“So you think it's funny to fuck a pregnant girl, do you?” Barney's angry voice came from behind Paul. Paul spun around on the U walkway so face the angriest looking Barney he had ever seen, shock and fear coursing through him.

  Two days. That's all it took. It was only two days after his encounter with Bethany—almost to the hour—and now Barney was here confronting Paul as he walked between cleaning one building and another.

  “What?” Paul said, guilt written all over his face as it was turning white.

  “Don't 'what' me, you know exactly what you did.” Barney said.

  “How did you find out?” Paul gasped, both shocked at the revelation and fearful of the physically imposing threat in front of him.

  “Doesn't matter how I did.” Barney spat. “You remember what I told you on your first day here, right?”

  “But...but...but she was already pregnant!” Paul sputtered. “She has the tests!”

  “Yeah? And now that pregnancy's going to be put into doubt because of what you did.” Barney spat. “Her ability to make babies it the only thing she's good for. Take that away from her and she's useless. You ever think of that?”

  There were so many things Paul could have said in response to that but he was just overwhelmed, and Barney continued. “Breeder girls only have sex with the men they're assigned. When they're pregnant they don't have sex, especially not with useless nobodies like you. What you've done is enough to get you executed in some places.”

  Paul was afraid but he was also very angry. He hated the way Barney talked down to him and talked down to Bethany. He hated how Barney stomped around the place and fucked model after model, yet threatened Paul for having just slept with one woman who was already pregnant anyway.

  “We didn't harm anyone!” Paul finally snapped back, angrily. “We did it because we wanted to, and that's enough for us.”

  Paul threw his head back and barked a derisive laugh. “That might have been the standard when you were big when there were any number of girls you could sleep with. But you know what? Sarah's told me about you. You never got laid when you were big anyway. That bitch Jen you always seemed to be with? You never got with her, and now you never will.”

  “Fuck you.” Paul spat. It had been a while since Jen's name had even crossed his mind and he frankly felt he dodged a bullet with her but Barney's taunting still enraged him.

  “No, you just stayed at home and played with your little Katelyn, who couldn't do anything about it.” Barney said.

  This was over the line for Paul. He took a step towards Barney, recklessly taking a step towards the much larger man. “You leave Katelyn out of this!” He shouted. Barney looked down at Paul, looking as cool and smug as ever.

  “Oh, I'd never talk ill of a girl we both knew so well,” Barney said, pretending to be oblivious to Paul's rage. “Man, I miss her. You know she used to sneak out of your room and into Sarah's before she moved out. She was dying to have sex with somebody her own size and I used to hit that all the time.”

  “What?” Paul shouted. “You're lying! I'm going to tell Sarah!”

  “Oh, Sarah already knows.” Barney said dismissively. “I used to fuck Katelyn right between Sarah's tits. Sarah loves to watch, and Katelyn loved to be watched. The more humiliated she was the more she liked it. Turns out your oh-so-sweet companion was nothing but a two-bit little cum slut.”

  Paul snapped; his right fist flew forward and he punched Barney with all his might. His fist connected with Barney's lip, busting it open. Barney staggered backward, momentarily stunned that Paul had actually thrown a punch. Paul followed it up with more punches, blindly striking against Barney in all his rage.

  But Barney was ready. He blocked Paul's punches and wound up to hit Paul with a haymaker. Paul's world split open with pain as he was knocked to the ground with the force of the punch. He tried to get back up but Barney struck him again, knocking him flat on his front. Barney kicked him in the side three, four, five times. Paul felt as though his ribs were going to burst, his face was throbbing, he just lay there as Barney pummeled him begging for it to be open.

  “I hope it was worth it!” Barney spat, standing up and pacing around the wounded and defeated Paul. Still seeing stars, Paul didn't look up. “You and you, get some string!”

