"CharmPair" by Sebastian Westbrook

CharmPair

by Sebastian Westbrook

Victor never had much luck with women.

As an introverted guy with stereotypically unattractive hobbies such as videogames, YouTuber and comic books, He didn’t put himself out there very often and when he did, the ladies were less than impressed by him.

Victor downloaded a dating app. This way, he could find someone like-minded instead of leaving the house and chancing it with girls he knew nothing about. The app, called CharmPair, asked Victor to fill in some information, such as his name, age, gender, sexuality, e-mail address, and some of his interests. This process would supposedly suggest girls to him who he might be interested in and vice versa. After entering the relevant details and a momentary pause as CharmPair looked for potential dates, a girl’s profile popped up on screen: Melody.

She was slender with short, black hair and a slightly edgy style to her clothes and makeup. I can see people liking her style, but it’s not really for me. Victor thought. CharmPair had two options. A heart button labelled “My type” and an X button labelled “Not my type”. Victor had a look at her interests in her profile. Studying, Piano, Painting. I don’t think she’ll like me he thought. Victor pressed “Not my type” and looked through other profiles.

After not much luck, Melody’s profile popped up again, only it was different. Her style had changed from edgy to chic. Dyed hair with extensions to make it look longer, pink lipstick, and a purple, glittery dress. Her style certainly appeals more, but she’s still Melody Victor thought. He pressed “Not my type” again and kept looking.

Later, Melody popped up yet again but her modifications this time seemed almost impossible. She looked fuller, like she’d gained significant weight and her curves were more generous. Victor wondered if this Melody could see him rejecting her and was trying to appeal. I do like women with bigger proportions but she must have edited this. Does she think I’m stupid? Victor thought. He pressed “Not my type” a third time, hoping Melody would take the hint and look for another guy.

Melody was oddly persistent. She would pop up every so often, something different about her, basically becoming more and more catered to Victor every time she came up, even down to changing her interests to match his. However, Victor had caught on to her game by now and would reject her the moment he saw her name.

Hours later, Melody popped up again but this time, her picture caught Victor’s eye. She had a cat. A white, fluffy cat with big, blue eyes. It had a pink collar with a name tag. It kinda looked like his cat, Snowfall. However, as he read the name on the tag, he came to a horrifying realisation. The cat Melody had didn’t just look like Snowfall. It was Snowfall.

Victor couldn’t believe that Melody would go to the extent of kidnapping his cat to lure him out. He was more frightened by the prospect that she knew his address and had gotten into the house unnoticed and managed to steal his cat without him noticing. Snowfall had been napping in her cat bed that morning so she couldn’t have been nabbed overnight and she was usually quite vocal when being picked up by unfamiliar people. Had he really been too engrossed in finding a date to notice?

The situation was clearly a ploy to manipulate Victor into matching with Melody to get his cat back. Despite knowing this, Victor decided to play along and try and get Snowfall and get out of the situation as soon as he could. He pressed “My type”.

The congratulations message that flashed up next felt empty and the “You and Melody like each other” line that followed couldn’t be more of a lie. Almost instantly, Melody followed up with a message which was nothing more than an address, which was supposedly where she wanted to meet. Despite the situation being clearly dangerous, Victor felt he had to risk it. He’d had Snowfall too long to just let Melody have her by refusing to meet. Melody could do whatever she liked to Snowfall and who knows where Melody would go next if she was willing to kidnap his pet. With no other option, Victor had to walk to the address, as he didn’t own a car or a license. However, he left in such a rush, he didn’t hear the faint scratching and mewing coming from inside the cupboard under the stairs.  

After a half hour of walking through a gloomy neighbourhood, Victor arrived at the address, a run-down house with boarded up windows and a dying front lawn. Well, isn’t this pleasant? Victor thought while traversing up the stone pathway that lead to the front door. The path had certainly seen better days, being overgrown with moss and weeds. The moment Victor stepped inside, he was met with a knife to his throat and an arm round his waist, followed by a sinister female whisper in his ear

“You must be Victor”

Melody. It must have been, but the way she was positioned around him wouldn’t let him turn to check. Melody chuckled menacingly. 

“So easy to fool. Goodnight, my little inspiration”

Red covered Victor’s clothes, and he fell into an endless sleep. 

Autumn was on CharmPair, looking for a date. She was an extrovert who liked sport, hiking and reading novels. She entered her information into CharmPair and waited for it to recommend her some guys. After a moment, a profile popped up: Victor.

That’s odd Autumn thought. CharmPair was supposed to recommend people like her but none of Victor’s interests aligned with hers, and he wasn’t really her type physically either, not that she was using that as a massive determining factor. She pressed “Not my Type” and moved on, looking through other guys to find someone who had more in common. 

After a moment, Victor popped up again, only slightly different.