Ethan woke to the sound of crying. He snapped awake. Immediately the horror of what he had done filled him. He grabbing the naked girl and quickly ushered her out of the room.

‘Fuck me!’ he thought, ‘That was wrong. No two ways about it, that was wrong. Even in a simulation, what I did last night was wrong’.

He didn’t recognize his perspective had changed fundamentally from the night before. He was too wrapped up in the disgust of what he had done. He dressed quickly. All he wanted to do was get out of there. On his way out he noticed Jimmy naked and passed out on top of a pile of bodies. When he reached the door, he saw the young girl. She was hiding in the same spot he found her last night, now naked because of him. He called one of the servants over. ‘Get some clothes on that girl’, he said, and left.

When he got to his office, Dawn was sitting there, intently focused on her work as usual.

‘’How was the party?’ she asked.

‘Good,’ he responded without stopping, ‘Your egg did the trick.’

‘I knew it would. Did you work your magic? Change a few minds? Fuck up a few lives?

‘Oh yeah’, he responded, but not in a smart ass way. Once in his office, he closed the door behind him.

‘Fuck Me. Fuck Me. Fuck Me,’ he repeated as he sat himself in front of a computer console that hid him from Dawn. He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘What if what I did changed that girls life somehow? Is she a simulation or what? Dually said only things that prevented significant outcomes would escape my influence. Is that what he said? Did that mean he did have an actual role in the simulation, and his actions might lead to the outcome? And this is what I’ve done? I think I just ruined a girls life.

Just then, he heard his door open and Jimmy wandered in still half asleep and smelling like sex and booze. Ethan’s war room was no where near as secured as Eldon’s. Jimmy dropped into a chair and raised an ass cheek like he was going to fart again.

‘Jimmy, so help me if you fart again, I’ll plant this trophy in your skull.

Jimmy eyes opened in surprise. He looked at the trophy and it had a granite base. He lowered his ass check. ‘What the fuck man?’

‘Jimmy, tell me,’ Ethan said, looking at him intently. ‘What happens to those girls?’

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

‘What girls?’

‘The girls last night for fuck’s sake.

‘Well, you know,’ Jimmy replied, a little uneasily.

‘No I don’t. Where do they come from and what happens to them?’

‘Well, you know, Eldon finds them wandering around the North Side and picks them up. He puts very capable people on it. No one will ever find out where they disappeared to’.

‘Then what happens to them? Today? What happens to them today?

Jimmy was wide awake now and watching Ethan as intently as Ethan was watching him. ‘It’s Eldon, man. No loose ends’.

Ethan sat back in his chair, and ran his fingers through his hair. Jimmy was watching very closely now.

‘Who does it?’ Ethan asked.

‘What?’

‘Who gets rid of them?’

‘I do.’

Ethan jumped from his chair, and placed himself physically over Jimmy. ‘You don’t kill those girls’.

‘Sorry dude. You know Eldon. I can’t get out of it.’

Ethan thought about that for a moment. It was true. Eldon would find out. He’d lose trust in Jimmy, and it would be Jimmy who ended up dead.. So would Ethan probably. Eldon would know everything before Jimmy died.

‘That was true.’ He sat back down in his chair. ‘Fuck! Why didn’t he think a little about this simulation before just jumping into it?’ he thought.

‘Listen. Do you know the girl I was with?’

‘I suppose I can figure it out’.

‘She was young. Maybe only 12 or 13. You can’t kill her.

‘Come on man. I can’t change reality and where the fuck is this coming anyway? You’ve got a conscience now or something?

That question was like a slap on the face. It backed Ethan up. He had a conscience. Yesterday, he would have been able to overlook what happened to the girls. Jimmy caught this realization too. Jimmy caught everything.

‘You can’t kill her Jimmy, Ethan continued. ‘Look at me. You can’t kill her. Do me this favor’.

Jimmy’s eyes lit up. ‘That would tie us very closely together’.

‘Yup’.

‘Hmm,’ Jimmy mused, as he sat back in his chair. Ethan could read his mind too. He was measuring the consequences. Sometimes he frowned. Sometimes he smiled. Then he got up and started to leave.

‘Where are you going?’

‘My boys are rounding up the girls right now,’ he said when he reached the door. ‘If I don’t hurry it might be too late to ‘grant’ you this favor.’ He turned to leave, and then turned back.

‘And Ethan.’

Ethan just looked at him.

‘We’re going to be spending a lot more time together’.

‘I know that’.