Chapter 1: Sacked

"He's done it again!" Stephanie spoke loudly to the others in the office, "Thirty-five minutes to knocking off time on a Friday and he presents me with a couple of hour's work! And I don't suppose any of you will volunteer to help." No one moved. No one said a word. "I thought not. Just because I'm a supervisor, I'm treated like a chattel! Here Miss Jones, can you just produce 500 copies of this brochure before you go! He's nothing more than a tyrant who thinks I'm his slave. David Benson, master slaver who..." Stephanie stopped in mid sentence when she realised everyone was not looking at her but at a point to one side. Not only that, they were trying to hide their giggles. She turned and saw her boss, the object of her derision, standing in the open doorway.

"Miss Jones, perhaps next time you decide to give vent to your feelings in this way, you had better check that the intercom is switched off." Looking at the console, Stephanie saw to her horror that the switch had not returned itself to the off position. It had been sticky for a week or so and she'd had to manually push it back. When her boss called her in earlier, she'd forgotten. "Not that you'll need to worry over that any more Miss Jones, this is your last few minutes working for me." Turning to one of the other ladies he went on, "Barbara will you please sort out how much pay we owe Miss Jones including any in lieu of notice and see that it is sent to her home address first thing on Monday."

"Yes sir."

"Thank you Barbara and can we do without the Sir business now Miss Jones is leaving. We can go back to being on first name terms please. Miss Jones, please clear your desk and leave us." There were murmurs of approval from the other girls in the room. They had suffered too often from her sharp tongue.

"She might be efficient and knowledgeable on office routine but she's so unpleasant with it that no one works as willingly as they should," Kelly mentally commented.

Stephanie was by turns angry and alarmed. She knew none of them liked her but didn't think that they would wish her sacked in such an ignominious way. After all she was sticking up for them too. If she weren't here to do it, they would have to get the work out themselves. "Why sir?" she questioned, "I'm sure others have said similar or worse things to you."

"Not with such hatred. Until I appointed you, we were a happy group of workers, almost a family. When jobs like this came up, everyone mucked in. With the kind of work we do, there are going to be periods when rush jobs come in at the last moment and the theatre this is for is one of our best customers. If we disappoint them, we lose their work and we go downhill. I rashly appointed you when we were short staffed, over worked and Kelly was ill. Well I'm letting you go now and if she wants the job, Kelly can take over your responsibility. So please clear your desk. Your employment with us is terminated as of now."

"Sir, won't you please reconsider..." Stephanie started, her eyes running with tears.

"Reconsider taking on someone who considers herself to be a slave, Miss Jones?"

"I'm sorry sir. Please I need this work."

"Your slave work. Miss Jones? The work you thought of as slavery? No Miss Jones, I will only think of reconsidering if you were to agree to become a real slave, a 24/7 slave, a slave twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A real slave who commits herself wholeheartedly to her master and is willing to submit herself to him, body and soul. That's what I would call slavery. Real slavery."

Stephanie stood open mouthed in shock at his words. "Did he really expect her to give herself to him totally? Would he expect her to give her body to him? Would he want to punish her?" Her musing was interrupted by comments from the others as to what she might be expected to do but she hardly heard them. Fury raged within her. "You just want an unpaid whore!" she spat at him.

"On the contrary Miss Jones, I would pay the wages you are getting now because you would be working here as well as at my home, so to that extent you wouldn't be a real slave because they don't get paid at all."

"You're just a pervert. You don't really expect me to agree to those outrageous terms, do you?"

"Of course I don't, which is why I offered them to you. Now please clear your desk Miss Jones, we have work to do. I don't wish to see you here again," David laughed, "— unless of course you decide to be my fulltime slave. If that is your wish, come in on Monday with your stuff in a suitcase and ready and willing to be punished for this afternoon's outburst and ready and willing to move in with me and do my bidding, however perverted you might consider it to be."

"You cannot be serious, Mr. Benson. No one these days could accept those terms."

"So you look for another job. Now hurry along, we've still this order to get out."

It took a few more minutes to persuade Stephanie to leave and while she was clearing her desk, David addressed the five girls working for him. "Ladies, can I have three volunteers to help get this job done. I'll work with you. If necessary I could try and do it myself, but with my lack of skills on the machines it would take me the whole evening, and then we would miss the deadline anyway. It's a theatre programme and they've had to change tonight's show because the main entertainer is ill and they've brought in a last minute replacement. You are all so much more competent on the equipment than I am so I would really appreciate your help and co-operation."