“Your project is ready Zara.” Shortly after the two of them finish their meal, Buddie calls out to them, informing them to head back to work.
Sitting back down at their desks, Zara stares at her screen, waiting impatiently for it to start, while Ed pretends to watch it, his mind trailing off elsewhere. I hope that Josephine can last through it all...
The camera footage turns on, just in time to catch the light flickering, cloaking everything in light. Strapped to an electric chair is an unconscious man. In front of him is an old portable generator, surrounded by tools and repair parts. Zara watches on gleefully as the man starts to realise that something is wrong.
“What the fuck?” He pulls against the straps, struggling to free himself. Zara laughs as he tries to use the tools to cut through the straps.
“Good morning, Kaleb. Before you lies a faulty generator. It is prone to randomly activating on its own and may do so at any time, even when there is no change to cause it. You have been supplied with all the tools and materials you will need to fix the generator and prevent it from going off... Who knew that an accident would happen, taking his life. But it wasn’t an accident, was it? Have you ever thought about what you put that man through? If you don’t manage to fix it in time, you will soon find out exactly what he felt. Good luck, Kaleb.”
She watches on as the man quickly gets to work studying the machine, turning it around to survey the damages, and trying futilely to disconnect the cables. It doesn’t take him long before he starts pulling the generator apart. He moves quickly, but cautiously throughout the entire process, ensuring his safety all the while searching for any signs of damage that he may need to fix.
He grows frustrated as his finds nothing, even after carefully checking all of the internal components. Knowing that he’s running out of time, he stops caring about his safety, quickly removing as many components as necessary, trying to get to the engine as quickly as possible.
“Buddie, what’s the problem with the generator?” Zara asks, now curious after seeing that Kaleb still hadn’t been able to find anything.
“The control panel that determines when the generator turns on automatically is far too sensitive. It will react to even the slightest change in the system, causing it to turn on the generator with even the slightest dip in electricity.”
Having got her answer, Zara turns back to the video satisfied. “Holy shit! He might be able to do it.” She shouts out, noticing that the vast majority of the generator has been dismantled.
Just before he can disconnect the battery, the engine hums to life, producing electricity that is immediately sent through the system and into the chair, frying his brain.
“Unfortunately, Kaleb, you were unable to fix the problem with the faulty generator in time. Pulling it apart was a good idea, but ultimately you ran out of time to do so. Enjoy Hell Kaleb, goodbye.”
As steam starts to rise up from his body, the electricity continues to be sent through his body. The footage turns off and Zara relaxes back into her chair. She turns to Ed, excitedly discussing what just happened, and about how close Kaleb was to escaping.
“Buddie, how long until mine is ready?” Ed asks.
“Your project is estimated to be ready in an hour.”
Pulled from his thoughts by Zara, Ed continues to engage in small talk with her to fill the time. Out of nowhere, in the middle of their conversation, she pulls out a deck of cards and the two start playing, quickly losing track of time.
Ed’s screen changes, showing footage of a Honda civic pulling into a parking lot, zooming in on the people in the car as it comes to a stop.
“Ed look! It’s started.” Zara shouts while pointing over Ed’s shoulder. She quickly packs up the cards, before pushing her chair over to Ed’s screen.
“It’s time to wake up sweetie, we’ve made it to your new school.” The mother gently wakes the grown woman sleeping in the back seat.
This is going to be weird to watch. They watch as Josephine wakes up, looking confused as she stares back at the couple.
“Oh sweetie, are you still tired? I know we’ve been busy moving in, but you can’t miss your first day of school. I’ll buy you some ice cream afterwards.”
They watch as Josephine falls onto the ground, eliciting a chuckle from Zara.
“Oh baby, are you okay?” The mother rushes out of the car, worriedly checking to see if she is okay. She sighs with relief, seeing that there’s no scratches. Licking her thumb, she wipes off the dirt on Josephine’s face. “There we are. Don’t want you showing up to class looking as if you just slept in the woods, now do we?”
Shivers run up Ed’s spine as he watches the woman coddle Josephine.
“Come on, it’s time to go to the principal’s office, then you’ll be able to see your new classmates, how exciting is that!”
The couple walks into the foyer, practically dragging Josephine with them as she tries to escape. With the help of a staff member, the family finds themselves in the principal’s office.
“Well, if it isn’t the Simmons family. I hope our little town here has given you a warm welcome.” The principal says, shaking hands with the parents before turning to Josephine. “And this must be Barbara. I hope you find yourself at home at my little school. I promise you that the people here will be the nicest people you will ever meet. In this town, we all know how to look out for each other.”
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Okay, so it seems like everyone is treating her as Barbara. I wonder how she’s going to react to this?
It doesn’t take long before Ed finds out, as Josephine grabs onto the principal, sounding desperate. “Sir! You have to listen to me, I’m not Barbara. I’m Josephine, Josephine Grant. I’ve been a teacher at this school for over a decade. I woke up and found myself in these strangers' car. Please you have to help me!”
“Oohh, she’s not doing too good already.” Zara says, finding joy in the woman’s suffering. They watch as the mother tries to sooth her, only for Josephine to explode.
“Get away from me! I don’t know you!” She brutally kicks the woman in the stomach, who falls down with a pained groan.
There’s no way that actually hurt her. Ed thinks, remembering the pain that all of the actors have had to endure.
