The Vacation
Note:- This story was commissioned by one of the generous readers of this forum. Enjoy! And remember, commissions are still open.
Chapter 1
For the first time in years, I felt at peace.
Standing in the balcony of my room at the Four Seasons hotel, Honolulu, I watched sea turn orange as the sun set before my eyes, and the breeze ruffled my hair. The calm sea seemed to mirror my soul at the moment. People say that the sea is calm only before a storm, but I honestly couldn’t imagine anything spoiling this feeling.
My life had been hell, especially for the past few weeks, but actually for the past many years in general. You see, I’m not a person whom anyone would find conventionally attractive. I stopped growing at 14, standing 5’4, which is abysmal for a Caucasian male. Combine that with being an ectomorph and the max weight I’ve been able to accumulate was 55 kgs soaking wet. I’ve always been self conscious about my body and pasty complexion and was never particularly athletic. Of course this meant that I was bullied a bunch in school and pretty much ignored, if not laughed at, by girls. This continued throughout college until the final year, when I finally got a chance with a girl who was shorter than me. That girl soon became my wife and now, my ex wife.
After college, I got a steady, though boring, job working as an accountant in Boston, but was never particularly happily married. It honestly didn’t come as a surprise when my wife told me that she was leaving me, considering it was pity that had led her to dating me in the first place. So there I was, 31 years old, single, divorced, no good friends and a dead end job. I decided that I needed a break to think things over. I packed my bags, splurged a good chunk on my savings on a 5 star room and flight tickets and immediately flew to Hawaii for a week long getaway.
This was my 5th evening here. It had been 5 days of partying, getting drunk, meeting strangers and going on adventures. By this point my heart felt full. I had even managed to forget about my divorce in that moment. I hadn’t fared well on the hooking up side of things, but I had grown to expect that, so it didn’t really hamper my mood.
Continuing my spending spree, I spent the next 4 hours getting a luxurious massage from the resort’s inbuilt parlour. Feeling refreshed, energised and basically at the top of the world, I made my way to my next stop- the hotel gym.
Remember how I told you that I was going to think things over? On my second day here, I realised that maybe the gym is what I need to improve my status, and that a solid build might just compensate for my stature. The only problem was that I’m very uncomfortable in putting my body to the test in front of other people, and hence, I’d probably embarrass myself at a crowded gym. Thankfully, I enquired at the hotel reception, and found out that the gym was actually open for 24 hours. I waited until 10 pm and then started walking towards the gym, ready to turn around if there were other people in there. To my pleasant surprise, the gym was conveniently empty at this hour, which meant that I could work out in peace. Happily, I worked out for the next 2 hours—not strenuously (I was on vacation after all) but it did feel good to finally do something productive for myself. I had been doing this for 3 days now, and was on my way for the 4th.
As I entered the gym, I noticed that the AC and the music were already on. This was strange, since for the past two days I had had to turn them on myself. Maybe the hotel staff had finally caught on to my routine and wanted to give me a better experience. Glad to see the service, I went to the changing rooms, and put on one of the track suits. Then, I made my way to the treadmill and started walking, humming along to the music. Just then, the washroom door opened and a girl walked out. To say that she was beautiful was an understatement. She looked like one of those models you used to see on the covers of old 80s magazines. The first part I noticed about her was her height. Standing easily 5’10, but more realistically 6 feet, she was tall not just for me, but for most women period. I started getting jittery, tall people tend to have that effect on me. This, however, stopped once I noticed her face. She had large blue eyes and small lips with a perky nose. Her lips were smiling amicably, as if she was always content. Her smile, with her perfect teeth, radiated a sense of warmth. Her eyes, though tender at first appearance, had a confusing twinkle to them, as if she was upto some mischief. The rest of her body was covered in a large gray track suit, which made it a little easier to not be intimidated by her height. She looked young, maybe 22-23.
