Robert Bain lay in his bed unwilling to start another day just yet. Another empty night had passed him by as he morosely tried to tease some life into his stubbornly flaccid cock – but even this small pleasure seemed beyond him. He hit the ‘on’ button on the remote, stabbing at it with undue force, a measure of his frustration. The small wall-mounted TV glowed sluggishly into life, the VCR within squeaking as the tape wound up to speed.
On the screen, the girl’s head fell back, resting softly in gentle sensuous abandon upon the hard mirrored surface. The harsh glare of the cold fluorescent lighting was impotent to disguise or diminish her beauty. Luxuriously long hair had shielded her features, but now they fell away from her face, cascading in soft silken waves over her shoulders, down along the deliciously slender curve of her neck.
The slightly grainy image on the TV screen only seemed to enhance her attractiveness. The CCTV camera that Robert himself had operated when he had made this recording now zoomed into her face. He loved this moment, this precious moment when her face was uncovered, when her innermost feelings were open and clear, freely expressed, seemingly safe that no one could read them – no one could see. No one that is, except for Robert, who had secretly controlled the security camera that had recorded her. It gave him a view of her upturned face, innocent to the fact it was being watched and recorded.
She was young, not more than eighteen. He had tracked her on camera flirting provocatively with her boyfriend, her much older boyfriend, and it was this outrageous performance that had caught his attention. Good looking in that surfer-boy fashion, he was a dream for a teenage girl. He had that sun bleached blonde hair and an athlete’s body. She dressed older than her years and certainly acted older.
The boy had led her to this washroom, jamming the door shut to allow them some privacy. But privacy is often an illusion, Robert reminded himself as he watched them from his control room. He had hit the record button on this camera as soon as they had come into the room – he knew what was about to happen. He had watched it happen here a few times and always recorded the resultant fun. But it was this particular tape of these two young people that was his favourite. This tape could usually get him off in no time at all. But this time it was not working for him. He concentrated on the screen once again.
Her face upturned, eyes closed, soft and full lips wet and glistening from her darting tongue. He watched intently as her prehensile like pink tongue coiled itself back inside her mouth after wetting her lips. He watched as she gasped in pleasure, her mouth forming a crimson circle as she moaned over and over again, her head rocking from side to side as her boyfriend worked her most tender place with his own tongue. The camera zoomed back just as the boy left off from his lapping and he stood up, his erection free of his pants, eager to dive into her willing heat.
Perched precariously upon her washbasin, her back against the wall, she now entwined her long legs around the boy’s waist as he drove himself quickly inside her. Her mouth opened wide in another silent gasp as the sudden shock of his thickness invaded her.
It was a damned good tape, but still Robert’s cock refused to become fully erect in his hand. Nothing was working. His mind wandered away from the image on the TV. Wandered back to that night in the pub last week with the delectable and impossibly young Shelly. He remembered that moment when she had placed her hand upon his knee underneath the table, resting it there for a long secret heartbeat.
That simple touch had sent shock waves through Robert’s body, causing him an almost instantaneous erection, just as it did now at the mere memory. Robert fantasised about her hand millimetres away from his obvious desire, the tension within his body unbearable. Slowly, and in his fantasy, she placed her hand over his hardness, feeling him through the material of his straining pants. He imagined her squeezing; feeling for herself how hard his desire for her was, wrapping her cool fingers over the growing heat of his erection. His real erection! Robert gasped and shuddered at his sudden climax.
The pleasure vanished almost as soon as it had arrived, and the depression returned. He hit the ‘off’ button on the remote. The screen went dead as he lay recovering. The momentary satisfaction of his ejaculation replaced quickly by pathetic reality. If only. He looked around. The small bedroom looked even more grimy and desperate. A fitting reflection of his life to date, he pondered desolately.
Robert hauled himself up to the washbasin and stared at his reflection. His face grimaced as it stared back at him. Dishevelled, thinning dark hair framed a somehow characterless face; a few thin strands of hair fell down over the skin, blotchy and dry from yet another night of heavy drinking, and slightly flushed from his recent horizontal bed exercise.
Thick and blunt fingers brushed strands of hair away with a surprising deftness, patting them back over a balding pate. Underneath a slightly askew nose – the result of a well-aimed punch – dull and slightly stained teeth arranged themselves crookedly. Two were chipped and broken alongside one badly colour-matched crown, evidence of yet other fights.
The deep wrinkles in the skin around the mouth folded into a humourless joke of a smile. Only the deep blue eyes within this morass of human dereliction held any vibrancy, any sign of hope, and an almost imperceptible a twinkle. For the eyes held a secret. They promised an escape.
Robert turned away from the mirror, wondering for the thousandth time what had happened to the young man that had once so recently stared back at him, holding within that youth so much hope and promise. This was his last chance, he knew. And he was determined to take it; after all, what had he to lose, really?
He dressed with renewed enthusiasm, and when he looked once again into the mirror before leaving for work, the face that looked back at him seemed a good deal more positive. Less haggard and defeated. Almost handsome in its ruggedness. Robert looked around the small apartment, the crumpled porn magazines and stolen surveillance tapes that were his only company last night and most nights.
“You deserve better, mate,” he told his reflection, “and you have to stop talking to yourself as well,” he added ruefully. Robert grabbed his shabby coat and left his apartment as he headed for work.
Not far in mere physical terms from Robert, another man considered his existence within his own self-induced world. The darkness cloaked and protected him like a life long friend, protecting him within in the shadows, keeping secrets from the revealing light. The gloom echoed his dark, opaque thoughts, but Storrington preferred this place where only the brightest objects gleamed, visible only to those that could see, those that had the ability to see. He smiled. He alone could see. He knew that out of this half-light came understanding, even wisdom. The visions he saw, what they said to him, what they told him he must do, were for him alone. And he hugged these precious revelatory scraps of insight to him with an intimate passion, for this was his place. His world, inside himself, was the only world that really mattered.
