In the year 2012, the United States government declared that from then on the right to privacy would no longer be enforced.  Microphones in cell phones would be turned on at all times, as well as cameras, even when the cell phone itself was not powered on.  The same concept would be applied to televisions as well, which would be pre-installed in every new home after the declaration.  The government would now control all electricity from outlets, turning Electronic Entertainment Devices on and off whenever they saw fit.  Following suit of Europe, security cameras would now be placed in bathrooms (as well as every other room), public and private, indoor and outdoor.  It became a universally known fact:  If you could see the cameras, they could see you.  (In all reality, they could probably see you regardless of whether you saw them or not.)
However, not everybody was monitored 24/7.  People with severe criminal records came first, such as first-degree murderers, traitors, and thieves.  The priority deteriorated as the crimes grew less intense, until you came to subjects with simple misdemeanors.  At the bottom of the list were people with the most potential: the (seemingly) silent ones with above average intelligence.  Some of these people were confronted as children, and it was these who became the Watchers.  Their contribution to society was to keep track of the Observed, alerting the authorities when trouble arose.  The rules were simple.  The Observed were to be monitored at all times.  The Watcher must never, in any way, shape, or form, interact with the Observed.  Information on the Observed was to be observed by the designated Watcher and by that Watcher only.  Observed rotations would be made at the beginning of each month, so that the Watchers never had the chance to get emotionally attached to their subjects.  Those were the rules, and if you followed them, you got nice pay and a snazzy work uniform.  Watchers were monitored too, of course, because you can never be too careful.
One of these such Watchers was Eliza Rainous.  Nothing special, really, just another woman of society with above average intelligence, employed for “the good of the people.”
She was nothing special, that is, until she watched a very peculiar person indeed.