Note: All characters are over 18, as stated in this or prior chapters
A Marked Deck: Chapter 4 - The Queen of Spades
This evening had been a long time in coming. I had planned and acted and waited for just over two years for this, the night I would take my final revenge and destroy Alexander Sharp, which us why I must leave nothing to chance; I had come too far to rush things now and spoil my chance.
I had taken a lot of care over my clothing and appearance. I wanted to look desirable but not too blatant, spending a lot of time on makeup and ensuring my long blonde hair - always a selling point with the guys, as I well knew - was looking at its best, while my skirt and top were tight but not too skimpy, emphasising my good figure without showing off too much flesh. It seemed to have worked, judging by the admiring glances I was getting as I walked through the club.
I already knew what my quarry looked like but I was also on the lookout for his victims and they weren't difficult to identify. Three women in their twenties sitting together, all scantily dressed, all very attractive - one with short brown hair in a pixie cut, a pale skinned redhead and a girl of coffee-coloured complexion with the most beautiful mass of brunette curls. They were chatting happily together, clearly at ease in one another's company.
Sharp's women differed greatly in surface appearance but they always had three things in common. They were in their early to mid-twenties, beautiful and always very contentedly happy. It was that last part that really grated with me. A couple of months short of my twenty-third birthday I fitted the first of those criteria and I was comfortable enough that I qualified for the second. However, I was not happy. My anger and bitterness would drive me on to victory; I was sure of that.
I took a table not too far from the trio of beautiful sex-slaves - for so I knew them to be - as I wanted to keep an eye on them without being too obvious. I needed Alexander Sharp to 'find' me in his audience in his normal way. That would build his trust and let me get close enough to him to end his vile reign.
An attractive blonde alone in a place like this was always going to attract some male attention and I was worried I might have to waste time and effort on repelling idiots and drunks, but I got lucky. A young couple asked it they could sit at my table and it was plain they only had eyes for each other. So I agreed and then ignored them thereafter, something with which they were clearly fine.
The show started and proceeded exactly as it always did. This was not the first one I had seen. Disguised by assorted hair colours and fashion styles, I had attended four of Sharp's shows before. It was quite pleasant to be able come to one as my natural blonde and closer to my own dress sense, albeit sexed up a little.
Sharp got to his 'wandering round the tables doing card tricks' shtick and I waited patiently for him to reach my table; I already knew what would happen when he did. Finally he arrived and, sure enough, he was interested in me at once, largely ignoring the young couple. I expected him to be attracted to me. It was much more than just good looks, although they helped. I knew I was oozing conflict vibes - they were real enough but I was encouraging them - and that meant Queen of Spades material.
Sure enough after a little banter, which I played along with looking as confused and innocent as possible, he suggested I had some unresolved conflict in my life. I agreed that was true, looking amazed as his knowledge.
"Sophie," he said, having already established my name, "I may be able to help you with your problem, but I need to check. Let's see what my magic deck of cards says."
Sharp spread the cards on the table face down. I knew exactly which one the Queen of Spades was. I could easily have taken any other card had I wanted to. However, that would not have furthered my aim. I gave the appearance of hesitating for a moment then selected the Queen of Spades and turned it over. He, of course, already knew which card I had chosen and could barely contain his pleasure. I knew why. This meant another set of four completed and one step closer to his goal. Well he was in for a shock there.
"Sophie, I'm delighted to say I think I can help you. Would you be willing to come up on stage and take part in the second half of my show?"
Well of course I would. I also consented to his suggestion that I might like to sit with his 'friends' and went to join his three handmaidens during the interval. They were clearly delighted to meet me, mixing friendly greetings with surreptitious glances at my face and figure. They were obviously pleased with what they saw, and I'll admit I didn't mind that. It is flattering to be desired, especially by such beautiful people as these three.
During the interval the trio not only introduced themselves but sought to get to know me. Naturally I concealed most of the truth but I confirmed my name to be Sophie, which was true and seemed to particularly interest the one called Rachel. The brunette immediately got her phone out and seemed to be checking something.
"That figures," she finally said. "The Queen of Spades is called Pallas, which was another name for the goddess Athena, who was the patron deity of wisdom and Sophie literally means wisdom."
I knew way more about what was going on here than they did, but I will admit this thing about names was something that had passed me by. I supposed it didn't really matter, but if it meant my cover story as Queen of Spades was a little stronger, then that was all to the good.
