INKWORLD

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

June 27, 2091

A grin appeared on Erik's face as he walked towards me. "My, My. You are so young. President of the new world, what did you call the name again..."

"Inkwell," Victoria supplied. "Where's my father?"

"Impatient." He tsked, shaking his head, and then pointed to the right where two men were pushing a man.

I grimaced at the sight of the man. He looked like he had been through a lot. There were sleep bags under his eyes and his eyes were red. There were a lot of wrinkles on his face and I couldn't help wondering if it had been there before or it was the stress he had during captivity that had given him the wrinkles. He looked like he wanted to drop in fatigue. I almost understood what Victoria had done.

"Daddy!" Victoria ran towards the man and the men released him. He sagged into his daughter's arms and she put her arms around him. Their tearful reunion took away some of my anger. I wondered if I would have hesitated to choose between a stranger and my father.

Just then, Ben appeared from the woods, throwing himself into the man holding me. We all fell on the ground and I shuffled away as soon as I realised I was out of the man's grip. Ben stood to grab me but dropped to the ground, a gunshot sound filling the air. I turned to see Erik holding a gun.

"Ben!" I cried, trying to get to him but I was roughly pulled back.

"No more tricks, girl," Erik said.

"What do you want with me?" I spat, glaring at Erik. My whole body was shaking in anger. I hoped Ben was alive. He didn't seem to be moving again.

Sometime, during the struggle, Victoria had escaped with her father.

Erik smiled, showing his ink coloured teeth. Placing his hand behind his back, he began pacing in front of me. "Mankind can be selfish. They don't hesitate to turn their backs on you when things go wrong. They will forget over you have done in a second and think only of themselves." The anger in his voice took me aback. He seemed really mad about that.

Although I understood what he was saying—I had seen it happen with Angela Cassey and Victoria's dad—but I didn't understand how it related to him. Although I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck, I knew I had to listen to what he was saying. Maybe I could get something that would help me get away from him.

"When I started creating my machines, I thought only of the people. I wanted things to be easy for people, I wanted those who couldn't afford things to be able to get my machines to make life easier. I only had good thoughts. Granted, I was naive and refused to listen to some of my engineers, but no one could deny that I had good intentions.

"Then the ink started and it was traced to my machines. The same people who were hailing me when it benefited them turned against me in a second. No one backed me up, no one cared to hear my innocent plea. To them I was guilty and had to be condemned."

He stopped pacing and turned to me. "We all make mistakes, don't we? That's what makes us humans, right?"

"Mistakes also have consequences."

"Of course, dear." He traced a long finger nail over my chin. "It's your mistake of leaving that house alone that led you straight to my arms."

I glared at him, struggling once again to get away from the person holding me. "Besides, you just said it, you were careless. You refused to listen to experts so it's your fault that all his happened. Stop trying to paint yourself as the saint."

"Careless, reckless. It's all the same. They are mistakes we humans make. Just like your recklessness in choosing to come to earth even though you are the president of half of the population of mankind. What possessed you to do that?"