When Penelope opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a dark and cave-like place. She slowly got up and looked around her.
The office environment was now transformed into a strange but familiar looking place. The office furniture and picture frames were just as how it was but the walls and ceiling were made of rocks. Oil lamps lined neatly against the walls partially illuminating the surroundings. Other than the office furniture, the place looked very much like a dungeon scene on a movie set. A musty smell hung in the air.
“Where am I?” Somebody stirred. She turned to her side and realized that Juliana was lying a few feet away.
“What happened to the office?” Juliana managed to mumble as she slowly got up.
“I have no idea.” Penelope walked over to her friend and helped Juliana up. “Where is everybody? Are we in a dream? Ouch! Why did you pinch me?”
“If you didn’t wake up, this isn’t a dream,” said Juliana and she gave herself a hard pinch and yelped.
“Oh great! You guys are awake!” sang a familiar voice in a chirpy tone from the back. The presence of another voice startled them. They both wheeled around. It was Nicolette, the office bimbo wearing her short tight mini dress. Ever cheerful, Nicolette hummed a tune as she pulled a swivel chair up to them and crossed her legs. What didn’t seem right was that Nicolette acted as if coming to work in a dungeon was a normal thing to do. Both Penelope and Juliana stared at her speechless. “What’s the matter? You both look like you’ve seen a ghost,” continued Nicolette cheerfully. “Here, take a chair each and sit in front of me, I’ve a very important message from Asmodeus.”
“Asmodeus?”asked Penelope and Juliana in unison as they slowly lowered themselves down on their chairs with quizzical looks.
“You didn’t know?”Cried Nicolette as she adjusted her hair and whipped out a mirror to study her eye makeup briefly. With the motion of an expert makeup artist, she quickly withdrew her mirror and continued, “Asmodeus is the Lust Demon and I’m sort of like her messenger. We’re related in case you didn’t know.” They both didn’t know but that would really explain a lot of other things. Well, not quite everything at this moment.
“Oh! In case you’re wondering, you’re actually in the same familiar office that you are usually accustomed to. The setting looks a bit different now because you’re in another dimension. You know, the parallel dimension where angels and demons coexist with us.”
“Angels and demons?” echoed Juliana.
“Yeah! Isn’t that cool?” cried Nicolette as if they were talking about Disneyland. “Asmodeus has lost her pair of tight pants and you,” said Nicolette while pointing at Penelope and Juliana, “, are the chosen one in the human race.”
“Chosen one to do what?” asked Penelope aghast.
“To search for her missing pair of tight pants!” said Nicolette happily in a congratulatory tone.
“Why can’t Asmodeus simply get a new pair of pants?” The whole idea seemed rather absurd to Penelope.
“Oh these pants are different. When they flash, they can entice the opposite sex and put them under a spell for the other party’s immoral benefit. Somebody stole them and is using them for the wrong reasons. That sort of explains the horrible letter you got from HR. Some of your bosses brains are slowly turning to pulp because of those pants. They were flashed at the wrong people and in the wrong way too. Bigwig’s brain is now 70% pulp.”
“I guess I’ll just have to get another job,” declared Penelope. If their brains were turning to pulp, so be it. She never really liked this company anyway.
“Oh no,” Nicolette shook her head. “You’re still going to get those pants back because if you don’t, a terrible disease will spread throughout the human race and wipe out the entire human existence from earth. Just think about it, you both could be heroes when you save the world!”
Dying wasn’t a bad idea, thought Penelope.
“However,” continued Nicolette as she waved her watch at them, “You only have two days to retrieve those pants. Things can get pretty vicious if they’ve been misused for too long. But don’t worry, you two have each other.”
“Why-why us?” Penelope asked delirious. “Is there another way out of this? Perhaps there is a mistake?”
“Oops!” Nicolette quickly got up. “My time is up. I have to run. I’ve got an appointment to do my hair and nails.” And she sashayed over to the copier with a purposeful walk.
“Wait!” Penelope had so many questions to that were unanswered. Nicolette vanished into thin air before they had any time to react. Now where or how do they get started?
Tune in next week for : FOTTP Episode 4
