text: Author's note: The world that Chocolate Kisses started in, despite being the same place, is very different from the modern, twelve-years-later one, and you don't even need to read the first, unless you want to catch up on details like who Emilia is, how come Ellen and Joseph are married, and why their daughter is named Chocolate. The original was very sentimental and sweet, but as we go on, I decided to branch into a sort of mystery-crime-adventure genre, with lots of humor to balance it out. If you would like the story to become a little nicer, (romance, friendship tests, determination to do good, etc.) then please message me in the comments and I'll be sure to respond and remove some of the creepiest elements of this story. Thank you for reading, and if you have any ideas for what could happen next, please tell me! -- Emmie Greensgate I haven't heard from Sherry, that weird twelve-year-old girl who followed me everywhere, or Chocolate, who cleared my name when Samantha-Jae accused me of stealing Ellen Abbot's secret spice. I haven't heard from Emilia, the town's resident author, since last night. Actually, I haven't heard from any of them since last night, when we "rescued" Samantha from her stepbrothers and stepfather, who had taken her away from out little town of Bridgebrook, for reasons she tried to explain, but flew over my head. I haven't heard form any of them... We exchanged numbers after "rescuing" Samantha-Jae, and I scroll through my texts. Nothing from them. They're all offline and have been offline for about eight hours. Well, that's normal, right? It's not like they've been on their phone all day, every day. I'm overreacting. They're okay. Right? Right? I send them a quick text through the group chat that we set up yesterday. Hey guys. Are u okay? I haven't received any texts from you 4 a while. Please tell me if there's a problem. I wait and look at my phone. Nothing. That's normal, though. They probably have their own issues. Maybe they have their phones on airplane mode. That shuts off texts, doesn't it...? Sherry always has her phone on her, though. She is always texting. Sherry would not ignore a text from me. Not unless... maybe something's wrong with her...? Is she okay? Sherry is like a little sister to me. I have been like a brother to her, too. We're inseparable. I think it comes from growing up right next door, sharing our yards and snacks and lives with each other. I couldn't bear anything bad to happen to her. "Oh, Sherry," I say. Emilia: The door shuts with a loud, metallic THAAAANK! Locking us in the room. I roll my eyes, looking at the high, stone walls. I could climb them. They're about fifteen feet high, with lots of toeholds in the gray, rough stone. The ceiling is made of the same stone blocks, like a dungeon, and wooden boards crisscross below it, holding it up. The door is wood, but here's a big, heavy, locking mechanism of some sort inside of it, that makes it so heavy that it would take ten elephants to make it budge. It locks from the outside, as far as I an tell, so there's no way we could get out through there. The walls, upon closer inspection, are so rough that you'd bleed if you tried to climb them. There are no windows, either, and the wood beams are full of splinters. We're basically trapped as trapped can be. Sherry keeps thanking me because of something I did, even though it's kind of random. I smiled at one of the boys in a way that I thought would make me look like a gremlin about to kill him, but apparently it looked cute and he got a crush on me, if Sherry is to be trusted. "He likes you, I swear," she says, pacing around the room. "He thought you were hitting on him so now he likes you." "I'm a grown adult! He's, what, sixteen?" I say. "Eighteen, it looks like. but you look really long, like maybe nineteen? I think he thinks you're in his age group." "Well, if he really is 'hitting on me' then maybe he could let us out, huh?" "I think he did his part by not tying us up." "Whatever. Where's the kid I lied to? he can get me out of here before the stepfather in question comes back." "I think he's coming... now." I snarl. My phone dings. Uh... Oh right! I hid my phone from them, saying I was anti-tech. They had Sherr's, but they didn't have mine. I get a really good idea. I pick up my phone and begin to write... Words pour out of my f i n g e r t i p s and create a message that I send to everyone. "Hello, John Kazzer." I yell, jump around like a deer, and turn towards the speaker, a look of rage in my eyes. He is a tall, thin man, dressed in a black trench coat. Who even wears those anymore? "How do you know my name?" I ask. "That weird girl with the long black hair and the tendency to punch kept yelling about you." "Samantha-Jae?" "She didn't give her name, so we're calling her 'Project 45'." "Project 45?" "Our forty-fifth catch." "Catch?" The man looks at me like I'm mad. "You mean to say that you've never heard of Project Stockholm?" "I've heard about some guy called Stockholm, but I didn't know he was a project already." "He isn't! It's named after Stockho-- I'm not telling you. This is top secret. Even the president doesn't know about it." He is creeping me out. A lot. "I'm giving you an offer." I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. "An offer?" "Consider