Never take a Sweet from a Stranger

Never Take a Sweet from a Stranger

Never take a sweet from a stranger. That was one of the first things Paula learned as a child. However when the uber driver offered her a werthers original she couldn’t resist accepting.

With their creamy butterscotch flavour, werthers had such happy memories for her until now.

***

The uber jumped from 10 minutes to 1 minute arrival time as Paula clicked confirm and pay.

It was almost as if the driver had been near her house waiting cunningly for them to jump into his car.

“Come on Paula don’t be paranoid, uber are the safest company you know” she scolded herself.

She rushed out of the house with her daughter straight into the car, whose registration she hadn’t had time to check in the flurry of accepting and leaving the house.

As soon as they were seated strapped in and the doors were locked. The grey haired driver turned handing her a werthers original toffee perfectly sealed up

“Here’s one for you”

“Oh Thank-you”

He turned to her daughter, grabbing another

“And here’s one for you”.

“Thanks”.

He popped one into his own mouth and turned back to drive them to their location.

Her daughter had put her earplugs in and was being the typical antisocial teen.

She just played with the packet, rolling it around in her fingers. Noticing her mum trying to say something she removed one of her earplugs to listen.

“It’s ok hunnie, it’s a werthers original just like your dad used to bring for you. It’ll be something else for you to focus on and calm your anxiety. Give it a try”

“Ok”

Her daughter replied unwrapping and putting the sweet into her mouth just after Paula herself did.

Initially it appeared to have a slightly different taste than Paula remembered but just as she thought.

‘Oh no! Am I really stupid, what’s one of the first things you learn as a child? Never talk to strangers, agree to looking at their puppies for sale or take a sweet from them and you just did the latter.

Not only that, your daughters got one too at your reassurance. Now If anything bad happens to you both it’s on you.

Maybe you should spit it out? No it’ll be obvious you’re suspicious. Just cross your fingers and hope you arrive to the clinic safely”

The sweet started to taste of butterscotch as buttery, creamy and delicious as she remembered.

She gave a sigh of relief. She really needed to stop being so paranoid about people’s intentions.

Whilst looking into the drivers mirror from her seat, she noticed the cold, icy blue eyed look through the drivers rectangle shaped glasses, almost like hatred. His amused smirk towards her didn’t soften his eyes any. However he broke eye contact and carried on driving.

In a hypnotic tone, the radio was quietly playing “ohh ohh I hold onto you oh oh, ohh-oh yeah I hold onto you, I hold onto you, hmm oh oh hmm I hold onto you”

Just as she started thinking, ‘you’re imagination is running wild again Paula get a grip. Some people are just kind you know, but just in case. He’s a white male, short buzz cut grey hair, ice blue eyes, rectangular pale framed glasses, probably in his 50s, no idea on height as he’s sitting in a drivers seat, muscular chunky looking arms. Stop it Paula seriously it’s just a werthers original from a kind man’.

She looked towards her daughter who seemed to be happily sucking on the sweet on the way to her appointment, completely focused on her music.

There was a mild musty, sweaty smell inside the car that hit her nostrils, covered over with a male aftershave she recognised as old spice. She only recognised it because it was the one her stepdad used to wear.

She was smiling at the memories when she suddenly felt her tongue start to go numb.

It felt like it was swelling inside her mouth. At the same time the driver turned left instead of right. She opened her mouth to say something but no sound came out.

Her daughter still appeared completely oblivious.

The driver flicked his eyes towards his mirror, a sinister grin beginning to form on his face as he noticed she had tried to speak and realised she wasn’t able to. He flicked his eyes back to the road pretending he hadn’t seen.

Paula saw the brief look from the driver. Looking back towards towards her daughter, who seemed to be fine and unaware that he had turned the wrong way.

‘Look at me’

she thought, but her daughter carried on looking forwards, almost like a statue of stillness.

‘Was she experiencing the same thing as her?’

Paula couldn’t tell, all she could feel was the panic rising inside her, like gastric acid reflux burning in your throat ready to explode and take over you.

As he took yet another wrong turn for their destination, she was completely lost and had absolutely no idea where they were. Desperately battling with her drooping eyes she tried to force them back open every time they began to close. By this point the werthers had completely melted away on her tongue, leaving a very slight bitter taste on top of the creamy taste she recognised.

She was completely clueless about what he had done to the sweets. She just hoped wherever they ended up they’d both find a way to escape unharmed and safe.

No longer able to fight the urge to sleep, darkness enveloped her as the driver took what must have been the fifth wrong turning.

***

She awoke on a cold floor with a silky soft feel to it in a dark cold room.

Gradually, getting her senses back. She heard a squeaky clicking sound, smelled a mouldy dampness she could almost taste and felt as cold as the floor she laid on.

