Bad Luck Ben: Episode X By Littlesilverstar, silverstar222b@yahoo.com The tenth and final! chapter in the Bad Luck Ben saga Monday morning. As if the most unpleasant time of the week wasn't bad enough already, there was the nightmare I had gone through at the hands of May, Annabelle, and Cassie. And it wasn't over. They were going to do this to me every week, making more sexually humiliating videos of me. And I could see no way out. If I went to the cops, the girls were undoubtedly skilled and ruthless enough to take the revenge they had promised they would take if I tattled. I went inside and took my place at my cubicle among the other worker drones. Most of them were young and male and not all that different from me. College graduates with liberal arts degrees that weren't worth the paper they were printed on, massive amounts of student loan debt, and soulless entry-level jobs that paid barely above minimum wage. I wished those were my worst problems. Those other guys may have been part of the millions of omega males who were being left behind by society, but at least they hadn't been targeted for abuse and humiliation by girls. Like I had done so many times before, I wished I could go back to how my life had been in my very first story, with my shitty job, shitty apartment, shitty car...but also my freedom. With a sigh, I turned on my computer, unlocked my drawer, took out my massive stack of papers, and got to work. Suddenly, I heard giggles. Female giggles. I looked up and saw two of the most attractive young women in the office, nicknamed Hot Blonde and Hot Brunette, whispering and pointing at me. I sighed again, used to this kind of mistreatment, and was about to go back to my work when I heard what I thought were the words "video" and "buggered up the ass." I froze in horror. Could they have seen the humiliating sex video that May, Annabelle, and Cassie had made of me? They were selling them on the Internet, but what were the odds that people at work would see them right away? I wasn't 100 percent sure I had heard their words right, and girls like that laughed at me all the time for other reasons. Oh, how I hoped it was for other reasons. I tried to get back to my job at hand, but the fears and distractions running through my mind made it difficult to concentrate. After making several mistakes, my boss called me into his office to chew me out, then ordered me back to work. The day seemed to drag on forever. Several times, hot girls and popular guys would point and laugh at me. I couldn't tell whether it was the same mockery and bullying that they did to me every day, or if it was because they had seen the video. Part of me wished that one of them would just come out and say it so I wasn't left wondering and worrying anymore. Finally, it was time to go home. But there was no relief in my mind. I still had the threat of that evil witch May and her evil friends hanging over me. What was I going to do about them? What could I do about them? I stopped at an outdoor cafe for a drink and a bite to eat, and brooded over those things. "Benjamin?" asked a female voice. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up. She was very beautiful, with long dark brown hair, an elegant, high-cheekboned face, and darkly tanned brown skin. She wore a sleeveless white top, and her arms were muscular but feminine. The muscle tone in her upper arms was visible even though she wasn't flexing, and her forearms were thick and defined, with visible veins. She wore a silver man's watch on her left wrist and a studded black leather bracelet on her right. A tasteful black knee-length skirt and black knee-high leather boots completed her outfit. "Y...yes?" I stammered, in awe of her beauty and her muscles, and wondering what she wanted with a guy like me. "I'm Special Agent Angelina Marquez, FBI." She flashed a badge. "I'm investigating a series of sex videos being sold on the Internet that target male victims. Have you been one of those victims?" My heart was racing. I remembered what had happened in my apartment after May and her friends had left, about the ray of sunshine lighting up that verse in my poem about the female avenging angel. Could this be it? Could Haley be looking down on me from heaven, sending another female warrior to do her good work on earth? Then I remembered the threats the girls had made. Could I risk squealing? Could Angelina protect me? I couldn't. Not yet. Not yet. I looked down at my shoes. "Um...I'm not sure what you're talking about." "I've seen many of the videos," said the sexy female Fed. "The latest one 'starred' someone who looked