Dream Date

When Bella woke up that morning, it was just another day for her. As a college student, she woke up around five AM to meditate and go on a run before starting her day. It was Monday and Bella was on her usual route she took every morning six days a week. Sunday was her rest day. It was probably around five thirty and she hadn’t broken a sweat yet. The sun was just started to peak through the clouds. It was that time of morning when you could still see the moon, fighting the sun for dominance of the sky. Bella had her air pods in, The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala playing on her phone, which was zipped up in the pocket of her wind breaker. She stopped running to take a sip of water. Her parents used to take her to this state park when she was a child. She knew the trails by heart. Living in a small town, this was one of the known places people came to ride bikes and hike. It wasn’t big enough to be a camp ground but people still came to admire nature... and leave trash all over the place. Bella always brought along a compostable trash bag with her in case she saw anything that needed picking up. Today it was a McDonald’s bag and a few crushed beer cans tossed into the bushes. After closing the cap on her water bottle, she walked over to the bushes to pick it up. The sun was shining a little more now, peeping through the trees of the trail. As Bella was hunched over, she heard the snapping of twigs. She stood up straight to take a look around. She thought perhaps it was an animal or a fellow jogger. But she wasn’t able to finish that thought because she was grabbed from behind. Someone much larger than her had placed a damp cloth over her nose and mouth. She struggled as much as she possibly could for someone who was five foot three inches and a hundred and thirty pounds. She struggled until her vision became blurry and her limbs weak, until everything went dark and her eyelids could no longer stay open.

*flashback two weeks ago*

It was Sunday night and Bella was serving section four for half the night and bartending the other half of the night. Bella was twenty two, working double shifts at her local Applebee’s, where you didn’t work the job, the job worked you. But she pushed through, because the rent and her tuition wouldn’t pay themselves. Around eight thirty, a man came in looking a little rough. Standing maybe six foot three, curly black hair and a scar on the left side of his face with a neck tattoo and an expression made of steel, he was quite intimidating. His posture was straight and perfect, as if he were in the military.

“Hello, what can I get for you today?” Bella greeted from behind the bar, fiddling with the gold cross at her neck. The man stared at her movements, causing Bella to drop her hands to her sides before making eye contact with her.

“I’ll take a glass of Merlot.” He responded in a low voice, just loud enough for her to hear. His order surprised her, she was expecting him to order something like a cold beer or maybe their famous nachos while he watched the game. While Bella fixed his glass of Merlot, he didn’t take his eyes off of her, causing her to be immensely uncomfortable. He stayed there the whole night, until eleven pm when her shift ended.

“Bella.” Someone said as Bella was about to open her car door. Bella jumped about two feet in the air, her heart skipping a few beats. She was trembling as she turned around, not at all surprised to see the man from the bar.

“Oh!” She gasped, looking around to see if anyone else was in the parking lot this late. It was just them. The man smelled of cigarettes and armpits. His dark eyes never left her face. “How can I help you? Did you enjoy your night?” Bella kept up her customer service persona. They didn’t pay her enough for this. The man in front of her shifted on his feet. His hands were in his pockets as if he were nervous and for the first time, he seemed almost human. Bella even thought she saw a blush creep onto his cheeks. So when he asked for her number out of a mixture of fear, pity and a kind heart, she said yes.

*fast forward to date night*

The man’s name was Charles. They’d texted every night since the night Bella served him a glass of Merlot. If Bella had passed this man on the street or if a friend had pointed him out to her in a crowd and asked if maybe she would even consider going out with him or even be interested in this man, she would of said no. However, Charles’s personality was a lot different than his appearance. He was a conspiracy theorist and enjoyed looking at the stars. He talked about mythology a lot and talked about how he’d been to Greece and Italy when Bella spoke about her desire to travel. In other words, he was interesting, if a little stiff and awkward. He even face timed Bella a few times to show her his two German Shepard’s, Max and Alex. They were trained guard dogs and he warned her not to treat them as pets if she ever came over. Which she was. Tonight. Bella was a simple girl. She never wore a lot of make up but tonight she went a little extra, adding a more vibrant color of blush and a darker shade of pink lip gloss. She wore a summer dress with daisy print and sandals. Charles arrived at her apartment around seven o’clock. He knocked on the door and this time, he didn’t smell like armpits but instead fresh soap. His black beard even appeared to be groomed. The cigarette smell was still there. He smiled at her, holding a single rose. He had dimples which made him seem almost charming.

“Hey!” Bella went in for a hug, it being in her nature to be a kind person. Within those four days she’d felt like she’d gained a new best friend, even if he was a little weird. Charles stiffened but hugged her back before presenting her with the rose. “Do you like it?” He asked her, watching her face closely. “Yes, I love it.” Bella exclaimed, “Hold on. Stay here while I put it in some water.” Bella left Charles at the door and rushed to the kitchen, grabbing a random cup from the kitchen and filling it with water. She didn’t own any fancy vases. When Bella turned around, Charles was inside her apartment.

“Oh my god.” She breathed, her hand going straight to her cross. Nervous habit. “You scared me, Charles. I thought I told you to stay at the door. What are doing?” “You were taking too long.” Charles said, shrugging. He didn’t seem to have a problem with entering her apartment uninvited. Bella being naive, ignored it.

