Eileen was devastated.

Coming up to Christmas, and she’d been told the store she was working in was closing and been given two weeks’ notice.

She had bills to pay! If she didn’t find another job straight away, for a similar wage, she’d have to quit her flat and move back in with her parents. The thought didn’t cheer her up at all.

Problem was, also, all the job interviews she could get were during her working hours. She would have to get time off, and she couldn’t afford to lose what money she had coming in.

Then she found something of use…

Young women wanted for marketing and advertising positions. Retail experience an advantage. Email promo@....

Note: must be able to attend evening interviews. Interviews will not be during working hours.

Eileen jumped at the chance. The people running the promotion seemed to realise that people were trying to earn all they could at the moment. This was just what she wanted…

She sent an email to the address, then got on with her day at work.

Later in the afternoon, she had an email back.

Ms Rogers,

We would be very grateful if you could attend the ‘induction evening’ tonight at 7pm, as we need to fill this position as soon as possible. Your CV is of interest, and we understand your circumstances and can commiserate with you.

Please come to ….. tonight and we will talk more.

Regards,

Petra Bailey

Special Recruitments.

Eileen made a note of the address and time.

She also told her parents, who had been worrying about her ever since she got the news from her store.

“That’s wonderful, dear!”, her mother said. “Let us know how it goes.”

The only thing she didn’t do at the time was tell her parents where the interview was…

Eileen left the store as soon as it closed; it would take her a while to get to the interview, as she cycled everywhere.

She pulled up at the address five minutes early. At first, she was sure she had got the wrong place; it looked like a rundown warehouse.

Suddenly, a woman walked up to her. She seemed to have come from nowhere.

“Eileen Rogers?”, she asked. “Petra Bailey, pleased to meet you at last.”

“At last?”, queried Eileen.

“Yes”, said Petra, with a smile. “We’ve been watching you for some time…”

The needle in her neck brought a sharp pain, then blackness…

Petra and her helper bundled Eileen into the back of their van, as well as her bike.

Petra was already undressing Eileen as they drove away…

Next morning, Eileen’s parents were concerned.

“Eileen was going to tell us how the job interview went”, her mother said. “Also, she always phones me on the way to work, at least. I’ve heard nothing.”

“Her shop’s not open yet, try ringing her”, her father said.

Her mother tried. It went straight to voicemail.

“Her phone’s off. That can’t be right. She’s always got it on, for work.”

As the day went on, her mother got more and more worried. She called the shop where she worked. No, Eileen hadn’t been in today. Perhaps she wasn’t well?

Her parents went round to her flat, as her mother had keys. Empty. None of her neighbours had seen her since yesterday.

Now her mother was really anxious. She had good reason to be…

Eileen was slowly coming to her senses. What the hell? How was she sleeping standing up?

She blinked, then squinted, as the light from outside hit her eyes. She was in the middle of the town square!

She frantically tried to move. No good, she was frozen solid. Even her mouth wouldn’t open.

Suddenly she heard a voice.

“I want my picture taken with the toy soldier!”

A kid was standing against her, waving to her mum.

The mother took the picture, totally oblivious of Eileen, who was frantically trying to scream for help.

The woman then came over and showed the picture to her kid.

Eileen tried to scream…

She was sealed inside one of the toy soldiers scattered over the town as Christmas Decorations. Its shiny surface was acting as a solid shell, completely imprisoning her. You couldn’t even see her eyes from the outside.

She wet herself in shock; she felt a faint tugging. Something was clamped onto her, between her legs, taking all her waste away.

As the mother and kid left, some disgusting paste squeezed out from a tiny tube in her mouth. She swallowed it with distaste.

There was a click in her ears.

“Good afternoon, Eileen! Glad you could join us. You’ve been asleep for eighteen hours straight. You are now a Christmas Decoration, until 12th night. The life support systems built into your pedestal will keep you going until then, feeding you and cleaning you out.”

Eileen whimpered, frantically trying to move.

“Once your ‘stint’ as a toy soldier is over, people should have stopped looking for you, and you will turn into just another missing person. At that point, you will be released from the soldier and converted into a slave girl at our brothel. You can’t speak any more; your vocal cords have been removed; your tongue has been forked to make sex more ‘interesting’ for your new owner, and the collar round your neck will allow your new owner to control you completely. At least you won’t need to worry about paying bills anymore…”

The headphones clicked off. Eileen just screamed silently, tears streaming down her cheeks and running down into the waste collection pipe.

Ironically, the soldier was mounted facing her old shop. She fought to move, scream, do anything, as her friends walked past feet away from her…