Curiously, she walked right upto the treadmill right beside me, flashed me a perfect smile, and started walking. Usually even being around someone like her, let alone working out, would’ve been an absolute no for me. But maybe it was her raw attractive power or just my state of mind because of the past few days, that made me stay on. As the silence grew I kept thinking that this was probably my best chance of being with someone like her. Maybe engaging her in conversation and working out in front of her might impress her (I know I’m not exactly Mr. Muscles, but she’s a girl, how hard could it be?)
So, feigning confidence, I began,
“Hey”
“Hey”, came the reply.
“Isn’t it a bit late to be working out?”
“Well you’re doing it aren’t you?” Beep
At first I didn’t understand what the beep was from, but then I noticed that I she had increased her speed by one point. Not wanting to fall behind, I decided to increase mine too.
“Haha, yeah, I prefer the quiet” Beep.
“Yeah” Beep.
She’s dodging me, I thought. I’m not gonna lose my shot that easily.
“So are you on vacation?” Beep
“Yeah, you?” Beep
“Same” Beep
We were approaching 4 kmph and the walk had now become a jog.
“I didn’t catch your name.”
“That’s cuz you never asked. I’m Cindy, you?” Beep
“Hi Cindy, I’m Tom.” Beep
“So, Tom where’re you from?” Beep
It’s good that she was asking the questions now, since I wouldn’t have been able to think, considering we were at 7 kmph now. This was faster than I had ever gone before.
“I’m from Boston, what about you?”Beep
“Oh what are the odds! Me too! Beep
Oh so she was from Boston too, that makes things more interesting. I stopped talking for a few minutes to concentrate on the running, as I didn’t want her to hear me huffing.
Finally, I said,
“So what room are you in? Wanna hang out later?”Beep
“Room 104, and sure.”Beep
Jesus! How fast did she want to go? She must be some kind of a seasoned marathon runner or something. At least she wanted to hangout with me. Somehow, I managed to speak.
“I’m in 906.” Beep
“Oh that’s an expensive room, you must be loaded!” Beep
Her speed was now officially too much for me.
“Eh, not really, just splurged on this vacation. You can come hang out in my room though, if you want.”Beep
Before I could hear her answer I felt my legs give way under the speed. At 12 kmph I couldn’t manage to keep running and fell down face first. Sliding to the even floor. I felt really embarrassed, officially having ruined all my chances with her. I could see feel slowing down, though, and then get off the treadmill. Then I heard her giggling. Her laugh, though girlish, somehow felt laced with malice. This was strange, as any normal person would have helped me up. Anyway, not wanting to look like a fool, I laughed along with her, and stood up, saying,
“I must’ve slipped.”
“Yeah, right.” She said, still laughing.
I didn’t know if she actually agreed with me or was that sarcastic and she knew that I hadn’t been able to keep up with her.
Then, suddenly, as if nothing had happened, she said,
“That was good cardio, let’s do bar exercises now. “
I immediately flashed back to the first day in the gym, when I had unsuccessfully attempted a pull up and fell down due to the strain. I obviously didn’t want to repeat that performance.
“You go ahead, I’m gonna do weights.” I hope that made me sound manly, like bars were for girls and real men lift.
“Suit yourself” she said.
I watched as she walked up to the bar, and jumped. I quickly went over to the curling bench and picked up the 3 kg dumbbells. In my position, I could see her in the mirror but she couldn’t see me as far as I could tell.
Curling my 3 kgs in one hand, I watched her as she started going up and down and up and down. Before my eyes, and before I could complete 6 reps with one hand, she completed 25 clean chin ups. Then, as I switched hands, she transitioned to leg raises and did 25 of those as well. Then, she jumped back down.
Thinking that she was done with her workout, I was about to ask her to hang out, but then she bent down and picked up something, wrapping it around her legs. At first I didn’t realise what it was, but then she jumped again and grabbed the bar, and I saw that they were actually ankle weights!, and they had to be about a kg each.
As I completed 3 sets of 6 with my 3 kg weights from both hands, she proceeded to repeat her chin ups and leg raises routine—25 each, and somehow didn’t seem to slow down. I figured that she must be one of those gymnasts who have great balance, or that they must be plastic weights, and moved on to my next exercise.
