2099UG Tales #1

Ben Christensen settled back in his chair, peering at the young woman on the couch across from him. "You want to do this the old fashion way, then?"

The woman's lips curled into a seductive smile. "Of course, lover." She flexed her long, muscled legs, settling comfortably onto her side. "I can't bear any of that mind probing rash. I like direct. hot. intellectual intercourse," she grinned. Ben half expected her to slither off the couch and begin unzipping his pants. It wouldn't be the first time he'd taken advantage of a patient, with the exception that this being the first time the patient seemed to be taking advantage of him. He straightened himself, shifting his tie nervously.

"Well, then, Miss?" Ben began, fingering his data pad.

"Call me Silvia," the woman giggled, letting her black hair cascade off the couch in which she sat and flow to the ground. "Not because it's my name, but because that's what my dear Daddy called me. Poor glitch. Couldn't even remember his own daughter's name. Well, he was drunk enough and had enough affairs, I suppose somewhere he must have had a sweet little Silvia bumpkin out there, don't you think?" She was upside-down now, kicking her shapely legs in the air.

"You resent your father?" Ben said, pretending to make a few notes, but actually peering at the woman's gracious bosom.

Silvia pursed her lips for a moment in consideration. "Resent is such an awfully long word, doctor. Two whole syllables. I'm just a little girl. I don't think I understand what you're saying." She purred, twirling her hair with one finger. "Besides, you didn't answer my question."

Ben sighed. He didn't like playing games, well, not when he was fully clothed. He decided to play along for now. "I suppose he could have. Maybe he just liked the name Silvia."

"Oh, of course!" She licked her lips. "Why didn't I think of that? Oh, doctor, you're so smart."

"I realize that," Ben said, adjusting his glasses. He didn't really need them, but he thought they made him look intelligent. Apparently, the guise was working. "Now, we were discussing your father. What sort of relationship did you have with him?"

"A typical father-daughter relationship. I'd show him my pretty new pink dress. He would throw a beer can at me. Then he would make me take the dress off and dance for his friends." She recited the memories, seemingly unaffected by their graphically horrific nature.

Doctor Christensen, on the other hand, covered his mouth in disgust, all thoughts stemming from his pants having vanished. "He abused you. sexually? How, how old were you?"

Silvia frowned, feigning deep thought. "Did I say he did that? I think I'm just making that up." She laughed. "You brain doctor types like to hear stuff like that, don't you, lover?" She paused, her smile vanishing from her flawless face. "I was eight."

"You poor child," Ben's brow furled. "Did he ever beat you?"

Silvia bobbed her head to either side. "Tough love, he called it. Never without a reason, dear. I was always too loud, or too stupid, or too . . . well, you know. I was a child. I deserved it. Don't you think all children should be beaten with a steel rod when they do something wrong like knock over a bottle of whiskey? It was expensive whiskey, I guess, because he flogged me extra hard for it. I think it excited him, because then he took me outside and we played doctor. But he wasn't a real doctor, a psycho-ologist, like you are. He was a construction site manager."

Horrified, Ben pressed further. "How long did this go on?"

"Oh, he worked on construction until I was fourteen."

"The beating, I mean."

"Until I told him to stop." Her bright eyes searched his face. "I thought we were supposed to be talking about me doctor, not my father. He was such a boring man. Dumb too. Not like you." Pause. "It's awfully hot in here, lover."

"I'm sorry," Ben apologized, tapping some notes into his pad. When he looked up he noticed the woman had undone the top two buttons on her shirt. Pretending not to notice, Ben continued with his interview. "So he just. stopped?"

The woman bit her lip. "Well, I told him rather firmly. You know, I showed him how much I didn't like being treated badly." She slowly slipped onto the floor and slithered over beside Ben's chair on her back.

"How did you show him?" Ben gulped, glancing down at her nervously before returning to his notebook.

"That's a silly question." She played with the third button on her shirt.

Despite himself, Ben noticed a small scar on the left side of her face. Perhaps not as flawless as he'd thought. "Where did you get that scar? Is that from your father?"

"No," annoyance crept into her voice. "Just a little gift from a tin man. Men are always hurting me like that. But I got better. I always get better. This is a fun game. It's mine turn to ask the questions, okay? Tell me, lover, do you have any children?"

"Yes. Two actually." Sweat began to bead on Ben's forehead. He licked his lips. "A little boy and a little girl."

She innocently peered up in the space between his legs. "You love them don't you?"

"Of course," Ben's voice cracked. Usually he wasn't this nervous. Something about this woman excited him, but scared him at the same time.

"You love your wife, too, don't you?" She expertly began untucking his shirt. Her eyes smiled with glee.

Ben hesitated for a moment. "Of course," he lied, supplying the answer he thought this enchantress would want to hear. In actuality, Ben's wife had walked in on one of his secret rendezvous with a patient and things had been very rocky ever since. They were staying together for the children, he surmised. However, this was not the time or the place, Ben concluded, to think about his wife. That would only distract him from the task at hand.

"And you'd never hurt any of them, would you, sweetheart?" Silvia delicately began to unbutton his shirt. The data pad was cast to the floor carelessly.

"No! I'd never lay a hand on them!" B en said, beginning to unbutton the top of his shirt. He smiled, trying to slow his quickening heart beat.

"You liar," she laughed, nibbling on the untucked portion of the shirt. "Come on, lover, you can tell me. It'll be our little secret. No one will know. Not anyone." She slithered into his lap.

"Yes." Ben admitted quickly, attempting to skip past the conversational portion of the ritual. He felt his lust for this woman taking over.

"It excites you, doesn't it." She licked his cheek.

"Yes!"

Ben tried to kiss her, but she withdrew playfully. "It excites all men, doesn't it! You like to hurt people. You like to hurt women, don't you?"

"YES!"

"Just like my Daddy hurt me?"

Silence. Ben scanned her face, frightened. An evil smile greeted his panicked stare. "Men have hurt me all my life. Men like you."

"Oh my God." He whispered as she brought one fist back.

"You asked how I made my father stop it." The fist shot forward, punching through Ben's chest and into the synthi-leather chair behind him. Ben coughed up blood, having had no real time to begin screaming. His head fell forward, lifeless. The woman withdrew her hand, dripping with crimson. She leapt gracefully from the good doctor's lap and landed cleanly on her feet some eight feet away. She approached the wall of the man's office and began to mischievously write a message in blood. She took a step back, admiring her artwork, before taking an exit through the office's window.

Scrawled on the wall was a ghastly image discovered the next day by Central Security System guards: "Look out men, Heartbreaker's back in town."

THE END