Monsters - Chapter 29 – Dead Ends – Part 1 of 2

Monsters

By Karen Singer

Chapter 29 – Dead Ends – Part 1 of 2

“What’s the word from Houghton?”

They only hit two of Beastman’s places last night, but they wiped those places completely off the map.”

“Why only two?  I thought they were going to keep going and hit everything we know about.”

“That was the plan, but at one of the first places they hit, two of their men went missing even before the action started.  They still wiped the place out, but after that, Houghton called the whole thing off so they could search for their missing men.”

“Did they find them?”

“No.  According to Houghton, it’s like they completely vanished.”

“Deserters are his problem.  I still want him to eliminate Beastman.”

“He knows.  But he’s sure his men didn’t desert.  He thinks some of Beastman’s men caught them and got them out of there.  Now he’s hopping mad about it, and evidently his men want payback.”

“Good!  Maybe they have a little more incentive now to get the job done.”

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

“Fuckin’ shithead!” Vince Beastman muttered angrily.  “There’s no way he can deny it wasn’t him now that killed our people.”

“No way!” one of his men agreed.

“Okay,” Beastman said.  “These guys are going to be a problem.  A big one.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t beat them.  There’s still more of us than there are of them.”

“I want all our places surrounded by men – all the time!  And I want them all heavily armed.  Tell the men not to just stand out in the open where their snipers can pick them off too easily.  I want them all to take cover behind something.  Make barriers with cars if they have to.  Anything.  Just make everyone is ready – all the time!”

“I’ll pass it on,” another of his friends told him.”

“Now,” Beastman continued.  “The drive-bys we tried haven’t worked out as well as we hoped.  We need something better.  We need to hit him where it really hurts.  Any ideas?”

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Having just the beige wall to look at, so close to her face, was almost dizzying for Brandy’s tortured brain.  She would never believe how powerful a thing like taking away what little she had to look at before could be.  It would be better if she was actually blind.  But she wasn’t blind.  She could see the wall perfectly.  There was just nothing on that wall to see.  Nothing.

The pain in her breasts from the bucket hanging below them was monstrous.  As bad or worse than it had ever been.  Surely the bucket had to be overflowing by now.  Surely!  When would they come in and empty it?

She heard sounds behind her.  Men talking and laughing.  She realized that she hadn’t heard the door open.  If anyone came in quietly, she would never even know someone else was there.  She heard a loud slap and a man laughing…followed immediately by one of the women starting to cry again.  The sounds behind her seemed to increase a little, but all that was immediately wiped from her mind when she felt a hand suddenly run along the length of her body.  She hadn’t even known someone was heading towards her.

And then there was a man standing right in front of her, the fly on his pants lined up right with her face.  He was too close for her to see his face.  If he stood back against the wall, she wasn’t sure if he would still be too close for her to see his face.  But she had an excellent view of him pulling the fly on his pants down, and she had no choice but to watch as he pulled his big cock out.  Just as she had no choice when he stuck it into her mouth.

Before she could fully react, her face was rocked with pain when he slapped her hard.  Her head locked so tightly in place felt like it was going to split apart.

“Get busy!  You’re going to learn to use that tongue of yours better than you have in the past. You’re going to learn to put it to work as good as you can the moment anything goes into your mouth.  This is all you’re good for from now on, and we’ve been told to make sure you learn that.  You’re nothing anymore, except a pleasure machine.  Nothing.  Now get busy!”

Brandy’s face was slapped again.  Her head roared with pain like a bad migraine.

“Get busy!” the man yelled.  He slapped her face as hard as he could on the other side.

Brandy was assaulted by pain.  He slapped her again.

“I don’t stop until you start learning your place.  Get that tongue working!”  He slapped her again.”

Brandy didn’t even remember starting to cry, but one fact came through loud and clear, if she didn’t get him hard and get him off, then the pain was going to continue.  And she had no way to fight against it.  Her head was rocked by pain as he slapped her yet again.  Through the pain that threatened to tear her head apart, she put her tongue to work on his limp penis in her mouth.  It was all she could do.  As far as they were concerned, she was nothing more than a pleasure machine for them now.  Nothing more than two holes for them to use in any way they wanted.

