THE STRUGLES OF A SECOND LEVEL CON ARTIST.

Introduction

Have you ever had that feeling of absolute embarrassment? You know the sort of embarrassment which started off as a silly mistake which then escalated into a mistake which you can never live down. The type of mistake which can bring a full blown cacophony of laughter when mentioned at either a family get together or a meeting with friends. Yeah you know the type of embarrassment I'm talking about. The type when you drastically miscalculated a dive of the highest diving board in the local swimming pool or when you were dared to ask a girl out you really liked only to get rejected with all your friends watching and laughing. Now imagine that happening to you every week. Not the same as the things that I just mentioned but the same level of embarrassment. And on one of these occasions my life was turned completely upside down only leaving me with my certain special traits. What are these traits I hear you cry? Well I'm a con artist. Surprised? In fact I'm the first and probably will be the only con artist in my family. It's really a secret that only my customers know as my family are oblivious to my job and don't know about it. It's not easy lying to your family but you get used to it in my line of work. I bet your thinking "oh my how rude and uncouth you are". If you said that to me and found out I was a con artist, then I would congratulate you before buying you a drink. Which in my case means I would hustle you into buying the drink yourself as well as one for me? So that's my main trait. And it would be this trait and my slightly illegal job that would end up getting me thrown into another world where the life I thought I had was all a lie and my family fake. Let me introduce myself. My name is Benjamin Sherwood and I'm a 24 year old green eyed and brown haired con artist. And this is my story.

Chapter 1

It was a crisp Saturday morning as I began to stir awake from my deep slumber. The light from the sun was peeking through the blinds of my bedroom window as I opened my eyes only to shut them quickly as the sun gave me a headache. After letting my eyes adjust to the sun and cracking my back a few times I slowly got out of my bed before making my way to the wardrobe on the other side of the bedroom. Opening up the wardrobe I pulled out a pair of black trousers as well as an adjustable sleeved white button up shirt. I then proceeded to put some black socks on before walking towards my kitchen. Now my apartment is fairly big for the price that I got it for. It turns out that my accomplice in the con artist world knew a guy who could get me an apartment for a very low price which was almost impossible as most of the apartments in the area were very expensive. To be honest I kind of knew it was illegal. But who am I to judge, besides I got a good apartment at a low price so I'm happy. I reached the kitchen and began to make myself some breakfast. I grabbed a plate and popped two pieces of bread into the toaster before heading over to my fridge and taking out some blueberry juice and some blueberry jam. I don't know what it is with me and blueberries but I can't just get enough of them in my system. As I sat down I began to get the feeling that I had forgotten something before my nose notified me on the situation of my toast. I quickly rushed over to the toaster only to find two black and charred pieces of bread sitting in the toaster, the smell of the burnt bread spreading across my apartment. I sighed as I pulled the cremated toast out of the toaster before chucking it down on my plate, parts of the toast flaking away as it hit the plate. As I began to lather my burnt toast with blueberry jam I heard a knock at my door. I silently cursed to myself as I picked up my toast before getting up and out of my chair and heading towards the door of my apartment, chewing on my toast as I made my way over.

As I reached the door I cautiously looked through my apartment doors peephole to see who was knocking on my door. "Hello." I said in a low tone of voice. "Who's there?" The voice which greeted me was low and gruff and sounded like the belonged to a wrestler. "It's me you idiot." The voice on the other side of the door said in an annoyed tone. "I'm sorry Mr Stranger." I said as a wide grin began to appear on my face. "I don't know anyone called idiot. You must have the wrong address." The voice on the other side began to grow inpatient. "Don't play games with me man. You know who I am, please let me in." I let out a small chuckle before I reached for the door and began to unlock it. Outside my door stood a medium sized man wearing black trousers like myself and a long black sleeved shirt. He had white skin and a pair of dark brown eyes. His face was scrunched up as he was glaring daggers at me. "Dave. It's you. Why didn't you tell me?" I could tell that Dave could see the sly smile that was appearing on my face as his own face showed the ever clear annoyance that I was used to. "For all the years I've known you Ben, you still act like a child," I just continued to smile before replying. "But I'm the best con artist in the country and you along with all of my clients and customers know that." Dave let out a sigh before looking back up to me with his brown eyes focused on my green ones. "So can I come in. We need to talk business for today." I let out a chuckle before stepping to the side and letting Dave into my apartment.

As soon as Dave walked into my apartment he immediately began to cough whilst I just walked over to one of my apartment windows and opened it. When I turned back around to face Dave, his face was as red as a tomato which immediately caused me to burst out in laughter. "SHUT UP." Dave yelled at me in anger which made me laugh even more. After my laughter subsided and Dave had calmed down he asked me what caused the smoke and smell. "Well the smell was caused by the toast which I burnt." Dave let out a sigh of annoyance before his attention was brought to my kitchen table. "And let me guess." He said to me. "You had it with blueberry jam and blueberry juice?" I smiled and nodded at him which he in response shook his head and mumbled something along the lines of "You and bloody blueberries." I chuckled again before speaking. "So let's get down to business then Dave." It was the first genuine smile that I had seen from Dave since he got to my apartment as he sat down and began to discuss the plan for the days hustling and conning.