A broken and grimy pane of glass glinted dully. Storrington stopped and stared at his refection. A completely bland and uninteresting face stared back. Nothing at all about the real him showed on the surface. Except for the eyes. He saw the face smile back at him. Yes, the eyes. Cold and grey, they alone hinted at what lay underneath the bland exterior. That suited him of course. If anyone bothered to look a little closer they might have noticed the scar that trailed down past one eye and along his cheek. The result of one of his chosen ones futile attempt at escape. He touched the slight deformity gently, remembering her screams, and smiled. Apart from that, nothing about his face suggested anything other than boring normality. Good.
Storrington went out of his way to compliment this look. Dressing smartly in suites and always wearing a tie, people just automatically deferred to him. No one suspected. He picked up his mask, rotating the leather garment in his hand. He could not resist the urge to put it on again. He loved the feel of the leather as it stretched tight over his head, enveloping the blandness, transforming him into something else. Now, when he looked at his reflection he saw what he really was. In the dim light of his room, Jeff Storrington’s mask shone in its evil blackness. Through their holes his eyes glared his hunger. It was time for another chosen one to come to his special place.
********************
At work, Robert deftly toggled the small rubber control stick just a fraction to the left. He had lost the couple he was tracking just outside the electronics store. It was annoying, that bloody camera fault bugged him. He panned around but could not find them. Then he spotted them on another monitor. They had left the shopping Mall. Outside, the camera dutifully swung around in response to his precisely issued commands, his thick fingers delicate on the controls, then the camera stopped. Satisfied with its position, he then depressed the zoom button. Instantly the couple centred upon the monitor in front of him grew larger until both their faces filled the screen.
“Damn, I wish I had audio on this” Robert muttered under his breath as he studied the man and woman standing together.
They were embracing, and the mans hands were moving inside the woman’s coat, fondling her breasts blatantly as she pressed against him. Or were they? He knew they were shoplifters they had been caught before. He had been watching out for them.
Almost as if they had overheard him, they turned towards the camera that was silently studying them. Although he was unable to pick up any sound, Robert could easily read the mouthed words of ‘Bastard’ spoken at the camera. The guy who mouthed the word, then added a few more choice and colourful epithets before he finally spat on the ground, took the woman by the arm, and turned away.
“Yeah, and the same to you, now run away, you runt, I’m watching you!” Robert called after him softly.
“Any problem, Bain?” Asked Robert’s supervisor who had suddenly appeared at his shoulder. Mr Jarvis stood just slightly behind him.
“No sir, just keeping an eye on a couple of known offenders”
They both watched as the couple walked sullenly away and disappeared behind some buildings.
“Those two have been trouble for us for some time, but I’m aware of them, Sir!”
Jarvis looked quizzically at Robert, he had seen the close up of the embrace, but had also recognised the couple as repeat shoplifters. He decided to give Robert the benefit of the doubt, he had his suspicions that Bain took a sometimes voyeur delight in his work.
“Yes, they have, good work Bain” Jarvis he told him and walked off.
Outside, as the troublemakers vanished from view, Jarvis walked back to his office without further comment, leaving Robert to continue to monitor the precinct from his control room alone. Robert enjoyed his work. Physically only small, many a larger man had been surprised at his strength. But here in this control room, his physical stature mattered little. Here he had discovered a sense of power mostly denied him elsewhere. Outside he found condescension at best, ridicule at worst. Too small for the police or the services, with no suitable education for a real career, he had taken various bouncing jobs where physical strength mattered and people learned to respect him despite his stature.
He had never married, it seemed his casual jobs and rough nature had precluded that. He had taken to buying his women, but they had not offered him anything more than sex, and he craved that closeness that came with real affection and that, he had finally realised, could not be bought.
Eventually he found his vocation working in security for this shopping mall. Here he was in control. The feeling of power he had was almost an aphrodisiac. But what really turned him on was that he also knew its weaknesses. And now his plan, his escape plan from all his troubles, would exploit that weakness.
He knew the system well, better even than the people who had installed it. He smiled at that thought. Because he had developed another secret, had another power. By carefully studying the ‘dead zones’ of the cameras, Robert could walk the shopping mall undetected and unseen if he so desired. He could become a ghost.
He had tested his idea only last week, walking the length of the mall during the day, timing his walk to match the area coverage of the cameras, watching them closely. He had checked the tapes the very next day and he was not recorded on any of them. He had done it! He had not been spotted, and that knowledge was power!
That simple knowledge that he could by-pass the system was not nearly enough for him though. It was payback time. His ambitions, at least to him, had been as much thwarted by his physical size as by his abilities. He had been consistently passed over. Younger men were now in position of power above him. Men like Jarvis.
The resentment was a hard knot deep inside him. But he would show them, show them how big a man he was, he promised himself. One day. One day soon. Not that they would ever know of course, unless they caught him, and that was not going to happen. Oh no. He knew the system too well.
That night, he decided to have a small celebration to toast his ‘accomplishment’. His local, the ‘Kings Head’ was not particularly upmarket, but it suited him, being close to where he lived. He felt comfortable here. He could walk home and because he had no need to drive, could enjoy his drink. Sometimes he enjoyed his drink a little too much.
He was well into his fourth beer when the girls came in. He had rather hoped they would. Shelly was with them he noted. Over the last couple of weeks they had become used to him, and had even started to talk to him, rather than just tease him. His persistence was beginning to pay off and tonight he felt even more confident.
