Confessions of a Mailgirl Ch. 17

My crying jag was interrupted by a vibration on my arm as my MMU alerted me to a pickup order on the fifth floor of the tower. I thought briefly about ignoring it, the demerits be damned, but I couldn't. I was so conditioned to reacting immediately to every tug of this electronic leash that it was nearly impossible for me to resist it now. Blubbering about my situation wasn't going to change anything anyway so I wiped my eyes, got back on my feet and went to work.

My delivery pickup on the fifth floor took me to the second floor of the south wing. From there I was summoned to the next floor down which led me across the central courtyard to the fourth floor of the north wing. After two years as a mailgirl my body thrived on movement and getting back to this routine helped me regain my equilibrium. My mind went on autopilot - focused only on my next delivery, my next deadline, the fastest route to my next destination - allowing me to temporarily block out the mess I'd gotten myself into.

The familiar feelings of arousal also returned as they always did, even after two years of this. I was always conscious that I was a naked woman in a sea of clothed "norms" and this never failed to turn me on. I'd discovered that I was every bit as much an exhibitionist as I was a submissive.

At one point I passed Kelly going in the opposite direction on a set of stairs in the south wing. She glanced up at me as she climbed then lowered her eyes in shame as we passed without speaking. I suppose I should have been mad at her for stealing that VR headset which left me so vulnerable, but I wasn't. She was as trapped as I was now and we were both going need each other over the coming months to get through this. And it's not as if I was an innocent lamb in this mess either. Would Hiromoto have found out about the VR project in the first place if I hadn't told Mariko about it? There was no way of knowing but it didn't really matter. I was as guilty as Kelly in its theft.

My shift was scheduled to end at six p.m. but a mailgirl never knows for sure when it really ends. The company can always add additional unpaid overtime hours based on accumulated demerits so a mailgirl has to keep working until the status message on her MMU updates to OFF DUTY. Only then is she allowed to retrieve her clothes from security, have the metal collar unlocked and removed, and be allowed to leave the building. Whenever one of DDE's games or movies was in "crunch time" to meet a release deadline that always meant long hours for us mailgirls. Things were relatively quiet at DDE right now though so I got the OFF DUTY message right at six o'clock. I had no clothes to retrieve and my collar was permanently attached but at least that meant I could get the hell out of here.

I headed immediately for the Mailgirls locker room hoping to find Anna there. Since Barbara didn't allow me to have any possessions, including a key to the condo, that meant I sometimes had a long wait for Anna to escort me home if she was assigned overtime while I wasn't.

Thankfully I found Anna in the showers next to Diana who had survived her "walk of shame" and the first day of training. Kelly was also there washing the funk off after a day of running the mail in the nude. She looked as shell-shocked by the events of the day as I felt. I hung my MMU and its strap up on my wall hook and headed straight into the shower area toward Kelly. "You and me need to talk," I said to her.

Kelly looked at me guiltily. "Yeah, I think we do," she said. "Where?"

"Hooligans," I replied. It was an Irish pub where Kelly and I used to meet every Friday night when we first started working the tower together as DDE's only mailgirls. Kelly, with her auburn hair and mischievous smile, was of Irish descent and loved bitching about Barbara over a pint of Guinness during those sessions. That seemed so long ago now and a much simpler time.

"They're not going to let you in naked," she said. "Probably not anyway."

"I'll borrow some clothes from Anna." As far as I was concerned I was still operating under my original contract which didn't expire until midnight on Friday so there was nothing to prevent me from dressing away from work.

Anna had been listening in to our conversation and spoke up now. "Nine, I have not given you permission to..."

"We're not playing that stupid game anymore, Anna," I snapped at her. "And call me Danica from now on."

A look of surprise and then relief washed over her face. "Oh thank god, Danica," she said. "I'm so sick of it!"

"I think you should come, too," I said to her. "You need to know what's going on."

"Okay," Anna nodded.

"Can I come?" Diana asked. My first inclination was to tell her no. This was going to be a conversation between Kelly, Anna, and me that would involve private information and I'd only just met her. But as I looked at the beautiful actress I felt like we'd made an immediate connection today. For whatever reason I instinctively liked and trusted her.

