Michael eventually went to the bathroom to collect Judith from her sobbing floor state. Picked her up under her knees and along the small of her back. Wrapped her arms around his neck. Wouldn't look at him. Cradled her in his long, muscular limbs and walked the Factory girl back to the horizon carved headboard bed. The art upon the wooden bedpost was like a dark sun rising to end the light of a bright moon. There was an inscription carved into the frame along the panelled border, "the living night is dissipated in the brightness of death." The words had the smell of a Mary Shelley autopsy every time he considered them.

There was another inscription carved into the artisan landscape, one that Michael had once taken to heart with his many experimental chemical cocktails and serums. "The soul is the prison of the body." It truly became that when in a single, well rat tested mixture, he became someone he never wanted to come across again. A kind of Hyde to his Jekyll, only he remembered the blood drenched horror of watching from inside a monster for a night, like his knowledge was caged within his body and he had no control over himself. Could only witness the event as his body murdered a man whom Michael knew from his youth. A man who didn't need any of the experimental serum to become a terrifying piece of shit. Nigel Leonard deserved to die in his home, alone with a violent psychopath. Nigel Leonard was responsible for the miss-allocation of funds for the poor district. All that coin managed to end up in his pockets for decades. Many people starved to death because of his theft, coupled with the internment camp regulations surrounding the poor district. You could only buy your way out, like Judith did. Otherwise, there was no escape from destitution.

It was still easier to think about Nigel's misdeeds when comparing that malevolence to what Michael Leonard did to him. Michael had injected him with another certain serum of his own creation to keep Nigel from passing out. He tore him limb from limb and relished the old Leonard's pleas and screams. He left him looking like a broken, inhuman art project. Nigel resembled a plucked, half eaten, headless bird in the end. And for some reason, the Michael of that night brought home Nigel's severed jaw along with a rusted old surgeons bone saw. Michael discarded the jaw as soon as the horrible serum wore off. He kept the bone saw as a reminder to slow down. Not get overly ambitious with his experiments. Knew he was breaking new ground and needed to be careful with the potential nature of things. There were many deep dark places within Michael that he hadn't known ever would or could possibly exist within him. How many others had a "bone saw man" in them?

Michael gently laid Judith on the aqua ocean colour comforter. Kissed her on her nearly raw, tear drenched cheek. Decided he was going to take care of her today. She seemed too broken at this point to even comprehend placing the shards of her emotional state back together. So Michael rolled Judith under the covers and waited with her until she was once again, asleep. Got up and gathered Judith's clothes. Hugged them to his face. Took a long, deep whiff of her body oder. Flavour. Made sure to smell deeply into the crotch of her pants. Mesmerized him. Intoxicated by the autumn and coffee and soft kind of salty spice. Her sweat was delicious to him. Could drink from her cup for the rest of his life. Judith was his miracle. His person. His shadow within him, pulling toward the gravity that existed between them. Was instant last night between both of them. By rights, she should've hated him for being a Leonard. But something happened to change the course of both their lives. A memory beyond recollection. Beyond need or want, like they were each other but combined to make something else far more profound. More powerful than the word "love." It seemed to Michael that he found a vast precision for that feeling when it came to Judith.

Departed the master bedroom. Made his way down the creaky stairs. Toward a boring blue speckle hall where a plain white door stood open. The entrance to the laundry room. Detergent sprinkles. Let the water run for a moments. Placed her clothes in the rickety washing machine. Closed the lid. He really didn't want to clean her scent off the salty, sweaty clothes. But he was sure it was the right thing to do for her. Fresh clothes are important when it comes to beginning adventures, which Michael still had planned. Hopefully for tonight. The simulation awaited and he wanted to take Judith to dinner beyond this world. There would be tasty treats for his tasty treat.

Michael went into the white and blue pin striped kitchen. Sat on a tall bar stool at his blue swirly, white marble bar island. A picture laying on the counter was out of place, like a sailboat upon a storm. The faces were of an old man surrounded by other older men and women. They were all smiling their vampire faces at him. Michael had taken it from the simulation a few days ago. Found it in an office building that he recognized, close to the awful stench of the mire. His hated family was in the photograph. Recognized all as soon as he saw it. They never would have recognized him, though. Michael didn't exist in that world. He knew that the old man was his older brother, David.

Michael postulated, because of this picture, that the simulation was not only inexact, but also came into being in a different time frames compared to this world.