“Hi Dawn, Shelly, Joan. How ya doing? Can I buy you a drink?”
“Sure, Rob. You look pleased with yourself? Won the lottery have you?” Shelly giggled as she scanned the room, it seemed she was always on the look out for available men.
Dawn and Joan simply ignored Robert as they somewhat sullenly looked around. They were young and very attractive in a tarty kind of way, but they made it plain they were not interested in Rob – except perhaps for the useful free drinks he bought them.
Shelly though, did seem at least a little interested. Her young and flirtatious manner flattered Rob’s ego. Here he was, pushing forty and this fantastic looking young girl, not much older than eighteen, was flirting with him. He went towards the bar to fetch the girls their drinks.
Joan sneered at Shelly as soon as he had left earshot. “What the hell are you doing chatting up that little old guy for?”
“He has something I want” she smiled secretly back. “And besides, I think he is kinda cute, in a rough way… dangerous, you know? ”
“Dangerous? Like what? He might beat you up with his walking stick?” Dawn chipped in, laughing. “Or perhaps he is a bigger man in other departments” she added nastily.
Shelly shot her friend a cool look. “I’m not actually interested in HIM, stupid, what do you take me for?” Shelly answered with an exaggerated sniff and tossed her hair.
“No, it’s what he can GET me, what he can do for me, that’s what I am more interested in” she said mysteriously as she sipped her drink, looking over at Rob standing at the bar.
“Oh yeah?” Joan tartly said. “Well, I think he’s an old creep and you had better watch yourself, Shelly”
“Don’t sweat it, I can handle him. Don’t you worry, as I said, a bit of rough can be fun sometimes” Shelly shot her friends an evil grin and left the two girls looking at each other as she went to join Rob at the bar.
“There ya go, Shelly” Robert handed her the drink as she came up to him.
“Thanks Rob” she told him, standing very close, then followed him as he carried the drinks to her friends. The girls thanked him in a desultory way, turning away to talk with two lads who had met up with them.
“Lets sit down,” Shelly said, taking him to a nearby table. Shelly sat close to him. She placed her hand on his knee just like she had done the other week. Rob swallowed and tried to concentrate.
“Rob, do you think…oh, never mind”
“What?” Rob asked.
“Oh, I was just wondering,” she said coyly “I was wondering if, well, you know how much I would love to see where you work, all those cameras and things…”
“Oh, yeah, but I can’t you know, its security and all that.”
“Oh, go on, Robert, I am sure you know a way to sneak me inside, you know I would be ever so grateful” she said teasingly moving her hand slightly up his leg. Her breast pressed provocatively against him. Rob swallowed at the clear sexual invitation. It had been so long since a woman, any woman, had come onto him.
“Well… I might be able to…” He conceded.
“Oh I knew you could!” Shelly exclaimed excitedly, never taking a ‘no’ for an answer was her motto. “When can you do it?”
Rob sighed. He knew he could lose his job; it was against all the rules. But what he was planning to do was against the rules. He looked at her imploring and excited eyes, but it was the seductive and suggestive reward shining within them, that clinched it.
“I am on a late shift this Friday” the temptation was just too strong. The excitement of the girl on his arm, as well as the chance to show up his employers, and make a better life for himself, was just too much. He might actually get lucky too…with her.
“Come over to gate 4a on Friday after midnight, around 1am, and I will buzz you in. Don’t let anyone see you though, ok?”
“Ok, Rob. Oh this is sooo exciting!” Shelly jumped up and down delightedly in front of him, her breasts bouncing. That made him more than smile. The sudden erection inside his pants was almost painful.
Shelly and her breasts stopped bouncing. “But, Rob, I really gotta go now. My friends have something lined up. Thanks for the drink, and I will see you next week, ok?” She kissed him quickly on the cheek, before leaving him standing alone, hard and bemused as she walked quickly away.
Rob stood and watched her leave, wondering what he had let himself in for. Then he smiled, imagining exactly what he might have let himself in for. He wouldn’t need that porn magazine or the tape this evening.
Shelly returned to her friends and whispered to Joan and Dawn excitedly. “I got in! Next Friday, he is going to let me into the Mall”
“Oh, big deal!” Dawn sneered.
“Yeah, so what?” Joan added.
“Well, I’ll tell you, if you promise not to tell a soul.”
Both girls leaned in closer, their demeanour instantly changing from disdain to acute interest, ready for the confidence about to be shared.
“He told me he can do anything he wants in that Mall without being seen”
The two girls looked blankly at her. “Last week, he was kinda drunk, and he told me!”
“Don’t you see? With his help, I can get hold of some real cool stuff! He is my ticket to some serious money! And the best part is, he takes all the risks, the fucking idiot!”
Shelly laughed at the wickedness of her plan. All the girls started laughing. “Get a shopping list, girls. Just tell me what ya want!”
The next week passed slowly as Rob anticipated his meeting with Shelly. Then, almost sneaking up on him without him knowing, the long anticipated Friday finally arrived. He swivelled his outside camera and soon picked up Shelly walking towards the gate that he had instructed her to go to. He watched her sway her way towards the gate, and he couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter at the sight. Not only his heart, he realised.
He watched as she jumped slightly, the noise of the buzzing lock-release from the gate startling her. He then panned away, so as not to record her entry. Unseen and unrecorded, she pushed her way into the deserted Mall. He had told her which way to go, and he made sure that the cameras were not covering her progress towards his control room. He moved towards the door and opened it, looking for her approach.
“Hi Rob!” She beamed in excitement at him, as she bounced into the room, her ample breasts jiggling.
