The Long Dark Four-Way of the Soul

by Alden Odessa

  There are things I love about my harem, and there are things I hate about my harem. Overly emotional prostitutes were tops on the latter, I’ll say that.

  “What we will do, is we will go to the print shop and then we will go over to another motel I saw yesterday. It looked like a real piece of work.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “What?”

  “Piece of work?”

  “It’s a euphemism.”

  “What’s a euphemism?”

  Man, I really had to hand it to the Canny Valley public school system! “Don’t get hung up on the details,” I said. “It didn’t look very nice, but I want to see if there are any girls we can recruit.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “So, as soon as Stephanie is finished up I am going to talk to this gentleman about some referrals,” I said this and then saw the door open. Betty walked out.

  “Is everything going okay in there?”

  “Sounds like it,” she said. She told me that everyone was ready and aware of what was going on. Bogo was in room four, listening for any signs of distress on Stephanie’s part. She said he looked very concerned and worried although the sounds coming out of the room were nothing but jubilation.

  Bogo had a real sense of guardianship over the girls and of me. I think the incident with Bruce made him realize that he had to be on call twenty-four hours a day and could never let his guard down. Oddly, he didn’t mind. Never underestimate a person’s sense of purpose.

  “All right Betty, let’s talk tuna,” I said. She gave me a curious look, letting me know I was once again using euphemisms. “I mean business.”

  “I got that, tuna’s a new one,” Betty said.

  “I think it’s a euphemism,” said April, speaking up like a child who had just learned a new word.

  “That, but it’s also a double entendre,”

  “What’s a double en—”

  “It’s a word or phrase that has two meanings, or two implied meanings, one of them is usually sexual,” Betty piped in, cutting her off. Betty knew her shit, must not have gone to the same Canny Valley school system.

  “Ahhhh,” April commented.

  “Nice,” I said. “The tuna was referring to—”

  “I get it,” Betty said, laughing.

  “So anyway, how am I going to get these girls working? I’m guessing I can’t just let the work come to us,” I asked her.

  “Corner, it’s our best bet.”

  “I don’t know the economy down here, the fat man seemed to balk at fifty bucks.”

  “Yeah, that might be too much starting out. Guys down her will throw that into a card game, but they won’t spend it on sex because the girls are usually in such bad shape.”

  “So what you’re saying is that I will have to cut prices to show them that our girls are different?”

  “Exactly, word of mouth should spread after that.”

  “So how much are we talking about?”

  “Thirty, thirty-five.”

  “For sex?”

  “Yeah. Maybe twenty for a blow job.”

  I couldn’t believe these prices. I know that this was the shittiest part of town, but thirty bucks for sex was ridiculous. That first night I spent two grand on Ronette and sure, she was top-notch, but I refuse to think of any of my girls to only rate ten to fifteen percent of that!

  Maybe Augustus.

  Not only that but how in the hell was I going to make enough money to pay the rent and food bill, much less payback Bruce, at those rates?

  “Courtney suggested a blow bang.”

  “A blow bang?”

  “Yeah, it’s where multiple men gather around her and—”

  “I understand the concept of a blow bang.”

  “She threw it out there, said she was down for it if it would help.”

  “Man, she loves sucking dick.”

  “That she does.”

  My conversations in this reality was really a lot different from what they were in my past life. There I had discussions about a rollover IRA, and in this one, I was basing my profit margins on how many dicks one of my girls could fit in her mouth at once!

  Life is funny.

  What’s not funny is that I just referred to it as my past life.

  “Let’s hold off on that for the time being,” I said.

  “Put a pin in it?”

  “Yes. Let’s do the corner idea, but vary the pricing. Emily and Stephanie, they pull in thirty-five, and if you want to run a special, it’s both for fifty. Courtney and Bridget pull in twenty-five, but these are today only prices. If you have to wheel and deal that’s up to your discretion.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Do you need to take notes; will you remember all of this?”

  “Memory like a steel trap.”

  “Good. Make sure Bogo is beside you at all times while interacting with these men. I’m guessing they are all pretty shady individuals. He also needs to be near the girls, obviously, while entertaining clients.”

  “Bogo’s going to get overworked doing all of these things.”

  “Could be worse, he could be doing a blow bang.”

  “True,” she said.

  “It’s going to be hard for a while. You and Bogo are wearing a lot of different hats and doing too many things. I don’t want you to get sloppy though. Safety first. Always.”

  “Okay.”

  “April is coming with me,” I looked at April, she smiled. “We are going to work on marketing. Also, I would like to figure out a way to not be away from you guys while the girls are working. Right now, there is no way of avoiding it.”

  “I agree.”

  “I’m going to get cards made up, advertising where we are at. Hopefully, I can get people heading our way. As much as I like them advertising themselves, there are not many people milling around down here. Tomorrow, or later today we will hit the local market, try to get people that way.”

  “And if that doesn’t work?”

