Valentine's Candy

Valentine’s Candy

Melissa L. Webb

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Melissa L. Webb

Discover other titles by Melissa L. Webb:

The Tingles

Dark Flutters: Stories For A Moonless Night

Weaver Of Darkness

Checking It Twice

Strange Musings

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Candy Rogers put her key in the lock and
turned it. Opening the door, she peered into the darkened mail
compartment. A stack of envelopes greeted her in the dying
sunlight. She slipped her hand in, grabbing the stack and then
turned the key once more.

Glancing through the envelopes, she hurried
back down the street to her house. Bill. Bill. Bill. A letter from
her sister. More bills. A flier that announced tickets for the
Policemen’s Ball were on sale.

She sighed at the flier. She wasn’t going.
She had already made that clear. The last thing she wanted to do
was to go stag and there was no way she going with someone either.
She had finally just settled into being single, last thing she
wanted was to have her heart broken all over again.

She hurried up her walkway and up onto her
porch, slipping her key into the lock. She glanced down. A huge
bouquet of flowers was sitting on her doorstep. Reds, pinks, and
yellows splashed together to create a perfect wild flower
arrangement.

Candy’s lips pulled into a grin despite
herself. She had never gotten flowers before, especially not on
Valentine’s Day.

She picked them up and took the small card
out from between the leaves.
Pretty flowers for a Beautiful
Lady
was printed elegantly on the white card stock.

Carrying them into the house, she headed
towards the kitchen. She tossed the mail on the counter and grabbed
a vase out of the cabinet. She ran some water in it and arranged
the flowers carefully.

She leaned back against the counter admiring
her work once she was done. She couldn’t help but smile once again.
What a Valentine’s Day this turned out to be. She had a secret
admirer and he had sent her flowers.

Candy might have to turn some guy down in the
future but she could definitely enjoy the thrill of it tonight.

She turned and headed for the living room,
pausing slightly as she inhaled the flowery sent now invading the
kitchen.

Taking off her coat, she turned on the T.V.,
filling the room with voices as she left it turned to the news.
Glancing at the headlines, she headed back into the kitchen to
start dinner.

The food was almost ready, when she heard a
knock on the door. Wiping her hands, she headed for the front door.
“Hello?” she called, pulling the door open. The porch was devoid of
human life. Glancing down, she looked into big plastic eyes staring
up at her.

“Oh, look at you,” She cooed as she took the
giant stuffed bear into her arms. “Aren’t you just adorable?”

Shutting the door behind her, Candy took the
bear into the dinning room and sat it on the table.

The teddy bear sat there, staring back at
her. Bright blue plastic eyes peering forth from its lush white
hair.

“You have to be the cutest thing I’ve ever
seen,” she muttered as she straightened its blue sequined bow-tie.
“But who sent you?”

It couldn’t be someone from work. Everyone at
the police station where she work as a dispatcher, knew how she
felt. Maybe it was someone from the library where she volunteered
her Saturday afternoons? Who was she kidding? It could be
anybody.

Sighing, she headed back into the kitchen.
She had other things to worry about right now.

Candy was sitting at the dining room table
just finishing dinner, when she heard something outside. It sounded
like someone sliding something against the side of the house. She
froze, waiting for a knock on the door.

The noise stopped; replaced by nothing but
silence.

“What is going on here?” she wondered out
loud as she got up from the table and made her way to the front
door. “Who’s out there?” she called.

The silence from outside continued on.

She opened the door and looked out into the
night. “Hello?” she called into the emptiness.

Nothing answered her. Once again as she
looked down at her door mat. “No way.”

Sitting in the porch light, sparkling for her
attention was a diamond necklace. The diamonds formed a perfect
heart, glistening against the black velvet background. A pink
envelope leaned against the back of the box.

Candy reached down and snatched up the
envelope. With shaky fingers, she slipped open the flap and pulled
the card out.

It had a red heart on the cover under the
words Happy Valentine’s Day.

She flipped the card open. It was blank
inside except for someone’s elegant handwriting. The black ink
stood out in perfect contrast against the white backdrop.

“For you: jewels that will never rival the
sparkles in your eyes,” she read in shock. She shook her head. She
couldn’t believe this. This was going too far.

She walked out along her porch and stared
into the night. Who was doing this? This seemed like more than just
a little Valentine’s Day crush. This was more then she wanted. It
was just too much for her to handle right now.

She turned back around and grabbed the
necklace box off her door mat. It clicked closed with a loud snap.
Stepping inside, she closed and locked the door. She headed back
into the kitchen, grabbing the bear as she went.

Enough was enough. She didn’t want this
attention. She tossed the velvet box and teddy bear into the
garbage can. The flowers were next.

One little present would have been fine, but
to just keep coming? And a diamond necklace? This was turning
obsessive. She had already done her time with an obsessive
boyfriend. She wasn’t going back to that. Not now. Not ever.

Candy sighed as she cleared her dinner
plates. This was why she avoided dating. Guys all turned psycho
sooner or later.

