Norwich received almost sixty inches of snow every winter, and was one of the coldest cities in New England. Compared to Philadelphia which experienced temperate climate in the later months compared to other northern states, Maeve struggled to understand why anybody would ever want to live there. Even with the heat in the hotel room turned up to its highest setting, she could still see her breath as a misty fog. It was best to move around to stay warm.

It’s getting kind of late… Maeve thought with a twinge of concern. Not for herself, but for her friend who had ventured out to go see what could be done for some homeless specks removed from their Commune. Maddie had estimated she would be back by around five in the evening at the latest, but it was almost six o’clock. Fortunately she had left Maeve some cookies and other treats to hold her over while she was gone, so hunger wouldn’t be an issue.

There was not much for Maeve to do except for some basic exercises to keep herself entertained; the hotel room they had booked was rather cheap and did not come with a television. Not that Maeve would have known how to operate it anyways, technology was never really her thing. Admittedly this was a lot less exciting than she had imagined a new city would be, but she was still happy to get away from Philadelphia for a while. When Maddie had told her that she would be gone for a few days, Maeve had insisted she come along to keep her company. And just in case something went wrong with her cybernetic right leg, Maddie was the only person who could fix it. 

There was a sound at the door. Maeve glanced over towards the window, but frowned when she did not recognize the silhouette from beyond the curtains. Maddie had a very distinctive outline. Her curly red hair made for an unusual shadow, and she was rather skinny despite how many sweets she liked to bake. This person outside seemed to be a bit shorter and slightly thicker, definitely still feminine but not Maddie. 

Then there was a knock at the door. “Housekeeping?” A woman’s voice said with a slight accent.

Shit! Instantly Maeve sat up from a set of sit-ups she had done on the bed, which to her was more like an airport runway. Maddie specifically told them no housekeeping! 

Another knock. This time she could hear the distant sound of keys jingling and the door knob moved slightly. Maeve tried to remain calm and ignored how difficult it was to run on the uneven surface of the bedsheets, especially with her mechanical leg which whirred in response. With a prayer she leapt across the gap from the bed to the nightstand. A fall from that height would have been fatal, but she had no other alternative. 

Right as she ducked behind the lamp, a rush of cold air from outside the hotel room wafted inside. Maeve held her breath and kept low. She peaked from over the rim of the lamp’s base, also on the lookout for more places to hide. 

A young woman with dark tan skin and brown eyes walked inside. She was dressed in a semi-formal blouse and slacks, with the hotel's company logo on the lapel of her blouse. Once more she called out to see if anybody was inside. Her eyes glossed over Maeve’s position, oblivious to the speck’s presence. Satisfied that nobody was there, the housekeeper opened the door all the way and pulled a small cart into the room then closed the door. The cart had a few different shelves with miscellaneous items such as fresh towels, sheets and cleaning supplies. There was also a hamper for dirty laundry. 

Maeve watched with bated breath as the woman began to tidy up the room. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of wireless headphones, which she plugged into her ears and began to hum along with the music. Before she had a chance to change the sheets on the bed, Maeve took the opportunity to use the lamp cord which connected to an outlet behind the nightstand to zip line to the floor. She dropped the last few inches and rolled to minimize the impact of the fall. Her mechanical leg protested the sudden changes, slow to follow the rest of her body’s athleticism.

Where can I hide?! Maeve looked around and contemplated the bathroom nearby but thought better of it. There was nothing there she could climb, so her vertical mobility would be limited. Perhaps the closet? She glanced across from beneath the nightstand and saw a colossal pair of flats stomped in front of the path she would need to take. One wrong move and she would be seen, or crushed outright from the oblivious woman’s footsteps. If only she were strong enough to open a cabinet door she might try inside of them.

Instead Maeve decided to slip beneath the bed and hopped up to hide beneath the frame. Far above she could feel miles of fabric move and pull, exchanged for clean sheets by the housekeeper. She quivered in fear as the women’s shoes became much closer, just slightly visible beneath the bed where she was hidden. A small ledge provided a sort of catch for the sheets to cling to, which was where she was hidden. Fortunately it did not seem that the mattress protector would be changed as well, so she could remain there for now. 

After a few moments the housekeeper moved away. Just as Maeve was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she heard an all-encompassing rush of air like a tornado. Her hair billowed around her cheeks, and she nearly lost her balance on the ledge. 