Setting up the barbell to 20 kgs, I lied down on the bench and proceeded to crank out 5 reps of bench press. As I was doing this I kept watching as she jumped back down, added MORE weight to her ankles, a kilo each again by the looks of it, and jumped up and grabbed the bar again.
Having done 2 sets of 5, (a personal record), I decided to rest for a bit. As I watched, she kept up her routine, jumping down and increasing the weights before jumping back up again. The stamina of this girl were staggering.
By the time I started my my next (and last) exercise for the night, the shoulder press, she was already cranking out pull ups with 8 kgs added on.
I hadn’t been terribly good at the shoulder press, only managing 15 kgs max and 12 for reps. Looking to get better, I loaded it with 14 and started doing 5 painful reps. While I was doing that, she had added on 2 more kgs, making it an additional 10, and was still going strong. I did a quick calculation in my head and gasped as I realised that this was her 125th pull up of the night. She didn’t seem to hear me though. Somehow I was able to finish the 5 reps and rack the weight, before collapsing from exhaustion. She too, seemingly peaked out in that moment as she started taking off her weights. While I was sitting on the ground, chugging water, she walked over to me, not winded in the slightest bit, and said,
“That was a good warm up.”
I knew she was kidding, she had to be, so I let out a nervous chuckle. She seemed pleased, and asked,
“Are you done with the weights?”
Without giving it much thought, I said,
“Yeah, you can have them!”
I laughed again thinking how dumb I was to actually suggest her to do weights after seeing her do the most gruelling workout I had seen anyone do. She probably was just asking that to check if I was free to go up to my room with her. I anticipated her to be annoyed. Instead, he response shocked me.
“Great! Do you mind spotting me? My trainer does it back at home.”
Not wanting to make her feel bad, but also not wanting her to hurt herself, I nervously said,
“Errr sure. What exercises do you want to do?”
“Oh nothing much, just follow me!”
We walked up to the curling bench and she picked up the 3 kg dumbbell I had racked. However, she didn’t start curling it. To my surprise, she put it down again and picked up the 12 kg(!!!) dumbbell and said,
“That’s more like it.”
Then, addressing me, she said,
“Just help me out if I say so.” and started cranking out curled. She kept doing 10 from each hand, switching between them and not once putting the weight down. She did 5 sets, I think, while I watched in absolute awe. Not only she was curling 4 times my max, she was pumping out more reps and sets, and that too after doing the bar workout from hell! Who was this person?
Being done with her dumbbells, she stood up, all six feet of her, and walked over to the bench press. Weird, it looked like she was following my workout trajectory. It was probably a coincidence.
I assumed that she would want my help in loading up the rack, but no, she seemed content doing it on her own, as long as I stood there watching. And watch it did. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her as she kept loading the barbell with more and more weight, until it weighed a total 100 kgs!!! The weights couldn’t have been fake, I had just used them myself. She was, indeed, going to try to bench 100 kgs! That’s 5 times my weight and 4 times my max!
I gulped as she lied down and grabbed the bar, wondering how I would offer assistance when she was getting crushed under the weight. I was about to recommend re-evaluating the weights, but she actually lifted it up the rack! And not only that, in slow, but smooth motions, she started lifting it up and down, without faltering a bit. She stopped, briefly, after the 10th rep, but continued without racking the weight. She kept going and going, pausing at 20 again, but finally racking it after 30.
Getting up she said
“Racking between sets is just too much work, wouldn’t you say?”
I was obviously rendered speechless, but it looked like she wasn’t looking for an answer.
Getting up, she said,
“Shoulder press next”
This choice would’ve freaked me out if I hadn’t just witnessed something I hadn’t ever imagined. For now, I was at the maximum level of freaked out I could’ve been, or at least so I thought.
Heading over to my abandoned 14 kilo bar she started offloading plates. I felt like she had finally maxed out and was going for a lower weight because of the weakened state of her arms. However, once the bar was bare, she started adding plates again. She added two 20 kg plates on each side, a combined 80!!!
