The Woman They Kept

by Krause, Andrew

  Within the bubble the city of Silver Springs had created a world unlike any that Gideon had known. Most other bubbles restricted their greenery to the subsistence farming that fed their populace, not so with Silver Springs. Even in Kitswitch they kept their greenery to little flower pots around the front of their houses. Not here. Trees and flowers sprang up along every street corner, the air smelled fertile and warm, Gideon's senses sharpened as he felt every nerve in his body come alive in that place. A few clouds hovered overhead within the bubble, obscuring the view of the sky.

  As he made his way to the address that Akem had given him he felt a few drops of water land on his neck. He immediately jumped under the overhang of a nearby building.

  “It's not like outside,” a voice from behind him said. Gideon turned, an old doorman smiled at him. “Go ahead, you can touch it, it's clean.”

  Gideon extended a tentative hand out to the raindrops, now a steady stream, and laughed with delight as the water ran over him with no sense of burning. He stepped out and felt it trickling through his hair and down his back, smiling back at the doorman before continuing.

  Akem's voice repeated itself as he walked through the rain towards his destination. “Lock everything away in a little box in the corner of your mind,” he had said. “Even if she is in the room servicing a man, lock it all away until you get her out of there. These people will be incredibly dangerous, and if you can't get them to agree to give you her, she will live and die as a whore. You have no option of forcing or sneaking her out. You'll have to play the part of buyer, you'll have to play the part of scum, you'll have to out filth the lot of them. You'll do things you won't look at yourself the same for, but by the end, you'll have your Rolanda.”

  The plan then was to buy her. Akem had been remarkably generous on that front. He had given him money and provided a well tailored suit for Gideon to wear. When Gideon asked him how he could ever hope to pay back such a large sum, Akem had simply smiled and tapped on the silver ring, reminding him that he would keep track of the debt. Gideon shuddered when he thought of the couple that had swung like rotting fruit, but he put that thought in the little box and shut it away.

  He triple checked the address before ringing the bell. It was a large house, certainly, but it was on a quiet street with little traffic. The house itself was muted and dull on the outside, no opulence nor flash. There were no statues nor fountains, no extravagant displays of wealth or status, just a neatly trimmed yard and a little brick path up to the front door. Trees formed the perimeter, blocking the rest of the neighborhood from view.

  The suit he wore was well made, surely, but it restricted the movement in his arms and the tightness around his neck was irritating. Ties were a thing altogether foreign to him, they were a rich person's noose that he had willingly slipped in to, he never would have worn one back in Cormac. A pair of golden cufflinks jangled at his wrists loudly. They were more of Akem's jewelery and were stamped with a picture of a dragon.

  A mountain of a man opened the door and stood towering over Gideon, his jaw looking hard as concrete, muscles rippling in waves as he moved. His head was shaved bald, a boulder perched on top of the mountain, and his eyelids heavily hooded his eyes, giving him a bored and somewhat disinterested look.

  “Abraham are you a big 'un,” Gideon smiled as he placed his fear and his anxiety in that little box. “Be a chap and let Daniel know that I'd like to do a bit of shopping, eh?”

  The man didn't move, he kept his arms crossed, barring the door, saying nothing. Gideon was very conscious of a small bead of sweat that had formed at the peak of his hairline. Though it itched him, he fought the desire to wipe it away. “My mate Akem directed me here, he said that Daniel would take care of me.”

  The mountain held up a single finger and closed the door. Gideon wiped at his brow now that he was alone and took a few deep breaths. The door opened again and the mountain stood to one side, motioning for him to come in. Gideon affected a swagger, hoping it looked confident and genuine.

  Inside the house met all the expectations that the outside had failed to meet. There were golden statues in the corners of nude men and women in various states of copulation and a fountain in the center of a great main hallway. A golden elevator operated in the corner of the building and the floor was marble that was polished to a sheen so clear Gideon could see his own reflection standing under him. Women in thin outfits walked around the place, some talking with men, others sipping champagne or eating little snacks. Music played from some unseen corner, there seemed to be a party going on.

