"Someone has to look after them." At that sheturned around and left.The rest of the waitresses either left or stood around and observedsilently."Don'... just leave me here like this," Sandy protested as most of theother waitresses left her to face this on her own. I knew that shedidn't really have many friends here at work. This situation was soawkward, that nobody really wanted to be around. Frankly, it itweren't for Tom, and weren't taking place in my work space, I'dprobably leave too.I. As if adding final insult, her bedroom was the basement. Emotionally exhausted, she had stumbled to bed feeling like a dog. She had fallen asleep the previous night crying.The door to the basement opened and Susan called down, "Get up here for breakfast." Okay," Denise answered. She climbed out of the bed and looked down at her naked body. She knew that according to the rules of the house that she wouldn't be able to dress until she was ready to leave for work.There was a huge bowl of oatmeal. I walked to the shrine, carrying my basket with my towel and soaps, my yukata whisking with every step.It was such a beautiful day.“You are almost late, Sayuri-chan,” growled the voice of my father, the priest of the shrine. “Why were you at the onsen for so long?”“The daimyo’s daughter was bathing there. I had to attend to her, Otosan,” I answered, the joy vanishing from my lips, my eyes downcast, reserved.“The sun is setting. You know the importance of tonight.”“I have time to ready myself,”. That left Tina herself. Could it be her own dream? She’d certainly read enough to create a bad gothic horror world in her head, but she’d never particularly enjoyed those kinds of books—she read them primarily to understand them. It could, then, be a collective nightmare, but again that led her back to how something like that might occur without magic or technology so advanced it might as well be magic. Around and around she went, until her brother caught her attention.Dan’s eyes shifted to the.