Another Fight

You lay there, not quite picking up the book again, as you just lay there, thinking. You smell the food in the kitchen, you hear the sound of a vacuum in somebody's room. In that moment, it almost feels normal. In that moment, you almost want to cry.

How had today gone so wrong? The flowers had made everybody a horny, stupid mess. But you were the horniest, stupidest mess of all, despite actually knowing the flowers were coming. Did you ruin your relationship with Rebecca forever? Just when you finally found out that she shares your crush, that the two of you actually have feelings for each other? And now she might think that you're a chauvinist asshole like Erica and Olivia. But wouldn't she be justified in that?

Before, you were angry at yourself, but now, you try to apply that old man's wisdom from the book. These things have happened. Beating yourself over them won't help. Don't be angry that the fence between your neighbor is bad, fix it. Try to be better. You can't control the random turns of the app, just try not to make it actively worse. Try to be the best man you can as the world tears you down.

Sephora pops in, "Dinners ready." You stand up, walking to the round table that sits in the same room. And then, you watch the display of the consequences of your own actions.

Sephora places all of the plates first, before sitting next to you. Olivia and Erica are next. Olivia's eyes are still mad at you, her glance piercing. And Erica, Erica continues to look down and away.

Whatever the training had done to her, it had cowed her, made the normally confrontational woman into a woman scared of any and everything. Would the app punish her for not being maidlike? For raising her voice? It just feels like there are no hard rules to follow.

And finally is Rebecca. The last chair is next to you. But she takes it, moving to sit between Erica and Sephora. And as she sits, the table is quiet, with three of your four roommates giving off the air that they wished you didn't exist.

You decide to start. Before the mob eats you alive. "I can go to my room, eat there, if that would help. I'm sorry, Rebecca. I didn't mean to push you, I just, when you touched me, I recoiled. I just..." Didn't feel like I deserved to be touched, to be cared for. Not when I'm a monster. "I didn't know what to do in the moment. I never meant to hurt you."

Rebecca looks up at you, her eyes searching, their deep blue gazing into you, trying to figure out what is going on, whether to believe you. You continue, "I shouldn't have even been upset. You're still here, you didn't die, you were scared. Anger was the wrong answer. It should never have been the answer. I don't know why I found that answer in the moment. I apologize, now I should be going."

You stand up, grabbing your plate. Sephora grabs hold of your hand. Her brown eyes look at you, her face like an impassive judge. Her old position, back when it was you and Rebecca vs Erica and Olivia. Now it's you against the world. You sit down again.

"So what, you think a few sorrys are going to cut it? You punched a wall clean through, and now you think you can just say, 'I'm sorry, won't happen again?!'" Olivia leads the charge against you, as Erica looks down, trying to blend into the table. The stark difference from how it was only a few days ago is shocking. "I've been thinking about it. I raised the fact that if you wanted to, you could come in with a knife and attack any one of us. That your next violent outburst might hurt us. Yes, we should all lock our doors, but what do we do if he kicks down one of ours? That wall certainly didn't contain you."

She continues, this speech clearly preplanned. "Well we have one more lock, one a bit sturdier. The front door still has its lock, though we haven't locked it since the stairway appeared. But I vote we throw him into there, that we keep him there. We'll all hear it if he tries to break that door down, we'll be able to prepare ourselves. Why don't we have him take a punishment or two? If he thinks they're such a laughing matter, why don't we let that chucklefuck see how he feels after his dick gets locked up or whatever."

Your eyes glance at her metal collar, the one that she'd worn since last night. You hadn't looked at it. Had it glowed while she stood next to Erica's milking? When the air from the flowers filled her room, while she comforted her? When she had helped Erica clean earlier? Your eyes then go to Erica, who only seems to grow smaller and smaller, wincing when the word lock comes up.

You wait, but Olivia is done. Your eyes look at her, then Erica, then Rebecca. Rebecca is looking down. You've lost. They're going to lock you out, and then you'd either have to take a punishment or worse, have to explain why you didn't take one.

This might be it. If they found out you did this, they might kill you. Would the world revert after you were dead? Would that be the best thing you could do for them? To die. You wait, the silence like the hangman's noose before you.