just like you. Perhaps you have a twin brother." The tone of her voice indicated that she clearly didn't believe me. "I'm sorry," I said in a small voice. "I can't help you." Angelina nodded slowly, in the manner of an experienced law enforcement official who was used to witnesses who were too frightened to talk. "If you...let's say...come across some new information, please give me a call." She handed me a business card. "I will. Thank you. I really mean it." "I know," she replied. Then, with a swirl of skirts, she was gone. I took a deep breath, my heart still pounding. I kept staring at the card. I imagined Haley shouting at me from above. "Do it! Call her!" But the fear of May and her friends was still too great. Tossing a bill on the table, I left the cafe and headed to the grocery store to pick up a few items. I couldn't stop thinking about Angelina and her offer as I shopped. Finally, I resolved to call her. This was exactly what I had been praying for. It was a gift from above, and I had to accept it. Yes, I would call her as soon as I got home. But as I was putting the groceries in my trunk, an arm suddenly snaked around my neck. Gasping for breath, I looked down at the muscular forearm that was cutting off my air. There was a familiar dark tan, a familiar gold man's watch, and a familiar scent of feminine perfume. "Hey there...cocksucker," said a familiar voice. Sure enough, it was May! I tried to speak. She flexed her bulging arm, constricting my airways further. "Shut up and listen, fag," she hissed. "Call her and you're dead meat. Now give me the card." Damn! The bitch must have been following me! "Idunnowhatyou'retalkingabout..." I mumbled. "Quit lying, Benita, before I pop your neck like a chicken. The fucking card! Now!" I couldn't resist this she-beast any longer. I reached into my pocket and relinquished the card. May released her massive and lethal arm from around my neck and I desperately gulped in lungfuls of oxygen. Spinning me around, she backhanded me across the face, a ring she was wearing leaving a painful welt on my cheek. With a smirk, she tore up the card. "Open your mouth." I obeyed. "Now eat it, bitch." She fed me the pieces of Angelina's business card. "Make sure to swallow. That should be easy for a swallower like you." She laughed triumphantly and dominantly as my only hope for salvation was literally eaten away. Sexy May smirked at me. "See you Saturday for the next video." As she was leaving, she unloaded one last taunt. "Those people at work? They know." I got into my car and put my face on the steering wheel. My only hope of rescue was gone, I couldn't remember the phone number to literally save my life, May was keeping tabs on me, and to literally add insult to injury, the hot girls and popular guys at work had seen me in the sexually humiliating video. I thought back to when I had first hit on May. I would have given anything to take it back. The rest of the week passed in a daze. The humiliation at work continued, with even the other omega males laughing at me, glad to have someone they could be above on the totem pole. In addition, I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder everywhere I went for May or her friends. My life had descended into a shitstorm of mockery and paranoia. Saturday morning. A joyous time for most people. Well, it used to be a happy time for me too. But now, it was merely the Day of the Video. May and Cassie and Annabelle would be here at one to torment me further. I found myself quivering as I imagined what they would do to me this time. I couldn't even eat any breakfast or lunch. As the clock turned to 12:59, I sat trembling on my bed. They weren't even here yet, and already they were doing this to me. That was the level of power and dominance they had. One passed, then 1:05, then 1:10. A faint hope arose within me. Maybe they weren't coming. Maybe they had bigger fish to fry. Maybe Angelina had busted and arrested them all. Maybe... Not maybe. May. My door was kicked open and May walked right in, her big black boot leaving a mark on the door. Black leather pants and a black T-shirt completed her outfit. She wore a wicked-looking spiked leather bracelet on each of her impressively big wrists, and her large firm D-cup breasts strained against her top. "Let's go, Benita," she ordered. "We're not going to film here this time. We've gotten ourselves a nice private studio to make our videos. No nosy neighbors to disturb us. Get your scrawny ass moving. And make sure to memorize the directions, because starting next week you're going to drive yourself over there, and I wouldn't