I Watch People In Cages

The narrator has spent ten years working a job he found on Craigslist: watching people in cages. Seven cages, each holding a different person with a different set of bizarre, specific rules. Cage one (Fred) must be given AB positive blood every seven hours and kept away from mirrors. Cage two (Cassie) gets forty fluid ounces of water and a pound of raw meat daily, and her cage is electrified except during feeding. Cage three (Earl) requires an old newspaper and must never be given hair tonic. Cage four (Mary) is always a religious type of some kind, but is denied any holy imagery. Cage five (Chad) is always blind and must be given a cup of green liquid that never kills him. Cage six (Bob) has his eyes replaced with coins on day two, stitched into the sockets. And cage seven holds a six-year-old girl named Lisa, who has been there for at least a decade without aging, watching movies like Cannibal Holocaust and A Serbian Film.

The narrator is told only that these people "did something really bad." He does not ask questions. The pay is good — $500 a day — and for ten years, the routine has been stable. Every three days, one occupant is taken away and a new one is wheeled in, always matching the same physical and behavioral profile for that cage. The narrator does not know where they go. He does not know what they did. He does not know why the rules are so specific.