The Long Dark Four-Way of the Soul

by Alden Odessa

  What the fuck?

  31

  Familiar Places

  I managed to chew April off my leg and head over to The Show-Tel with the two new girls, Bogo, and Casey.

  I filled Casey in on what was happening, and that her role would be altered and I also let her know this would happen from time to time. She would not have one job. If I was going to feed her, house her, clean her, she was going to have to earn it. If she wasn’t sucking dick, then she needed to be doing something else and right now, that entailed sitting with two junkies as they got clean.

  I worded it a little nicer than that.

  She was fine with it, once again, thankful. It was amazing that she was a clean slate. Had no memories, but yet her programming somehow let her know she was better off with me than she was out on the street alone.

  With April, I could understand this. She had seen a few horrors, and she had been alone for a longer period of time than Casey had.

  Speaking of April, something is off with her and, as I feared, she had grown emotionally attached to me. I was going to have to break her of that. But how? I didn’t need emotions to get involved here because with emotions came possessiveness. I myself had just felt that, as I stared at men having sex with Emily, raging in my own mind. I had to let that go; this wasn’t a love affair I was having. I liked the way she looked; I liked having sex with her, but that was the extent of the relationship I was going to have with Emily. I certainly wasn’t in love with her, and I needed her to work if I would survive all of this.

  What about Betty? Wasn’t I possessive of Betty? I didn’t even let another man look at Betty, much less have sex with her. How was that different? I told myself it’s because I didn’t want her to hurt anymore; I didn’t want her to feel any more pain. Was it something different?

  I’m a confused man right now. I don’t even really know who I am and I have to fight every day just to remember that I’m playing a game. This place gets in your head, you think things are true that aren’t. You start to believe your lies.

  Today I have thought about a dozen other girls. None of them my wife.

  It’s a short walk to The Show-Tel, but it sneaks up on you as the only light that works is the light in the office. You can only see the outside of it because of what little light spills down from The Upper Bottoms.

  We are about a football field away from it when suddenly, Casey stops.

  I look back at her, her eyes are wide, a look of surprise and then fear on her face.

  “What?” I ask.

  She doesn’t answer immediately. “I know this place?”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I’ve been here,” She said and just let the words hang in the air. I walked back to her as we had gotten a few feet in front of her when she stopped walking.

  “Okay, what do you remember about it.”

  “Nothing.”

  “So why are you freaked out?”

  “Something bad happened here.”

  Can I have just one normal fucking hooker! These women and all their traumas were getting on my nerves. I wasn’t sure how I would go on handling it. I can’t get too worried about it; I would imagine that when you take dick for a living there’s gonna be a little trauma involved. “What was it?”

  “I don’t know how to explain.”

  “Try,” I demanded less than asked.

  “It’s like, there’s a fog, on the other side of the fog is a memory, but I just can’t see it, but I know it’s there.”

  This is almost the exact same verbiage that April had used. They were clearly cut from the same cloth. They were the same in some way, and I had suspected that they were just new NPCs. April had had memories. She just couldn’t access them, I had taken this to mean something I couldn’t say. What she thought were memories was actually just programming. So the cloud she was looking through was just some glitch she had to get past to access the things she was supposed to do to serve the purpose of the game.

  Earlier I had found it strange that the exact same glitch would happen inside the game. April and Casey, both a glitch, doesn’t seem to hold water. There must be a reason they were the way they were. That was the first thing that happened that debunked my theory they were new NPCs, now this.

  Why would she have a memory of a specific place? What was the purpose of that?

  “Are you okay,” I asked.

  “Yes, it just—It took me off guard.”

  “Can you be here?” I needed to know this. I was going to be leaving her alone here with these girls. Not alone, Ricky would guard it, but for the most part, she would be left to her own devices. I needed to know she would not be too traumatized to do her job.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I mean, can you work here? Can you take care of the girls? Are you going to be too freaked out to stay the night, clean, work the place?”

  She paused, looked at me, then to the motel and then back to me. “Yes, I can,” she said. “In fact. I think I’m supposed to.”

  Augustus and Beatrice had taken to their new jobs as housekeepers like bees to honey. They had done a great job already with The Show-Tel. They had focused their attention on the three rooms that were not boarded up, and those rooms were looking significantly better.

  It’s a shame that The Show-Tel was not closer to South Light and also that it was in such bad of shape. It would be a convenient location for me to operate out of in the short term.

  It was slightly more central to The Landing, behind it was the market and beside it was the laundry mat and the general store. This enabled whoever was working the motel to run errands and always be protected. Not that anything in The Landing was too far away from anything else, but Ricky could guard the ladies doing laundry and not even leave the front area of the motel. He could see it. Same for the market behind the motel.

  This would work as a good central location, and I had a feeling I would find many uses for it. Already I had been calculating how I could run some card games out of these other rooms. I didn’t know what kind of shape they were in, but they couldn’t have been much worse than the location we were at last night. With a little elbow grease, we could probably have a pretty good all-in-one gambling and prostitution location with a minimal amount of work.

