The Watchman

He watched as she jumped slightly, the noise of the buzzing lock-release from the gate startling her. He then panned away, so as not to record her entry. Unseen and unrecorded, she pushed her way into the deserted Mall. He had told her which way to go, and he made sure that the cameras were not covering her progress towards his control room. He moved towards the door and opened it, looking for her approach.

"Hi Rob!" She beamed in excitement at him, as she bounced into the room, her ample breasts jiggling.

"Hi Shelly, do come in to my parlour..."

"Said the spider to the fly" She giggled, looking around. "So, this is where you hang out?"

"Yup, this is my Kingdom" He waved his arm expansively around the room.

"Wow. Look at all those monitors. You can see everything from here" Shelly walked slowly around the room, looking at each screen in turn, touching the desk lightly with the fingers of one hand. She ran her fingers up the stalk of the control rod suggestively. Rob swallowed hard.

"Almost everything." Rob added, a little hoarsely, watching her examine the place.

"But, how come you are on your own? Don't you guys work in pairs?" she asked.

"Yeah, that would normally be true, but the place is over budget and they are short staffed, so, for the moment, here I am - on my own"

"Lucky for me, huh?" she giggled provocatively at him.

"Yeah," he grinned " Lucky for me as well!"

He moved closer to her, but she whirled away. "Show me what they all do"

He sighed; almost unable to walk with the hard erection she had given him.

"Sure, ok, these monitors show all the cameras in the Mall. I can pan and zoom wherever I want, but mostly they run automatically, scanning all areas every few minutes." Taking control of one camera, he panned across a row of shops to show her.

"Who's that?" she asked pointing.

"What?"

"I saw someone in that shop. Back it up."

Rob back-panned. It was the same shop that he had been having trouble covering with his cameras, that single area was prone to faults. Seemed to be working tonight though. "Stop there," she told him "Yeah, I saw someone inside that shop I'm sure I did!"

Rob peered at the screen. "There is nobody here Shelly. You must have just seen a reflection, that's all. It's easy to do."

"Really? Yeah, I suppose so..." After a second of thought, her face rearranged itself instantaneously from worried frown to excited delight.

"I bet you see some really rude things here huh?"

"Sometimes...yeah..." Robert answered a little warily.

"I bet you have a secret tape don't you?" she walked up to him, pressing herself against him, pleased to find his hardness waiting for her. "Why not show me?"

"Okay" Rob managed to say.

He opened a locked drawer, sat down at the consol and took out a tape, thrusting it roughly into a player. The image was not too clear, yet it was very clear what was going on. Shelly moved behind Robert as the tape played. She let her hands sweep over his arms.

"Your very fit for an old guy aren't you? Stronger than you look too, I would say"

She stood closer as her hands began to move over him, exploring him slowly, sensuously, as they silently watched the couple on the screen that appeared to be in a small private room. The woman was kneeling, already undoing the man's zipper. She looked up with a wicked smile on her lips as she freed his already hard erection, giving it a few long and appreciative strokes while she watched the expression on his face. Then, still watching his expression, she slowly wrapped her lips around the head and began to devour his length. She was wasting no time at all.

"Just a whore" Rob turned to say, but saw that Shelly was staring, engrossed in the sex on the screen. He turned back to watch also.

He felt Shelly lean against him, could feel the soft press of her breasts as she pushed them against the back of his head. Her hands were now exploring his chest as she traced her fingers over his body. Robert swallowed, his throat suddenly dry...

He turned to look at Shelly, who suddenly dragged her eyes away from the screen, and focused on Robert.

"Lets go shopping!" she said suddenly standing up.

"What?" he said, his mind confused, the eroticism of the moment vanishing in an instant.

"You told me that you could do anything you wanted, without being seen, so show me, lets go shopping!" She beamed at him again. "You won't be disappointed..."

"Ok, ok...where do you want to go?" Robert was confused but Shelly was still offering him something he hoped.

"Oh, let's see...let's go to the jewellers!"

"The jewellers?"

"Yeah, why not? You told me you had the key to all these places; let's go there! I want to try on that tiara!"