Nothing on her body could move, except her toes, and her tongue, and she could blink.  But that was it.  All other movement for her had been rendered impossible.  And these people weren’t interested if she could move her toes or blink her eyes.  They were only interested in the movement of the tongue in her mouth.  That was it.  As the man had said, she had been rendered into nothing more than a machine for them to use.  A thing.  Otherwise, she was useless.  No longer human in their eyes.

“Harder!” the man ordered sternly.  “Faster.  Put more effort into it!”

Brandy’s face got slapped again and the pain roared through her entire head and down her rigidly held spine.  She had no choice but to try to work faster on him.  No choice.

She felt his cock growing faster now.  There were place on it that seemed to react more to her tongue than others.  She concentrated more on those places.  In moments, she wished she hadn’t as his cock began thrusting in and out of her mouth, and it felt like it was going halfway down her throat.  She had no choice though but to continue.

She knew he would keep at it, keep nearly killing her, until he managed to spurt his junk into her…right down her throat.  She’d be lucky if it didn’t kill her, or maybe she’d be luckier if it did kill her.  But that was another thing she had no way of controlling.  Just like there was nothing else she had any control over either.  Nothing!

In order to get him to stop, the only thing she could do was to get him off faster.  And the only way she had of doing that was to keep working on him with her tongue.  She tried.  There was nothing else she could do.  The feel of his cock continually ramming the back of her throat was literally killing her.  She couldn’t stand it.  Her trying to get him off was mostly desperation.  How did those women who did this all the time do it?  She couldn’t.  She couldn’t stand it.

And then she felt him cumming.  Squirting into her mouth.  Squirting right down her throat.  Thrust after thrust.  Squirt after squirt.  And then he slowed down.  Her tongue slowed as well.  She coughed and choked a bit with his cock still in her mouth.  She felt it shrinking in her mouth, but he wasn’t removing it yet.  Why?  Still, he seemed to be done, and that was a relief.

For as many times as she had been forced to do this now, she still couldn’t handle it.  She still hated it.  And she still had no way to fight against it.  But they had fixed things so that she would have no way to fight against it.  That was the purpose of the ring in her mouth, and all the rest of the metal holding her entire body rigid.

“You’re going to learn to do this better,” the man said menacingly.  “Much better!”

Brandy just wished he’d pull his damn cock out of her mouth and go away.  Why wasn’t he?  And then she found out when her mouth was suddenly attacked by a strong stream of his pee rushing into it.

“Swallow!” the man commanded.  “Swallow all of it!”

She swallowed, but not by choice.  It was either swallow or die.  Still, she was glad for as much of it that fell out of her mouth so she wouldn’t have to swallow it.  She was drowning!  The pee stopped, but her mouth was still full of it.  Still full of his cock too.  It was difficult to use her tongue to push the pee out with his cock still there.  She was forced to swallow what was still in her mouth.

“You’re going to have to learn to do that better too,” the man told her.  “Now clean me.  Clean me off good.  Every bit of it,” he demanded.  “Put that tongue back to work!”

Brandy had no idea who this guy was, but she hated him.  She hated him passionately.  She had no choice but to try and use her dirty, pee-soaked tongue to go over every bit of his penis she could reach.  Finally, she felt him pulling out of her.  She breathed in a few breaths of air.

“You need a lot of work!” the man muttered.  She saw him put his cock back in his pants and zip of his fly.  Then he walked away.  She had never seen his face.  She had no idea what he looked like.  She was just glad he was gone.

Her head still felt like she had a bad migraine.  Her mouth tasted horrible from all his pee.  And even though it had been just the one man, her tongue was already tired.  She really hoped he would never come back.

Through the pain in her head.  Through the horrible taste in her mouth, the blank wall in front of her seemed to reach out and envelope her.  Blankness.  Dullness.  Nothing to focus on.  No stimulation at all.  She closed her eyes, but her mind still seemed to see that empty wall. 

Another tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek.  Just thinking was starting to become difficult.  She realized that they didn’t care if she could think or not.  She could lose her mind completely and it wouldn’t matter to them.  As long as she could still perform with her tongue.  Or maybe they didn’t care about that since they could still use her ass instead.

