List of candidate

38.4% - Almond M. Chaveil

22.7% - Lora H. Tolcin

17.4% - Joy L. Nicam

13.9% - Ronald K. Dola

7.6% - Samsy S. Sacre

There were two weeks left before the vote, and everything was going on time. Lara and I just got back from our tour, and were pleased to see that the girls managed to finish their task.

Alice rallied the crazy Apes, apparently, she even became their leader or something. I think I have an idea how she did that, but she seems a bit embarrassed about it, so I’ll leave it at that.

The Witch Council have been contacted too, and even though she won’t actively help us, they at least won’t get in the way, thanks to Marie and Alice ‘asking’ them no to.

In the inner circle, everything was going fine too, the girls made an add that Monica aired. I am really low on the polls, but as long as people remember I exist it's fine. The problem is that the other candidates have run pretty aggressive counter adds, and I hope it won't disqualify me. Except one, and that's the most worrying to me, Chaveil hasn't talked about me yet, and I don't know why… maybe it's because he's high enough in the polls and doesn't feel the need to do that, or maybe he's preparing something.

Whatever it is, I’ll know it soon enough, as I plan to meet him in the next few days.

Now that we have the full support of two of the major Triad members, we can pass to phase 2, which is the speech. The plan is to make a wonderful speech and broadcast it to everyone in the outer circle. That’s mostly what Marie was busy with for the past weeks: writing the speech and making the broadcast system.

The mafia would be the one distributing the devices and spread the information.

It will take a few day for that, so we planned the speech for two days from now, in the evening. And that’s when I realized something.

(S)“I am the one doing the speech?”

(A)“Well, yeah, who else?”

(S)"I don't know… Lara spoke more than me, and she knows the people better than I do…"

(L)“Me? Ya’re not sarus kid? I’m no speaker.”

(M)“Come on Sam, you are the one getting elected.”

(S)“Yeah, but I am not really good with speeches.”

(A)“You’ll be good enough, and Mar wrote you an amazing piece. You’ll be fine.”

(M)“Yeah, be confident, you will nail it. You have to.”

(S)“Thanks… I don’t feel pressured at all now.”

(M)“You are welcome.”

(S)“Sigh… give the damn speech.”

She gave me a piece of paper, and it quickly hit me.

(S)“Marie… you’re the one that wrote it, right?”

(M)“Yes, I put all my heart and feelings into it.”

(S)“You do know you are a sociopath…”

(M)“That is not true!”

(S)“’Despite the sad and disappointing death of our beloved Monty Kind…’ seriously?”

(A)“I don’t see what’s wrong… that’s true, isn’t it?”

(S)“You’re not helping Sis’. Sigh… Lara, come with me, we have a speech to rewrite.”

(L)“F’course”

(M)“Pfff, whatever, I have other things to do anyway.”

(A)“Coming with you! Those freaks from Crazy Apes are creeping me for the past few days.”

(L)“Ya’re leaving?”

(S)“They will be preparing phase 3.”

(A)"Yup! Going back to the inner centre baby!"

(M)“See you soon, heartless asshole.”

And Marie left the house, rapidly followed by Alice. I guess she wasn’t really glad I criticized her writing. Hey! It’s not my fault if they don’t have any empathy.

That's how I and Lara crafted what is supposed to be the start of a revolution.

Inside a dark room, around a round table, painting the perfect stereotype of a secret reunion between evil mastermind behind the scene, four people were talking to each other. Of course, nobody could really see each other, even though they all knew who they were conversing with, and there was one, in particular, that was the focus of the attention tonight.

“Mr Chaveil, how is your campaign going? I saw the last poll, you still have a comfortable lead, but given the help we provided, I was expected more from your end.”

"Leading with more point would only be suspicious, and I can assure you that none of the other candidates pauses a real threat."

"Meh, you can't someone you haven't buy. And only this Tolcin have taken the bait right now, how can you be so confident?"

“Don’t make me laugh, you and I both know why. No, you might all know more than me.”

“And what about the old man?”

“He died.”

“Not him, his replacement.”

“Oh, Samsy… I don’t think he’s a threat, I was told he left the city.”

“Really? That’s actually concerning to me…”

"What would it be? Even if he managed to reunite every single person in the outer circle, it's not like they can vote for him. And if they try to revolt, they'll be literally disintegrated before they could get past the gate."

"I don't like him either, he was the one that manages to rise the old Kind above you remember? He has probably something up in his sleeve, we should act now."

“I agree”

“Me too.”

“And what about you, Mr Chaveil.”

“… Do I have a say?”

“Sigh, when we put you in The Presidential Sit, we thought you would be more loyal and easy to deal with than that.”

“I am on your side, and you know it.”

“Lucky for you, we do. And concerning this Samsy, I propose that we kill him. Like the old man.”

“We didn’t kill the old man, he had heart issue from the start. And I don’t think another dead will be good for our image, the public is not stupid enough to think there could be two coincidental death in the same campaign.”

“I agree with Chaveil on this one. I have a better plan, I propose you use your ECA. Pretexting security, you’ll temporally shut down the gates between the circles.”

"That seems like a good idea, and we'll sink it into other security measures."

“…”

“Good to me too, so we all agree. Mr Chaveil, you know what to do.”

“You know The President only have one ECA a year, is it really worth it?”

“I think we weren’t clear enough, I said we ALL agreed. Do you understand?”

