Stacey is put under surveillance

Not long after Stacey had sold her car, dinner had been served. Stacey had joined her family at the table, but she had mostly sobbed about her car, and had been mostly ignored by the rest of her family.

Everyone was done eating and as they were leaving the table the doorbell rang.

“I think that’s our appointment. Stacey, please join me for a bit.” her father said. Stacey dreaded what was coming next.

When her father opened the door, Stacey saw what looked like two repair men.

“Right on time, gentlemen, please come in”, he said.

Stacey took a good look as the men entered her house. One of them carried three boxes, the other one carried a single box. All boxes were identical and stated that they contained a “360 degree 4K IR IP camera”. The man carrying a single box carried a toolbox in his other hand.

“Stacey, can you please show these men to your room? They’re here to do some maintenance”, her father said.

Stacey walked upstairs followed by the two men. When she got to her room she was hesitant to go in, not sure what was going to happen. That’s why she stood at her door while the two men entered.

They looked around, making sure they had a good view of the room. Stacey looked around as well to see what they were looking at. They appeared to be simply looking at empty corners or something. On her desk Stacey saw her phone and laptop. Phones were forbidden in the living room during dinner time, so everybody left their phones in their bedrooms during dinner.

She walked inside her room to get it.

“Thanks, we’ll take it from here”, one of the ‘repair men’ said. Blocking the path between Stacey and her phone, clearly indicating that she should go downstairs again.

As Stacey left her room, one of the men closed the door behind her.

She hadn’t even gotten to the first floor when she heard the men drill in the walls. That sound must be coming from her room, she reasoned.

Stacey dropped on the couch where her parents were as well. Not interested in a conversation, not interested in what was coming next.

“Stacey, “ her father said while the men were still using their electric tools upstairs, “as I told you, Bridget has some cameras installed in her house. It seemed only reasonable if you got the same treatment. So that’s why these men are installing cameras in your room now.”

Stacey looked at her father, then she looked at her mother, followed by a detailed visual inspection of the ceiling. She wasn’t sure wat to think of it. It was surely way less serious than having to sell your own car for a dollar. But on the other hand, her room was the one place where she had been able to retreat and process everything that had been going on. Even that one place of privacy she now had to surrender as well.

“In Bridget’s case, “ her father continued, “the entire house is covered by cameras. However, she lives alone, whereas we live here together with the entire family. And this whole zoo thing is your project, of course. Your mother and I would never want our own life to be videoed 24/7, nor do we want to impose such a thing on your siblings.

“And you do want to impose such a thing on me?!”, Stacey shouted.

“No, “ her father replied calmly. You’ve made that choice yourself, haven’t you? And remember, you can still back out for the next 13 hours. Just say the word and consider it done.”

Stacey knew that her father was right. It was a result of her own doing, even though she hadn’t been nor couldn’t have been aware of the consequences she currently had to deal with.

“They will also put a video camera in the living room, ” her father said, “but your mother and I will only turn it on when you’re downstairs and we think it’s worth capturing.”

“Worth to who, dad?”, Stacey asked, “who will be watching those videos, I assume they’ll be live streamed?”

“To your second question, yes. The images are being live streamed. As to your first question, I don’t think Bridget is aware of who exactly gets to watch those videos, so it seems only fair not to tell you either. I’m sorry, but exact same treatment and all that”

Great. Some unknown perv got to watch her every move. She swore to herself to only change in the bathroom and never go nude in her own room any more. Despite this, Stacey also realized that in the zoo many people would be watching her, nude. Without having any place to retreat as well. So even though she surely didn’t like these changes, they would not be very much different from her situation at the zoo.

Except this was her home, where she had lived for the past 10+ years, and where her room had always be her safe spot. The place she could retreat to whenever she needed to, without feeling spied on. That place was now no more.

One of the ‘repairmen’ walked in to the living room and looked around.

“Would it be okay if we put it here?”, he asked her parents pointing to a spot on the wall.

“Great spot, let’s do it.”, her father said.

The repair man drilled a few holes, and quickly put a camera up the wall. The camera was basically a glass dome with, presumably, a camera lens inside. The edges of the dome were covered with a bit of white hard plastic.From where it was put up, it had probably a good view of the entire room. A single cable emanated from the camera, which she could see him plug in the wall.

“We usually do a better job of hiding these cables. But given that they’re only mounted here temporarily, there’s no point in doing that, really”, the repair man said.

“Agreed”, her dad said.

The man opened up his phone, typing in some stuff, until he yelled; “okay, this one also works!”, then proceeded with a normal voice; “That makes four of them! I’ll show you how you can open them on your phone, and how you can turn off the one in the living room”, he said clearly meant for his parents. Stacey was once again more or less ignored.

At least Stacey now knew that her parents would be able to view the live feed. They may not be the only ones, but at least it was a partial answer as to who could look at her every move.

Shortly after, the other man also came downstairs, yelling “all done!”, and the two of them left the house together.

Even though Stacey had thought of them as repair or maintenance men, they were actually employed by the same Private Investigator’s office that was surveilling Bridget. Both her phone and laptop had gotten the exact same treatment that Bridget’s devices had received. The only difference was that Bridget’s condo had received small spy cameras that she was not aware of, whereas these cameras could not be possibly missed.