It began, as it so often does, with an unsettled debt.

Kelly bounced her leg up and down nervously, dreading what was coming next, but desperate to get it over with.

The waiting room had been almost completely empty when she first arrived, and the mousey young woman there already had jumped when she had been quietly called into the creditor’s office.

The door was heavy timber and thick, fogged glass, but the muffled sobbing could be heard through it, regardless. The woman had spent the first five minutes pleading her case, and the following twenty-five crying with varying degrees of hopelessness.

She seemed like the kind to burst into tears after dropping her keys, but that did little to ease Kelly’s concern for her own circumstances. She very much doubted that the woman could have amassed debt as recklessly as herself, and so whatever terms of repayment were causing her so much distress, Kelly’s would undoubtedly be much worse.

It was only after the sobbing had almost completely died down that another, not unkind voice said something indistinct. Seconds later, the woman burst through the door and fled for the exit. Kelly politely averted her eyes and she flew past, turning towards the office at the sound of her own name being called.

A surprisingly young woman with vibrant tattoos, a close-shaved head and more piercings than Kelly could count leaned halfway through the open door. With a wry grimace, she shrugged, rolled her eyes in the direction of the office and disappeared.

Suddenly feeling sick and dizzy, Kelly forced herself to stand and tottered into the office, closing the door behind her and collapsing into the offered chair. The office was everything she had expected in the same way that the woman was not: A solid wood desk with a dark green leather finish, shelves stacked with leatherbound books and a general mustiness indicating that while the room contained no-one over the age of seventy at the time, it certainly belonged to one.

Questions about the current occupant’s relationship with the actual owner went entirely unasked in as Kelly chose to sit in terrified silence. It was impossible to know what she could say or how without causing offence, so best not to speak at all.

“Well, my dear,” said the woman, briskly. “I certainly hope you’ll handle things somewhat better than young Tiffany. I’m afraid I only …