GreyLord wrote: ↑2 years ago
It just keeps getting more and more interesting.
I'm glad to hear that =)
ninterz wrote: ↑2 years ago
Marcia is so right, this group is crazy.
But so is she.
Well good for us. As it's looking like we're getting another round.
Let's see how this turns out.
I really hope Wendy and Marcia end up as imposters or if Marcia doesn't participate at least Wendy.
Good for us indeed. We will get another round. Who will be the impostors this time?
Part 29
Only the three bound girls’ moans sounded in the room. The rest of us had fallen silent at Carmelle’s words. I stared at the back of Marcia’s head, trying to find out what her reaction was. Both Carmelle and Rossana were looking at her as well, as I was sure all of us were doing. After clearing her throat, she finally spoke.
“You mean… you want me to play as well. Is that right?”
“Oh, are you scared?” Carmelle asked, her hands and fingers trembling like she was frightened. “Are you scared that we can finally tie your ass up and teach you a lesson?”
Marcia coughed again. “Are you sure that this is what you want?”
Carmelle and Rossana exchanged looks. “Unless you want to chicken out.”
“If you want to do it because you think it’s going to increase the number of impostors, then you are wrong.” Marcia explained. “There are still going to be two. And you don’t want me to play.”
“Oh, but we want to.” Rossana said. “And I bet Lori wants it as well. Maybe a good lesson on you would be the perfect way to go back to harmony. So what do you say?”
“And how will we know that nobody cheats?” I finally asked. I didn’t want to play, and for sure I didn’t want Marcia to be playing. If she was with us, then those three could easily capture every single one of us without even being impostors. Nobody would be supervising. “Somebody needs to keep us in check.”
Marcia stood up and looked at me. “I can arrange something about that.” She turned to face Rossana and Carmelle. “But if you are sure that is what you want, then let’s make it official. The nine of us, one game. The winning side can keep the losers until the weekend is over.”
“Ohhhh…” Rossana said, “It’s on.”
“It’s so on.” Carmelle said as well.
“Very well.” Marcia stood up, looked around. “I have to make a couple of calls. In the meantime, please, untie the girls and let’s keep it civilized until the game starts.” She picked up her phone and walked past Carmelle, Rossana and Natalia. “Be right back.”
The remaining girls, we all looked at each other in silence. Lori was still kneeling next to the chair where Marcia had been sitting, Monica was still holding a tied up and gagged Alexandra, while Natalia was bound and gagged as well, but she was standing on her own. Carmelle and Rossana’s eyes were fixed on their friend.
It was Monica who broke the silence. “Well, let’s untie the girls. And we should call the volunteers and tell them they have the night off. Chaina, dear, would you..?”
“Right away.”
Chaina nodded and left the room. Monica continued. “Well, then please untie Lori and Natalia.”
“Mmmphh…”
“Quiet, unless you want to be tied up until the final game begins.” Monica said, patting Alexandra’s head. I could tell that she wasn’t happy.
But we had little time to deal with it. Carmelle and Rossana looked at me carefully before moving away from Natalia and towards Lori. I waited for them to reach the kneeling girl before approaching my friend with the scissors that Marcia had given me. I cut the zipties swiftly and then helped her to remove the gag. Rossana had scissors of her own, and they cut the restraints holding Lori. Soon, the only one tied up and gagged was Alexandra, whose arms were held by Monica.
Lori stood up and stared at me. I thought for a second that she was going to explode at me. Her jaws clenched and her eyes were big and I was pretty sure her breathing was echoing in the room. But Carmelle hugged her around the shoulders and took her out of the room. Rossana followed them. I sighed deeply, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back.
“Wendy, would you give me the scissors please?” Monica asked me once the three mean girls had left. I nodded in silence and gave her the scissors. My eyes turned to Natalia who was rubbing her wrists.
“Oh, sorry. How are you? I’m sorry, I was going to look for you but Rossana and Carmelle got you, and it was going to be two against one, and…”
Natalia massaged her jaws before replying. “It’s ok, I understand. It was horrible. I was alone on the second floor and they just came. I wasn’t expecting them. They must have overpowered Chaina because…”
“They did. I found her hogtied here.”
“F*ck. This could have ended up horrible for us.”
“It still might.”
I looked down at the floor in silence. If Marcia didn’t have a plan… If I didn’t have a plan, then that would mean 24 hours at the evil trio’s mercy. If Chaina and Natalia were imposters, then maybe I could get away without being tied up for that time. But what if any of the trio was involved? Or what if I became an imposter again but my ally and I lost?
Monica finished cutting the zipties around Alexandra’s wrists. However, she still held them with her hands. A playful swat was delivered to Alexandra’s butt.
“MMMPHH!”
“You can remove that gag yourself. You are a big girl. See you in a while after you lose this game.”
Alexandra’s hands began working the gag after Monica released them. It took her about a minute but she finally got rid of it. After tossing the gag to the floor, she stared at Monica. “This is not freaking over! You are going to pay for every single thing you’ve done.”
“Oh, please, Alexandra.” Monica moved her hand in the air, like there were some flies around. “Can’t you take your punishment with dignity? All that fuss doesn’t bring a good color to managers like us.”
“What is that supposed to mean? You think you are better than me.”
“Looks like you could use a good lesson on how to behave stoically. I can teach you after the game, you’ll see.”
Alexandra’s hands were clenched into fists. Again, I thought another one was going to explode but she raised her finger instead and pointed at Monica’s face. “Screw you.”
With that, my former boss stormed out of the room. Monica’s giggle echoed in the room. “I apologize on her behalf. Managers should behave more properly.”