We sat together through the opening part of Sharp's hypnosis show and I did my best to look as fascinated by it as my three tablemates. If my acting was not up to scratch it didn't matter, since the three of them spent their time staring at the man I knew they called Master with devoted reverence. If all went well I would be putting a stop to that later on.
Then came the moment of truth. I went up on stage to see if what I had learned would save me from Alexander Sharp's powers. I was confident it would, given we had both had the same teacher, but I couldn't be certain until it was put to the test.
Sharp's big brown eyes started into my baby blues. I felt his will tugging at mine, demanding I give in and accept him as my Master. I felt I was being promised endless delights if I submitted. But my will was armoured against this attack by the knowledge I had gained. I resisted successfully, but I didn't let him know. Instead I gave every indication I was under his control. Only in one way did I vary from his usual script, and I got away with it, as he suspected nothing. After he had whispered an order to me to come to his dressing room after the show, I whispered back:
"Master, may your slave beg a favour of you." He was clearly surprised but let me continue. "The other Queens I met are so kind and beautiful that I would like them to join us. I'm guessing your dressing room is too small for that. Is there somewhere else we could go?"
Perhaps unsurprisingly my enthusiasm for involving his other sex-slaves went down well with Sharp and he was gracious enough to grant his new slave's request. This was to the good. I wanted to get him and the others alone, not in a public place like the nightclub. Then I would have my revenge.
*****
The journey that had brought me to this place started when I returned from university to discover a strange change in my elder sister Dawn, three years my senior. When I had last seen her a few months before, she had been her normal self - which from my point of view was not a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister and that will never change, it's just I don't always like her very much.
To be fair to Dawn that was partly our mother's fault. Parents are not supposed to have favourites among their children, but Mum told me when I was about ten that I was the ambitious one and Dawn was the pretty, sweet one that everyone liked. The hurt caused by those sort of comments to a child never passes. Oddly enough nature changed that assessment over the next few years, because as I passed through my teens I stopped being a rather plain girl and grew into an attractive young woman. But Dawn didn't stop being the favoured child.
However, whatever feelings I had about such things I was still alarmed to find Dawn so altered, although most people seemed to think it a change for the better. When I had last seen her, my sister was unhappy, frustrated that she couldn't get into her dream job as an actress because casting agents said she lacked personality and drive (perhaps there are advantages to ambition after all).
Suddenly, she was getting a stream of acting work. Further, she had left her boyfriend (no loss there in my opinion; he had been as drippy as her) and moved in to live with three other women. I even began to suspect that something was going on between them, which was strange as Dawn had never shown any sign of being anything other than straight. Weirdest of all, she had an obsession with someone called Alexander Sharp - all those women did in fact - despite the fact he was not around.
I became increasingly convinced that Dawn had changed on some more fundamental level than I could name and that Alexander Sharp was probably the cause. Well, nobody was going to mess around with my sister and get away with it. And I have to say, her doe-eyed happiness quickly became very grating. So I decided to find out everything I could about this Sharp character.
The first stage of my investigation was easy enough. It wasn't difficult to find out where Alexander Sharp had been before he arrived in my home city of Manchester, nor where he had gone afterward. I even went and saw one of his shows, keeping a low profile. Slightly more difficult was discovering what he had done in each place, but I learnt to recognise the signs and eventually I tracked down his victims. In each city - London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Nottingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham - I found four women, all blissfully happy, all enslaved by this man.
I still had no idea how he did it. Some type of hypnotism seemed likeliest, but I read up on the subject and the consensus seemed to be that no form of hypnotism could have reproduced such results. The only way forward seemed to be to find out what Sharp had done before his first appearance in London and this was where for a long time I hit a brick wall.
Eventually I got lucky. Asking around the clubs where he had worked his act in South London I found a guy who remembered him trying out as a young man under a different name - Alex King. Young Alex had been a very indifferent performer, although keen. He knew some basic, book-learned stage magic and was good with card tricks but had no real stage presence or distinctive act. The general view at the time was that he should give up ideas of a career in entertainment, but it seemed the eighteen-year-old had plenty of determination.
I was told King had asked around for a mentor and presumably found one because when he reappeared a few years later under his new name he was a very different performer, far more confident and having added hypnosis to his act.