His next thoughts were of his old culture and faction and family. The Leonards from his own world. Knew some of them weren't so brainwashed into their class defined ideological state apparatus to truly believe the poor district existed to be their slave labourers and play things. The people who began noticing their faction was malevolent, ended up ostracized like Michael. What nobody seemed to really know was that within the Leonards, there was a faction trying to change the way the ruling class witnessed itself. Force facts into propaganda talking points. But they would stay hidden. Secretly rally and plan certain events to mess with the system. Try to save one brutalized person at a time. Judith unknowingly must have met one of those people. He thought Judith was right, though. How could one knowingly let the brutal rape of a young girl happen. No, more had to be done.

Michael knew a war was metastasizing. The Leonards would do everything in their power to destroy the poor district and The Factory. It's possible that his simulation program and his equipment could help matters drastically. The Factory and the poor district would have unlimited resources. All those poor people who were starving could have unlimited food. The plunder of other manufactured worlds could save this one. But what about the lives of the people in those manufactured worlds? Michael didn't have a good answer for that, yet.

The black haired boy got up off his stool. Sauntered barefoot around the bar island toward the fridge. Pulled out the big, bottom freezer rack. Exhumed a parcel from the other frozen foods. Placed the package upon the island. Opened one of four drawers. Clasped a large knife. Smiled like murder. Turned the faucet to the hot side and left the knife under the flow of steaming water. Opened the parcel to reveal a chocolate and peanut butter ice cream cake. With the heated knife, cut off a large piece. Grabbed a green, floral decor plate from one of the light blue, satin cabinets behind him. Placed the piece of cake on the plate. Re-buried the rest of the chocolate and peanut butter delicacy in the freezer. Snatched a fork from a lower drawer. Like a nude waiter, carried the plate upstairs.

Judith was completely buried under the covers when he slipped into the room. Michael didn't say a word. Placed the ice cream cake beside her covered figure. Nudged her butt. Judith peered out from the vibrant, oceanic blankets for a moment. Slowly moved her hand toward the plate. Clasped the green ceramic saucer. Pulled it under the covers like something floral being dragged into the water. After a moment, Michael heard Judith softly squeal with delight. This gave him some relief she was coming back from where she went within the horror soaked depths of her mind.

The next adventure Michael took into the kitchen was to make two cups of dark roasted coffee and warm up a few croissants from the freezer. When they were sufficiently unthawed, he gently sliced them open. Then with a wooden handled butter knife, spread honey within each pastry. Carried the bounty upstairs on two plates and went back into the master bedroom. Judith had devoured the ice cream cake, as the plate was outside her watery coloured hibernation fort. Michael placed one of the plates with a cup of coffee and croissant next to the opening of the hiding place. Nudged her butt again. Judith's hand tip toed out into the open air of the room and latched onto the plate. Dragged it back into her underwater style covers. Devoured the croissant like a megalodonic eating a tasty treat.

After another spell of time spent watching the covers move around every so often from his vantage point, Michael saw Judith pull the ocean cloth back and look at him directly. Her coffee was consumed. Seemed mentally stable again. Glistened a smile at him.

Judith moved her body toward him. Clasped her hands around his face. Kissed him.

"I love you, my man."

Judith, in all of her confident nudity, crawled out of her ocean water blanket fort. Proceeded to the bathroom. Michael watched her backside. Hard body, womanly movements. The Factory girl closed the door behind. Locked it. Gave Michael the message that she wanted privacy. Michael heard her pee for a long moment. This woman wasn't hiding anything from him, even with a locked door. The next sounds he heard were of the shower turning on. Judith sang the song which played in both of their heads last night when they fell for each other. He listened for a few minutes. Decided to retrieve her clothes from the laundry room, except he hadn't moved them to the dryer yet, so they weren't ready. Placed a large, red flannel button shirt upon the bed after rummaging through his bifold door closet. Walked out of the room wearing his white briefs and a raven on his hand.

He loved her. Wanted to show her everything in his world. Wanted to tell her about all his great moments with serums and simulations. Was also ready to tell her about the brutality of the bone saw man. Wanted her advice on the one scary problem that inflicted him within the simulation the last time he entered. Judith was the bravest person he had ever come across, so he thought that what he had to say wouldn't scare her away.

In the simulation, when he had walked down an over crowded sidewalk street between giant buildings and parked cars and moving vehicle traffic jams, the simulation glitched. The human conurbation became, for an unsettlingly long instant, a blackened husk of skulls. Crumbled architecture. The cars were burnt out and over turned. Had the aesthetic of flayed metal. Skinned rusting fossils. The really scary moment about the glitch was that Michael wasn't alone in the cities extinction. Green glowing eyes were staring at him from all around the desolation. Too dark to witness any mouths. Reverberated screams came from the shadows behind the glowing eyes. It was the worst sound imaginable to Michael. Then he realized it wasn't screaming he was listening to. Was a legion of horrific laughter. Recognized the voices. He was laughing. The bone saw man was laughing.