​Sleaze Land – Chapter 10 (The Clock) Part 2

Sleaze Land – Chapter 10 (The Clock) Part 2
 
 
 
     “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.  We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”  Mother Teresa
 
 
 
 
“I don’t understand.  Why am I here?” Edwin Norton asked of the short, plump woman with the ever-appealing hips.
 
“You will,” Emma told the man she’d had delivered from California to her office in Chicago, just for this special event.
 
“And why am I still restrained?  I haven’t done anything.  I’m not under arrest, am I?  I just don’t understand…” the man went on, and on, as Emma fiddled with her VR projector settings.
 
You see… Emma wanted the elitist to feel like he was good and truly a part of this presentation – like he was really there.

And to be honest... it felt good... makin the asshole wait on her kind for once.
 
“That woman, at the café… the homeless woman, do you recall her?” Emma asked after a time, after the man’s face had grown nearly the shade of a red delicious apple.
 
“What woman?” the irate man asked, as steam began to rise from his collar.
 
I mean… didn’t this woman understand who he was.  He only had to make a single call and he’d have at least three Navy Seals and maybe even a former president in her office in two shakes of a lamb’s…
 
“You are such an idiot,” Emma chuckled, as she turned up the volume on the VR speakers, and suddenly the forever-youngish-looking man could hear his own thoughts.
 
“What the fuck” the voice said over the speakers.  “You can’t possibly be listening to my…”
 
“Thoughts,” the man said the last word aloud, in unison with the speaker system.
 
Emma turned the volume back down to its minimum and chuckled.
 
“What the fuck did you study in college anyway?  I mean, for fuck's sake, I took electronics in ninth grade and I knew then that thoughts are nothing more than radio signals… frequencies… oi vey… you celebs are none too bright.  Are ya?”
 
Emma said the last as if she were speaking to a mentally fragile child.
 
“Anyhoo.  I didn’t really expect you to recall her specifically.  I mean, just how many women like her have you stepped over during your hundred plus years in Hollywood anyway?  Thousands, I’d wager.  Anyhoo… what you’re about to witness is a young mother’s attempt to get her children back from the big, bad movie pornographers.”
 
“Attempt,” Edwin said in such a way that very much implied it had been a question.
 
Emma smiled sadly, but her eyes were all a-glow.
 
“Yeah, sad, really.  How you could have helped.  If you’d just noticed her the day before, or the day before that, or hell, even the day before that… You see… we have it all, here... on film.  How all them days all you did was just walk on past, like she wasn't even there, even though helping her woulda cost you next to nothing.  You could have helped save her, and her kids, but… you never did.”
 
“You can’t be serious.  You didn’t actually kidnap that woman’s children?” the suddenly very woke man asked, as the virtual reality system suddenly kicked into life, just as Marla was running through the front doors of The Reagents theater.
 
“You… you can’t be serious.  You can’t kidnap kids just to frame me… for doing nothing!” he yelled, as he suddenly recognized the terrorized face of a young woman he’d tossed some coins to, every now and again.
 
“No!  You can’t be serious!” he shouted, as he saw the woman run up to two thuggish men, men he recognized as walk-ons from his latest film.
 
“No!  It’s not right!” he screamed, as he watched one of the men backhand Marla across the face.
 
“You can’t use people’s suffering as a weapon.  You just can’t.”
 
“But you have.  Your whole entire career, Ed.  In fact, without victims you would never have had a career.  So… shhh I’m trying to see what happens next.”
 
A second later the wail of two small children sounded loudly over the speakers, as a woman brought them from the back room, out into the lobby of the dilapidated theater.
 
“No!  You can’t have my babies.  I’ll tell the cops!  I’ll tell them all about the ATM camera.  Sadler told me about you guys.  You can’t!” she screamed, until they beat her into unconsciousness, all while her babies screamed and cried next to her.
 
“No… you can’t…” Edwin said again, as he watched as one of the men smothered the woman to death.  Right there in front of both of her children.
 
“What about the kids?” the other thug asked of the woman who had one baby in her arms and the other at her side.
 
“Hepstein’s ranch.  The new owner’s requesting fresh stock.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Raena Exe 2021
 
 
*Inspired by life.
*All characters, places, and events are completely fictional.
*All rights reserved.

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