Was I on a prank show? My mind went to my ex wife, taking some kind of twisted revenge on me for having fun for once. I actually turned around to look for cameras, but didn’t see any except the usual CCTV. Maybe the hotel was in on it.
I was about to voice my accusation as I turned around again, but my voice died in my throat as I found myself staring right at the gray fabric of the track suit covering her chest. She was standing right in front of me, seemingly ready lift the insane weight over her head. She took a deep breath, bent down, and in a super fast motion, lifted up the weight straight over her head! This was too much for me. I felt like running but my legs wouldn’t respond to my commands. She was holding 125% of my body weight over her head, using just her arms. Either the prank was highly elaborate or this girl was some kind of a professional bodybuilder. My money was on the first.
Concentrating on the weight, she cranked out 5 brutal reps, as I stood there with my mouth wide open. After her 5th rep she kept holding the weight over her head and glared at me, establishing eye contact. Then, she smiled the most sadistic and perfect smile I’ve ever seen. Even though it was the same smile with the same perfect teeth, instead of the warmth, it radiated something else. Something, that made me want to run again, but my legs were seemingly glued to the floor.
Then, maintaining her glare, she spoke,
“You didn’t think that I seriously needed you to spot me, did you?”
Yeah, knowing what I know now, that did seem like a far fetched scenario.
Still holding the weight over her head, she continued,
“It’s just that it’s so hard finding proper targets these days, you know.”
I didn’t understand, what did she mean by that “targets”?
Finally, she started bringing the bar down, seemingly to put it down. However, she stopped at her chest.
Speaking as if nothing had changed, she continued,
“My brother worked great for many years, but then that poor asshole went off to college. I do visit him from time to time, but it’s not enough.”
SCREECH
I heard a screeching sound but didn’t understand from where it was coming.
She carried on,
“The guys at school are all wimps, I wanted someone new.”
SCREEEEECCHH
The noise got louder, and to my horror, the metal bar in her hand, carrying the 80 kg weight, started bending.
“Then, my parents brought me along on this lame vacation. I literally turned 18 two months ago! I’m not a little kid!!”
She was just 18?
She looked so mature for her age though!!
At this point, even though she was staring right at me, she was basically talking to herself.
“Well, at least some good came out of this trip. Last night I saw you doing your wimpy ass workout and realised that you’d be perfect. I enquired at the reception and found out that you always worked out alone, at this time. Then it was just the matter of waiting for you in the changing room.”
By this point the once straight bar was the shape of a crescent moon.
She kept going,
“The plan was to go straight to the action after the treadmill and bar display. Once I saw your puny workout though, I decided to show you my own warm up exercises.”
At this point the bar became a perfect U and the plates slid off, crashing down on the ground. This finally made her realise what she had done to the bar.
“Oops! Dad said no damage to hotel property. Just a sec”
She said “just a sec” like I wanted her to continue telling me about her intricate plan to trap me and show off her strength, whatever that may accomplish.
Concentrating on the bar, she slowly bent it back to the near straight shape. At this point I could barely think of it as a metal. Finally dropping the bar, she addressed me again,
“You don’t seem very talkative, Tom. Don’t worry, you’ll learn. My parents are out for a party. We have the WHOOOOLE night for ourselves, and it’s only 11:30 right now. “
Okay, so this girl was obviously a psycho. The problem was that she was extremely capable of hurting me, considering how she had handled my bodyweight as a child’s toy. What I didn’t get was, how did she plan on preventing me from calling out to security, or just going out of the gym to some place with more people. She clearly hadn’t put as much thought into her “trap” as she thought. Also, what was her endgame here? What did she want with me? What did she mean by me being a “perfect target”? I didn’t really want to know. Just as I was about to turn around and leave the gym, she announced,
“It’s getting hot in here, isn’t it?”
Funny, because all I could feel were chills.
Then, she unzipped her track suit jacket and took it off.
What I saw made my eyes burst out of their sockets.
