It was just a few days before the new year, and the city was already celebrating the halfway point in the century. People were cheerful, and for most, the world was right. For Puddles, it didn’t feel that right. She had finished her intense “Pet Life” session at the start of November but missed it terribly. The ability to let go like that and just… obey, was so freeing for her. Not that she was totally free of the system...

The chiming of the House Security System woke Puddles from a deep sleep. She had been sleeping on a rug in her living room, and it had been a month since she last used her bed. Puddles stretched her naked body and glanced at the big house display on the wall. For once, the Security System permitted her additional sleep, rousing her at 7 AM. She looked at the date and saw that September was almost over. “Just another month...

“When it rains, it pours.” Marcy had heard that said a few times in her 25 years, but it never felt more real than it did right now. The coldness of it on this lonely county road was more than this city girl had ever imagined, and she was soaked through and miserable. She was also angry, angry at how she had been taken in by her last "shit for brains" boyfriend. She had even warned herself when she met him, not to trust h...