  Out of the crowd a man sauntered towards him, his hands in his pockets and a wry smirk on his face. He had an oily sort of shine to him, his teeth nicotine yellow and his eyes small and hard. The front of his suit bulged, he obviously led a comfortable life and had put on a few pounds because of it. “I hear you're looking for me,” he said to Gideon when he got close enough.

  Gideon smiled, trying hard to mask his excitement and his fear, affecting nonchalance and boredom. “You must be Daniel,” he said and he stuck his hand out.

  “And you must be new at this. Why don't we go to a quieter room where we can talk?” Daniel held his hand out and directed him towards a smaller room, comfortably furnished with two overstuffed leather couches and a glass table in between. The door was a heavy and thick oak, when it closed it silenced the sound of the party.

  “What makes you think I'm new at this?” Gideon asked, one hand in his pocket clenched into a fist.

  Daniel sat on one of the couches and motioned for Gideon to sit on the other, the mountain set two drinks in front of them half filled with scotch. “I think you're new at this because you presumed to know my name. In this business we may know people for years, building trusting relationships and conducting a great many business transactions without ever knowing each other's name.”

  Gideon smiled and looked around the room. There were a few paintings on the wall, mostly violent scenes of ancient warfare. Daniel never took his eyes off Gideon. “What should I call you then?”

  “Daniel is fine. It's not my real name anyway.”

  The door opened and a beautiful woman in a silk robe entered. She had black hair held together by a silk ribbon, her eyes downcast but lined darkly, her cheeks flushed. Her lower lip quivered as she stood before them, opening her robe. Daniel motioned to Gideon to pick up his glass, and after he did so the woman laid down on the table, face up, completely nude. In the open air her nipples quickly became hard.

  “This isn't the one I want. She's wonderful, but she's not the one I'm looking for.”

  Daniel laughed and the door opened again. “This one isn't for sale. She's just our serving platter. Patience my young friend.” Through the door walked another woman, heavier and older than the first, less made up, her arms flexing as they carried plates full of covered silver dishes. She kneeled before the naked woman and removed the covers for the platters, revealing rolls of sushi that she lay out on the naked woman's body. After an entire meal had been placed there, she gave each Daniel and Gideon a set of chopsticks.

  “Will you eat with me? I would learn of a man before doing business with him.” Daniel took a roll from the woman's nipple and shoveled it into his mouth, murmuring with delight. Gideon followed suit, knowing he would have to play his part, and took a roll just aside from her neatly shaved pubic hair. He wondered what he would have to do to convince this Daniel character that he was a trafficker like him.

  “Delicious, delicious. What is it you would like to learn of me? I am but a poor business man,” Gideon said.

  Daniel took out a small coin from his pocket and rubbed it between his fingers. “We are both businessmen, but I want to know your motivations. Most people are motivated by these shining bits of metal. Are you? Are you motivated by the
power of it? Is it the sex? What motivates you? What kind of a person are you that you would sit here trying to buy a human being from a complete stranger? Here we have been eating food off this woman, and you haven't even acted surprised. When we are done she will rise and service us both, and she'll never once look us in the eye, and that is because she is mine completely, I own her, I broke her myself. Look, she doesn't even flinch when we talk about her. She is nothing more than a table right now, and in about twenty minutes she'll be nothing more than a mouth. And here you are with me. Why?”

  “Here I am,” Gideon echoed. This was the lynchpin moment, the moment Akem was talking about, and he recognized it as such. Daniel was feeling him out, testing him, seeing if he was on the level. The only way to make any sort of progress in finding Rolanda would be to pass this test without any question. Something extreme had to happen, something evil. “Here I am,” Gideon repeated, placing his entire self inside the littlest box in the darkest corner of his mind, hiding himself from what he was about to do. “You want to know what motivates a man like me?” He stood and unbuckled his belt while looking down at the girl on the table. She never looked back at him, but her eyes seemed to edge closer. Gideon got the impression that she saw things well out of the corners of her eyes, and he silently apologized for what he was about to do. He traded her discomfort and his dignity for the possibility of Rolanda's life.