"Sure. Why not?" I replied. "You might as well find out exactly what you've gotten yourself into. You're not in Kansas anymore, Ellie Bixby."

HOOLIGANS

About an hour later the four of us met in the parking lot of Hooligans. I'd ridden there with Anna who was driving my old car and, for the first time since my mom's visit months earlier, I wasn't naked. I had on a tan dress composed of a soft stretchy fabric that clung tightly to the curves of my body. It had a plunging U-shaped neckline that showed off quite a bit of cleavage and a hemline that covered my ass and not a whole lot else. Beneath the dress I was bare. On my feet I wore a pair of open-toed heels with leather straps and around my neck was the metal collar with the number "9" stamped on a plate in front. That latter accessory was a permanent fixture courtesy of Barbara and was almost impossible to remove without the key.

I'd picked the dress and heels out of Anna's closet since I no longer owned any clothes of my own. It felt weird to be wearing something on my body but I knew I looked hot in this dress. I felt sexier than if I'd been completely nude. Heads turned throughout the pub as we walked through the door. Even fully clothed the four of us drew attention. We found an empty table and sat down.

Since it was a Monday evening the bar was relatively quiet so there was no waitress on duty like there normally would be later in the week. A good looking bartender came around the bar and approached our table. He looked to be in his mid-twenties with dark hair, blue eyes, a fashionably stubbled beard and a body that looked like it had been chiseled in a gym. "Wow, this my lucky night," he smiled. "What can I do for you gorgeous ladies?"

"We're here for drinks and some girl talk," I said to him. "Can you help us out?"

"I can help you out with the drinks part of that equation. I'm gonna need to see some ID's though." I knew this was going to be a problem for both me and Anna. My identification cards were all locked up in Barbara's safe in the condo and Anna wasn't twenty-one yet.

"I don't have any ID on me but I'm twenty-seven," I said.

"Hey I believe you, but the last bartender got fired after the bar was fined because he served some underage minors, so I've gotta see ID's. Sorry."

I was really in the mood to drink tonight and didn't want to go somewhere else where we'd probably have the same problem anyway. "Have you ever heard of Mailgirl 9?" I asked him.

"From the video game? Sure. I don't really play it but my roomie does."

"I'm Mailgirl 9," I said. "I'm a mailgirl at DDE and that character was based on me." I pointed to the number 9 on my metal collar. "This is my ID," I said, then pulled down the front of my dress to reveal my tits to him, "and these are my ID's."

The bartender rocked his head back in laughter. "Okay, I think I can accept that." Then he looked around the table. "Are all of you DDE mailgirls?" Anna, Kelly, and Diana all nodded in the affirmative. A mischievous grin spread across his face. "Alright I'm gonna need to see all of your ID's."

"Show him your ID's, Anna," I said to her. She looked at me and rolled her eyes, then unbuttoned her blouse and flashed her bare tits at the bartender.

"You know I do have a driver's license I can show you," Kelly said to the man when he turned to her.

"How can I be certain that it's not fake?" he grinned.

Kelly let out an exaggerated sigh although I knew she was amused by the situation. "Well I can promise you these aren't fake," she said as she lifted up her shirt. Diana laughed as she unbuttoned her blouse and gave him an eyeful of her perfect pair when it was her turn.

"Damn, I'm gonna have to get a job at DDE," the bartender said shaking his head. "What can I get you ladies?"

A few minutes later we had our drinks but the mood at the table had turned somber again as everyone knew something was going on with me. "So what happened in Barbara's office today?" Anna asked.

"Should we really be talking in front of her?" Kelly asked eyeing Diana suspiciously. "Nothing personal but you're a new tango and I don't know you."

"I promise you I won't tell anyone about anything that's said here, but if you if you want me to leave I will," Diana said.

"No," I said to her. I told Kelly about the movie, Diana's role in it, and her background.

"The Bixby Girls? I never watched that show," Kelly said after I'd finished. "But if you trust her, Danica, then guess I will, too. I just don't want to see this stuff I think we're about to discuss end up on TMZ."

"I'm not famous enough any more for TMZ to give a shit about me," Diana replied defensively.

"They might once your pussy shaving videos start showing up online courtesy of the Gangsta geeks," Kelly said.

"I do trust her," I told Kelly. "She can stay."

