This isn’t real. 

Every part of Sylvia’s body throbbed painfully. The worst part was the intense migraine. She imagined the sensation of a dull screwdriver ploughing through her temple would be more pleasant. 

It’s all a nightmare. I’ll wake up soon.

After what felt like hours she abruptly came to a halt. Her body tumbled across the pitch black wooden box and crashed into the other side. From outside her prison Sylvia could hear her captress manipulate the lock. 

Light flooded the box. Once her eyes adjusted, Sylvia found herself looking into a set of familiar eyes. She gulped and meekly began to shimmy backwards in the crate until her back touched the opposing wall.

Tae loomed above Sylvia with an uncomfortably calm expression. Earlier she had been eerily gleeful to see her once again. Now she seemed more composed, which only added to the dread rising in Sylvia’s heart. 

She was so… big. Massive. Simply making eye contact required Sylvia to crane her neck at a full ninety degree angle. It felt like looking up at an imposing skyscraper which could move and talk. Sylvia could feel the woman’s eyes gazing into her very soul like a goddess. Never before had she felt so weak, so utterly insignificant. 

Finally the woman spoke. Each syllable echoed like the roll of thunder. Sylvia cowered beneath the divine force of the giantess’s voice. Just listening to her speak was enough for her ears to ring.

“Do you remember who I am?” Tae asked coldly. The corners of her lips turned into a small smile as Sylvia nodded fervently in response. “Good. I thought you might have been too drunk to remember.”

“P-Please…” Sylvia stammered. “I n-never told anybody what happened.” Tae cocked her head to the side, almost in amusement as Sylvia began to beg. “Just let me go!”

“Why? So you can kill another speck?” Tae inquired in a low tone. 

Sylvia gulped. “I was drunk! I-I wasn’t thinking straight, it was a horrible thing I almost did. I’m really sorry, I’m not a bad person!” She pleaded.

Tae pursed her lips. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh which washed over Sylvia, which enveloped her in a warm minty breeze.

“We all make bad choices under the influence. I can empathize with that.” Tae told her. 

“If it was just a one-time thing you did, an awful thing you could only do while so inebriated you couldn’t even think straight and now regret dearly… I could understand.” Her expression darkened. “But this wasn’t your first time hurting someone was it?”

“T-That’s not-!”

“Sylvia.” Tae interrupted her pleas. Her booming voice instantly silenced the tiny woman. “I saw the recordings on your phone.”

The color drained from Sylvia’s face. Tae finally reopened her eyes and observed the speck begin to tremble in pure unfettered terror. Tears ran down her cheeks as the realization dawned on her. 

No… this is really happening.

She began to sob. Tae watched as the feeble woman embedded her head into her knees and began to cry uncontrollably. Her hands clenched into fists, and her calm demeanor faded.

“Don’t act like you’re the victim here. How do you think those specks you killed felt?! They did nothing to you or anybody else. And you tortured and murdered them for fun.” Tae seethed. “You fucking deserve this. They didn’t.” She proclaimed.

Tae reached her hand into the box. Sylvia screamed and squirmed as a pair of elephantine fingers engulfed her. Each finger was approximately the same length as Sylvia, but thicker and infinitely stronger. It took an immense amount of willpower to not apply a little more pressure and grind the life out of the disgusting excuse for a human being that now writhed in her grasp.

Sylvia lurched forward, her eyes becoming wide with horror as Tae’s mouth loomed closer. Frantically she pounded at Tae’s hand in a desperate attempt to free herself. Death from falling to the marble floor below seemed a preferable alternative to slowly dissolving in an ocean of stomach acid. 

“Stop! Please d-don’t eat me!” Sylvia shrieked. “I’m so sorry! I’ll never hurt anybody ever again!” 

Tae snorted. “On that we agree.” She leaned closer to Sylvia, allowing her enormous lips to part and reveal a row of gigantic, pearly white teeth visible in a sadistic smile. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to eat you either. Not yet anyways. Before I do, I’m going to make you understand how it feels to be helpless.” 

Cries erupted from Sylvia as the fingers pulled her into a tight vise. “Cry all you want.” Tae muttered as she turned to the living room. “It won’t change anything.”

You have until the end of the month to get everything in order. How you spend that time is up to you. Eren grunted as his chest grazed his bedroom floor. His pectoral and tricep muscles trembled before giving out altogether and he collapsed. I’m sorry. But it’s for the good of the community. 

He flopped over onto his back, his breaths ragged from the intense workout. 

I… hope you understand.

Gabriel’s words were hollow. He didn’t really care what happened to him, nobody in Northside did. 

Eren forced himself to sit up. Clumsily he pawed for a nearby cup of water, which felt heavenly as it went down his dry throat. In a single gulp he finished most of it, and splashed the rest over his face. 

Since the incident with Oscar, he had spent most of his time alone. None of the other specks came to bother him, and he paid no attention to his duties in maintaining Northside’s electric grid. If he was to be kicked out, Gabriel could figure that out in the meantime. 

Tae had pointed out in their last date he hadn’t seemed himself recently. After the altercation at Delphi’s, it had become even more pronounced. 

All I do is sit around all day and do nothing. He thought to himself. Just waiting. 

Eventually he would have to tell Tae. It was his only option unless he wished to end up homeless. Undoubtedly she would take him in without a second thought. So why had he not done so already? Was it to save what shred of dignity and independence he had left?

Or is it to prove I’m not the lucky parasite everybody thinks I am?

Absentmindedly he began scrolling through his phone. His old device didn’t have half the apps as the one Tae had given him, and now he could access the Internet. The world had always been a big place to specks. Yet reading through headlines from around the world put his insignificance into perspective. 