She could see the dark silhouette of a figure sitting on a chair opposite.

Goosebumps appeared on her bare arms where they were tied behind her back along with her bent legs, arching her body into a c shaped curve.

Her heart in her throat, she couldn’t see clearly enough to get a good look at the figure, but she sensed the venom in the stare aimed towards her.

Moving her head slightly she saw the room wasn’t in fact completely dark. A warm glow of light was filtering through the partially open gap of a closed curtain window with floating particles of dust dancing around each other in a circular manner.

“So you finally awake sleeping beauty”

A deep familiar voice travelled towards her, vibrating across the room. She thought it was the uber drivers Voice. Only when the man approached bending over her, he was much younger looking. Dark haired, no glasses and a darker blue colour eyes. Otherwise he was a similar build with an uncanny resemblance and probably related. Most likely the drivers son.

“Nothing to say princess?”

He asked mockingly, his left eyebrow raised slightly, his lips resembling the smirk of the driver.

She only had one question.

“Where is my daughter?”

“Oh! She’s long gone, a proper feisty kitty that one”.

He laughed, turning to show her his right cheek. It had recently been scratched deeply to the point of blood having been drawn. It still looked fairly sore, though it was already healing and scarring.

“What do you mean long gone?”

“Long gone! Nobody attacks Rory Van-Der Laurent and gets away with it. She’s been dealt with, as will you.”

He spat out with bitter venom.

Paula still wasn’t sure what he meant but she felt the irony of having argued with herself earlier that the driver was a nice man, and the sweet offering hadn’t been innocent after all. Her heart torn into a million pieces, purely by the thought of what her baby girl must have been through.

She didn’t care what he had in store for her, viewing it as her own well deserved punishment. Hating herself for letting her daughter go through anything with these men. Almost like he read her thoughts he stated,

“Now don’t you worry. There’s no chance of you scaring me, or even being able to fight back Ive made sure of that”.

He chuckled to himself carelessly adding, “Music my dear”.

Once again Paula heard

“ohh ohh I hold onto you oh oh, ohh-oh yeah I hold onto you, I hold onto you, hmm oh oh hmm I hold onto you”

Her eyes widening as he asked.

“An appropriate song don’t you think?”

When she looked at him blankly in response.

“Lyrics of silence by kidnap! on the cd?”

Pointing towards the cd player.”

W smirked again

“Not to worry princess, just know this is gonna hurt like hell”.

Blasting the music louder to drown out her screams. He plunged a sharp knife above the top of her right breast carving something into it. She couldn’t tell what it was. On finishing his carving without any hesitation he preceded to slit her throat with the same knife.

Leaving her gagging and gasping for air, he ran out the back door dropping something on the way.

Paula was still gagging and gasping for air, when the police broke through the front door. Blood pooled beneath her throat.

Some officers ran straight through, in the same direction Rory had left.

Two of them came to where she lay. One dealing with her throat as much as he could. The other one reporting “victim appears to have an LoS on her right breast and slit throat she needs an ambulance now 66 Rochester Way….”

She felt someone else cutting her bound hands and feet free while another said

“Ooh look a werthers original!”

Just as she passed out she also thought she saw her daughters shoes next to her.

***

Naomi forgot to take everything except her phone and earphones as she rushed out the house with her mother for her appointment. When they got into the uber car, Naomi got a strange feeling in her gut. She noticed the driver had creepy ice blue eyes which made her shudder. He didn’t appear to care that she frowned with a dirty look his way, whilst putting in her earphones ready to listen to music. This was part of the current teen culture. After handing her mother a werthers original (which she thought was odd).

With a slight hesitation he grabbed another handing it to her.

She said

“Thank-you”.

to be polite, but didn’t intend eating it. Especially, when she saw him grab himself one from a second bag, without finishing the one he’d taken theirs from.

That was suspicious and put her on instant high alert. She faked pressing the play button on her phone by actually pressing the video record button. Still pretending to listen to her music. Including moving one of her earphones, to let her mum speak to her, even though she could hear perfectly well already. “It’s ok, it’s a werthers original just like your dad used to bring for you. It’ll be something else for you to focus on and calm your anxiety. Give it a try”

Naomi twiddled it a little longer, then seeing her mum already sucking on hers.

“Ok” she replied, proceeding to open the wrapper. Mimicking putting the werthers into her own mouth whilst secretly sliding it into one of her palms with her thumb.

The driver looked back at her skeptically. She imitated sucking the sweet, letting her hand flop to show the inside silver wrapper.

It seemed to work because he looked back at the road. With her other hand she carefully placed the open sweet into her hoodie pocket, to throw away later. She glanced towards her mother thinking to herself.

‘What the hell! She always told me never to take sweets from strangers, and there’s her locked in a strangers car happily eating the sweet he gave her. She’s bloody bonkers”.

