3 The Law Of The Jungle

Her father had been right that there were a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing out there. Cherry had become one of them. Only the strongest survived. That was the law of the jungle.

She had been forced to become strong far too soon. She lost her childhood to her father's going in and out of jail and her granny's sickness. Perhaps that was why she had such childish pastimes when she wasn't on the hunt. She was making up for lost time.

When Cherry wasn't otherwise occupied, she spent a lot of time in arcades. She had high scores on several of the machines at this point.

It was easier to go to the arcade looking like a twelve-year-old girl because kids were expected to be in places like that. Sometimes she got asked if she was supposed to be in school but all she had to do in those situations was show her ID. It was always hilarious seeing people's shocked or disbelieving expressions when they saw she was twenty-four.

That was what Cherry ended up doing after lunch when she had shed her Alicia identity. She wore her hair up in two pigtails and wore pink sneakers and a matching pink patterned shirt and skirt outfit.

She felt at home in the arcade. She saved all of her tickets over the course of a few weeks of going there to get one of the big prizes so she could sell it online.

Selling things online was how she made most of her money. Most people didn't carry cash so she had to buy as much as she could with credit cards before her victims noticed they were missing.

Cherry couldn't pay her bills with other people's credit cards. She did that with the cash that selling things bought with those cards brought in. One of her favorite things to do was buy appliances or electronics and sell them for cheaper than market price. People were always looking for deals online and jumped on it.

Since she hadn't bought them with her own money, she always made a profit. Her system hadn't failed her yet.

She was well-versed in online buying and selling sites. It was how she found what she was trying to collect as well. Her collection was mostly complete at this point aside from a few rare ones.

Cherry had always had a keen nose and loved things that smelled good. Scratch and sniff stickers, potpourri, candles, perfumes. When she was a kid, there were these collectible dolls that came in plastic soda bottles and all had their own unique scent.

Each doll had a little headband or hat that matched their scent's aesthetic and they came with an equally scented pet and a little container of flavored lip gloss. She had loved going to the toy aisles of stores just to smell them in their packages since her father couldn't afford to buy her many toys.

She got a few for birthdays or Christmases but could never keep up because the brand kept releasing more and more scented dolls. As quickly as they came into the stores, they left.

It was the most bizarre thing. These days, hardly anyone had even heard of them since they came and went through toy stores like a shooting star.

Cherry loved those dolls though. As soon as she had the money for it, she began scouring the depths of the internet in an attempt to buy all of them. She still had the list she made of each new line of grouped scents as a kid and was slowly but surely working her way through checking them all off.

Sometimes she would take them out of their little plastic bottles and brush their hair with their scent-shaped hairbrush to get a better whiff of them. Their scent lasted because she was sure to keep them in mint condition.

She never truly played with them. They were collector's items. She cared about keeping their scents active.

They were displayed lined up on some shelves in her room and were her most prized possessions. She was going to find all of them someday. It was only a matter of time before some collector or other sold her the last few!

Cherry would have the cash for them when they were finally available online. It wouldn't matter how much they cost. She was absolutely determined to get her hands on them.

Paris Peppermint Crème, Coco Mocha Crème, Pasha Pineapple, and Bridget Blueberry Buzz were the only ones she hadn't been able to find anywhere. She even had all of the old specialty sets like Winnie Watermelon Bubblegum's bubble van that blew actual bubbles behind it as it drove.

She pushed that out of mind for now. She needed to focus. She was trying to win at a crane game so she could get that scented strawberry plushie.

Cherry was rather talented at crane games but they did require your full attention. If the timing was off by even a fraction of a second, you wouldn't get your prize. She wanted that strawberry plushie.

When she managed to grab it, she squealed in delight and clutched it to her chest. That was enough arcade games for today. She needed to get home and eat something before getting ready heading out for the night. She was in the mood for lasagna and she would need time to make it.

She thoroughly enjoyed her dinner before it was time to make herself up again. Tonight she was going for a more sweet and innocent look.

She wasn't going to use the same shaping pads as last night. This time the curves were going to be more subtle. She would only wear three-inch heeled thigh high boots (she had so many pairs of those it wasn't even funny) with a white and black polka-dotted skirt and a black faux fur sleeveless crop top. A thick white headband over a long straight brown wig would complete the outfit.

Cherry decided to go for more innocent makeup too but she still had to contour her face so it didn't look like her own and wear blue colored contacts. She got the kind specifically made for brown eyes so it looked more natural.

She examined herself in the mirror and smiled before grabbing her purse and heading out. If she was lucky, tonight would be another good night. If not, at least she would get to dance.