one leg. The arm looked like it had been stuffed with Captain Crunch and the leg looked like it had been stuffed with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It was upon learning that Me and Jim agreed to disagree. Let this be a lesson, sometimes the cost of trying to prove yourself right is too great. However, I want to reiterate that Mapul thought Cinnamon Toast Crunch was better.

I'm just saying.