  “We’ll be heading to South Light soon, I just want to get the hang of this first. Right now, there is only Bogo and myself to keep the girls, and you two, safe. And we always need somebody here working. I just can’t be in multiple places at once.”

  “Understandable.”

  I know that at least Betty understands my predicament here. Based on what I had seen of The Lower Bottoms, as well as how women were treated by the men in this game, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving any of these girls alone down here. It was one thing for me to set Betty loose in The Falls lobby and bar, knowing safety wasn’t too far away, but there was no way I would send her out alone in this shithole. The market was one thing, but sending her to recruit was something altogether different. Just for talking to the girl in the bar at The Falls had gotten me a side full of busted ribs and the other girl cut up over the deal. I still didn’t have visual confirmation of this, but it sounded like something Bruce would do.

  Who knows what would happen to any one of them down here. I still didn’t know what my rivals were like. I had yet to see a pimp in this part of The Lower Bottoms; I had a feeling that would change once we went to South Light. I needed to build up money and also some health before going that way.

  So far, things had not been so bad down here and no sooner than I think it than I realized that I had just jinxed myself.

  This realization made me jump when the door from room number five opened.

  The short, fat man hobbled out of the room. I don’t know what she had done to him, but he was actually limping as he came out of the room.

  He looked our way and seemed surprised and a little embarrassed to see us.

  “How was it?” I asked.

  He stammered briefly and then replied. “It was fantastic. That’s a hell of a lady you’ve got there.”

  “Don’t I know it; Can I count on you for a referral?” I asked.

  He took a few, crippled steps towards me. “You can count on it, as a matter of fact, I have a qu
estion for you.”

  “Go ahead,” this is either going to be really good for me or really bad for me.

  “I’ve got a card game tonight, four guys; how much for a party?”

  It was good! “Do you want one girl for each guy or do you want to double up?”

  “Depends on the price.”

  “Would you like to join our Frequent Fucker’s Club?”

  “What’s that?”

  I smiled, and I had no idea what it was either, but he was a buyer, and he was going to be a long-time customer.

  And that’s a good thing.

  18

  Reading the Signs

  The print shop was titled merely that: The Print Shop. April and I walked into the front door, and it smelled of old ink. It was a small place, the front room being about six feet by six feet. It had a small wooden desk with a computer sitting on it. The computer looked like a Commodore64. The screen and keyboard were all housed in the same frame, and it had a dull green typeface on a gray background. The computer was hooked up to a genuine dot-matrix printer, and everything seemed to have a layer of dust and ink on top of it.

  There was an elderly man sound asleep in the chair behind the desk. As soon as the door closed, however, he bolted awake and put his hand under the desk. I assume grabbing for the handle of a gun.

  Instead of reaching behind me to grab my own I raised my hands to show him we meant no ill will. “Paying customers,” I said. We were paying customers provided we could get something for under thirty-one dollars.

  I had six left over from the supply run and laundry trip plus the twenty-five I got from Blake. I had finally gotten the name of Stephanie’s biggest fan. I would see him again tonight at a poker game with three of his closest friends and all four of my girls. We had negotiated the price of $150 for a party of sorts. They could all fuck until they couldn’t fuck anymore. Hopefully, they all didn’t have the stamina for too much even though I’m sure my girls could handle whatever they threw at them.

  Or at least I hoped so.

  “State yer business,” the old man said. He was about as hospitable as a rattlesnake in a baby’s crib.

  “Looking to get some business cards made up. I was checking on prices.”

  “Oh shit, you weren’t lyin’?” he said, surprised.

  “No. Why would we?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I paused as if expecting him to say more which he didn’t. “So, about that order...?”

  He spoke up as if he had already forgotten about it. “Oh sure, sure. What can I do ya for?”

  I don’t know how long it had been since this guy had been anything more than robbed, but his selling tactics could use a little work.

  We haggled over the price for a moment or two before finally settling on 250 cards for twenty bucks. It wasn’t a bad price, but it also seemed expensive for this part of town. It was also a considerable amount of my bankroll. It had to be done. I paid the man, and he helped me design the card.

  Buster Rockknocker

  The Best Women in The Lower Bottoms

  The Side Light, Room Five

  All hours

  It said all that it needed to say, and he was charging me by the line, so I took what I could get until I could come up with something better.

  He told me they would be ready in three hours and he took the design and walked through the door behind him where I glimpsed a rather primitive looking printing press that smelled horribly the second he opened the door. I was almost expecting oxygen masks to fall from the ceiling.

  When I signed up for Hot House Harem Online, I’ll be honest, I kinda thought it would be a little more exciting than this.

  We were heading to the motel I had seen just past the laundry mat. I had to marvel at the design of this place and the stark contrast it provided The Reference area. It was almost a ghost town. There was hardly anyone on the streets at all, but yet there were buildings. Many of them boarded up. It felt like a small town that “lost the railroad” so to speak. These all used to have something in them.

