Tyrant (Lazaretto Sequel)

twenty-four

July 6, 2094

VAL

"Can you pull that camera up on the monitor?" I asked one of the guards in the control room at the facility. He nodded as he pressed a few buttons to have the small screen blown up onto the big monitor at the front of the room. I watched as they walked around the living space, not having a clue that I had been watching them for years now.

When Lauren first came to mother with the idea of purchasing the apartment with her then pretend girlfriend Ally, I rolled my eyes at how lenient she was in letting her. She was seventeen years old and mother believed she truly loved the girl. I, on the other hand, knew better. I had been watching her in the facility as she walked around the halls and paid more attention to certain numbers when she wasn't supposed to. She talked to them like they were friends (which disgusted me) and she gave them extra food. Lauren had always been the weak one. She was always the one who couldn't follow the rules. She was the one who cared too much.

Before Lauren and Ally had a chance to purchase the place, I called in a favor to have the entire apartment rigged with cameras: the living room, the bedrooms, and even the kitchen. I started getting suspicious of Lauren when she became close with a number during her sixteenth year. He had short blond hair with blue eyes, and is now identified as Troy.

By the time that Troy had escaped the facility, he was seventeen. The next day as I was looking for video footage of his escape, it had all been erased. Lauren must have gotten to it before me. That day the facility, she acted like nothing had happened. Like she didn't just help a number escape a highly secure facility. I had the cameras to the apartment pulled up to see that the blond haired boy had safely made it to the apartment on Eighth and Main. I shook my head and laughed at the fact that Lauren had pulled it off without anyone knowing. That was, besides me. For the next couple of years, she laid low. She didn't talk to any numbers or anything of the sort that would make me question her. But when she started to take interest in the dirty-blonde haired girl, that's when I started watching her again.

She followed her around like a lost puppy, like someone who had lost their sense of individuality. It was actually entertaining and quite pathetic if you asked me. Every time she would pass her she would smile, and I would chuckle at the monitor as she did so. Lauren owes me for far more than she will ever know. She owes me her life.

By the time another number had escaped, I was beginning to grow angry with Lauren. She said she had nothing to do with it, but I knew she was lying. That night I checked the apartment cameras to see the escapee hobbling in, holding her bleeding leg as Ally and Troy helped her to the bathroom. I told myself that next time I would have to aim higher.

The day that the girl escaped was by far the most infuriating. As soon as I left her with Lauren, I should have known she was going to do something to set her free. I knew the subtle glances she gave her was beyond innocent, all those mornings she got to work early just to wake her up. The only person she was fooling was herself. I always put too much faith in her to do the right thing...the right thing being to finish her off so that I wouldn't have to. As much as you'd think I enjoy killing people, I really don't. I am far too dignified and poignant for that. I'd much rather watch people suffer, watch them kill themselves off slowly because they can't take it anymore. I could've turned her in right then, I could have shown her all of the video footage I had, to show her that she had been caught. But I never did. It had become some sort of game to see how far I could take it. To see how much I could get away with before wreaking havoc on everyone in that apartment. I knew that Lauren was lying to me about her and Ally dating when I saw her and Troy kiss on the couch for the first time, followed by something else that made me turn off the cameras completely. I felt like I was watching my own version of bad reality television.