Quote:
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?
Halloween was one of the best times of the year, hands down.
Especially when one was at the mall and new stores - full of brightly coloured confectionery and appetizingly aromatic sweets - was handing out free samples. Being young had advantages in that one was disinclined to ask too many questions when the words "free" and "candy" were paired, and wasn't there that old adage about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? So when the cutely dressed sample girl pressed not one, but two of the gloriously vibrant treats on him with a wink, he accepted with all the grace that a nineteen year old stoner could muster - which was to say, next to none but at least he was charming about it.
On the way home, Miles ate one piece of the candy - it was absolutely delicious. Just the best goddamned piece of candy he'd ever managed to get across his taste buds during the entirety of his years on Earth. It was downright ambrosial, if he were attempting to wax overly poetic or perhaps purple like in those godawful trashy romance novels his mom used to like to read when she took bubble baths to unwind.
The temptation to ingest the second piece before making it home was strong, but Miles abstained; he knew that as good as the candy had been straight, the flavours would become that much more intense whilst stoned.
All was going well until hours later when it felt as though a swarm of bees was tearing it's way through his tooth and jaw. A trip to the emergency dentist revealed nothing physically amiss, though the assistant did mention that they had been seeing a great number of 'emergency' cases where nothing was wrong, which Miles found rather suspect. He returned home after picking up some Anbesol he hoped would help with the pain, when it didn't Miles went ahead and medicated in his time-honored way.
Two hours after that, Miles rediscovered the second piece of free sample candy from the new shop and remembered that he'd meant to eat it while in his present state. Without a second thought, he unwrapped the sample from it's clear casing of crinkly cellophane and popped it into his mouth, lips smacking with enjoyment as his tongue moved the candy from one side of his mouth to the other for the full flavor experience on all sides. It was as good as he remembered - better, if he were being honest, with a breadth of flavor he would have been hard pressed to express as anything but full.
Miles lit up once more, sprawled out in a tatty recliner in his friend's basement wearing sweat pants and an AC/DC shirt that had seen better days, making smoke rings at the ceiling and enjoying the experience of the candy until he finally passed out. The pain that had come before returned, only Miles was so deep under he didn't rouse; instead his dreams were haunted with monsters created by pain and his body broke out in a sheen of sweat that would leave a damp outline in the recliner when he finally got up to take a piss around midnight.
He would definitely be giving candy a wider berth than usual for the next few days without really knowing why, but it wouldn't last. Pain leaves only fleeting marks on the young; by the time Halloween came around properly, Miles would be trying to give himself diabetes just like every other teenager out there.
Word Count: 597
