I Smell Victim

 

I am a predator. My kind are predators. We prey on people. Everybody has the potential to be a victim, but there are those that stand out more than the others. There it is, that aura around them which signals to me “victim”. Suitable prey that is to be drawn into my world, ushered through the inviting gateway and whilst they are distracted the gateway closes behind them with ominous finality. The locks turn, the bolts slide across and the portal is sealed, yet they never notice. They are preoccupied with the golden dust that is being sprinkled over their eyes. All too easy. Yet, that is what is to come and we are focused on the now.

 

There glows that aura, pulsing like a beacon, a welcome light which may as well be neon lettering stating “Come and Get Me”. The victim makes themselves known within moments of coming across my radar. It is the case that there are a score of tell tale indicators but the fact is that one has that instinctive knowledge that somebody is an ideal victim. How do I know? How do we know? Do you smell different? Do you have “V” stamped on your foreheads? No, but you may as well have. It is the capacity to assimilate so many signals that you broadcast in an instant, collate them, interpret them and then the conclusion is reached “Ideal Victim”.

 

You stand out. You do. In that room, be it bar or departure lounge, dentist´s waiting room or the queue in some pretentious café, your aura glows around you and tells me that you are prey. It might be your gait, the way you hold your bag, the manner of your conversation should you be on your mobile phone, the way you picked up the bottle of water and then replaced it and chose another or the way you looked around yourself before taking a step forward. There is a multitude of signals which combine and are broadcast to me. My cold, reptilian mind assesses the information in an instant. It is like a radar sweeping back and forth, knowing what to look out for and what to jettison. Rejecting the unhelpful information and collating that which  accords with what I am seeking. All of this happens in an instant, I have elsewhere broken down those indicators, but in the field, in the hunting grounds, it all happens with speed. You appear in my field of vision and those signals come racing from you, like comets hurtling towards me and each indicator is then absorbed, assessed and the conclusion is reached.

 

Victim.

 

It is as if I have breathed in deeply through my nose and picked up the scent of weakness, the stench of vulnerability and the odour of susceptibility. My nose, a predator´s nose has evolved to distinguish those representative smells. Others who have not evolved in the way that we have smell hot dogs cooking, smell lavender on the breeze or the pungent odour of melted tar. It is very much the case that as a psychopath my sense of smell is not that strong. There are certain subtle fragrances which I do not detect when someone else with a much more sensitive nose than mine can pick up the traces of some smell. It is as if through my evolution I have traded the ability to track fragrances with the ability to sniff out the victim. Of course, I do not literally smell the victim, but rather it is a case of detecting them through the provision of various indicators which hurtle towards me in the blink of an eye, fall to be assessed and then the outcome is declared.

 

Victim.

What sets the most effective of my kind apart from the rest, is the ability to be aware of the values of the victim. It is fundamental to understand their emotional state and perspective. There are those who do so through emotional empathy, of which I have none and instead I utilize my superior and effective cold emotional intelligence. I identify that victim through my superior social information processing skills allied with that icy emotional intelligence. I have a subconscious ability to recognize those who are the most vulnerable to manipulation, through the hyperfast assessment of the  signals that an individual broadcasts and then I recognize.

 

Victim.

 

It is an edifying result. Like the vampire scents blood, I acquire the knowledge that a victim has passed in front of me, or is sat at a table in the window or is about to pay for her sandwich. It is, in that instant, that they have bared their throat to me and all I need do is lunge forward and sink my sharpened teeth into their soft exposed flesh and drink deep of their essence. Yet, that is the way of Gothic horror, my way is far more sophisticated. I am fixed with the knowledge that a new victim has presented themselves. How delicious!

 

The capacity for exploitation of this individual is unlimited. The vulnerable are there to be exploited. Society largely does not engage in such exploitation of the vulnerable because so many of its members possess emotional empathy. That guiding force which reduces and even prohibits such behaviours as the ones that I routinely engage in. Emotional empathy has never existed within me and it never shall. There is no hindrance, no restraint and no fetter. Its absence heightens my ability to detect those characteristics through the social information processing of those that I target.

 

I assess the utility of that individual. Will they be trusting? How open is this individual? Do they look for the good in others? How likely are they to want to forge a connection with me? Are they an investor in relationships? What vulnerabilities will be available for my use? How will they serve my needs? Is this someone who minimize unusual behaviours? Will this person rationalize red flags? How readily will this person swallow a lie? How eager are they to believe? How often do they look to a higher power? Those are some of the ever present, pinned questions that my mind is always asking and against which the victim is quickly evaluated.

 

Like a present waiting to be unwrapped, the possibilities are numerous as to how I shall proceed to capitalise on the identification of this victim. I already have the upper hand and I shall maintain it, yet along the way I shall enjoy peeling back the layers on this new play thing. Probing it, analysing it and using it.

 

It is the way that I am designed which enables me to identify that victim within a matter of moments. This ability to select those that will serve my needs so effectively is part of what sets me apart from others, that which provides me with the success that others crave. The route to success can be achieved by being the best or cheating or being the fastest. I say why not all three?

 

You will have to excuse me. I can smell dinner…….