Sweet Tooth

Exeter, Rhode Island

May 15th, 1950

Despite it being the middle of the night, there was plenty of light between the flashlights the boys were carrying and the silver moonlight peeking through the gaps between the dense pine trees overhead. Even though winter ended months ago, the night air was still chilly enough to need a sweater.

Scott Clarke was marching in front of Thomas Derby, who was shuddering against the breeze making its way through the trees despite wearing his cardigan. “How much farther do we have to go,” he asked. He hadn’t realized his teeth were chattering until they clicked together as he spoke.

“I don’t know,” Scott replied, “It’s around here somewhere.”

"Somewhere? You mean you’ve gotten us lost out here?”

“Ease up, Tommy-Boy. We aren’t lost, we’ll find it like we always do. Have I ever steered us wrong before?”

Thomas supposed Scott was right. He was still sore with him about their last excursion that ended with Thomas going on a trip to the emergency room for a tetanus shot when he cut his leg on a piece of rusted metal. Scott loved to go to abandoned places around Rhode Island, with their last adventure taking them to an abandoned rest stop near Seekonk, Massachusetts. Scott’s souvenir was a rusted restroom sign while Thomas ruined his new pants and was grounded for a month.

The sign joined the other knick-knacks on the shelf over Scott’s bed from all the other places they had gone together over the years. Thomas had enjoyed going at first, but lately it was beginning to wear on him.

“Don’t call me ‘Tommy-Boy’, and we better not be lost. I promised my folks that we wouldn’t do this anymore. If we lose our way out here I’ll be grounded until I finish college.”

“Alright, alright. Calm down, Thomas. My great uncle used to work in the factory when he was a little older than us. Near the end, he always recounted the path he took to get there, and he always said that it was west from the oak tree with the sign grown into it that we passed a little while ago.”

“Well did he say how far of a walk it would be from that? I feel like we’ve been walking for ages.”

Scott was silent for a moment and stopped walking.

“Hello? Earth to Scott? Did you hear me?”

Scott turned on his heel and aimed the beam of his flashlight at his smiling face. “We’re here,” he said in a sing-songy voice.

Thomas peered over Scott’s shoulder through the thick pine trees and could just make out what looked like a factory, illuminated in the moonlight like a beacon. Surrounding the factory was waist-high grass gently swaying in the breeze. Ticks. That grass is going to be loaded with ticks, he thought, Just what I need.

“So that’s Sweet Tooth Confections,” he stated, somewhat unimpressed thinking that it would be bigger.

“Well do you see any other abandoned factories around?”

“I wasn’t asking. Let’s just get this over with.”

“You didn’t have to come you know,” Scott murmured, sounding hurt.

Thomas threw a grin at his friend through the darkness, “Like I would let you come out here alone. I’d follow you to Hell and back, I’m just not thrilled about the idea of lying to our parents. Last time, I thought my old man was going to burst a blood vessel the way he was yelling. It doesn’t help that we each told our parents that we would stay at each other’s house. All it takes is one phone call to poke a hole in our plan.”

The boys walked side-by-side as they made their way toward the factory. A nervous excitement had crept into Thomas’s stomach. Despite his past experiences, he was still curious to look inside.

“Well, we won’t be in there long. Once we’re done, we can go back to my place and just tell my folks that we changed our minds. We’ll be alright, I’m sure of it,” Scott reassured.

“I suppose. So why did this place shut down again?”

“My uncle said that once the bigger candy companies came around Sweet Tooth Confections couldn’t keep up and had to close down.”

“I do love a good Reese’s,” Thomas said.

“See? They couldn’t keep up with the competition and had to shut down. This was their one and only location. Hardly anyone remembers this place.”

The boys were silent as they waded through the grass. From here they were close enough to see the top right corner of a heavily rusted metal sign. As they grew closer, they could see a chubby blonde boy dressed in an old-timey school uniform and a sucker sticking out of his mouth. Despite the heavy weathering, Thomas could tell that “Sweet Tooth Confections” circled the boy at one point, making up the company’s logo.

Continuing on past the sign, they went around to the front of the massive factory where they found some badly rotted plywood leaned against the doorway where Thomas assumed there were once double doors. The boys moved the wood to either side and the smell of mildew hit them first, followed by the acrid smell of death.

“Oh, God,” Thomas gagged, ”What is that smell?”

