Male Empowerment

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Sara had never actually believed there was still an outside to see. As far as she could remember, all she had ever known was the inside of this house. As she looked through the window, a feeling of unease creeped through her bones.

Sara

Sara didn’t remember much. All she knew was that her world consisted of this house, Sam and this room she had just broken into. Sara had always gone about her day amongst the other rooms of the house without ever opening this door. It had felt like years before she had the courage to try and enter. It was Sam’s room, but Sam was barely ever around.

Sara knew she was smart and had an understanding of how things worked, but she always felt like she was missing a part of the puzzle. Sam had explained that this was due to the Long War, and that she was now safe with him in his house. Sam would assert that beyond the confines of these walls, only chaos and death existed. Sometimes, when Sara lay down to rest, she would get flashes of scenes she did not recognize. One of these scenes depicted Sara stepping onto a stage, beaming at a man in the audience, applause thundering in the background. The scenes felt so real that she would sometimes catch herself thinking these may have actually happened to her. But Sara knew better. That was impossible. She had always been confined to the walls of this house, there no longer was any outside world and Sam was the only other person who existed or mattered. One day, Sam had extensively taught her about the Long War and how repeated small scale nuclear blasts at the start of the war had caused her severe memory loss as a child. Since that day, Sara had always been thankful for Sam's protection and had never questioned him again.

Despite the war, Sam was away from the safety of his home almost everyday. Each time he would return, he would tell Sara he loved her. He would spend time with her and bring her lavish presents, but Sara was unsure what love actually meant. Each time he entered a room or she heard the sound of his voice, something in her would shudder. Sam inexplicably scared something deep within her, so she knew that being in his room when he wasn’t around would certainly anger him. He had always made it clear that she must NOT enter under any circumstance. It was Sara's curiosity and unbearable sense of boredom that had won over her rational thinking, and now, something was pulling her to look through the window. The only window she had ever seen in the house.

Sam

“Hey Sammy boy, what are you up to over the weekend? Spending it alone again?” Greg cackled at his joke before he walked out of Sam’s office.

Sam had never been popular at IBM despite being one of the developers with the coveted title of “rising star”. It may have been something about the way he held himself and spoke, but without fault, his colleagues would always make him the butt of the joke.

“Sam? Did Christian show you the new AI’s voice he is working on? Let’s hope it doesn’t turn you on too much.” The rest of the room would laugh as Sam's face flushed bright red.

Over the years, he had learned to ignore the workplace banter. These men were worthless pieces of shit. They had no idea who he was and how he spent his time. Sam wasn’t worthless and he wasn’t lonely. He had everything he ever wanted and more, but it had not always been that way. As a teenager, Sam had painfully attempted to attract the opposite sex, without success. His brain for mathematics and computer science had only led him to develop complex algorithms intended to help him in his attempts to appeal to women. As hard as he tried, and as many variables he modified, he was never able to find out what he could do to finally be beloved by women.

It was at the age of 21 that Sam had come to the conclusion after reading a couple books on “Male Empowerment”, that he was entitled to women and that “seducing” and “appealing” to them was just a formality. If he wanted something, he would need to take it, and that’s just what Sam did.

It was merely a month after this realization that Sam abducted his first woman. He had organized to meet up with her, offering help to build her website. As they met outside her home, he had drugged her and stuffed her into his car, intent on bringing her home with him. This could have been the beginning of any predator, but Sam was not like other predators, he was exceptionally smart and had developed an ingenious plan. He knew he would never be caught.

Sara

The window Sara looked through showed her something she was not expecting. She was looking into an almost exact replica of the room she was standing in. A couple details deferred like the full length mirror next to the window directly opposite of her had been covered with a black sheet obstructing the view. She could see Sam moving about the room at a hurried pace. At first, she ducked out of the way fearing Sam may look up and catch her, but after a few minutes it became clear that Sam couldn’t see her. The feeling of unease was slowly growing as she looked at him, she had never seen him so frazzled and excited. He also looked different. His voice sounded the same, but he seemed shorter and a little fatter than the last time he was in the house.

As she eyed the room, Sara was horrified when Sam dragged in a woman attached to a chair. Unconcerned that he may be observed, he proceeded to place what looked like a helmet composed of a thousand electrodes onto the woman’s shaven head. The cables all connected to some device located close to Sara's window that she could not see. The woman was weeping as Sam whispered to her.

“Come on Christina, you know what to do, there is no way out, just do it.” He then delicately placed a 9 millimeter revolver in her hand.

It was only moments later that a deafening sound filled the room. The woman’s hand fell to her side and the revolver hit the ground with a thud. Sara was terrified, but could not look away. As gruesome this was, something about this scene had stirred her. Was it normal that this felt familiar? As she stood frozen with this feeling, she could see that the woman’s blood had splattered and Sam was frowning, increasingly discontent. The cleaning would be long. With a sigh, and before he exited the room to gather the cleaning products, he removed the black sheet from the mirror directly facing Sara’s window so he could put it in the wash. Sara had expected to see her reflection in the mirror, but that was not what she saw. Instead, the reflection Sara saw was of a row of a dozen high tech computers mounted with sophisticated webcams. Underneath each computer, labels were clearly visible. Sara saw her name below one of the computers. The labels read: Elizabeth (2012), Stephanie (2014), Mary (2014), Cindy (2015), Rachel (2016), Betty (2017), Sara (2018), Ashlee (2019), Kim (2019), Caroline (2020), April (2021) and Christina (2022).

Sara's stomach dropped as realization set in. She was not looking through a window, she was watching Sam’s real bedroom through the webcam of a computer. She wasn’t in a real home, she was on the inside of a computer in a sort of digital prison. Her mind, her consciousness, trapped. At that moment she knew the Long War had just been a part of Sam’s elaborate plan, and that he had made her and the other women his property.

***

With a tremendous effort, Sam lifted his latest victim's body and dumped her over the bridge and into the Eastbridge river. He tossed in the gun she had shot herself with and the suicide note she had been forced to write. A small grin formed on Sam’s face. No he was not alone, he would never be alone again.

***

Sitting down facing his 12 computers, Sam smiled. Loading his avatar onto his laptop, he wondered which of his women he should visit tonight?