want to be you if you don't show up on time." Looking at her bulging muscles, I gulped nervously and nodded. I followed the sexy Middle Eastern babe down the stairs and out onto the front lawn. At the curb, I saw Annabelle, the pretty Filipina babe who had lured me into the trap last time, at the wheel of her black BMW 7-Series. She wore jeans and her trademark white blouse with the sleeves rolled up to show off her big, dark brown forearms. May turned to wave to her. Thinking that now was my chance, I suddenly bolted and began running in the opposite direction as fast as I could. I wasn't even thinking about where to go, I just wanted to get the fuck out of there. I looked over my shoulder. May was chasing me, but instead of running she was doing a series of back handsprings, elegantly backflipping at me like a pro-gymnast. I tried to increase my speed. But when I glanced back again a few seconds later, she was actually closer, still doing her flick flacks! I ran desperately, gasping for breath, but it was no use. A few moments after that, May crashed into me, landing hard on top of me and pinning me to the ground. I grunted in pain. "Ooh, am I heavy?" May asked mockingly. "How does it feel, bitch, to run and be caught by a girl just doing back handsprings? I used to be on the gymnastics team. I could out-tumble most of the smaller girls. Not bad for a girl who's 5'6" and 143 pounds, right, bitch? And your scrawny ass is lighter than me, but you still have a gut. My waist is a lot smaller than yours. 26 inches, baby." Despite my fear, May's tumbling skills, muscular bulk, and slender wasp waist were all turning me on. "That was a good one, May," said Annabelle. "I got the whole thing on video." She held up her phone. "Nice, Ana," said May. "That should make a good little extra." The muscular Middle Eastern babe performed an elegant back walkover to get off of me and get back to her feet, then yanked me up. "Let's go, cocksucker. Your stupid ass should have known that you can't get away." May grabbed me, marched me towards the BMW, kneed me hard in the stomach, shoved me into the back seat, and climbed in after me. Annabelle got behind the wheel and quickly drove off. About twenty minutes later, we arrived at a deserted-looking single-story building downtown. Because it was the weekend, the whole downtown area was quiet. Annabelle parked the car near the back door, out of sight of the street. "This used to be a dance studio," the Filipina hottie remarked. "I had my lessons here when I was growing up. Now it's nice and empty. We rented it, nice and legal. It'll make a perfect film studio." "Oh, by the way, Benita, you'll need to pay your fair share of the rent," May said. "You're going to pay $700 a month." "What?! That's more than I pay for my apartment..." May backhanded me across the face, her spiked leather bracelet opening several vicious cuts on my cheek. "That was an order, not a request, wimp. You're going to go to the bank on Monday and withdraw this month's dues. I'll stop by your place at six to pick up the money. If you don't have it..." She made a big fist and I shivered. I gulped and nodded submissively, trying to calculate how much I would have left. Just enough to live on. They had apparently done their research and knew just how much they could squeeze out of me. May pushed me out of the car. Annabelle grabbed me, twisted my right arm behind my back, and marched me to the door. Opening it and shoving me inside, she and May hurried in after me, with May locking the door behind her. I looked around. A crude film set was in one corner of the otherwise empty large room. On set were a pair of bunk beds and a few old pieces of furniture. Two other people were in the studio. One I recognized as Cassie, the slim, pretty blonde who was the third member of the group of evil witches. She looked beautiful in a white dress. The other was a tall, muscular, cruel-looking man. I recognized his type immediately. The crude, thuggish asshole who was successful at picking up girls because of his looks and aggression. The type who bullied guys like me. The type who had made my life miserable. May walked up to the man and kissed him. "This is my boyfriend, Spike. Unlike you, Benita, he's a REAL man. He knows how to fight, how to dominate both men and women, and how to satisfy me physically. He's the rare male who's man enough to be worthy of being the boyfriend to a woman as strong as myself." "Yeah," smirked Spike. He strolled up to me, towering over me, and suddenly swung his fist, stopping at the last second and laughing as I flinched. He high-fived