"Ugh." I heard Dave groan as he carried another load of items from the van. "How come it's always me who has the job of carrying all of the supplies?" I responded by giving him another one of my classic sly smiles which I use on my many customers. "Two reasons really." I said as Dave dropped of the last box of supplies that he had just got out of the van. "And they are?" said Dave in a suspicious voice. "Well for one you are stronger than me. And two….well you couldn't even hustle or con a baby." I said to which Dave gave an angry huff before hopping in the van and parking it on the opposite side of the road. After Dave had parked the van I began to take all of the items out of the boxes and place them on the white folding table that I had been using for many years. The items which I was placing on the white table were cheap mp 3 players which I had disguised to look like professional high quality ones. The mp 3 players which I bought only cost £2.50 each whilst I was selling them for £25.50 as the high-quality ones cost £40.00 each so the people buying my fakes were believing they were getting a good deal whilst in actual fact they were getting conned. After placing all of the fake mp 3 players on the white table, I made my way to the front of the table to start advertising the mp 3 players to the general population. It only took a couple of minutes before people began to notice my presence and what I was selling and by an hours' time I had sold half of my mp 3 players and had made £1275. "Well." I said to Dave who was sitting in a chair behind the table, slowly sipping on a cup of coffee he had bought only three minutes ago. "We have successfully sold fifty mp 3 players and made a nice good old profit, and its only lunch time." I said to Dave to which he replied with a nod before lying back and sipping his coffee some more. "Oh right." I said in a sarcastic manner. "I forgot how enthusiastic you are Dave." Dave just stuck his thumb up before returning to his coffee once again. "Well." I said to myself. "I could do with a coffee myself. And maybe I could treat myself to a blueberry muffin." As I began to walk off to the nearest coffee shop I called back to Dave to watch the stall whilst I was out. He again stuck his thumb up in reply, as I began to make my way down the street.

After walking down the street for a good five minutes I finally came across a reasonable looking coffee shop. The coffee shop was relatively small and the sign posted on one of the glass windows was beginning to fall off but it was the best coffee shop that I could see. I just gave a small shrug before walking into the shop, hearing a little bell ring as I shut the door behind me. "Good afternoon to you sir and welcome to Cats cafe." A voice said from behind the counter that was a few feet away from me. "And hello to you as well mademoiselle." I said in reply whilst giving a chivalrous bow to the blonde haired and blue eyed employee. Unfortunately due to my consistent bad luck with embarrassing accidents, as I began to straighten up from the bow my left leg slipped and sent me to the cold floor of the coffee shop. "Ugh. My poor back." I said as I sat up from the floor rubbing my back before hearing a cacophony of laughter from the counter. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, oh you've made my day with that. Ha, ha, ha, ha, oh that was brilliant." I stood up from the floor and dusted my black trousers of with my hands before coughing slightly to gain the attention of the employee. "Oh. I'm sorry about that sir. It's just that the Cafe hasn't had many customers lately and I've been bored out my mind." "It's really no problem miss. I'm used to things like this happening to me so it's fine to laugh." I said giving her one of my smiles to which she smiled back. "So before that incident happened." The blonde haired employee paused briefly, trying not to start laughing again. "What can I get for you sir?"

