The Takeover (Part 2)

After what happened at his place, I spent the rest of the week avoiding Salim. It wasn’t difficult. The asshole didn’t even tried to call me. I still saw him a few times in the office but even then, he treated me as if I didn’t exist. I was yesterday’s news.

It suited me just fine.

It also meant that when my co-workers began to ask questions, I didn’t have to hold back. I hadn’t announced the fact that we were going out but word gets around and almost everyone knew we had been seeing each other. When they saw the sudden coldness between us, people started to ask questions. So I did the only thing I could; I told the truth. 

I told everyone Salim was an ass who had played me along even though he already had 2 wives at home. I didn’t tell them about me cheating on him in college of course but then I also didn’t tell them he made his wives help him seduce me so in my mind, it was about even. By the end of the week everyone knew about how badly he had treated me. Most of the female employees were going to resign anyway but after word spread about me and Salim, almost every female in the company, including me, got their resignation letters ready.

When the new week came around, we were told there would be an engagement conference for all the female employees of the company by New Horizon. They were going to try to pitch the company to us but it was a waste of time. Most of us had already made up our minds. At least that was the thinking everyone had when we entered the auditorium.

Auditorium D was on the fourth floor of our building and it was relatively big. It could hold up to 80 people but for some reason, we were told each conference was given to only about 30 girls. I didn’t know why because you would think it would had been easier and faster for New Horizon to have more girls at each conference. It would also be less expensive.

When I went through the entrance, the first thing I noticed was the food at the back of the auditorium. Coffee, tea, and various finger-foods were available for us and 4 veiled women were standing there, asking us to relax before the start of the conference. They were clearly female employees of New Horizon and they got us curious.

They were wearing a black long-sleeved robe that covered them from the neck down to their feet. It was wide and totally in line with the Islamic thinking that female clothes should not be figure hugging. The robes also had a hood that the women pulled up to cover their heads. Their face were covered with a niqab and with their hands covered by black gloves, I couldn’t see any part of their face or body.

A thought came to my mind and I wondered how it felt to be totally covered like that. It must be so mysterious and exotic. I stopped the thought right there. Where the hell did that came from? The thought was so funny I had to mentally laugh at myself. I decided to take my mind off the women.  

There was free food and drinks available so that was easy. Most of the girls joined me while a few tried to speak to the 4 veiled women. However outside some polite small talk, they refused to say anything of substance and asked the girls to try the food and drinks while we wait for the conference to start. It was during this waiting time that I smell the strange air inside the auditorium.

I had been inside the auditorium before and the air was different from usual. However it also smelled somewhat familiar. After a short while, I realized the smell was similar to what I smelled at Salim’s home. I guess the guys at New Horizon must really like their incense.

After about 30mins, a man walked up to the stage at the front of the auditorium. He was short, fat, and looked like he had never exercised for a day in his life. I looked at him as he walked up the stage and the first thought that came was that he was a fat bearded nerd. He stopped when he reached the center of the stage and looked at us. If you asked me why, I couldn’t tell you but at that moment, he looked like he owned the stage. A moment ago he looked like a joke, now he just looked imposing. I fought an urge to look at the ground and instead looked straight at him.

It was a mistake.

On top of the stage, he looked down on us with a sneer. With a condensing voice, he spoke into the microphone and told all the girls to put down our food and sit down as the conference is going to start.

Instead of getting mad, I was embarrassed. We were here for an engagement conference but instead, I was stuffing myself full of food and drinks. I quickly put down my drink and rushed to the front of the auditorium. My only out was the fact that everyone beside me looked just as embarrassed as I was.

As the man started speaking, I found myself sitting quietly in my seat with my hands on my lap and my head was bowed low. I didn’t even realized what I was doing till I heard the man say in passing the sight in front of him was what Sun Horizon was looking for. Women with their heads hung low in respect to men.

A fire was lit inside me and my head shot up. All around me, the rest of the girls did the same. It was as if we were in a daze and had all suddenly awoken. The man smiled on the stage and I found him infuriating. It was as if he was playing with us. He then said that there was a video he wanted us to see and left the stage.

The auditorium had a huge screen and as the video started, I found myself falling into a daze again. Honestly, I didn’t remember what was on the video, it was that boring. All I remember was that the video had a lot of bright lights and some soothing music in the background. Yet although I don’t know the details of the video, I strangely know what was shown. The video showcased New Horizon’s deal to us girls.

Anyone still under contract would have the option of resigning from the company while those who stayed would keep drawing their current salary but would be “reassigned” to roles more in keeping with the New Horizon culture. The video was very upfront with the fact that no girl would be employed in any executive position after the takeover and being a secretary was the highest position a girl could hope for in the company. Also, anyone who stayed till the end of their contract will also be offered a contract extension but with a new salary more in keeping with their job scope.