"Ok, ok...just let me put this to auto. We will only have fifteen mins, and then I have to be back here to make a status check, ok

"Ok, well let's go then!"

"Ok, walk behind me Shelly and stop when I tell you to, we have to move when the cameras are pointing in the wrong direction and we have to keep to the 'dead' areas as well for safety, otherwise we could be recorded, ok?"

Rob timed the sequence carefully, watching the cameras as they traversed their predictable scan path. Judging the right moment, they walked quickly, and they reached the shop three minutes later, undetected. He unlocked the door and turned off the security alarm, pulling Shelly in after him. She stood in the centre of the shop surrounded by the valuable jewellery arranged in their display cases.

"Oh my God! Rob, you really did it!" She ran her hands over the glass table, which held trays of sparkling rings and bracelets. Her eyes wide, she then ran around and removed a full tray, placing it on the table.

"What do you think?" She asked, trying on various rings.

"Yeah, very nice" He answered. Despite his earlier bravado, Rob was now getting increasingly nervous at the reality of the position he was now in.

"Don't you think they make me look sexy? This kinda turns me on..." she draped her arms provocatively around Rob.

He went to pull her close, but she again twisted out of his arm.

"All in good time, Robert. You need to recover," she teased. "What do you think of this one?"

"Look, we had better be getting back..." Rob answered, now a little annoyed.

"Oh, okay, spoilsport, lets go then..." She quickly slid four of the rings into her inside pocket without him seeing. Retracing their steps, they got back to the control room.

"Listen Rob, this was fun, but I think I should be getting home now, ok?" Having palmed the expensive rings, she was ready to leave.

"Yeah, no problem" Rob was now happy to see her go. He had suddenly become nervous; the excitement of the moment was wearing off. He let her out and she retraced her steps to the outside and soon she was gone.

He sat back in his chair and wondered what he had done. That was really stupid of him. Now suddenly concerned he could be found out, he decided to review the tapes, just in case some camera had in fact inadvertently picked them up.

As he scanned them, he was glad to see nothing at all of their adventure had been recorded. But then he saw something. What was that? He rewound the tape again. That was the shop Shelly said she thought she saw someone. A smudged dark outline, almost human in shape, could just about be made out. Was that someone standing there? Could Shelly have been right? What the hell? The image was very unclear, but it did seem to suggest a figure. Shit! Was someone actually there? He swung a live camera around and focused on the shop. Nothing. He zoomed in to the window. It was an electronics shop, and it appeared as it should, empty and closed. Rob scratched his head. He decided he had better go down and check it out, just to make doubly sure.

Standing now outside the dark window, Rob shone his torch inside and around. The light picked out shapes and shadows. Nothing. The place was empty. It must have been a trick of the light after all. He scratched his head again, but then decided that, whatever it was, it was not here now. Still, he had an uncomfortable feeling inside as he turned and walked back to the control room. Then a brief flash, seen only from the corner of his eye, stopped him in his tracks. He shot a glance back at the dark shop but could see nothing. What was that? Had he imagined it? He walked slowly back to the shop door. The place was playing tricks on him. What the hell is going on here? He was not superstitious, but he could feel goosebumps beginning to form on his skin. Rob took out his keys and entered the supposedly empty shop, very carefully.

The shop had no fitted alarm, and this was not really unusual; many just relied on the Mall security alone. Rob walked carefully around, taking care, his torch picking out the merchandise stacked high everywhere. He stopped at a rear storeroom door. He tried the handle. It was locked. He tried his key, a special security key that unlocked everything. Everything, that is, except this door. It could be bolted from the inside, but that made no sense, as it should only be a single room with no other access than this door. Rob stood back and surveyed the locked door, listening intently. He could hear nothing. Well, there was definitely nobody here; he had searched the whole place, apart from that one room, and he was sure nobody was there. As sure as he could be. Rob switched off his torch and locked the shop door behind him. He still felt something was not right, but being unable to discover what that something was, he put it to the back of his mind.

It continued to worry him, so Rob kept an eye on the shop throughout the rest of the night. Nothing else disturbed him though, and he finished his shift as normal and headed home to sleep.