Diana gave me a smile. "Thanks."

I took a sip from my vodka tonic and wondered how much I should tell them. Everything, I decided. I would tell them everything. So I began to speak. After I'd finished the table was quiet. Anna was the first to break the silence.

"So you've been spying for Hiromoto? Why would you do that?"

"Mariko offered me Hiromoto's protection from Barbara if I provided him information and I believed her. It turned out to be total bullshit."

"Did you steal that VR headset?" Anna asked.

"No," I said shaking my head. "I would never do that. I just gave them information that I figured Hiromoto might use for insider trading or something." I glanced over at Kelly who was staring down into her pint of Guinness. I wasn't going to tell them about my suspicions that Kelly had done it, but it turned out I didn't have to.

"I stole it," Kelly said looking up from her pint. "And now I'm fucked, Danica. We both are. Barbara can sue the shit out of us and have us locked up if she wants." Kelly choked back a sob and brushed a tear from her eye. "I'm so sorry, Danica, that's the second time I've screwed you over. You must hate me."

I did want to hate her, but I couldn't. "Why did you do it Kelly?" I asked quietly.

"Why the hell do I do anything, Danica? For money. Mariko offered me ten thousand bucks to steal it and deliver it to that Hiromoto tech in the east wing."

"So how long were you spying for them before that?" I asked.

"Mariko recruited me not long after that meeting in Barbara's office where she assigned us numbers. You know, the one where she basically told me to shut the fuck up and stay out of her sight or else. I got a pickup order from that room in the east wing about a week or so after that. The Hiromoto tech was there and handed me the phone with Mariko on the other end. I hated Barbara so much that she didn't need to twist my arm much."

"So does Barbara have security footage to prove that you took it?" I asked.

Kelly shook her head. "No, I was careful about that. After I handed it off to the Hiromoto tech I talked to Mariko about it on the phone. Barbara has the recording of that." God, they have everything on us from those phone calls with Mariko, I thought to myself. We're so screwed.

"She told me you signed a new contract today. Is that true?" I asked her.

"Yeah. The bitch called me into her office first thing this morning and played the recording. I had no choice. It's for less than half the money I'm making now and with no expiration date. I figure I'm stuck working as a mailgirl now until the statute of limitations runs out on the VR theft."

"How long is that?"

Kelly shrugged. "Who the hell knows? Quite a few years, I'm sure."

Barbara really did have us dead to rights, I thought to myself despondently. I couldn't see any way out of this.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you," I said turning to Anna. "Barbara knows about you and Ben."

"What?" Anna replied in shock, the color draining from her face. "How?"

"Barbara says she set the whole thing up, supposedly to help you move on from me. She claims Ben doesn't know anything about it and she doesn't care if you two hook up as long you're discreet about it."

"And you believe her?"

"God no, Anna. I don't believe anything that comes out of her mouth anymore. I'd stay the hell away from Ben if I were you until your contract is up."

"But that's three months!" Anna protested. "And you'll be moving in with Barbara so I won't even have you!"

"Yeah, it's three months, Anna. So what? What the hell do you have to complain about? Kelly and I are going to be stuck in this shit show for years!" That came out much more harshly than I intended but I guess my nerves were frayed from everything that had happened that day. I glanced over at Diana who had a look of wide-eyed horror on her face as she listened to all of this.

"Can I ask a stupid question?" Diana said. "Who the hell are Hiromoto and Mariko?"

I filled her in on Hiromoto's background and told her the story of the trip Kelly and I had made to his headquarters in Tokyo. I even told her the story about watching him whip Mariko on the 14th floor. This was also the first time that Kelly and Anna had heard it.

Diana's eyes were the size of saucers by the time I finished. "Jesus, what the hell have I gotten myself into here?" she said. "Blackmail, whippings, Japanese gangsters, corporate espionage? What the fuck, Danica? I'm going to call my agent tonight and see if I can get out of this!"

"I wouldn't if I were you," I told her. "You really don't want to screw with Barbara. She'll eat you and your agent for breakfast. Just do the movie and then get the hell out."

