Chapter 6: The Aggressive Marketing Strategy

【Seda PoV】

Patience was overrated.

I sprawled across Elizabeth’s bed, staring at her ceiling like it held answers to the universe’s mysteries. It didn’t. Just boring white paint and a small crack in the corner. Her room smelled like lavender and electronics, a weird combination that somehow worked.

Elizabeth sat at her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard. Three monitors glowed in front of her, casting blue light across the dark room. She’d been at this for hours, building our trap with methodical precision.

I was bored out of my mind.

“How much longer?”

My voice came out whiny, impatient. I didn’t care. Three days of throwing myself at Alfred had exhausted my reserves of subtlety.

Elizabeth didn’t look away from her screens.

“Almost done. Stop rushing me.”

“I’m not rushing. I’m expressing justified frustration.”

“Same thing.”

I rolled onto my side, propping my head on my hand. The movement made Elizabeth’s bed creak softly.

“Do you know how tiring it is to constantly throw yourself at someone who acts like a frightened rabbit?”

“You’ve mentioned it. Several times.”

“I’m mentioning it again because it bears repeating.”

Elizabeth’s fingers paused briefly, then resumed their rapid typing. Code scrolled across her monitors, symbols and commands that looked like gibberish to me.

“His fear is kind of delicious though.”

The admission came out quieter than intended. Elizabeth glanced back at me, eyebrow raised.

“Delicious?”

“You know what I mean. The way his face goes red. How his hands shake. That adorable stutter when he tries to speak.”

“You’re enjoying this too much.”

“I’m enjoying it exactly the right amount.”

I flopped onto my back again, arms spread wide. The ceiling continued being boring and unhelpful.

“But I’d prefer his actual attention. The real kind. Not the terrified prey animal version.”

Elizabeth saved something on her computer. One monitor went dark, then flickered back to life showing different content.

“That’s what the app is for.”

“Is the leash ready yet?”

“Don’t call it that.”

“Why not? That’s what it is. Digital leash to keep our little pervert from running away.”

Elizabeth spun her chair around to face me fully. Her expression mixed amusement with exasperation.

“It’s a control mechanism. More sophisticated than a leash.”

“Leash sounds better. More honest.”

She shook her head, turning back to her monitors. More typing, more code flowing across screens.

“You’re impossible.”

“I’m impatient. There’s a difference.”

Five more minutes passed. Each second felt like an hour. I counted the cracks in Elizabeth’s ceiling. Found three new ones I hadn’t noticed before.

Finally, Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. All three monitors blinked green simultaneously.

“Done.”

I shot upright, bed springs protesting the sudden movement.

“Really?”

“Really. The app is complete.”

Elizabeth pulled a thumb drive from her desk drawer, plugging it into her laptop. Files transferred with agonizing slowness.

“How does it work?”

“He downloads it thinking it’s a hypnosis app. Everything he tries to do routes through our server first. We see his commands, modify the results, control what he experiences.”

“So he thinks he’s hypnotizing us.”

“Exactly.”

“But really we’re controlling him.”

“Precisely.”

I grinned, feeling excitement build in my chest. Finally. After three days of failure, we had a solution.

Elizabeth unplugged the thumb drive, holding it up to the light. The small device caught the monitor glow, reflecting blue.

“Your turn. You said you wanted to deliver it.”

I took the drive from her hand, turning it over between my fingers. So small. So simple looking. But this tiny thing would change everything.

“I’ll make sure he downloads it tonight.”

“How exactly?”

I smiled, the predatory kind that made people nervous. Elizabeth had seen this smile before. She knew what it meant.

“I have my methods.”

I pulled out my phone, opening a custom app Elizabeth had built months ago. The screen displayed a map of our city, small dots representing active devices on the network.

“You’re going to track him?”

“GPS is for amateurs.”

I focused on the map, letting my awareness expand outward. The room’s temperature seemed to drop slightly. Elizabeth’s monitors flickered, just for a second.

Finding Alfred on a network was easy. I’d been paying attention to him for weeks, memorizing his patterns, his digital footprint, the unique signature his anxiety left in data streams.

There. Northeast quadrant. Residential area. IP address glowing slightly brighter than the surrounding dots.

“Found him.”

Elizabeth leaned over to look at my phone screen.

“How did you do that? There’s thousands of active connections.”

“I can smell his anxiety from here.”

“That’s not how IP addresses work.”

“Isn’t it though?”

I zoomed in on Alfred’s location. His device pinged back information. Android phone. Currently browsing forums. Multiple tabs open. Search history showing increasingly desperate queries.

Perfect. He was already looking for solutions, already vulnerable, already primed for our trap.

My fingers moved across my phone screen, accessing backdoor protocols Elizabeth had built. The thumb drive in my other hand felt warm, almost alive.

“What are you doing?”

