AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shouldn’t you say ‘we’?” she asked, upset.
But her lover only answered with a smile, making her heart hurt even more. Eden’s throat tightened. Dante never made promises he couldn’t keep... She let out a pained sigh, and leaned against him again, immediately finding his comfortable embrace.
“I’ll stay with you,” he simply said.
Eden found herself so selfish for wanting his presence more than anything at this very moment. Wherever they were going, she wasn’t expecting to come back alive, and neither did Dante. However, she was feeling strangely... fine. She was nervous, but not in a state of panic like she would have expected. It was as if she had been running away her whole life, but now she was about to confront the very root of all of her fears: the Core itself. She wasn’t afraid; she was ready.
“...Pan?”
“I’m here, little sister. I will hear and see everything. Worry not.”
“I have a request for you.”
“I’m listening.”
The elevator finally stopped a minute later and opened unbearably slowly.
Eden would have been prepared to see anything, but the room that awaited them was unusually... normal. It looked like a large office, tied together with a vintage-meets-urban theme. It reminded her of Jack’s bar because of the old, criminal Chicago theme, with black, leather seats and oak wood furniture, but more spacious and bright. There were dozens of big, dazzling light bulbs hanging from a high industrial ceiling, and a black marble floor that made their steps resonate throughout the whole room. On their right and behind them, the walls were covered in green plants, while the rest was nothing but large windows, giving a perfect view of Chicago once again. It wasn’t the actual Chicago, though. Whatever the screens were showing behind those fake windows, it belonged to a different time, with no explosions, and not even the wall separating the Suburbs. There were many more buildings and much more green too. Eden even wondered if this was a scene from the past or an entirely virtual representation. Either way, she couldn’t help but be fascinated.
The city behind the windows was... utopic. The sky was bluer than she had ever seen, the buildings pearl white, and even the asphalt of the roads looked spotless. Eden could even spot little birds on the roofs, happily hopping and flying around. It was as if everywhere her eyes stopped, there was a little bit of life that captivated her with its unique and simple beauty.
“...Magnificent, isn’t it?”
She turned to the corner of the room where the voice had come from.
There was a long, long table with a dozen chairs around it, but at the very end, a unique, large, throne-like seat. The man was standing next to it, smiling at her. Eden was shocked at how young he was. From his voice and words, she had imagined a man in his fifties, perhaps older. However, the gentleman facing her with a bright smile and gorgeous brown curls looked under thirty. He was wearing a simple white shirt too, although it was buttoned to the top and had shiny cufflinks.
“Surprised?” he asked, visibly amused by her expression.
“...I had imagined more of an old fart,” Eden grumbled.
“Oh, I am old indeed. Older than your father was. But I’m a rich old fart.”
So, this all came from money... and it was scary. If Eden had crossed paths with that man in the streets, she would have had no idea he was two, or perhaps three times older than she was. His youthful appearance was very convincing, with that toned body, bright blue eyes, and perfect smile. He chuckled and stepped close to the window, just like her, but on the other end of the large glass.
“I can never get tired of this view,” he declared, looking fondly at the landscape. “It’s not real, as you’ve probably already realized, but it could be one day. At the very least, that is my vision for the future.”
“That will be hard to do if you keep blowing up buildings and murdering people,” Eden hissed.
“Oh, I do not think so. See, the biggest obstacle in this vision coming true is... people.”
She frowned, lost by his words, but the Governor kept staring at the screens with an enigmatic smile.
“Ha... I always thought we left them with way too much leeway. Look at your precious Suburbs. Rebellious, unruly... so many criminals too. See, one thing that we should have learned, from centuries of fighting each other, is that humans aren’t meant to be left to their own devices. We are guilty of all seven sins, on a daily basis, and yet we always persist, we keep going, like the entitled, self-absorbed, and greedy creatures that we are.”
“...I don’t think many people would see things that way.”
“They would be wrong, child. Look at the Suburbs, look at the Core. Which one is better right now? Once we have purged all the sinners, the criminals, and the... faulty out of our city, what do we have?”
He smiled and sighed with happiness, his eyes looking around at the buildings.
“A working society. Each member in their designated spot, working just as they need to be so the machine can keep going. No one stepping out of line, no one undoing the hard work of the community. No troublemakers. Granted, the people of the Core might not be perfect yet, but... we are getting there.”
“By not leaving them any free will?”
The Governor chuckled.
“Free will is only a sweet disguise for chaos, Eden. It is what makes men want more, and sadly, ambition makes them crush others on their way to that. Look at history. How many times did men’s ambition get fulfilled at the expense of others?”
