All the planning, all the lying, all the panic and stress and upset, and he was here, and he was so fucking nervous, all he could do was stand on the balcony looking down at the hotel pool where every bear had converged the moment the convention started. All of them aside from Carl, or at least that’s how it seemed. He got another buzz from his pocket, and checked his phone–another couple of notifications from growlr, another couple of guys down there who wanted to know where he was, if he was down to fuck, if he had that camo hunting gear from his profile photo with him, and if he’d dress up for them. He’d dreamed of this for so long, he’d dreamed of finally taking a chance, slipping away, and being here where he could be…himself, but all he felt was paralyzed. He was only 50 miles from home, people knew he was here (not here, of course, at the convention, but here visiting a “cousin” he hadn’t seen in some years). What if someone saw him? What if someone else from town was here too? He looked up from the pool, and his gut bottomed out, when he saw someone on a balcony opposite his staring at him.
He…wasn’t quite Carl’s type–he liked a guy with a bit more chub and padding than the muscular fucker there looking at him, but the sheer…masculine confidence the guy was exuding made Carl feel both insecure and incredibly turned on. He met his eyes for a few moments, but couldn’t for longer than that, and no longer felt comfortable standing there, just being…ogled. He retreated back into his room, stared at the swimsuit he’d laid out on the bed, thought about it again, and then just sat down on the edge, wondering why he was doing any of this. He was too desperate to be out that he couldn’t handle pretending to be that straight redneck one more day, but he’s too terrified of being found out and losing what little he had to do anything with the opportunity he’d taken. He felt…trapped. Still, he should at least…give it a try…
He yawned, his eyes fluttering a bit. Maybe he should take a nap. It had been a long drive, and he’d feel better after some rest, he was sure. He stripped down naked, finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open, the room was spinning around him, and he fell back onto the bed askew, his entire body feeling impossibly heavy. Dimmy, he thought he heard the sound of his hotel room door opening and closing again, along with the sound of footsteps. He tried to call out, but he was just so sleepy all of a sudden, and the last thing he saw, before his eyes flickered shut, was the face of the man from the other balcony looming over his, a bright twinkle in his steel grey eyes as Carl fell into a deep sleep.
When he opened his eyes again, after what felt like a single blink, he wasn’t in the hotel room anymore. Hell, he wasn’t…anywhere. There was just a dark expanse all around him, with no discernible light source, but he could still…see something there, a few yards away, though it was difficult to make out what it was, exactly. He walked over towards it, and figured out that it was a cage–rather small, large enough for a big dog for a small human–and there was something inside of it–no, someone inside of it. It shuffled around as he approached, revealing itself to be a naked, middle aged man, but when their eyes met–no, how could that be possible.
“Please, jus’ let me out! This was a fuckin’ mistake, jus’ go home–ya can still pretend that this never happened, ya can still be a good husband tah Erin.”
It was himself. He was in the cage, but he was also standing here too. He didn’t quite know how to explain what he was witnessing, trying to process it, trying to figure out some way to reply, when a heavy hand rested down on his shoulder. He looked behind him, and found himself with the man from the balcony across the way. “Hello Carl–I see you’ve already been introduced to yourself.”
“Don’t listen tah him–don’t fuckin’ listen tah him, just fuckin’ git me outta here!”
“I don’t…understand…” Carl said, and noticed that his voice was missing its usual accent–the same one the thing in the cage had. He’d always hated it, thinking it made him sound like an idiot, and suddenly it was just gone?
“I’ll do my best to keep this rather simple, Carl–for both of you,” the stranger walked over to the cage, the version of himself in there trying to shrink away from him, cowering in fear, “Carl–I’m a…merchant of sorts, but I don’t deal in conventional goods. No, I deal in people’s lives, their souls, their desires. See Carl, from the moment I saw you earlier, I knew you’d be perfect for my service. Haven’t you always felt so…trapped by your life? Unable to really let go and be free? Held back by…well…everything that’s in here?” he said, laying a hand on the top of the cage. “My offer is simple–I take this part of you, and in exchange, I give you something to replace it. A new life.”
“You mean…I’ll be someone else?”
“Mostly. I mean, I’m not taking all of you, so everything here?” the man said, pointing to the version of Carl outside the cage, “You’ll still be there, but everything in here will be gone, and you’ll have one of my exquisitely crafted personas instead to help you and guide you to a brand new life.”
Bracken's Corner 