Sweeter Than Honey

She came at me across the crowded room. She walked right past the off duty firefighters wearing shirts two sizes too small. She walked by the slick Cuban guy in the pink button up. Out of all the options in the bar that Saturday night, she came to me.

Her short hair was dyed a vibrant and unnatural shade of orange with tips bleached white. Her entire outfit was made to look practical, maybe even reputable, but it was clearly better suited for highlighting her physical assets more than her professional ones. She approached and spoke to me with a confidence I had never seen before.

“Hi, I'm Candy.”

I smiled. I couldn't help myself.

“Of course you are,” I replied.

She raised an eyebrow, but did not back away. One hand went to her hip. It was playful.

“Come again?”

“S-sorry. Old movie scene. Highlander. Just seemed really funny.”

She laughed, but I could tell she hadn't found it as funny as I did.

“Oh right! With the swords and stuff, right? I think my dad watched it when I was a kid.”

I nodded along, but was too distracted by the shape of her neck and the way she casually flipped the white tips of her hair aside as she moved to sit at my table. She didn't ask. She just sat down. Like it was her table and I just happened to already be sitting here.

“Look, I know you're a little older than me.”

She leaned forward across the table and lowered her voice. Any quieter and I wouldn't be able to hear her over the room's general commotion. Her blouse shifted as she moved forward. I found my eyes drawn down into the shadows there. I couldn't help it. She smiled, but didn't comment or tell me to look at her eyes.

“I was looking for someone to spend some time with tonight,” she continued, “but the two chili cook-off losers and Chico Suave over there just look like trouble.”

She wasn't wrong. “Chico” had slipped something into another girl's drink not 15 minutes ago. I wasn't sure about the firefighters, but she had her reasons.

“You, on the other hand, you seem like a nice guy. A safe bet, you know?”

She winked at me and leaned back in her seat.

In all my years, I had never had a beautiful young woman just come up to me like this. I couldn't believe that my night was taking such a positive turn for a change.

“A s-safe bet, huh? Should I be insulted?”

I smiled awkwardly. I hoped she could tell I was teasing.

She laughed again and then slipped off her seat. She practically dragged me off of my chair and threaded her slender arm through my elbow. I hoped she didn't notice the extra weight I carried in the middle.

“Probably a little insulted.”

She squeezed my arm.

“But I'll make it up to you, yeah? Come on, I just live down the street.”

Her place was a tiny apartment up several flights of stairs. Once we were in the building, she insisted on walking up the stairs in front of me. She said the stairs were too narrow for walking side by side, but the way she moved up the stairs said she was also interested in teasing.

She closed and locked the apartment door and then slipped off her blazer. She tossed it onto a folding chair with other jackets while I hovered in the entryway unsure what to do next.

“Bedroom is down that way, cutie. Feel free to get comfy and head that way. I gotta make a pit stop before I join you.”

She gestured down the claustrophobic hallway as she slipped into another room and closed the door behind her. The door creaked back open just a crack and light spilled out.

I wanted to go see. I heard running water. I knew it was just the bathroom, but I wanted to see what she was really doing in there. Women always have just funny codewords about anything to do with the bathroom.

I resisted the urge. I took my own jacket off and draped it across the back of a chair at the dining table as I passed by. I crossed the tiny beam of light from the bathroom door as she casually dropped her bra in view.

Her face appeared in the open door. The light cast a halo around her bright hair and cast shadows across her features. She almost didn't look human for a moment, but she smiled sweetly.

“Sorry, gotta change. Be right there.”

She winked and then closed the door properly.

I waited to hear it lock, but it didn't. I thought again about opening the door to see what she was really up to. I even started to reach for the doorknob. I stopped myself.

I repeated the mantra of “don't be a creep” in my head as I went down the hall toward the bedroom. Opportunities like this don't happen often.

I don't know what kind of bedroom I expected from a twenty-something woman with bright orange hair. Whatever images my mind might have considered, however, weren't this.

The room was spartan. Just a full-sized bed with white sheets; so weird. I had seen cheap motels with more decor.

I sat down on the side of the bed. I heard the crinkle of plastic from beneath the sheet. That was probably the heaviest mattress protector ever sold. I kicked off my shoes and waited.

I didn't wait long.

She hadn't made a sound coming down the hall, but there she was in the bedroom door the next time I looked up. The white cami she wore almost looked like it had grown from the white tips of her hair. It looked almost innocent, but it also left nothing to the imagination.

