“Hey B.” smiled the neighbor boy, Shaun Telman, placing baked goods on the counter. His puppy, Dash, approached the old woman for attention.

 

 

“Hello, Shaun. How was your week?” she was excited to hear about his time at school, having little other stimulation at her stage in life.

“Not bad.”

“Oh you gotta give me more than that!” she laughed.

“Okay…” he submitted to her request, “...Fiona told one of our classmates that I was a minute-man. I didn’t even know what that meant but then-”

“Hold on right there.” Shaun was interrupted abruptly. “What happened to the rest of the pastries?”

“Sorry, I tossed some to those little ducks by the pond.” he admitted.

“You know I live off these. You’ll just have to bring me some more tomorrow.”

“Will do!” Shaun agreed, finished his story and he walked home with Dash.

Bianca Stubbins was alone, as usual, once her neighbor left. It wasn’t the silence that bothered her, or the loneliness itself. More than anything else, she was bored. With no family to her own and no real friends besides Shaun, she felt she was waiting for her end. Aside from his stories, the only thing that brought her excitement were pastries. 

Ever since she was little, Bianca had an affinity for baked goods. She couldn’t remember when her infatuation with pastries began, but she often recalled a moment in her life when things could have taken another path. She felt that maybe if she had chosen differently and taken a risk, she would be happier in the end. Being this near to the end, that moment had become a fixation. 

Before laying down to sleep, she often pictured choosing differently, hoping to dream of the outcome and waking to find it as reality.

The sun rose and Bianca was in the same old reality. She struggled to rise from her bed and slowly shuffled to her chair in the living room, making sure to unlock the door on the way so that Shaun could enter later in the day.

It was just before Shaun’s arrival that Bianca’s heart began to give out. She sat in her chair, grasping at her chest and heaving. Shaun opened the door and rushed over with Dash, realizing what was happening.

“B!” he shouted, afraid to lose his friend.

“Shaun, don’t worry about me. I want you to hear these words…” Bianca gathered as much air as she could. “Be brave enough to make the hard choice.”

Bianca watched Shaun’s face freeze in reaction to her words, but more than that. Dash froze, the world froze, and everything darkened. She thought this was it. Then, the image of a crustacean, an hourglass and a clock flew through her mind.

Suddenly, Bianca was standing… and young.

She recognized for a split-second that this was the moment she wished to revisit. Her memories of her life past that point faded rapidly. All that was left in her mind was her words to Shaun.

Bianca walked ahead of her father in the crosswalk and before her floated a demon made of confection. A cream demon. Creamon.

 

It held out-stretched a sugary tentacle and she heard a voice in her head.

“If you take this power, you will never see him again.” it pointed at her father, who was distracted by other parents.

Bianca made her choice, tears in her eyes. 

She stood for some time watching panic set in on her father’s face, watching him interrogate everyone nearby, watching him break down at his loss. “Where’s my baby girl?” He sobbed as he spoke to the police, and Bianca sadly followed Creamon to another realm.

Torturous years of mastery followed before she was in complete control of her power and able to return to her own realm.

Upon returning, she purchased a closed down bakery to operate out of.

 

“Just take care of the cat.” the old owner requested.

She closed the door behind her and focused her energy to fill the empty shop with pastries. 

During shop hours, Bianca Stubbins would tend the counter and cater to her guests, but after hours, BakeSale would gradually make the world just a little bit sweeter.

 

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.