Olivia

This story is the first in a three part series, and continues on from "The Golden Serpent." I've tried to make it accessible to anyone who has never read my previous stories, and I hope I achieved that. If you're interested in the backstories of Jack and Sarah, they first appear in The Passenger, along with the rest of the cast in "The Golden Serpent," which explains more about Jack's disappearance.

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"Why do people choose to have kids?" pondered a balding middle-aged man in a Limp Bizkit T-shirt, to his coworker seated beside him, as he looked at his computer screen. The background noise of keyboards and ringing phones filled the open-plan office.

"They just want their lives to be like everyone elses," he continued disdainfully. "It's utterly pathetic."

His coworker, a man of similar age, nodded vigorously, his gaunt face reddening. "It's stupid," he replied. "I chose not to have kids, I wanted a more interesting life. I don't understand."

Jack tried not to laugh. Seated at a PC nearby, pretending to be engrossed in his data entry task, he pretended not to overhear.

Jack's watched both men suddenly go quiet as the office door swung open. In strided a tall, graceful woman clad in form-fitting jeans and a crisp white blouse. Her reddish hair cascaded halfway down her back, framing her slim figure. Her ass was perfect -- neither too flat nor obese -- accentuated by her tight jeans.

Jack couldn't blame his colleagues for being suddenly struck dumb at her entrance. He took comfort in the fact that these losers wouldn't stand a chance with someone like Amber.

Amber walked over to her desk half-way across the office. Jack and his coworkers pretended not to watch as she put her bag down by her seat. He silently hoped that she would bend over her desk at some point, but she didn't.

Jack's coworkers resumed their usual gossiping and shit-talking about the rest of the office, while he plugged in his earphones.

His mobile buzzed on his desk. It was a text. To his surprise, it was Sarah.

Jack hadn't seen Sarah since the incident.

No one really explained to him what exactly happened when he disappeared for weeks. One night he found himself in a taxi with a prostitute he met while walking home from work. She lured him to a manor house in the middle of nowhere with tales of a glamorous sex party. He found himself getting a rub-and-tug massage on a four poster bed.

The rest was a blur. Jack didn't recall leaving that bed. Time and space lost all meaning, as he saw visions of events happening on that estate over centuries. Victorians, Saxons, Romano-Britons, and ancient tribes whose names had been lost to time - all performing strangely similar works of magic and ritual on the land.

And glimpses of some ancient land-entity. A Goddess? He had forgotten now.

It must have been one hell of a massage.

The next thing he knew, he was sat on a leather couch in the opulent living room of another mansion, half-starved and half-insane, scrawling occult knowledge down into notepads. Apparently, he had been kidnapped for weeks, and his rescue was funded by some local entrepreneur.

Jack's personality returned, but now he found he could read people, see their auras. He kept this information firmly to himself.

Jack noticed something different about Sarah, when she entered that living room after his rescue. She had psychic abilities of her own, but he wasn't sure what.

When he was done furiously scribbling all of his arcane knowledge down, he finally noticed that Sarah was wearing a strapless turqoise dress, her cleavage almost bursting out it. Her hand on his shoulder, she looked at him with a mixture of relief and concern.

But there was no embrace. Jack knew she wasn't interested in dating him any more. He wasn't surprised, considering he had been found in a manor house full of prostitutes. Now that all his newfound knowledge was down on paper, he was too tired and drained to feel anything about this. He was empty.

Jack "knew" - more like he could see somehow -- that Sarah had cheated on him during his captivity. Sarah was surprised when he told her exactly who she had been cheating on him with: his former coworker, Tom.

Sarah's excuse for sleeping with Tom was the most convulated bullshit he had ever heard. Something about gaining initiation into this occult circle that organized his rescue. Some kind of sexual rite. However true this was, he could tell that she didn't need much persuading.

Jack later learned that Tom had left his job to work for a media company owned by his mysterious rescuer. So at least there would be no awkward workplace confrontation. He wasn't interested in retribution anyway.

Jack took one last glance at her breasts, bulging out of her dress, before she got up and left the room.

None of this mattered any more. The things he saw, the knowledge he gained during his prolonged trance state, was all that mattered. How he received this occult knowledge, he wasn't sure. But it had to be preserved before it was forgotten.

Jack took off his earphones and looked at his phone.

