Abigail

by Gloria Kitchens

  He nodded and his suit jacket came off promptly and so did his shirt revealing both a hairy chest and a hairy back with a trail that went all the way down is gut. Abby kept massaging feeling the minutes dwindle. Looking up over Patel’s head at the clock, it was 9:13. She had 20 more minutes to fill and she needed to stay in control of the situation to stay on schedule. Patel had somehow maneuvered his hand around and placed it on her butt. And suddenly, something in her snapped. And Abby was completely intent on what she was going to do the rest of the time.

  “So,” she stopped and asked, “do you mind if we do something I like tonight? I promise it’ll be fun for you.” With an ignorant smirk on his face, Patel agreed.

  Abigail slithered her hands around him, reaching around to grab his belt buckle, undoing it and sliding it out of his belt loops one after the other feeling his stomach come out even more finally being released from its too small restraint. Setting it aside for the moment, she got up and unzipped his pants already feeling something small starting to bulge underneath, seeing it continue to grow under his white underwear. It was surely nothing to be very proud of; nothing to show off in such intimate situations like these and Abby was sure Patel knew the plight of his shortcomings.

  “Could you move over a little more in the middle of the bed?” She gently pushed him there. “Just a little more...perfect!” And finally paying attention to the belt again she mounted herself on top of Patel feeling his package rub against her leg making him twitch from the closeness of Abby’s body.

  She firmly held his arms in place above his head and moved herself farther up onto Patel’s stomach not wanting herself to make unwanted contact anywhere else. Wrapping the belt around his big wrists, she squeezed probably to the point of being uncomfortable. But Patel was too focused on Abigail’s slightly curvy body pressed up against his. Something he couldn’t resist.

  Abby would’ve restrained his legs too, but it didn’t seem like Patel could get very far regardless of his hands being tied. She took another quick glance at the clock. 9:23. Ten more minutes. She could’ve simply left him there unable to get anywhere and eventually he’d be out, and he’d forget about anything they’d done up to that point. But for some reason she wanted every minute to count. It’d really be a shame for her to waste it, she wanted to have just a little more fun with the vulnerable man.

  She reached her hand down to his underwear. And the man started to squirm under her grip and squeezed harder little by little only releasing when the man’s moans of pleasure became moans of pain. She looked up at him innocently as if she’d done nothing wrong and laughed. “Sorry, it was just a mistake.” The man didn’t ask any more questions after that because he was too focused on Abigail’s movements as she started again. Looking back at the clock, the 30 minutes seemed to be over. He should be knocked out soon, but Abby still had one last surprise for him.

  Stuffing her own underwear into his mouth, she wanted to keep pushing to figure out when the man would tell her to stop. But he was too stupid because he should’ve stopped it all from the first meeting. One look into Abby’s eyes would’ve told him that a screw was loose or completely missing. Possibly taken when Mother threw her into a cage or maybe it was when another man had made promises he simply wouldn’t keep. Patel should’ve seen it, but he was too blinded by his own desires as she went down on him looking up at his face foolishly blinded with gratification and that’s when she bit down, his face filling with anguish and his screams muffled by her undergarments. His arms were too immobilized to push her off. She kept biting until she tasted blood in her mouth, his screams intensifying. Finally, she released, hovering over him blood dripping down her chin looking down at a face filled with pure horror and suddenly he just went limp under her.

  Dismounting off the man and adjusting her dress back to the way it was, she finally felt a sort of weight lift off her, breaking her out of her sadistic state. Abigail began to remember the rest of the plan before she made her own adjustments. She needed his phone. Abby started looking for the khaki pants he’d removed just minutes ago finding them thrown at the side of the bed, finding their way under the short coffee table. His phone weighed down the left side of his pants.

  Abby grabbed her handbag and threw his phone in. And taking one last look at the clock, it was 9:42. And she took her time undoing everything she did. Unbuckling the man’s belt that had kept the man’s hands still during the entire ordeal. His wrists now red from struggling against the belt. All she could think about was how long those marks would stay visible on him going from red to purple and then her presence finally fading away.

  As for his other injury, which was still oozing with fresh blood, her bite marks would probably be visible until he died. A permanent reminder of the day he unwittingly crossed paths with an unstable girl. One that would deter him from any other late-night meetups he might’ve been planning. Taking her panties out of his mouth, she threw them in her handbag with her phone and began wiping everything she’d touched since entering the room. The man’s belt, their champagne glasses, the bottle and she left him lying on the bed motionless save for the steady inhale and exhale of air and the rise and fall of his high belly.

  By the time she had made it back down to the lobby of the hotel, the phone felt heavier in her purse. And she was getting a little paranoid that Patel would wake up from his slumber and alert everyone to what she had done. Making her the reason why Deely’s plan would fail. She carefully made her way through the lobby, making her way to the front door, again seeing the doorman from earlier through the glass.

  Then she ran into something hard, causing her to fall to the floor losing her grip on her handbag. A tall figure stood over her, reaching their hand out and Abby took it immediately regretting her decision once she realized who it was.

