Some Sweets Are Especially Bad For You

The Caramel

Buddy Matthews was tired. It was a week before Halloween, the candy was being rushed to produced, and he was worked to the bone. His apron was covered in sticky liquids, the fingers to his gloves were almost stuck completely together, and the smell of melting chocolate made him sick. He had worked for three months at Huffler's Candy Factory, and the sign in the front with colorful fonts was a big fucking joke. 

"Fuck. I have to replace these?" Buddy sighed, as he thought to himself out loud. He looked down at his hands, and cursed under his breath. He walked down the long hallway to the melting room, where the large pots were that melted all the candies when needed. He had one more box of caramels to melt down and then he could leave for the night. As he pushed open the old, rusting doors, creaking as they swung open, the smell of molten candies refilled his nostrils, and he let out a heavy sigh. As he went over to an empty pot and turned on the burner, he glanced at the box.

"What the heck?" he let aloud as he picked up the box. The box, which was a normal cardboard box, did not have a normal outside. The outside of the box was covered in strange markings. They weren't carved into the box, but rather, were printed onto the outside. As Buddy picked up the box, he could have sworn that the symbols glistened, then moved. Of course, that was impossible, and it was probably the lights reflecting off the symbols.

"Reflecting? Light doesn't reflect off of paint..." Buddy thought as the pot's burner beeped, and Buddy began to pour it into the pot. Reaching for his walkie-talkie, he radioed Joe Burns, who was working in the room next to him.

"Joe? Can you come here for second?' Buddy clicked the radio, waiting for a answer.

"Sure, give me a second. I need to put the rest of this licorice into the batch." Joe responded, radio static playing in with his response. Buddy picked up the box again, now empty as its contents were slowly boiling. He licked his finger and, with a thought, dragged it across one of the symbols. It came off with a sticky mess. He licked it, and as Joe opened the rusty doors on the other side of the room, a revelation came to Buddy's mind;

"Caramel?" Buddy thought out loud as Joe came over and observed the pot.
"What about caramel?" Joe asked him as he glanced into the pot to observe the caramel melting. The mix was melting, but needed to be stirred.

"Joe, do you think this box is weird?" Buddy questioned Joe as he reached for a wooden spoon and handed over the box to Joe.

"What the hell do these symbols mean?" Joe asked as Buddy stirred. The caramel was starting to loosen more and more.

"I don't know, check the back, I guess." Buddy coughed out as the smell of melting candy hit him again for the tenth time that day. He really needed to buy a mask and smear it with toothpaste or something, because if he had to smell this for another three months, he wasn't going to make it.

"Uh... all it says on the back is don't touch the symbols." Joe replied casually as he took a turn stirring the pot.

"Please tell me it doesn't say that..." Buddy started to sweat, although whether it was from the heat of the pot or him breaking the rule on the box, the judgement was up to anyone. He started to worry, then calmed himself. "Probably some weird marketing scheme..." Buddy thought.

"See for yourself." Joe said as he handed it back to Buddy, who looked at the bottom. Sure enough, there was red writing on the bottom, which said the exact same thing.

"Well... I'm going to grab a pourer." Buddy mumbled as he walked off to the other room. Joe nodded as Buddy pushed open the doors, creaking as he did. Flipping on the light, he scanned the tools for the pourer.

"Maybe, if I pour the caramel back into the symbol, it'll be fine." He thought as he spotted it and grabbed it. On his way back to the door, he grabbed a flame-resistant ladle and pushed the door.