Deciding to use the safety feature on her uber account, by sharing her journey with her friend Sally’s mum. She asked her to track them as she didn’t feel safe. This was a smart decision! Sally’s mum was a police officer.

Not long after she noticed her mum looking panicky but not speaking. Keeping her eyes forward she memorised as much information as she could. The drivers name tag said R. Van-Der Laurent. An unusual name, making it easy to remember. The driver had greying hair in a buzz cut style, rectangular shaped pale coloured glasses, dark brown coloured stubble poking through some of the grey, fairly muscular build, was probably in his forties as there was some colour to his hair and beard and he didn’t have any wrinkles that she could see.

If it hadn’t been for his steel cold ice blue eyes that made her spine shiver up and down she would have viewed him as a hot guy for his age.

She also knew he’d taken a wrong turn so started to study the road names. Pretending she was still listening to music, bobbing her head from side to side Lewis Avenue, Ocean Lane, Swindlers Crescent, Kirby Close at this point she could see her mum had passed out, meaning it was up to her to save them both. She hoped thinking ahead had already helped.

They turned into Rochester Way. When they got to 66, the car stopped. She quickly stopped the video but left the tracker on. Unfortunately for her the driver saw and angrily retorted.

“What the hell are you doing with that phone? you should be immobile or passed out like your mother by now!” he spat out, grabbing her and dragging her out of the car. Leaving her phone behind in the process.

“My phphphphone” she stammered.

Her hoodie was twisted into his palms. Arms wafting to her sides she started clawing up towards his face. Her left hand caught his right cheek with her long nails. Pressing down as hard as she could, she felt the skin gather and stick under her nails.

“”Grrr, ow”

He swiftly released one of his hands from her hoodie. Curling it into a fist, while tightening the other in a semicircle practically chocking her with her own hoodie. His fist slammed into her left cheek, making her skull rattle inside her head almost knocking her out. Without any further thought she kneed him straight in the groin. Causing him to release her to grab himself as he fell to his knees in pain.

Naomi took her opportunity and ran leaving her mother and phone in his car.

He would have chased her but he was in too much pain.

Rocking himself back and forth rage overtook him. He pulled open the car door and grabbed Naomi’s phone smashing it to pieces. Pushing through his agony, feeling like he was going to throw up any second he managed to stand. Grabbing some tape from the boot. He made his way round to Paula, picking her up and carrying her into his living room. Where he put her on her side on the floor, tapping up her arms and legs. He quickly pulled his curtains shut.

Then went to his bathroom. Cleaned up his wound, all the time thinking to himself.

‘That little bitch had some gall, if she thinks this is over. no fucking way is it! I’ll get her later, I’ll deal with her mother first’.

He dyed his hair dark brown to cover the grey.

Swapping his glasses for his blue tinted contacts made his ice blue eyes a little darker.

“There you go Rory Van-Der Laurent is looking, good, younger and stronger than ever.” He said to himself.

Meanwhile Naomi had managed to get to Sally Dibs house and speak with her mum.

Giving the police everything she remembered and the address she’d left the driver and her mum at. She hoped this was enough information.

Sally’s mum allowed

Naomi to come along chatting about her earlier ordeal.

“That shiners looks sore I reckon you have the start of a black eye there”

She was saying to Naomi when she noticed Rory running alongside them.

Officer Dibs was straight into action. Accidentally on purpose, opening her door just in time to knock Rory over. She jumped out the car pinning him down.

“Sir you are under arrest, a citizens arrest. A citizen who just happens to be a police officer ….”

“Hold on Dibs aren’t you off duty?”

“Of course Jones! I was just giving you a helping hand while you caught up, citizens arrest…”

“Thank-you Dibs I’ll take over now”.

“I’m afraid it’s like she said you’re under arrest, scuffling around the floor like that isn’t gonna get you anywhere son..”

“He clipped one handcuff on and started again

“You are under arrest you do not have to say anything….”

“Naomi wait…”

Officer Dibs called after her as she headed towards the house. Arriving just in time to she her mum on the floor being helped onto the ambulance bed. There was a puddle of blood next to her on the floor.

“Mum..” she said as they lifted her gently onto the trolly.

“Are you related?” One of the ambulance crew asked.

“Yes I’m her daughter..”

“Come on you can come along”

Naomi hopped into the ambulance.

Her mum was attached to a blood transfusion bag and couldn’t speak her throat temporarily been fixed enough to rush her to hospital.

“Mum it’s ok now.”

Naomi said gripping her mums hand tightly. She added softly with tears in her eyes, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

“I honestly thought you knew never to accept sweets from a stranger, that’s what you always taught me. I didn’t eat mine I gave it to the police as evidence…”

Paula gave Naomi’s hand a little squeeze to show how proud she was.

The End.