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"The Prank"

You find yourself standing on a rope, high above the world and a crowd of people far below you, cheering you on. You are terrified. On the paper in your mind, you believed this would be an easy thing to pull off. Now that you are face to face with it, your eyes and anxiety tell a different story, paralyzing you in fear. You have the means and motivation to do it, you just need that little push. That's when you feel the hand on your back.

I awoke from a dream I'd had for the past few nights. It was one about a co-worker, his mouth was cut open and dripping blood and I, for some reason, found myself apologizing for it as though I caused it. I had no idea what I'd even done to cause it but I felt horrible about it.
I got out of bed, took a shower, and got dressed before deciding to meet up with my friend. I had this twisted scheme in place to prank someone at work tonight. Since I'd been having these dreams about Steve, my long time co-worker, I figured he'd be the victim.
I called up my friend Zac and we agreed that the plan to prank him would be from buying a bag of sandwich cookies and changing the filling. It was a little on the expensive side for an April Fools day prank, but I figured it would be worth it to see the disgusted faces he'd make.
I swung by the grocery store and grabbed some cookies before heading Zac's way. Shortly after arriving, I was greeted with a twisted grin. He opened the door for me and I made my way into the kitchen.
I sat the cookies down and he pulled a knife out of his kitchen drawer. Carefully, he cut along the side flaps, making sure he didn't cut any of the plastic wrapping. It took a minute, but after he was done, he carefully unfolded the flaps and slid the clear, plastic tray out that housed the cookies.
He pulled them out and sat them on the counter. We then took the tops off of each cookie and scraped the frosting on the inside and put it into a small pile.
It took a minute, but eventually we finished it, all the while talking about some sick pranks we pulled on people when we were younger.
After we finished, I grabbed the end of a cookie and spread just the right amount of toothpaste on it before placing the other side of the cookie on top and sandwiching it together. We carried on the conversations we worked, him claiming he was coming up with some dark prank ideas to try on people. I only laughed uncomfortably as he told me a couple. They weren't exactly friendly pranks.
After we finished, we placed the cookies back in the tray and carefully slid it back in the packaging. I asked him how we were going to seal it back. His only response was grabbing the package and saying, "I'll be right back."
I waited patiently. I could only assume what he was doing there was using some kind of heat gun to fuse the plastic.
He proved me right as a few minutes later, I saw him walking back up the stairs with the cookie box. I was surprised, it looked like a brand new box that had come straight from the store.
He sat the box down on the counter and asked if I was ready to deliver this to him. I eagerly nodded and we headed out the door, straight for my workplace.

Not too long after we got there, my friend and I made our way to the work station, down by where Steve was sitting, and sat there next to him. We talked for a few moments before I casually sat the cookies down on the table.
I ripped open the package mid-conversation and he took one. He bit into it while talking and was forced to stop. He winced and did it a few times. I laughed as I knew the toothpaste filling would hit him the wrong way.
He opened his mouth to speak but instead, a bunch of blood poured out. He reached into his mouth and pulled out a razor blade. How the hell did those get in there?
I looked behind me, horrified to find that Zac was laughing hysterically.

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