“Hi Shelly, do come in to my parlour…”
“Said the spider to the fly” She giggled, looking around. “So, this is where you hang out?”
Alia woke up to Ranbir kissing all over her back. His lips had started from …
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“Yup, this is my Kingdom” He waved his arm expansively around the room.
“Wow. Look at all those monitors. You can see everything from here” Shelly walked slowly around the room, looking at each screen in turn, touching the desk lightly with the fingers of one hand. She ran her fingers up the stalk of the control rod suggestively. Rob swallowed hard.
“Almost everything.” Rob added, a little hoarsely, watching her examine the place.
“But, how come you are on your own? Don’t you guys work in pairs?” she asked.
“Yeah, that would normally be true, but the place is over budget and they are short staffed, so, for the moment, here I am – on my own”
“Lucky for me, huh?” she giggled provocatively at him.
“Yeah,” he grinned ” Lucky for me as well!”
He moved closer to her, but she whirled away. “Show me what they all do”
He sighed; almost unable to walk with the hard erection she had given him.
“Sure, ok, these monitors show all the cameras in the Mall. I can pan and zoom wherever I want, but mostly they run automatically, scanning all areas every few minutes.” Taking control of one camera, he panned across a row of shops to show her.
“Who’s that?” she asked pointing.
“What?”
“I saw someone in that shop. Back it up.”
Rob back-panned. It was the same shop that he had been having trouble covering with his cameras, that single area was prone to faults. Seemed to be working tonight though. “Stop there,” she told him “Yeah, I saw someone inside that shop I’m sure I did!”
Rob peered at the screen. “There is nobody here Shelly. You must have just seen a reflection, that’s all. It’s easy to do.”
“Really? Yeah, I suppose so…” After a second of thought, her face rearranged itself instantaneously from worried frown to excited delight.
“I bet you see some really rude things here huh?”
“Sometimes…yeah…” Robert answered a little warily.
“I bet you have a secret tape don’t you?” she walked up to him, pressing herself against him, pleased to find his hardness waiting for her. “Why not show me?”
“Okay” Rob managed to say.
He opened a locked drawer, sat down at the consol and took out a tape, thrusting it roughly into a player. The image was not too clear, yet it was very clear what was going on. Shelly moved behind Robert as the tape played. She let her hands sweep over his arms.
“Your very fit for an old guy aren’t you? Stronger than you look too, I would say”
She stood closer as her hands began to move over him, exploring him slowly, sensuously, as they silently watched the couple on the screen that appeared to be in a small private room. The woman was kneeling, already undoing the man’s zipper. She looked up with a wicked smile on her lips as she freed his already hard erection, giving it a few long and appreciative strokes while she watched the expression on his face. Then, still watching his expression, she slowly wrapped her lips around the head and began to devour his length. She was wasting no time at all.
“Just a whore” Rob turned to say, but saw that Shelly was staring, engrossed in the sex on the screen. He turned back to watch also.
He felt Shelly lean against him, could feel the soft press of her breasts as she pushed them against the back of his head. Her hands were now exploring his chest as she traced her fingers over his body. Robert swallowed, his throat suddenly dry…
He turned to look at Shelly, who suddenly dragged her eyes away from the screen, and focused on Robert.
“Lets go shopping!” she said suddenly standing up.
“What?” he said, his mind confused, the eroticism of the moment vanishing in an instant.
“You told me that you could do anything you wanted, without being seen, so show me, lets go shopping!” She beamed at him again. “You won’t be disappointed…”
“Ok, ok…where do you want to go?” Robert was confused but Shelly was still offering him something he hoped.
“Oh, let’s see…let’s go to the jewellers!”
“The jewellers?”
“Yeah, why not? You told me you had the key to all these places; let’s go there! I want to try on that tiara!”
“Ok, ok…just let me put this to auto. We will only have fifteen mins, and then I have to be back here to make a status check, ok
“Ok, well let’s go then!”
“Ok, walk behind me Shelly and stop when I tell you to, we have to move when the cameras are pointing in the wrong direction and we have to keep to the ‘dead’ areas as well for safety, otherwise we could be recorded, ok?”
Rob timed the sequence carefully, watching the cameras as they traversed their predictable scan path. Judging the right moment, they walked quickly, and they reached the shop three minutes later, undetected. He unlocked the door and turned off the security alarm, pulling Shelly in after him. She stood in the centre of the shop surrounded by the valuable jewellery arranged in their display cases.
“Oh my God! Rob, you really did it!” She ran her hands over the glass table, which held trays of sparkling rings and bracelets. Her eyes wide, she then ran around and removed a full tray, placing it on the table.
“What do you think?” She asked, trying on various rings.
“Yeah, very nice” He answered. Despite his earlier bravado, Rob was now getting increasingly nervous at the reality of the position he was now in.
“Don’t you think they make me look sexy? This kinda turns me on…” she draped her arms provocatively around Rob.
He went to pull her close, but she again twisted out of his arm.
“All in good time, Robert. You need to recover,” she teased. “What do you think of this one?”
“Look, we had better be getting back…” Rob answered, now a little annoyed.
“Oh, okay, spoilsport, lets go then…” She quickly slid four of the rings into her inside pocket without him seeing. Retracing their steps, they got back to the control room.
“Listen Rob, this was fun, but I think I should be getting home now, ok?” Having palmed the expensive rings, she was ready to leave.
“Yeah, no problem” Rob was now happy to see her go. He had suddenly become nervous; the excitement of the moment was wearing off. He let her out and she retraced her steps to the outside and soon she was gone.