“Probably some dead animal- a squirrel or something,” Scott replied.

Thomas had pulled his shirt over his nose to try and mask the smell. Scott followed suit, though realized the effort was in vain as the smell still viciously attacked their senses.

They entered the building and stood in an atrium with a gray tile floor thick with grime. They cast their flashlights around the room. The center of the floor was a more intact logo of Sweet Tooth Confections where the blonde boy and his sucker were surrounded by red, bold lettering of the company’s name. On the far side of the room were the remains of a destroyed receptionist desk with the bones of desecrated chairs littered around the room. A set of double doors were behind the desk that was slightly ajar.

Scott’s flashlight settled on the doors. “I bet the main factory floor is back there. Let’s go and see what we can find.”

“I’m sure the candy isn’t good to eat anymore.”

“I’m not eating anything we find, I’m just looking for something to add to the shelf.”

Scott began to cross the room when Thomas aimed his light at the ground and noticed something. He followed his friend quickly. “Hey, Sco-,” but he wasn’t able to finish his sentence. In an eruption of dust, dirt, and debris, the boys tumbled down as the floor gave out from beneath them. They hit the ground below hard as large pieces of support beams fell around them.

Scott choked on the thick cloud of dust that surrounded them. He waved his hand uselessly to try and clear some of the air as his lungs burned for clean oxygen. “Thomas? Are you alright? Thomas,” he coughed out. There was no response and he began to panic, “Thomas, answer me!”

Once the air finally cleared, he could see Thomas’s flashlight laying a few feet away, its light still on, motionlessly trained on the far cement wall. Beside the flashlight was Thomas. As Scott’s flashlight broke in the fall, he grabbed Thomas’s light and aimed it at his friend, and immediately vomited.

A massive rock from the support beams overhead had crushed Thomas’s head except for the bottom of his jaw. A pool of blood and brain matter was slowly spreading across the floor around the body. Scott recoiled backward, his whole body shaking uncontrollably. “T-Thomas,” he whimpered.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the body of his best friend. They had known each other for so long that he couldn’t even remember a time when Thomas wasn’t there. An entire lifetime of memories between the two were all that remained. As quick as snapping fingers, Thomas’s life was gone, all because Scott dragged him along.

For what felt like an eternity, the beam of his flashlight stayed on Thomas’s body, the massive rock in place of his head, and the dark pool of blood. Tears rushed down Scott’s face. It wasn’t until the adrenaline coursing through his body wore off that he felt the sting of an open wound on his forehead. The trickle of blood had dried to a crust on his cheek. In fact, upon touching the cut gingerly he determined that it had stopped bleeding some time ago. How long have I been sitting here? What do I do now? Nobody knows where I am. If Uncle Roger was still alive he could tell someone, but he’s been gone for years. It would be sheer dumb luck for someone to come find me. I’m going to die down here, just like Thomas. Oh, God, poor Thomas.

Panic began to tighten in his chest but he forced himself to take a deep breath. You don’t even know that you’re stuck down here. You need to assess the situation first. You’re just assuming that you’re trapped.

Panning the light around the room was empty except for a shelf that had fallen apart some time ago. Okay, you’re in a basement. If that’s the case, that means there must be stairs going up. Just find those and you’ll be alright. Then his light settled again on Thomas’s body. He felt sick. You did this. You killed your friend. All for some stupid souvenir.

He again tore his vision away from his friend’s body and turned on his heel and sure enough, there was a set of cement stairs. Relief flooded his body and he rushed over to them. He tapped one foot on them to be sure they wouldn’t fall out from underneath him and then climbed up to the metal door waiting for him. Upon reaching it, he shoved his body against the door but it held firm. He swallowed an anxious lump in his throat and tried again but the door refused to budge. Again and again, he threw himself against the door until his shoulder was sore. He slumped against the cool cement wall. I’m going to die down here.

He slowly descended the stairs and back to the gaping hole in the floor overhead. He looked down at his friend’s body, and not for the last time, before saying, “Tommy-Boy, I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry! You didn’t deserve this.” Then he fell to his knees as wracking sobs took over his body. “I don’t want to die down here, please, God, I’ll do anything! Just please don’t let me die down here!”

The only thing that answered him back was the distant sound of chirping crickets as his prayer went unanswered. “Please,” he whimpered as he curled into the fetal position on the floor, facing away from his friend, unable to look at him anymore.