Bimbo or Billionaire: The Inheritance
by TheHandsThatLead, copyright © 2014
Chapter 2 — Opening Credits
The studio curtain raised as the theme music blared from the speakers with the applause of the live studio audience. Victoria was still full of anger of having to go through this farce to get her inheritance but she’d be damned if she’d live off of the pittance her grandfather had suggested in his will.
The collar around her neck was the current source of her displeasure, it had been there for a week and a minute hadn’t gone by that it didn’t feel like a noose.
“Yes folks it’s time to answer the question that is on all of our minds... Is she a... Bimbo or Billionaire!” the announcer’s voice came across the PA system and gave me something new to focus on for a moment.
“Is she a... Bimbo or Billionaire...” I wined and scrunched my face up as I said it. The assistant beside me turned his head to see what the problem was now.
“Oh just turn your head back around the other way jackass!” I spat at him.
She was even angrier when he did so. Normally if she’d been wearing such a revealing outfit all the men’s heads would be turning towards her. She kept in shape and when her grandfather was still being generous to her she’d splurged on the best breast enhancements she could buy. The nose job had cost even more but the master stroke on that had been her skiing “accident” they had used to cover it up.
Coupled with her natural blonde hair, petite frame and workout regime, she could turn heads anywhere she went.
Except the set of Bimbo or Billionaire. These guys saw the results of the collar all the time and clearly she couldn’t compete with what trotted out of the game each week.
The stage lights came up as I walked out towards my pedestal revealing the entire set in all its glitzy glory. It was even worse than what I’d seen in the episodes I had watched on TV. With the television camera’s muting many of the colours the reality of the set looked even more garish. The shag carpet looked to be at least four inches deep with overtly thick piles in it. The pink of the set was almost glowing in real life.
The pedestal, which on TV looked so large, was tiny on set. They didn’t want there to be anywhere to hide when it came time for the collar of fate to do its magic. The bank of monitors were glowing, their brightness cranked up to overcome the glare of the stage lighting and make sure they appeared on screen correctly.
“Thanks Dan, now to get to today’s contestant... Victoria!” the crowd cheered as Jack approached me with an overtly drawn out frown on his face.
“Ohhh... Victoria you look so sad, what’s the matter?”
“Oh you know what’s wrong Jack! The only reason I’m here is to get this first round over with and then get out!”
“What? You want to leave us so soon? Don’t you want the billion dollars?”
It was for show of course, he knew why I was here. But ratings matter and that meant I’d better just answer and get it over with.
“No, I’m here because to inherit my grandfather’s money he made it a stipulation in his will I had to be a contestant.”
“Oh there’s a little more to it than that isn’t there?”
“I... I... don’t know what you mean...”
He couldn’t know about the options in the will could he?
“Well it turns out that the Accountant and your grandfather, Roger, were good friends. As part of his estate he left the show a copy of the will, which I have right here...” Jack said reaching in to his jacket pocket and pulling out a sheath of paper.
He unfolded it and turned a few pages in, “And it says right here that you had a choice. A $5,000 a month allowance or coming on to our fine show and getting over $70 million?”
The crowd booed at the thought of me turning down $5,000 a month, more than most of them made. I didn’t care though, I deserved all of it!
“That’s private Jack!”
“Don’t worry Victoria, I’m sure our audience and viewers will keep it to themselves.” He said as he winked at the camera.
The crowd continued to boo as Jack started to speak again.
“But audience, don’t worry, she’s here and now the only question that remains is she a...”
The crowd chanted along with Jack as he said the show’s title, “Bimbo! Or! Billionaire!”
“So Victoria, are you ready to play?”
“Damit, yes, let’s get this over with!”
“Ok Victoria, let’s get a few housekeeping items out of the way and we can get going. First off I’d like to bring everyone’s attention to our case girl Chrissi!” a spotlight hilighted Chrissi and the buxom blonde bimbo waved and giggled as the crowd cheered and whistled.
“Chrissi was the unluckiest contestant to ever play our game here and opened twelve bimbo cases in a row. But we just couldn’t let her leave with nothing so instead we didn’t let her leave at all and she’s been with us ever since!
In the back of the studio we also have the fine technical folks who will be operating the Collar of Fate tonight, we won’t get a chance to see them but we’ll certainly appreciate their work on Victoria!
And of course we cannot forget our generous benefactor, who has put up the billion dollar prize! Our mystery man that we simply call ‘The Accountant’". As always the pitch black area above the columns of monitors was backlit revealing a person sitting at a desk but obscured in darkness, Victoria wondered how her grandfather had known him, but it didn’t seem like she’d get a chance to ask the Accountant.
“Of course you all know our board, two sides with twelve steps each, revealed one at a time as the cases are opened. As always the cash side starts at a penny and works its way up to one billion dollars!
The Bimbo side is divided in to two halves, the first six are physical changes that the ‘Collar of Fate’ will make to you and the second half are mental changes. Each of the changes will be selected by an audience vote from a list of four random selections from our database!”