  I had all these plans but didn’t have the money or the manpower to accomplish all of them. I always must reel myself in on projects and remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. With all the craziness going on, that I am ill-prepared to deal with, it really made me miss home. My real home, with my real wife.

  I was having a real Wizard of Oz moment.

  I have a feeling it doesn’t matter what was happening; I would want to get the hell out of here, as I’ve got the hunch that whatever came after this level of the game would be harder than this part.

  Enjoy it while I can, I guess.

  The first three rooms of the Show-Tel were now, almost as good and as clean as The Side Light, still not as nice, but they were clean. The plumbing still didn’t work, something I had forgotten about before bringing over two detoxing hookers.

  It occurred to me that I only assumed they were hookers. I didn’t have any actual facts to back that up. They could be two ordinary girls that found themselves in the wrong part of town. If that was the case, they were going to be really surprised when they were sober, and I started shoving dicks in their face.

  “Who do I call for plumbing?” I asked Ricky, who it seemed had done a good job looking after the girls and had even chipped in to help for most of the day.

  “Call?”

  Shit, I forgot that they don’t have phones here. “Who can I find that will fix the pipes around here so that the water works?”

  “I have no idea. We just used the laundry.”

  The laundry mat seemed to get a lot of traffic just by being the only place around here that had working facilities.

  I was asking the wrong people.

  Although Ricky had proven himself a bad res
ource for information and not much of a plumber (I assume) he had taken the initiative on lighting. He discovered that the electricity in these rooms worked and was turned on, it just didn’t have any light bulbs. He had taken a lightbulb from the office and moved it from room to room wherever Augustus and Beatrice had been working so that they could see.

  It doesn’t sound like much, but having a guy with you that was capable of independent thought was a pretty big win for me.

  “I need you to go to the hardware store, get light bulbs and ask about a plumber, ask anyone you can, in or around there. Don’t come back until you have found someone who can fix a toilet and faucet.”

  “Okay,” he said, nodding his head.

  “Do all of this in under twenty minutes, I don’t want to be here all night,” I said.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. Twenty minutes is more important than the plumber. We can always work on that tomorrow.”

  “Whew.”

  “I’m leaving these two girls in room number three, also I am leaving Casey, but I am reclaiming Augustus and Beatrice.”

  “All right.”

  “We will be back tomorrow, and I’m sure I’ll dump a bunch more shit on you.”

  “Looking forward to it.”

  I smiled. Ricky also had a humor to him. Not stoic like so many other NPCs. “Now, get your ass to the general store and see what you can find out.”

  He turned and went to do what I asked.

  Bogo laid the girls on the bed that had freshly cleaned sheets on it. They still didn’t move. They were in a trance-like state.

  A number of things were confusing me right now. First, this place, this motel, I didn’t understand. It seemed to have all the stuff I needed. They had found more sheets to put on the bed; they were just dirty. It appeared Albert had used the laundry mat for everything except laundry. For whatever reason, he allowed this place to be bad. I want to ask him why, but now I will never be able to.

  The other thing causing me to worry were the girls. Why had I allowed myself to take them? They were a burden I didn’t need and finding girls to work for me had not proved to be the arduous task I had thought it would be.

  I know a big reason for me doing this was that I was just following the path that the game was laying out for me. I felt like the game wanted me to find them. Why else would they be there? I could also tell, especially now that I had seen them in a little bit of light, they would be good earners, provided I could sober them up. They were cute and had nice bodies. Made me wonder what the hell they were doing down here in the first place.

  Again, the game was making me find things I would need. Hopefully, this also provided me with a plumber.

  On the one hand, this was the most boring game ever. Doing laundry, buying groceries, replacing light bulbs and detoxing hookers. But on the other hand, could I really do much else? Did I want a more exciting game? I’m already getting more sex than I could handle and it was really only costing me my soul.

  So, there’s that.

  Room three had a benefit that was unexpected and welcome. It was a double. I explained to Casey what she would need to do. She would sleep in one bed while they came down in the other. I did not know what this drug did, or how you came down from it, so I didn’t know what to expect.

  The biggest obstacle I had here was the fact that I would not be here when they came to. This is assuming it would be soon.

  Fuck. I had no idea what I was talking about, but I would handle it, come what may.

  I explained to her that I wasn’t able to tell her what to do, and she knew just as much about whatever high they were on as I did. So be prepared for anything and don’t panic. The second they came to, tell Ricky to run over as quickly as he could to get us. There would be more people here soon. I would fill this place up. This would be our base of operations, but I would still run girls out of The Side Light.