"Hey Jack, hope you're doing okay. Sorry I didn't answer your messages, I've been really busy."

'Bullshit,' muttered Jack under his breath. The message continued:

"Just needed to contact you because Gabrielle wants to meet you. She says you have some business to discuss. There's a gathering at The Treasury on Saturday night. Can you make it?"

Jack frowned.

Gabrielle was the only one who seemed as interested as he was in the mountain of esoteric knowledge he now possessed. After Sarah left the room that night, Gabrielle entered with the notepads he had been scrawling on.

Gabrielle was of Japanese descent, but born and raised to a wealthy London family, and had the mannerisms of a posh English woman who worked in a corporate setting her whole life. She dressed professionally in a blouse and trousers, and was the last person Jack would expect to have an interest in the occult.

What Jack found really interesting about Gabrielle, was that he couldn't see her aura. Not that she didn't have one -- but it was being deliberately obscured. He could not read her at all.

While Jack was busy being dumped by Sarah, Gabrielle was photocopying Jack's notepads full of scrawled writing, occult diagrams, and bizarre drawings. She asked him questions about the charms, the spirits, and the ancient rituals he documented.

'You could be useful to us,' Gabrielle said to Jack, as he was slumped on the leather sofa.

'Us?' Jack replied.

'I run a local network of entrepreneurs and professionals with an interest in the occult. We use the esoteric as well as the mundane in accomplishing our business objectives.'

Of course, thought Jack. After what he had been through the past few weeks, he had no trouble believing this.

And then the thought came: Is this who Sarah is running with now?

'Okay,' replied Jack. 'And how could I help you? Look at me. Do I look like I'm of use to anyone?'

'The knowledge you gained marks you out as someone who could provide a great service to us. To the City.'

Jack almost laughed.

'How exactly?'

'I've taken a copy of your writing, your grimoire,' said Gabrielle, her eyes lighting up. 'It would be fantastic to see how you could put this this knowledge to use. And my network could help with this.'

'I don't see what value there is. I'm just a lunatic who copied the contents of his brain onto paper.'

'You're more than that. You've been through an initiation, and you need time to process this,' said Gabrielle, standing up. 'Take care of yourself, I'll be in touch.'

She left him in the room, confused, tired and empty.

In the week that followed, Jack was confused about the lack of police involvement. He heard nothing about his fellow captives, who just disappeared. There no media coverage of this, even in the local news. Nothing. Strange.

The normality of returning to work was jarring. His manager didn't ask any questions. His coworkers didn't say anything to him, probably assuming he was on leave.

He was back at square one. Back in his bullshit job, no girlfriend, and nothing except this strange knowledge that still kept invading his thoughts and dreams.

Jack typed back a reply.

"Okay, I can make it. Tell her I'll see her there Saturday night."

Saturday came. The Treasury was a modern bar inside an ancient stone building, in what used to be part of a medieval guildhall in the heart of the City.

The crowd was more upmarket than Jack was used to. He wore a shirt, dark jeans and shoes, trying to look as nondescript and unnoticeable as possible. He felt a little cheap and under-dressed compared to tonight's patrons.

In the room he looked around for Gabrielle. He found her sat at a booth with a group of other well-heeled looking women in the corner. She stood up and walked over to him.

'Jack!' she smiled. 'You're looking so much better now.'

'Thanks. I've started hitting the gym. I thought I needed to put on a few pounds.'

Jack remembered seeing himself in the bathroom mirror for the first time after his captivity. His ribs were visible. He looked ragged and corpse-like. No wonder Sarah lost interest, he thought to himself.

'You look good,' said Gabrielle. 'You're rebuilding yourself by the looks of things. You're on the way up again.'

'Got to start somewhere.'

'Come over here Jack, there is someone I'd like you to meet.'

Jack followed her to the booth where two women were sat. One was an older woman, looking about fifty in a black dress, with graying blonde hair. Despite her age, she still looked in good shape with a trim waistline and an impressive bust accentuated by her dress. She regarded him with a smile and a look of curiosity.

Next to her was a younger woman, possibly about Jack's age, in her thirties. She had straight blonde hair, going down just past her athletic shoulders. Her angular features and heavy make-up gave her a striking appearance as she looked right into him with her sharp blue eyes.

Her dress was more revealing, her impressive bust almost bursting out of her green dress, tapering a thin waistline.

