It was a sad day for the employees at Ebswroth Woodworks. For the last 20 years, Ebsworth Woodworks was managed by the best manager that you could ask for, Nick Ebsworth. Nick had also been an incredible manager, he would always listen to his employees, take all of their thoughts and feelings into account which helped to create an amazing atmosphere in the workplace which helped to boost its work morale. It is a family business that has been passed down through the generations but many would agree that the business was at its most successful with Nick in charge and all of the employees were happy. Today was the day of Nick’s retirement.
The only thing that was worse than Nick’s retirement was the person who is replacing him, his obnoxious horrible son Joe Ebsworth. Joe is the complete opposite of his dad, Joe was a spoilt brat and a bully who seems to get off from making our lives a misery. Joe is 23 years old (the same age as me), quite tall and a redhead with orange-brown hair. He is a handsome guy with a bit of a hot voice as well but those are the only compliments that I would ever give him and I would never say that to his face as his ego is already through the roof enough as it is! At the news that Joe would be our new boss, many people had said they would be looking to quit and find another job. We have always been so happy here though, it doesn’t sound reasonable that we should have to quit because of this bully.
Other people are feeling like they are stuck here as they don’t want the hassle of searching for another job as it can take ages and it certainly doesn’t help when they have bills to pay and food to put on their tables. After the conversation I overheard between Joe and Nick this morning from outside of Nick’s office, it doesn’t sound as though Joe will be changing his ways anytime soon.
“Now just remember son, these will be your employees now, they will be helping to keep our business going, they are the best workers so just continue to treat them with respect and you’ll form a strong everlasting bond with them, they will love you” Nick had given Joe some nice words of wisdom.
Joe grinned in response “love? You think I want their love? You said it yourself dad, they’re MY employees now, they WORK for ME and quite frankly from what I’ve seen, there have been some slackers around the work place as of late so I will be making sure that is dealt with first and foremost…”
Nick cut him off “I really hope you are not referring to Mike as we’ve been over this, he is dealing with a loss of a family member but he wanted to keep working to keep himself distracted. I have allowed him some additional breaks to cater for him, he is not slacking.”
Now it was Joe cutting him off “Mike is exactly who I am referring to! The loss of a family member, his brother who he didn’t even get along with! He’s not torn up about it at all, he’s milking it!”
I could hear Nick beginning to lose his patience a bit. “It’s still his brother! People deal with grief differently and you don’t understand their whole situation, you have so much to learn about empathy!”
Joe continued to be argumentative “no dad, you’re just way too soft with them! They need a good boot to get their arses into gear and get the work done, if you want this company to continue to be successful then this is the approach that we take!”
“You know… you’re my son and I want everything that is best for you. But sometimes… now… I find myself asking if handing you the company is the right thing to do after all.” I was saddened to hear the disappointment in Nick’s voice. The poor guy deserves so much better.
Nick’s disappointment was met by Joe’s amusement. “Well who else would you hand it to? It’s just you and me remember? And not like you can hand it to any other fucker or it wouldn’t be Ebsworth Woodworks anymore would it? Your legacy would be gone!”
“Don’t go swearing like that!” Nick was getting stern.
“Why not? I’m 23 years old dad, I’m an adult, not a kid anymore! Have some faith in me, trust me you’ve made the right call, I’ll turn this place around and you’ll see, you’ll be thanking me for it!” Joe was very cocky.
Nick sighed. “Please son I’m begging you, just please do the right things, don’t go upsetting anybody, they are lovely people.”
“Whatever you say dad, now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do!” Joe replied and nothing more was said between them. You would think a person in Joe’s situation would be grateful to their dad for handing their business over to them. I would be over the moon! Nick gives Joe the world and Joe just throws it all back in his face, I hate him!
I could hear footsteps walking towards the door, shit! I need to find a place to hide! I quickly looked around but couldn’t see anything to hide behind. The door opened and I quickly hid at the side of the open door. Nick closed the door and looked right at me puzzled. He made a hand gesture to signal me to follow him away so that Joe wouldn’t be able to hear us.
“Ben? What are you doing here?” Nick whispered.
“Oh…sorry Nick I err… I just on my way to see you, to hand to hand these” I held up the box of chocolates to him “I know you go crazy over Thorntons chocolates so I thought I’d bring you a box as a leaving gift.”
Nicked chuckled “aw bless you Ben you know me too well! Thank you that’s really kind of you, I’m going to miss you!”
“I’m going to miss you too, thank you for everything that you’ve done for us.” I handed Nick the chocolates and we both hugged.
