ACQUIRING CARRIE
I believe in the law of the jungle. The strongest rule and thrive, the bulk simply subsist and any substandard beings are left to wither and expire. It has been the natural way for millions of years and survival of the fittest has led us to the world today. Ironically the metaphor relates to the jungle, but in reality only losers would want to live in a jungle surrounded by an environment beyond their control.
Across all of my endeavors and pursuits in life, I hold that paradigm to be self-evident. I have been driven and disciplined to find myself at the apex of the social strata in my world today. I'm Mason Hall and I'm a businessman, a CEO, a boxer, a champion. I set my own agenda, my own rules and I win the game. Some people might think I'm an arrogant asshole, but fuck them.
For the employees in my own businesses, if you can't perform, then you can't provide. Each month I let go the lowest performing in the company without regret or remorse. And my bottom line is stronger for it.
In the sport of boxing, the vanquished must relinquish their rights. I train boxing five nights a week at a gym on the other side of the city. The only boxing gyms that offer a truly worthwhile experience are always located on the wrong side of the tracks - boxing studios in the upper crust suburbs are sycophantic services for pissants.
In the bedroom and affairs of the heart, the one who can dominate should take control and demand all that they need to satisfy their condition. If the other doesn't like it, then fine - leave. If you take umbrage at the sexual requests of a superior being then you don't deserve the honors that they are bestowing - fuck off and find someone else on your own level.
My philosophy obviously extends to physical and mental health. There's no need to embrace cripples or retards in your circle: no-one wants to be a burden - work hard, dig yourself out of your own hole and thrive.
So junkies have no right to live - they are a waste of space and a drain on the oxygen that the rest of us deserve. Which is exactly what I thought after my evening sparring session as I encountered a limp body between two dumpsters on my way back to the Lexus.
Content to let nature take its course, I strode past unconcerned. A whimper and a moan was no trigger to me, but when I heard a second desperate cry, "Help me," I stopped in my tracks. I'm not sure what influenced me to turn around-- a moment of weakness or a voice resonating in my mind - but I doubled back to find a woman's body lying prone on the concrete.
"What can I do for you?" I asked directly, crouched on my haunches. Cans, paper, foil and syringes littered a circle around her body. She was encased in a dirty golden fabric - in its day the garment would have been a glorious sequined clubbing dress but now it was simply a threadbare rag doing its best to cover a tortured soul. She was young, but age impossible to determine from the state of her abused body - maybe 18 but looking like 60.
Her gaunt face looked up at me from hollow sunken gray eyes and a terrible smell wafted. "Let me die."
"Do you want me to help or do you want to die? You can't have both. What's it to be?"
Her head slumped and her temple hit the ground as her eyes closed.
"Die." Then as if shocked by her own response, her eyes opened and she whispered, "No - help me. Help me." A tear spilled from the corner of her eye and she choked, "I don't know."
"Listen. I can help you. But there are conditions attached." Her eyes were closed, she was motionless and I could not discern if she was listening to my voice. "Do you hear?"
Her body did not move, but she murmured, "Uh huh." Her eyes did not open but her brows lifted as if trying to open eyes glued shut.
"Do you want my help?"
"Yes."
"What is your name?"
"Carrie."
"Are you willing to give yourself to me, Carrie? Will you agree to serve me? Do you agree to abide by my rules?" A tiny nod.
"I need you to say yes, Carrie."
"Yes." Barely audible.
"I need you to say "I am yours Daddy."
"I am yours." Pause. Had she gone back to sleep? "Daddy."
With the last utterance, her body jolted into spasm. Froth appeared at her lips and she jerked momentarily on her back. Then stillness, apart from the froth continuing to bubble and flow from her mouth.
Reaching into my sports bag, I rummaged through the first aid equipment to locate an epi-pen adrenalin shot. I'd seen this before outside the gym so I knew just how to react. I gripped each side of her golden dress at the neck and tore it apart, cleaving a rip in the fabric down to her navel, exposing an emaciated body. Her tummy was recessed and harshly exposed ribs framed a chest endowed with tiny mounds for breasts and shrunken nipples. I plunged the pen into her chest, waited momentarily, and then her neck snapped backwards and she gulped a lungful of breath.
Immediately she rolled to her side and issued a short vomit of foul smelling liquid and I discerned a puddle of piss spreading on the concrete. Wiping her mouth with my sleeve, I collected her frail body in my arms and carried her the remaining distance to my car, laid her body across the back seat and headed home.
On the drive, I contemplated dropping her at the general hospital. But I recalled the promise that she'd made and my commitment that would go with it. Now we had a bond. Like keeping a pet, a commitment comes with responsibility. And with her promise to me, she would in fact become a pet, a slave, a servant. She owed her life to me, and I intended to use it.