“…”

Chaveil was looking extremely annoyed, but fortunately, his face was not lightened enough for the other to see it.

“Of course, sir.”

“Great, I think we have nothing to add. Gentleman?”

The others voicelessly agreed, and the reunion was put to an end. The three shadow-hologram in front of Chaveil disappeared, leaving him alone in the reunion room. He quickly left it, and found his secretary waiting on the other side of the exit.

“How was your meeting, Sir?”

“Awful, as usual.”

“Is there anything new on the agenda again?”

"I'm not sure yet… It might be the time for bold decisions."

So this was the meaning of the vision I had shortly after the start of the struggle, the one I couldn't figure when it would play out. Me, tearing apart a piece of paper in the dark corner of a room. I didn't really want to, I mean, we worked hard for this, but the vision struck me, and I felt the urge to do it. No, more like my instinct was telling me it was the best decision.

We were in the same abandoned factory I had the first vision of Lara great grandfather. She was behind me, shocked by the destruction of the paper.

“What ya’re doin’?!”

“Don’t worry, I got this.”

It was not the time humility and kindness. If you want to reach people heart, what you need is confidence and feelings. If I learned one thing about myself when I worked with Kind, it is that I am a really good actor, so, even if I don’t have confidence, I’ll just have to fake it enough.

I got on the stage, and all noises in the room ceased. Gosh, there are way more people than I expected.

All those faces looking at me… well, not really, as the spotlight was directed toward me, I couldn’t see clearly anyone, eve, being a Seer, but I could imagine them, and that was enough for the stress to kick in.

I approach the mike and took a deep breath in.

~~

"Hi, I'm Samsy Sacre, if you are lucky, you might have met me and Lara during the past 2 weeks, but for the vast majority of you, I'm nobody. Thanks to my good friends from the Kingdom, I am broadcasted everywhere around the outer circle tonight, because I have an announcement to make."

Sam stopped briefly, the crowd was getting noisy.

“You probably know by now, but Mr Kind died, two weeks ago.”

Everyone in the room got agitated. The first part wasn’t exactly true, if almost everyone knew who he was and what he was trying to accomplish, few were actually aware of Monty’s death.

“He died, fighting for the freedom of his people, for your freedom.”

The silence instantly got back. Everyone was looking down.

Sam and Lara knew, and it was, in fact, part of the speech they wrote, that the people wouldn't be surprised by the news. The plan was to hit them with the reality, and bring them up again with hope.

However…

“He fought for you. Alone.”

…

“For more than twenty years.”

…

“And for what? For the freedom of a band of coward, that can’t speak up for themselves?!”

Even without seeing their face, Sam knew they were all covered by shame.

“I saw him, I saw his work, I saw his will. But down here, I see nothing. Nothing but dust and abandoned dreams. Nothing but failure and weakness. Nothing but trash and fog.”

At that moment, Sam unconsciously smiled, and caught the small pebble coming toward his nose. What is this impression of déjà-vu…?

Sam took the mike and got off the stage, he landed in front of the little girl, the serial thrower from two weeks ago, with her usual angry face. What seemed to be her mom tried to grab her, but Sam signed her not to, then approached the mike from the girl.

“Do you have something to say?”

“…”

“You’ll have to speak louder, little girl.”

“…wrong.”

“Hum?”

“You’re wrong!”

She yelled as hard as she could, and fortunately, Sam pulled out a second before.

“Mommy not trash! You are mean!”

And then she punched him in the leg, and several more times until her mom took her away.

“She’s right.”

Someone else in the crowd spoke up.”

“She’s right, we are not trash!”

“Yeah, they forced us to live like that!”

“You asshole!”

“Yeah!”

"Scum from the centre!"

Everyone was now against Sam, he could even feel the anger of the other people all over the circle, in less than a minute, he managed to get everyone against him.

This was too easy.

“Of course I am wrong!!! And you need a little girl to realize that!”

Once again, the crowd shat up.

Sam jumped back on the wooden stage, and turn toward the people.

"Of course your not trash, and of course the conditions you're all leaving in are awful! Inhuman! But is this the time to look down in shame? Is this the time to let things go on, and just pray for the best? Or is this the time to fight?"

They were all mesmerized by him now. It was time to lend the final blow.

"Your freedom has been sealed for too long! Your dignity has been crushed too often! So let me ask you, are you willing to fight?"

In the darkness of the crowd, many small and hesitant answers rosed.

“I repeat, are you willing to fight?!”

“Yes!”

This time, the answer was perfectly heard.

“This is not just a fight anymore! This is a movement, this, is a revolution!”

~~

“That was so embarrassing!”

Finally back at Lara’s house, I was completely exhausted. The speech was one thing, but trying to get out after that was another.

At least I think I did a pretty good job, don't know if it worked with everyone, but for those here tonight it was pretty effective. I guess they desperately needed a saviour or something to be hopeful again.

“Ya did well kid!”

“Thanks… I think I’ll just go to sleep, I’ll probably have to go back in town tomorrow.”

“Hey, I was thinkin’… y’all are weirdos, for sure. So I thought…”

“Yes?”

“Ya’re gonna leave, right?”

“…”

…

Shit, I didn’t saw that coming…

“I’m not stupid, y’know.”

“I know. That’s why I asked your help.”

“So, that’s it. Ya’re gonna use and throw us away?”

“Sigh…”

I guess I have no choice.

“Okay, I’ll tell you the whole story.”