When the video was done, the man came up to the stage again and I was once again struck by how bad he looked. You would think New Horizon would have sent someone with more PR and HR skills to sell their company to their future employees. It was then that the thought struck me that New Horizon might not be aiming to keep us. As the man droned on, the thought played in my head and began to make more and more sense.

My suspicion then became confirmation when the man told the 4 Sun Horizon female employees to come up to the stage. The girls in the crowd began to murmur among themselves but my eyes were struck to the women. The camera displayed the women on the video screen as they stepped up to the stage with their head bowed.

The man said this was standard walking position prescript in the Sun Horizon Girl Employee Handbook. Girls were only allowed to walk with their head bowed. The 4 girls stopped behind the man and stood facing the crowd in a straight row.

The man told the crowd to remember the position the girls were holding. While waiting from orders from men, their feet must be shoulder length apart, with their hands clasped at the small of their back, and their eyes must be downcast to the ground between their feet. They must maintain this position to mark themselves as respectful, submissive women. The man then turned to the women behind him and ordered them to kneel.

They did so immediately. It was surreal and the auditorium fell silent. The women on stage fell to their knees with a grace I would have never thought possible. It looked to me as if their upper body didn’t move an inch but they fell to their knees in slow motion. When it was done, their basic position still hasn’t changed. Their hands were clasped at the small of their back, and their eyes were cast to the ground between their feet. Only now, it looked as if their knees and not their feet were shoulder length apart.

How did they do that? I wondered to myself and the next question that immediately came to my mind was whether I could be able to do something like that. Wait, what? I opened my mouth in shock. I was going to resign. What was I doing even thinking about something like that?

Hoping to put my mind out of that line of thought, I focused on the only thing I could; the speech of the man on the stage. He was now talking about the demerit system Sun Horizon had on female employees. Anyone who got 25 demerits in a month would have her pay cut but anyone who got less than 15 in a month would get a bonus of at least 10% of her monthly pay. The girl with the least amount of demerits for the month would get a bonus of up to 50% of her monthly pay. A few of the girls started murmuring again at this stage. The potential pay increase could be very important to some of them.

The man continued without a thought to his audience. He mentioned that the girls would be assigned a daily supervising officer, or a DSO. This would be a male working on the same floor and the DSO would be the girls’ superior for the day. This duty was to be served on a rotating schedule among the men and he made no bones about the fact this was to ensure that every man in the office would be superior to every women in the same office.

Then came the coup de grace. The man told us about the “morning greeting”.

The 4 women stood and spilt up to stand around the man, 2 to his left and 2 to his right. Together they turned to face him, dropped to their hand and knees and shouted.

“Welcome Sir! This girl wishes you a good day at the office!”

The man explained that this was the position and greeting all girls of the company must make every morning. We would arrive earlier than the men and as the men arrived for work, we would be in this position and greet the men a good day at the office.

You could hear a pin drop in the auditorium. We were all stunned. They expected us to be in this humiliating position every morning for our male co-workers. Are they crazy? This confirmed my thought that Sun Horizon didn’t want us. They wanted all the girls gone; why else would they have a presentation like this?

The conference ended soon after. I remembered there was another video we had to sit through but don’t ask me what it was about. By then, all of us girls were like mindless drones, we just wanted out of there.

The rest of the day also passed in a fog. I’m sure I ordered takeout and drove home as usual but again, don’t ask me how I did any of those stuff. I don’t remember anything. The only thing I do remember was what happened that night. That night I slept and when I woke, I opened my eyes…and I couldn’t see.

My sight was blurred like there was something in front of me. I stood up and there was a weight on my head. Strangely, I felt great. It just felt right. I felt like I was different and I didn’t know why.

I saw someone in front of me and I started to walk slowly towards him. As I got closer, I got used to the blur in front of me. I could make out the small details my vision provided and the person in front of me was wearing a blue outfit. We stood before each other for what felt like hours before I felt the need to reach out. I needed to see the person in front of me. For some reason, I raised my hands and my vision cleared.

I was standing in front of a giant mirror and the person I saw was me. I was wearing a burqa and I had just flipped it over my head. Below the burqa, I was totally naked. Not only that, I looked happy. I looked contented. I flipped the burqa back over my head and felt a peace I had never felt before.

It just felt right. 

I woke up then. My breathing was hard and I knew what I wanted. My hands went between my legs and I masturbated. As usual, I formed a mental image of what I was doing. I thought of myself in the burqa and of the conference I had earlier in the day. I imagined myself bowing, kneeling and serving the men and my hands was soon filled with my juices. I came and had to put my pillow over my mouth as I screamed.

I never did that. I never screamed. In fact, usually I wasn’t even all that loud when I came but today was different. This was something else. This was something beyond my control. As my body was wrecked by joy, I thought of something I never imagined.

I was going to enjoy working in Sun Horizon.