A vacuum cleaner suctioned off a tremendous amount of dust that had gathered in the room, but also threatened to dislodge Maeve from her spot. She watched in terror as the housekeeper got on her hands and knees to vacuum beneath the bed as well, each time she brought it forwards and backwards it became closer to Maeve on the far left corner. Soon it would be upon her. It was difficult to keep her balance even when the vacuum was on the other side of the bed, when it got closer Maeve knew she would likely fall then be sucked up inside. 

It was now or never she realized, and reluctantly dropped from the ledge and landed on the carpet. Back up the nightstand was her only hope, but the outlet was several of her body lengths higher up the wall. It would be very difficult, but it was possible. Maeve first clambered up the baseboard then jumped off of it back towards the nightstand. Then the moment her mechanical foot touched the nightstand she jumped off it back towards the outlet which was a little higher back on the wall. She managed to grab a hold of it with two fingers, which was all she needed to get her other hand onto the cord. The leg whirred loudly in protest, unused to these kinds of motions. Maddie had not designed it with parkour in mind. Frantically she climbed and once more was on the nightstand. 

Okay, now I just need to-! Before she could take another step, Maeve felt her right leg seize up. Combined with her momentum from before she fell over flat on her face to the side of the lamp with a painful thud. She rolled over onto her back and looked down, and to her horror realized that the prosthetic’s artificial intelligence had seemingly overloaded, unable to keep up with the rapid signals from her nerves. No! Not now god dammit! 

The housekeeper was still on her hands and knees but was almost finished. Once she stood up she would undoubtedly see Maeve, then she was doomed. 

Left with no alternative, Maeve reached for the emergency release mechanism located just below her pelvis on the right side of her body which connected the prosthetic to her hip. With another robotic whirr the latches came undone and it slipped off the stub that was her right leg. As an above the knee amputation that had been done almost at the top of her thigh, she only had three limbs and no cane or stick to walk with. 

Crawl. Just fucking crawl! Maeve told herself and spun back over onto her stomach. She clawed herself forward on the slick, freshly cleaned wooden surface of the nightstand with the intent to get behind it near where she had originally hidden. It was a shitty hiding place, but her only option. 

Then she heard the vacuum come to a sudden halt, and felt a pair of gigantic eyes on the back of her head. Maeve felt her veins fill with ice as she slowly rotated onto her back. The housekeeper was near the edge of the bed across the room and had unplugged the vacuum, and when she stood up to inspect her work in the room she noticed the speck on the nightstand.

Both women stared at each other blankly for several agonizingly tense seconds. Maeve’s eyes were filled with fear as she looked around once more to see if there was anything she had missed, some kind of escape route she could take. Alas even if there was one, she knew without a functioning right leg it would have been impossible. Slowly the housekeeper took tentative steps towards her, eyes focused on Maeve like a hawk.

I’m about to die. Maeve realized as the housekeeper’s enormous shadow eclipsed her. She stood directly over her now, fixated on the tiny, helpless speck. Even if she tried to run there was zero chance she would not be found. Maeve could not bring herself to look up at her soon to be killer’s face. After all she was just a pest that needed to be cleaned up. 

I’m happy to have met someone like Maddie. She tried her best to help people. A smile touched Maeve’s face as she closed her eyes, ready to be crushed beneath the housekeeper’s hand. 

Just hold onto those thoughts. Try to die with a smile on your face.

Sometimes when she rode the subway, Maddie would get compliments or flirtatious comments from creepy men who found her attractive. On occasion she might be pestered into providing them with a fake phone number just so they would leave her alone. It was the reason she almost always carried pepper spray and a taser when she could not take her car for whatever reason. Perhaps Norwich was a bit more progressive than Philadelphia, and the men here were less likely to bother a single woman alone on the train.

Or more likely, her inner turmoil bled into her facial expressions which warded off perverts. Every so often she could feel Eren shift slightly inside her coat pocket, a subtle reminder that she had a passenger. He had advised her that it would be in their best interest if he kept out of sight, which was something Maddie had learned when she and Maeve had travelled together. Unlike Tae, she did not feel confident in her ability to protect someone, so anonymity was her greatest ally. 

I should have done something yesterday. Those specks died because of me. Maddie thought sadly as the train came to a halt and she stepped outside. It was a brisk walk a few blocks down from the station to her hotel, where she had left Maeve behind. I’m a failure.

There was little that could be done to help the specks they had found in that alley except grant them a proper burial in a small field near Northside. Eren recognized almost all of the corpses, what was left of them at least. One of the elderly women was the grandmother of an old ex-girlfriend of his. He had helped tutor at least two of the younger children with their math homework in the past. In total almost forty people had been killed. Nearly half were under the age of eight. The construction workers had been thorough, there was not a single survivor. 