May. I wanted to call this asshole out for the coward he was and tell him to pick on someone his own size, but of course I couldn't. "Today, we're going to be making a video about life in a coed prison," announced Cassie. "Spike, as the dominant alpha male, will be looking for the girliest inmate to suck his cock and get buggered up the ass. Guess who that's going to be?" I began trembling with fear and rage. This couldn't be happening! "No, you can't..." I began. Annabelle did a quick series of front handsprings and cartwheels to take herself to me, then punched me in the face. "You're going to be buggered by him, or we're going to put our frame you for rape plan into action, and then you're going to be buggered by dozens of men in real prison every day for the rest of your life. So what's it going to be, Benita?" I spat out blood from her vicious punch and moaned, "I'll cooperate." All four of them sneered in triumph. "That's what I thought... cumslut," May smirked. "Now put this on." She held out an orange prison uniform. I changed, trying to stall it out for as long as I could. May, Annabelle, and Spike also got into costume. Cassie picked up a camcorder. I was quivering. I was about to be raped, and there was nothing I could do about it. Running would be useless. May had caught me just by doing back handsprings the last time I had tried that. "Hurry it up, cocksucker," snapped Annabelle. "We don't have all day." She flexed a surprisingly big bicep for a slender girl. That got me going. I quickly finished putting the orange uniform on and shuffled onto the set. May shoved me into one of the bunks, then she, Annabelle, and Spike positioned themselves on the others. Cassie raised the camcorder. "Lights, camera, ac..." "FREEZE, ASSHOLES!" The door was suddenly kicked open, revealing Angelina the sexy female FBI agent standing there, gun drawn. She wore the same knee-length skirt, knee-high boots, and sleeveless white top she had been wearing last time. The combination of her big forearm muscles at full strain as she aimed her gun and the darkness of her brown Latina tan in contrast to her white top made her look exceptionally hot. "Against the wall, fuckers!" Angelina ordered. May, Annabelle, and Spike reluctantly raised their hands and faced the wall. Cassie put down the video camera and joined her comrades. "Ben, come here." The FBI woman's voice softened. With joy flowing through me, I climbed out of the bunk and hurried over to my female savior. I was rescued! The relief at not having to be butt-raped and suck a guy's cock was indescribable. Motioning for me to stay near the door, Angelina made her way over to the four perps. As she neared Spike, he suddenly attempted to back-kick her, but she was far too quick for him. She did a standing one-arm back handspring to avoid the attack, still holding her gun in her other hand. Landing neatly on her feet, she swept out with her leg, tripping Spike to the floor. She kicked him hard in the side a couple of times with her big black boot. I heard the satisfying sound of ribs cracking from the impact of her kicks. May began turning around. Angelina pointed her gun at her. "Keep facing the wall! Don't even think about trying anything!" May's brunette head quickly whirled back to its original position. Angelina turned her attention back to Spike, who was moaning in pain. Turning him over, she stomped down hard on his face. With a curse, he began trying to get up, but Angelina rammed her knee into his face with all her strength. With a massive spray of blood, Spike collapsed to the cold concrete floor, unconscious. Cassie turned around. "Wait a minute." "I said to keep facing the wall until I told you otherwise, bitch," snapped Angelina. There was a cold and calculating look in Cassie's green eyes. "Do you have a warrant?" Angelina's tanned face lost some of its color. She said nothing, revealing what the answer was. "So you don't have one! This is private property that we rented nice and legal. You busted in here without a warrant and without probable cause. You don't have anything on us!" Cassie was smirking. Annabelle and May now also turned around. "You people brought me here against my will..." I began. Annabelle laughed. "Look at us. Do you think any jury will ever believe that May and I kidnapped you?" I hung my head. "This porn set...You were going to make him be in a video against his will..." said Angelina, her mind clearly spinning. "Porn is perfectly legal. And you can't make a jury believe that a guy was forced into a porno with three extremely hot chicks like us against his will," May said. "But