After buying myself a latte from the coffee shop as well as a gaining a complementary blueberry muffin from the blonde haired employee, I began to make my way back to the stall to check up on Dave and see how he was doing. As I was walking back down the now very busy street I began to whistle a small tune to myself as I greeted the other pedestrians with a sly smile and wave. As I turned round another corner I finally came into view of the stall, and the sleeping giant that is Dave. I could also see that the white table that had the earphones on was clear. "Well what a surprise." I mumbled to myself before making my way over to the stall. I looked at the sleeping body of Dave before an evil thought came to my mind. I just grinned evilly before quietly sneaking up to Dave and readying myself. "DAVE. WAKE THE HELL UP. THE COPPERS ARE HERE!" Dave instantly sprung awake and shot up out of his chair before mindlessly running and falling over the white table that was in front of him. I immediately burst out in hysterical laughter as soon as I heard Dave cursing to the heavens as loud as he could before picking himself up of the street floor whilst wearing one of the angriest expressions I had seen in my life on his face. I continued my bout of laughing only to be picked up by my shirt collar and held above the floor by a meaty hand. I slowly began to cease my laughing as I looked into the furious face of Dave and gulped. "Um...hey there Dave. What's….wr…wrong?" I mentally face palmed at the sheer stupidity of my question as I knew what was wrong. Dave growled at me before speaking in his gruff voice. "IF YOU EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN BEN ILL KNOCK YOUR BLOCK OFF BEFORE DRAGGING YOU TO THE POLICE STATION WEARING NOTHING BUT YOUR UNDERWEAR." I gulped again before quickly nodding my head in confirmation before Dave sighed and dropped me onto the street floor. I yelped as my back hit the street floor whilst Dave walked past me dropping a brown envelope on the floor next to me. "That's half of the money that was made today alright Ben. I've got the other half of what was made from the earphones." I looked up and nodded towards Dave giving a sad smile to which he nodded back. I stuck up my hand towards Dave as a gesture to help me up to which he thankfully did. "Thanks Dave." I said as he pulled me up to which Dave replied by saying. "No problem." I dusted my trousers before speaking again. "Well." I said to Dave as I pocketed the envelope. "You did a good job today. Not as good as me but good." Dave just shook his head smiling slightly as I walked past him smirking. "I'll see you tomorrow Dave. Have a good rest of the day and spend your money as you see fit." Dave just stuck his thumb up as I walked out of sight and off towards my apartment.

It was about 17:30 pm when I finally reached my apartment. It had been a while since I had walked back to my apartment seeing that most of the time I just hitched a lift with Dave after we had done our days' work. I had forgotten how nice it was to just take my time and enjoy the brief bouts of nice scenery that were scattered across the city, especially the cities park that was only a few yards from my apartment. I looked up and gazed at the concrete building that I was so accustomed to now, its many windows reflecting the sun's rays. I let out a content sigh as I stepped forward and opened the main door which led into the building. "Your back here early Ben. Good days selling I presume?" A young female voice said from the right of me. "Jane. What a surprise." I replied sarcastically to which I heard an annoyed huff from the same direction the voice came. "That's no way to treat a lady." Said the voice of Jane again, the annoyance evident in her speech. I finally looked in the direction of the voice and came face to face with a pair of light green eyes. I jumped back in surprise to the sudden sight and invasion of my vision which nearly caused me to fall on my back. "Jeez Jane!" I said trying to catch my breath back from the sudden fright. "Don't do that ever again Jane. You scared the crap out of me." Jane took a few steps back before huffing in annoyance again. Jane had bright green eyes and light white skin as well as blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders. She wore a dark red tank top and dark blue skinny jeans. Her top in my opinion was a bit revealing but each time I would ask her about it she would say that it wasn't and would then proceed to slap me, then immediately kiss me on the cheek after before running of into her apartment room. She was one weird woman but everyone in this building was at least slightly mad, except from me. I'm just sneaky, sly, robust and well you get the picture. "Well I'm sorry alright." Jane said turning her head away from me before I began to hear small sniffles and sobs coming from Jane. 'Oh man.' I thought to myself as Jane continued sobbing. Her head still turned away from me. "Look jane." I said slowly approaching her. "I'm. Sorry. I should have been more polite towards you and not have acted like a jerk." Jane immediately stopped sobbing before turning quickly towards me and slapping me on my face. I stumbled back from the slap before I was immediately brought into a hug and kissed on the cheek. "I forgive you Ben." I heard Jane whisper in my ear before she pushed me away and ran into her apartment, my body to shocked to move. After half a minute I regained my senses and let out a tired sigh. "Every day here is the same." I said as I made my way to the top of the building via the stairs and to my apartment room. I took one more look down the stairs before reaching my apartment door and muttering. "What a crazy woman." I unlocked the door and entered my apartment room hearing a satisfying click as I closed the door behind me. I then proceeded to head to my kitchen in search of food. It didn't take me long to find something to eat as I always stocked up on ready made meals when I couldn't be bothered to cook for myself, so I had quiet the choice. After browsing the wide selection of ready made meals that lined my kitchens storage space, I finally selected a meal that I fancied to eat. I had picked the legend of lazy made foods. I had picked the chicken and mushroom flavored pot noodle. I then made my way to my kitchen sink, placing down the pot noodle on the side of the sink next to my kettle. I turned on the tap and reached for my kettle placing it below the flow of water which was flowing out of the tap at a now constant speed. I waited a couple of seconds before turning the tap off and placing the kettle on its electric stand, flipping the switch on the kettle so that the water would boil. I let out a tired yawn whilst stretching my arms as the kettle finished boiling. I then proceeded to rip the lid of the pot noodle before pouring the boiling water into the cup, watching as the water began to seep through the noodles and mix the pots contents together. I let out another yawn as I grabbed a small fork from one of my kitchen draws, placing the fork into the pot noodle. I then grabbed the pot noodle and made my way over to my living room, constantly stirring the pot noodle as I approached the living rooms couch. "Well then." I said sitting down on the couch. "Let's see what's on TV." Picking up the remote and aiming it at the TV I began to browse the many channels and shows that were available, whilst enjoying my pot noodle.

