Candace was somebody special. She had many talents, was in a lot of school and extra-curricular activities, had plenty of friends, and the best boyfriend anyone could hope to have. One of her favorite things to do was to help people, so her friends and acquaintances would come to her for help. She enjoyed candy, cookies, and of course having fun! The thing she loved most though, was her boyfriend Erik. His nickname for her was Candy, because, as he said, she was so sweet. They had lots of fun together and loved each other very much. Candace always said she would never know what she would do if they broke up because she loved him so dearly.
This year Candace was a sophomore, Erik too. One day in the early fall started out pretty bad for Candace. She had dropped her ten page chemistry report that she spent two months on, in a big puddle on the way to school (and got a D on it). had a huge Algebra 2 test that she was sure she did awful on, locker got stuck and was late to class twice, and had left her instrument at home-- with a concert a few days away. All before lunch. During lunch she looked for her friend Kate because she needed someone to tell her problems to. When Candace finally found her, Kate was too busy catching up on homework to listen.
"I'm sorry Candace but I really got to catch up or I'm grounded until Christmas. Call me tonight so we can talk."
"Alright. I'll see you later. Bye."
Darn, thought Candace. I know, I'll go find Erik and talk to him. Candace found Erik, but he had to rush off to a teacher about something.
"Hey Candy. How's it going? Oh, and I can't stay long. I've got to talk to a teacher about making up that work I missed while I was out last week," he said with a smile.
"Don't smile like that. It makes me feel guilty and then I have to forgive you."
"Why do you think I do it?"
"I just wanted to talk to you since I've been having such a bad day, and I haven't seen you in a while. Is it all right if I call you tonight?"
"Of course it is. You can call me anytime." He gave her a quick kiss and then disappeared down the hall to meet the teacher. As Candace watched him go, she thought to herself, He is so great and I lover him so much. I hope we will be together for a long time.
School finally got out. Candace was happy that she was finally able to go home, but then remembered that she had to go to the grocery store and pick up dinner. When that was through with, she got started on her homework, she had a ton to do. Three hours later, including dinner, she was done. She decided that she would call Erik first. When the connection got through, the phone rang yet no one answered. After about ten rings Candace hung up. Next she tried Kate, and someone picked up!
"Hello?" a voice asked. Candace could hear someone moving around in the background.
"Hi Kate. Its Candace, can we talk?"
"No, sorry." She paused. "Hold on a moment, okay?" Candace heard a male voice talking to Kate. She didn't know who it could be, Kate didn't have a boyfriend. Actually, the voice sounded familiar. "Look Candace, I've go to go. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" and hung up.
Oh well. I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to talk to someone. Candace got ready for bed and as she was about to turn off the light she noticed that she had a message on her machine. She did't know how she could have miss it before, but that really didn't matter. When she played it, this is what she heard:
"Hey Candace. What's up?" It was Erik! Candace was so thrilled to hear his voice right before bed, she didn't notice how odd he sounded or that he didn't use her pet name. The recording went on to say, "I'm sorry we haven't been able to get together because I was sick." There was a pause like he was trying to say something really difficult. When he came back on, he was speaking very distinctly. "I wish I could say this to yo in person, but you're obviously not home. I think we should break up Candace. It's over. I hope you're not too upset. I'm sorry."
Candace just sat there, stuned by what she had heard. Thoughts raced through her head like cars at a race track. She was mostly thinking, What just happened?? Why did it happen? She and Erik had been so happy together, at least from what she could see. Candace could not think of a thing she said or did that would cause Erik to do this, nor could she think of anything that had happened that would cause him to do this. She vowed she would talk to him tomorrow at school, no matter what. She glanced at the clock. 11 o'clock! Candace got in bed.
As she was laying there, staring at the moonlit ceiling, she began to cry. How could he do this to me? He knows how much I love him. There is no reason for him to do that. How could he be so cruel? I hate my life, and I'm going to do something about this. Poor Candace, it never occured to her that he didn't love her. She laid in bed for hours crying her crystal blue-green eyes out. She finally cried herself to sleep.