He sat back in his chair and wondered what he had done. That was really stupid of him. Now suddenly concerned he could be found out, he decided to review the tapes, just in case some camera had in fact inadvertently picked them up.
As he scanned them, he was glad to see nothing at all of their adventure had been recorded. But then he saw something. What was that? He rewound the tape again. That was the shop Shelly said she thought she saw someone. A smudged dark outline, almost human in shape, could just about be made out. Was that someone standing there? Could Shelly have been right? What the hell? The image was very unclear, but it did seem to suggest a figure. Shit! Was someone actually there? He swung a live camera around and focused on the shop. Nothing. He zoomed in to the window. It was an electronics shop, and it appeared as it should, empty and closed. Rob scratched his head. He decided he had better go down and check it out, just to make doubly sure.
Standing now outside the dark window, Rob shone his torch inside and around. The light picked out shapes and shadows. Nothing. The place was empty. It must have been a trick of the light after all. He scratched his head again, but then decided that, whatever it was, it was not here now. Still, he had an uncomfortable feeling inside as he turned and walked back to the control room. Then a brief flash, seen only from the corner of his eye, stopped him in his tracks. He shot a glance back at the dark shop but could see nothing. What was that? Had he imagined it? He walked slowly back to the shop door. The place was playing tricks on him. What the hell is going on here? He was not superstitious, but he could feel goosebumps beginning to form on his skin. Rob took out his keys and entered the supposedly empty shop, very carefully.
The shop had no fitted alarm, and this was not really unusual; many just relied on the Mall security alone. Rob walked carefully around, taking care, his torch picking out the merchandise stacked high everywhere. He stopped at a rear storeroom door. He tried the handle. It was locked. He tried his key, a special security key that unlocked everything. Everything, that is, except this door. It could be bolted from the inside, but that made no sense, as it should only be a single room with no other access than this door. Rob stood back and surveyed the locked door, listening intently. He could hear nothing. Well, there was definitely nobody here; he had searched the whole place, apart from that one room, and he was sure nobody was there. As sure as he could be. Rob switched off his torch and locked the shop door behind him. He still felt something was not right, but being unable to discover what that something was, he put it to the back of his mind.
It continued to worry him, so Rob kept an eye on the shop throughout the rest of the night. Nothing else disturbed him though, and he finished his shift as normal and headed home to sleep.
*********************
From inside the shop, the shadow that was Jeff Storrington watched Robert walk away. He had watched all of the night’s activities. Had enjoyed the show Shelly had put on unknowingly for him. His technical expertise had enabled him to hack the security system, giving him the freedom to see whatever he liked, and more importantly, to know exactly what they knew. So Roberts plan was now clear to him, and he sensed a healthy profit in this knowledge.
Storrington returned to his dark room. There his latest chosen one was becoming weak. She would not last much longer, he knew. She had at last understood his world, but could never leave it, not with that knowledge. The revelation would have to die with her. Only he could retain that, he alone. He moved towards the naked restrained woman, his lust once again inflamed. But even as he took her, her screams driving him on once again, he was thinking of the next victim, a freckled faced girl. Yes, it was her time now.
************************
Robert was awoken that afternoon with a call.
“Bains? Jarvis here, sorry to wake you, but can you come in early, this afternoon if at all possible”
“This afternoon?” Roberts was still half asleep “I suppose so, sure, what’s up?”
“We have a procedural problem, I’ll explain when you get here”
“Yeah, ok then, I will be there in” he looked at his watch “Say four o’clock?”
“That’s fine, see you then.” Jarvis said as he hung up.
Rob put the phone down thoughtfully. Had he slipped up? He was sure he had not; after all, he had checked the tapes very carefully, hadn’t he? He sat up on the edge of his bed and looked around his small bed-sit. Despite trying to make the place resemble a home, it was, what it was. Very small, cramped and faintly squalid.
Well, he had tried his best for the last twenty years to make it good, and this was about as far as he had got. What’s more, he had gotten scared last night with Shelly, and that annoyed him. He looked around the cramped room again. He had a chance now to get out of this and if it meant taking a chance, then now was the time to do it. Now, while he was alone at the Mall, before they got around to putting another man in with him. It had to be soon, he realised. No more dreaming and pathetically trying to impress young girls in the hope of bedding them. If this meeting Jarvis wants is nothing more than that, and if I got away with it last night, then why not? And with that decision made, he suddenly felt better, more confident, and he got up and prepared to go and meet Jarvis.
His confidence was still high when he arrived at the security office at the Mall. Having finally realised he had nothing much to lose, and determined to take this chance while it was available to him, he walked into the office of his supervisor, Mr Jarvis.
“Ah, Bains, thanks for coming in, take a seat, will you?” Jarvis indicated a seat as he continued writing at his desk.
Robert sat down and waited. He studied Jarvis. A tall man, at least ten years his junior, Robert always felt Jarvis was laughing at him. Laughing at his size and low status. I should be the supervisor, Robert silently fumed, and I have as much experience, more so than Jarvis. Yet, here I am, waiting like a schoolboy in the headmasters study. Not for much longer he promised himself, not for much longer.
“Bains, what happened last night?” Jarvis asked, suddenly looking up.
Robert felt the blood drain from his face as his newfound confidence deserted him.
“Last night?” he answered, trying to keep a growing tremor from showing in his voice.
“Yes, last night, anything unusual?” Jarvis repeated.
“Well, there was something, but…” Rob hesitated “Well, I didn’t actually find anything wrong, but I thought I saw something unusual at the electronic shop…”
“The electronic shop?” Jarvis repeated surprised. “What was unusual?”
