A Devil's Delicacy

Stranger Danger

Everyday June walked from her school to a building not far to work for the rest of the day. Occasionally on her days off she would walk their for a ride home from one of her coworkers. They were very understanding, she still lived with her mom and was still in school without a car. So they weren't hard on her if she was late or unable to work that day. It was just another day of walking to her work. The sun was beating down on her lightly tanned skin and music played in her ears. She enjoyed the time she had outside before entering the small office building. This day in particular was different.

Not long into her walk, but not far from the building, she noticed a white van stopped at a stop sign. Passing by the van would have been going in the opposite direction of where she was going, but the man inside turned to her. The windows were up so she could not hear what he was saying, but she could see his hand gestures. He was waving her over, to get her close. She decided against it and kept walking, thinking nothing of it. June took her earphones out incase someone decided to try anything, she could hear them before they approached. Then after a few minutes she saw the van again. It was driving her direction and slowed next to her, "hey where are you going? Come on let's go let's hang out, where are you headed to?" June avoided eye contact and refused to answer, acting as though she didn't even hear him. He drove off, turned around, and headed the opposite direction. She whipped out her phone and called a friend for life support. If he did decide to try anything someone would know she was taken. The phone rang for a short time before her friend answered, "hey what's up?" He said oblivious to her distress, "there's a man, he keeps driving next to me trying to talk to me but I think he gave up." As if he heard her, he drove past her again repeating the same questions before driving off again and parking down the street. She stops and stares, "he just parked down the street on my side, I don't know maybe he works at one of these businesses?" She said, fear crawling into her voice, he finally responds with, "has he tried to grab you or anything? Has he left yet?" June follows up with a quick reply, "no, no he's still there, wait wait he's coming back." Her friend could faintly hear him repeating the questions somewhat louder this time. "No!" She said as a way to get him to leave her be. When he drove away she bolted to her work and told everyone inside what had happened, "there's a man in a white van outside, he won't leave me alone and keeps trying to get me to come with him." While one coworker called the police, the rest ran outside to get a recording of the man and his license plate. He didn't come back after that. June told the police what he looked like, what he was driving, and what she thought was his license plate number. She doesn't know if they caught the guy, but she hopes no others were taken.