The Rent
Brian hurried home after his shift at The Company, not looking left or right, clutching the employee identification card that hung around his neck closely to his chest. It was Friday. Collection day. The day when the homeless or unidentified were systematically rounded up by government enforcers and enslaved. Men were sent to the penal camps for forced labor in the mines or if they were lucky, factories. Women were sent to labor camps as well, though if they were attractive, they would be picked up and sent to training camps to be prepared as sex slaves for the obscenely wealthy. Identification card or not, it wasn't safe to be out on the streets during the Collection.
Brian let out a sigh of relief when he finally made it back to his modest apartment. It wasn't much but it was home. A small two bedroom flat with a kitchen and two bathrooms.
"I'm home," he called out.
A smoking hot blonde with her hair in a ponytail, wearing a white crop top and black booty shorts that hugged her bubble butt perfectly stuck her head around the door. She waved an empty carton of milk in his face.
"We're out of milk." Britney stared at his empty hands. "Why didn't you pick up groceries on the way back?"
He gaped at her. "It's Collection Day. I'm not grabbing groceries now. Just drink some water."
She rolled her eyes and handed him the empty carton. "Whatever."
"Britney, I've asked you a hundred times not to leave your trash around." Brian looked around the living room at the empty pizza boxes and soda cans strewn about the floor. "It's literally the least you could do."
She flopped onto the couch. "I'll get to it eventually. I'm busy now." She pulled out her phone and opened up some dumb clicking game, ignoring Brian.
"Busy with what? You don't even have a job," grumbled Brian as he bent down to pick up the trash. "Also, you're three months behind on your half of the rent. Don't think I've forgotten."
"I'm good for it," said Britney exasperatedly. "I told you, my Dad's going to deposit some money in my account any day now. He's just being a little difficult right now."
Brian groaned inwardly. Why did he even put up with her?
They had met in college, in one of his elective courses, when he was a Computer Science geek and she was a Liberal Arts major. They had been assigned the same project in their shared Roman Mythology course. Eager to impress the popular sorority girl, Brian had dutifully finished their paper by himself and gotten Britney her first A. Far from giving him a chance with her, this had only cemented his image as a pushover in Britney's eyes. From that moment on, Britney had seen him for what he truly was: useful, harmless, easy to manipulate. And apparently, not much had changed.
After college, unable or unwilling to put up with her antics any longer, Britney's parents had thrown her out of their house. She came immediately to the person she was certain would not turn her away. Brian. She begged him to let her room with him to avoid the enforcers and the fate of millions of other hapless, poverty-stricken individuals. Not wanting to resign Britney to a fate as a pleasure slave, Brian had agreed to take her in, at least, until she was back on her feet. It had been three months since then and Brian was now seriously regretting his choices.
When Brian had finished cleaning the garbage, he sat at his gaming rig and switched it on, loading his favorite MMORPG, eager to escape reality for even a few brief moments. There was a new patch out and he couldn't wait to try out his legendary bow on the new mobs.
The game loaded. He opened up the save folder. His save was missing.
What. The. Fuck.
Where was his maxed out lvl 100 Ranger character? The only other available character was a lvl 10 pixie mage with a default skin.
He felt panic rising in his chest.
"Britney..." He called out, his voice trembling slightly. "Did you touch my gaming rig while I was at work?"
"Yup." Came her short response. He looked back at her. She hadn't taken her eyes off her phone.
"I specifically asked you not to touch it while I was gone." He said, his hands shaking slightly.
"Relax." She said flippantly. "I didn't touch your stupid character. It was all dark and broody. I made a new one."
"Was it by any chance a lvl 10 pixie mage?"
"Yeah, way cuter than your goblin dude."
"Did you click start over?" He asked, hardly daring to breathe.
"Yeah, duh. I didn't want to play as some ugly green monster."
No. No. No. This couldn't be happening. All his effort. All the valuable loot he had accumulated over the years. His legendary limited edition weapon. Gone. All because Britney was too stupid to know how to create a new save.
He let out a garbled moan of despair.
"Fuck! You overwrote my save!"
She shrugged, unconcerned. "Just start a new account, what's the big deal? You can use my save. I already got it to level 10 I think."
"Level 10? Are you stupid?" He looked at her in disbelief, unsure whether to cry or laugh. "You know how long I grinded to get to max level on that account? It took half a year to get there and get all those items. Also the Moonbeam Bow of Radiance was an event item. There's only like 10 in the world. How am I supposed to replace that." His panic had slowly turned to rage.
Britney finally looked up from her phone. She smirked. "Moonbeam Bow of Radiance?" She said slowly. "God, Brian, you sound like such a geek. It's probably a good thing I overwrote your save. You really need to get out more."
That was the last straw. The blood pounded in his ears and his fury broke, cascading over him in a torrent of pent-up resentment and bottled up tensions.