  He began to relieve his bladder on their serving platter. Thick hot ropy streams of piss landed all over her face and upper chest, she never turned away but she closed her eyes and puckered her mouth. “Nothing motivates a man like me,” Gideon said, his whole self locked away, “I'm a man who believes in no god but would sell his soul to any devil offering to buy. I do things for the plain and simple reason that I can.” Gideon finished his stream and flicked the last few drops at her before zipping his pants back up.

  Daniel had watched the entire display without so much as a twitch going across his face. When Gideon finished and sat back down they stared at each other for a long time, during which Gideon's heart was pounding against his rib cage, he was hoping beyond hope that his gamble would pay off. After more than a minute, Daniel's face broke out into a large smile.

  “I think you ruined our dinner,” he laughed. “You're quite the character, I'll give you that. Certainly not a peace officer. Now, when I see a display like that a few thoughts go through my head. Perhaps you seek to dishonor me by pissing on my property? Or maybe to put me on my guard, so that I think you are fearless? Well, let me tell you a few things.” Daniel stood and refilled his scotch. “A good woman is like an investment. You have the initial costs and then the returns once she begins working. Also, like an investment, it is good to know when to cut your losses. Right now I'm not sure of your exact motivations in pissing on Diane here, but I am sure that you've changed her. She may no longer be the obedient little whore that I trained her to be. You don't just keep working after a thing like that. So you've presented me with a few choices. I could forgive this little show you've given me, assume that it's cultural differences or something, let Diane here go take a shower and come back and blow us both.” He pushed a small red button mounted on the wall and the door opened immediately. The mountain came in and grabbed Gideon from behind, yanking his arms up and lifting him clear off the couch. Gideon's heart thundered against his rib cage. Daniel reached under the couch and brought out a long and wicked looking blade that shone in the light. “I could cut off your manhood and make you eat it, that would certainly avenge my property. Of course, then you probably wouldn't want to do business with me.” Daniel laughed. “Have you ever wondered what your testicles taste like? Or, my third option, I could show you just how much this particular investment means to a man like me. We are much alike, you and I, I see that now. I too do things simply because I can.”

  Daniel sat back down on the couch and placed one hand over the woman's mouth, slicing the knife down into her neck. She kicked and wailed against his hands but every motion sawed the knife deeper.

  Gideon stopped struggling against the mountain, laying limp in his hands as a hollow feeling started in his stomach and spread until he felt like a paper thin shell. He had gambled, and that woman had paid his wager. Blood spurted up out of the woman and all over Daniel's suit as he frantically sawed through her. He didn't stop until the head was completely seperated from the body. Once severed, he picked it up and set it on the mantle above his fireplace.

  “That will make quite the bust, don't you think?” He smiled at the head. “She looks so contemplative.”

  Daniel sat back down on the couch, the headless body still laying before him. A bit of sweat trickled down his forehead and he wiped at it, leaving a smear of red across his face. “Whew! I feel like I've gotten a workout." He pointed a bloody finger at Gideon. “If I can do that to my own girls, what do you think I could do to you?”

  Bile was quickly rising in Gideon's throat, he was sure that he was going to vomit soon.

  “As long as we understand each other I think we can do business. Akem's friends are always good business. Charles, you can let him go.”

  The mountain dropped Gideon and he fell to his knees, his legs were weak from the display of brutality he had just witnessed. It took all of his will, but he forced his feelings into that bursting little box in the corner of his mind.

  “Now, are you buying or selling?”