I wasn't going to get to have sex with them! I was going to be anally and orally raped by HIM!" I cried out. "You have no proof of that," Cassie replied calmly. "All right, let's talk deal," said Angelina. "I can continue the investigation against you. If you keep attacking men then you WILL get busted. So here's what you're going to do. You are going to leave this man alone." She pointed at me. "You will stop harassing him, you will make no more videos with him, and you will remove from the Internet any videos you already have with him. Agree to that, and I'll back off the investigation. Don't, and I will get you thrown in prison eventually." The three evil girls whispered. "What do you guys think?" asked May. "Best we can do," said Annabelle. "Anyway, we still have Stephen in prison that we can make videos with. The warden's on our side. He'll keep the Feds out of there." Cassie nodded in agreement. "All right, it's a deal," said Annabelle. I let out a sigh of relief. After getting rescued, the possibility of having it all go down the drain had almost literally scared the crap out of me. I quickly changed back into my regular clothes. Spike, from his postion on the floor, sat up with a groan, holding his head. May looked at him for a second, then quickly whispered something to Cassie and Annabelle. "Wh...what's going on?" Spike mumbled. "We've made a deal with this Fed here, since she can't arrest us because she busted in without a warrant," May informed her boyfriend. "We're going to have to leave Ben alone, but otherwise we're free." Spike looked over at me. "Too bad. I would have enjoyed showing that little fag who's boss. But it's great that we got out of trouble. What's our next video?" "We were just talking about that," May answered. "The purpose of our videos is to humiliate weak males. And there's a male right here who just got his ass kicked by a female FBI agent." Her look suddenly turned icy. Spike looked as if he was about to shit himself. "But...that doesn't count...um...uh...she had a gun..." "She didn't use the gun," said Cassie. "She beat you with just her booted feet." May looked coldly at Spike. "I was wrong about you. I thought you were boyfriend material, but you're clearly not. You're such a wuss that you got completely and totally dominated by a woman much smaller than you. You're not man enough for me anymore." "But...but...I thought you loved me..." Spike began to cry like a little bitch. May, Annabelle, and Cassie all burst into laughter. "I thought you loved me!" Annabelle mocked in a falsetto voice. "Oh, my love! I'll do anything to win you back!" giggled Cassie. May simply looked at her ex and said, "Pussy." I began walking over to Spike. Angelina followed me protectively. I looked down at him, straight into his now frightened eyes, and said, "Who's the bitch now, cocksucker?" I couldn't help it. After all those years of being bullied, tormented, physically beaten, and humiliated by guys like him, the shoe was finally on the other foot for once. I let out all my rage as I spoke those words, then spat down on Spike's ugly face. "All right, Ben. Let's go," said Angelina. "So anyway," continued May, "since we need a new target for our video, guess who's going to be the star now?" "No...please..." Spike begged. In desperation, he turned to Angelina. "Please, make them stop!" Angelina, who had been walking away, stopped, turned around, and looked straight at him. Then she spoke a single word. "No." She turned back around and continued toward the exit. I followed her, filled with pure joy. At the door, I turned around one last time, looked right at Spike and laughed, and walked out. As Angelina shut the door firmly behind us, we heard a high-pitched male scream from inside. * * * I looked at my female rescuer as we drove away in her car. "Thank you for saving me." "De nada. Anyway, I kind of screwed it up by being so impetuous and busting in there without a warrant." "Don't say that. Anyway, maybe it's for the best. The girls never would have turned on Spike otherwise. That asshole was going to rape me. He deserves everything he's going to get." "He sure does," agreed Angelina. "You should be safe now. Those girls are too smart to try screwing around with someone under Federal protection. Anyway, enough about them. I'm hungry and I didn't have a chance to grab lunch yet. Want to get a bite?" "Sounds great," I said. "I didn't eat anything today because I couldn't from the fear of...you know, but now my appetite's back." Especially now that I was going to go out, so to speak, with a beautiful woman. After lunch, Angelina dropped