“I didn’t mention it because there was nothing to mention really, just a feeling, that’s all. I thought I saw someone in the shop, but I must have been mistaken because I checked, and it was clear.”
“Oh, I see, the electronic shop you say? Well, the reason I asked is that the jewellers reported a theft, four rings have gone missing, nothing big, but they are claiming it was done overnight. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, there is no sign of a break in and there was nothing on our security video either. You, also, did not report anything amiss. Very odd.”
“Inside job?” Rob ventured, relieved he had not been caught, but seething inside at the realisation Shelly must have stole something.
“Probably” Jarvis answered. “By the way, the camera monitoring the control room is down, did you know that?”
“Yeah, I had noticed an intermittent fault, I thought it was ok now though?”
“Well get it sorted Bains”
“Yes sir, I will”
“Thank you, Bains, I will let you get off back home now.”
Robert left the office and returned home, feeling relieved yet angry. That stupid girl had taken him for a ride! The realisation that he had been used infuriated him. But hadn’t he hoped to use his position to have his own way with Shelly? The fact that he hadn’t had any joy in that department either, only served to annoy him further.
Robert paced around his bed-sit in frustration. He remembered his decision earlier to act. He knew this Saturday he was on night duty alone once more. This might be his last chance. He knew also the jewellers kept the weeks takings in their safe, ready for Monday banking. He was sure the pot would be big enough, and it was certainly worth the risk. Especially as he had used the powerful zoom on one of his cameras to record the combination they used to secure that safe. He smiled at that secret.
Yes, this Saturday he would finally stop being a small man, and with that amount of cash, he would really start living. He would be long gone before they discovered the theft on the Monday. He would have Shelly that night as well. The little tease had teased her last, he promised himself.
******************
Storrington was ready. The freckled faced girl was walking along the same alley she always took. It was time. He turned his back to her as she approached him and she walked past unconcerned. Moving swiftly, Storrington threw the hood he was holding over her head, twisting it tight around her neck. Only a small shocked scream penetrated the thick cloth as he dragged her the few feet backwards and tumbled her into the already open boot of his waiting car. It took seconds and she was gone. Nobody saw a thing. The boot, heavily strengthen and sound proofed, would restrain her. She had about 20 minutes before the lack of air would put her unconscious. He had it timed exactly.
He backed the car into the rear entrance of the electronic shop, and took the now unconscious girl into his place. His special place. Her face was blue as he laid her down but she was still alive he saw; it would have been a shame had she died. Still, he took the time to run his hands over her body before he gave her the oxygen that would revive her. He watched as colour and sense slowly returned to her face.
“Hello sweet thing” he said to her unfocused eyes as they fluttered open. “So glad you could join us”
“What… who are you… what are you doing to me?” she stammered, too confused to be frightened. That would, however, change. She tried to sit up and to touch her face, but could not. Her hands and feet were bound securely. Now she felt fear. A cold chill swept through her. The face above her head had vanished. Had she imagined it? God! This is a dream! She struggle again to free herself, but then gave up, realising she was secure. Lying back defeated, her breath came is short gasps from her exertions, she looked at the dark featureless ceiling, and a creeping sense of despair overwhelmed her. This was no dream this was a real nightmare.
The unmistakable sound of creaking and stretched leather made her turn her head. What she saw through the gloom made her tremble. A figure appeared from the gloom walking towards her. What little light there was in the room reflected wetly of him, glistening obscene and slick. His face and body wrapped tightly in black studded leather strappings. A facemask, with holes cut for eyes nose and mouth, hid his features. She noted numbly that his genitals were free from constrains, his arousal clear as the flesh and leather glistened as one, appearing to her wet in the dimness of the reflected light.
“Hello Susan” Storrington whispered to her. “I can’t tell you how nice it is for me to have you here, and I know you really want to be here, because you told me, through your letters to your friends, how much you want to be taken care of… by someone like me”
“NO! Let go of me! Let me go!” she screamed as the import of what he had said shook her. But that was the last she could say as the gag went around her mouth, choking off any more protests to muffled grunts.
Susan mind raced. She remembered her boyfriend waiting for her. He would notice her missing! Hope surged suddenly within her. He would look for her! But where was she? How would he know where to find her? She had to escape! Had to get out! The hope suddenly died. No one knew where she was. She remembered her fantasies with a different light. This was for real and a very real sense of danger now shook her. Her mind filled with the images of old news stories, of missing persons, some never found, and those that were, were found mutilated and raped. Was this to be her fate? She had so much to do, she couldn’t die! Not like this!
She heard him laugh. The laugh was slow and deep, satisfied and smug. She stopped struggling and looked at his eyes. Her throat constricted as she looked into the madness she saw within them. He laughed softly, the softness full of menace and hate as he studied her expression.
“Yes!” he whispered delightedly to her “You begin to know, begin to understand!
**********************
That same evening, Robert went down to the pub as usual, expecting Shelly to turn up, he felt sure her greed would guarantee that. He was not mistaken.
“Hi Shelly!” Robert pulled her towards him as soon as she entered his control room.
“Rob!” Steady on, you’re a bit keen, aren’t we going shopping?”
“Sure we are, later,” he told her as he held her to him and kissed her. She responded half-heartedly to his kiss before pulling away.
“Lets go back to that jewellers Rob, we can have a bit of fun later…”
“No, lets have some fun now…” He took hold of her again, running his hands over her body. She felt so soft and warm; it had been a long time.
“No, I want you now…” and this time the note in his voice changed and made Shelly pause. He meant it, she realised.
She pushed him away. “No, Rob! I don’t want to!”
“What do mean you don’t fucking want to? Of course you want to, why else would you be here? Especially after what you did to me last time, now it’s my turn…” he told her as he crushed his mouth over hers, stifling her protests.
