First Date

     “Okay, here we go,” Jacob said to himself. His finger shook as he rang the doorbell. “Please be pretty, please be pretty…”

     His heart pounded as the sound of footsteps approached the door. Jacob had never been on a blind date before, so he had no idea what to expect. His stomach knotted and for a brief instant he thought about running away. When the door finally cracked open, he stood in awe.

     Standing before him was the most beautiful, petite redhead he had ever seen in his life. She had big blue eyes and a smile that made his knees feel weak.

     “Hi,” she said, extending her hand. “You must be Jacob.”

     “Uh, yeah... Jacob,” he said, taking her hand and shaking it. “Are you Lindsay?”

     She let out a harmonic laugh. “Of course I am, silly.”

     “Right,” Jacob said, then remembered what he was holding. “Oh, this is for you… because, you know, you said you collected them in your online profile.”

     Jacob held up a small plush teddy bear. As soon as he did, he felt like an idiot. He wondered what he was thinking, giving such a lame gift for a first date. Now she would think he was a loser and never want to see him again!

     “Oh, how perfect!” Lindsay said, grabbing the teddy bear from his hands. “I love him! Come on in and I’ll put him with the others before we go to the restaurant. You know, Jacob, I have a good feeling about this.”

     A flush of relief flooded through Jacob’s body as he followed her inside. “Yeah Lindsay, I do too—“

     He froze two steps inside the door. In the living room stood dozens of tall wooden stakes, each driven into the floor. Near the top of each stake was a fluffy teddy bear, impaled through the chest. Most of them had their eyes ripped out.

     “This will just take a sec,” he heard Lindsay say from his left. Turning his head, he saw her standing next to an empty stake, still holding the bear he gave her. She brought the stuffed animal close to her face for a few seconds and whispered something inaudible under her breath. Then she ripped out its button eyes with her teeth and spit them onto the floor. She raised the bear over her head, screamed at the top of her lungs and drove it onto the stake with one fast, jerking motion.

     Lindsay stared at the bear with wide, trembling eyes as she took a few deep breaths. Then she looked up at Jacob and smiled. “Ready to go? I’m starving.”