Blank.  Nothing.  Two holes.  A machine.  A thing that could do nothing but bring them pleasure…and feel pain.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Susan wouldn’t normally do this.  This was something she knew that even now, wasn’t necessary.  People died in this business every single day.  She had never, in her life, informed anyone that someone in the business had died…unless that was information that was sold as part of a deal.  But this time, she felt different about it.  There was no reason to contact Vinny in Cleveland about Brandy.  It was only because of Carol that she was doing it.  Carol had somehow managed to fall in love with Brandy, and it seemed that Brandy had loved Carol equally.  Who would have ever thought?  But it was only because of Carol, that Susan now picked up her phone.

It took her a few minutes to get through to him, but eventually she heard his voice.  “This is Vinny.”

“Mr. Salduvicamervatori,” Susan started.  “This is Susan Wu, with Wu Enterprises.”

“Wu Enterprises?  What, you want money now for something you didn’t tell me about?”

“No, Mr. Salduvicamervatori.”

“Please, it’s just Vinny.”

“Very well…Vinny.  I’m only calling as a favor for someone else.  Someone who’s done a lot of work for this company, and someone who I’m afraid has fallen deeply in love with your niece, Brandy.  And Brandy has fallen in love with her.”

“Her?” Vinny replied.  “Funny, I ain’t heard about it.”

“That’s why I’m calling.  I’m afraid your niece is missing.”

“Missing!  And how about this woman you say she’s in love with?  I know Brandy was supposed to be working with one of your people.”

“Our agent has been searching everywhere for your niece.  She’s convinced that Brandy is still alive but is being held captive somewhere.  Personally, I’m not so sure anymore.  It’s been a while now since she was taken.”

“You’re sure she was taken?”

“Positive.  They resorted to using gas against her.”

“Gas!  Huh!  Dirty play…not that anything is out of bounds.  But there aren’t too many people who use something like that.”

“We’re fairly sure we know who took her, we just haven’t been able to find him either.  I’m sorry to have to let you know about this.  As I said, I’m only calling because someone else wanted me to.”

“Is this girl that Brandy’s been working with, and evidently is now in love with, the one that rumors call Death?”

“I’m afraid that’s her.”

“I told Brandy to watch out for her.”

“Just as we told Carol to watch out for Brandy.”

“Carol.”

“Her real name.”

“Not that it matters,” Vinny replied.

“No.  It doesn’t.  Carol had gone by dozens of different aliases over the years.”

“I’m sure she has.  So what do you want from me?”

“Nothing.  Nothing at all Mr…Vinny.  I only wanted to let you know that Brandy is missing.  Carol, I’m afraid is insisting on continuing to look for her.  I’ve been in the area, but it’s time now for me to close up shop and start sending my people home.”

“Okay,” Vinny replied.  “I know some people out in Las Vegas.  I’ll fly out and have a little talk.  Who did you think took her?”

“We’re sure it was one of the city mob bosses.  A man named Beastman.”

“Never heard of him.  But I’ll look into it.  Thanks.”

“You’re welcome Vinny,” Susan replied.  “And again.  I’m very sorry.”

“Yeah.  Me tool.”

“Vinny hung up the phone.  Brandy was missing.  Maybe dead.  Not good!”

“Sammy!” he yelled.  When his old friend came into his office he said.  “Book me a flight to Las Vegas.  Brandy has gone missing.”

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Monsters - Chapter 28 – Looking For Answers

Monsters

By Karen Singer

Chapter 28 – Looking For Answers

The door opening pulled Brandy’s eyes open as well.  Two women entered the room.  Brandy quickly guessed it was feeding time again, which was good because she was so hungry her stomach had stopped rumbling a long time ago.  Or maybe it wasn’t good.  As far as she was concerned, it would be far better for her if they just starved her to death so she could die.

She noticed that one of the women she had seen before, but the other one was new again.  The one she had seen was the one that never spoke the last time she had been fed.  She saw both women briefly glanced around the room, then they headed for the woman in the cage on the left.  Brandy got to watch as they cleaned and fed her.  Not fun to experience, and not fun to watch either, but it certainly beat the boredom of staring at the closed door all the time.

Brandy had briefly tried talking to the other two women locked in the room with her.  She had managed to call out, “Hel…ah.”  The closest thing to, “Hello,” that she could manage.  All it did was to start the other two crying again.  All her repeated attempts to communicate had yielded her nothing but more sobs.  She figured she’d try again after they had calmed down a bit more.

The women finished with the first victim and came over to her.  Once again Brandy had to put up with the invasive cleaning and the even worse feeding.  She gulped the same bland mush down her throat as fast as she could.  When they cleaned her mouth, she gulped as much water as she could.  “Thak…ya,” she managed to say.

