Our lips found each other, they were like dancers under the night sky. We were still kissing when the trailer jerked up to the first garbage bin. Hera threw a half-eaten hotdog at my face, ‘Get a room!’

Astra and I grinned at each other then leapt out of the trailer. We held open the garbage bin while Hera and Kauri sifting through it, sorting beautiful glazed buns, health drinks that were only one day expired and a whole ton of chocolate.

The next dumpster was more fruitful (in that had a lot of fruit). The third dumpster we struck had slightly silver steaks and sausages that Hera and Kauri, who were now starting to smell like the dumpsters, decided were good enough to eat. By the time we'd hit 10 dumpsters we had enough food to last us days, we headed back to the mansion and that's... welp... when the party started.

I'll be honest, I don't remember much from that night. It may have had something to do with the beer that expired two years ago, but I think the main reason was Astra. I couldn't get enough of her, and it seemed she couldn't get enough for me. We danced and we sang stupid songs and we jumped over the bonfire that Mona and Suki built while John Blue did doughnuts in his van and Hera and Kauri arm-wrestled.

It was like something out of a movie and as I sat there with Astra's head on my shoulder gazing into the flames beneath the stars I sort-of had an epiphany that up until this point I’d turned to stories to gain an experience I'd never be able to have in the real world, but in that moment I realized that maybe the stories we tell ourselves are there to show us what's possible, the good things we should be aiming for in life, the hard knocks, the victories that take your all. Anyway... maybe I'm still a little drunk... it was a good night.

****

We started to cook on a fire outdoors, we took less hot showers, and filled the holes in the mansion with plastic shopping bags. We got food from dumpsters and entertainment from each other, but there was one thing we couldn't do without, and one day, about three weeks after the big party, was when the power company told us they were upping our rates.

'$500 a month,' Kauri read out to everyone, 'that's what we'll be paying from now on.' The mansion was silent, even the skateboards sat abandoned next to Astra and Hera's feet.

'How much were we paying before?' Weaver asked.

Kauri flipped his piece of paper, 'We were paying $190 a month.'

'What's changed?' Mona yelled, 'we're using half the electricity we were before.'

Kauri shook his head, 'they've given us some bullshit reason about upgrading existing power lines and substations.'

'Sounds like Crusher Media if I ever heard it,' yelled Mona.

I nodded, ‘Somewhere along the line Balls will be there.’

We sat, not looking at each other, kind of twiddling our hands and waiting for the next person to speak.

'Let's sue him.' Hera said, 'let's sue the pants off that asshole.'

But again, Kauri shook his head, 'We've got no money, we can't afford court fees, and if we lose – which is more than likely, we'll lose everything.'

'Well,' I said, 'I can only see one option – we need to cut back on electricity and to do that we need to shut down some of the servers.'

Eyes darted around, frowns formed on faces, a harsh stare settled on Mona's face.

'And whose servers are we gonna be cutting?' she said, 'If any asshole wants to take mine down. I'll bash the server over their head.'

There were murmurs from around the room, Kauri and Hera were glaring at Mona while others were nodding along.

'It's against the spirit of everything we've done so far,' said John Blue, 'You can't force us to take down our websites.'

'And I'm not,' I said, I clutched Astra's hand for support, 'The first website we're going to take down is mine. Payment's due in two days. Tomorrow I'll shut down the site and the next day I'll sell the server I was hosting it on.'

Everyone went silent again and the harsh look on Mona's face softened.

'Me too,' said Kauri, 'Eli, you're getting the most views out of any of us, if yours is going mine should definitely go too.'

Hera got to her feet. 'Me too.' she gave a brave smile, 'Plus, when things settle down I'll have enough of a backlog to retire for good.'

Astra stood up and I bit my lip, she and Hera were the only other writers who were profitable.

By the end of it, 10 of us decided to give up our websites, we had two days then we'd shut them down, sell the servers and hope our remaining websites would grow enough to pull us through.

Usually at night we'd sing, we'd dance, we'd party, but that night as we all lay in our beds on the top floor of the mansion we were silent. We didn't speak. Some people cried. Some people held hands. It felt like the dream was dead

****

The next morning I put this post on my website:

It’s been a good ride

I just wanted to say, thanks to everyone who has supported us and donated over the past few months. Unfortunately, my website will be shutting down tomorrow. Yes. Tomorrow. We simply don’t have the finances to keep running. It’s been a good ride.

xx- ElitheHill

P.S: If anyone’s got a spare million dollars that would be very helpful right now.

The replies broke my heart. Some were angry that i was going to be dropping my story (again). Others were just disappointed.

Then, four hours later, there was a knock at the door.

It was a large man in a black-clad suit with an expensive smile, ‘Mr, ahh... Hill?’

I nodded, didn’t say a thing.

‘My name is Mendelve Paris. I’m a lawyer for Crusher Media,’ he glanced at a limousine that was parked just down our drive, ‘Our CEO, Mr Richard Balls is very interested in discussing the needs of your website with you.’

I didn’t even acknowledge the guy, I just slammed the door in his face and walked away. Astra and Hera ran after me.

‘You knew it might happen.’

‘I know, I know... it’s just...’ I bit my fingernail. ‘For a moment I wanted to sit down and talk, I really wanted to,’ I turned to the girls, ‘If I had to sell my story, my website to make this pathway for writers work, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But... not to Richard Balls.’