A light knocking comes from the door before it opens slightly. A young girl peeks her head in with a perky little smile, looking at the scene of Josephine freaking out.
“Umm, you called for me sir?” she asks, looking between Josephine and the principal.
That’s a fake smile. Ed observes. The actor must be intentionally making it look fake.
“Thank you for coming to help, Grace. This here is Barbara.” He gestures to Josephine as she shakily threatens them with the scissors. “She will be joining our little family here at Willow High. She’s going to be in your class, and so I want you to show her around the school,”
“Sure sir. I’d be more than happy to do that!” She says with a sweet smile. She approaches Josephine, trying to introduce herself. “Hi! I’m Gra-”
“STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU BITCH.” Josephine goes ballistic, breaking down as she uses the scissors to keep everyone away.
Grace comes to a stop. Tears well up in her eyes as she runs back to the principal cowering behind his back.
This kid’s good. I’m not sure if this kind of thing happened back then, but I feel like the actors are very dedicated to matching reality if they’re playing a real person.
The principal comforts her, reassuring her it would be okay before turning to Josephine. “There is no reason to use that kind of foul language young lady. Now stop messing around and apologise to Grace this instant!” The principal says with a strict and serious tone, the gentle smile no longer on his face.
“I like this little girl!” Zara says, enjoying the show. They watch as Josephine apologises to Grace and follows her out of the room under the kind eyes of the adults inside. It doesn’t take long before Grace pushes Josephine into the wall, lifting her up against it. They watch as the grown woman is toyed with by the teenager, cowering in fear.
She isn’t going to last the six months.
The footage continues on, showing how Grace gets the other students to start bullying Josephine, messing with her as she struggles to solve even the simplest equation on the board.
“I thought she was a math teacher; how come she can’t solve this?” Zara asks, a bit confused.
“In situations like this, the company will do its best to make the sinner’s punishment match up with their sin. Since she is taking the place of Barbara, who was bullied for having learning difficulties, I bet that the company is messing with her brain right now, making it impossible for her to even understand what’s on the board.
For one of my previous traps, the guy would always be drunk before he cheated on his wife, so the company made sure he was drunk when he had to go through the trap. Let’s just say I didn’t account for that, and it made it a lot harder for him.”
“That is indeed correct. What Ed has just said is exactly what is happening. In this case, the actor playing Grace is the one messing with her mind.”
So, they can do more than just shapeshift. I guess that makes sense, they’re not limited to having just one ability. I might have to ask Urdhuri about that later.
Having received an answer to her question, Zara nods in understanding before turning back to the screen. They’re conversation ended up overlapping with Buddies speech, causing them to only catch the tail end of it.
“... Her teachers were incompetent and blind to what was happening to her. So for you, it will be the same. I hope this will result in you becoming a better person, Josephine. Good luck.”
At the end of the class, Grace’s friends continue to torment her, holding her book of empty work up for all the class to see, thoroughly embarrassing her in front of everyone. As the bell rings, the classroom quickly empties out, leaving just Josephine and Barbara. Not long after, Josephine rushes out of the room, tripping over Grace’s foot.
“Watch where you’re going you idiot!” Grace yells at her before walking away with her posse. Josephine vaguely hears them talking as they walk away, not even trying to help her up.
“Are you okay Grace?”
“I can’t believe that little freak just ran into you like that.”
As Josephine is left on the ground, the screen turns black before changing back to the desktop.
“Come ooonnn. What happened?” Zara complains, not expecting for the show to end so abruptly.
“As this project will take a long time, we have decided that it’s for the best to end the feed here for now, otherwise you will be sitting here for the next six months. Instead, the highlights of each day will be sent to your apartment, Ed. And you can play them on your TV whenever you have spare time to watch it.”
Ed is devastated upon hearing this, knowing that he’ll now be forced to watch Josephine getting tortured for months on end. This is not what I wanted. I thought it would be a one and done thing like all of the others. It’s even worse since I can tell she won’t be able to make it. If I had known earlier what I know now, I would have just made something shorter, at least she would’ve stood a chance then. Lost in his thoughts, Ed doesn’t notice that Zara is looking at him with puppy dog eyes.
“Please let me watch them? Buddie didn’t want to give them to me without your permission.”
There’s something seriously wrong with this woman. Should I even give it to her? I don’t know if it’ll make things worse or not... But I don’t think I should deny her completely. “How about this, you can come over to my place to watch them during the afternoon when you don’t have other plans. Does that sound okay?” This way I should be able to use this to guide her down the right path. Maybe I can even escape from watching the videos by having her watch it in my stead, while I go out to visit Urdhuri. I don’t know how Buddie will react to that, but I should at least give it a shot.
“That sounds awesome.” Zara says, giving Ed a hug.
“Now that you have completed your project Zara, you are free to spend the rest of your day doing whatever you want. You have been paid ten credits for your trap. Ed, since your project is still ongoing, you will receive the ten credits as per usual, and any changes that occur later down the line will be accounted for when it happens.” Buddie says.
Any changes? Does that mean something different will happen when someone escapes? I wonder how that will affect the credits I receive.
“So, Ed. What do you want to do today?” Zara asks as she gets out of her seat.
I don’t think I can visit the library right now... I guess I can just go along with whatever she has planned. “I’m not sure. Let’s just go have a look around, see what we can find.”
“Sure!” The two make their way to the door, unsure of where to go.