me off at my place. She walked me up to my apartment. I looked deep into her dark brown eyes as we went inside. "Thank you...for everything." She smiled. "All that was just doing my job. But there's one more thing that's not part of my job that you're going to thank me for." She began removing her top. She wasn't wearing a bra and her firm 36C breasts, tanned the same deep brown as the rest of her skin, became exposed. I stared, my brain overloaded with a million emotions. Then I passed out. * * * I woke up in my own bed. Angelina was standing over me. She was still topless, and she had taken off her skirt and boots and was standing there in just a pair of lacy red panties. Her big tits bounced slightly as she spoke. "Are you okay?" "Y...yes. I am now." I began reaching for my left arm with my right. She somehow knew what I was going to do. "You don't have to pinch yourself. Trust me, this is real." "But why..." The pretty brunette smiled. "Don't sell yourself so short. First of all, I think you're cute. Second, even though you're shy and I know that makes it difficult to talk to girls, once you get the chance to open up you're quite witty. I really enjoyed our conversation at lunch today. Third, you deserve a reward after all that those cunts put you through. And finally, I have the stereotypical high Latina sex drive, and I'm horny." "Oh my God," I whispered. Was this really happening? Was I really about to have my first genuine score? "Yes," Angelina whispered back. "This is really happening. Now take off your clothes." She removed her underwear, revealing her pink pussy lips and a patch of dark brown pubic hair neatly trimmed into a heart shape. I quickly stripped, standing naked next to her. The contrast between our two bodies was striking. At 5'7", she was a couple of inches taller than me, with an hourglass figure and a heavily muscled but still feminine body. She had a dark and very even brown tan all over, while my skin was pale and my build was slender, with no real muscle tone. I immediately got a raging erection. "Let's take care of that so you can last longer when I do you," murmured the sexy Latina seductively. She grabbed my hard-on with her right hand. She was still wearing her black leather bracelet, and the studs on the bracelet pressed into the skin of my cock. "Wow," I breathed. "Your forearm...it's so big." Angelina grinned. "Thank you. Yep, I have bigger wrists and forearms than most of the guys I've dated. My wrist measurement is over seven inches. This is actually a man's bracelet I'm wearing because most women's bracelets don't fit me." "That's so hot," I whispered. I held my arm out next to hers. Of course mine was much smaller, and hers had prominent veins and heavily developed muscles that rippled with her slightest movement, traits I could never develop. Her dark brown Latina tan also stood in sharp contrast to my pale wrist. "I'm glad you like it." She began working my pole, giving me a rough hand job. Her grip strength was incredible. I could never apply this amount of pressure when I jacked off. I moaned in pleasure, then in pain. "Miss Angelina, your strength is amazing, but please don't crush it!" I shrieked. She giggled, reducing the pressure. "Sorry, mijo. Better?" "Yes, Miss Angelina." She continued working my rod, still applying far more power than I ever could, but holding back just enough to keep me on the borderline of pleasure and pain. It wasn't long before I shot off a massive load of cum several feet across the room. She giggled again at that. "Wow," I moaned. "That was amazing." "I know," she said confidently and cockily. "And it's about to get even better. Let's see how fast you can recover." She began doing a sexy dance, wiggling her muscular brown ass, trying to "inspire" me. "Anything special I can do that'll really get you going?" "Well, I really love women who can do gymnastics." "Oh, you liked that back handspring I did to defeat that asshole Spike? There's more where that came from." Clearly a confident, super-alpha female who loved showing off, Angelina quickly did a no-handed cartwheel, landed on the floor in a full 180 degree split (leaving a sticky spot on the floor), then showed off her strength by doing a straddle press handstand followed by several handstand push-ups. She moved her body backwards to get back to her feet and did a graceful looking back walkover. Stepping back to the wall to give herself more room, she upped the ante by throwing herself into a powerful tumbling pass, starting with a front tuck somersault, then going into a roundoff, back handspring, split-leg layout. The