*********************

From inside the shop, the shadow that was Jeff Storrington watched Robert walk away. He had watched all of the night's activities. Had enjoyed the show Shelly had put on unknowingly for him. His technical expertise had enabled him to hack the security system, giving him the freedom to see whatever he liked, and more importantly, to know exactly what they knew. So Roberts plan was now clear to him, and he sensed a healthy profit in this knowledge.

Storrington returned to his dark room. There his latest chosen one was becoming weak. She would not last much longer, he knew. She had at last understood his world, but could never leave it, not with that knowledge. The revelation would have to die with her. Only he could retain that, he alone. He moved towards the naked restrained woman, his lust once again inflamed. But even as he took her, her screams driving him on once again, he was thinking of the next victim, a freckled faced girl. Yes, it was her time now.

************************

Robert was awoken that afternoon with a call.

"Bains? Jarvis here, sorry to wake you, but can you come in early, this afternoon if at all possible"

"This afternoon?" Roberts was still half asleep "I suppose so, sure, what's up?"

"We have a procedural problem, I'll explain when you get here"

"Yeah, ok then, I will be there in" he looked at his watch "Say four o'clock?"

"That's fine, see you then." Jarvis said as he hung up.

Rob put the phone down thoughtfully. Had he slipped up? He was sure he had not; after all, he had checked the tapes very carefully, hadn't he? He sat up on the edge of his bed and looked around his small bed-sit. Despite trying to make the place resemble a home, it was, what it was. Very small, cramped and faintly squalid.

Well, he had tried his best for the last twenty years to make it good, and this was about as far as he had got. What's more, he had gotten scared last night with Shelly, and that annoyed him. He looked around the cramped room again. He had a chance now to get out of this and if it meant taking a chance, then now was the time to do it. Now, while he was alone at the Mall, before they got around to putting another man in with him. It had to be soon, he realised. No more dreaming and pathetically trying to impress young girls in the hope of bedding them. If this meeting Jarvis wants is nothing more than that, and if I got away with it last night, then why not? And with that decision made, he suddenly felt better, more confident, and he got up and prepared to go and meet Jarvis.

His confidence was still high when he arrived at the security office at the Mall. Having finally realised he had nothing much to lose, and determined to take this chance while it was available to him, he walked into the office of his supervisor, Mr Jarvis.

"Ah, Bains, thanks for coming in, take a seat, will you?" Jarvis indicated a seat as he continued writing at his desk.

Robert sat down and waited. He studied Jarvis. A tall man, at least ten years his junior, Robert always felt Jarvis was laughing at him. Laughing at his size and low status. I should be the supervisor, Robert silently fumed, and I have as much experience, more so than Jarvis. Yet, here I am, waiting like a schoolboy in the headmasters study. Not for much longer he promised himself, not for much longer.

"Bains, what happened last night?" Jarvis asked, suddenly looking up.

Robert felt the blood drain from his face as his newfound confidence deserted him.

"Last night?" he answered, trying to keep a growing tremor from showing in his voice.

"Yes, last night, anything unusual?" Jarvis repeated.

"Well, there was something, but..." Rob hesitated "Well, I didn't actually find anything wrong, but I thought I saw something unusual at the electronic shop..."

"The electronic shop?" Jarvis repeated surprised. "What was unusual?"

"I didn't mention it because there was nothing to mention really, just a feeling, that's all. I thought I saw someone in the shop, but I must have been mistaken because I checked, and it was clear."

"Oh, I see, the electronic shop you say? Well, the reason I asked is that the jewellers reported a theft, four rings have gone missing, nothing big, but they are claiming it was done overnight. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, there is no sign of a break in and there was nothing on our security video either. You, also, did not report anything amiss. Very odd."

"Inside job?" Rob ventured, relieved he had not been caught, but seething inside at the realisation Shelly must have stole something.

"Probably" Jarvis answered. "By the way, the camera monitoring the control room is down, did you know that?"

"Yeah, I had noticed an intermittent fault, I thought it was ok now though?"

"Well get it sorted Bains"

"Yes sir, I will"

"Thank you, Bains, I will let you get off back home now."