  I saw a grocery store; boarded up. A liquor store; boarded up. Clothing store, hardware store, bar, another bar, restaurant, clinic; all boarded up. There was hardly anything else. I passed one functioning bar, and I peeked my head in to see what was what.

  It was empty and dimly lit, save for one person. The bartender.

  The source of all information.

  “What are we doing?” April asked.

  “Learning,” I said and then walked through the door and then holding it open for her.

  We walked to the bar, and the bartender looked up at us. The place was a far cry from nice, but it provided a certain ambiance I had not yet seen in The Lower Bottoms. In the background, there was slow jazz playing, and it was filled with haze as if people were smoking. Yet there was nobody currently in the bar smoking.

  It reminded me that I was, in fact, in a game. This bar looked designed, it had a production design quality to it. I was supposed to be here; there was really no other place to go, the game led me straight to it. All the other bars and shops had been clearly boarded up. It was almost overkill how much they screamed: There is nothing here.

  But yet this place had a green light right above the door that simply read: Bar.

  “Can I be of assistance?” the bartender asked as if I awoke him from his NPC sleep.

  “A shot of whiskey for me,” I said and then looked to April. She shook her head no and raised her hand. “And that’s it, sir.”

  He reached beneath the bar and put a shot glass on the table, pouring my drink. He finished it and pushed it to me. We remained standing even though there was ample seating available at the bar itself. It felt like no one had been in here in a very long time.

  “This is a mighty fine establishment you have here,” I said.

  “Why thank you, sir, I take pride in my service.”

  He was definitely an NPC, meaning if I asked the right question he could possibly give me some reliable information. “How long have you been operating here?”

  “As long as I can remember, sir.”

  That wasn’t the right question. “Does it ever get very busy here?”

  “We have the occasional traveler.”

  There it was. People like me, wandering in and out of this place, playing the storyline mode. That had to be it. “Many tourists?”

  “More so than usual, I must say.”

  So that means that one of two things are happening down here. Players are spawning somewhere near this place and looking around the game, searching for something, but what?

  The other option was that this was part of a storyline mode and no matter what I had wanted to do the end result would have led me down here anyway.

  Every place that I had been and every encounter I had had was by design. I had no other real options. One thing led to another. Just like a storyline. What level was I on? Was I still in level one? Was Bruce the boss of this level? Did I have to defeat him in order to level up? And if he was just the first boss how far did this game go?

  Was I ever going to fucking leave?

  I have to keep reminding myself of the one stated goal in this game. How you beat it. Run the town. Did that mean all of Canny Valley, or did I just have to beat The Lower Bottoms? And how the fuck did you run The Lower Bottoms?

  I needed to be a little more direct with my questioning. “Where could a man looking for sex go around here?”

  “I’m afraid there’s not much of that here, sir. Could I recommend perhaps South Light?”

  The game was leading me to South Light, but didn’t I need to level up first? Wouldn’t that seem the most logical? I couldn’t just waltz into South Light with no money and four women and expect to run it, could I?

  “What about in The Landing?”

  “Well sir, if you two are looking for a place may I recommend the Show-Tel just a block over?”

  “Thank you, sir. That’s what I needed,” I said and tapped my
glass. “One more for the road, please.”

  He pulled the glass towards him and pulled out the bottle of whiskey and filled my glass. I drank it, watched another dollar evaporate from the corner of my eye and walked back out to the street with April. Before I left, standing in the doorway, I turned to the bartender. “One more thing,” he looked at me, I could still engage with the character, even from a distance, “If you happen to see anyone else, tourist or otherwise, looking for a lady, would you mind steering them towards The Side Light?”

  He paused, looking at me. There was something in his eyes, something moving as if the information was processing.

  “The Side Light Motel. Very good, sir.”

  I think I just made the A.I. learn.

  I could reprogram NPCs.

  The Show-Tel Motel was similar to The Side Light, just more dilapidated. That’s really saying something.

  I counted the rooms on the way up to it, and it appeared as though there were twelve rooms in total, not including the office. The Show-Tel formed a U-shape. Facing it, I could see that there were six rooms on the back of the U, and then six rooms on the right side. The left side had three rooms forming from the back, and on the edge of the rooms, closest to us, was the office.

  The only rooms that appeared able to be used were the rooms on the left side and the office. They are the only ones that were not boarded up, busted out, or previously, apparently, burned in a fire.

  This place made The Side Light look like the Taj-Mahal. There was more exposed wood than there was paint and all the rooms that were not boarded up appeared to be empty. They had either been robbed or had their contents sold, best I could tell. Who knows what was inside of the rooms that were boarded up.

  It had a sign out front that told of its name and had of there not been a light on in the office I would have assumed the entire thing to be abandoned.

  It was closer to the cliff that led to The Upper Bottoms, and The Falls Hotel was on full display. Most of the light, filling the sky was from The Falls. It stood on the cliff, almost mocking The Show-Tel and its guests as if saying that if you only had just a little more money, you could be staying in a nicer place.