The Current polls

41.6% - Almond M. Chaveil

24.4% - Hanna H. Tolcin

17.5% - Joy L. Nicam

16.2% - Ronald K. Dolan

0.3% - Monty L. Kind

Knock knock knock.

The door opened, and revealed a now familiar old man.

“You? I thought we would meet at the park this afternoon.”

“May I?”

Without waiting for the answer, Samsy entered in Monty's flat. It was less crappy than expected, yes it was small, but also tidy and comfy. There were two chairs around a rectangular table, a single lamp on the ceiling, enlightening the whole apartment.

Sam went straight to one of the chair, as if he already knew the place.

"As I said on multiple occasion, my time is precious. Something came up for the afternoon, so I'll try to be brief."

“Wait, I didn’t say anything yet.”

“I already know your answer.”

“… I guess I should have expected that.”

"I also know that you have questions, so here are some answers. You don't need to know what is my occupation or from where I come from. I can't see the future, and for the purpose of simplification, yes, I have infinite resources. The event yesterday had been planned for less than a week, and is only a sample of our ability."

‘Holy shit! I feel so embarrassed lying like that… I hope it won’t show on my face! The girls said I was a good actor, I really hope they’re right.”

Monty was silent, looking down with a serious face. He then gathered his thought and sat down on the chair opposite to Sam.

"You are right, I have nothing to lose, and I am desperate enough to let a total stranger like you help me. But let me be clear, at the first sign I see you…"

“No worries, it’s not like you would be able to offer me anything I can’t take by myself.”

“… I won’t ask why. You wouldn’t answer anyway. But how? How do you plan to help me? I am invisible to the city, even I am aware of that! Your ad was good I guess, but I doubt it will change things so easily! For me to win would be nothing short of…”

“A miracle?”

As he completed Monty's sentence, the young white-haired man put a piece of paper on the table, with the headline stating ‘MONTY L. KIND CAUSES UPROAR! WHAT HAPPENED?'

“You’re underestimating the public simpleness.”

Monty grabbed the article in disbelief, and started reading through it.

“Wh-What have you done?!”

“Advertising your name to every people in the city in less than 24H?”

“Look at what they say! ‘Monty L. Kind, the invisible candidate, is trying to hack his way through to the campaign’. How is that good for me?!”

“Well, first, there is your name in that sentence, which, correct me if I’m wrong, never happened until now. And second, there is no bad publicity.”

“Are you sure of that? Yes, I was unknown, but now I’m a criminal!”

“Hey! We didn’t break any law.”

“Really?! You managed to air advert all over the city at the exact same time legally?”

“You should know how it works. The system is rigged, and unfair, but the difference is that this time, the money is on your side.”

Sam looked at his watch -a bracelet with holographic screen he bought on his way, apparently there are thousands of different application but he barely managed to display the numeric clock by the time he arrived here- and, faking being shocked by the time, he stood up.

“We are already late on schedule.”

“What? What schedule?”

"You've accepted my help right? We'll soon sign paperwork for that, but for now, we should work on your image."

“My what?”

“You don’t think people will take someone with a 2,000 credits suit seriously? Plus, you have an event this afternoon.”

“No, I don’t.”

"Please, you really think I would bother to come on such short notice if there wasn't a need for it."

Once again, Sam pulled out a small piece of paper and put it on the table in front of Monty.

‘Exceptional debate this afternoon.

All candidates are invited to MFT headquarters before 3 PM.

-The Media For Truth Direction’

“What is this?”

"A notice, you received many before, but by coincidence, they were all mailed to the wrong mailbox, at the apartment below, where nobody lives in."

“…coincidence you say?”

“Sigh… it was sarcasm, we should work on that too.”

As Sam was turning around to leave the flat, a strange feeling invaded him. The world around him started to slow down, and his started to ache.

~~ ~~

“How did you get a scroll?! I told you it’s not safe!”

Without realizing it, the scenery around Sam had changed, he was still in the room, but the time was frozen, and a ghostly figure of a man in his forty talking at his scroll, stressed and scared.

"No! I won't come back! I'll have a shot! I've gone too far to… no! You can't come here! They'll kill you!"

‘Is that man… Monty? What the hell am I watching?’

The ghost started to fade away.

"Don't come to the centre circle! It's too… please! Listen to me!"

~~ ~~

The headache stopped, and Sam was back in the present. From an external point of view, he just spaced out for a couple of seconds.

Fortunately -sort of- Sam was now used to this kind of cerebral pain, and managed to keep his composed face throughout the experience. He gathered his thought quickly, in order to stay in character.

“… out of curiosity, for how long have you live here?”