Charles lived in the middle of nowhere in a three story brick mansion surrounded by trees. When she asked how he paid for all of it, told her it was family money. Bella sent her location from her cell phone to her coworker since she didn’t have many friends. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that Charles was a stranger but she couldn’t help but think he was a sweet guy and that she should give him a chance. However, if anything happened to her, at least someone would be able find her. Bella wasn’t sure how she’d expected the night to go. But drinking Merlot, eating seafood pasta and watching Godzilla VS Kong was not it. After about an hour, Charles loosened up. He even laughed a little bit. It even had Bella thinking maybe there would be a second date.

*present*

Bella’s eyes fluttered open. Her wrists were bound to the arms of a chair and her ankles tied together. Her body ached, specifically her neck from where her chin had been resting on her chest. Bella didn’t recognize her surroundings. She was outside. In a beautiful garden. She could see a long table in front of her filled with luxurious food items. It was night time. The sky was littered with stars. And she was cold. Looking down at her body, she’d been switched out of her own clothing into a white slip dress. Over to the left there was a pond with a statue and coy fish. On her right... she could see a house. A mansion. Charles’s mansion. She recognized her location now. Bella’s wrists were rubbed raw from her struggling and trying to work her way out of her restraints. She was crying now. She thought of Jerry, who she’d sent her location to. But her phone was no where to be seen. She yelled and screamed and called for help. No one answered. Not that anyone could hear her. She was in the middle of nowhere.

“Isabella Marie.” Someone said from behind her. A chill ran down her spine. It was Charles. “What... what is going on?” Bella tried to sound strong but her voice came out meek. She didn’t bother turning her head out to fear of what she would see. But Charles came into her line of vision anyway.

“I’m sure your confused but that’s okay.” Charles said, pulling a chair out at the table. “Isn’t it so nice?” Bella had snot running from her nose, almost dripping onto her lip from sobbing so hard. Charles took a napkin and wiped it away, also dabbing at the tears on her cheeks. “What is so nice? What’s going on?” Bella demanded. He had the audacity to pretend to be kind. “This.” Charles answered, “Look. All your favorites. Here, try this. This one is MY favorite.” Before Bella could answer he placed a golden goblet encrusted with rubies to her lips. He didn’t really give her a choice but to swallow. It was Merlot. “You served this to me the night we met.” He told her as he finished the rest. Wine covered Bella’s chin from where she’d tried to resist. The long table in front of her was decorated expensively and exotically. All her favorites? She didn’t even recognize most of the foods. Her favorite food was fried pickles and her favorite drink was a yoo hoo. “Isn’t this the perfect date? Look, you can see the Big Dipper from here. Just there, see!” Charles pointed up to the sky. Bella didn’t look at the sky but rather at the large knife sitting on the table next to the tray of fruit.

“Why don’t you just let me go?” Bella cried, “Please. I don’t understand what’s going on. What is this? I won’t tell anyone. I promise. It’ll be a secret, between us. I’ll forget this ever happened..” just then Charles reached over and back handed her. Bella tasted blood in her mouth as her head jerked to the side. Fear paralyzed her at this point. Her wrists were bleeding by now from squirming. She knew that one could hear her scream. No one knew where she was. No one was coming to help. Charles seemed to be quite smart, so he’d probably gotten rid of her phone so no one would track it. “Isn’t this the perfect date, Isabella?” Charles asked, standing up. Out of fear of making him more angry, Bella nodded furiously. “Y-yeah..” she mumbled, looking down at her lap. The gown was stained red with wine. It reminded her of blood. She tried to push all thoughts of being murdered to the back of her brain.

*flashback the night before*

“I don’t understand.” Charles said over the phone. “Did you not have fun on our date?” Bella felt slightly guilty for calling it off but there were too many red flags. The first one being him entering her apartment uninvited. And the last one being showing up to her job multiple times, each time harassing her and following her home. “I had fun. I just don’t want to go on another one. I’m sorry.” Bella tried hard to make her voice sound firm but she just sounded soft. “I’m real sorry. No more dates.” “Your lying. You didn’t enjoy it. It wasn’t perfect.” “It was fine. I just want to be alone.” Bella tried convincing Charles but eventually he hung up in the middle of her sentence. It was to Bella’s relief. She was tired of explaining and to be honest, a little scared. She’d add an alarm system installed recently, even if she couldn’t afford it, she thought it necessary after Charles followed her home the other day.

*present*

Charles looked at the girl in front of him. She was unrecognizable to anyone else but him. He didn’t mean to do these things, they just happened. Things never seemed to work out in his favor. Out of all of them, Isabella was the most innocent and the most beautiful. He hadn’t planned on killing this one, it actually was an accident for real this time. Isabella lay on the ground outside in the garden, she’d fallen while running away and hit her head on the statue by the pond. Charles sighed to himself. Maybe his dream date wasn’t the same as others.

*two weeks later*

Jerry’s head snapped up when he heard Bella’s name on the news. “... cause of death, blunt force trauma.” He set down the glasses he was wiping dry at the bar and picked up the remote to turn the tv up. “Hey, what about my drink?” A customer shouted but jerry ignored him. On the tv screen was a picture of his co worker Isabella Marie Bennett. Footage of a body being pulled out of the local river appeared next. “Oh how awful...” the guy complaining about his drink behind Jerry said. “Didn’t she work here..?” Jerry blinked away tears and nodded. “Yeah, she did.” He reached into his pocket for his phone pulled up Bella’s last message to him. Her location.