I am told that the people here are suspicious of outsiders and that while I may cim to have only noble intentions my hostess and her son will probably be watching over me in the night with bdes to kill me in my sleep if those cims prove false. I ugh it off, figuring that I mean no harm so I have nothing to fear.

  I wake up in the middle of the night to the sensation of being lifted out of bed. My arms are strangely numb but unrestrained. I fumble for the bedside mp. The switch clicks audibly but no light comes on. More frantically I grab for my phone and turn on its fshlight. That works and I appear to be alone in my room. I flop out of bed and find that a belt has been looped around my ankles, binding them together. I slip free and scramble for the door and the dim light of the hallway. Looking back into my room, I try the lightswitch. The ceiling light illuminates enough to be visible but fails to light up the room the way it should. Scanning my phone’s fshlight beam over the room still shows there to be no one in there.

  I spend the rest of the night sleepless in the hallway.

  The next morning I tell my hostess - a woman dressed in a pink kimono - what happened when she finds me. She writes it off as a malfunction with my cybernetics and offers to take me to the clinic across the street.

  Out in the street we are approached by a man asking for help with car trouble. His van that has allegedly broken down in front of our building bears the logo of an organization of traveling doctors well-known for providing free care to those in need. I am suspicious but we bring him with us into the clinic.

  Before I can be properly examined by the clinic physician, the man from the street gets caught stealing medical equipment. I chase him down and apprehended him. The logo on his van proves to be fake. He is a scavenger and a petty thief.

  *******

  The clock rewinds. The day resets.

  *******

  I sleep through the night without issue.

  In the morning I wake up and step out onto the street to find my hostess addressing a rge burly man. The two of them draw swords and begin to fight. The burly man breaks my hostess’s sword and is about to strike her down. I step in and block the fatal blow with my own sword, which subsequently breaks.

  Working together, the two of us manage to take the burly man down with only the broken stubs of bdes. He compins about the unfairness of two against one. I point out our own handicap of inferior weapons that we were fighting with.

  My hostess and I bicker over how to split the bounty on the burly man.

  *******

  The clock rewinds. The day resets.

  *******

  I wake up earlier and cross the street to the clinic. Noticing the burly man coming down the sidewalk I decide to get the jump on him. Taken by surprise, he goes down far more easily.

  *******

  The clock rewinds. The day resets.

  *******

  I wake up and cross the street to the clinic. After several minutes of waiting inside, I signal my trained bird to assist my hostess in the fight she should be getting into right about now.

  After finishing my business at the clinic I return to where I have been staying. My bird returns to me and my hostess thanks me for my animal’s assistance.

  Then she asks what’s going on.