“Shut the fuck up!” the one woman she had seen before said angrily.  “Don’t ever say anything.  You haven’t earned the right!  Objects should be silent!”

Brandy was more than a bit shocked, but she didn’t reply.  She only watched as they finished with her and then moved on to the final woman in the room.  Before long, quiet in the room was restored as the two women left, and the boredom set in once again.

What was up with that one woman?  All Brandy had done was to try to thank her.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Susan stared blankly out the window.  She had heard about Carol talking with Ralphie.  Which only served to remind her of something else.  Brandy was the niece of one of her other clients.  A very new client.  Vinny.  The mob boss in Cleveland.  According to what Carol had told her, Vinny was more like a father to Brandy.  Susan figured that since Brandy was missing, Vinny deserved to know.  The question now was, should she tell Vinny now, or wait another day.  She decided another day might be best.

She would give Carol a little more time to find some answers.  But after that, she couldn’t wait any longer.  It was time to not only let Vinny know, but it would be time to start closing down operations here and send everyone else home.  Although she had no doubt that Carol wouldn’t be willing to leave anytime soon.  That was fine.  Maybe Carol could still come up with the answer to who was causing all the trouble in Las Vegas.

Tomorrow she would call and talk to Vinny.  And tomorrow she would start trying to convince everyone else that they should leave…soon.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Billy didn’t bother knocking, he opened the door and rushed into the large opulent office.  “Boss!  Damn Beastman’s men did a drive by against one of our whore houses and took out two pimps.

“They what?”  Damn them!  Damn Beastman.  Where the hell was Houghton?”

“Not there, mostly because even I didn’t think Beastman would go after a joint like that.”

“Yeah.  I wouldn’t have thought so either.  He must know our other places are well protected now.”

“Looks like it.”

He shook his head.  “I’ve had enough of Beastman.  He was nothing more than a convenience anyway.  The things I thought he could bring to the table aren’t worth it anymore.  Go talk to Houghton.  Tell him it’s time to wipe Beastman off the board.  More than likely, he’ll love that assignment.”

“Yeah.  No doubt.  From what I hear, his guys love to shoot.  I’m on it.”

“Billy!”

“Yeah?”

“How’s the drug situation looking?”

“So far, pretty good.  Better than we anticipated.  With Lozano gone, along with his entire stash of heroin, we’re one of the few players in town with any at all.”

“Good.  We’ll wait a few more days to drive the price up, then we’ll start bringing in bigger shipments.”

“Sounds good,” Billy replied.  “You want me to pass the word to get the shipments ready?”

“No.  Let’s wait.  I’d really like the price of the drug to double before we move too fast.”

“Got it Boss.”

“Go talk to Houghton.  Right now, I want Beastman removed from the map.”

“On it,” Billy replied before walking out.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Carol rode the streets of Las Vegas.  Most of the buildings that she knew about that Beastman owned appeared to be either deserted or heavily guarded.  But then the last man she had captured from Beastman had told her that Beastman was consolidating his people to protect them.  A good move…unless someone planted a bomb or had some other way to take out an entire building in one swift move.

She stopped in front of another of Beastman’s crappy looking buildings.  As far as she could see, it was just as deserted as a few of the others she had driven past.  But was it?  She drove her bike around to the back of the building.  It still looked empty.  She parked her bike and went up to the back door.  Locked and quiet.  She pulled out her set of lock picks and went to work.  The old lock yielded to her in just a few seconds.  She went inside.  The hallways appeared dark.  She searched the entire building quickly, but it was soon obvious that it was totally deserted.  No luck.

She went back out to her bike and drove away, heading for the next of Beastman’s establishments that Wu Enterprises had found.  It was a bit of a ride, but she didn’t mind at all.  She would have enjoyed it much more if she was out of the city.  Her ride took her to another part of the outskirts of town.  She stopped at a traffic light.  The light turned green, but she didn’t move.  Her attention was caught instead by the sound of guns being fired.  A lot of gunfire!  The car behind her honked its horn and instead of heading straight like she intended to, she turned to the right, towards the sound of the guns.

