I own you.
— Tinger
My confidence was shattered and I needed it back, so I went looking for the man whose confidence I stole, so I could steal it again.
I needed to find the guy I'd Good N' Plenty'd. I needed to find Doug.
He worked as a concierge at the Ameristar casino hotel in East Chicago, which meant he was nearby. I'd spied on him a few times, and I checked his social media from time to time, and... OK, fine, I stalked him.
He tried to fucking rape me, and I never felt right about how we ended things. I humiliated him, but I let him go. It never felt right to let him off so easy.
Did he get his confidence back? I needed to steal it again.
It was 10:30pm. He got off work at 11. I went to the casino to wait. I'd watched him before. I knew the routine.
The driveway for the hotel has a loop, where people who use the valet hand off their keys as they head into the casino. Who the fuck uses valet parking in a shitty town like East Chicago?
I watched some bro drive up in a Lincoln Navigator with stupid looking rims and hand off the keys like it was nothing. I know that's how valet parking works, but damn. He's driving an eighty thousand dollar SUV and handing the keys to a guy making minimum wage plus tips, in a place like this?
I cannot overstate the following: This was not Chicago, Illinois. This was East Chicago, Indiana, a town of 25 thousand people that shouldn't even have a goddamn casino.
I watched the valet for ten minutes while waiting for Doug before I couldn't stand it anymore. I drove to his house instead.
By the time I got there, I knew he'd be arriving in 20 minutes. Tick, tock. I was on the clock. "How do I get in?" I couldn't find a way in, and I didn't want to break in. That meant I needed him to let me in. But how?
I was hiding behind a tree when he got home. He went inside. I heard the door close. I was hoping he wouldn't lock the door, but I heard him flip the lock. I heard him flip the deadbolt too.
Moments later, a light went on in the living room.
Ah-ha. My way in was to lure him out.
I started pitching pebbles at his living room window. Ting! Another ting! And another ting!
The curtains opened. He looked outside, but I was far enough below the window that he couldn't see me.
The curtains closed. Ting! Ting! More pebbles against the window. The curtains opened again.
I threw one last pebble and ran to the far side of his front door.
Doug came out. While he wandered in the yard, to figure out what was going on, I snuck inside his house. I'd searched it a few years ago, so I thought I remembered the layout. I was going to hide in the guest bedroom closet, but I ended up in his bedroom when the front door opened again.
("SHIT! He's back!")
I rolled under the bed, hoping he wouldn't notice.
He went into the living room and turned on the TV. Then he went in the kitchen. He must have been watching the news because I could hear sports scores and it sounded like he was rummaging through the fridge.
I debated finding a better place to hide, but Doug kept going from room to room.
Eventually, he turned off the TV and came into the bedroom. As I laid under the bed, trying to breathe as quietly as possible, his clothes started hitting the floor. "Oh, God," I thought, "he's getting undressed."
He climbed into bed. I reveled at the thought of being the monster under his bed. God, I wanted to kick straight up and scare the hell out of him, but I had a better plan.
I waited for him to fall asleep. Then I snuck out from under the bed, and for a moment, I just stayed there. I leaned down so my face was only an inch away from his, and I whispered, "I own you."
I don't know why I said it. As the words came out of my mouth, I was shocked. I jumped back as I realized what a stupid risk that was to take. Then, I crept out of the bedroom and went searching for his keys.
I found them in a bowl on the bookshelf, by the door.
I begged myself to grab his keys and get out, but I couldn't resist temptation. I needed to toy with him, so I went back in his bedroom and stole his underwear. They were a God awful pair of tighty whities. I didn't want them. I didn't even want to touch them. But I loved the thought of him waking up & not being able to find them.
Those nasty underwear felt like victory.
Actually, they still felt sweaty, which was just so overwhelmingly ewwwww.
But Doug's keys? They were the keys to happiness. My happiness.
Those keys meant I could toy with him whenever I wanted to.