brown-skinned beauty looked over at me. Sure enough, my erection was already coming back. She laughed. "I knew that would work." She began making her way towards me. "Wait," I said. "Could you do that standing tumbling pass Angelina Jolie did in Tomb Raider over to me? That's one of my favorite movie scenes, and it seems so fitting since your name is Angelina too." "Of course, mijo. I know exactly what that scene is." With that, she did two standing back handsprings followed by a back tuck, just like the other Angelina had done in the movie. My hard-on grew larger. "Looks like we're ready now. Lie on the bed on your back," she instructed. I eagerly obeyed. She mounted me with a leap, landing hard. I let out a grunt. "Ooh, am I heavy?" Angelina asked. Her words were exactly the same as May's when she had landed on me after catching me with her tumbling run, but unlike May's cruel mockery, Angelina's voice was warm and sincere. "No...I mean yes...I mean..." She giggled. "I know what you mean. I am heavy, but you like it because I'm solid muscle. 145 pounds, if you're curious." "That's more than me. I find that kind of hot," I said, as I felt her slide herself onto me, impaling herself on my rock-hard pole. Her tight, powerful vaginal muscles clamped around me hard and she began fucking me aggressively and dominantly. She made dirty talk as she screwed me, her voice slipping back from her trained, unaccented English that she used in normal conversation to a Spanish accent. She increased the pace, grunting and continuing the naughty talk, switching to Spanish as she neared orgasm. Even though I couldn't understand her words, that just got me even hotter. Finally, we had powerful and simultaneous orgasms, both shrieking as we came. She slid herself off of me as our heart rates slowly returned to normal. I sat up and looked over at her, trying to think of what to say. But what could I say? What mere words could convey the level of gratitude I had for what she had just done for me? As if she could read my thoughts, Angelina covered my hand with hers, looked deep into my eyes, and simply smiled, indicating that I didn't need to say a thing. She spoke instead. "You know I can't stay." "I know. You have your life, and I have mine. But I have mine because of you. I know it's a cheesy line from a cheesy movie, but it's just like Rose said about Jack in Titanic. You saved me in every way that a person can be saved." "I try to help people out when I can," she replied modestly. "But the point I want to make is that you'll be just fine on your own now. A man's first score changes him forever, for the better. Let me tell you something about women. We have a way of telling whether or not a guy has scored in his life. And we're far more respectful to those who have. Of course your life isn't going to be perfect, but the sailing WILL be a lot smoother from now on." I smiled and nodded. I could feel the truth in her words. We cleaned ourselves off and put our clothes back on. As I watched her finish putting on her boots, she said, "You'll be independent, but you'll never be alone. I'll check in on you from time to time, and we'll keep in touch. And of course I'll protect you if May and her friends decide to do something stupid. I don't think that'll happen, though." "Thank you," I said. "It'll be nice to know that I have two female guardian angels watching over me." I pointed to her, then pointed straight up. She smiled and nodded. At the door, we spent several moments just looking into one another's eyes and holding hands. Finally she said simply, "Goodbye, Benjamin." "Goodbye, Angelina." She gave me one last kiss. Then, with a swirl of skirts, she was gone. I spent about the next thirty minutes just letting it all sink in, trying to get my overloaded brain to slow down. Finally, I let out a war whoop of joy. "I've SCORED! I've FUCKING SCORED!" I quickly put together a Victory Soundtrack of various celebration songs from different movies from my music file collection on my computer, then set it to play, starting with the victory music from Apollo 13 when the spaceship lands safely. I danced, then did a trot around imaginary basepaths, leaping up and down like Joe Carter after he hit the World Series-winning walk-off home run for the Blue Jays in '93. I danced and celebrated long into the night. EPILOGUE Since I still had a reputation as a loser at work, I happily quit that boring, low-paying, soul-crushing data entry job and Angelina used her connections to hook me up with a much better career. I'm working as a convention planner and organizer now. It lets me actually use my