Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16 

Wolfey was sleeping - and snoring loudly - on the floor of the cage. His chest, which had been covered with short fuzz before, was now super-hairy - as was his face.

"I was wondering where he went!" cried Zombi.

Franky and Vam Pea quickly hoisted up the cage. The others helped them pull it onto the flat ground. They then pulled Wolfey out of it.

"So Wolfey's The Candy Monster?!" exclaimed Skellii as she let go of Kiwi and joined the others.

"It must be the full moon," said Mum-Z.

Franky pulled up one of Wolfey's eyelids. His eyes, which were normally a greenish-blue, were a bright orangey-yellow. He was definitely under some sort of spell.

Witchie pulled out her potions pouch, which she always carried under her robes. She took out a tiny bottle and put three drops of a potion onto Wolfey's tongue. "He must have forgotten to take his medication! He knows how he gets at this time of the month!"

Zombi explained to JC, "You see, in your world, werewolves are people who turn into wolves. But here, since Wolfey is already very wolfy, he gets even wolfier when there's a full moon."

Witchie continued, "I formulated a potion that would stop him from becoming so extra-extra-wolfy when there's a full moon, but you know Wolfey..."

The others nodded in agreement. But JC smiled and said, "Actually, I only met him today. But I think I know what you mean!"

Gho-Stee added, "Well, I always like to say that Wolfey is just super-spirited, and probably enjoys overdoing things every now and then."

"Ha! Who doesn't?" laughed JC.

"I know I do!" said Zombi. "Just look at how long I stayed in The Real World."

"So do I!" agreed Skellii. "Just look at all my cats!"

"Me too," nodded Franky. "You should see all the gadgets I have in my lab!"

"Well, I don't," countered Mum-Z.

"Dude," chuckled Vam Pea, "we've all seen where you live. You have, like, a zillion scrolls in there."

"Not to mention all those really nice statues," added Skellii, "which I think are super-super-pretty - you always have such good taste in everything - but still, there ARE a lot of them--"

"And don't forget all those other artifacts..." started Witchie.

"Okay, okay, I admit it. I guess everyone goes overboard in some areas of their lives," admitted Mum-Z. "But I think we can all agree that Wolfey brings his extra-enthusiasm to the next level."

"True, but that's what we love most about him!" added Gho-Stee.

And everyone laughed and nodded in agreement as Wolfey started opening his eyes. The hair on his body was now going back to normal. (Well, normal for Wolfey, at least.)

 Wolfey sat up. "Hey, what happened?!" he asked. "Did you catch TCM?"

"We certainly did!" laughed Zombi. The others laughed too.

But Wolfey looked concerned. "I don't get it! Why are you all laughing?!" he exclaimed, as he looked around quickly and saw the cage right next to him with all the half-eaten candy around it. He also saw that his hands were covered with chocolate.

And although he didn't see that his face was also covered in chocolate, he quickly figured out what had happened.

"You mean, I?..." he started. "...But how could that be? I mean, I know I like candy, but I don't think I could eat a whole house of it... Could I?"

"You CAN pack it away, bro. Don'tcha remember? I wrote a tune about it," said Vam Pea. And although he didn't have his guitar, he started singing...
"Wolfey likes to eat, he does,
Anything that's sweet, because,
Candy is his favorite.
He really likes to savor it--"

"Vam Pea, please," interrupted Mum-Z. "Haven't we all been through enough today?--"

"What he means," interrupted Gho-Stee, "is that there'll be plenty of time for singing later. Right now we have to focus on getting Wolfey cleaned up, right?"

The others all agreed.

"But wait," started Wolfey. "Just because I fell into the trap tonight - that doesn't mean I'm the one who ate Witchie's house!"

"No, not necessarily," replied Zombi. "But when you look at all the evidence..."

"Evidence?! What evidence?!" objected Wolfey.

"Well, there was a full moon when Witchie's house was eaten, just like tonight," started Zombi. "And you weren't with the others that night."

 "You said you were feeling sick the next day, which was probably ‘cause you’d eaten too much candy," added Franky.

"And the footprints at the crime scene were the same exact size as yours," added Mum-Z.

"Plus, we all know how much you love my candy--" started Witchie.

"Okay, okay! I did it! I did it! I'm sorry!" Wolfey confessed. "I didn’t mean to do it! But it all happened so fast! It was all so delicious! All the dark chocolate and lollipops and milk chocolate and gingerbread and chocolate peanut butter cups and caramel-covered toffees and licorice sticks - both red AND black - and all the marshmallows and nuts and chocolate-covered cherries and jawbreakers and peppermint and..."

"I'm getting hungry," interrupted Franky.

"And then I just felt so bad that I didn't know what to do!" continued Wolfey. "So I thought if we did catch some sort of a beast with our trap, that I could blame everything on IT-- And yeah, I know that was horrible of me, but I didn't know what else to do. I panicked! I was so embarrassed by what I'd done!"

"Well, maybe that's why you 'forgot' to take your medicine tonight and let yourself become a beast again," suggested Gho-Stee. "Because you WANTED to get caught."

"Ah," injected Mum-Z, holding up a finger, "a subconscious desire to confess! Makes sense."

"What does 'subconscious' mean again?" asked JC.

"It's a fancy way of saying that something deep in your brain sometimes makes you do things that you're not really aware of," supplied Skellii.

Mum-Z looked surprised that Skellii knew this. "Hmmm, that's a good way of explaining it," he said.

Skellii blinked her long lashes at him. "I TOLD you, Mum-Z, I'm not just another pretty face. I know lots of things."

"Well, the important thing is that the mystery is solved," said Gho-Stee.

 "And that The Candy Monster is not, like, actually real," added Vam Pea.

"And that we can go on living our normal lives again," tossed in Franky.

"You mean, AFTER you guys all help me build my new house!" laughed Witchie.

The others laughed too...

All except for JC, who looked kinda sad.

(for Chapter 17, click here)

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