Gabrielle introduced them. The older woman was Janet, and her striking friend was Olivia. They smiled at him as he sat at the booth with them.

'We read your book,' said Janet. 'Really interesting stuff.'

Janet sounded local, with a faint westcountry accent.

'Thanks,' replied Jack. 'Although calling it a book is stretching it, I think. I barely understood what the hell I was writing about.'

'It's a bit out there, but then most channelled writing is.'

'I wouldn't say it was channelled. More like I was trying to write down all the details of a dream before I forgot everything. At the time it felt like the most important thing I had to do.'

'Maybe it was,' said Janet. 'Reading your notes, we had the sense that you had uncovered something powerful. Something ancient. It might be more important than you realize.'

'Jack was in such a state when we found him,' said Gabrielle. 'He was so skinny. Like a concentration camp survivor.'

Jack laughed.

'Yeah, I've been hitting the gym since then. I really didn't like what I saw in the mirror afterwards. Only put on a couple of pounds though.'

Olivia's eyebrows raised.

'Which gym do you go to?' she said. Her accent was foreign, Jack thought central or eastern European? He never could tell the difference.

'The one in town, next to the Travelodge. It's cheap, but it's always open.'

'Olivia is a bit of a gym bunny herself,' said Janet. 'Always working out, aren't you?'

'I have to,' Olivia replied. 'It's my job.'

'Olivia here is a bodyguard,' Gabrielle interjected. 'She works with Celia and myself.'

Celia. That name rang a bell. She was the wealthy businesswoman whose couch Jack found himself sat on after his rescue. He vaguely remembered seeing her. A tall red-head in a suit.

Jack didn't see her for long though. After Gabrielle had finished with him she already had a car arranged to drive him home. It seemed as though she couldn't wait to see the back of him. He imagined she probably had that leather sofa burned after he left.

'A bodyguard?' Jack asked Olivia. 'Who do you protect your clients from?'

'The same kind of people who kidnapped you and held you in an abandoned Manor,' said Olivia.

'Yeah, about that,' said Jack turning to Gabrielle. 'I've got a few questions. A lot of stuff I still don't know.'

'We can discuss that later,' said Gabrielle. 'For now though, we want to know more about your notes. Have you worked with any of it yet?'

'No,' said Jack. 'I'm still trying to make sense of it.'

'Maybe you should stop making sense of it and just do it,' said Janet. 'This work is clearly beyond the human intellect. You're wasting your time trying to figure it out.'

'Maybe you're right. But the rituals, the charms, the incantation. They predate our time by a long way,' said Jack. 'I'm not sure how much use any of this is.'

'You won't find out unless you do it,' Janet replied. 'It would be a shame to receive all this information from some supernatural source, and do nothing with it. Someone has to work with it and discover it's potential.'

'Do you think you can do it?' Olivia interjected.

'Don't see why not,' Jack shrugged.

'I mean to say,' Olivia continued, 'do you think you have the authority to command these entities in your book?'

Jack paused, looking at her blankly.

'I have no idea.'

'Magical authority is important in dealing with these entities effectively,' said Gabrielle.

'So how the hell do I develop the authority to command spirits?' asked Jack.

'We were hoping you would tell us, since you wrote all this stuff.'

'I only wrote it down. I barely remember anything else about that place. It just felt like a really weird dream.'

Gabrielle and Janet looked at each other.

'Listen, Jack,' said Gabrielle, 'me and Janet are going to get a drink. Why don't you sit here with Olivia, we'll be back soon.'

Olivia smiled at him, subtly pressing her tits together as she reached for her drink, gazing at him over the glass as she took a sip of her gin and tonic. Jack felt his jeans tighten around his crotch.

Janet and Gabrielle headed over to the bar while Jack sat across from Olivia.

'So, Olivia, where do you train then?'

'With the rest of the bodyguards on Celia's estate.'

'How many bodyguards are there?'

'About thirty.'

'Thirty? That sounds like a small militia.'

'Can't be too careful when you have the kinds of enemies Celia and Gabrielle have. You should know that by now.'

'So there's a gym on Celia's estate? And her private bodyguards get to train there?'

'It's not so much a gym, more of a martial arts dojo.'

They got talking some more. Olivia came to the UK from Poland, working in bars to support her life as a student before being headhunted by Celia. She was suspiciously vague on the details of why she was hired.