When we let go, Nick gave me some last personal advice “you’ve always been an A* worker Ben, don’t ever let Joe try and convince you otherwise. You just keep your head down and keep doing what you do.”
“I will do…thanks Nick”.
Nick smiled at me and said “no problem…I will see you all soon for my leaving speech” Nick turned to walk away but suddenly stopped himself. “Oh and Ben?”
“Yes?” I asked.
Nick walked right up to me and whispered “don’t tell Joe that you’re gay.” Nick looked me in the eyes for a good few seconds to make sure that I got the message and he turned to walk off.
Amazing. Not only is my new boss a twat to his new employees but it turns out he’s also homophobic. I’ve always felt safe in my job but how can I when a homophobe is now running the place? Mike too… oh dear god… Mike is gay too! Maybe one or two others might be that we don’t know about! Back in the closet for us I guess!
Nick came to bid us all fair well and gave us all a heartwarming speech about how proud he is of us all and how much he’s going to miss working with us. Satan himself then comes in wearing his fancy suit and he is about to give his speech. He and his dad share the most awkward hug I’ve ever seen and I see Nick whispering something in his ear which Joe shrugs off with a smirk and a head shake, much to Nick’s annoyance. Nick quickly hid his annoyance by forcing a smile and waving us all goodbye and he was gone.
Joe greeted us with his speech “right everyone! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Joe Ebsworth, Nick’s son and I am now your new boss!” You’d think we were all at a funeral if you could see the looks on our faces right now.
Joe continued “starting from now, I will be changing your contracted hours for every single one of you. Going forward, you will all be on half hour lunches instead of one hour ones. This is to prevent the risk of any of you getting too relaxed after coming off your lunch breaks and slacking with your work!”
We all looked up in shock and one of the employees called Brad spoke up and said “but Joe… we don’t slack, your dad told us himself the company is at the most successful that it’s been and our customers are all happy! I don’t feel like this change would be necessary?”
Joe’s eyes widened. “Okay Brad… three things… ONE you will address me as SIR and that goes for all of you! TWO yes the company is the most successful it’s been but that’s just for this company in general, we will make this company the best in the industry! THREE I call the shots around here not you and that’s the first and last time you will interrupt me, a second time will be an immediate dismissal!”
We were all stunned. Another employee called Ryan raised his hand.
“Yes Ryan?” Joe asked.
“Sorry sir, just a question around the lunch breaks, if our lunch breaks are going to be half an hour shorter, does this mean that we would be finishing half an hour earlier?”
Joe seemed to be quite stunned by this question. “No it doesn’t Ryan, your pay will remain the same, it’s just an extra half hour, you’ll all live! Whilst we’re on the topics of breaks as well, there will be no more additional breaks for you Mike, you’ve had more enough now we need you back working at 100% again chop chop!” Joe clapped his heads together as he said these last 2 words.
“Okay I will try sir” Mike replied.
“No trying Mike! It’s do or no job, pick one!” Joe responded.
Mike didn’t say anything back but just nodded. I felt so bad for Mike. Joe continued.
“And now lastly, I will also be setting you all some targets and I expect each and every one of you to reach them, failure to not meet them will be deducted from your pay and if it continues, you will be fired, questions?”
Joe scanned us all to see if anyone would ask anything and nobody said a word. “Good! I will update you all in due course about when these changes will take effect and what your targets will be, now get to work!”
The next few days had been complete hell! I was only just managing to meet my targets but I guess I was one of the lucky ones. Joe had given an employee named Scott an earful because he was failing to meet his targets. Joe warned him that another strike would get him fired. Brad had accidentally broken a saw which Joe said will be deducted from his pay and he made him stay at work an extra half hour later as punishment.
“He can’t do that to him surely?!” Scott said to me.
“No but as much as I hate to say it, he’ll find a way to worm himself out of it if he were to reported and the person who reports him would no doubt lose their job.” I replied.
It went on and on and on.
“I can’t take this anymore!” Mike told me. “I’ve had the worst week of my life with my brother dying and now Joe is just making everything ten times worse! I can’t do this!”
I gave Mike a hug and told him that I’d be here for him and that things will be okay. Will they though? No. I couldn’t have been anymore wrong.
Just 2 days later, Mike was fired. Joe had caught him kissing another guy just outside of the building. The other guy isn’t an employee of ours but Joe scared him off. Joe was angry with Mike.
“Filthy fucking faggot! Engaging in such disgusting behaviour within the company boundaries, I bet your brother would be ashamed!”