“Hum? It’s been a long time. I’m almost 60, and I’ve lived here for at least 20 years!”

“… interesting.”

‘Did I just… saw the past?’

After that, everything went at the speed of light for Monty. With the ad alone, everyone was talking about him. Of course, one video can’t make you win the vote of people, however, it was enough to shake the other candidate and people involved in the election. As expected, they weren't pleased about this outsider from the outer ring trying to compete with them, and that's the reason why they planned an exceptional and rushed debate in order to immediately divert the focus of the population.

The strategy is simple, as the rules state that it is the candidate responsibility to be on time, they can start the event with Mr. Kind missing, and if by accident he doesn’t receive the memo, then it’s just bad luck.

However, this time, it backfired tremendously, as he arrived right on time, with a handmade suit and accompanied by a young male with red eyes and white hair. For the first time, he would be on the same stage with the other candidate. Moreover, even though it wasn't official, this debate was a direct answer to the video displayed the day before, so it was broadcasted in unprecedented proportion…

What was also at unprecedented proportion, was the following jump of Monty's popularity. He just destroyed the other candidate. Even Samsy was surprised by this turn of event, he let him go on stage without much of preparation because he saw the result the night before, but this was beyond his expectation.

Monty was aggressive, combative, and the most surprising was that he was always on point. He was loud and sometimes disorganized, but he was consistent, and didn't hesitate to call out to the other candidate multiple times, who had often a hard time to respond.

‘Apparently, he put all those years in the shadow to good use.'

Samsy understood something else during this debate. Something that was surprisingly absent from the Internet and the media in general: the circle castes. Officially, the city is divided in order for the official to manage it more efficiently, but in truth it was only to marginalize the outer ring. Despite being the biggest in term of land and demographics, there was a huge wealth gap from the inner circle. And even though it was one of Monty's point, he never insisted on the issue, as it would probably be unpopular for the voters -only composed of inner circle people. Instead, he talked about corruption, freedom of speech and wealth inequality being out of hand everywhere.

It felt… like the start of a revolution.

The day after, everyone was only talking about this. Of course, most people were shocked more than anything else, and he was far from gaining total public approval, but the first polls getting out after the debate told everything: in less than 48H, he jumped from 0.3% to more than 5.

The media could not ignore him anymore, plus, Marie and Alice were still organising in the shadows. Posters were put on the walls, more ads were displayed, an official website was created, compromising information on the other candidate were investigated, and so on.

To short everything up, it was looking good.

cheating, or corruption, but, as the girls explained Sam, it was fair play if everyone was doing it and that it was for a good cause.

The whole process was dictated by money, if you knew the right person and had the fund to 'ask' him the right things, then there was virtually nothing impossible. Usually, it would be considered

As the days unfolded, more and more people started to come toward Monty's side. Thanks to the girls digging up and posting his ignored accomplishment over the year, he started to earn credibility and trust. To the point that the 10% cap was passed only a week after SAM's -Samsy, Alice and Marie- intervention.

It was going way to fast for it to be normal, but this wasn’t Earth, and this wasn’t the first time events went weirdly in the right direction. It was exactly as if the whole situation was created for the whole purpose of them winning against all odds.

The final vote was in 6 weeks now, and they had still a huge lead to overcome, but for once in Samsy’s experience so far, things were going smoothly.

The girls were working as usual, Alice had bought herself a laptop, and the two of them were typing at a tremendous speed, it was as if they were competing with one another… Meh, it’s not like I care.

I’m more worried about the vision… Maybe I should make a list or something, I feel like I’m lost between the present and the future. Oh, and there was that time when I saw the past too…

Okay, so, the first time, I had 4 vision, and I already used 3 of them. The remaining is not usable yet, it might even be for the next struggle.

After that, I only got one or two at a time, and they almost all immediately happened. So I’m left with… one unusable, one where I chat with Monty tomorrow, two where I see Monty at a debate, another where he’s above 20% in the rating, and the last one… Shit! I’m late for the last one!

I quickly took my coat -yes, I have a coat now- and went outside. The girls were so focused they didn't even realize I was gone.

It was late in the afternoon, or maybe just early in the evening. I headed for the wealthy part of the city, even though nobody realizes there is one. After a few minutes, I finally recognize the place, in the middle of the street, with the park far away in my field of view, in front of a huge building labelled ‘LucroBank’.

Hum? He’s right behind me, good, I’m on time.

On my back, a young man with perfectly cut and hair and cunning brown eyes were heading in my direction… he looked like your typical fake-smile-politician. I stopped walking and turned around an instant before he could touch my shoulder.

“Mr. Chaveil, what a pleasant surprise.”