There was a message waiting for him when he woke.

She thanked him for the message, asked if he had any questions.

He replied that he’d like to know a bit about her. He asked if they could meet.

She said no but was happy to answer any questions via message. He should have known, he scolded himself, rookie error.

She asked him why he needed a Guardian, how long he had before it was due.

He told her, no remaining close family, no friends he could trust to stick by him. He had maybe two months.

Shit, she was sorry to hear that. She shared a house with her friend. There was space for him for as long as he needed.

He asked if she had done this before.

She said no but had been reading a lot about being a Guardian and caring for those afflicted by the illness. She asked if this was going to be a problem.

He decided to be honest. He didn’t have many options but was concerned about her lack of experience. Would she know what to do? Would he be safe? What about the housemate? Would she be ok with him staying with them?

Abi confirmed it would be ok. She was smart, she was studying, she would take care of him, she promised.

He waited a while before replying. This was the biggest decision of his life, could he trust her?

He asked. He asked why she was doing this? If it was just to help pay tuition then what was stopping her taking the money then ditching him at the first opportunity?

Her answer had surprised him. It came just before midnight, a single paragraph.

Her brother.

He had been afflicted but misread his tests. He was out when it happened, going to a game with some friends. They didn’t notice and he fell behind. Her family found out two days later and in the worst of ways. Her mom found him for sale.

She could still picture him in her head. They had stripped him naked and placed him in front of a white background. His shoulders were slumped, one eye closed with a vicious bruise. It was horrific.

She remembered her mom screaming, her dad raging for his credit card as the timer counted down. The sound of her parents sobbing as they entered their bid, a second too late, would stay with her forever.

The sale had been anonymous, the site protecting the privacy of both the buyer and seller. The representative they spoke to showed no remorse, the afflicted weren’t people, they didn’t have rights anymore. It had broken her family, destroyed their lives and plunged them into the darkest depression she had ever experienced.

She would have been swallowed by depression herself if not for the resistance movements. They wanted change, protection for their family and friends who were struck down by the epidemic.

Sadly public opinion had proven hard to sway.

Her spare time was spent fighting the good fight, drawing up petitions and attending protests. She might not be able to change the world but she was sure as hell going to try anyway. Until things changed for the better she would do everything she could to help anyone she could. She only had finite space and not much money but if he wanted it, it was his.

Reading her story brought a tear to his eye. He agreed to the terms and the process was started.

They finally met in person two weeks later. If was at a coffee shop, in public, somewhere neutral and safe. The pair chatted, both visibly nervous. She was nice, polite and clearly a smart cookie.

They agreed to meet up again the following week to discuss the logistics. The week after that the signed the agreement. In a few days he was on her doorstep.

The girl who answered the door was the opposite of who he was expecting. She was tall, lean and incredibly blonde. She was dressed for the gym, a tight top that revealed her flat stomach and a pair of shorts.

The woman jogged in the spot, beaming at him as he stood awkwardly on the welcome mat. ‘Um, hi? Can I help you?’ she tied her silvery blonde hair into a ponytail as she spoke. 

‘Err, yeah, I’m here for, for Abi?’ he stuttered as he spoke, a sudden nervousness washing over him. He adjusted his backpack and shuffled uncomfortably.

She looked him up and down, her sapphire eyes lingering on him. It felt like an age before she spoke, sweat prickling down his back.

‘Oh shit, yeah, you’re our new roomie aren’t you? That’s super exciting, Abi is real sweet. I’m sure you’re gonna love spending time here. Feel free to head inside, her room is upstairs and to the left.’

Her watch beeped. ‘Fuck! Sorry, I’m falling behind, I gotta go.’ She pushed past him and jogged down the path, ‘I’m Sofia by the way, nice to meet you!’

It took all of his restraint not to watch her go. He was relying on an almost total stranger to look after him at his most vulnerable, it would not go well to be caught checking out her housemate on the first day.

Abi was studying when he knocked on her door, sat on her bed amongst a pile of books and papers.

She greeted him politely, a shy smile on her face.

The next hour was spent familiarising himself with his new living arrangement. He’d be sleeping on her floor unless she wanted some privacy, then he would be relegated to the sofa. He could go wherever he pleased and treat the house as his own. In her room, only her closet was off limits for obvious reasons. Sofia’s had the largest bedroom and was understandably out of bounds.

The top floor held those two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small utility closet. In the hallway was a side table and on that table.

‘Um, so I, err this is for you. I guess, you know,’ Abi trailed off as she gestured to the dollhouse, ‘when it happens.’

He had no idea how to react. ‘Thank you,’ he mumbled, lifting the house from its base. It was surreal. In his hands he held the space he would live his last years in. It settled back onto the table with a soft click. ‘It’s nice,’ he smiled weakly.

They had pasta for dinner. He made the sauce and poured the bottle of wine he had brought as a thank you gift.

‘Good sauce,’ Sofia smirked, ‘shame you can’t be our own personal chef forever.’

He mumbled something into his food by way of reply. Abi shot her housemate a look.

‘Well I suppose you could be, with a few modifications to our little kitchen here.’ Sofia continued, drinking deep from her wineglass before turning back to her meal. ‘Though you’d have to be careful not to fall in, wouldn’t you?’

She lowered her eyes to her meal, stabbing at a mound of spaghetti and twirling it around her fork. Sofia lifted it to her lips slowly, her bright blue eyes boring into him. ‘Oh no!’ she mocked, her voice squeaking, a wicked grin on her face, ‘I’ve fallen into dinner and can’t get out! Please don’t eat me; please, please, please!’

He flinched as she enveloped the morsel of food with her full, pink lips. Her eyes never left him as she chewed and swallowed.

‘For fuck’s sake Sof, can you not?’ Abi snapped, slamming her knife and fork into her plate.

‘I was joking!’ Sofia protested, flashing him a deadly wink, ‘He knows I was only joking don’t you hun?’

He mumbled a response again, desperately trying to avoid the confrontation. It was Abi who came to his rescue.

‘Come on,’ she huffed, standing and placing a hand on his shoulder, ‘we can go through the rest of the paperwork upstairs.’

‘Yes that’s right Fido,’ Sofia giggled as they left the room, ‘go and be a good little pet, run along now.’

Abi had apologise profusely when the door to her room had closed behind her. He insisted it was ok; he had been on social media, he knew how people treated those in his position. Hell, wasn’t that what the Guardian program was about?

Sofia would come around, Abi insisted, and nothing would happen to him while he was in her care. That she promised him.

He slept on the floor of her room that night. It was a strange situation for both of them. He couldn’t help but marvel at the fortitude of the young woman that put so much trust in him. He knew she had seen his test results but still, he couldn’t help but thank her for what she was going to do for him.

As he drifted off to sleep, Sofia’s words echoed in his head. ‘Fido’, she had called him. That was the real reason she didn’t fear his presence in her room, he was no longer a man in her eyes. He was something else, something lesser, something harmless.

He slept fitfully, his dreams filled with worry over the world he would soon enter.