It was another peaceful morning as I lay on the couch still fast asleep, the pot noodle from last evening lying spilled over on the living room floor. Unfortunately every good thing has to come to an end, and I've learnt that the hard way living in this apartment. I was rudely awoken by a loud ringing sound coming from the apartment's hallway, its consistent ringing drilling its way into my eardrums as I groggily got off the couch and began slouching my way to the ringing. I lazily reached my arm out to grab the ringing object that was my apartment phone, bringing the device slowly to my ear I spoke into it with a weary and tired voice. "Hello." I waited a few seconds before a voice replied from the phone. "Ben is….is that you?" I nearly dropped the phone as I heard the voice that had just spoken from the phone. "I'm sorry." I said as quickly as I could. "You must have gotten the wrong number." Before I could put the phone back on the stand I heard a knock on the door. I checked the time on my phone as it clearly read 6:00 am in the morning. "Who would be calling me this early in the morning?" I said to myself as I placed the phone back on the stand, before making my way to the door. I didn't even bother checking through my doors cleverly designed peep hole to see who it was, instead I just swung the door open as fast as I could to avoid any awkward situations with me peeking out the door as I usually did. What greeted my sight made my jaw drop in shock? Standing outside my front door was my twin brother. He looked completely different to the last time I soar him. Given that it was six years ago. His face had changed over the years with his green eyes showing age and maturity but there was one similar thing about him. His hair was still long. I was still standing there with my mouth wide open whilst he was just standing outside the door with a phone to his ear. He was dressed in an all-black suit with his hair tied back in a ponytail. "Ben….it is you." He said slowly placing his phone in his trouser pocket. I slowly closed my mouth and gulped before attempting to close the door slowly keeping my eyes on Alex. It seemed Alex was having none of this as he stuck his foot out in front of the door, stopping my attempts at closing the door and escaping. The expression on Alex's face had now changed from shock from seeing me to anger as he forcefully opened the door, causing me to stumble back. "Um hey there Alex. What's up" I said as Alex continued to approach me, clenching his fists in anger. "What's up? Is that all you can say after six years you bastard." I began to take a few steps back as Alex continued to approach me, his fists going white as he continued to clench them in anger. "Now let's be rational about this Alex." I said continuing to back away into my apartment. Alex let out an evil laugh as he grabbed me by my shirt collar and lifted me up of the ground. "No." he said. "Not this time." Alex then brought his fist back before striking me full force in the face, knocking me out cold instantly. But not before I heard a familiar female voice from my apartment door. "What's going on here?" The ever so familiar voice of Jane spoke as I finally lost consciousness.

"Ugh. My face." I said slowly. I began groaning after as the sun pierced my eyelids causing me to shield my face with my hands. As I began to adjust my eyes I noticed that my surroundings looked different to that of my apartment. "What the hell? Where am I?" I tried adjusting the position that I was in only to find out that I was strapped into the position by a seat belt. I looked around my surroundings once more and found out that I was in a car. An old white mini to be precise. I began to struggle more and more as I realized whose car I was in before I turned my head to the front of the vehicle and came into view of the driver and passenger of said vehicle. I let out a frustrated and irritated sigh before speaking to Alex who was at the wheel. "You do know that taking someone against their will and shoving them in a car is illegal." Alex just shrugged his shoulders and continued to focus on the road. "And Jane." I said in a tired voice. "How come you're here?" Jane just let out a giggle before speaking excitedly. "Well you will have to find out when we reach Alex's destination." I raised a questioning eyebrow before blowing it off as one of Jane's weird moments. "Well then." I said gaining the attention of Alex who was still focusing on the road whilst listening to me. "Where the hell are we headed to?" Alex just gave a dead pan sigh as he turned a corner which seemed to be heading into a town of sorts. "Why do you think I'm dressed like this Ben?" Alex asked referring to the black tuxedo and trousers he was wearing. I had two ideas that where in my head that matched the get up Alex was in and I hoped the idea of a funeral wasn't the correct one. "Is someone getting married?" I questioned Alex to which he swayed his head side to side in thought. "No. But you're on the right lines." I paused in thought before realization hit me. "You're going to a stag do aren't you?" I could see the smile that had appeared on Alex's face in the cars mirror which just confirmed my question. I turned to face Jane and could see the huge smile that was present on her face which matched Alex's perfectly. "And I'm going to be your girlfriend Hun. Isn't that super fun Ben. We can finally hang out some more" I only had one option after hearing all this. I faced the head rest that was in front of me before I began to continuously plant my head into said headrest whilst silently cursing every now and then. As I did this I could only say one thing to myself. 'It's going to be a long, long tiring day.'