this," the man says. "You could work for my boss. Simple jobs at first; backup guard for hunting, patrolling the borders, figuring out the details of our missions, if you are good at that sort of thing. Driving our catches to the base. Then if we still need to get a few more, you can get into the higher leagues. Take down a few targets. Bring back information on their reactions. Maybe play the role of Keeper. " "What does that mean?" "I'm recruiting you for a job." "What kind?" "Experiment dirty work." "I am not killing anyone," I say, loudly, to make it clear. "You won't have to. All you have to do is make sure that the experiments stay put." "Are you cloning alien life or something?" "No... simply..." He reaches for his pocket. I flinch. I think he has a weapon in there. "Keeping it." "Keeping what?" "Life forms. The highest, most complex one of all. We have forty-six in total, but we'll need fifty to round it out more. What do you say?" "What life form are you working with?" "Sir, what are you? " Sickness churns inside of me. Humans. He means humans. Other intelligent, living breathing beings. For science. "I'd suggest you agree with me," he says in an ominous tone. He smiles in a creepy way. "... if you want to see Chocolate again." "Are you threatening me with food or people?" "The man reaches for his belt. There's something under his cloak. I can see it. I can tell that he is trying to scare me into saying yes. But the people, the forty-six people who are all being experimented on by whoever his boss is! And oh no, Samantha-Jae must be one of them! But at the same time, I need to protect Chocolate! And on the other hand, Emilia and Sherry could have been taken, too! "I'll give you twenty-four hours to think it over." the man says, turning away from me. "Twenty-four hours before we so much as look at that girl. Twenty-four hours for you to make your choice." He walks away. I remain rooted to the ground. A human experimenter. Someone whole experiments on humans. I need to be one to get Chocolate back. A horrible, twisted darkness rises inside of me. Would I be willing to do something like that for her? For Samantha-Jae? But there could be-- no, there have to be people out there who want the forty-six back. The're girlfriends and boyfriends. Brothers and sisters. Friends, teachers, cousins, football champs, wrestlers, and readers. People-- ordinary people who ended up in this somehow. "What should I do?" I ask myself, my voice nearly freezing away in a gust of cold wind. The message has to have sent by now. There's enough signal, but hardly any. It doesn't take a lot, usually, but I think they're shutting off the WiFi or something. I hear footsteps coming down the halls. Closer and closer. "Sherry, on my command, beat up whoever comes through that door. Ready? three-- two-- one--" The lock opens, the latching mechanism popping open. A man who looks like an adult form of the boys behind him scowls into the room. "Them?" he says. "You think they were the ones who kid napped Samantha?" "We didn't!" I say at the same time the boys shout "One word, dad!" I nod to Sherry, who in turn, nods back. And we leap. The "message sent" alarm dings happily as we punch the boys and man uselessly. One new message! My phone says. I open it. To whomever gets this: I know now that it isn't the stepdad in question who's taken Chocolate and Samantha-Jae. He thinks we did it, I bet. We're trapped in a creepy room in his basement. Don't come for Sherry and me unless you have to. I don't know where they are, but I know where they aren't. Please come as soon as possible-- but only if you know where Samantha-Jae and Choco are. I wish I could help you. But you're on your own here. They're trying to Steal Samantha-Jae back because she's the inheritor of her multimillionaire mother's wealth. I'll try to escape, but that's a pretty risky move for us. We'll have to wait until they clear our names and realize that we only took Samantha-Jae because we thought they were the evil ones. Tell me if you know anything, but keep it encrypted. Not too hard, just enough that no one besides me can interpret it. Thank you. --Emilia. I hold my phone tightly. then, I text: I know where Chocolate is. I was threatened with her. Some guy tried to get me to join his big boss's H3uM@n 3xP3r1m3nTiNg project by dangling her over my head, not actually, just told me I had Tw3nTy4 hours to join his side or she was theirs to 3xP3r1m3nT 0n. I'll tell you more later. I'll get you out of there a$ $o0N @$ p0$$iBl3. --J0hN k2zZ3R. She'll be able to uncover my message. It's not even that good, but I'm hoping that she keeps her phone on her at all times. Chocolate woke up, a bleary feeling filling her body. She though about opening her eyes or moving, but she was just too tired. "...all clear, sir." "Very well... the..." the voices w a r p e d away. then they returned, Who were they? Chocolate didn't know them. "...Noticing that, I can..." "Sir, yes sir!" "Get ready for..." she couldn't make out what he said. "...Obsidian." Obsidian? she thought. Where have I heard Obsidian before? Chocolate lapsed into another round of deep, dark sleep, not even noticing the needle injected into her arm or the chains on her hands and feet. Obsidian.... Thank you for enduring this long, weird story. Who wants the sequel?