He’d seen her in the shop a few times, she just appeared out of nowhere and then kept coming in. She was not beautiful, she was not ugly, one of those women that just go unnoticed and are often asked ‘Do I know you from somewhere?’
Her face was so unmemorable that she could be anyone and no one at the same time.
Maybe this was what drew his attention to her. She looked shy and awkward and he knew being too forward would not work with her. She was the kind that needed a bit of time, but once her defenses were down she would be easily controlled.
His job, as a security guard in the shop, had proven to be the best he could have hoped for in terms of finding women to get money out of.
His strategy was simple, he would watch them, learn a thing or two about them, follow them a few times and then, on the outside, find an opening through which he could insert himself in their lives.
He never used the shop, and he always took care to look very different to his working self. As a security guard he wore clothes that made him look buff and big, he wore yellow tinted glasses (required by an imaginary eye condition), his boots had thick soles adding to his height, completed by a black baseball cap to always hide his hair.
He’d been working in the shop for almost fifteen years and everybody was used to his quirks. He was a good worker, always on time, always patrolling the aisles self-important and watchful. He was so visible, that he had become invisible to the women that sparked his interest.
He’d choose the lonely ones, the ones that bought food for one, the ones that blushed hiding the bottle of wine or vodka among their shopping, the ones that hid sad eyes under polite smiles.
He was doing them a favor, in a way, he thought. He was bringing them back to life, making them feel again, although it would always turn out into pain and despair, but those are feelings too, no? Better than to go through life like a zombie.
He had managed to squirrel away almost two hundred thousand euros. When he thought about his money, Gerry (Gearalt his given name), felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest. ‘Not long now and that house in Spain would be his!’
That was his dream. A nice little house, full ownership, somewhere nice and warm, touristy, so he has easy access to ‘clientele’, as he liked to call his money sources.
When everything became about social media he thought for an instant to go online too, but he was too old for that, poaching women online, spending all your time in front of a computer. He would also have to use it of course to chat with his ones, but he was just doing it to keep them hooked, his hunting grounds were IRL in IRL.
He chuckled to himself when he made the connection between IRL and the Alpha-3 code for Ireland. He felt pretty smart, actually he felt he was smarter than all the people he met, and the ease with which he was able to manipulate them only strengthened his belief.
Gerry had been watching the woman in the shop now for about a month and a half, and, as one of his projects had just concluded successfully adding another 25k to his bank account, he had an opening.
Judging by her shoes and handbag the mousy woman had some money. Gerry had learnt that, no matter the woman or her stage in life, they will always care about shoes and handbags, so those were always a good indicator of a woman’s financial status.
He’d followed her a few times and decided to make contact as casually as possible. She would go to the library almost twice every week, sometimes just once, but she would go there, and it seemed to him that was where she was the most comfortable. He even saw her smiling brightly once while talking to one of the librarians.
Yes, the library was his place of opportunity.
Gerry dressed himself as a nerdy forty something year old. His hair neatly combed back, wearing glasses and a medium shabby tweed jacket. He started appearing in the library, getting to know everybody, and then one day he met her.
‘Hi, Daniel Greg … I know don’t laugh …’, he was shaking his head working to express annoyance in a funny way.
‘Yes, that can’t have been easy! Rose Datura.’, she extended her hand as if they had a business meeting.
Gerry was thrown by her voice, he hadn’t expected her to sound so confident, so clear, judging by her looks he was sure she would have had a squeaky, shy voice.
She did not linger, she went about her things and before he could make any move she was gone.
‘Next time!’, Gerry told himself, the thrill of the chase was sending shivers down his spine, especially how, on one of the occasions he had followed Rose, he’d seen she lived in a pretty big, expensive house. That bode well!
After a few more casual encounters around the library, Daniel and Rose went for coffee. They chatted and Daniel was charmed by Rose’s unassuming way of being, she had a delicate almost ethereal way about her, her voice being the one thing that puzzled him.
Coffee became dinner, and then an invite for a night cup at her place.
‘Your house is gorgeous!’, Daniel was truly mesmerized by his surroundings.
The tall Georgian windows were flanked by impressive oil paintings, the furniture, unusually large so as to fill the room, gave you the impression that you were in a castle.
Rose came back with their drinks and looked around proudly.
‘Yes, my pride and joy! Cheers!’
They drank and chatted for a bit and Daniel felt like he really liked this delicate, beautiful woman, he even entertained the thought that they could both live here, in this stunning house and he could just settle down.
He felt so sleepy, he will just rest his eyes for a bit, it had been a long day.
When he woke up Gerry did not know for how long he had been asleep. He was shocked to find his surroundings dramatically changed from the beautiful Georgian house to a large, dimly lit warehouse of some sorts. When his eyes got used to the bad light he could see he was in a cage surrounded by men in other cages.
His clothes were gone and all he was wearing was some type of loin cloth- knickers hybrid. He was barefoot and his watch and jewelry were gone.
‘WTF?!’, this was like one of those scenes from really bad movies, only the cage was real, and the people around him were real.
‘Hey! Hey! Where are we?’, he called out to a dark, tall man inhabiting the cage next to his.
The man just grunted something and turned away.
‘The hell with this!’, and Gerry started yelling from the top of his lungs.
‘Let me out! Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Let me out! What games are you playing at here?!’
From the darkness a woman accompanied by two men approached.
‘Rose …’
She looked totally different. Dressed in a grey jacket and skirt, her hair tightly gathered in a bun, she resembled more a school secretary than the beautiful, other worldly woman he had met previously.
‘Gearalt O’Bruin we have evidence that you have wronged thirty three citizens, lying to them and cheating them out of their money…’
‘What???' This is a very bad joke!’, Gerry had this feeling of surrealism, this was not happening to him, it was too stupid, too crazy, too unreal! But she did know his real name … how …
Rose went on unperturbed.
‘The Citizen Council condemns you to … ‘
‘What?! Citizen Council?! What stupid joke is this?’, Gerry put his hands on the thick bars of the cage and only now seemed to be struck by their reality. Up till then it was like they were just an illusion.
‘You stupid, stupid woman! Let me out! Stop this freakish joke and let me out! You will be jailed for life for this!’, his tone showed exactly how much he was starting to freak out.
Rose looked at him impassible, her face so matter of fact that you could say she was dealing with a parcel at the post office.
‘Gearalt O’Bruin for your deeds against your fellow human beings you are condemned to fight until death. The sentence is not commutable and you will fight until you die.’
And then she left ignoring his screams and pleas.
Gerry’s first fight was with a large lad from Louth. He had no idea what the lad had done but for sure it had to be bad enough to end up there. The young, inexperienced bull charged mindlessly and Gerry had no difficulty in putting him down.
And so it went, and as far I know, Gerry might still be fighting for his life in a cage, in the underbelly of the world.