COCOA’S WORLD: chapter 1.

Instructions

[ squirm , 6:46 am , library ] Squirm silently walked through the bookshelves, looking for a book that made his appetite grow. He passed the animal section and stopped at the insect section. He walked through the towering bookshelves, looking for the book. THE book. 'Oh no, did Toodles take it again? I hope not. That's my favorite book to eat- read.' 'Oh! There it is! Brightney must've tried to hide it again...' The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, the book read. That book was Squirm's favorite. It was about a hungry caterpillar that ate so much and it eventually turned into a butterfly... "Squirm, you're not a caterpillar, you're a bookworm," Arthur constantly reminded him. 'Why couldn't've Delilah make me a caterpillar? The more butterfly toons the merrier...' Squirm opened his book, skimming the unimportant parts and skipping to his favorite part. Squirm reached his favorite page—the one where the caterpillar finally builds its cocoon. But as his finger traced the colorful illustration, the paper felt... wrong. It wasn't dry and crisp. It felt damp. A drop of thick, black-colored liquid hit the center of the page, sizzling slightly. Squirm looked up. Above him, tucked away in the shadows of the tech lab, a pair of glowing eyes stared down. It wasn't Brightney’s warm light. It was the jagged, frantic face of Bassie. But it wasn't the sweet Easter basket toon he knew. Her face was split down the middle—one side wide-eyed and weeping, the other frozen in a terrifying, manic grin. "Bassie?" Squirm whispered, his voice trembling. "Did... did Cocoa send you?" A low, wet gurgle was the only response. Suddenly, a hand—distorted and dripping with black, ink-like Ichor—gripped the edge of the shelf above him. The wood groaned under the pressure. The "toon" above wasn't playing anymore. Four long, spindly spider-like legs, slick with darkness, unfurled from beneath her pink petal skirt. Squirm looked back down at his book. The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar was soaking up the black spill; the happy drawings being erased by the darkness. He realized then that he wasn't just a bookworm looking for a snack. In this version of the Garden, everything was hungry. Bassie let out a sob that transitioned into a high-pitched, glitchy laugh. She lunged, her massive Ichor-claw swiping through the air where Squirm had been standing a second before, tearing his favorite book into blackened confetti. The lights in the library flickered once, twice, and then plunged the insect section into total darkness, leaving only the sound of heavy, dragging footsteps and the wet drip-drip-drip of Ichor approaching his aisle. 'Gotta hide... gotta hide!!!' Squirm wriggled frantically into the book check out box, breathing heavily. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he peeked out from the hole. Then, he heard a voice. "BASSIE!" a toon shrieked. It was Shelly, probably sneaking in the library for fossil books; as Squirm saw her near the dinosaur isle. 'FIGHT BACK! RUN! HIDE! SAVE HER!' Squirm's mind raced as Shelly ran out of the library, taking Bassie with her.