Candy Meant for Runaways

7

   "Are you okay?" Some stranger asked.

   "Oh... Yeah, I'm fine. I just fell asleep I guess," I responded getting up and smoothing my sweatpants.

   "Oh. I was just looking through here because someone left a bunch of these candies leading up to here," he said, opening his palm to show me.

  I was surprised, but I couldn't get my face to match. It was the striped candies.

  "Don't open them!"

  "I wasn't going to... they could be poisoned. I don't know why I was led here."

  "It was Amaryllis. I don't know what she's up to right now."

   His facial expression went dead. "Amaryllis?"

  "Yeah. Do you know her?"

   "Well... she... died."

   "By a truck... Wait! How do you know?"

   "Huh? Oh, it's nothing. She was just friends with my cousin..."

   "Oh... I'm sorry for your cousin."

    "No, it's... never mind..."

  I usually liked silences, but this one was awkward.

   "Can I have one of the candies?"

   "What? But—"

   "Just trust me."

   He reluctantly opened up his palm and there were many different colors. I chose the lilac one, since it was my favorite color. I unwrapped the candy and popped it into my mouth.

    The familiar scent tickled my nose, the sweet artificial flavoring giving me a feeling of nostalgia. It was grape flavored.

    "I wish I could have my memories back with my friends," I choked out, my hands becoming transparent. 

     "What's happening to you?"

     "Don't worry about me... I'll come back, I think."

      My ears started ringing and getting fuzzy, something feeling like a blindfold covering my eyes. I tried to feel around for where I was.

     "Valerie. What are you doing here?" A robotic like voice asked.

     "I don't—"

     I couldn't finish my sentence because I was rudely interrupted by something hitting the side of my head. I clutched the affected region while my feeling of everything around me was slipping out of my fingers. Soon enough, the feeling overtook me and forced me into a deep sleep.

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." -Ram Dass