That night she dreamed of devil people, death, and the burning pits of hell. When she thought that she would never awake from such a nightmare, she did. She did not understand the dream although she felt it had great importance. It didn't matter because she forgot all about it as she was dressing for school. Her mind switched over to the previous night when Erik had left the message saying that they should break up. How rotten! At least he was being decent when he had said he wished that he could talk to her in person. That was something else that Candace would have to tell Kate about. She prayed to see them as soon as possible as she sighed to herself.
When Candace arrived at school, she saw Kate and Erik standing in the hallway talking. Candace hurried over as fast as she could through the crowed hall. When she was just about to reach them, Erik looked up, saw her, and made a fast getaway. Candace went up to Kate and asked, "What was that all about?"
"What? When Erik walked away? He just had to get to a class to make up a test that he missed while he was out," Kate said. "Are you okay? You look awful."
Candace replied, "I'm fine, just a bit tired. Didn't sleep well last night. You'll ever guess what happenend to me last night. Erik left a messa..." The bell rung.
"I'm sorry Candace. Why don't you tell me at lunch? See ya."
"Yea. Bye," Candace mumbled under her breath. She made her way to first period which was math. Candace wondered if they were going to get their test back today. She prayed that she got at least a C. You know what,Candace thought, I really don't feel like going to math today. I hate math so much. On the way to math class, there was a fight in the hall. She thought that maybe she wasn't the only one having a bad week. She got to her math class. At the beginning, the teacher said that they would not be getting their tests back for another few days. Then the teacher went straight into the day's lesson. She almost fell asleep while taking notes, but then heard Bryan and Joe talking behind her. At first what they were saying was of no interest to Candace, but then something caught her ear. This is what she heard:
"Hey Joe. Guess what I heard."
"What?" a bored sounding Joe asked.
"C'mon, guess," Bryan insisted.
"Look dude, just tell me."
"OK. I heard that Erik Smith dumped Candace Medley." Joe yawned.
"So what? People break up with other people and you don't care. What's up with this Bryan?"
"Why he dumped her."
"Well, you did kind of forget to tell that part." This was getting more interesting to Joe by the moment.
"So you wanna know? OK, OK. Erik dumped her for Candace's best friend, Kate Lawrence," Bryan drew out.
"Dude, that is some great stuff!"
Candace could not believe her ears. Erik wanted to break up with her for Kate! Candace almost jumped up and ran out of the room crying. She didn't feel like doing anything but crying. She wished it to be lunch time, but had several more periods to go. In all of her other classes, she heard the same thing. Erik had dumped her for Kate. By the time lunch rolled around, Candace was boiling mad. Everyone but her seemed to know the reason why Erik dumped her before she did. The fact that they knew that he had broken up with her in the first place made her really upset. Candace was going to get some answers, or else. For some reason, she felt like something else was going to happen.
She scouted out the lunch room for Erik and Kate. She hoped that she would be lucky and find Kate first so she could calm down and talk to her. But luck was not on her side, and hadn't been with her for quite some time because she found Erik first. I do believe that I should say at this point that Erik wasn't too lucky on this day either.
Candace stormed up to Erik and confronted him. "Why did you break up with me? What did I do to make you do this?" She pleaded so innocently. She wanted to see what Erik would tell her if she acted like she didn't know what was going on.
"Nothing, Candy. I just got tired of being in a relationship. I uh, I hope you understand."
"No, I don't. Why don't you explain it to me?" It seemed as if Erik wasn't going to fess up as to the real reason he dumped her. What a slimbag, she thought.
"There's nothing to explain. I just need some space," he stammered nervously. Candace could always tell when he was lying because he would get nervous, never look you in the eye, and would blink a lot. Which perfectly described his behavior at this particular moment. "Needed some space?" She asked slowly. Erik nodded. "Why didn't you just come and talk to me about it?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to talk." Candace started cry. Well, not really, but she was after all, an actress in the drama club at school. Erik said, "Candace, please don't cry. I didn't want to hurt you."
