Chronicles III

Bianca closed up the bakery later than usual, after a low traffic day. She cleaned the counters and the floors thoroughly, then packed up whatever leftovers she had. It was getting more and more difficult to keep the shop as her landlord raised the rent. People were going to the big grocery stores, like HungryWay for their baked goods. Thankfully, her large group of loyal daily customers would never choose to go elsewhere.

As she went to lock the door, she watched the beloved bakery cat, Butters, run into the alleyway through his cat door. Curious, she thought, so she walked around the corner to see what he was doing. He was often off on his own out of sight, but she’d never seen him leave the shop that late.

Butters paced in circles in the alleyway as if looking for a spot to sleep. He jumped onto the dumpster and sniffed the open side. With a disgusted cough, he tumbled off the top and fell onto the floor theatrically.

“Butters!!” Bianca shouted at the briefly knocked out cat, dropping everything to check on him. She knelt over him and felt his little cat chest to make sure he was breathing. He was truly just being dramatic, but she couldn’t tell. “Butters, Butters!!” She shouted a couple more times and at the final call, she was blasted out of the alleyway and into the street.

Though confused, Bianca had enough sense to see a car quickly approaching. She raised a hand and blasted buttercream towards the street to propel herself back at the bakery. With a gentle landing, she peered into the alley again to sort out what happened. Butters was gone.

Bianca ran back into the shop and into the back room, now convinced someone attacked her and stole Butters. She spun around and adorned the full BakeSale getup. From the cakes in the cooler she was inspired to wear a lemon loaf instead of her traditional cake mask, she felt it was more fitting to search for her yellow cat in his own color.

Out the back door of the shop, BakeSale flew through the air, covering the ground behind her in delicious icing. She followed the alley a few blocks and then looked around when she saw a more crowded street. This late at night, not many people were out, so she figured it would be easy to spot someone smuggling a cat.

Across the street, behind a seafood restaurant, she saw a large shadow being cast. She flew down quickly, feeling that this was the culprit.

“AHA!” BakeSale shouted, producing cream-filled croissants, which she launched at the giant’s back. Each small pastry knocked the yellow giant forward a little. It turned and BakeSale saw its face covered in tuna scraps. The pastries embedded in its back exploded and the cream went everywhere, though the giant didn’t react.

BakeSale threw more and more pastries, but the giant covered in fish just opened its mouth wide and enjoyed the snacks. She grew furious and decided to switch up her attack. She summoned dough and worked it in her hands for a moment to produce a dough-boy. It stood on the ground and grew from powerful yeast that BakeSale imbued within it.

The yellow giant wiped the fish scraps into its mouth and stood, upset that no more pastries were flying at it. BakeSale squinted at the giant and recognized the face of the beast. 

“Butters?!” She questioned with maximum confusion.

Butters looked at BakeSale, sniffed, and knew who she was. He shrunk back into cat form and walked between the legs of the giant dough-boy into her arms. Dough-boy fell apart, its mission over before it began.

“Buddy, I never knew.”

“Meow.”

The two returned to the bakery and Bianca spoke to him about all of her heroics. She fed him pastries as the sun came up and prepped to reopen the bakery.

Her first customer wore sunglasses and a mask, a first timer for sure. Bianca couldn’t stop looking at his midsection, which seemed to be an odd shape.

“Excuse me, miss. I’ll take a box of assorted pastries.” he looked up from the display case for the first time to see the baker’s face. “Do I… know you from somewhere?” He asked, almost seeming to get emotional.

Bianca was worried that the man recognized BakeSale and worried for her secret identity. She hid her face with a baking sheet and ran to the back room. “We’re all out of pastries, sir.”

The man shrugged, looking at the abundance of sweets before him. Butters rubbed against the man’s leg and received a loving pet on the back. 

“Uhh, I’ll come back then.” he said as he left the store.

“Please don’t.” Bianca whispered behind the wall, though he was already outside. She couldn’t shake the strange feeling she had. She recognized him too.