The room fell silent as Ed sat there, unmoving. His brain not catching up to the changes around him. His eyes stared blankly at the screen. Slowly, he blinked, as his life came back to him. “What happened?”

“You died of pneumonia. Your punishment has been completed, so you are free to come back to work now.” The robotic voice echoed through the room, shocking his brain awake.

His memories of the night before passed through his mind, the pain and suffering tore away at his consciousness. A thought flashed across his mind, catching his undivided attention “This can’t be right. If I died, how am I still here?”

“Because you have work to do, Ed.”

His thoughts screeched to a halt hearing that. Is there no escape? Am I stuck here forever? The temperature in the room grew cold as his back was drenched in a cold sweat. The thoughts of his pain bore through his mind. That was awful, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. Even when I was trying to get help, there was nothing I could do, my body just wouldn’t listen to me. Luckily, I’m feeling better now. It seems that the robot needs me to be in a good condition so that I can do my job, well at least physically speaking. I need to get some more information from it.

“What should I call you?”

“You can call me Buddie.”

“Okay Buddie, when I earn your trust, will I be allowed to leave?”

“Yes, you will be able to leave the room.”

Okay that’s good, if I gain his trust, I will be one step closer to getting out of here. But, while I’m trapped here, I need to focus on my survival. I’m not feeling too hungry right now, but I don’t know how long that will last. I don’t know when I can get food, maybe I was supposed to after completing the quota, but since I refused, I didn’t get any. The same would probably be true for water.

Blinking on the screen, the notification for a new file had appeared. Before he could fully focus on it, it opened.

Name: Sally Smith

Age: 6

“6! She’s a child, this is too much. I don’t even have to read this to know that she hasn’t done anything. You are going too far Buddie.” This is outrageous. How can he expect me to hurt a child.

“She has sinned Ed, now continue reading.” Ed’s body froze as his eyes locked onto the screen.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Name: Sally Smith

Age: 6

Occupation: Child/Student

Biography: Born to parents Larry and Susan Smith, Sally loved it when her dad read picture books with her... She also spent a lot of time with her grandparents out in the countryside who adored her. She often spent her time in the meadow to the south of her grandparents' house chasing butterflies. Whenever she caught one, she would pull its wings off, killing the creature.

-End of document-

Is this Larry’s kid? Is something special about this family? Memories of last night when Larry was near filtered through his mind, gathering every piece of information he had so far. This is definitely Larry’s daughter; all of the information adds up. The names could be a coincidence, but I remember Larry talking about taking Sally to visit his parent’s house, and that she loves catching butterflies. Maybe this can help me figure out more about why Buddie is doing this. “Buddie, is this Larry’s daughter?”

“Her father’s name is Larry, yes. Are you doing okay Ed? It tells you this at the beginning of her biography.”

Am I doing okay? I just died for fucks sake. Calm down Ed, you won’t be able to get anything from him if you don’t calm down. “I’m doing fine Buddie, I just wanted to confirm if the Larry mentioned in this file is the one whose file I looked at yesterday?”

“Yes, they are one in the same.”

“Are you targeting this family.”

“Of course not, the files sent to you are randomly selected from anyone who can be deemed a sinner.”

“The likelihood that you would randomly give me the files of people that are related to each other should be remarkably low, after all there should be a lot of sinners out there.”

“The likelihood is indeed low, but random occurrences like this can still happen.”

Okay, it seems to be a random occurrence, or at least that’s what he is saying, and I doubt I’ll be able to get anything out of him that’s different. I might have to shelf the idea that this is targeted at a particular family or group until I have more information. “Besides, all she did was kill a few butterflies, there are plenty of people who’ve done something like that as a kid. Surely this can’t be considered a sin?”

“All life is precious Ed. Since she has snuffed out several lives in such a vile and vicious manner, she deserves to be punished accordingly.”

This is just insane. “A human’s life is worth far more than just a few butterflies. This should not be considered a sin Buddie.” Its value of life seems to be off; does it consider all life to be equal on a planet wide scale, and that is why Sally is labelled as a sinner? Or is it her act of intentionally ripping off the butterflies’ wings that caught Buddie’s attention? Would accidentally stepping on an insect be considered sinful? I’ll have to keep my eye out to see if this comes up again. I don’t feel like I should ask Buddie about it, at least not while I don’t have its trust.

“You do not have the authority to determine what is counted as a sin. Design the trap now, or you will be punished in her place.”

A sharp pain stabbed into his lungs, memories of lying on the park bench drilled into his mind, leaving Ed gasping for air. Maybe I should... no, I must stay strong, I won’t hurt a child. I can take whatever punishment it throws at me. But it did give me some vital information. Authority? It seems to be out of my reach at the moment, since it doesn’t even trust me, but one day I might be able to hold authority over Buddie, and I’ll be able to stop it from hurting innocent people like Larry and Sally. I’ve got a long-term goal now. I won’t let Buddie win. “I refuse to punish her.”

“You should have listened to me Ed. Punishment initiated.”

Wait, wha-.