Tae had advised that Maddie go home and calm down. She had been in a bad shape once they made the grisly discovery. Once she managed to stop crying, it had been decided that Maddie should take Eren back to her hotel while she called her lawyer and determined if any legal action could be taken against the construction company. Truthfully Maddie was simply grateful to get as far away from the scene of the massacre as possible, and also appreciated that Tae trusted her enough to take Eren with her. 

What kind of world do we live in where dozens of little kids can be beaten to death with hammers, and everybody goes about their day without a care in the world? Maddie thought as she walked up a set of stairs towards her hotel room. Although I’m one to talk. Just a few weeks ago I would have never cared.

She fished out her hotel room key, along with Eren from her pocket. It was strange to realize that she could easily carry him around with just one hand. Compared to most specks, Eren was rather tall and pretty muscular. Exceptionally handsome too. When she and everybody else in Eureka thought he was a normal person, there had been a bit of disappointment from a few employees to find out that he was in a steady relationship already. It was easy to see why Tae was so attracted to him, even when his size was taken into account. 

Eren remained quiet as she opened the door to her room. Understandably neither of them were too interested in small talk, however it was also likely he did not care to speak with the woman who had tried to kill him just a month or so ago. Maddie would not have blamed him if that was the case. 

Once she opened the door and felt a rush of warm air from within kiss her cheeks, Maddie’s expression darkened. Her room was nothing like how she had left it. The bed had been made, the floor tidied up and the towels in the bathroom were different. Crumbs from the batch of cookies she had prepared were gone as well. Everything was perfectly clean and tidy.

I made sure there wouldn’t be any housekeeping! Maddie thought with rapidly rising dread within her heart. Where’s Maeve?! Please don’t tell me…!

Eren sensed that something was wrong with Maddie the moment they stepped into her hotel room. She deftly placed him to one side on the nightstand next to the bed and began to frantically tear the place apart in search of something. He watched in confusion as she ripped the sheets off the bed and removed every pillow case from the small mountain of cushions near the frame. When she had checked everything there she got on her hands and knees to look under the bed.

What has her so shaken? He could hear her begin to cry, and Maddie murmured desperately beneath her breath. Whatever it was, she had lost something much more valuable than a phone or a plane ticket. After she had torn the room apart she sprinted into the bathroom, and soon Eren could hear towels fly from within there as well. 

“Umm… are you Eren?”

The quiet voice from seemingly out of nowhere nearly ejected Eren’s soul from his body. He gasped and suddenly turned around from where he had heard the noise and came face to face with the last kind of person he ever would have expected to find in Maddie’s hotel room. 

Another speck, around his age with messy black hair and eyes the same color as honey. She was dressed very simply in a poorly stitched sweater and jacket with slightly torn pants. The right pant leg was completely sawn off, and in place of an organic leg was an entirely cybernetic one. Needless to say, she was a very strange individual indeed. Not only a speck who was clearly from a Commune if her shitty clothes were any indicator, but somehow she had a modern prosthetic leg custom built for her. 

The girl noticed how shocked he was and raised her hands to show she meant no harm. “Ooops! Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” She apologized sincerely as Eren caught his breath. “I’m Maeve. One of Maddie’s friends.” Maeve introduced herself with a little bow.

Friend? Maddie actually made friends with a speck? Eren thought, flabbergasted to see first hand just how much his former boss had changed since they last spoke. “Y-Yeah I’m Eren.” He replied shakily as the adrenaline slowly wore off. “I uh… had no idea she had friends like us.”

“I’m her first, and we only met a few weeks ago.” Maeve explained. “She saved my life after a few brobs messed up my leg outside my Commune. I thought she was going to kill me but instead she took me back home and then built me this.” She said and indicated towards her mechanical leg. 

Maddie actually built that? Wait, if they met a few weeks ago it had to have been after I was fired… which means that Maeve must be someone she met in Philadelphia. 

Before he had an opportunity to ask her any more questions, Maddie returned to the room. Tears were streaming down her face like a waterfall, however her expression changed altogether the moment she saw Maeve on the nightstand with Eren. She gasped in shock and quickly bounded towards the two. Maeve opened her mouth to speak but was silenced by a gargantuan hand which shot forwards and snatched her off the table. 

Instantly Maddie brought the diminutive woman close to her chest in a tight hug as she sobbed. Eren watched on, baffled to think that this was the same woman who had cursed him the moment she realized who he really was. Just as he had when confronted by Jisoo about her past, he pinched himself to see if this was all a dream or not. And as before, nothing changed.