Elizabeth’s voice held curiosity mixed with concern. She could code the tools, but using them aggressively wasn’t her style.

“Delivering the package. Like I said.”

I connected to Alfred’s device remotely. His phone’s security was laughable. Default passwords. No encryption. He might as well have left his front door wide open with a welcome mat.

The forums he browsed appeared on my screen. “How to Be Confident.” “Overcoming Performance Anxiety.” “Alpha Male Strategies.”

I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

My fingers worked quickly, uploading the app file to a shadow server, creating the pop-up advertisement, designing the delivery mechanism.

The room’s lights flickered again. Elizabeth’s monitors pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat.

“Seda, your eyes—”

“Not now.”

I could feel Alfred through the connection. His anxiety, his desperation, his pathetic hope that some magic solution existed. The emotions transmitted through the network, data packets carrying more than just information.

He was on his fifteenth forum post. Scrolling mindlessly. Perfect distraction level. Maximum vulnerability.

I deployed the pop-up.

On my phone screen, I watched it materialize on Alfred’s device. The pink border, the swirling spiral, the promises of power and control.

“Will he fall for it?”

Elizabeth stood behind me now, watching over my shoulder. Her breath tickled my neck.

“He’s desperate. Desperate people make stupid choices.”

Alfred’s cursor appeared on my screen, moving toward the X button. My chest tightened. Don’t close it. Don’t be smart for once in your life.

The cursor paused. Hovered. Moved away from the X.

“He’s reading it.”

My voice came out quieter than intended. The tension in the room was palpable, thick enough to cut.

Alfred scrolled down the pop-up description. His cursor movements betrayed his internal debate. Quick jerky motions meant anxiety. Slow circles meant consideration.

“Come on. You know you want it.”

Elizabeth’s hand landed on my shoulder.

“You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Told you. Exactly the right amount.”

Alfred’s cursor moved to the download button. Hovered there for several seconds. My heart rate increased, matching the anticipation building in my chest.

Click it. Stop being a coward for five seconds. Just click the stupid button.

He clicked it.

“YES!”

I actually shouted, jumping up from the bed. Elizabeth’s hand fell away from my shoulder as I celebrated.

“He downloaded it! The absolute idiot actually downloaded it!”

On my phone screen, the progress bar filled on Alfred’s device. Zero to one hundred percent in real time. Each percentage point felt like a victory.

Elizabeth moved back to her computer, pulling up the admin dashboard. Alfred’s device appeared in the system, registering as BetaTester001.

“He’s online. The app installed successfully.”

I watched my phone as the pink spiral icon appeared on Alfred’s home screen. The trap was set. The leash was attached. Our little pervert had walked directly into our web.

My reflection in Elizabeth’s monitor showed my smile, sharp and dangerous. My eyes glinted in the dark room, catching the screen light in ways that seemed slightly off.

“Checkmate, you little pervert.”

The words felt satisfying, final. Tomorrow would be interesting. Tomorrow Alfred would try to use our app, thinking he’d found power.

Tomorrow we’d show him what real control looked like.

Elizabeth pulled up Alfred’s user profile. His device information, his location, his current status. All displayed neatly on our admin dashboard.

“What if he doesn’t use it tomorrow?”

I laughed, the sound coming out darker than intended.

“He’ll use it. His desperation guarantees it. He can’t face us without thinking he has an advantage.”

“And when he realizes it’s fake?”

“That’s the beautiful part. He won’t realize. Not until we want him to.”

I collapsed back onto Elizabeth’s bed, exhaustion and excitement mixing together. Three days of failure had led to this. Three days of watching Alfred run away had brought us here.

Tomorrow everything would change. Tomorrow our prey would think he’d become the hunter.

The irony was delicious.

Elizabeth dimmed her monitors, the room growing darker. Only my phone screen remained bright, showing Alfred’s device still active, still online.

“You should go home. Get some rest.”

“In a minute. I want to watch him a bit longer.”

On my phone, Alfred’s device finally went dark. Sleep mode activated. The icon for our app sat prominently on his home screen, waiting.

“Sweet dreams, Alfred. Tomorrow you’ll need them.”

I stood, stretching, feeling satisfaction settle deep in my bones. The hunt was almost over. The trap was sprung. Now we just had to wait for morning.

Elizabeth walked me to her door, her expression mixing amusement with something else. Concern maybe. Understanding definitely.

“Try not to be too harsh tomorrow.”

“I’ll be exactly as harsh as necessary.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

I left her apartment, stepping into the cool night air. The city stretched out before me, lights twinkling like stars. Somewhere out there, Alfred slept peacefully, dreaming of power and control.

Tomorrow would shatter those dreams beautifully.

My phone buzzed with a notification. Elizabeth sending the final admin access codes. Everything was ready, prepared, waiting.

I walked home slowly, savoring the anticipation. The hunt was almost over.

Tomorrow the real fun would begin.

Colored Version