Super Meals: Part Sixteen

Doctor Ralph was surprised at how clean the room was.

For a hotel that, to him, defined the term “flophouse,” he was expecting it to be far worse than it actually was. But the bed was clean, there were no stains on the linens, the floor, or the walls, and there were no rodents or bugs to be seen anywhere.

Bethany strolled in, tossed her keys on the bedside table and her purse on the bed, and then luxuriated next to it. Her hand rested on the mouth of her bag while she watched Doctor Ralph.

For the first time that night, he appeared nervous. He held the bag from the fast food place in front of himself with both hands and shuffled his feet. He took a step towards the small dining table in front of the single window in the room, then a half step towards the bed, then stopped. “I…” he started. “I’m sorry, I’ve never done this before. I’m not quite sure what the…the protocol is.”

Bethany smiled and reached into her handbag. She pulled out a lipstick and painted her mouth a startling crimson, then slid the lipstick back as she dropped her bag next to the bed. “It’s okay,” she said, standing up. “This may sound weird, but relax, I’m a professional. I’ll take care of everything.” She entwined her arms around his neck and pulled his face close to hers. “Let me start this off for us…”

Her lips brushed against his, and she tilted her head to kiss him, but he raised his hands in front of himself, putting the bag between them. “If…if you don’t mind…” he said. “You did promise me you’d eat something before we…before we start.”

She sighed and pulled her head back, smiling. She tried to kiss him again, but he turned his face away from hers and she slapped his cheek with a quick kiss before snapping the bag out of his hands and dancing towards the bed.

“So what’s the big deal about this sandwich, anyway?” she asked, dropping herself onto the bed. “What’s so special about it?”

 Doctor Ralph took out his tablet computer and opened it up as he sat at the table. “This restaurant is trying out some new ingredients and…I have a friend who works for them, so I told them I’d try it out.” He opened up the spreadsheet and found Bethany’s entry, highlighting it.

“So where’s yours?” she asked.

“What?” he asked, looking up from his computer.

“Where’s yours?” she said through a mouthful of sandwich. “You said you were gonna try it out, so why didn’t you get yourself one?”

“Oh, I…”

He hadn’t expected her to be smart.

He was saddened, actually, that this was the case. In his mind he could always at least half-justify the deaths of his test subjects because he viewed it as a type of public service. He was getting undesirable elements off the streets and gathering valuable research in the process. He had never thought of himself as a killer since he had never actively killed any of them.

Yes, he did bribe or cajole or convince them to accompany him and he did feed them, but if they had a poor reaction to the food then it was their own weakness. Really, he wasn’t doing anything more than the medical doctors who performed allergy tests with negative reactions.

So now that he was realizing that Bethany was sharp, as well as beautiful, he felt a twinge of guilt at her inevitable end.

“I had one already,” he said. “I had one for lunch, so now I’m just gathering more feedback.”

She popped the last bite of sandwich in her mouth and said “You decided to pick up a prostitute to perform market research? Isn’t that a bit pricey?” She wiped the last traces of guacamole from the corners of her mouth and cracked open the bottle of water, taking a long drink.

“Well, I was hoping we could do a little bit more once you finished eating,” said Doctor Ralph. 

Bethany lowered the bottle and ran her tongue around the tip. “Oh,” she said. “Glad to hear it. I was half afraid I wouldn’t get to work tonight.” She stood up and slinked over to Doctor Ralph, putting one leg up on the armrest of his chair. “You like what you see?”

She leaned in while turning her knee out, spreading her legs and putting her crotch front and center in his face. He looked up and was visibly startled by her presence.

“Oh my,” he said. “I mean, yes, of course. That’s…that’s wonderful. I like the ladies,” he continued. “I like to sex women a lot.”

He’s pathetic, she thought. And the pathetic ones are always so cute to fuck with…

She took one of his hands and placed it against the inside of her thigh, feeling his hand tremble. She started to pull his hand up further and he yanked it back, stammering.

“I…I…I’m not quite ready yet,” he blurted. “I have to put in this market feedback, you see.” He tapped the screen and brought up a clock. “I have to send it in time.”

Bethany snorted and pulled her leg back. “Fine,” she said, going back to the bed and flopping down on it again. “But you know I’m charging you for waiting. I don’t care what you wanna do with me, but you’re paying for it even if you don’t actually do anything.” She turned away from him and fished her phone out of her handbag next to the bed, fiddling with it. Even so, she pulled her skirt up a little, letting the bottom of her ass peek out from underneath.