“I say ‘get comfy’ and you don't even take off your shirt, huh?”

The words were teasing, but her tone said she was slightly more… something. Disappointed, maybe?

In response, I just lowered my head and placed my hands on my bulging midsection. I may have seemed safe, but this kind of weight wasn't attractive to anyone, I knew.

“Awww.”

Her tone shifted again. No longer a disappointment, I was a wounded puppy.

“Okay. We'll leave it on.”

She walked up to me and took my face in her hands. She kissed me. She tasted like strawberries. She kissed me long enough that I almost lost my breath. She seemed to notice and stood up. She smiled at me, but I couldn't tell why.

She leaned past me to adjust the pillows. Her camisole slid up her hips. I couldn't help myself this time. I reached out and squeezed her behind. It seemed like the right thing to do. She didn't tense.

She looked back at me over her shoulder. I couldn't read her face before orange locks fell in the way. She stood up and casually brushed my hand aside. She was holding two pairs of handcuffs. She must have had them hidden under the pillows.

She took my right hand and snapped the cuffs into place. I let her. Again, these opportunities don't happen every day. She attached the other ring of the cuffs to the headboard. Then she quickly kissed me again before moving around the bed. She motioned me to her.

It was difficult sliding up onto the bed with only one arm, but she was patient while I struggled. I managed it finally and she handcuffed my other hand to the headboard as well. Again, she gave me a quick kiss before she moved to the foot of the bed and disappeared beyond the footer.

When she reappeared, she was hauling a large black case onto the foot of the bed. She looked at me and smiled, but the smile looked sad.

“You know, you really do seem like a nice guy…”

She paused and then her face lit up. She laughed aloud and I was reminded of the woman that had approached me in the bar not an hour before.

“Oh my god! I just realized I completely forgot to get your name. That's so silly!”

The whimsy in her voice eased the tension that had been building in the room. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from Candy, but the playful banter was a relief.

“I am so sorry. Who are you?”

I almost told her my real name.

“S-shawn,” I replied instead.

She smiled sweetly. For a moment, she seemed to be considering what to say next. It was something I hadn't seen her do yet. Her confidence suddenly seemed shaken. Had I said something wrong?

“I really, really am sorry, Shawn.”

She sounded sad again as she opened the case.

“You remind me a lot of my dad, actually.”

I couldn't see into the case since the lid obscured everything from view. I heard something like metal clasps being released, then snapped closed, and then released again.

She looked at me and all emotion drained from her face. It was almost scary.

“He was a piece of shit, my dad. This isn't your fault, Shawn. It's his, okay?”

She stood up fully and from inside the case produced a large bowie knife. She practically had to hold it in two hands.

She walked back around the bed and stood over me. I saw a glisten of a single tear roll down her cheek. It was almost enough to make me regret the whole night. Too bad opportunities like this are hard to come by.

She shifted the knife to one hand and then skillfully began unbuttoning my shirt. I could have struggled. I could have resisted. Perhaps I should have. I didn't. As she undid the last button and flipped my shirt open she jumped away.

Emotion returned to her face as she saw the weight I carried. Only this time, it was not joy or sadness.

It was fear.

“Are you for real?”

The words barely fumbled out of her mouth.

“I am.”

At that moment, she wanted to run, I could see it in her eyes. The pair of tentacles I had kept tightly wrapped around my waist under the shift suddenly uncoiled and reared back like twin snakes. She didn't even have time for a single step before they lashed out at her, reaching an impossible distance in the blink of an eye. The tiny talons that tipped each tentacle drove into each of her shoulders.

She tried to scream, but no air escaped. Her bowie knife, forgotten in the abject horror of the moment, clattered to the floor. My tentacles lifted her off the floor and dragged her across the bed to my face. She was shaking.

Without effort, I pulled my hands away from the headboards and the handcuffs just crumbled to pieces as I moved. I took her face in both hands. I stroked one cheek with my thumb as I gazed at her, free of any emotion she would ever understand. I kissed her. She still tasted like strawberries.

She tried to struggle but was already too weak.

To be clear, she was always too weak.

I finished the kiss and sat back to watch the fear in her eyes. I couldn't take too long, obviously. They always tasted better before they expired and time was running out. Still, opportunities like this are hard to come by. I breathed in the fear.

“How sweet is your fear to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”

And I fed on Candy sweeter than honey.