Olivia was more interesting in talking about training. Her martial arts credentials far outmatched his, having started training just once a week at a local kickboxing gym.

'You've started,' she said. 'Which is more than most people do. But what you lack is guidance. Real training. You need an instructor.'

'And where do you suggest I get one?'

'I can train you,' she smiled.

'How much are you charging?'

'Nothing,' Olivia leaned forward. Jack tried not to stare into her cleavage. 'You see, I think Gabrielle wants you as part of her network, her team.'

'Why?'

'Not sure, but those notes of yours seemed to impress her. It's like she see's potential in you.'

'Potential? For what?'

Olivia leaned back and shrugged.

'No idea. But if you're going to be involved with us, you will need physical training as well as psychic training. You wouldn't want to find yourself held hostage by a group of whores again, would you?'

Jack scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.

'Well...I guess not. So, you're training me for free?'

'Yes. Will you accept?'

'Yeah, sounds good. I'm free this Tuesday if you can make it?'

'I am,' replied Olivia. 'It's settled.'

'Jack,' said Gabrielle, rejoining them with a glass of wine, and Janet beside her. 'How are you two getting along?'

'Olivia is going to be my personal trainer.'

'Well, that's good. You would need training if you plan on working with the entities you wrote about.'

'What do you mean? You're saying I'll need to be ripped to take them on?'

'A strong body is as necessary as a strong mind,' Gabrielle replied. 'Olivia would make a good trainer.'

'I don't know very much about these demons you wrote about,' Olivia said. 'But I am willing to bet that the same martial discipline you will need to rebuild your body, is the same discipline you will need to command whatever these spirits are.'

Janet stepped forward.

'Jack, do you think you can do this? Do you really think you can command these forces? Or would you like us to do it instead? We have had years of experience in this field.'

Jack could feel Olivia staring at him. Her tits looked fantastic in that dress.

'Yeah,' he replied. 'I channelled this crap. Who better than me to work with it?'

Janet looked sceptical, as did Gabrielle. Olivia suddenly had a glint in her eye.

'Do you doubt me?' Jack continued.

'Well...not entirely,' said Janet.

'Well thanks for your vote of confidence,' said Jack. 'But I never needed it in the first place. Give me your email and I'll report back to you on how it goes.'

Janet and Gabriel raised their eyebrows. Jack tried to ignore Olivia's stare, the smile growing across her face.

'Very well,' smiled Janet. 'We'll look forward to hearing from you about it.'

Tuesday morning came, and Jack found himself in his local gym, but this time he wasn't training alone. He lay back on the bench, two dumbells in each hand, preparing himself to do a bench press. All he could hear was the sound of weights clanking and high tempo dance music piped in through the speakers.

Above him, all he could see were the huge breasts of Olivia, clad in a purple sports top that exposed her enviable sixpack. She wore black shorts that exposed her muscular thighs.

Jack could barely see her face above her tits, as she held his hands in position. He hoped that focusing harder on executing a dumbell bench press would prevent him from getting an erection in the middle of the gym.

'Lock your elbows out,' commanded Olivia, as Jack pushed the dumbells as far above him as he could. He tried to focus on the striplight as she stood over him, hands on her hips, her breasts moving up and down beneath her tight top as she breathed.

Jack executed ten reps before getting up.

'Good work. Now watch how I do it,' said Olivia.

She lay on the bench, dumbells in both hands, driving them upwards so that they converged above her. Jack pretended not to notice the way this would press her tits together with every rep. As she lowered the dumbells so they were level with her breasts, they would separate as she inhaled, arching her back slightly.

Jack never thought he would get sexually aroused while watching correct bench press form.

'There. Easy,' she said, sitting up from the bench. 'Now we rest for about a minute.'

'So what's the deal with Janet?' asked Jack. 'Is she one of Gabrielle's business partners?'

'Not quite,' replied Olivia, sitting on the bench. She took a swig of water from her bottle. 'She's part of Gabrielle's network. She runs a local art gallery and dealership down by the sea front. That's her main business. Her other business is in sex work.'

Jack raised an eyebrow.

'Sex work?'

'She's a dominatrix. She has many clients, very wealthy men. And women. She makes a lot of money out of this. She trains new dominatrixes in the local bondage scene.'