The Next Day

The next day, the two sisters went to the office of the company in the city. This proved to be a bit difficult, since up until yesterday, it had not, in fact, existed. This meant that relying on prior memory to find it proved to be a bit troublesome, though the issue was solved with a quick google search.

It was warm that day, the weather was mild, and the sun was strong in the sky. The plants and trees they passed seemed to be basking in the light, enjoying it greedily. The sound of cars was a distant background, and the chatter of passersby was also frequent. Yet, for all the world, both Diana and Lisa was in their own little slice of reality. They moved around others, but didn't stop to chat, the sun felt warm to them, but only in a vague, distant way. They followed streets they had known for years, and yet did not even look at them, relying on their natural understanding to see them through.

Each one of them was lost in her own thoughts. Each one considering, with a strange mix of trepidation, desire and fear, the day that was before them now. Diana was having a hard time of it. Her body kept wanting to tremble, and she **** herself to keep walking, mustering her willpower and strength to do so. She felt strange. Part of it was like a prisoner walking to their own execution, sine she knew full well exactly what would happen to her once she arrived at the company. On the other hand, there was a sense of anticipation which corded her muscles and build in the back of her mind. As much as she couldn't believe what she was doing, she hadn't stopped, even when her doubts assailed her during the night, and she realised exactly what she had set in motion. She had thought about stopping, thought about erasing the rules and pretending the whole thing had never happened. But she never had. The idea had a sort of fascination for her, an attraction she could not deny.

She wondered if it was the same for Lisa. Though, the two walked together, neither had said much of a word to the other. For a moment, as much to gather her own thoughts as anything else, Diana peered at her sister.

Lisa had decided on a more formal look today. Usually, she was chatty and bold, brash and friendly. She favoured short skirts, so she could move easily, and light tops. She didn't like to feel weighed down, and she wore colours. Bright colours like red and blue. But today, she had gone for something a little bit more official. She was wearing a dark green dress, just on the border between ''prime and proper'' and ''casual clothes''. Her top was the same colour, and it was long sleeved, and she wore a white shirt under that.

Diana's eyes moved to her sister's face, seeing the paleness of her skin. Both of them had pale skin, as had their mother before them, it was a genetic trait that ran in their family. But Lisa seemed paler than normal, and her blue eyes were just slightly wide and wild, showing that she was still struggling with their choice herself. The bone structure of her face was fine and delicate, and she had dark hair, cut short.

Diana, for her part, had longer hair. Of the two twins, she was slightly taller. Her face a little bit more broad, and her eyes more deeply set. Their hair colour was the same hue, marking their relation, and there were many traits they shared, so it was simple enough to guess that they were twins, though not identical ones. If you compared Diana and Lisa, then you would easily tell them apart. Diana was taller and thinner; both women had a slim build, but Lisa was more active, and so had built up more muscles. She liked to run sometimes, and so her legs were powerful and toned. Diana preferred walking, resulting in a slightly slimmer frame which she liked to think of as ''lithe''.

Like Lisa, Diana had blue eyes. But Diana's eyes were deeper and colder, even when she wasn't upset. Lisa's eyes were open and inviting, but Diana's made it look like she was looking down at you. Combined with her height, she was easily the more intimidating of the pair.

Like Lisa, Diana had chosen to wear a formal dress for the occasion, deciding to play the role she had set. She wanted to make a good impression, after all, so she was clad in a dark grey top and white undershirt, as well as a pair of simple but functional jeans. Skirts were more Lisa's thing.

And so it was that the two sisters eventually found their way to the company building. After they found it, Diana had to admit she had no idea why it had taken so long, except perhaps that they were both still wresting with their misgivings. The building was a large tower-like structure, though not really an actual tower. It housed multiple floors, she could tell at a glance, and probably hundreds of workers. On the bottom floor, there was a reception hall, where a desk had been set up, as well as some chairs, and a television on the far wall.

"Well..." Lisa said slowly. "This is it, I guess."

Diana gulped, her nerves were rising again, but she **** them down. "That it is. Shall we go on?"

Lisa nodded, her words failing her. The twins approached the door and pushed it open, it rang like a little bell. Diana hoped that if anyone noticed how nervous they were, they would simply assume it was because it was their first day on the job.

Behind the desk, there was a woman. She looked to be about twenty six, so fairly young. She had large green eyes, and soft brown hair which fuzzed as it fell to her shoulders. She looked a little flustered, Diana thought. She was seated in a large wooden chair which was pushed up to the very edge of the desk. Her top half was visible over it, but the desk went all the way to the ground, hiding her waist and legs.

