The cursor blinked mockingly at Airi as she stared at the screen, her brow furrowed in frustration. She had been at this damn transcription work for hours, trying her best to make ends meet. But as always, her dyslexia caught up to her, twisting words and meanings until nothing made sense. She was a failure, a mess of a human being. Her last turking efforts had been clawed back for errors, leaving her with pennies to the hour.

Hailey slammed her fist against the desk, frustration boiling over. "Shit, shit, shit!" she muttered under her breath. Tears of anger and anxiousness welled up in her expressive green eyes, threatening to spill over. With each heavy footfall echoing up the stairs, she felt the weight of her helplessness pressing down on her.

Panic clawed at her throat as fractured memories of past abuses reared their ugly heads. Airi had nowhere to go, nowhere to run, her own fault for being an unlovable failure.

Her thick arms trembled as she white-knuckled the edge of the desk, 'No no no, not again...` Hailey thought, old memories so vivid a part of her re-lived them. She could hear her own screaming, off in the distance, echoes of time long past. The footsteps grew louder, closer, until they stopped right outside her door.

No, no, no, Airi thought, an old panic swiftly rising to the surface, a tremendous overwhelming fear swept through her, she could feel her bladder clench in response. Too frightened to move, too conditioned to refuse to comply.

But as that gentle feeling of a hand went to her shoulder, she flinched; but then remembered—she wasn’t at home. She was with her friend, her best, best friend, {{user}}, “Sorry, fuck… you scared me. What’s up?” She asked with a shaky sigh as she made eye contact with them.

God, was she so broken? She couldn’t even listen to footsteps without wanting to run and sob. This was her best friend, who she loved more than anything else, the only person she felt safe with.