As she got closer, she suddenly heard a different gunshot.  A deeper one.  There were a few more shots, then the shooting stopped completely.  She was close now though.  She pulled her bike to the curb and parked it.  Ahead, she could see a lot of men moving all around out in the street.  Men with guns.  She also saw a car that had crashed into another car parked along the side of the road.  Most of the men were running towards the crashed car.  She heard a few more gunshots, noting that several of the men were firing into the parked car.  And then it all seemed to be over.

She sat on her bike and watched as the men pulled three dead black men from the car.  But what caught her attention even more were the men who weren’t paying attention to the car.  Those men were actively searching around, including the rooftops of all the buildings in the area.  Carol quickly realized that the one odd gunshot she had heard hadn’t come at all from any of the men ahead of her.  That shot had come from a military rifle.  Beastman’s men must have been doing a drive-by shooting.  That was what all the gunfire she had heard was about.  But that one shot had to have been from a sniper somewhere who had taken out the driver of the car, causing it to crash and letting the other men finish off the other men in the car.

So who were the men that Beastman had been targeting?  And more importantly, that one odd gunshot, had it come from one of the mercenaries?  Carol started her bike and began driving around the area, searching for any sign of the mercenaries.  After half an hour of searching, she had found nothing.

Why had the mercenaries been there?  If they took out the driver of the car, it sounded like they were protecting whoever was in that building…whoever they were.  And, if it was the mercenaries, the men in the street hadn’t seemed to act like they knew anything about whoever that shooter might have been.  Another mystery.  It was also more evidence to Carol that the shooter might have been one of the mercenaries.

So…if she were a mercenary, and if for some unknown reason she been given an assignment to protect someplace without being seen, how would she do it?  Where would she place herself so she could do the job and nobody would know?  She drove around the streets of the area a little more, trying to figure out the best logistics for the job.  She soon came to one perfect solution.  The best place to protect that building, was from on top of the building itself.  The shooter could station himself up there.  He wouldn’t be seen by anyone inside the building.  And he could cover all four sides of it with very little trouble.  In fact, the fact that it had taken him so long to get his shot off might be because he had been somewhere else on that rooftop.  It made total sense to Carol.

The only problem with that theory was, if the men in the building didn’t know about him, how did the mercenary get all the way up to the roof without anyone seeing him?  Or…did someone in that building know he was there?  Either way, Carol now wondered if the man was still up on that roof, or had he fled.  Of course, that was assuming someone had been up there to begin with.  But it was the most likely scenario that she could think of.  The more she thought about it, the more likely she figured that someone inside that building had to know about him…or them?  Maybe it was them – multiple shooters on the roof.  The mercenaries did seem to work in groups of two.

That left her with one last question.  How could she get to the roof and find out?  She drove all around the building again, studying it as quickly as she could.  There were very few men on the street now, only a few stationed out front.  A tow-truck was pulling the wrecked car away.  Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Carol saw no police cars at all.  Someone didn’t want the police involved.  Just the way she liked it.

She left the area and found a fast-food restaurant to stop and eat in.  Taking her time.  Killing time.  When the sun started to go down, she finally left the restaurant, heading back to that building.  She drove around the area.  All seemed to be quiet, but she did see two men still stationed out in front of that building.  She drove around behind the building and parked her bike at the curb a block away.  In the distance she could see two more men posted behind the building.

As she was taking her helmet off, she saw a dark van suddenly pull up to the curb in front of the back door.  The door to the building opened and two men came out.  Two men carrying automatic rifles.  Two men with their heads wrapped in black cloth.  The men got into the van and the van quickly pulled away.  Pulling her helmet back on, she followed it, staying well behind it, often with other cars between her and the van so she wouldn’t be spotted.

The van finally parked a few blocks away from one of Beastman’s buildings.  Carol watched as six men, all with their heads wrapped, all with military rifles, quickly got out of the van.  They separated into three groups of two and each group hurried off in different directions.  All of them vaguely heading toward Beastman’s building up ahead.

Was Beastman there?  Was Brandy there?  Riding slowly now, she headed down to the next corner, then turned to the right, following behind where one of those groups of mercenaries had gone.  She watched as the mercenaries turned left at the next corner, she went straight and parked her bike.  Leaving her helmet on, she raised the visor and went after the mercenaries on foot.

