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?
It had been a hot minute since Abbot had anything truly and artificially sweet. Candy wasn’t her biggest vice by any means and she didn’t have any real sweet tooth to speak of, but something about the Halloween season put her in the mood for sugary sweet candies and there was a new store in Destiny City that could scratch that particular itch.
The line for the store was out the door and around the corner, but Abbot didn’t really mind. She stood patiently behind the other patrons while will more queued up behind her, enjoying a well earned cigarette in the cool fall afternoon while making pleasant conversation with those around her. Everyone seemed to have heard about this place in some form or another, though largely by word of mouth. No one could really recall seeing any advertisements for it… no one could really remember the construction being done on the building. They laughed and chalked it up to the busy day to day life of city dwellers, but no one could seem to shake the feeling that this store had literally seemed to pop up overnight.
The feeling of foreboding was quickly swept away when Abbot was able to enter the store. It smelled like childhood. Hot sugar, artificial fruit flavors, and the undercurrent of chocolate all drifted into her nose and made her sigh pleasantly. Candies decorated the store in tall, clear glass apothecary jars, creating bursts of color on otherwise pale backdrops of pastel colors. Abbot had to smile at the design choice, highlighting the candy as the decor as opposed to anything else. It did, however, make the choice of which candy to choose that much harder. Everything just looked so good that there was almost no way to choose. There was no wrong answer.
In the end, Abbot selected a sample of a bonbon of white chocolate filled with pumpkin spice creme. The second it touched her tongue, she knew that she was in love. Flavors exploded in her mouth, melting her nerved until she was nothing but a satisfied puddle on the floor. This chocolate was, in a word, perfect. Abbot envisioned herself relaxing in the bath with a plate of these and a nice glass of wine, or snacking on them while she worked at Storytime. Even keeping a few with her while she was on patrol.
In the end she bought four bags of it, already working to parse out how many she could eat and how long they would last. No doubt she could purchase replacements until January at the latest but… no need to be greedy.
Upon arriving home, Abbot took special care arranging the candies in a clear glass apothecary dish and setting the display on the hallway table to admire. They did look like little ivory jewels… beauty and flavor, Abbot couldn’t ask for more. She smiled at her work and then winced as a small jolt of pain shot through one of her molars. Now that was odd. She rubbed her jaw for a moment and the pain faded, and she forgot about the incident, going about her day to day life. Except for that the pain came back. Each time a longer, stronger jolt of pain rocketing through her jaw until she was almost crippled by an endless surge of screaming nerves. She drove to the dentist in a near haze from the pain.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with you, Miss. Niles,” the dentist explained, taking off his gloves and sitting back.
“Check again.”
“There is nothing to check. Your teeth are in perfect health. There is nothing worng.”
“The explain the fact the pain in my jaw.”
The dentist only shrugged and began putting his tools away.
In the lobby, as Abbot was checking out, she overheard someone talking to another patron about her own tooth aches.
“Yeah, it was the most bizarre thing. It was just suddenly excruciating, but nothing was wrong.”
“Me too, what’s that even about?”
“I mean the only thing we did together was go to that new candy store…”
Abbot’s head snapped around, drawing the two client’s attention. They stared at her wide-eyed as she gaped back in anger.
“Candy store,” she asked, eyebrows knitted together in irritation. They nodded slowly and Abbot cursed, throwing the check at the receptionist and flooring it all the way home. Suddenly, the little white bonbons looked less inviting and she threw away the whole stock.
What a waste of money.