Astra was smiling at me, she wrapped her arms around me, ‘Eli!’

I squeezed her tight, ‘Hey.’

‘There’s no shame in doing a deal with the devil, if you’re doing it for the right reason.’

I huffed, ‘This is Richard Balls – the guy responsible for all that shit we went through. I’d rather die than give my story to him.’

Then a voice came from beside us, it was quiet, but furious, like a smouldering volcano that wants to bite someone’s head off, ‘Let’s meet with him.’

Astra and I turned, it was Hera. Her fists were clenched into little steel balls of anger.

‘Hera...’ I said, ‘if he comes in here there’s a chance he’ll convince us-’

‘-good,’ a smile was on her face, it scared the shit out of me, ‘I’d like to negotiate with him.’

I looked at Astra, she raised her eyebrows, ‘You can say no Eli. Let’s just listen to what he has to say, this is our house, you can always walk away.’

I gave a sigh, ‘Okay... but we’re going to regret this, I can tell you that right now.

****

‘Mr Hill. I hear you’re in trouble?’

‘No Balls, I am trouble. I don’t get in trouble.’

Balls was seated at the other end of a little fold-out camp table we’d cleaned up for our business meeting. On either side of him were burly henchmen, so large that they were stretching the seams of the camping chairs they sat on.

Balls turned to the guy on the right, the one with a gun sticking slightly out of his jacket. Balls pointed his finger at me and laughed, ‘See, that’s what makes him such a good writer.’ Wiping at his eye, he turned back to me, ‘I’m not a writer Mr Hill, you know what I am?’

‘A wanker?’ Hera volunteered.

‘A businessman.’ said Balls, banging his fist on the table, one of the table legs gave a squeak, ‘I’ve never tried to be a writer Mr Hill and co. I know I could never compete with writers who have spent year after year honing their craft.’ He rubbed the side of his nose, ‘What makes you think you can start a business and hope to beat a company with years of experience, thousands of employees and tens of thousands of writers, film-makers, artists, and game developers at its disposal?’

‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘How about, because we don’t lock them in prison cells?’ I turned to Hera and Astra, ‘That’s gotta be a perk of living here, right?’

‘You’re telling me it was that bad in the village.’

‘At least here we have freedom,’ Astra said.

Balls rolled his eyes, ‘That may be true – but if I’ve learnt anything in my years of business it’s that it always comes down to the money.’ He leaned in, ‘Noble missions don’t pay the rent. They don’t put food on the table.’

He licked his lips, ‘how long ‘til the money runs out Mr Hill? Weeks? Days? Come on. I knew you wouldn’t meet with me unless you were desperate.’

I swallowed, ‘There are other places that will give us money.’

‘Like who? Where? None of the banks or investors are dumb enough to go up against Crusher – especially not to fund autonomous author websites. We’ve crushed everyone who went against us.’

He took a deep breath, ‘Mr Hill. I’m a businessman. I don’t want to destroy something I can see profit in.’ He gazed at each of us in turn, ‘Astra, Eli, Hera. I am happy to buy each of your websites and the rights to your stories for $10,000 each.’

I frowned, ‘Our stories would make that back in a day. Quit low balling.’

‘I’m not low balling,’ Balls smiled, ‘I can make that back in a day with Crusher – but you...’ he smiled, ‘with your pitiful little websites. You might as well be burning money to heat this hole you live in.’

Hera wrinkled her nose. She was silent. Way too silent. Her left hand slipped into her pocket.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘I guess it’s time for you to go. Seen as we can’t come to a deal.’

‘So that’s it?’ Balls said, ‘Thirty grand would let you limp along a little longer. Instead, you want your stories to waste away into obscurity.’ Balls was spitting as he spoke, his voice was loud, almost screeching as he berated us, ‘But you know what? I don’t care, because I’m gonna get your story Mr Hill. I’m gonna force you to hand over the rights, and when I do, you’re gonna wish you took me up on my $10,000. You’re gonna regret this deal for the rest of your life.’

Hera pulled a pair of pliers from her pocket. Balls gestured to his gold, diamond-studded earring, ‘See this thing? This thing is worth more than you, it’s worth more than any of you.’

‘I can buy this house you’re in.’ Balls yelled, ‘I can buy the power company you’re with. I can shut you down. I can literally buy you-‘

Balls was cut off as Hera jumped from her chair, over the table, then grabbed Balls’ head and ripped out his golden earring with her pliers. A splat of blood flew through the air and hit my forehead. I wiped it off as Balls scream pierced the air.

One of Ball’s goons reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol and I thought holyshit she’s gonna die. I smashed my fist into the goon’s nose and he went staggering back, then I grabbed his hands, pointed the gun toward the wall and bent his fingers back until he let go.

By that time Astra had the other dude on the ground. I pointed the gun at the guy I’d punched in the face.

‘Get on the ground.’

So these two henchmen are just kneeling on the ground while their boss is screaming and Hera is wiping the blood from his golden earrings on his white business shirt. She took his watch, two rings and a necklace that looked like it was worth as much as our house.

‘This is just a start.’ Hera said, kicking him every time she said a word, ‘Of. You. Repaying. The. Debt. You. Owe. Me. For. Locking. Me. In. That. Shithole.

She gave him a final kick, then walked over to me and handed me the earrings, watch and necklace, a blood dripped between her fingers, ‘That should cover rent for the next few weeks.’