"Then why did you break up with me for Kate?!" she exploded. He looked stunned. "What? Did you not think I wouldn't hear about it with all the gossip?? Dont' you dare call me Candy andymore, all you are is a heartless jerk who doesn't care about my feelings!" Now Candace really was crying. Not just for herself, but for Erik too because she knew she just hurt his feelings from what she said, among other things. It would be her only chance to mourn. But that didn't matter anymore-- her heart had been taken taken over by Evil. Being such a sweet, innocent girl that she was, not a difficult task at all. The cafeteria fell silent when Candace had yelled at Erik because she rarely gets mad at anybody and has never yelled at anyone in her life.
"Candace," Erik began weakly.
"No! I don't want to hear it! All anyone can say to me anymore is 'Sorry Candace.' Well now you will be sorry." She pulled a gun from her purse. The cafeteria emptied. "How sorry are you now?" she laughed. She pulled the safety off and pointed at Erik. His face went as pale as bleached bones in the desert. "I know about you and that slut Kate. That is why you dumped me, isn't it? Well??!"
Kate rushed up then and begged "Candace please put the gun away. Don't do anything stupid that you will regret for the rest of your life!" But Candace just shrugged her off.
"Stay away!" she screamed. "I can shoot you too, you @#%&*! Neither of you move or I'll blow your brains out."
Erik was absolutely horrified about what was going on. He could not believe that this was happening. He and one of his friends were being held at gun point by another one his friends. He was really sorry about what was going on, and at that moment a clichZ "You are mistaken, my dear ex. You two betrayed me. What did I ever do to you that made you guys do this?" Silence. "That's what I thought. It is now time."
"Time for what?" Kate timidly asked.
"Time to die." While Candace checked the to make sure that the gun was working and that it had bullets, Kate and Erik just sat there. "Afraid to die?" she asked them.
Erik replied "Of course."
"Well you should have thought about that before had, shouldn't you have?" she snapped. Then she sighed heavily. "After all that trouble I went through to make sure the gun is working, I don't feel like shooting you two anymore."
"You mean you're not going to kill us?" Kate felt a glimmer of hope.
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I'm still going to kill you, I'm just not going to shoot you."
While Kate let out a sob, Erik asked, "Then what are you goin to do? Talk us to death?" Erik regretted those words the second they were out of his mouth.
Candace sneered. "In a hurry to die, Erik?" He shrank back, shaking his head. "Then you should think about what you're going to say before you say it." Candace got out lighter fluid and lighters. "We're going up in flames. Do you like the idea? Dreamed it up myself." She busied herself with dousing and lighting the books and backpacks that people had left earlier when Candace had pulled out the gun.
"Please, don't Candace. We can work this out, really," Kate offered. "I don't want to die, Erik doesn't want to die, we want to live out our lives. Nobody wants us to die!" Kate was beginning to get hysterical. "Except me," laughed Candace. "You should have thought about that before you stole my boyfriend." She continued to go around lighting backpacks while keeping the gun on her captives so they wouldn't run. "If either of you try to run away, I'll shoot you down."
Erik and Kate believed her but were too frightened to move anyway. They were also beginning to wonder if the police were ever going to show up and help them out; one of the students had to have told someone the situation and they would have called for help. Unfortunately, their school was old and caught fire quickly. Everyone but those three, Candace, Erik, and Kate got out of there alive, some were hurt but they were alive. The last words of poor Candace Medley were "Just like in my dream!"
Some who were there say they heard someone or something laughing as the school burned. I say something because the ones who heard it say it wasn't a laugh of this world. Neither was the fire that Candace set-- the firefighters could not stop the ever-hungry flames. And on the night of the anniversary of when and where the school burned to the ground, you'll be able to hear the hiddeous laugh and the tormented screams of her betrayers that will echo forever through time.
© 1999 tsiobo@yahoo.com