Maddie cried. “Oh thank god you’re okay! I thought something terrible happened when I saw the room clean!” She professed.

After a few more seconds she finally released an overwhelmed Maeve from her grip, who had been pressed firmly between Maddie’s breasts the entire duration of their hug. She seemed a bit red in the face to be so close to her gigantic friend like that, but nodded sympathetically.

“I’m okay! I hid but a housekeeper found me… but she decided to let me go for some reason.” Maeve explained. “It was really weird. She just stared at me for a really long time then cleaned the rest of the room and left when she was finished.”

“She didn’t say anything?” Eren asked, perplexed. That was a relief, but also a surprise. Normally he would have expected a housekeeper to do her job and eliminate ‘pests’ the same way the construction workers had at Northside. 

Maeve shook her head. “No. She never made eye contact with me or anything either after that.”

“From now on I’ll take you everywhere we go! I won’t let this happen again I promise.” Maddie insisted and hugged Maeve once again. “I’m sorry Maeve… I’m so sorry.” She said as the tears continued to flow. This time they were tears of joy to see her friend was alright, which after the events of the day was at the very least a silver lining.

Maddie seems like a totally different person now. Eren thought to himself as the two women embraced one another in a heartfelt reunion. Whatever she saw at Maeve’s Commune changed her perspective on everything.

It was still rather frosty in the hotel room, so Maddie decided to make a bit of hot chocolate for everyone. As she prepared the ingredients Eren used the time to explain to Maeve what had happened at Northside. Like most specks she was desensitized to such things, but still seemed shaken by the revelation that so many young kids had died. A speck was ‘grown’ when they reached the age of ten, which was the time they began to work to earn their keep. However in the common scenario one or more of their parents were dead, they would start earlier than that to compensate for the loss to the Commune. In Eren’s case he had joined the labor force the moment his parents died.

All of the people who had died in the massacre were either too young to work effectively, or too old to be of any use. Therefore the difficult decision had likely been made to leave them behind. Although it was cruel, the specks in Westside had little choice. More mouths to feed without a proportional increase in their labor force would doom the entire Commune, and both parties would suffer. 

A few minutes later, Maddie returned to the bedside with a mug for herself and two miniaturized specialty cups intended for specks which also came as a surprise to Eren. She had certainly made every effort to ensure the comfort of her smaller friend, who happily accepted one. The cups were absolutely tiny, so to avoid a spill Maddie used a spoon to ladle some of the liquid out of her own cup then allowed the two specks to scoop it up themselves. Maddie also set down a thick envelope next to Eren. 

He gave her a perplexed look as she sheepishly nudged it forward. “I… owe you this.” She said quietly. “It’s your last paycheck and severance package you were never given.”

“You don’t owe me anything.” 

“No. I owe you this, and a lot more. An apology for being such a shitty person to you for one.” Maddie insisted. “You were an terrific employee, and I tried to kill you because of my own prejudice. I was horribly wrong to do that, especially after all the hard work you did on my behalf. Since then I’ve tried to be better, and plan to use whatever resources I have to atone for what I did and help specks… I understand if you can’t forgive me, but I just want you to know that I am sorry for what I did.” She professed. 

Her eyes… She really means it. Eren realized. This isn’t just some attempt to make herself feel better or get me to come back to work for her. She genuinely feels awful for how poorly she treated me. 

He glanced back towards Maeve, who listened to them talk in silence. And she really does care about her. When she thought Maeve died she looked ready to burst into tears again. 

“You know, even after everything you said I never thought you were a bad person.” Eren admitted after a brief pause. “Everything you have ever worked towards was to make people happy. And I’ve seen first hand your commitment to make the world a better place. It’s why I was so heartbroken when you couldn’t accept that a speck had worked for you.” He told her.

Eren swished the hot chocolate around in his mug a few times. “Now I see that you were bigoted out of ignorance, not hatred. There’s an important distinction there that you’ve come to realize.” He said. 

“I accept your apology Maddie, and I hope we can become friends again.” 

It was difficult to express with words the strange blend of emotions that Maddie had undergone in the past few hours alone. This was supposed to be her vacation away from work for a few days to recuperate. However ever since she had arrived in Norwich she had spent almost all of her time in tears or in a state of perpetual mourning. So much of what she had thought to be true was radically different now. And now that she had opened her eyes to the plight of an entire demographic of people she had long written off as pampered and cared for by the government, it was impossible to think of anything else. 