"You also promised to keep your fucking mouth shut about what you heard here tonight," Kelly warned her. "Did you sign a contract with Barbara?" Diana nodded. "Well then you might want to take another look at the fine print in it, Bixby girl. You'll want to make sure you really can leave after the movie." A look of panic came across Diana's face as Kelly spoke.

It was Anna's turn to speak up. "We've got to do something," she said to me. "You and Kelly should go to the media or the police or something and tell them what's going on!"

"The media?" Kelly snorted derisively. "Do you remember how much media exposure Linda got when she ran to that feminist group for help? Where's she at now, Anna? Right back here running the mail in her birthday suit. And what the hell are we supposed to tell the police? That me and Danica got caught in corporate espionage and now the company is being mean to us by making us stay mailgirls forever? I'm sure the two of us will look smoking hot in our mugshots."

"We have to do something," Anna replied desperately. "Barbara can't just keep getting away with this!"

"From where I sit she probably can keep getting away with it," Kelly retorted. "We're fighting her with wooden spears while she's got nukes."

"We'll figure something out," I said without enough conviction to convince even myself of it.

We all sat in miserable silence for a time until we were interrupted by a voice behind me. "Are you mailgirls having fun on your girls night out?" I turned to see the bartender standing there. I guess he figured out the answer by the death glares he got from the four of us. "Um, yeah, not so much it looks like. I just wanted to check and see if you ladies wanted another round."

"Yeah, I think we do," I said.

It wouldn't be our last round of the night.

WEDNESDAY

The sun was just coming up over the horizon as Anna and I walked hand in hand together into the DDE employee lobby to begin our mailgirl shift.

Tanisha, the security guard working the Mailgirls desk, gave me an odd look as I approached. "I almost didn't recognize you with your clothes on Nine," she smirked. "Is this a new thing?"

"Yes, ma'am," I replied although I knew it was likely to be a very temporary "thing." I was wearing a simple cotton dress with sandals which was a departure from the many previous months when I'd walk to work naked a step behind Anna as part of the dominant/submissive roleplaying that Barbara demanded of us. She had used Anna as her surrogate to get me accustomed to my role as a submissive until the day came when she would take over the dominant role herself. That day was nearly at hand now and I was about to become her personal mailgirl/slave. The refusal to play Barbara's game for these final few days was our small act of defiance, as futile as that gesture might be.

Yesterday had been miserable for me. I'd shown up to work still feeling the aftereffects of my drinking session at Hooligan's the night before and racked up more demerits in one day than I usually did in a week. At least I wasn't feeling hung over today but I remained an emotional train wreck, still reeling from that fateful meeting in Barbara's office on Monday.

I stripped and handed my clothes and sandals to Tanisha to be locked up and she strapped an MMU to my arm. Anna did the same and also had a metal collar displaying the number "1" locked onto her neck. Our nudity, the electronic leashes in the form of the MMU's, and our metal collars were meant to remind us, and everyone else, of our status as company slaves. Once stripped of any sense of dignity and normalcy the two of us headed up the stairs to the Mailgirls locker room to begin our preparations for the day.

Diana and Kelly were already there when we arrived. We exchanged some small talk but there wasn't much beyond that to say to each other. Nothing had really been resolved on Monday night other than the promise that the four of us would keep our eyes and ears open for anything we might be able to use as ammunition against Barbara.

The remainder of Diana's training had been reassigned to Anna so I'd be working a normal shift today, not that the word "normal" could ever really describe mailgirl duties. I'm not sure why Diana had originally been assigned to me on Monday. Most likely it was just another of the head games that Barbara loved to play with me. Maybe she somehow knew that I'd once been a "Bixby Girls" fan and wanted show me that she even had the power to strip and humiliate one of the icons of my youth. That might even be why she hired Diana for the role in the first place. "Who the fuck knows?" I muttered under my breath. I'd grown tired of trying to unravel the reasons behind Barbara's torturous plots and schemes.

I went through my daily ritual of preparing for my shift in front of the unseen audience on the other side of the mirror, a process that made me feel like a combination of entertainer and zoo animal. My body held no mysteries for anyone employed at DDE but I still felt the inevitable stirrings of arousal knowing I was about to put it on display once again for hundreds of clothed people. I'd never become jaded about my constant public nudity and I was actually grateful for that small gift since it appeared now there would be no end in sight to it.