A look of surprise flashed across her face as the door chimed, as if she'd been distracted by something else. Her eyes settled on Diana and Lisa then.

"H-hello." She managed. "How can I h-help you today?"

She had a strange cadence to her voice, as if she was trying to suppress the urge to moan. Her skin was flushed, and her eyes were slightly widened. She was doing her best to appear as if everything was normal, but Diana could see instantly that this was not so. She wondered what was being done to the woman, and felt a spark sear down her spine as she realised that soon, it would be her too.

"Hello." She said, plunging forwards before she could hesitate. "Um, we're expected. My name is Diana, and this is my sister, Lisa. Last name is Cormack. We've just been hired."

"New hires?" A look of empathy crossed her face for a moment, and then was swiftly replaced. "O-of course. I'll contact one of the managers now. In the meantime, please take a seat."

And so they did, sitting down as the receptionist spoke into a mic on the desk. A few minutes after this, a well-dressed man strode down the corridor to meet them. He was dark haired, and clad in a suit, with grey eyes.

"Ah!" He said, as he came within sight of them. "Lisa and Diana yes? Sisters. And twins too. We've been expecting the two of you. Please, follow me and I'll show you the basics of what we expect."

So saying, he turned around, striding down the corridor again. Diana and Lisa shared a look and followed, the receptionist gave them one last lingering glance before turning back to her own work.

The corridor was large and left off to multiple others, but the man led them down the central one. Diana and Lisa followed in his wake, both of them breathing heavily now. Fear and anticipation mixed, becoming harder and harder to ignore.

"Firstly, welcome to the company." The man said, not even bothering to look at them as he walked. "If you do well here, you'll find that you can make quite a bit of money. Most of our employees don't want to leave, in fact. It's very rare that we ever lose anyone to a rival group!" He laughed at that, as if it was some private joke. "The two of you will be serving as secretaries, which you are qualified to do. I am given to understand though, that the two of you are quite in debt?"

"Y-yes." Diana said, deciding that since she was technically the oldest, she would do the speaking. "That's right. We made some unwise choices in the past when we were younger, and they have haunted us ever since. With this job, we're hoping to finally put that behind us."

"Yes, yes." The man said. "I see. So this job is important to you, then?"

"I would say so..." Diana said reluctantly. "There is no other job we can take that would pay as much, and certainly not on such short notice."

"Hmmm." The man said. "Well, you should be fine so long as you follow the rules. In fact, if I may say it, the two of you might even do very well here. Young women in this company tend to, if they're smart. And you two are twins as well..." He trailed off, his words made both Lisa and Diana uncomfortable.

"Ah, here we are." They had finally reached their destination. One of the doors on the side of the corridor swung open at the man's touch, and the three entered a small room. Diana looked around, seeing the lockers which lined every corner. It was a changing room.

"As I said." The man said, closing the door and locking it with a loud click. "We have some rules here at the company. Many of them apply to all our staff, but some apply only to females."

"Only to women?" Lisa said, looking at him, her eyes were bold and brave, daring even now. "What sort of rules are those? I've not heard of anything like that."

"Indeed." The man said. "We tend to keep quiet about it. But now you're both one of us, I am afraid you're going to have to obey them. After all, if you didn't do that, it would be so easy for you to get fired. And I am sure a bad reference would absolutely destroy any chance of you ever finding work again. Or at least, doing so quickly. I mean, that wouldn't be so bad, unless you had some sort of pressing debt, isn't that right?"

For a moment, a dark, cold silence filled the room. Diana felt herself drawing back, her eyes wide as she looked at the man. She felt like spears of ice had been driven through her heart. It was Lisa who spoke first.

"You..." She said slowly. "Are you threatening us?"

"Of course not." The man said. "I would never threaten new hires! But as manager, it's my job to make sure that the situation is...ah, understood by both sides. With most girls, we have to ease them in to their roles, like boiling a lobster, you see? You do it so slowly they don't even realise you're doing it. But with you and your sister, well, your situation is dire enough that you really don't have much choice, do you? You could try to find another job, but with a bad reference from us, that would be extremely hard. I imagine you would probably lose your house and be out on the street long before you were able to be hired again."

Diana felt her hands clench, a fury filled her heart even though she had known it was coming. Nonetheless, she called on her self control, her voice was brittle as she spoke up again.

"What do you want us to do?"

"Wait, sis, are you serious?" Lisa asked, getting into the role. "We can't do what these assholes say!"

"We don't exactly have a choice." Diana said. "We need money. And they're right. If they decide to fire us and make it known, we're essentially done."

The man grinned.

"Nice to see that the position is understood. Now, I want the two of you to..."