Tales of the Dark - 2. Chapter 2

Eric had goosebumps up his arms. In his head he thanked his parents for not moving their family to Japan and for not having a big spider problem. Eric wondered how someone could have possibly come up with all of this. Where they urban legends? Folklore? Or something born deep within the recesses of a twisted mind? This book seemed to have so many stories in it, a real treasure trove of delicious literary horror, and he was excited to see what else they could find inside.

The weight on his shoulder shifted. For a moment he had almost forgotten about Danny. What if he was getting too scared already? They weren’t children anymore so it wasn’t like he’d run away crying his eyes out, but Eric knew he certainly had limits. He was trying to scare him enough to bring them closer together but not enough to make him want to stop.

“That was good huh?” he said hesitantly. He felt Danny nod and snuggle all the closer. Eric chuckled. His devious little plan was actually working.

“You want me to read the next one? Or have you had enough?” he asked. It was a challenge and secretly he hoped that Danny would want him to continue. Things were just beginning to get good.

“No, I like it.” He heard Danny’s voice whisper softly, “Keep reading.”

Eric blushed again and turned the page. The old material was worn and delicate between his fingers. There in the gloom of the attic he took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and begun to read the next title.

Lemon Drops

“Look, mommy!” Little Jared loved sweets. Hard sweets, chewy sweets, sweets of all sorts he would gobble up faster than a starving mutt would a prime cut of steak. Of all of them however, Jared loved Lemon Drops the best. They were nearly his most favorite thing in the whole wide world. Oh, how he delighted in those tangy, sour little lemon-flavored sweeties. He could eat a whole bag full of them in under five minutes if he ever got his hands on one, and the one time his grandmother bought him an entire jarful, it was polished off in two days. Now there in the candy store of the mall he pulled and dragged his mother over to the bags sitting on the shelf. “Lemon Drop my favorite!”

“No, Jared” said his mother, “no more candy for you. I think you’ve had quite enough of it today.” Under her breath she muttered, “Enough candy for a lifetime.”

Poor little Jared whined as his mother led him away from his dear sweets, crushing the hope in his poor little heart. He was only three years old. He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed have something, especially when it tasted so divine.

Soon the pair were lost in the hustle and bustle of the crowd of shoppers. With his stature, all Jared saw was a vast forest of legs, knees, and shoes running about trying to get nowhere at all. Jared practically had to jog to keep up with his mother’s frantic pace and he very quickly began to tire of it.

“Come on, Jared, keep up.” His mother huffed, dragging the poor child into a sea of clothing. Bright colors and folds of fabric stood everywhere like tall mountains and with each passing moment his curiosity and thirst for adventure began to take its toll. Eventually his mother let go of his hand. There was a beautiful evening gown at half price and she simply had to see how it looked upon her. As soon as he saw his chance, Jared raced off without a sound.

For an age he giggled and played, running from store to store, seeing whatever there was to see and moving on. Anything from the shiniest buttons to the neatest of toys piqued his fancy and the world was a blur of the new and exciting. Soon however he grew tired and sat down on a wooden bench. That’s when he noticed that he’d lost his mommy. He looked and looked but she was nowhere to be found at all. His little heart raced. Where was she? What if she was gone forever? What if she never found him? Beads of tears began to well up in his little eyes as he sat back down, defeated. Suddenly a movement in the corner of his sight caught his attention.

There on the ground was a Lemon Drop. It looked as if it had been put there specifically for him. It called to him. How could he resist? Sniffling, he leapt down off the bench and picked it up, unraveled the wrapper, and popped it in his mouth. Oh, the sweet, sweet delight of Lemon Drops seemed to chase all of his fears away.

Then he heard another one. The people around it never even bothered to look down and so they passed it by, that tiny piece of delectable treasure. He walked over, picked it up, and popped it into his mouth. Sugary, lemony goodness filled his senses until, like a drug, the high was over and the sweet eaten.

Once more he heard a faint clatter of hard candy hitting the floor. Jared walked over and ate that one as well. He didn’t know if someone was leaving these treats for him, or dropping them accidentally, but at the naïve age of three he couldn’t care less.

Another Lemon Drop appeared, then another. They were getting further from the wooden bench each time. Again and again the sweets would drop right in the range where he would notice them and time and time again he would run over and gobble them up. Some of the mall patrons would stop and notice the little boy, running about unsupervised. They saw, however, that he wasn’t crying, worried, or looking like he was at all lost, so they dismissed their concern and carried on with their lives. They were far too busy engaging themselves with the latest gadget craze or the biggest fashion sale to be bothered wondering about some little brat.

