The Mindless Man's Paradise

Chapter sixteen | Cyrus

Was Cyrus starting to like the girl without a name?

  After all, she had proved herself. She wasn’t a simpleton. She wasn’t an HQ drone.

  She was just scared.

  Scared of HQ’s power.

  Not only that, but she’d felt out of place her whole life. In her own family, and even in her own brain.

  What that must feel like…

  Well, he just hoped he’d never have to experience it.

  What had truly impressed Cyrus was the girl’s perseverance. Through the punishment at SHQ when she was little. Through a bear attack. Through some freak strain of rabies. Through being locked in a basement. Through even being thrown down the stairs and having her own bone snapped in half.

  She was tough. She was a soldier.

  And throughout all of that, she still smiled. She still laughed.

  It was something that could give anyone hope; even the most hopeless man on earth.

  And for that reason, it was one of his favorite things about her. Because when she was truly happy, it started with her smile, but then it spread. You could see the pure, unadulterated happiness in her eyes… and it was something you could lose yourself in.

 He especially enjoyed the times when she didn’t understand something. Even when that something was as simple as a marshmallow. The look of confusion that would cross her face was adorable yet laughable.

  But, didn’t Cyrus vow he wouldn’t fall for her?

  This had been HQ’s plan, after all.

  But was it really a plan?

  Or was it simply two children, opposite genders, that happened to born on the same day?

  That was all it was to them. It wasn’t strategic. It was chance.

  He didn’t want to submit to any of HQ’s uptight ways, but was this one so bad?

  His parents had even told him that most Soul Mates never got along. True love between Soul Mates was rare, and these rarities often ended up in rebellion. A primary example being Cyrus’s own parents.

  Is that why the pairing was so random? So half-hearted? Was it fear of rebellion?

  Because to HQ, love meant rebellion, and rebellion meant war.

  That was it, wasn’t it?

  So falling for the girl wasn’t really submitting to HQ’s ways. Falling for the girl was the best thing he could do to support his personal HQ resistance, wasn’t it?

  He could feel the fire within her, and could definitely feel the rage within himself. Who said that one person could conquer the world? Whoever it was, they were wrong.

  It took two.

  It took two to conquer.