Bella paled and clenched her fists, falling silent. The two sat there for a while, hung up in the atmosphere and not speaking a word.

They both knew what this meant. Belle was going to die because she wasn’t good enough. Both thought about what they could have done better.

Belle thought about sucking it up and doing the work, despite how much it made her sick.

I should have warned her better. I know I told her, but I should have made her fear not doing the work.

Belle wasn’t as lucky as he was. Ed had an even worse track record in his internship, but he was lucky enough to receive the attention and help of a few people high enough in the chain of command to keep him safe.

Belle only had him, and his words didn’t exactly account for anything. He had no say or power, he was just an ordinary worker. There were millions of people at the same level as him in his department alone.

He regretted not doing better, but there was no going back now. He couldn’t change what had already happened. The best he could do was ease her pain a little and prepare her for it.

“How am I going to die?” her voice cracked, betraying her fear.

Ed shook his head, uncertain. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything about what happens to those who go too far. Buddie is the one in control of this.”

Belle took a deep breath, her body shaking as she tried to prepare herself for the inevitable, but it was hard. She didn’t want to die, she still had so much more life left to live.

“All because I stole from people.” She regretted becoming a thief. It was such an easy way for her to make money quickly. And once she got a taste of it, she couldn’t get away from the pleasure and joy that it gave her.

She had lived a good life thanks to all the stuff that she had stolen, and was just one big job away from living in luxury. She was so deep in the job that she wouldn’t be able to back out even if she wanted to. She didn’t know how to make an honest living.

But now she really regretted it. She wished that she could go back to when she was young and stop herself from taking the easy road.

“You know, there was a good chance that you would have been on the other side of this. That you would have been one of the people in the traps, not the one making them.”

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“That would have been better,” she said.

Ed sighed. “I get that. If it makes you feel any better, there’s no need to regret what you did in the past. You were just unlucky enough to be noticed by the company. Just like I was.”

The two sat in silence for a while more, thinking about how unlucky they both were.

“What did you do to get noticed by him?” She was curious about what kind of crime or sin he had committed to get thrown into this hellhole. Was he also like her? Someone who had done something relatively minor and that hadn’t hurt anyone? Or was he far more dangerous?

“Me? I didn’t do anything. I was just a normal university student when they took me. I was just studying in the library, then the next thing I knew, I woke up in a room just like this,” Ed said.

She felt like that wasn’t fair, and that she should say something, but she couldn’t think about anything beyond her own situation right now.

Ed stood up and pulled the chair back into himself. “I should get going now. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you probably want to be alone for a bit.” Ed turned around and walked to the door, not wanting to look at Belle and see how she was feeling.

“Please wait Ed,” Buddie’s voice called out, stopping Ed from turning the door handle.

This can’t be good, what does he want? Ed stayed still, not opening the door, but not turning around either. He was ready to leave as soon as Buddie finished talking.

“It is time for Belle to be fired. And of course, since she already knows too much about us and what we do here, she needs to die.”

Now that’s just bullshit. Surely they have someone who can rewrite memories. Or a machine that can make people forget. We already have doors that can take you anywhere you want and thousands of mythical creatures. This is hardly unrealistic.

“We already know that,” Ed said.

“I’m aware. But what you don’t know is that the internship team is also responsible for this part of the job as well. Since you have no one else working with you aside from the healers, that responsibility falls to you.”

Ed clenched his fists. Of course. He won’t let me off if there’s even a single chance to punish me. Ed turned around to look at Belle, causing her to flinch and stumble backwards.

“Don’t come over here!” she shouted.

Ed stopped and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I’ll try and make this quick.” His threads shot out towards her, slithering through the air.

She fell to the ground and tried to scramble away from the threads, but found her back pressed against the wall. Before she could react and try to flee, the threads coiled around her neck.

“Goodbye Belle.” Pushing down his emotions, Ed ruthlessly twisted the threads, snapping her neck instantly and turning the head half way around.

At the same time, more threads pierced through her skull, and stirred through her brain, trying to kill her as fast as possible before she could feel the pain.

Ed could feel every disgusting sensation, and shivered. This was not something that he wanted to do.

“Are you happy now?”