Unfortunately there was a drawback to the new phone. Ads. Hundreds of them. 

Speck phones were registered, and never the target of any marketing campaign since they were considered an undesirable demographic. They had very low income and received most of their necessities from government subsidies anyways. Entertainment was internally produced which meant no company had much interest in wasting advertising on accruing speck interest.

However this new device had no such registry, which resulted in Eren seeing countless ads. Most of them he simply ignored as he dug around the web aimlessly.

But one caught his eye.

It was different from the others. This one seemed to be based on his search history and similar interests. A job posting.“Eureka?” He read aloud with a furrowed brow. Curiosity got the better of him, and Eren pressed the link.

Hey there! Are you looking to enter the world of robotics? Would you like to work remotely with a group of hardworking, fun, and driven people? Asked an energetic feminine voice. My name is Madeleine Lacroix, founder of Eureka!

A video began to play, narrated by a youthful looking woman with curly red hair and fair-skin. Her smile was wide as she began to explain the company.

Eureka is a passion project turned business by a small group of college friends who wanted to make a difference. We are looking for exceptional people with skill in programming, coding, electronics, software design and many other key STEM skills to make our dream a reality! Work can be completed remotely…

Eren watched the rest of her advertisement. Truthfully she was a mediocre public speaker, and occasionally stumbled over her words. But each mistake was followed up by a heartfelt laugh that couldn’t possibly be faked. 

He read more about her company, and Madeleine herself. 

Eureka was a small start-up. It’s goal was to create robots that could provide better care and support for senior citizens with debilitating medical conditions than human nurses. Madeleine came up with the idea when she worked part-time in a nursing home during her college years, and referenced her sick grandfather as inspiration.

Most importantly, all work with the exception of an ‘assembly’ team worked virtually. No prior experience was required except academic qualifications. Unsurprising because the pay was much lower than most college graduates would be interested in as they instead pursued internships or careers with large firms. 

This application is really bare bones. No resume or references… just a university transcript and some basic information. Eren noticed. At a guess they were trying to entice as many people as possible and understood more experienced job-seekers would ignore a small start up anyways that couldn’t offer many benefits. He narrowed his eyes. They don’t ask me to disclose any disabilities either.

Most employers asked if prospects had any kind of disability or would need reasonable accommodation. Legally, specks were considered impaired and employers often forced applicants to disclose that information. It made it easy to prevent specks for acquiring jobs outside of very niche industries which typically paid abysmal wages so low it was better to simply remain in the speck commune and work for meals there.

Perhaps Madeleine Lacroix didn’t care either way? 

It’s technically not lying… Eren thought to himself. He filled out the application. It was a hassle to recall his old university login to access his transcripts, but he attached them to the application after a few failed attempts. Once it was filled out, Eren hesitated to submit it. The application did have a section asking if there was any information management would need to know. Wouldn’t it be better to be honest?

Eren shook his head and forced himself to tap the button without editing his submission any further. There was no taking it back anymore. The website thanked him for his interest and indicated he could expect a response in about two days.

Alice shimmied past Bosco to bring the groceries in. Immediately after she set the plastic bags down, he was eagerly sniffing through each one in hopes of finding a treat. 

“Tom!” She called out as she separated the bags for the refrigerator from the rest. “Come help me with these!”

No answer. 

She was home earlier from the store than their parents, who were out running an errand. Tommy’s coat was still on the rack so he couldn’t be outside. Alice pinched the tip of her winter glove between her teeth and pulled it off, along with her jacket and boots before she walked upstairs.

His bedroom door was wide open, but he was not there. Oddly enough her bedroom door was closed. She pushed it open, to reveal Thomas sitting at her desk chair in front of her desktop.

He heard her enter and quickly closed off the tab he had just been on, but could not prevent her from catching a glimpse of her inbox on screen.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Alice shrieked. Instantly she crossed the room and slammed the laptop shut. “You fucking asshole!”

Thomas skidded away from the chair and raised his arms defensively, just in time to stop her from slapping him across the face. “Shit! Calm down!” He shouted, and backed away.

Alice crossed her arms and placed herself between him and the computer. “Get the fuck out of my room.”

“Look, I just wanted to-.”

“I said get out!” She demanded and shoved him. He stumbled backwards into the hallway. Before he could protest she slammed the door in his face and locked it. Alice turned her attention to the laptop and opened it. Her face went pale as she navigated back to where he had last looked.

Her emails, specifically a copy of the invoice she had received from the hospital, and a dismissed police report. Thomas had seen both. 

Distantly she heard Bosco barking. Their parents were home. 

No sooner had Robert Evans hung up his coat and given the dog a scratch behind the ear did he hear arguing from upstairs. He looked up the stairway to see Alice marching down into the living room, she dragged a suitcase behind her. Thomas was hot on her heels.

“Alice calm down, you’re being silly.” He murmured and briefly made eye contact with his father. 

Robert frowned. “What happened?” 

“He went through my fucking emails.” Alice seethed and brushed past them both and stepped out onto the porch. “If he’s here, I’m not.” She said nothing further and continued out towards her car. 

Thomas motioned to chase after her but was stopped by his father, who blocked the doorway. Robert regarded his son sternly, and Alice heard them beginning to argue as well before she threw her bag into the trunk of her car.

Before anybody could protest she sped away from the driveway, her grip on the steering wheel so tight the veins in her hands bulged. “Text Sylvia.” She barked at her phone's voice command. 

“Hey my brother pissed me off. I need somewhere to stay for a bit, can we meet up somewhere?”