  Apparently a crowd had formed around them as the fight was starting, and now Paul could hear them muttering in concerned tones. He was able to open his swollen eyes to see Barney standing over him, blood coming from his swollen lip as he stared furiously down at Paul with his fist still balled. One of the models tried to approach Barney to clean the blood off his lift but Barney pushed her away.

  A couple minutes later two men returned with some string that had been used to secure some product or another in the past. Barney took the string and lowered to tie Paul's hands together, pushing a knee painfully into Paul's back so he couldn't move. Paul tried to move his legs, desperately trying to kick Barney but it was no use; he felt feet as one of the men stood on his legs.

  Once Paul's hands were bound Barney moved to bind his feet. With multiple sets of hands holding him down there was nothing he could do as his body was bound, now lying immobilized on the ground. “Everyone stay back!” Barney commanded, and people did as he asked. “You're really in for it now.” Barney said. With one more glare at his defeated foe Barney turned away, marching down the U towards his house, a gaggle of models followed hoping to find out what happened.

  For a minute a few of the models stood around Paul staring down at him, but then he heard Jules' voice: “Let's go, we have work to do.” And slowly the rest of the models dispersed, leaving Paul alone and bound on the floor. His whole body was throbbing with pain; he was certain Barney had caused bruising and maybe even internal bleeding.

  He lay on the floor for what felt like a long time—no one came to check up on him or talk to him. Paul wondered where Bethany was—probably in the breeding house, unaware of what had happened. He hoped this would not get back to her as the last thing he wanted was to learn that she had been punished for her actions, or even sold. He had no idea how they had been caught—had one of the other mothers ratted them out? Had they been too loud? Too obvious?

  About half an hour later Paul heard the telltale sound of the huge door to the tinyroom opening and his blood ran cold—Sarah was here. Her shadow fell over him as she stepped up to the balcony. A moment later she picked him up and began carrying him out of the room, slamming the door behind her in what must have felt like an earthquake to all the tinies.

  Sarah sat down in a chair and opened her palm, exhaling angilly as she looked at her bound and injured brother. “What the hell are you doing?” Sarah demanded, reaching forward and pulling apart the ropes, untying Paul. “Seducing and raping one of the breeders, and then attacking Barney when he confronted you about it?”

  The now-untied Paul tried to turn and look at his sister but he was just hurting too much and far too scared—the tone she was using made him fear for his life.

  “I bring you into my home and let you live among my tinies,” Sarah said. “And this is what you do. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable, Paul. You're disgusting.” Paul wanted to argue, speak back to his sister, but he was just too weak to do so.

  “I'm obviously not letting you back with the others after that.” Sarah said. “I'm going to have to put you in isolation while I figure out what to do with you. Now, take off your clothes.”

  Paul looked up at Sarah in horror. He had only heard rumors about what it meant to be put in isolation and it didn't sound good. He needed his injuries looked after, he needed a friendly voice and a kind face, he didn't need this.

  Sarah huffed impetiently. “You don't know how close I am to putting my palms together and crushing you to pulp. Now, take off your clothes!”

  There was nothing else Paul could do. He shakily removed his shoes, pants, and shirt, now naked in his furious owner's hand. Sarah removed the clothes and started walking. She walked over to an antique cabinet that was likely pre-duality and opened a drawer. There was a little black box inside. Paul looked at it with horror, realizing that his box was going to be his prison.

  Sarah pulled off the top of the box. Inside the box was nothing, just a black lining. It was long and thin, meaning Paul could do nothing but lay down inside of it. Sarah lowered him down in, pushing him to lie flat on his back. She glared down at him for a few final moments.

  “You really have become quite the headache.” Sarah said. “Hopefully this will give you the chance to calm down and think about what you did. See you later.”

  And with that Sarah lowered the top down onto the box plunging Paul into complete darkness. He lay there for a second until the whole box shook as Sarah placed something heavy on top to ensure there was no way Paul could leave. There was a stomach-churning motion as Sarah closed the drawer and then...nothing. And it lasted a very long time.