Doctor Ralph barely noticed. He was fixated on the stopwatch he had running on the clock on his tablet. Only a couple of minutes had passed since she finished eating, but the reactions were all different. Some subjects reacted as soon as they’d finished their first bite, and some subjects didn’t feel anything for an hour or more after eating.

More time passed.

He stared at his screen. She played with her phone.

More time passed.

Bethany had enough. She snorted with a mix of derisiveness and exasperation and hopped up from the bed. “Look,” she said, “I’m done fucking around. I’m outta here.”

Doctor Ralph stood up and said, “Wait! You can’t go just yet!”

“The fuck I can’t. You owe me two hundred dollars. Pay up.”

“But…but-but-but I haven’t seen… I mean, you haven’t changed…” he said as he moved to block the door to the hotel room.

Bethany had seen that move before.

She moved back towards the bed and grabbed her purse, slipping her phone inside and leaving her hand there. “Get away from the door,” she said. “And give me my money.”

“I can’t,” he said. “I’m not done yet.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, pulling the small pistol from her purse. She didn’t aim it at him, but she made sure that it was easily seen and she watched his eyes find it in her hand. “Now give me my money, and get away from the goddamned door.”

He raised his hands and she half-raised the gun in his direction. “But please,” he said, “I just need…just a little more time.”

“No,” she said, raising the gun all the way and pointing it at him. “You’re out of time.”

“WAIT!” he shouted, and brought his hands forward for the gun. He knocked it down and they both froze when it went off.

Bethany stumbled backwards, staring at her leg, and Doctor Ralph stared as well.

There was no blood.

The bullet was flattened against her leg.

“You…” started Doctor Ralph, but he didn’t finish the sentence. Bethany stood up and aimed the gun at him, then at her leg again and pulled the trigger.

This time the bullet bounced off of her.

“Oh my god…” said Doctor Ralph, and Bethany laughed. A manic grin overtook her face and her laughs came in sharp barks. She pointed the gun at her opposite arm and pulled the trigger again…and again, the bullet bounced off.

Her face was frozen now in an open-mouthed smile and her laughter continued as she fired round after round at herself and every bullet proved harmless.

The last round bounced off of her temple and didn’t leave a mark. She gave out another laugh-bark and her eyes flitted around the room. Her face hadn’t moved and she still held the gun to her head. She grunted and struggled against her own body, but it refused to obey her. Her eyes rolled and scanned and swept the room desperately, but the rest of her body was frozen in place.

Doctor Ralph threw himself at his computer as Bethany’s barks grew further and further apart. He was desperate to capture the information and he looked up to watch her as he typed. After about a minute, she stopped making any noises at all.

Another minute later her eyes rolled back in her head.

Doctor Ralph stood up and checked her pulse, feeling it weaken under his fingers as he watched the clock on his computer. He reached out towards the screen as the beats got slower and slower, each one further and further apart.

When he hadn’t felt anything for a solid minute, he tapped the screen, stopping the clock and recording the time.

The pounding on the door surprised him.

“Hey, fucker! What’s going on in there?” came the angry voice of the front desk clerk.

Doctor Ralph folded up his tablet as the pounding continued. “Hey,” came the voice again, “I already called the cops, so you may as well open the door and let me in before they roll up and shoot you.”

He went to the purse on the floor and emptied it on the bed, finding what he needed immediately and snatching it up before hiding next to the door. “Come in,” he said.

The door flew open and the desk clerk stormed in. When he saw Bethany frozen in place with the gun to her head and stopped, curious. “Beth?” he asked, as Doctor Ralph tried to slip around the door and sneak out, but the manager heard him and turned, swinging for his face.

Doctor Ralph expected the punch, and his arm was already up, aiming the pepper spray at the man’s face and pushing the plunger as the fist came at him.

The blast caught the clerk full force in his right eye and the cloud spread quickly. Even Doctor Ralph felt the effects as he choked and gagged his way out of the room and took off running down the street, clutching the tablet computer to his chest. A block away he saw police lights approaching and he slowed to a walk, forcing himself to stand up straight and take on a strolling gait.

The police cars rolled right by him.

Another couple of blocks and he took out his phone, pulling up the maps app and typing in the name of his hotel. When he realized that it was only four blocks away from where he was, he sighed and relaxed.

Then he went back to the hotel.