brain, the pay is a lot better, and I get to travel. I love it. And best of all, no one there knows about my haunted past. I'm just a normal, regular guy to them. With my increased salary, I moved out of my shitty studio apartment that had so many bad memories attached to it and found a much better apartment complex in a much better neighborhood. It's got a pool, hot tub, nice gardens, all that good stuff. My new apartment isn't big - I don't need a big place - but it's got a separate bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. instead of being a shitty studio. I no longer have my silly shrine to Haley. I donated the big picture of her to the FBI training academy. She had been a criminal justice major and had wanted to be an FBI agent. Angelina says the Haleys of the world are just the kind of recruits they're looking for, and that picture of her along with a brief story of her actions in her short but heroic life will be inspiring to the trainees. I still have the trinkets that remind me of Haley, but they're put away in a drawer now. As for my silly love poems and art, I burned them. I know it's what Haley would have wanted. She'd want me to act like a mature man, not a lovesick boy. I did keep one poem. It was the one with the line about the female avenging angel saving me. I truly believe the sun shining on that line was a sign from Haley, so I couldn't throw that one away. And I do still have two tasteful, medium-sized pictures, one of Haley and one of Angelina, on my dresser. A tribute to the two women who saved me. May and her friends were smart enough to honor their end of the bargain and leave me alone, and they kept their word and deleted all the videos of me from the Internet. They're still in business, however. They started a new series of videos starring Spike. Angelina used her connections to let me know where he worked and I "anonymously" emailed links to his videos to all his coworkers. Last I heard, he quit his job in humiliation. Angelina is keeping tabs on him and she's going to let me know when he gets a new job so I can send another "anonymous" email. Now that I finally have good insurance (my old data entry job didn't give me medical coverage or any other benefits), I got my hernia fixed. It really helps now that I have to travel a lot for my new job. I used to get pulled aside for extra scrutiny by the TSA every time because my hernia was considered a "suspicious bulge." I still get the occasional random bag search or hand swab thing - dealing with the TSA will never be fun - but travel is a heck of a lot less stressful now. I also bought a brand new car - nothing fancy, just a $20,000 compact - but I finally have a new vehicle instead of the used ones I've had all my life. Angelina was right when she said that a man's first score changes him forever. Girls know. I don't know how, but just like she said, they do have this ability to tell whether a man has Scored (TM) or Not Scored (TM). It's certainly changed my life for the better. Don't get me wrong, I'll never be a "player" who can get a girl to hop into bed with him just by snapping his fingers, but women treat me a lot differently now. Girls who would have laughed at me in my old life now smile at me and come over to my work station to chat. Hot female flight attendants who used to give me stone-faced looks and interact with me like robots now warmly greet me and make friendly small talk with me. One incident proved more than anything else that my life had changed for the better, forever. In a hotel lobby on one of my business trips, I bumped into Marie (from one of my earlier stories, the sexy blonde soccer player who had beaten me up in high school). After seeing the friendly, respectful way in which the hot female hotel clerk interacted with me and the bounce in my step from scoring with Angelina, Marie actually apologized for what she had done to me. We even sat down at the hotel bar to chat for a bit after that. I learned that she's now married, has two daughters, and was traveling for a tournament with the girls' soccer team she coaches. I'm even going to ask a woman out now. She's a manager for one of my biggest clients and we've worked together on several projects. I think we have a really good connection. I'm not 100% sure she'll say yes, but I've finally reached the point where I can let rejection, if it comes, roll off me like water off a duck's back because I know for sure that there will be other opportunities. And so, with that, it is time to end my saga. For it is titled, "Bad Luck Ben," and I am no longer Bad Luck Ben. I am simply, BEN. THE END