The men moved quickly, seeming to know exactly where they were going.  As Carol followed them, she tried to work out a plan to capture them both without causing too much of a ruckus.  These weren’t your average run of the mill street punks.  These were seasoned professionals.  But the answer to how she wanted to try and take them came quickly and easily.  Stopping briefly, she pulled her helmet off, then pulled the gasmask accessory out from the suit and pulled it over her head.  When she was ready again, she pulled her helmet back on.  From her pocket, she pulled the little glass vial of knockout gas that she had gotten from Beastman’s man.  He hurried to catch up to the mercenaries.

Ahead, she saw them both pause at the corner of a building on the corner.  She saw one of them peer around the side of the building.  Stopping them now would be the better option.

“Hey guys,” she called out loudly as she ran toward them.

She saw both of them turn their heads towards her.  The one behind turned fully and lowered his weapon vaguely in her direction, but Carol could see he didn’t want to kill her.  She ran right up to them and started to stop as if she just wanted to talk to them.  They were both facing her now, but neither of them was aiming their guns at her.  Their mistake.  Instead of stopping near them, she accelerated and ran past the first man.  Jumping high into the air, her foot came around and caught the second man square in the head as her hand grabbed the rifle the other man was holding.  As she came down, she jerked on the rifle, pulling the man off balance.  As her feet hit the sidewalk, she threw the tiny glass bottle down between the two men, causing it to shatter.  Twisting, her leg came up and caught the man still standing behind his neck, pulling him hard down to the ground.  She saw the first man starting to get up, then he faltered and sat back down.  Both men immediately looked woozy.  In seconds, they were both totally out.  Carol had to hand it to Beastman.  The gas made a very effective tactical weapon.

Carol let them breathe in the gas for a few minutes while she walked away and made a phone call.  “I’ve got two special ones ready for pick up.”

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

The sound of the door opening pulled Brandy’s eyes open again.  She saw Alfonso entering the room.  Their eyes locked for a brief few moments until he purposely turned away.  She watched as he walked over to the woman on her left.  He never touched her, but he walked all the way around her, seeming to look her over.  She heard the woman let out another sob.

Brandy saw his eyes raking over her again as he walked across the room toward the other woman.  Again, he walked around her without touching her.

When he was done, Brandy watched as he stopped between the two women, looking at her.  For some reason, he didn’t appear happy.  She watched as an angry sneer crossed his face, then he turned and walked out.  What had that been about?  With the brief show suddenly over, she closed her eyes and dreamed of all the things she used to do…when she could move.

Her dreams were interrupted by the door opening again.  She watched as two men entered the room.  They each gave quick glances to the other women in the room, but it was clear right from the start that they were interested in her…especially since they were heading straight for her.  Uh-oh.  She braced herself for more abuse.

As the men split apart and headed for each side of her, she groaned.  She knew her ass was about to get pounded again.  She was surprised though when the two men stopped on each side of her.  She felt them grabbing her cage and lifting it.  Uh-oh.  Was it party time again?  She expected her cage to be lifted off the base and set on the floor, but they lifted her into the air, and then began turning her around.  She felt them setting her down again, and then they seemed to leave her.  A moment later, she heard the door open and close.

She could no longer see the door.  She could no longer see anything at all…except the dull tile wall in front of her face.  She wanted to scream, but she didn’t.  Instead, she cried.  They had just found a way to make her existence even more unbearable.  They might as well have blindfolded her or taken out her eyes.  She couldn’t turn her head at all, so she couldn’t see anything at all…except the beige tile wall in front of her face.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

It was amazing the taxi drivers agreed to pick him up.  It was amazing the hotel hadn’t thrown him out.  It was amazing that all the restaurants he ate in didn’t throw him out.  It was amazing that nobody seemed to mind him at all…except the pimps on the street when he tried to talk to the girls looking for customers.  The bouncers in the clubs knew him now, but Ralphie knew he was watched very closely every time he went near one of the girls.  For some unknown reason, he was tolerated, but only to a point – as long as it never kept the girls from mixing with any possible customers.

All of his work and questioning so far had given Ralphie a pretty good picture of who each of the pimps worked for.  The pimps might not always know the ultimate boss’s name, but from the little information he had heard Brandy and Carol discussing, he was able to come to some conclusions.  And it seemed that the girls who ultimately belonged to Beastman, weren’t that hard to find.