  “Woah. Maybe I can show you how to watch where you’re going over dinner sometime?” He ended with a wink. It was the same one he gave when he hit on her in the bar earlier. This time the full strength of the man being more obvious than before. Abby started frantically looking for the precious cargo that was in her hands just a second ago.

  “Oh, are you looking for this?” He handed the black handbag to her and without missing a beat, she snatched it back, but he wasn’t offended by it only offering a snide laugh. Abby tried walking past him but like before the man grabbed her by the arm forcing her still. Looking straight into her eyes with a seriousness she didn’t expect from a complete stranger he warned her. “Just be careful.” Then he released her arm walking away back toward the bar out of sight leaving her confused with his warning.

  Abby made her way back to the glider, meeting Deely and Meri in the exact same place that they had parked an hour ago and they went on toward the restaurant.

  By the time Abby had made it out of the shower and headed back to her bedroom, Deely caught her at the doorway.

  “You know you didn’t have to do that.” Deely met Abby at the door of Meri’s room. By this time, she’d already cleaned off and stood there in long plaid pajama pants and an oversized white shirt.

  “Do what?”

  “You know exactly what you did.” Abby couldn’t imagine how Deely knew what she did until her hand went to her neck remembering the black pendant that rested there before she took her shower. She’d forgotten that the pendant could see everything she saw including everything that she did.

  When she finally realized what he was talking about, she folded her arms defensively over herself leaning back against the door frame of the bedroom, her face still dripping with water. “I didn’t mean that you had to get him naked to keep him occupied. I’d never ask that of you of all people.” Deely’s voice was level but it was clear he couldn’t decide whether to feel sorry for her or be disappointed with her.

  “I know. I wanted to do it. I can make my own decisions about what I wanna do with my own body.”

  “You’re right. But you also assaul
ted him, Abby. What the fuck was that?”

  “He deserved it.”

  “Why? Because he was a threat to your life. I watched the entire thing go down. He didn’t do anything to deserve something like that.”

  Abby’s gaze had become distant as if she didn’t want to feel remorse for what she had done. “He’s just like any other guy.”

  “Patel didn’t do anything to you, Abigail.” She could feel his disapproval seeping out of his eyes and into hers, feeling how much she’d let him down until tears started to fall from her eyes and down her cheeks. Deely didn’t say anything else besides, “Get some rest,” and left her in tears at the door.

  Chapter 18

  Deely couldn’t wrap his mind around all of Abigail’s decisions. Obviously, he hadn’t had as hard a life as she, but it didn’t keep him from feeling any less angry with her or even with himself for not seeing that she wasn’t ready for a mission like that.

  He couldn’t dwell in self-loathing all night, so he went into his study where Meri sat at his desk with Patel’s phone plugged into it, hoping for some good, reassuring news that they could move onto the next part of the plan immediately. But Meri’s face was contorted with confusion as well as guilt as soon as she heard Deely enter.

  “You’re not gonna like this.”

  “What?” he made his way to his desk to look over Meri’s shoulder at the screen. A spider insignia flashed from black to white on the screen and a message popped up: “I think we have something you want.”

  “Fuck,” was all Deely could let out at the moment. And he simply went to his bedroom to finally get some sleep for the night.

  The next morning, Deely headed out of the restaurant before anyone was awake. Even before Charlie positioned himself at the counter for the day. It didn’t take Deely long to figure out who had intruded on his plan. Their hideout was in a shitty part of Section Four. Where the destitute walked around more freely. Hanging around in the back alleys doing anything from sleeping or shooting themselves up with God knows what.

  Deely continued down one alley and began smelling something god awful but familiar. He’d been around enough dead bodies to know what one smelled like especially when it’d been left out for too long. The smell of the decaying bodies hit him long before the sight of them could.

  Finally, he saw that one side had a few dead bodies splayed on the street each with their own corresponding blood stain on the wall. A dark red bullet hole sat cleanly at the center of their foreheads and the results of its exit being apparent as one of the bodies was flipped over revealing that it had blown out of the other side. Some of the blood overlapped on the metal door behind the bodies as if they’d each been shot one by one, each having to watch the other die right before them and the last accepting his inevitable death.

  Deely was all too used to this kind of violence, in fact steering clear of it any chance he got. He had always tried to get away from people like that. Lord knows, it probably would’ve saved his mom.

  On the door, Deely could see the same insignia from the people that lurked around his restaurant more frequently within the last few weeks. Only making their presence known, never interacting directly with him, or going past Charlie’s usual position. They seemed to know exactly who lived there, otherwise they probably would have just moved on a while ago, going on to harass some other unfortunate soul. But they knew Abby was there and they were just watching. And they must’ve been watching when Abigail, Deely, and Meri made their way to the hotel last night.

  This was the only time Deely ever felt the need to carry a gun on him. One so small he could hide it in his waistband. It was the only way he was able to make himself walk through the bloodied door. It opened right up as if it was open just for him. They were, of course, expecting him to come. The phone was their only way into Cassalian. And his only way of helping finish what his mom had started.

