Not-Sophie limped up her thin body up to the large jowly man dishing out mealy, watery gruel.

“Please sir, may I have some more?”

“MORE?” the man yelled at the top of his lungs. The supervisor leaned out his window to start at the man. “Why of course you may,” the man growled, sounding like he’d eat nails then give her more food. “Only the best for our specials.” The word twisted in his mouth to something ugly as he spoke it, making not-Sophie think of maggots and slugs and poisonous snakes.

The big man leaned forward, being careful not to touch not-Sophie and whispered to her, “do you know what is going to happen to you? Do you?”

Not-Sophie started up at him and slowly shook her head.

“All you specials have a future ahead of you. You get extra resources now, but I can’t wait until the suffering begins, when they slowly tear your consciousness away from your body. I’ve heard it’s an extremely painful process. Sometimes if I listen carefully I can hear your screams during the night.” He leaned even more closely to her. “Your time is soon,” he hissed.

Not-Sophie gave a small scream and jumped back. The pot of boiling gruel suddenly leapt up and upended itself over the fat man’s head. As he screamed in pain, not-Sophie ran from the cafeteria back to the dormitory, and crawled under the covers, sobbing quietly to herself.

She never saw the fat man again. But everything he told her was true. Sometimes she cursed him for that, other times she blessed him. Either way, he was long gone, and she was changed far more than even he could imagine.