Stranger danger

Her heart was pounding in her chest, palms sweaty as she looked out of the window, the scenery was unchanged, as scenic as before, she had never ventured out to this part of the country and rarely took a bus ride.

The scenery although too beautiful to behold, did nothing to calm her down, she wished the anxiety would go away on it’s own but it kept clawing at her like a monster who would refuse to let go of it’s victim, she thought of all the ways on how to banish this monster but her mind couldn’t come up with anything.

As she looked around the bus, she saw everything was normal, nothing looked out of place, maybe it was her first time taking a bus to the countryside that made her nervous or maybe that was what she was telling herself and the reason was much deeper.

Ivy23. That name popped up in her mind all of a sudden, her anxiety reached another level as she thought about that name or rather the username of the person she was about to meet, people would call her stupid but she refused to believe that.

It was dangerous to meet someone in person who you just met online and knew nothing about but that was conventional wisdom and she wasn’t the one to stick to it.

The bus stopped suddenly, the sudden halt made her tense up but she calmed down as she realized, there was nothing to worry about, it wasn’t her stop, as she settled back again, she couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling building up inside her.

It was as if something was begging to come out, begging to be heard, she knew what her mind was trying to warn her against but she didn’t want to think about it, she wanted to convince herself that it was safe and that she had made the right decision.

It all started few months back when she met Ivy23 through a shared social media group, their interests were same and they soon connected over it, they would chat for hours and she could feel that this person who she knew nothing about was turning into a friend, as the months passed, they decided to meet each other and Ivy23 invited her to her town.

As her stop neared, a dozen thoughts flooded her mind, fear, that had remained at the back of her mind was trying to gain her attention, warn her, protect her, tell her to choose safety but she wasn’t the one to hear it, she tried pushing all the thoughts away.

What if Ivy23 turned out to be a serial killer?

What if Ivy23 isn’t a woman as she claimed?

What if Ivy23 is an organ trafficker?

She had seen crime shows where an unwitting victim walked right into a trap laid out by someone who pretended to befriend the victim online, her mind raced with the possibility that she could be on some crime show too, served as a cautionary tale.

As she got down, those thoughts clung to her, refused to let her calm down, no matter how hard she tried, they seemed to grasp her tightly, so tightly that she found it hard to breathe.

She knew she was having a panic attack, the monster of anxiety was clamming down hard on her, it was trying to win over her and she was reduced to watching helplessly as she got defeated.

She somehow fought with her creeping fear and waited at the cafe for Ivy23, a tall woman wearing a red dress entered the cafe and introduced herself as Ivy23, a part of her fear was waning away but it refused to leave her completely.

Just because Ivy23 hadn’t lied about her gender, didn’t mean she was trustworthy, she may have nefarious intentions that she was hiding behind a smiling face, a smile she couldn’t decipher, whether it was fake or genuine.

What if their friendship was a farce?

If so, what was the true intention behind the friendship?

She tried to steady herself and pretended to be calm as Ivy23 or simply Ivy talked about the history of her town and how she loved the aura of the town so much that she refused to move away, sacrificing a high paying job for it too!

Ivy gave her a short trip around the town, took her to her house, it was breathtakingly beautiful and she could feel it had an ethereal quality, she stood and gazed around awestruck for a few minutes.

Ivy seemed to be amused by her reaction, she kept on insisting there was nothing great to look at in her house, it was a normal house like any other house she had been to before but she couldn’t agree with Ivy’s statement, to her there was an inexplainable aura to the house, just as the town had an aura around it that seemed inviting but also cold at the same time.

There was an otherworldly vibe to it, it was as if she had been taken to another dimension or rather pushed into another dimension, a dimension she didn’t know existed before!

As she sat in the bus, the scenery was no longer appealing, it had become boring, the same trees and bushes dotted the path, the joy she felt earlier had waned, she sighed, she was tired, it had been a long trip and her body was protesting from the strain.

She glanced around and made sure that no one was watching her, slowly took out a box from the bag given to her by Ivy, the metallic box seemed inviting and she lifted the lid slightly and peaked inside.

It was just as Ivy had described, the veins criss crossed forming a beautiful pattern, the valves seemed to be intricately designed and the heart had a beautiful red hue that she had never seen before, as she slid the lid back and put the box away satisfied, she was glad that she had put her fear at bay and finally found someone who liked the taste of human organs as much as she did.