The Clock Strucks Danger

Never shop online

A scary story.

The following story is written in third person. What's your favourite online shopping website?

As the dreaded Valentine's day approached, Dominique's fears grew. It wasn't as if he didn't love his girlfriend, pretty blonde, Jenna McGilroy. He had set his eyes on her on the very first day of work and, eventually, had gathered up enough courage to ask her out after two months of desperately trying to get into her good books. Turns out Jenna had been harbouring a secret crush on him too and now, they were named the star couple of their office.

Everything between them was perfect. They would go out regularly on dates, either Jenna's favourite Chinese restaurant or to the theatre, hang out for drinks and coffee afterwards and assist each other in work during office hours as well. The compatibility was great but there was one tiny niggle in their relationship.

Jenna, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, was always too keen on the idea of receiving and giving gifts. According to her, little presents were sort of a milestone in their relationship. As in, she demanded a present from Dominique at the end of their one month of togetherness. He gave her a bunch of freshly cut roses which did not suit her expensive taste. So, he was forced to make amends by taking her out for shopping at the town square and buying all that she set her heart upon. A small fortune was spent that day and Dominique had to skip lunch a couple of times in the following week to save up money for his rent because, unlike Jenna, he was the only earning member in his family of an unemployed alcoholic father and an over-worked and abused housewife mother.

"Honey, valentines day is round the corner" Jenna winked her eyes saucily at him.

'She isn't exactly subtle' thought Dominique and smiled weakly.

"Just so you know, I left a catalogue at your desk. I thought you might take a look at it. Ahem ahem, I got to leave for the conference now" Jenna waved at him and skipped out of his cubicle. He watched her hips sway as she took a turn and disappeared into the corridor.

He had seen the catalogue already. It was from a jewellery store and she had, very clearly, marked out a particular teardrop gold earring in bright red ink.

Dominique had taken one look at the price below and he stuffed the catalogue into his drawer hoping that it would go away.

"Hey, buddy, you look tensed. Work stress, I presume?" A jolly voice hollered from above him. It was Joe, the old wise guy from the adjacent cubicle.

"No. Work's fine. No deadlines this week."

"Girlfriend problems, then?"

Dominique nodded and frowned.

"What's up?"

"She wants an expensive present for the valentines day. I haven't got much money left. I had to send some cash to mom few days ago. Dad got into another tiff with the police. I don't know what to do now, man." Dominique tore his hair out in frustration as he rambled on. The month was only halfway through and he just had about enough money for the rent.

"I understand." Joe nodded solemnly, "but this is not the end of the world. What does she want?"

Dominique shoved the catalogue infront of him. "It's on the second page. See the big circle."

Joe studied it carefully. "Ah, well you can gift her some fake jewellery. How is she to know? This is a common design. I bet you could find some of these in those flea shops."

Dominique had started to refuse but then, he stopped for a moment to ponder over his friend's words. He wasn't exactly wrong.

'How would Jenna know even if its real gold or not. I'll get one which looks exactly the same' he thought.

"Do you think I can get this exact design?" He asked.

"Well, there is a website I know of. It's called shop-on.com. It specialises in a huge variety of fake jewellery. My wife uses it. Mighty cheap and the products are not that bad at all. You can give it a try." Joe reached over and patted Dominique's back.

Dominique smiled with relief. "Thanks, Joe. You are a lifesaver!"

"Anytime, buddy!"

That night, Dominique sat on his computer furiously tapping away on his keyboard. www.on-shop.com was a cute little website run by a college girl called Celia. She sold a lot of jewellery, all fake or semi-precious and the best thing was, she had a wide range of designs to choose from.
He chuckled at the tagline : I have many ways to make you happy. Dominique had a dirty mind.

After an extensive search, much to his delight, he found an exact design of earrings he was looking for. The price was reasonable. He happily added it to his cart and entered Jenna's address.

'Do you want your item to be gift wrapped and delivered?' The computer asked.

"Hell yeah!" He squealed.

'Do you want to add a private message with your item?"

"Sure, why not. I can write a mean love limerick for my girl" Dominique said.

'Do you want me to add a special touch to your item?'

"Anything that pleased my princess"

'Is the item to be gifted to someone as a present? '

Dominique found this question to be odd but, nevertheless, he clicked the Yes button.

"Please enter your address"

He punched in his address along with card details and then, laid back on his bed, hoping for the best.

The gift was delivered to him a day prior to valentines day. It was a small package but it was heavy. Dominique wondered how a pair of earrings could be so heavy but he didn't care. There was a pretty bow on top of it.

'Is this bow the special touch that I had to pay extra for? Mighty swell!" Dominique thought almost breaking into laughter.

Then, a thought struck him. The gift was to be delivered to Jenna's address not to his.

He called the number given on the website. Celia, the college girl, picked up.

"Yes, welcome to On-shop.com customer help. This is Celia, I run the website."

"I had ordered for a gift to be delivered to my girlfriend's address but instead I got it on my address. It was supposed to be her Valentine present. Could you, perhaps, send over a guy and send it across to her. It's a bit urgent."

She laughed. Her laughter was like the soft tinkle of bells heard on a very silent night. Thin, creepy but musical.

"I believe you must have ordered for a special touch, sir!"

"Yeah, so?"

"The gift you received is the special touch." She hung up.

Dominique looked at phone in confusion. He had never heard of such a thing of before. Nevertheless, he shrugged his shoulders and grinned. Who doesn't enjoy a gift, right?

He ripped the package open to find another wooden box with a golden latch inside it. He shook it. It seemed to be stuffed with something.

Gleefully, he unclasped the tiny latch on the box. He screamed in horror as soon as he saw what was inside.

A bloody ear with a tiny golden teardrop earring screwed onto it.

Jenna's ears.

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Did Dominique pay attention to Joe's words? What do you think?