He yawned as he stepped through the door. He wanted to get this done quickly so he could go to bed, but he still chose to give her the time she needed to say goodbye, even if her parents didn’t quite know what was going on.

He would try and give her the chance to go back and visit them regularly, but he knew that might have to wait until after she finished her internship. He didn’t provide the next two people with the same luxury.

He didn’t talk to them, he didn’t say anything at all. He grabbed them before they could make a sound and tossed them into their rooms and left them to Buddie to deal with.

Finally free from work, and with Buddie not looking for trouble, Ed returned to Zara’s apartment. He didn’t know how late it was, but the place was already dark and he couldn’t hear anything. Taking off his shoes and placing them next to Zara’s, he went and washed up before heading to the bedroom.

As expected, Zara was already asleep. Ed crawled into bed next to her, careful to not wake her.

~

“Good morning.”

The two woke up to the sound of Buddie’s voice. “Morning.” They both replied at the same time, still half asleep.

“Eh? When did you get back?” Zara asked, looking at Ed while rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“I don’t know, but you were already asleep,” he replied, yawning.

Despite this being the first morning of the two officially living together, they had already fallen into a comfortable routine thanks to the time in Hell and the few nights they spent together before that.

Ed brewed them some tea while Zara went to freshen up. He could always just ask Buddie for some tea whenever he wanted, but he felt like doing things the normal way today. He also started on making breakfast for the two of them, scrambled eggs and bacon on toast, and everything was ready by the time Zara came out of the bathroom.

They ate breakfast, spent some time on the couch, then went to the office. Just as Zara sat in her chair, but before Ed could do the same, Buddie’s voice rang out, stopping him.

“Ed, your other work is currently waiting for you. Go complete that, then come back and do this. If you fail to complete any of your tasks by the end of the work day, you will be punished.”

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Ed looked at the computer, then at his chair, then at Zara, and reluctantly smiled with a sigh. “Guess I’ve got something else to do. I’ll try and get back earlier.”

“Have fun, you’ve got this!” Zara encouraged him, smiling as she sent him off.

Ed went back through the door and into his private hallway. A bunch of doors lined up one side of the hallway, but across from them, where there would normally only be one door, was now a total of six. One for him, and one for each of the interns he took in.

Are we sharing a hallway? Or is this just giving me access to theirs’? Either way, he knew that these doors each linked up to one of the people he brought back yesterday. “Who do you want me to see first?”

“That is entirely up to you. Feel free to go with whoever you wish. Just make sure they all design a trap today, otherwise both of you will receive the punishment,” Buddie said.

Did that happen when I was an intern? Ed was a little suspicious. He felt that Buddie had decided to do this just to get at him. But Ed also wouldn’t put it past him to use this all the time as a way to insure that both the intern and the team behind them did a good job.

Looks like I have to do this properly. Now who should I go for? Giving it a bit of thought, he decided to visit Masami first and pushed open the middle door. As expected, it led him directly to her room, where she was currently curled up on the chair, sleeping.

“Good morning Masami.” Wow, he’s really making me do everything. As long as the computer is still working fine, then I guess I can handle it.

~

Masami had had a rough night. She had just finished working when a complete stranger snuck into her house and took her to what looked like a cold and dingy basement. She wasn’t even allowed to refuse, the man just took her and there was nothing she could do about it. Her entire life was upended, and now she had to sleep in a chair.

She remembered back to when she tried to defend herself with the baseball bat and shivered. Whatever that thing is, he’s not human. That was like something straight out of a horror movie, but it did give her inspiration for her game. If she could ever get out of here and complete it.

At least he let me say goodbye. I hope they aren’t worrying about me. I just want to go home.

It took a very long time for her to finally fall asleep in the chair. She had no idea what time it was right now, or even where she was. Everything just felt so weird. Like a dream, or a nightmare.

“Good morning Masami.”

She was shocked awake by the familiar voice. She looked around in fright for a moment, forgetting she was not in her room. She freaked out, but eventually managed to calm down. She turned around and looked at Ed, but couldn’t get the image of his strange hand out of her mind.

Her eyes were constantly darting between his hand and his face, worried that his hand would suddenly morph and attack her.

“It’s alright, I’m not going to hurt you. How should I say this?” Ed stepped forward and created a chair facing her before sitting down. “Welcome to your new job.”