Eventually little Jared gazed up after picking up a rather delicious looking Lemon Drop and found that he had been led outside along the outskirts of the mall. The area was for the most part abandoned as this was more the service entrances and delivery bays. Another little clatter of candy on the pavement prompted him to keep moving and eventually he rounded a corner to a back alleyway. The dumpsters in the alley stank and the ground and walls were covered in filth, but the allure of Lemon Drops was too great to be ignored.

Suddenly a manly figure appeared from behind one of the dumpsters. He was cloaked in a black hoodie and jeans with a baseball cap slung low over his face. He had his hands in the pockets of his jacket and knelt down before the little boy. One of his hands emerged carrying a large handful of the tasty treats he had been chasing after all day, and the man gave a cunning smile.

“Come here, boy.” He said gently, “Don’t you want some sweet, delicious candy?”

Hesitantly Jared approached the stranger, his mother often blabbed something or another about trusting people he didn’t know, but those Lemon Drops sure did look good.

“Come on. I have all the candy you could ever want. Won’t you come over here? I promise I won’t bite.” The man’s grin curled into a devious smile but his words were so nice and genuine that Jared kept advancing further into the back alley. In his guts Jared knew something was off but he just couldn’t resist the allure of his beloved Lemon Drops. It was no use at all to even try. Slowly Jared reached the hooded man and stared longingly at his handful of sweets.

“That’s a good boy.” Said the man, smiling from ear to ear, “Now, if you stay real quiet you and me can have a little fun.”

Then it was almost as if a dark cloud shifted over and cast its gloom over everything. The man stood menacingly, candy spilling wantonly from his pockets. He reached out with strong, brazen arms and grasped the small child with and iron grip, thrilled that he had finally caught his young, juvenile prey. The alley was too far for prying ears, there wasn’t a soul around to notice, and no one ever heard the ungodly screams that rattled forth.

“Jared?” the little boy’s mother called out to him, “Jared, where in heaven’s name have you gone?”

Having searched for over an hour she finally made her way to the outskirts of the mall. At this point she, a usually calm and collected woman, was beginning to become frantic with worry. How could she have been so foolish to allow him to escape like that? What kind of mischief had he caused when she wasn’t around? These questions and more perturbed her and compelled her to quicken her pace. He couldn’t possibly have gone too far. Then she rounded the corner and let out a gasp. There in the alley was a terrifying, gruesome scene. Blood and filth were cast about everywhere and in the center of it all was her precious little boy.

“Look, mommy!” Jared’s sweet little voice peeped out and there she saw him, sitting on his bottom smiling sweetly at her.

“Oh, Jared.” his mother chided, “Don’t you ever run off like that again, do you understand?”

She picked up her lovely little boy and kissed his sweet little forehead. Jared only giggled and wrapped his tiny arms around her neck in an adorable hug that only young children can provide. She smiled, glad to have him back again then looked at his face.

“Oh, Jared! Why, you have stuff all over you.” With her finger she wiped away some muck from around his mouth. “Oh, and look at what a mess you’ve made”

There on the floor behind the dumpster lay the body of a man, or rather, the remains of what was once a body. His stomach was ripped open and ravaged, now an empty chasm of blood and gore. One arm was completely missing and the other had no fingers save for a stub of bone where his thumb would be. The man’s head was split open upon the pavement with brain matter scooped out and his gaping, empty eye sockets stared out into the sky. Below he looked as if he had been ripped open and torn asunder, bits of flesh and bone everywhere. The stench of fresh, bloody meat hung heavy in the air and flies began to swarm around the open cavities.

“Look, mommy!” said little Jared, mouth still stained red with the filth of human flesh.

“Oh, dear.” Sighed his mother, “It seems you’ve gone and spoiled you dinner again. Oh well, why waste a perfectly good corpse?”

With that she set sweet little Jared down. She walked over, grabbed a large hunk of flesh, and ripped it from the body. Opening wide, her jaw unhinged and long, razor sharp teeth dropped down before she began tearing into the still warm meat with animalistic savagery.

She couldn’t really blame her little one, could she? Humans were so incredibly delicious and young Jared seemed to always know how to pick the really juicy ones. Lovingly she looked down at her precious child, gnawing on the thigh bone with his cute, little baby fangs. With a mouth covered in bits of flesh he smiled ever so sweetly and cooed at her, “Man flesh my favorite!”