Jason sighed, putting down his newspaper which was adorned with the flashy title: SECRET GOVERNMENT FACILITY GOES DOWN IN FLAMES AFTER A MALFUNCTIONING EXPERIMENT. 178 DEAD.

"Man, the government these days," muttered the guy sitting next to Jason on the train conspiratorially.

The man was wearing a very well-tailored 3 piece suit and exuded a commanding authority, the type of authority that those used to being in positions of power tend to have. Yet something was off about him, almost as if he wasn’t quite what he seemed to be. Yet Jason couldn’t put his finger on what it could be.

"What? Oh... yeah." Jason muttered, trying not to show that the only reason he was answering was out of politeness.

"Next thing you know we'll be forced to eat only cheese that's sponsored by the government. But it won't stop there. We'll be required to use fancy toothpicks to spear the cheese with before we're allowed to consume it! But just when you think they've gone too far already, then they'll pass legislation mandating abstaining from cheese on every 2nd Tuesday of every month that begins with the Letter F!" The man chuckled, almost as if acknowledging the absurdity of his statements.

"Wait, what?" Well, that answers that question, Jason thought to himself. He’s clearly insane. Jason suddenly felt the urge to get away from the wacko in the suit.

Thankfully, Jason was saved from further communications with the strangely well-dressed nutjob somewhat literally by the bell when the train pulled to a screeching stop.

The strange man stood up, smoothing the wrinkles in his suit as the announcement came on over-head. He looked at Jason and sighed, turning serious.

"Look, kid, if I had one piece of advice to give a young impressionable man like you, it would be to watch out for those government types. They're ruthless cutthroats who always get what they want. I should know. I was one."

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The man promptly disappeared out of the train and into the crowd, leaving Jason to wonder just exactly what he meant.

...

Olivia was a quiet and usually chipper girl, but today just wasn't going her way. First, she came home to her deadbeat dad in a drunken stupor on the couch. His usual spot for the last two months. She had just come home from school where she was now failing almost all of her classes. Her teachers were worried about her, as her appearance and behavior as of late had taken a turn for the worse.

She had a good reason for all of this of course, as did her dad, for today was the two-month anniversary of her mother's death. After her death, her dad slowly started losing himself to despair and cheap alcohol. Olivia now only felt comfortable with confiding in her friend, Violet.

Olivia spent most of her days after school, either talking over the phone or over at Violet's house. Olivia tried to get away from her house as much as possible and her friend's house was the one other place for her to go.

So, after seeing her dad in the state he was, she simply turned around and left.

…

As she walked through Violet’s driveway and to the front door, she couldn’t help but feel that something was terribly wrong. She stopped for a moment and realized that Violet’s baby brother, a usually loud child, as most are, was suspiciously not hearable. There was an unmistakable air of dead silence permeating the house. No baby, no dog, no TV, no sounds of cooking or laughter. None of the sounds Olivia had gotten used to were to be heard. The hair on the back of Olivia’s neck rose and she could feel goosebumps on her arms. She crept slowly forward to the front door.

Olivia gasped. The front door to the house had been utterly destroyed. In fact, it was so thoroughly annihilated that it was almost as if a small army had decided to take out their large reserves of anger on the innocent door. Olivia crept inside as quietly as she could. The interior of the house looked much the same as the door. Items were thrown everywhere, tables upturned, vases lying broken on the floor.

"What happened here?" She said to herself.

"Exactly what happens to anyone whose family sabotages the government," came a voice from behind her. Olivia whirled around to face the origin of the mysterious voice.

Standing there was a mysterious man in a meticulous 3 piece suit, hands on his waist.

Olivia’s vision ran red. "What did you do to them?"

The man put his hands up in a sign of surrender. “Relax, whatever happened to your friends had nothing to do with me.”

“Who... why would anyone do this?”

"Well, whoever lived in this house led the government astray, and they get very short-tempered when it comes to matters of national security."

"B-but no one here would have sabotaged the government!”

"Hmm, maybe not, but someone did." He said. "Anyway, it was nice talking to you, but I have to cut it short. I've got a train to catch."