Chapter 9
Three's A Crowd
Jayce returns to reality quick enough to catch the slumping body of Monique. With a grunt and a few choice words he gently drags the woman to the stack of popcorn bags, unclipping her two-way as he lays her down. 'Candy to management, we have a problem.' He blurts into the device, mind still reeling.
'Whats the problem?' Comes the response. A frustrated Jayce smacks himself in the head with the Walkie-talkie.
'Back of house, now.'
A brief pause hangs in the air as Megan pokes her head round the corner to the staff room, her worried face peering out from behind a few bangs of errant dark hair. 'Shit!' She exclaims before coming out to help Jayce. Her shapely figure hidden for the most part behind the standard uniform of black-shirt-and-pants, Megan strides over; black work shoes blurring across the floor. 'What happened?' She puts her hand on his as the world goes dark.
Jayce and Megan stand in a field, flowers blossoming on the ground and - oddly - the smell of cake icing in the air. The man firmly takes her hand, and says with a serious look across his face just one word 'No.'
The world goes dark, large stone columns enclose the two as fires burst to existence from torches on the walls.. However a third person has joined them. The two look to the scantily clad dominatrix. She opens her mouth to speak but is beaten to it; a blur of movement coupled with a loud *smack* the only immediate evidence of Jayce's forced hand. 'NO!'
The two figures stand on nothing in a universe made entirely of white light. Megan turns to Jayce about to say something, but Jayce is already muttering 'No, no, no, no, NO!'
Jayce and Megan are back in the Cinema, their boss laying on the popcorn sacks unconscious once again as he brushes her hand off his. She looks up at him in puzzlement. 'Later...' He says as the two-way crackles back to life.
'Tell me what the problem is.'
'Aaagh!' Jayce gnashes in anger before depressing the talk button. 'Get out here and look! Describing it will not be good for staff or customers to hear!' His fist tightens significantly, his already white knuckles turning a bluish pink.
'Give me a minute'
'NOW!' The two-way wasn't transmitting, but the ferocity behind the word was enough to tear through the building, causing a moment's silence in the peak-hour cinema traffic.
The office door is flung open as Bethanie storms out. Unlike Monique who is average in height, slender for the most part and dresses very smartly, Bethanie stands slightly taller than the 6'5" Jayce, with broad shoulders supporting a very voluptuous figure. A swimming star in high school, when hormones set in and she was no longer able to compete at the same standard, she devoted her time to artistic pursuits; taking up painting and film, where she sidled into her current job as Duty Manager. Her dark brown hair offsets the healthily-tanned skin nicely, a pair of deep chocolate eyes glaring back through a pair of half-moon glasses.
The glasses - and for that matter the rest of her outfit - were more for fashion's sake than her own, as she carries contacts with her anyway but finds them too fiddly to bother with on a daily basis. Instead, Bethanie prefers a more dated look; brown slacks and leather boots beneath a tan almost-under-bust waistcoat and well tailored white shirt, unbuttoned low enough to let the imagination wander without actually seeing anything untoward.
Beth's glare turns to shock as the image of an unconscious Monique registers in her mind. 'What happened? Have you called an ambulance?' Barks the woman as she rushes to her boss' side.
'Called you first; and she just fainted.' He was lying through his teeth, but what else could he say at this point?
'Megan, ambulance.' She points to the still stunned girl. 'Now!' She reiterates as the black uniformed blur disappears into the staff room.
'Jayce, from the top.' If there was one thing you could say about Beth, it was she was exceptionally good in a crisis.
'I went to get a drink from the fridge, closed the door to keep cool, I heard her shouting over the two-way, she walked in and... Floomph.'
'Floomph?'
'She's okay, I felt her pulse when I put her down. She just fainted.' Bethanie raises an eyebrow as she stares into Jayce's soul. 'Stress?' He shrugs.
'Get back to work, I'll call you if we need you.' She orders, Jayce taking one last look at the unconscious form of his boss before returning to the front of the Candy Bar, sighing when he picks up the first docket for coffee; one half-strength, extra hot, long, soy Macchiato with lots of froth, a dash of chocolate and four artificial sweeteners.
***
'Let me get this straight-' Dr Theloneus rests her pen on the desk, looking up from her scribblings with a look of horror and disbelief across her face. 'Inside your head you have the mental projection of your boss as a dominatrix running around causing mayhem?'
'No...' Jayce groans, head buried in hands. He sits back in his chair, knuckles cracking as he calms himself. 'Not a projection, it's part of HER; the dominant part specifically.'
'And that's why we're not "going in" today?'