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A new candy store is giving free promotional candy to try and attract new customers. At first, it’s delicious; it’s easily one of the best candies you’ve ever had. Only, within twenty four hours of eating your first piece, you begin to have extreme tooth pain that can last for up to a whole day. It feels like a cavity, but a trip to the dentist reveals nothing strange. It just hurts. While the pain eventually fades, you’ll remember how much it hurt. Is your drive for Halloween Candy dented or are you still gearing up for more?
Despite being more of a biskie person, one of her fellow classmates had recommended checking out Sinfully Sweet, a new candy store that had apparently recently opened up near to the subway station and was giving out free promotional candy as samples.
"Just try it Ashley" Michelle had murmured as the two of them waited for the teacher to appear and start class "You can't really argue with free" and then had added as Ashley wrinkled her nose slightly "And the samples were so good that I found myself actually buying some of their candy too - the stuff is really that to die for."
Which was how she had found herself in line - a line that ran around the corner - because the shop had been open for three days by the time that she had managed to get a chance to go check it out and word obviously got around.
Or perhaps it was just the free–
Either way Ashley had found herself wishing that she had had the foresight to bring a book or something, especially after finding herself standing in between a man in a werewolf costume and a boy dressed up in a sheet - the two obviously having decided to get in practice early for Halloween...
Or perhaps they both just happened to have Halloween parties or some sort of themed party to go to later -
She found herself scanning through a couple of flyers advertising some sort of upcoming Halloween-themed event over at the Botanical Gardens and staring at some of the store fronts as the queue slowly continued to shift up, eyes taking in the spooky displays as she shuffled forward the few steps into the space that had opened up in front of her as she wondered - not for the first time - if the candy was really worth all this.
After all there was always The Sugar Cube and they came with biskies - and maybe they would do some Halloween-themed - like the cute little mummy themed biskies or the trick or treat mini biskies that her little sister had sent her photos of...
The queue shifted again, by virtue of a couple of people slipping out of line allowing Ashley to actually walk forward again. A visit to The Sugar Cube was tempting - super tempting, but she had to admit that she was a little curious about the candy shop–
Okay perhaps she was little more that just a 'little' curious, because the line suggested that perhaps Michelle was onto something with her recommendation - at least Ashley was hoping that she was and that the line wasn't just a side effect of some samples being free.
And yes maybe a part of her was hoping that there would still be some samples by the time that she hit the front of the queue, although she didn't have an issue with actually buying some of the shop candy if it turned out to be truly as good as Michelle was insinuating.
It took a few more line shifts but finally Ashley found herself at the front of the line and being handed a sample of the 'coffin drop' special by a smiling woman dressed up as a vampire and whilst the name was kind of silly, it really did taste pretty good - good enough that she found herself buying a few more coffin drop specials alongside a couple of bloodsuckers and a packet of batty taffy.
She had munched on the bloodsuckers as she made her way over to the library, but had saved the coffin drop specials and the taffy for her patrol as Reinerite later that evening.
The pain had kicked in shortly after half two the next afternoon, a sharp throbbing pain in her teeth that had driven Ashley down to the dentist, but whilst the symptoms had seemed synonymous with a - or rather several - cavities, the puzzled dentist hadn't been able to find anything.
Her teeth were perfect he had told her. You obviously look after your teeth he had told her - both things that Ashley could have told him herself and no comfort at all in the face of a pain that would not go away.
There was no patrol as Reinerite that particular evening, Ashley keeping miserably to the apartment she was renting and it was something that lasted almost 24 hours into the next day too before finally, mercifully the pain faded away.
She decided to give the Botanical Gardens 'Bootanical Garden' event a miss as she slipped out for the evening to find somewhere private to shift into Reinerite having already made plans for that particular evening - plans that involved Michelle and the rather sizeable donation of energy to the Negaverse that her classmate had no idea that she would be providing.
And it was the last time that she was going to take someone up on a candy recommendation - at least ones that involved newly opened up shops with sweets named after bad puns.
-- 828 words --