I frounced. Spanking another manager with a wooden paddle wasn’t the exact idea of proper behavior, but again, Monica had done that to Alexandra in private, in the second room. So maybe just showing that behavior in public was bad? Ugh, I had no time to think about that. My mind went calculating how the odds were going to be in the final game. I had Chaina, Natalia, Marcia and probably Monica on my side. At least not on the evil trio side. But what about Alexandra? She had to be pissed off at my ex coworkers for not freeing her. Did she have any allies? And if she didn’t…
“I’ll be right back.”
I ran out of the room and reached Alexandra before she got to the restrooms. “Boss. I mean… Alexandra.” It felt weird to pronounce her name after my contract had officially ended. “I…”
Alexandra turned around and faced me. Her face, usually pale, was bright red. I had never seen her taller. I gulped before she spoke. “What do you want, Wendy”?
“I just wanted to make sure that there are no harsh feelings. I am not excited about this game. I know things have been harsh in the past, but I was pretty sure that last night's game was going to be the end of it.”
Alexandra sighed deeply and closed her eyes. “Is that because you won and we had to spend the entire day tied up?”
I bit my lip. “Well… yes… But if I had lost, I wouldn’t have attempted another try. I just wanted to put all of this behind me. Us, I mean.”
We both stared at each other. She broke the silence first. “That sounds logical. So now what? You want me on your side so we can team up against your ex coworkers?”
“I… I am not fancy about spending the whole day tied up or torturing the captives, whether I win or not. So, in case you win, could you just let me go away. I promise, if I win and you lose, that I won’t try and torture you in any way.”
Alexandra looked away. I could see the red shade on her cheeks fading away, turning into a soft pink. “I guess that’s fair. Although, I make no promises for my teammate or teammates. Now” She pointed at the restroom’s door. “If you excuse me…”
“Sure, sure.” I nodded and she entered the restroom. “Thanks!” I shouted before making my way back to Natalia and Monica.
Chaina had returned, with some foods and drinks from a vending machine. It wasn’t the best food, but I knew we could all use some more energy before that final game. And cleaning up this whole place, of course. We sat there in silence, eating and drinking chips and sodas before my phone rang. It was Marcia, calling for us to meet at the Sales Fair.
We finished eating and walked there. The other three girls had already joined them. Lori was particularly angry, and I could understand that. She was glaring at Marcia, who was placing a couple of bags under the desk that I had used during the day. Another bag was laying on top of it. I was going to ask about them, but I had the feeling that we all were going to know what their content was. The last to join us was Alexandra.
“Well, now that we are all here, let me explain how this will work.” Marcia said calmly, still not minding Lori’s angry look. She opened the bag that was on the desk. “We will play this game while gagged like last night, so there is no cheating involved. We all know that. But the capture is going to be slightly different.”
“There won’t be any tying up while a crewmate gets captured. This, because there are too many people involved and I don’t know if all of us can capture another person quickly enough. Instead we’ll be using these.”
She showed us some arm bands. They looked electronic. They had a few buttons on them. She pressed one of them and a little green light turned on. “These armbands will tell if somebody has been captured or not. Once the impostor wants to ‘kill’ anybody, they just have to press these two buttons and the light will turn red. Meaning they have been taken out of the game.”
I narrowed my eyes. We could have used that in the previous game. It would have been so much easier to capture the other people. I could have done it, but then again I had…. I had been trained by Marcia. I had practiced with her, Chaina and Natalia how to tie up somebody quickly enough. My jaw dropped a bit after I realized that. Whenever I had been tied up at the office, it was because the girls had ganged up on me. They had never taken me in a one-on-one situation. We hadn’t used the arm bands before because Marcia (and probably John as well) wanted the game to be easier for somebody who knew how to capture others quickly!
“So, once the person has her armband turned to red, they must stop moving. If they are still walking around, it’s going to be cheating since, essentially, they are dead. If anybody finds them, you must click this.”
She showed us the same device we had used last night. “This will call for an emergency meeting. Once we hear it, we must all return and meet here. Those with a red light will be tied up and secured. Then the debate and voting will start. Remember: in case of ties, no one of the remaining people gets tied up.”
“Impostors win if all crewmates are tied up, or if there are an equal number of impostors and crewmates remaining. Crewmates win if, by the end of the night, impostors haven’t won or if all impostors are found out and tied up. Any questions?”
I didn’t have any. Not about this final game, anyway. It seemed quite simple. We all had to clean up this place. Those were the tasks. To capture anybody, the impostors had to press the buttons on the captive’s armband. If anybody found a red light, they had to call for an emergency meeting. ‘Dead people’ will be tied up. Also, the person voted in the meeting will be tied up and out of the game.
Carmelle asked. “And how are we going to choose who is the impostor and who is the crewmate?”
“Thanks for that.” Marcia said. “I figured, we could use papers like last night…”
“Oh, no, skinny.” Lori spoke. I could hear her voice trembling. However, she still gave Marcia a weird smile. “I don’t think so. I think it should be all randomized.”
Marcia looked at her, confused. Lori continued. “I say we all download the game, and see which role the game actually gives us. Then, we all lock our screens and leave our phones here. Once a person is voted or is captured, we get to see which role she had. And then we tie her up, of course.”
There was a long silence. Lori and Marcia stared at each other. Marcia was having a neutral expression, a poker face. I couldn’t tell if she was scared, amused or confused. She just blinked. “Ok. We can do it your way. But if any of you attempts to cheat, there will be consequences. Got it?”
“Fine by me.” Lori said.
Marcia broke eye contact and grabbed her phone. “Now, please, download the game. Let’s do this.”