  The inside wasn’t exactly polished. It was all business on the outside but looked entirely unfinished on the inside. Not many of the rooms in a building this size needed to accommodate for anyone besides androids. Sometimes people would break in and use a place like this to hold goods they didn’t want anyone finding. They sold to anyone no matter how low down or high up. As long as they had the money. Groups like these tended to work with anybody. No morals, only following the rules that would keep money flowing in constantly and leave the recipients alone to deal with morality on their own time.

  Before Deely could completely take in all his surroundings, he felt a cold piece of metal on his back. Instinctively, Deely’s first moves were toward his gun.

  “Make another move and I’ll put a hole right in your back.” A deepish voice said from behind him. He sounded young almost as old as Deely but still trying to figure himself out. All Deely could do was put his hands up. “Turn around.” Deely obeyed and immediately recognized the guy.

  “You know, it’s not exactly normal to lurk outside of a restaurant all day. How about coming inside next time. Dinner’s on me.” Deely led with a playful smile not taking the presence of the gun seriously enough for his own good. And it only confused and unsettled the young man.

  “Shut up. We’re moving that way.” The young man pointed to his left toward a corridor Deely hadn’t taken much notice of when he walked in. It was the only thing making the wide-open space appear much smaller. Stuffy and claustrophobic, like it’s supposed to feel. Before allowing him to move that way, another figure came out of the dim back and had their hands around his chest searching quickly but carefully until they found their way around his waistband feeling the small armament and pulling it out of his waistband.

  “Is this a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” The unknown figure made its way from around Deely’s back, revealing a woman that he knew all too well.

  “Oh, it’s always a pleasure, Nicole. I couldn’t fathom enjoying myself anywhere besides here, especially with this fun chap around.” He pointed to the man who appeared more like a boy now in the face of all Deely’s carelessness. Nicole motioned toward him signaling him to lower his gun.

  “He won’t be a problem. Will you, Tom?”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it, Dearie.”

  Nicole started down the corridor with Deely falling in step right behind her and the young man following behind him.

  “So, how’ve you been. Nicky?”

  “I could be better. I get lonely.” She glanced back at Deely with a flirtatious smile. “You should come back around sometime.”

  “Heh… as tempting as that offer is, there’s plenty of reasons why we didn’t work out, Hun. I’m sure this bloke would be happy to accept. He’s been staring at your arse the entire time.”

  “Is that so?” She asked as if she didn’t already know. Nicole looked back toward the boy and blew him a kiss. “The offer’s still open, Sweetie.” She left the boy looking a bit embarrassed and vulnerable not knowing whether she was serious or not. No one could really tell how serious both Deely and Nicole were being. They were really just playing with each other not wanting things to get too personal, especially when there were more important things to take care of.

  It wasn’t long before they reached the end of the corridor. It’d been nothing but dimly lit the whole time, the only lights being tiny ones that sparsely covered the top of the walls. The end of the hall was lit up with an orange light from the doorway to the right. And as soon as they entered both Nicole and the young man split off from their line leaving Deely alone. Another man came from behind him and pushed him forward. Deely could tell this man was much bigger than the previous one. His hand engulfed Deely’s shoulder as he continued nudging him forward to an oddly placed desk, looking dwarfed in the wide-open space, to a metal chair that was situated right in front of it. The guiding hand forced him down into the chair with a loud screeching skid.

  The desk was more of an antique than a modern s
pectacle but that’s the style that most people went for these days. They wanted something old to stand out amongst all the modernity. Something that would break with time instead of something that would stand it. Continuously advancing, making man a little more obsolete each day. And of course, it didn’t take much competition for man to feel threatened by its own creations.

  This desk was particularly special in that it was made of wood. Mahogany, from what Deely could tell, which was extremely difficult to acquire. The orange lights glowed against the dark finish. Carvings of serpents lined the front of the desk with one head in the center, its eyes seeming to follow Deely’s. After moments of simply staring into its bulbous black eyes, a figure finally came out of the shadows and made its way to the other side of the desk not saying a word as they sat down. Staring just as intensely as the carving on the desk.

  “This is a little dramatic. Don’t ya think, Michael?” Deely gave a short surprisingly relaxed laugh without having anything to protect himself. The man at the desk folded his hands in front of him and laughed.

  “Well would it really be much fun any other way?”

  “You’re right. I do love the decor though. Even though spiders and snakes are a bit played out. The snakes really bring out your eyes. And I must ask, where’d you get this fine piece of woodwork from? I’ve been thinking of getting a new one for my study.”

  “I’m afraid that information wouldn’t be much use to you, Tom. Not like you could afford it anyway.”

  “Ouch. That really hurts, you know. But I figure you know what you’re talking about. I’m sure your goons have disclosed the dismal status of my restaurant at this point.”

  “I hope they weren’t intruding. I was just looking for new business. And imagine my surprise when I found out a missing girl was seen at Ol’ Mike’s.”