Shelly broke the kiss and managed to swing a vicious slap across his face. Stung for a second Robert looked at her and Shelly saw that look of anger build, saw the colour rise in his cheeks to match the red marks from her slap. She began to be frightened.
Robert forced another kiss on her, pushing his tongue between her lips while his hand rose and explored her breast, squeezing it hard. Shelly winced at the cruel hand pressing her flesh, squirmed and twisted, but his strength was overwhelming. She slapped him hard again and saw his stunned expression.
“Robert! STOP!” she screamed, a last futile scream to bring him to his senses, to make him stop. She saw the madness slowly recede from his eyes and knew she was safe again.
“I… I’m sorry…” he mumbled, suddenly ashamed.
“So you fucking should be, you…” she stopped in mid flow as she saw something else that shocked her even more than the near rape. “Robert, you fucking bastard, you dirty little pervert, what the hell are you doing? Making dirty rape movies or something?”
He looked up surprised, and followed her angry gaze. Every one of the monitors had each of them displayed upon their screens.
“What…?” Now it was Roberts’s startled face that filled each screen.
“You got me up here to film me, didn’t you? Well, you can stuff your little game, let me out of here…!”
Shelly stormed towards the door. She yanked it open and walked out. Rob stood open mouthed as he watched her leave. He got up, still dazed from his lust, and turned back to look at the monitors, his confused face filled each one. He looked towards the ceiling mounted room camera, which was pointing directly at him. He moved away. It followed him. The computer control screen, surrounded by the monitor images of Roberts face, beeped softly. An email appeared on its surface.
‘Hello, Robert’ it stated simply.
“Who is this?” Robert demanded.
‘I am your friend, Robert’ the words on the screen told him, silently.
“You can hear me?”
‘Yes’ came the screen reply. ‘I can hear you’
“Who are you?” Rob demanded again.
‘I told you, I am your friend, and I have been watching you, Robert’
“Why?”
‘To protect you from yourself, Robert, after all, you wouldn’t want the authorities to see what I have recorded, you raping that sweet young girl…’
“Am I supposed to thank you? Who the hell are you anyway?”
‘She was no good for you anyway, Robert’
“Who was?”
‘That girl, Shelly, she was using you, you know that don’t you?’
“What’s it to you?”
‘I can help you, Robert, I told you I am your friend’
“Help me with what?”
‘Help you realise your dreams, you have dreams don’t you?’
Robert remained silent. He was confused, this was freaky, and he couldn’t make out what this was all about. More words appeared upon the screen.
‘I know about your dreams, Robert. I know what you have planned, what you intend to do’
“Yeah, you do? Like what?”
‘Like your plans to steal the money from the jewellers, Robert’
That shook Rob. He sat down then. How could this thing, this person, know about that? He had not told a soul about his plans.
“I was not planning anything…”
‘Yes, yes you were, Robert, I watched you record the safes combination…just like I am watching you now’
Robert sat open mouthed. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly very dry.
‘Somebody has to watch the watchers, Robert, don’t you think?
“What do you want?” Robert croaked.
‘I want to help you, Robert, I told you’
“How can you help me?”
‘By helping you to steal the money, isn’t that what you want?’
“Why should I do anything you say?” Robert said defiantly, yet knowing he had no choice but to do whatever he was told.
‘Because otherwise, you will go to prison Robert, and for a very long time because I assure you, I have enough evidence already to get you convicted, that is, if I decide to allow the authorities to see it…’
“And what do you want?” Robert asked resignedly
‘Money, Robert, I want money…just like you do, and I think half of whatever you steal is very fair, don’t you?’
“Have I a choice?”
‘Not unless you want to go to prison, Robert…’
Robert looked at the bank of monitors filled with his defeated and pathetic face.
He really had no choice. “This one time, one hit, and I am out of here, ok?”
‘Of course, Robert, only this one time, and you will be wealthier than you have ever been before…’
All the screens went blank, and he was once again, alone. He moved away, the camera did not follow him this time.
“Shit” He muttered under his breath “Who is this guy?”
He had memorised the combination of the safe by heart, so there was little else to do but go and do it.
It was ridiculously easy. Once inside the jewellers, he went straight to the safe and dialled in the combination. He took hold of the heavy steel handle and then paused. He swallowed again at the thought that this was really it; there was no going back once he opened this safe door.
He gripped the handle and pulled. With a smooth action the safe door clunked open and swung silently out. Robert stared at the contents.
“Oh, shit…”
He reached in and took out bundle after bundle of rubber-banded cash.
He quickly stacked the cash into piles, and then stuffed the waiting cash into the large plastic carrier bags. He hefted the bags and closed the safe door again, spinning the combination, and then he was out, locking the shop behind him.
As he walked back to the control room, he noticed a red flashing light in the window of the electronic shop. He stopped, frowning at the sign. Then it sprang into life, one of those electronic moving word signs.
‘Robert’ the words spelled out to him ‘Come inside’
He walked over and pushed open the door and went inside.
The room was dark, but not totally. The door closed behind him. His eyes adjusted slowly and what he saw astonished him. In the middle of the room was a girl. She was spread naked upon a bench, her mouth gagged.
A man appeared from within the gloom and darkness, standing under a small overhead light. This cast his features into gross shapes, his body swathed in leather strappings, his face a mask with small opening for the mouth and eyes. He held a gun aimed steadily at Robert.
“Who are you?” Robert asked.
“My name is unimportant” Jeff Storrington replied with smug arrogance. “All you need to know is that your life is now in my hands, I have enough video tape of you attempting to rape that young girl in your public security office to send you down, finish you, never mind the grand theft you have just committed!”