She turned out the lights, heading through
the living room and up the stairs. She was done for the night. She
was going to take a long hot bath and then crawl into bed. There,
she would pull the covers over her head and pretend this night had
never happened.

She made her way into the bathroom at the end
of the hall. She turned the water on, setting it to the perfect
temperature. She stood there and watched as the water slowly
started filling the bathtub.

She knew she would feel better once she
settled into that water. The tension would slide off her shoulders
and everything would be fine. She was focused on the water, trying
to calm her racing heart, when the phone in her room rang.

She turned and hurried back down the hall to
her room. Grabbing the cordless from the base, she pushed the
answer button. “Hello?”

A dry crackling met her ears, like the rustle
of leaves under foot on a crisp autumn day.

“Hello?” she repeated again. The connection
was really bad. She vaguely wondered if there was a storm moving in
from somewhere.

A faint breathing began to mix with the
crackling on the phone. It seemed to rise and fall with
anticipation. Anticipation of what she might do or say.

A metallic taste rose up in the back of
Candy’s throat as she felt sweat bead up between the phone and her
palm. She took a deep breath and tried to speak but her tongue
suddenly seemed too large for her mouth. “What do you want?” she
finally managed to speak in a half-croaked whisper.

The breathing deepened on the phone, turning
into a harsh gasp. “I…want you,” a voice whispered back to her.
“Won’t you be my Valentine?”

She moaned as she ripped the phone from her
ear. “No,” she gasped as she pushed the end button and tossed the
phone on the bed.

She had to get out. She couldn’t be alone in
the house, not if this was going to continue. She would end up
losing her mind if she stayed. She ran back down the hall towards
the bathroom. She couldn’t just leave the water running. She might
be scared but she wasn’t stupid.

Hurrying into the bathroom, she reached for
the knob to turn off the water and froze. Rose petals. They were
completely covering the top of the water like a flowery
blanket.

She turned off the water in a daze. Her heart
seemed frozen in her chest. Those petals had not been there before.
Someone had put them there.

Someone was in the house.

Candy turned and ran out of the bathroom. She
grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket as her feet pounded down
the stairs. Quickly dialing 911, she made her way to the living
room.

The line rang once and then there was a
click. “911. What is your emergency?” the dispatcher asked.

“Doreen,” she panted into the phone as she
stepped into the kitchen. It had to be Doreen. She would be the one
manning dispatch at this hour. “Doreen, someone’s in my house.”

“Who?” she asked. “Are you okay? What’s going
on?” Her voice sounded frantic as Candy passed into the dining
room.

She stopped in shock, taking in the scene in
front of her. The phone slid from her hand and hit the floor,
bouncing away. “What the…”

Candles flickered on the table, trying to
entice her forward. The flowers she had thrown away were back in
their vase, carefully arranged into a centerpiece. The necklace sat
on the table sparkling just as brilliantly as before. The teddy
bear sat in a chair facing an empty chair pulled back from the
table, as if begging her to sit with him. There, directly on the
place setting of the chair, was a box of chocolates. The lid was
off and the chocolates sat there, demanding attention. A note laid
next to the box.

She shivered as her eyes drifted over the
words on the note. Candy for my Candy?

“Oh my god,” she muttered as she darted for
the front door. She made it there as fast as her feet could carry
her and threw the door open.

Candy stumbled out onto the porch, looking
around in shock. Her whole entire porch was covered with flowers.
Bouquets of flowers. Flowers in pots. Flowers just thrown on the
wooden floor. Flowers were everywhere.

The smell was overpowering, cloying in her
nose. She had to get away from those flowers. She fled the porch,
running down the walkway to the street.

She looked up and down the street, trying to
decide what to do. She had to get out of here. She turned and
looked at her car. She needed to get in it and head to the police
station or her parent’s house, anywhere that wasn’t here right
now.

She turned and sprinted for her car. A dark
shape seemed to step away from it as she got close. She stopped
short as a figure came into view.

“Hey, what’s a matter?” the man asked as he
stepped closer to her.

She felt the breath hitch in her throat as
she looked up at his face. It was Kevin, her next door neighbor. He
always seemed to show up when she was outside.

“What do you want?” she asked him.

“What’s wrong, Candy?” he asked her. “Where
are you going?”

She instantly took a step back. Kevin would
have had the perfect opportunity to leave those things on her
porch. Plus, here he was, lurking outside her house in the dark.
“I’ve got to go,” she whispered, turning around.

“Wait,” he called. “What ever is going on, I
can help you with it. A girl like you shouldn’t have to be alone on
Valentine’s Day.”

Her eyes grew wide. It was him. She took off
on a dead run down the street.

“Come back, Candy.” Kevin’s voice seemed to
follow her as she ran.

She ran faster, shivering in the cold night
air. She glanced over her shoulder and saw him following. Her
heartbeat kicked up another notch. She couldn’t let him catch
her.

Candy darted off the sidewalk, into the woods
lining the street. The path through them would take her to the next
street over. There she would be safe, if she could get someone to
pull over. She crashed through the trees, her shoes kicking up mud
as she ran.