Josie Clarke is looking for a job. She has a large debt and the only solution she could find is Mr. Nessman, the man she hates the most. Besides this, she has her own life problems and secrets that she wouldn't even share with her best friend Lizzy.

This is the way it has been for my people, for as long as anyone could remember. Each new life brought with it the threat that the creature posed. Each new life could be snatched away from us too early, too harshly, and far too cruelly.

The city is beautiful and glittering under the shine of the sun. But everyone knows of the people living underneath the city, in their subterranean world. The girl from the comfort and luxury of the world above ground doesn’t know much about the world underneath. But she is falling. She’s falling. And she does not know what awaits her.

Why did they take her from me? Why did they put me in this strange place where everything is so big and shiny and I'm surrounded by all these strange people who took me from my mother?

———

This story is in the public domain and anyone can do whatever they want with it.

The lands are burning in misery, drowning in tears.

My name is Mihu. I was a peasant farmer, in the years long since passed. In the times long since gone by. I was taken from my home, back when I was alive. I ascended into godhood when I died. But even as a god there was only so much I could do. Most people couldn't even see me. I could however offer bits of protection, support, and strength to the people of my town and my world.

It's clear to see that the world needs it.

And the baby who just entered this world under the light of the moon? The baby who was just born to an impoverished family of factory workers in the slums? I can tell that the road in front of her will be filled with misery.

———

This story is in the public domain and anyone can do whatever they want with it.