  Gideon crawled back onto the couch and the mountain handed him his drink, refilled. The body in front of him continued to leak, though it had slowed to a trickle. “Buying. I'm looking for a particular girl, actually.” He handed his photograph to Daniel. “This girl will be my first, but if business goes well rest assured there will be more.”

  “Ah, the one that got away,” Daniel said.

  “I'm sorry?” Gideon asked. The drink in front of him looked so tempting, but he didn't trust his hands not to shake if he reached for it.

  “She must have escaped your chattel? I admire a man willing to go to such lengths to protect his reputation. As you can see, I am a man similarly inclined.” He reached behind him and took out a small box of cigars, taking one himself and offering one to Gideon.

  He declined. “She did. I want her back, and am willing to pay quite a lot of money to get her.”

  Daniel lit his cigar with an ornate lighter, covering himself in the smoke. “She is not here, but for a thousand I will tell you what I can.”

  Gideon handed over Akem's money, trying not to think about what he would have to do to pay him back. Daniel did not count it, he merely slipped it into an inside pocket in his jacket.

  “She passed through here about three weeks ago. No one was willing to pay first rights for her, so you may still be able to recover your investment, I sold her to a man from Fouchbough.” Leaning forward, Daniel pointed at Gideon with the spit end of his cigar. Ash dropped onto the headless body on the table. “If I were you, though, I would forget about first rights. A whore that runs away from you once will run away from you forever. You'll have to break her of that. I would line up as many sadistic motherfuckers as you can, tie her to a bed and let them all have a go on her. After that, when her mind is to the point of snapping, take a syringe and inject her with some krok. She'll get hooked after the first one, and then she's on a leash, she'll do anything to get it again.” Daniel shrugged and leaned back, putting one leg over the other. “Of course, it's a short term strategy, but you can work them like dogs for the few months before they fall apart.”

  “Where did the girl get sold to?” Gideon asked. The stink of the room, the blood and cigar smoke, was beginning to get to him. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

  Daniel scratched at his chin thoughtfully and peered at Gideon with his small black eyes. They were dancing with some private joke. �
�You know, I think I've told you enough for a thousand. You may have to sweeten the pot if you want more detailed answers. We are businessmen, so let us talk business. Another thousand will get you the name.”

  There was a silence after that in which Gideon tried to keep his face as blank as possible. He didn't have another thousand to give to Daniel, and there wasn't any other reason that Daniel would tell him what he needed to know. Gideon had no leverage on him. A desperation ploy was all that was left. “Akem told me that you would help, he said that if you didn't he would make things difficult for you.”

  The reaction he got shocked him. Daniel's face drained of all its color and his mouth gaped slightly. Naked fear was in his eyes. He licked his lips and began to breathe heavier. “Akem said that?” he whispered. He shook his head. “I don't believe you.”

  Gideon held up his hand, the dragon ring shining on his third finger. Daniel swallowed hard and sprang to his desk, leafing through a leather book. “Her name is Rolanda. I sold her to a man named Malakir. He works mostly in Fouchbough. He's a bit of a disturbed figure, he's not civil like you or I. I would be careful how you approach him.” Daniel laughed, a high pitched nervous laughter that didn't fit with the man he had been ten minutes prior. “No one's perfect though.”

  Gideon pocketed the dragon ring. It wasn't comfortable, it felt constricting and cold on his finger. No matter how long he wore it the thing never warmed to body temperature.

  Rubbing his hands together, Daniel opened the door for Gideon and a woman's scream rang out, along with the general busy sounds of a commotion. The quick sharp staccato of gunfire rang out and more screams accompanied it. Through the open doorway Gideon saw guests rushing out the front door. The mountain pushed Daniel aside and ran out into the hallway as the noise grew louder, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a pistol.

  Gideon backed himself into a corner. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was sure that he had seen enough death for the day, and didn't care to be a party to more. This was clearly none of his business, he had what he needed and now just wanted a way out.