Almost forty people had died. Children among them. If they were normal sized, then it would have made the news all across the country. The flags would be at half-mast for a month and it would go down in history as a tragic event. Instead nobody would have cared. And those that did faced derision and mockery from the general public as punishment for their compassion and empathy. That was perhaps the worst part of it all, to know how true that statement was. Some people undoubtedly would have the same reaction as herself, but Maddie knew that unless faced with the issue directly few would ever change.

Norwich was considerably colder than Philadelphia, however Maddie needed some fresh air and a bit of time to think for herself. She took a walk down one of the coastal cities' many harbors and watched the privately owned yachts drift aimlessly on the water’s surface. Cold air kissed her cheeks and sent shivers down her spine, but she could not bring herself to really care with so much on her mind. Just the other day all she had cared about was her company, the investors, her work schedule, and her grandfather’s health. Now there was Maeve and her Commune, the trauma that lingered after she had seen the aftermath of a massacre, and how she could possibly hope to make a difference in the world. 

She found a quiet pier which she imagined would be reserved for a small boat and took a seat at the edge. Her boots dangled off the dock while she looked across the harbor to the vast ocean. It was a full moon, which meant Maddie could see for quite a distance. Here it was easy to let the problems of the world just melt away, when she was not trapped behind her desk at work or hours into a computer program rife with errors. 

Another woman appeared in the reflection from below. “You really shouldn’t sit so close to the water’s edge.” Tae advised softly. “If you fell in you would freeze to death before anybody could help.” She murmured. 

Jeez. That’s not terrifying at all… Maddie thought and shifted uncomfortably as Tae took a seat right next to her on the dock. She was dressed in an elegant winter coat with her long black hair drawn into a bun. Eren’s girlfriend exuded a deadly presence, and Maddie admittedly felt nervous around her, if not downright terrified. Perhaps it had been their rough introduction in which Tae had tossed Maddie across a room like she was a child, or it was the way she carried herself. 

Or it was that look she gave me. Maddie shivered. Before that moment she had never known it was possible to convey so much malice with just a glare. I genuinely thought she was going to kill me.

Unfortunately before Tae had been able to contact her lawyer, she had been sent away by the employees due to an accident on the construction site. Perhaps it was karma. Whatever had happened was severe enough that nobody was allowed entry, so she could only leave a business card behind. Tae assured her that her attorney would find a way to force the company to pay reparations and punitive damages to the specks in the Westside Commune, but was doubtful any prison time would be served. 

“I failed those people.” Maddie sighed. “I should have done something yesterday. And because I waited all those little kids died…”

“It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known.” 

“What did I even hope to accomplish? Did I really think I could solve all their problems with some shitty cookies?” Maddie asked aloud. “I’m just a fucking failure in general. From my moral shortcomings to my company.” She muttered bitterly.

This was the first time she had ever vented to someone about her inner turmoil, with the exception of Eren perhaps when she thought the company would fall apart. Otherwise Maddie always tried her best to remain optimistic and lead by example. There was never a reason to dwell on past mistakes, only learn from them and improve as a person. For a long time that had been her personal mantra but now it was hard to achieve. 

Tae stared at her intently for a long time before she replied. “Eren wants his old job back.” She eventually revealed. “He will be coming with me to live in China for a while before I return to Singapore. If the position is still virtual it can work.”

“R-Really?”

“Honestly… I don’t approve. I would rather he work for my family’s company instead.” Tae admitted with a slight twinge of frustration. “But I understand his perspective. He does not want everything in life handed to him because of his relationship with me. Therefore I respect his decision and will support it.” She said with a sigh.

He would probably earn way more with her company than mine… the workload would be much easier too. No doubt Eren knows that but he still wants to come back to Eureka? Even after everything that happened?

Maddie clasped her hands together tightly. “I-I don’t know what to say! That’s… I mean, if it’s what he wants I would be delighted to have him come back.” She replied breathlessly. “Thank you so much Tae! Oh! If you ever want him to take some vacation time or anything just let me know and I-!”

“Madeleine.” Tae cut in with a dark voice that sent a needle of fear through her heart. “If you ever threaten Eren like again, or any of your other employees step out of line, I will know about it.” She said and stood up. 

Maddie nodded meekly in response as the woman walked away. That same deathly glare from before that had sent chills down her spine was back. Before she vanished she turned back towards Maddie one last time.

“You are the only person I’ve ever given a second chance. Do not make me regret this.”