The Confined

27. Violet

2302. 04. 21.

I walk and talk and eat and sleep and live just like you do. And do you even know how we're treated? We are treated like rats, we're told that we're not supposed to be in the sunlight because we might go blind. And we just sit there. Ignorantly. People of The Confined, are we to just lay ourselves down on the ground so that the RL will step on top of us to avoid the dirt? All we get, is more scratches. On our bodies, and on our souls. This doesn't make us the Confined, we are the Sacrificed. We are sacrificed for their needs, wants, and greed. The Desperado screams out to me to free it from such heavy burdens. And at first I thought it was not the auditorium, it was the people inside it. The Desperado represents our desperate hearts for freedom of our own life. At least when we are inside of it, shouldn't we be fighting for our rights?

Today, we raise our right hands to our hearts.

----

The first thing that popped into my mind was that I needed to go to Ego. He was dying every moment slowly, and if nobody took care of him, he might actually expire. The second thing that I thought about, was where Min was. Min was supposed to be with Ego, helping him out. What had happened to her? Finally, the last thing that came across my mind was that TITAN was very enraged. He might hurt more of us, and I couldn't risk my parents' safety again. I had to do something for everyone.

"What have you done?" I screamed and tried to run to Ego, but TITAN raised his gun towards me. I flinched and Finn grabbed me to keep me still. He was right. Moving inappropriately would result in disastrous consequences. I thought to myself. Then, I thought, Yeah right, like this isn't a disastrous situation already.

I raised my own gun. "If you shoot, I shoot," I declared. TITAN raised an eyebrow. He probably hadn't expected me to be so daring. Playing with each other's lives on the line was not something that he thought I would do.

TITAN smiled. "You've quite grown up. Violet." He knew me as the girl who liked dolls and arranging flowers in vases. He knew me as the girl who wouldn't eat pumpkin and was stubborn enough to insist on not eating it.

But he was wrong. I could do anything to save the people I loved. I had already risked everything. There was nothing left to lose.

Finn followed. He raised his gun at TITAN. "You should not underestimate us. We may be your pets, but if you abuse us like that, we could become backstabbing beasts." I looked at him with grateful eyes. If Finn wasn't here, I would have probably chickened out long ago. Because I had to prove Finn that we could make a difference in the world, I had kept going on.

"I have never abused you. You didn't work hard enough to be promoted. If you had worked hard enough, you could have been out of the Confined. Do you know how many people come into the RL from the Confined each year?" he mocked us.

"Once a Confined, always a Confined," I said. "You do not have the right to say that," I spat at him.

"I have the right to say anything I want! I am TITAN! The leader of the world! Do you think the RL or the Confined could continue if it weren't for me? You should thank me. I run the world! I have so much responsibility on my hands that I just can't help everyone in the world. Okay?" He spoke as if he was not the one who had tortured us. He sounded like he was the one who had lived in the Confined. Like he was the one who ate only a piece of bread every day. His lies were thrashing out and each lie was whipping me, one by one.

"I give everybody shelter to sleep under, food to eat in order to survive, jobs to do, and yet everybody thinks of me as greedy. I help you. I am the one you should be thankful for. I am doing my best to keep the world in a balanced state."

Finn smirked and lowered his gun. "Do you know how it feels to be cold?"

TITAN eyed Finn cautiously. "I do."

"Explain," Finn ordered.

"I do not explain myself to anybody!" TITAN yelled. His throat bulged as his voice boomed through the hall. It felt like the bright lights were reacting to TITAN's mood as they suddenly started to flash repeatedly.

"EXPLAIN!" Finn roared. "You do not know what pure cold feels like. You don't know how frostbite feels on your toes when you wake up from a night's sleep. You don't know what it feels like after you take a shower in the public shower room and wait to be given a small towel to dry yourself off. You don't know what it feels like to feel cold when you get a job because of all the chilly lasers that are shot from other's eyes. You don't know what it feels when you catch a cold and cough until your throat bleeds but you don't have money to even go to the damn Confined hospital and get some damn medicine!"

"Enough. I'm sorry that you get frostbite. I'm sorry that you get a small towel after you take a shower. I'm sorry that you are viewed badly by other people. I'm sorry that you don't have the money to go into a small Confined hospital. But, I'm trying my best to fulfill my responsibility to help everyone in the world." TITAN lowered his gun and shifted to stand up straight, in a perfect posture. "Then, I will give you an opportunity. You will be given a home in the RL. You will be given a warm bed to sleep in. You will be given a big towel to dry yourself. You will be given the job of your dreams. You will be given the medicine that will keep you healthy for the rest of your life. Not only you, but you and your family. How is that, Finn?"

For a moment, I was scared that he would say yes. I was scared that he had lost hope within the society, thinking that it can't get better for them. I was also scared if Finn still thought me as the one who started everything. Maybe Finn wasn't as easy to persuade as Ego.

Finn didn't move. He didn't even blink. Then, he laughed. At first, his laughter was small, still smirking. Soon it changed into a hysterical howl. When he stopped laughing, I could feel the cold in his eyes. The cold that Finn had spoken of earlier. It was all in his eyes.

They were like ice crystals. Although they looked like they were soon going to melt, they were hard and could chip as easily as a tooth.

TITAN's expression turned stern. Then, he turned his attention to me. "What about you, Violet? You've once had everything. Now you have nothing. What do you think about having that power again? The only thing I require is your commitment to me. Isn't that quite a good bargain?"

"No," I said immediately. "You don't have any responsibilities that you keep. All you care about, is your stupid money. Your stupid house. Your stupid authority. Nobody thinks you have responsibility, TITAN. You have power, but you don't have responsibility. Someone told me that everyone who takes action faces consequences. One day, you will pay for everything you did to all those people that are in their bunkers right now. You will pay for everything you did to those prisoners in the Peterson's house basement. You will pay for turning the society into a dichotomous one."

Suddenly, with a loud click, the doors behind TITAN opened, and revealed four people. I didn't know any of them, but I could tell that they were them. They had finally come to help us.

TITAN slowly turned around, but it was too late. The woman in the front row shot him with a gun that made a loud banging noise. Most guns were made to be sound proof, but this woman seemed to carry a gun with sound on purpose. She was beautiful in a mysterious way, with pitch black hair that flowed down her back. Her greenish eyes weren't like the color of TITAN's but were much lighter, with a shade of brown in them.

TITAN crumpled to the ground. He certainly wasn't dead because he kept groaning in pain. "Pluto! How could you do this to me? How?"

TITAN could only watch as his weapons were taken away from him. The people behind the woman lifted Ego, and ran out to treat him quickly. We passed around TITAN one by one, but when it was my turn to step around him, he grabbed my ankle and his hoarse scraped voice with all his strength.

"YOU CANNOT WIN," he hissed.

I kicked my leg free, and he winced at the sudden movement.

"You can't leave me like this, Pluto. You can't. I love you. You care for me. How could you do such a thing?" The leader of the world, the dictator, the TITAN, was crying. I couldn't believe my eyes, but the woman seemed very calm.

The woman smiled. "This is only the start. Compared to what you did to me, it's nothing yet," she sneered. "You will pay, TITAN, for what you did to us. We are the Confined Rebellion."