  This was my plan I was coming up with as I talked to her. We would run our operation out of The Show-Tel, but I would keep two rooms over at The Side Light, maybe three. My best girls would be over there, and then the rest would be here. Betty would stay at The Side Light and April would stay here with me. I would also leave either Augustus or Beatrice over there. Bogo would stay, but Ricky and Kyle would be here. I needed workforce and firepower if I would be running girls and gambling out of this place. Also, I could use them to help fix the place up. I need more hands to help, but again, one does not take over Canny Valley in a day.

  The game put the Show-Tel in my path for a reason, and I suspected it was to be my temporary base of operations. I just had to make it a place I wanted to be in.

  I don’t know if it had been twenty minutes or not, but Ricky returned, and he was not alone.

  I was instantly nervous. I reached for my gun, not pulling it, but ready for some sort of Balderson ambush.

  Ricky got up to the door with the man. He was a short and stubby fella, with a thick black beard and was wearing a ball cap that had nothing printed on it. He had a tool belt. I walked out to greet them.

  Ricky was the first to speak, holding a pack of lightbulbs in his hands. “Buster, this is Ralph. He’s a plumber.”

  32

  A Plan to Split Up

  Bogo and I returned home to The Side Light, which would be my home for only this last night. Tomorrow I would move to The Show-Tel and run our business out of there.

  The meeting of the plumber was a real victory, once again, almost like I was supposed to find him. He would come by tomorrow and work on the main three rooms until we had the other rooms open. Again, I hadn’t even looked inside them yet, so it may be a while before they were open for business. It seemed like there had been a fire in a few of them and I didn’t even know if they were worth saving. If they weren’t, I guess I could use them for storage. I had no idea what I would need storage for, but it’s nice to have if needed.

  He didn’t know how much work would need to be done, so he didn’t give me a quote as to price. Hopefully I had enough.

  When Betty let us in, I could tell that she had gotten no sleep and sitting in room three with her was April. The last person I wanted to see right now.

  I don’t know why her affection towards me had pissed me off so much, but it had. This would complicate things, emotions always did. This was a business I was trying to run, and I didn’t need a girlfriend. I already had a wife.

  Bogo instantly asked if he could grab something to eat (of course) and then if it was okay to go to bed. Absolutely, I informed him. His work for the day was through, and I thanked him once again for saving our asses with his own money. He told me he was happy to help and then he went into the other room.

  Also in the room was Emily, who was still awake to my surprise. She was sitting next to April on the bed. I could barely even look at her. I may be annoyed at April, but I was mad at Emily. Genuinely mad at her after watching her have sex with those other men. Those men who paid me for the courtesy of doing so.

  I don’t know why it made me pissed off, but it did. I know she wasn’t like my girl, but damn if it didn’t hurt me to see some other man’s dick in her. Much less how they were just fucking her like—

  Stop thinking like this. It’s her job. A job I “hired” her for.

  Quit being a pussy. I’m annoyed at April for having feelings, and here I am, bemoaning over Emily as if I’m a teenage boy.

  I turned my attention back to Betty and sat her down and informed her of what was going on as it had been a minute since we had sat down and talked strategy.

  I let her know we would go down to three rooms at The Side Light, at least for the time being. Room three would stay as it is now. This could be Betty and April’s room and a kind of meeting room. Rooms four and five would be used for clients during most hours. Room five should always be open, that room was strictly for sex, no sleeping in that room, it should always be ready for callers.

  At the Side Light, besides Betty and April would be Stephanie, Emily,
Courtney, and Bridget. They were my best four girls, and I needed to grow the reputation in town that men coming over from South Light could get the best girls in town for a reasonable rate.

  Bogo would also be staying, for protection. Ricky said he had more guns, so in addition to his muscle, we would keep a few guns at The Side Light, and I needed her to find out if any of the girls ever had experience with a weapon. Betty informed me she had.

  There really wasn’t anything in Canny Valley she hadn’t done, it seemed.

  The guns were not for the girl's protection as it was for all of their protections, just in case Balderson raised his head and decided to move into The Landing as he had against Albert. Hopefully we had scared him off for a few days. But I knew if we had scared him off, and he didn’t poke his head out soon, that he was mounting forces against us. So protection was a big deal.

  Right now, I didn’t know what the word on the street about me was like, so I didn’t know if he would attack us here, or if he would attack us at The Show-Tel, so right now I had to guard both.

  Although I would stay at The Show-Tel for the time being, it was strictly for economic purposes. I would move back and forth between the two locations every day and keeping tabs on everything. For now, since I owned it, I wanted to get the other place running smoothly.

  Ricky and Kyle would be with me as well, and I had decided to also take one of the old ladies with me. With only three rooms, The Side Light did not need two maids plus Betty and April.

  “Can I come with you?” April asked.

  Fuck.

  “Yes,” I begrudgingly said. I could put up with a little affection so long as it meant she was willing to work to get that place up and running.

  Allie and Katie would come with me as well; we would sell women out of the location. I also let Betty know of my plans to run some card games out of The Show-Tel. She thought this sounded like a good idea.