Rude :(

I woke up the next morning. I had a few fleeting moments of happiness before remembering what I’d agreed to the night before. I sighed.

Vanessa hadn’t reappeared at any point last night. I had kind of hoped this handjob deal would repeat at some point, but I guess not. Maybe it was a one-time thing? Can I bring that up, or am I an asshole if I do? I wish I’d been more sexually active in high school so I’d understand the nuances of situationships or whatever they call it.

“‘More sexually active’; as if I was active at all!” I said to myself.

I remembered that Vanessa can choose to be seen or not and could be in the room. I hope Vanessa hadn’t heard that.

I got out of bed and showered. In the night Ava had brought me some dinner (salmon! How healthy!) and had told me what time to get up to shower so we’d stop running into each other. I sat under the hot water for some time. Just thinking. I won’t bore you with the thoughts. Let’s just say they hovered around the ‘would suicide be easier?’ level of depressing and anxious. I settled on ‘pussy move’ and dried off.

When I went into the main room of the house I found the girls gathered around the dining room table. They all munched on various cereal brands.

“Cereal is in the pantry.” Sara said when she saw me, pointing her thumb over her shoulder to the kitchen.

I went and opened it up and holy shit that’s a lot of cereal. Like, this really holds no bearing over the overall situation of my life, but these women fucking loved cereal I guess. Like, genuinely, more than twenty boxes. What’s crazier is no repeats. No doubling up on, say, Cheerios or something. Just a shit ton of choices. Wild.

Anyway, I grabbed the box that seemed to be the most chocolate-y because I have the taste buds of a child and poured a bowl. No milk, because I fucking hate soggy cereal. Why am I writing so much on this cereal?

I sat down between Ava and Sara at the table. Kenzie and Kate sat across from us, Kenzie’s arm around Kate. I was pleased to see that the conversation they were having was a normal one; I wasn’t quite ready to talk vigilantism over cereal.

“So why are they closing the library today?” Sara asked Kate.

Kate’s brows furrowed with annoyance. “Apparently the city is going through and removing a chunk of the books we have! I don’t even understand, it’s not politically motivated from my understanding. I think Vocx is behind it, honestly. I just wished I’d had more of a heads up so I could see what they’re trying to hide.”

“I would have assumed you had already read everything in that place.” Kenzie teased.

Kate scrunched up her nose. “If only.”

Kenzie giggled and gave her girlfriend a kiss on the head. “Don’t worry about it, babe. It’ll do no good to think about it, yes? Not like figuring out what they’re hiding would do us anything, no way we’re going after them. Even I’m not that egotistical.”

Ava’s spoon made that scratchy noise that metal and porcelain make when scraped against each other. Kenzie ignored her.

I wondered if the girls had already known Vocx was fucked up before me or if they’d always known. I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to think about it.

“What do you do for work, Kenzie?” I asked. I knew everyone’s occupations already besides hers.

“I… am self-employed. Let’s leave it at that for now.” She responded curtly. Had I struck a nerve?

“Okay.” I backed down from the query. I munched cereal to ensure I didn’t have to speak next. I’d swung and missed.

Some more small talk was made before everyone dispersed to either go to work or prepare for it (besides Kenzie, as previously established).

I was supposed to be off today, but I didn’t really know the rules now that I was basically property of the company.

As I drove I received a call. I answered. I recognized the voice as Hana’s.

“Hey, Michael! I know you’re off today, but it would be very kind of you to come in for a moment today to receive your injection. And by ‘very kind’ I mean ‘would save your life’ because we can kill you at any moment if you don’t obey us.”

I assumed that was meant to be an attempt at being funny, so I **** a laugh.

Silence.

“Oh, uh… yeah, I’ll be there soon.” I responded.

“Great! See you soon.”

Well. At least I kind of had a day off.

I got to work, went up the elevator, and arrived at Hana’s floor. She was once again dressed more casually.

“Hello, Michael. Let’s get this over with.”

“Any plans today?” I asked. Last time she’d had normal clothes on I’d seen her in my apartment, and I would like to avoid that surprise if at all possible.

“Why? What, are you attempting to ask the woman who has your life in her hands on a date?” She smiled slyly.

Now, I’m dumb, but I’m no fool! I knew this was a tease. She didn’t actually think I would ask her out, but she knew misconstruing my words would cause me to stumble. I saw through her ploy, and I won’t fall for it.

“I-I, uh, n… no!”

Or maybe I will.

“I’m fucking with you.” Hana laughed as she grabbed the familiar bright orange syringe from inside her desk. “However, for the sake of this maybe affecting you, I will say I have plans to have lunch with our mutual friend Ava. Nothing of importance to you, I’m sure.”

She pointed to the chair. “Sit. I won’t bother with the Fibnegresium today. I need to get a resupply, and was busy yesterday.”

I sat down. I was relieved, though I’m pretty sure I’d still pass the test with flying colors regardless. I just kind of enjoyed not having the needle jab me.

Hana pressed the needle against me and I tensed in anticipation. I felt the metal graze my skin and then-

Crack.

“Hm. Odd.” Hana said.

I looked at the ground. The needle’s tip was on the ground beside me. It couldn’t penetrate my skin.

-

Hey! Changed my name from TryingSomethingNew to MichaelChaseLit, since that name is easier to obtain on other platforms. It’s still me, I promise!! I always like when authors’ pen names are their character’s name, so I went with that. I also updated the intro chapter, though it’s still… eh. And, last but not least, I will be updating all POV switches to contain who the switch is to shortly.

I decided to do this because of a comment pointing out how it only really works in a dramatic sense. That wasn’t what I was aiming for, so why do it?

My thought process was this: this isn’t JUST Michael Chase’s story. All these other characters exist within this world and are experiencing shit in their own way. I wanted to almost treat their POV parts as if it wasn’t a chapter in someone else’s life, but a look into their own story. Now, I’m not upset that this didn’t come across or anything, I just wanted to explain.

Last note, though I hate to keep harping about it: Patreon will be delayed until I can get ahead. Jet lag is a much larger beast than I expected, and I have been so tired I haven’t written. This chapter, in fact, was written a week ago and I’m just burning what leeway I have to sleep as much as possible. I won’t mention the Patreon here again until it’s available. Thanks. Good night!