Mark always looked at thrift stores and op shops, always having a peek at garage sales and any charity shops. He was no stranger to any sort of sale and he always knew how to get a bargain. On one of his more causal visits over to garage sales, he noticed a small suburban house that was selling quite a lot. Tons of tables worth. The tables were almost set up like a maze, a maze of secondhand stuff. He had to go in, explore the maze that these people were setting. There was almost an entire house's worth of stuff being sold. Must have been moving, this couple. Furniture, mountains of clothes, an entire library's amount of books, no wonder there was a lot of people here. He did see many things that interested him, many things we desperately looked for in previous op shops, but he had to get something small. His girlfriend was worried about him spending too much on these types of things. He was a hoarder, so he had to give up buying nearly everything there. One thing. He'll buy one thing. And then, he leaves. Simple...
...hopefully.
He goes through the whole garage sale three times over until he finally narrows what he wants down. Until they bring out more. Another round of going through the whole place. More arrives on the table. Another round. More. Another round. More. Around and around. More and more. Mark was very close to just leaving the place when he spots something new. A set of cassette tapes. A lot of them, even being with their own carry case. That was it. That was what he was getting. It looked like it was around 1986 - 1987. Good year. He approached the couple.
The couple were around their late 50's. Greying hair, and pastel clothes, they were definitely moving, and soon.
"Um, excuse me. How much for these tapes?" Mark asked.
They look at it, not even showing that much emotion. Maybe they were sad? Not the time to ask. "$25"
"$25? It said $20 on the sticker"
They slowly look at it again. "Our mistake"
They were really starting to creep him out. He gives them the $20 and they give him the carry case filled with cassettes. He waves goodbye. They don't. They just stare weakly. He rushed back into his car, starting the engine, and getting the hell out of that creepy place. It was a while before reaching back to his apartment. He parked and looked at his purchase. He opened up the carry case. Dust flies all over the place. Once it clears, he looks at the tapes.
"What are these?"
He mouthed out the titles of the tapes. His eyes went wide. His smile grew. These were hypnosis tapes. But not just any hypnosis tapes. These were perfect for him. They weren't no "Sleep Better", "Learn French" cassettes, they were up his alley.
As ashamed he would be to admit it, he had... a few fetishes. He loved hypnotism as a fetish. He loved anthro as a fetish. He loved whatever fetish there was, apart from those rather weird and criminal fetishes. He wasn't a mad man or anything, he just liked some things that others would refuse to be a part of. These tapes could make those fetishes real. Really real. He looked all through them, laughing in delight. But that made Mark question: Who was he going to use them on?
His answer pained him to think about.
His girlfriend.
He knew that was the only choice that he could legitimately enjoy more than any other.
He sighed, grabbed the carry case, and headed upstairs to his apartment.
"Busy day?" his girlfriend, Amy, asked.
"Yeah. Really weird experience today. Some creepy old couple was almost selling everything they own"
"You didn't spend hundreds, did you?"
Mark laughed. "No, just got something for $20"
His girlfriend calmed down. Money was rather tight. Mark had a small job that didn't pay as well as Amy's job as a employee in a huge corporate business. Even then, pay for Amy wasn't as good as the job described.
The day went on as usual, just enjoying their time together, having a nice meal that they cooked, the usual stuff.
Finally, it reached night, and Mark waited until Amy was asleep. He carefully placed some Walkman headphones on her ears, so she wouldn't wake up. He scrambles for a tape to play...