Robert left the office and returned home, feeling relieved yet angry. That stupid girl had taken him for a ride! The realisation that he had been used infuriated him. But hadn't he hoped to use his position to have his own way with Shelly? The fact that he hadn't had any joy in that department either, only served to annoy him further.

Robert paced around his bed-sit in frustration. He remembered his decision earlier to act. He knew this Saturday he was on night duty alone once more. This might be his last chance. He knew also the jewellers kept the weeks takings in their safe, ready for Monday banking. He was sure the pot would be big enough, and it was certainly worth the risk. Especially as he had used the powerful zoom on one of his cameras to record the combination they used to secure that safe. He smiled at that secret.

Yes, this Saturday he would finally stop being a small man, and with that amount of cash, he would really start living. He would be long gone before they discovered the theft on the Monday. He would have Shelly that night as well. The little tease had teased her last, he promised himself.

******************

Storrington was ready. The freckled faced girl was walking along the same alley she always took. It was time. He turned his back to her as she approached him and she walked past unconcerned. Moving swiftly, Storrington threw the hood he was holding over her head, twisting it tight around her neck. Only a small shocked scream penetrated the thick cloth as he dragged her the few feet backwards and tumbled her into the already open boot of his waiting car. It took seconds and she was gone. Nobody saw a thing. The boot, heavily strengthen and sound proofed, would restrain her. She had about 20 minutes before the lack of air would put her unconscious. He had it timed exactly.

He backed the car into the rear entrance of the electronic shop, and took the now unconscious girl into his place. His special place. Her face was blue as he laid her down but she was still alive he saw; it would have been a shame had she died. Still, he took the time to run his hands over her body before he gave her the oxygen that would revive her. He watched as colour and sense slowly returned to her face.

"Hello sweet thing" he said to her unfocused eyes as they fluttered open. "So glad you could join us"

"What... who are you... what are you doing to me?" she stammered, too confused to be frightened. That would, however, change. She tried to sit up and to touch her face, but could not. Her hands and feet were bound securely. Now she felt fear. A cold chill swept through her. The face above her head had vanished. Had she imagined it? God! This is a dream! She struggle again to free herself, but then gave up, realising she was secure. Lying back defeated, her breath came is short gasps from her exertions, she looked at the dark featureless ceiling, and a creeping sense of despair overwhelmed her. This was no dream this was a real nightmare.

The unmistakable sound of creaking and stretched leather made her turn her head. What she saw through the gloom made her tremble. A figure appeared from the gloom walking towards her. What little light there was in the room reflected wetly of him, glistening obscene and slick. His face and body wrapped tightly in black studded leather strappings. A facemask, with holes cut for eyes nose and mouth, hid his features. She noted numbly that his genitals were free from constrains, his arousal clear as the flesh and leather glistened as one, appearing to her wet in the dimness of the reflected light.

"Hello Susan" Storrington whispered to her. "I can't tell you how nice it is for me to have you here, and I know you really want to be here, because you told me, through your letters to your friends, how much you want to be taken care of... by someone like me"

"NO! Let go of me! Let me go!" she screamed as the import of what he had said shook her. But that was the last she could say as the gag went around her mouth, choking off any more protests to muffled grunts.

Susan mind raced. She remembered her boyfriend waiting for her. He would notice her missing! Hope surged suddenly within her. He would look for her! But where was she? How would he know where to find her? She had to escape! Had to get out! The hope suddenly died. No one knew where she was. She remembered her fantasies with a different light. This was for real and a very real sense of danger now shook her. Her mind filled with the images of old news stories, of missing persons, some never found, and those that were, were found mutilated and raped. Was this to be her fate? She had so much to do, she couldn't die! Not like this!

She heard him laugh. The laugh was slow and deep, satisfied and smug. She stopped struggling and looked at his eyes. Her throat constricted as she looked into the madness she saw within them. He laughed softly, the softness full of menace and hate as he studied her expression.

"Yes!" he whispered delightedly to her "You begin to know, begin to understand!

**********************

That same evening, Robert went down to the pub as usual, expecting Shelly to turn up, he felt sure her greed would guarantee that. He was not mistaken.