As Ralphie rode in the back of the cab, the bright city lights seemed to assault him from everywhere.  He’d much rather the city be totally dark with no lights or electricity at all, just so nobody could see him.  Sometimes, the entire city looked like one big red-light district to him.  He guessed that with all the showgirls in their skimpy costumes running around, there wasn’t much of a difference.  He tore his eyes from the bright lights around him and looked down in his lap instead.  He could see the skirt of his red dress, and further down at the bottom of his shaved legs, his red stiletto heels.  He was a walking embarrassment, and he knew it.  It was amazing anyone allowed him to come anywhere near them.

The cab deposited him right where he had asked to be taken.  The car seemed to vanish the moment he closed the car door behind him.  Taking a deep breath, he pulled his eyes up from the sidewalk to attempt to look everyone in the eye.  It wasn’t easy.  In truth, he didn’t have that kind of courage.  But he had no choice but to try.

He had seen some of the girls often enough now that they greeted him like an old friend, as long as he stayed out of the way of their business.  This time, the things he asked them were different, more exacting.  Have you seen or heard of a girl named Brandy, or as most everyone seemed to call her, Retribution?  A lot of the girls laughed at that.  None of them seemed to have heard of anyone like that.  The few pimps and bouncers he was able to talk with didn’t seem to know either.  It wasn’t long before he felt like his entire mission was nothing but a fool’s errand.  A fool’s errand, for a fool.  Like him.  Fitting.

It was getting late.  He was about to start looking for a cab to take him back to the hotel, when he walked up to another group of Beastman’s girls that were working the streets.  He saw the pimp watching them giving him the eye, but he had talked with these girls before. 

“Ralphie!” one of the girls greeted him, while she eyed one of the passing cars, trying to attract a customer.  “You’re looking sweet, sweetie,” she told him.

“Thanks,” Ralphie replied.  “Hey listen, I know this sounds weird, but I’m kind of looking for a friend of mine.”

“What’s his name?”

“No, it’s a she.  A real she.”

“A hooker?  What’s her name?”

“Uh…no.  Trust me, she’s no hooker.”

“Then I doubt I can help you.  Now some of the guys that come around pretty often, I know them.”

“No.  I was just wondering if you ever heard any rumors about a girl named Brandy…or as she seems to more often be called, Retribution.”

“Retro what?” the woman laughed.  “Heaven’s no.  Not that we would hear much anyway.”

“Okay, thanks,” Ralphie told her and turned to walk away.

“Hey Ralphie.”

“He turned back.”

“Why would you be asking us?”

“Because, I’ve figured out that your big boss is someone named Beastman, and he kidnapped her.  Now I’m trying to find out where she is.”

“Oh gee.  That’s tough.  I really don’t know.  Sorry.”

“Yeah.  Thanks.”  He turned and walked away.

“Ralphie!”

He turned back to the prostitute again.

“Look.  It probably won’t do you a lick of good, but one of the girls that used to work with us caused a bit too much trouble once and was taken away.  She was gone a long time.  Months!  Literally!  We all figured she was dead.  But she just came back yesterday, and from what I hear, she’s like…not the same person at all.  She’s really messed up in the head.  From what I hear, she hardly talks, she sleeps on the floor, naked!  And she goes crazy trying to get every man who comes near her to let her go to work on him.  You know?  And trust me Ralphie, even for a woman in our position, she didn’t used to be that enthusiastic about it.  But she sure is now.  So I was thinking, I don’t know where they took her, but wherever it was, I sure hope it isn’t the same place they took your friend.”

“Where can I find her?”

“I don’t know.  I expected her to be working the streets with us, but last night and tonight they grabbed her instead to work some special parties.”

“Where would she usually work?”

“I’m guessing, right here.  They’ve just been keeping her busy since she got back, and trust me, she’s going out of her way to please everyone.”

“What’s her name?”

“They usually call her Sally Sweetlips.  I’m not sure though if they’re still calling her that or not.  I just heard most of this from some of the other girls.  I haven’t seen her myself since she got back.”

“Sally Sweetlips,” Ralphie repeated.  “Thanks.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll come back and see if she’s around.”

“Yeah, sure Ralphie.  And hey, maybe if you keep hanging around in dresses like that, Marco back there will let us do a makeover on you and you can work right here with us?”

Ralphie smiled, but inwardly he was cringing at the thought.  His life was already too much like theirs.  “See you tomorrow.” 

Sally Sweetlips.  He had heard much worse names for a hooker.