Inside, Jeff was fearing for his life. All the rumors about Grandma Ruby were true, and now he was next in line to be eaten!! He couldn't even move, speak a word of protest, or change his silly smiling expression! Not to mention the cold water in the gingerbread diorama would make him shrivel up good, if gingerbread could shrivel. He didn't know how long he waited there, watching Granny lead the cooking duties as his mom and aunt assisted her in the kitchen, as well as the other family members having little meaningless conversations in the living room. It's like they all forgot he was there! Except for Todd, who came out to get pictures of the diorama. He gave Jeff a voracious look and took the time to snap some extra close-ups of him, then left without saying a word. Jeff knew exactly what he was thinking regardless. It must have been several agonizing hours, but eventually, the hubbub died down for the night.
It was dark in the living room. Jeff still had no options available to him and now he couldn't even fall asleep to pass the time. He was stuck staring into the dark! Jeff knew he was about to lose his mind because he was already hearing noises in the night. A faint grinding followed by a metal creaking noise disturbed him and he thought it was his imagination going haywire. But... he saw something too. Through the darkness, the AC grate opened up. Someone climbed out of it. Wait, not someone, someTHING. It certainly wasn't human. Not an animal either. It was... some kind of mobile potted plant, (periwinkle to be precise,) running towards him on improvised root-legs. It scampered quietly across the room and up to the table where he was trapped. Upon closer inspection, the flowerpot had a face that smiled at him. "No time to explain. Don't make a sound." That was easy for him to say, Jeff couldn't make a peep even if he wanted to! The flower scooped him up into its flowerpot and scampered off back through the air conditioning escape route.
Soon, sure enough, they were outside making a daring escape into the thick woods outside Grandma's house. And he still couldn't move or speak a word to this crazy plant. At least he wasn't facing his imminent devouring. The periwinkle dropped him off into the snow, (freezing his sensitive bit in the process,) where there was a few common and uncommon household objects standing around, all animated through some magical means. The plant snapped its leaf at a toy snake that was observing them. "Snakey, revive 'em." The rubber snake gazed at Jeff, his hypnotic eyes driving him into some kind of trance, so compelling he just had to reach out, move his arms and--- Jeff gasped! He didn't take in any air, being a cookie, but he went through the instinctual motions of gasping. Somehow, Jeff had feeling in his limbs again, with stinging pains as if he had slept wrong all night. The periwinkle looked Jeff up and down, admiring his nude gingerbread form quite blatantly, grinning his approval. Jeff could swear that his periwinkle blossoms were blooming a little bit wider now.
"So uh... You're probably wondering who we are, huh. I'm Periwinkle and this is Snakey, Lemon, Cupcake, Candy Calculator, Snail Hockey Game, Iris, Squirt..." He didn't take one breath while reciting the long list. "Thorny, Mr. Peacock, Gray Bag, Grass Monster, Goofy Glove, Ugly Mug, Pongee and Big Orange."
Jeff stammered, unable to get out the words. "W-wh-where? Whay? How?"
Snail Hockey Game walked over to him on her four plastic legs to try and ease his confusion. "You're not the only victim of Granny Ruby's transformation magic, you know... At some point, Granny turned us all into these inanimate... things and left us to rot. But Snakey was different. Granny had no idea...that he was once a powerful wizard of his own. Not powerful enough to completely cure himself, but enough to free himself-- and us-- from an eternal inanimate fate. And now... Gingerbread... You are the latest. Now that you are here, we have a very important duty that we must fulfill."
Jeff had enough sense to ask one simple question. "Wha... what... what do you want with me?"
Snakey answered...