“No he wouldn’t! We had our ups and downs but he loved and accepted me for who I am! He’s not a bigot like you!” Mike responded.
Joe slapped him. The slap left a big red mark on Mike’s left cheek.
“He must have been just as messed up as you then! Don’t you ever come here again, you are fired!” Joe told him.
Joe walked away and Mike looked right at me. Mike knows that I’m gay too. I ended up looking away, the puppy eyes he was giving me, he wanted me to speak up and I said nothing. By the time I looked back at him, he was walking away, I was ashamed of myself for just standing there watching but what could I have done?
2 weeks after this happened, things went from bad to…strange! Joe came in one day with a young looking lad, he looked around 19 years old and was always wearing a baseball cap, you could still see his black haired fringe coming out from underneath it. He was cute but something was off about him.
Joe introduced us to him “everyone, this is Jordan! Jordan is taking on an apprenticeship with us so let’s all give him a warm welcome!” Joe shook hands with Jordan and told him “welcome to the team!”
“Thank you sir I’m really excited to get started! You look really stylish in that suit! I’m glad that I have this opportunity to work for you!” Jordan was enthusiastic.
Poor lad has no idea what he’s getting himself in to.
“I’m happy to have you here mate welcome!” Joe smiled and shook his hand.
Joe seems to really like this guy, why? He literally never calls anybody mate! One possible theory came to mind, Jordan is an apprentice and young, the perfect guy for Joe to mould and shape into the perfect work slave, yes that has to be it!
Jordan settled into the role very quickly. He was really efficient with his work and every so often he would go and talk with the other employees and everyone seemed to really warm up to him. Another thing that I was noticing is that nothing with Joe had changed. He was still the same nasty prick as normal, treating everybody no more kinder than before and yet… people seemed to be… happier?
Something isn’t right. Joe must be threatening them. Pretend to be all happy and smiley around Jordan so that he feels welcome and has nothing to worry about. Failure to do so will result in being fired of course. My blood was beginning to boil! I can feel myself going red, I can’t let my anger show.
I raise my hand “sir? Is it okay if I use the toilet?” I asked Joe.
“Well you do still have to work to do! Although I can’t have my employees looking like a fucking tomato either! What is going on with your face? Get yourself to the toilet on this occasion, I don’t want any accidents happening in here!” Joe replied.
“Thank you sir” and with that I quickly hurried off.
As I was heading to the toilets I noticed Jordan was drilling and he appeared to have had a big black object in his other hand which he quickly hid in his bag when I walked past him.
“Hey…urm…what was that?” I asked. It appeared to be some new equipment that I had never seen before.
“Huh?” Jordan looked innocent.
“That black thing you had in your hand, the thing you’ve just put in your bag” I answered.
“Oh that? It was a drill piece.” Jordan smiled at me.
“Mmm…pretty big for a drill piece don’t you think?” I was getting suspicious.
Jordan chuckled “yeah you’re not wrong there mate but it should get the job done.” He gave another innocent chuckle. “Sorry I don’t believe we’ve met have we?”
The classic move of trying to change the subject but I decided that I’ll play along. I smile back at him and say “no we haven’t… I’m Ben and you’re Jordan aren’t you?”
“That’s me dude!” We shook hands. “Say… the people here are so friendly. I gotta say I’ve grown attached to every single one of em, just you now I guess mate! A couple of your fellow colleagues have told me some things about you and I’d just like to get to know you a bit better in person. Wanna grab a drink together after work?”
What kind of things have people been telling him? I’m definitely accepting his offer, I have so many questions. “I’d love to, catch you around mate!” I smiled at him.
“Ben?! I thought you were going to the toilet?!” Joe interrogated me.
“Ohhh… yeah of course… I was just making sure Jordan was okay… sorry sir!” But Joe had shaken his head at me and I quickly hurried off to the toilet. I used this opportunity to text Mike again asking if he was okay but he wasn’t answering any of my texts which was making me feel even more guilty. I placed my phone on the sink and splashed some water on my face.
After I was able to recompose myself, I headed out from the toilet but saw no sign of Jordan when I came back or of Joe either. No Joe was a blessing. I thought I’d use this opportunity to try phoning Mike when it dawned on me that I had left my phone on the sink!
I quickly left to go and get my phone when I overheard some voices coming from Joe’s office, they belonged to him and Jordan. I went to eavesdrop.
“No way he actually did that?” Jordan sounded shocked.
“Yep, kissed another man right outside of this very building, I couldn’t begin to tell you how disgusted I was!” Joe responded.
