It had been a seemingly endless winter, cold, wet and dark. But finally spring had crept reluctantly around, bringing with it the reopening of the Eastside Farmer’s Market. After finishing her shift at SeaScan, Tabitha had ventured into the hunting grounds and returned to Galaxy Way Apartments in triumph, bearing potatoes and carrots and a new candle for her collection. Maddie had, of course, had been lurking in wait across the hall, and followed Tabitha into her apartment. While Tabitha unloaded sacks, set the candle up, lit the candle, admired it from various angles, and unloaded the vegetables in the kitchen sink in preparation to wash them, the ‘intruder’ leaned against the counter, taking hits from her omnipresent waterbottle and talking.

Non-stop.

Like always.

But it really wasn’t that bad, Tabitha admitted, picking absently at a small potato blemish with a thumbnail. The top-heavy blonde liked to talk, yes, but she didn’t expect you to respond or even listen. An occasional grunt from her dark-haired neighbor, and all was rainbows and sunshine in Maddie’s world. Probably would be even without the grunt.

Maddie finished bitching about the latest in her endless string of skeevy boyfriends, paused to slurp, then launched off in a new direction.

“Did you hear about April? Down in 23?” Tabitha actually started to half-listen; another reason why she put up with Maddie was that, along with all the dross about the boyfriends and working at the damned nail salon, she could usually be counted on to dish out a few nuggets, keeping Tabitha reliably abreast of all the important gossip in the building. Which was odd, because it meant that at some point she spent time listening to people. Maybe she did it while she was asleep... she tuned back into Radio Maddie..

“...so she had to take them all back. Boy, was she pissed. But, hey! The real news today was from Gila in 29. She was comin’ up the sidewalk, ya know, from her daily jog, and she said that the new guy that took over 35, after Whistler got transferred to Detroit or wherever? Creepy little freak, wears glasses? ” Tabitha’s answer would have been ‘yes, his name is Lloyd Cramden, and he strikes me more as pathetic than creepy’ but as always Maddie plowed on without a pause. “He was out on the sidewalk, out by the bench and the flagpole, ya know, looking up the sky, talkin’ to himself, real low like. Muttering, that’s the word. Just what we need, another freaky weirdo movin’ in, along with that Zelda chick upstairs and her damn birds squawking all night..” Swig.

“Muttering about what?”

“I dunno.” Maddie shrugged a bare shoulder, shifting her blouse into a new position. “Gila didn’t say. No, wait, I take it back, she said he said something about it almost bein’ time or something. Now that it’s stopped raining all the time, he’s probably gonna be peeping in our damn windows as soon as it gets dark.”

Get dark...

Tabitha was reaching for the first of the carrots. It was right there in the bottom of the sink. And yet..

Her hand just kept

reaching out..

No..

She was pulling away

Pulling away into the darkness..

Pulling away from everything.

Carrots and Maddie’s voice and the candle scent...

Everything shrinking away.

Everything in the world.

She did not panic. Just the opposite. As she pulled away she got more and more

calm.

And peaceful.

And relaxed.

The entire world was a tiny little dot now, a sharp white speck against the more-than-blackness. Nothing but the dot.

Going around

and

around and

around...

only slower

And the voice, speaking inside her head.

Making her even calmer. Ever more peaceful and relaxed.

Not Maddie’s voice. Oh no.

Only Maddie was there, with her.

slower

They were all there, April to Gina to Maddie to Zelda.

Watching the dot. Listening to the Voice.

The Voice of their Master. Until that moment, Tabitha had not realized she had a Master, but now, it was the clearest thing, the only thing.

She was a slave.

She was an utterly obedient slavegirl who served and loved and worshipped and bred for her Master.

slower still.

The Master finished telling her things she already knew.

The dot was perfectly still. She would remain here, floating tranquilly with her sister-slaves in their Master’s Void, until the day her feeble services were no longer required, but she could see and hear and feel the world again.

Execute the Master’s will.

At the corner of the dot, she caught a glimpse of Maddie as she left the apartment, her hips swaying, her water bottle rolling on the floor. She and Zelda had been summoned physically to the center of the universe.

Tabitha had her own duties.

She would finish with her vegetables.

Then she would go down to Apartment 35. Lloyd Cramden was physically attracted to her. She would make him ecstatically happy and distract him from the Master’s activities.

If necessary, she would become his perfect adoring helpmate and distract him for the rest of his life.

She picked up a carrot and started scrubbing.