Death by cookies

Q. How do you get rid of your enemies?

Early Monday morning, Courtney came through the doors of Kelly's with a bright smile on her face. She went to the counter and sat down, greeting her father who was hard at work. "Hey dad, how's the business around here?" Courtney asked, remembering once she worked here.

Mike shrugged. "It's alright, pretty slow considering." He told her gruffly and Courtney looked around to find a big batch of chocolate chip cookies out.

"Hey, what's with the cookies?" Mike didn't usually bake cookies daily.

Mike looked at the mystery cookies. "I'm not sure myself. They were here when I got here this morning, seems like one of the waitresses cooked early this morning, and I just put them out. Don't want to waste good food like that." Mike explained to his daughter.

Courtney looked them over. "Do you think I can have a few? Carly's coming over and were going to have some one on one conversation." She requested.

Mike shrugged. "Sure, take a dozen, there are more where that comes from." Mike packaged it up and handed Courtney the bag he put the dozen cookies in.

Courtney kissed her father's cheek and thanked him, placing a bill down. Then she skipped home and set up the refreshments before Carly came over. She opened the bag and laid out the cookies on a plate and placed the plate on the coffee table just as the door bell rang.

"Coming!" She called as she walked over to the door and opened it to find Carly there. "Hey, come on in." She invited Carly.

"Don't mind if I do." Carly said and sat on the couch and Courtney joined her.

Carly spotted the cookies as she got her drink. "Did you cook?" She asked Courtney.

Courtney glanced over at the cookies. "Oh, no, actually, I got those from Kelly's." Courtney answered.

Carly reached over and took one, taking a bite out of one. "Mmmm….these is good." Carly sputtered.

Courtney's eyes widened. "Are they?" She asked as she also reached over and bit into one and she had to agree. "Mm…they are good." Courtney agreed as a knock sounded on the door.

"Who's that?" Courtney wondered out loud as she went to answer the door again.

She smiled as she saw Diego. "Diego, hey." She greeted him.

Diego stepped in and noticed Carly's presence. "Oh, did I come at a bad time?" He asked her, a bit out of place.

"Oh, no, not at all. You're always welcome here." Courtney told him and closed the door behind him.

By then Diego had found the cookies. Always the cookie monster, he reached over and took one. "Mmm…these are delicious. Did you cook them?" He asked Courtney.

Courtney explained the cookies once again. "No, I found them at Kelly's actually. I bought some for Carly and I, you're free to take some if u like." She assured him.

Diego took another as did Carly and Courtney.

Meanwhile, the cookies were as much a hit at Kelly's as they were at Courtney's place. There was plenty more from what Mike could see.

Elizabeth had come in for lunch and too had been entranced by the cookies, taking two with her lunch. She sat down and waited for Nikolas to show up.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Nikolas apologized as he pulled out the chair across from her as he sat down.

"That's alright." She's been late dozens of times herself. "So what's going on?" She asked him, taking a cookie first, rather than her sandwich. They just looked too good to resist a little sneak.

"Is that chocolate chip?" Nikolas imposed on her.

Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah, it is. Want my other one?" She asked him, as she handed it to him.

"Thanks.' Nikolas said as he took it from her and took a bite. "These are good." He commented.

Elizabeth nodded her consent at that and they enjoyed their meal and the company.

Later, at wyndemere, Nikolas was getting ready for bed when his stomach started getting upset. In Diego's room, Diego ran to the bathroom as he knew he was going to throw up. At Carly's apartment, Carly leaned over the toilet as she got sick. At Liz's studio, Liz crawled to bed after calming her upset stomach. At Courtney's loft, she laid in bed half under the covers, listening to the night, drifting off into an eternal sleep.

A week later, a hooded figure stood by the trees and watched as their fifth victim was laid in the ground. They smiled as the coffin was piled on with dirt, leaving them with one less enemy, but no, it didn't end here, no way, no they would make more "bad" cookies and they would continue distributing them, until they were enemy less.

They snickered as they turned and went off to make a fresh batch, time to kill.

To be continued…?

A. You give them bad cookies.