Robert’s shoulders sagged. “What do you want?”
“Your part of MY world now, Robert” he told him as he moved over to Susan.
Storrington slide his hand up along and over the girl’s body, feeling her tremble underneath him. He liked that. Liked the power he felt over her. The power of life and death.
“I will tell you what I want, when the time comes, Robert” he looked again at Robert, his face a mixture of fear and anger. Storrington found it amusing and smiled slightly.
“I thought you might like her, Robert,” he told him. “But know that she is mine, mine alone” the two men studied each other for a long minute.
“She is waiting, Robert, waiting for me to fuck her” he told him, moving his hands over the girl.
“For days she has been prepared” his hand stroked over the girls breasts. “You see? She is waiting for me, she has been teased for so long, such a sweet thing, and… desperate, has not been touched or penetrated by me… yet”
He tweaked the nipples, two silver clamps held them, testing them. The girl writhed under his touch. Desire? More like escape Robert thought.
“Take her Robert, it is your reward! I feel generous today, after all, you have made me a substantial sum of money!”
Robert almost threw up. “No thanks, I want no part of this…”
“Really? You surprise me Robert, I really didn’t think you could do that, but, if that is how you feel, so be it” Storrington moved close to him. “But Robert, don’t forget you are tied to me now, I know all about you, don’t forget that!” the threat was unmistakable, as was the gun pushed against Robert’s chest. “You work for me now, nobody else, just me!” he hissed with venom.
Robert considered taking him quickly, by surprise, he was so close he might just do it, but the cold look in this bastards eyes suggested he wouldn’t hesitate to kill. He decided to wait.
“May I go now?” Roberts asked coldly. “I have to check back you know… I might be missed”
“Yes, I know Robert, you go, check back like a good boy”
The girls eyes were wide as they watched Robert walk away, leaving her to her fate. Susan wailed silently inside as he left, she had seen his look, knew he wanted to help, hoped against hope she would be rescued. But he left, and the door closed behind him, and she slumped inside herself, defeated. Storrington came towards her, his knife in his hands.
“Its time Susan, time for you to know what I know, but first…” he lifted the bag of money and stopped, a quizzical look upon his face. He turned the heavy bag upside down and emptied the contents over the floor.
Outside another sign above the counter started spelling out more words to Robert as he left quickly. ‘Thank you, Robert, you have been most helpful, just leave the money bag behind the counter as we agree’ it told him in recorded formality.
Robert did as he was told, pushing the bag he had brought behind the counter, then left. His legs felt weak. He had made it almost to the control room when he heard his name shouted.
“Robert!”
He turned around to see the stranger, still clad in leather, but looking rather stupid now, out of his element, standing outside the electronic shop. He was pointing the gun at him.
“Robert, I tried to help you, and this is how you treat me!” The man held up the bag Robert had just dropped off, and then he turned it upside down, emptying the remaining contents at his feet.
Crumpled torn newspapers spilled out onto the floor as Robert dived to his left and behind a pillar. He just made it as the gun barked and broken masonry showered his head as the bullet hit the wall behind him.
“You really shouldn’t have done that, Robert!” The man shouted. “You could have had half and you could have been free, now I am afraid I will just have to kill you!”
Robert looked around desperately. Shit! When he had started this he had not thought it would come to guns! He looked for an escape from this madman, out towards the glass door nearby and then he saw them. Three men, all clothed in masks and holding machine guns, standing outside. Then doors exploded into fragments as they burst through. The explosion knocked Robert senseless, and he fell to the ground, his hearing damaged, as he watched a now silent movie unfold around him.
Two of the men very quickly passed him, jumping over him, but the third roughly grabbed him and spun him face down, his knee hard into Roberts back, pulling his arms behind him, and tying his wrists tightly.
His hearing came back just a little; as he heard more shots ring out, but then stop. Roberts view was restricted to the floor, as a gun forced his head onto the ground. A pair of polished shoes eventually appeared in front of his eyes, it was all he could see. He could make out his own distorted reflection in the shiny toecap. Robert was hauled up, and he found himself standing in front of Mr Jarvis.
“Well, Mr Bains, what have we been up to?”
“Hello, Mr Jarvis…” Robert said a bit stupidly.
“I suppose we should thank you, you know…”
“Thank me?”
“Yes, thank you, if it had not been for you, I am not sure we would have caught our now dead friend over there…” He nodded towards a group of men standing around the body of the man who had, until very recently, been about to kill him.
“Who is he?” Robert asked, before adding “The girl! Is she alright?”
“Nobody important, well, not now anyway… and the girl is fine, no thanks to you!”
“But I was going to help her!” Robert protested. “I was on my way to call help when you guys burst in!”
“Sure you were” Jarvis replied uninterestedly.
“And who the hell are you exactly, anyway?” Robert was now feeling completely unsure of where he stood than ever before, and he needed some sort of explanation as to what had been going on.
“I am with ‘Homeland Security’, and we have been trying to nab this guy for a very long time, we knew he was operating from around here, but we never thought he would actually be here, right under our noses…very clever bastard.” Jarvis shook his head.
“You have had me under surveillance?” Robert asked, surprised.
“Oh yes, Robert, after all, someone has to watch over the watchers, don’t they?” He smiled a particularly nasty smile at Robert. Then he turned away dismissively.
“Take our Mr Bains away…” He nodded towards the guard who was holding him.
But as he was led away, Robert, in a last show of defiance, turned back and shouted at Jarvis.
“But who watches you, Jarvis? Who watches you…?”
“Oh, nobody watches me, Bains, for I really am – the watchman.”