“I’m so sorry you had to witness such a thing sir. Good riddance to that Mike being gone! We certainly don’t need his kind here do we?” Jordan answered.
“Absolutely not! People who engage in that filth don’t deserve any kind of benefits! If I was in charge of the country you can bet I would definitely make it illegal!” Joe announced.
“I don’t blame you sir, do you not worry that Mike might come back though?” Jordan questioned.
“Oh he’ll never come back… he knows he’s in for it if he does!” This was the most menacing I had heard Joe sound.
“I’d gladly help you sort him sir” Jordan chucked.
You fucking won’t! I was even more angry again now! Now I see why Joe is so fond of Jordan, they both think the same, two peas in a pod! I quickly headed off in a rage!
After work, I had met up with the bastard Jordan at our local pub. The idiot thinks we’re both going to sit down and have a nice friendly chat with each other over some beers, he couldn’t be anymore wrong! I was dying to give him a piece of my mind. When I entered the pub, the pub was almost empty, good, less people to get in the way of what I’m about to do to him!
Jordan notices me and calls out “heeey there you are mate! You want a drink?”
“No, I just want you!” I went over to him and grabbed him.
“Whoa whoa hey hey heeey man! What you doing? Take it easy I’m your pal!” He was pleading with me.
“You don’t get to call me that! Not after the way you talked about my friend Mike! Guess what you homophobic trash, I’m gay too! Yeah that’s right I’m gay and you can tell Joe that too because now that there’s two of you, I’m done! So now that you hate me, go ahead and take your swing!” I was so mad.
“Hey hey! I don’t hate you mate I’m gay too!” Jordan told me.
I loosened my grip of him.
“Oi! Take it outside lads!” The bartender called out.
“No need we’re okay I promise!” Jordan assured him.
The bartender shook his head and walked off.
“Are we? You wanna start talking?” I wanted answers from him.
“Yeah yeah of course, look I’m really sorry that I gave you the wrong idea man. I was just playing a role, I’m actually a friend of Mike’s.” Jordan’s answer stunned me.
“But… everything you said about him to Joe in the office? You went along with it but if Mike is your friend then you should have stuck up for him!” I explained.
“Like you did?” Jordan one upped me.
“He told you then?” I felt sad.
Jordan put his hand on my shoulder. “He did but he understands mate, it’s okay” Jordan smiled at me. He was such an innocent smile that it makes you instantly smile too.
“He hasn’t responded to any of my texts” I told him.
“That’s because I told him not to. Didn’t want to risk him getting in touch with you and anybody else seeing it, especially Joe.” Jordan wasn’t making sense.
“Why? What’s going on?” I asked.
“Come and sit down” Jordan gestured to the seat and I sat down and he went on to explain.
“You wanna know what’s going on?… I had to get to know each and every one of you individually, made sure I knew who to trust with the information I’m about to give you. You’re the only one who doesn’t know now but people said you would understand…. So urm… basically I’m part of a gang. We’re just call ourselves the gay gang.”
A part of me couldn’t help but find this slightly amusing “the gay gang? What even is that?” I asked him.
“We teach people a lesson, one they won’t forget. Bigots, bullies we go for them all and we make them pay, there’s a few of us and the rest will be arriving and right now, Joe is the one we’re coming for. I was basically undercover, trying to get to know as much as I can about him before we can make our move. Keep your enemies close as they say” Jordan had gone all serious.
“What are you going to do to him?” I was intrigued.
Jordan raised his eyebrows “we’re going to take that suit off him. The blazer, the shirt, that ridiculous tie, those polished black shoes, the socks and…” Jordan leaned into me and whispered “his underwear”.
My eyes widened “you’re… going to strip him naked?”
Jordan nodded and smiled.
“Then what?” I asked.
“We’re going to fuck him up. We’re going to turn him into a sex slave” Jordan was grinning.
I began to picture it now, Joe naked, everybody being able to do whatever they wanted to him, naked and vulnerable at our mercy. My face lit up at the idea.
“Count me in” I grinned back at Jordan.
Jordan nodded at me with a big smile and I’d just remembered something else.
“That black object you had earlier… it wasn’t a drill piece was it?” I questioned.
“Oh it was, I wasn’t lying about that.” Jordan assured me. He then took out his drill and the black object out of his bag. He attached the object onto the drill. “I’m going to give it a test on Joe’s arsehole”.
Now it all made sense. I was smiling uncontrollably at it. I began to picture Joe right now with this being used on him. Me and Jordan began to laugh. Joe placed it on the table, the drill with a thick black dildo attached to it.
