tyler lives in a world where everyone is brainwashed by corrupt men in cloaks who call themselves "the bishops".
tyler and his best friend mikey have always been apart of the few who were able to think for themselves.
one day, two new citizens get...
tyler opened his eyes and looked mikey dead in his face.
"what do you want?" he asked in an annoyed tone.
"i saw josh come out of your room last night. did you do anything?" mikey asked. tyler rolled his eyes.
"no we didn't. we just talked."
"lame." mikey replied. tyler sat up and stretched. he noticed his suitcase in the corner.
"did you bring that in?" he asked.
mikey nodded. "yeah, gerard told me to do so." just then there was a knock at the door.
"come in." tyler said. the door opened and andy was standing there on the other side with josh behind him.
"what's up guys?" tyler asked. andy and josh came and sat on tyler's bed.
"tell us about the banditos." andy just flat out said. tyler and mikey looked at each other with confused looks.
"what do you wanna know about them?" tyler asked.
"everything." andy replied. tyler could tell he was getting impatient.
"well, there's not much information about them. all anyone knows is that they were a rebellion and tried to escape dema, they helped clancy escape, but after clancy was recaptured they kind of just.. fell off. no one heard from them again. some believe that they were also taken with clancy and possibly killed, other think that they didn't even exist. no one can be sure though."
"there's evidence that they were real." a voice from the doorway said. everyone looked to see dominic and gerard standing there.
"what evidence?" josh asked.
"photographic evidence." dominic said.
"pictures can be easily faked you know." josh said.
"i dont think they're fake. they're in clancy's letters." dominic replied.
"how would you know? no one has clancy's letters." mikey said. dominic had a smug look on his face.
"you have his letters don't you?" tyler asked.
"yeah, i do. wanna see them?" dominic asked. everyone nodded.
— —
everyone left the room and headed down to the basement where dominic had the letters stored. the basement was dark and cold. once you got to the basement floor there was a giant table in the center that had countless books and papers scattered everywhere. every gathered around the table and watched as dominic opened the book to a page with writing. dominic began to read.
"I can't face this page for long enough to write what I'm truly feeling. I am only wrought with more questions: Questions about what I assumed to be true, questions about what my own path is, and the question that has plagued me every night that I lie here, back in city: Did I give up? The force I saw between him and his bishop seemed tense to me, and frightening. But the memory of that exchange has had time to fester and replay in my mind long enough that I'm questioning if I even remembered it correctly. I assumed the bishop was forcefully retrieving his subject, but I now wonder if the bishop was actually trying to save him, and he refused. I stayed out there for five days after I watched it happened. I haven't seen him since. Maybe he got away, and was still out in Trench with me. Maybe the bishop chased him down, and brought him home.
Home?
Did I just call this place 'home?'
After all of the endless beauty that I saw out there, am I now convincing myself that I'm actually better off within these confines? I admit, It was more difficult that I expected. Nothing could have prepared me for how much the 'unknown' can consume me. Vast landscapes and endless possibilities, yet coupled with endless danger. I became anxious. I became tired. I became hungry. Every step I took became harder than the last, jumping from jagged rocky step to step, or pulling myself through thick forest – it all became debilitating, and I was sure that I couldn't go on. Keons approached as the sun rose one morning. I wasn't scared. I was relieved. After all that he had taught me, his presence was the most comforting moment that I had in days, and I couldn't help but be happy to see him. In true Keons fashion, he wrapped his arms around me, then put his hands under my face, looked me in the eyes, and said "Clancy, child, let's go home."
I've been here for a few weeks now, and while the routines of this world are comforting, and certainly easier than life out there, my mind keeps bouncing between the two places. Which one is home? Are the bishops protecting me, and the torches upon the hilltops are dangerous? Or is it the other way around? My dreams pull me from world to world, and I feel lost between all of it. There is still so much I do not understand. -Clancy"
tyler was shocked. how did dom manage to get one of clancy's letters?
"where the fuck did you get that?" gerard asked.
"the tower of silence." dom replied. "since all of those asshole up there are brainwashed, i snuck in and went to the archives and found all of this shit. now it's mine."
"what's the tower of silence?" andy asked.
"it's what we call the tower in the center of town. in there they hold rituals, prisoners, and a lot of other stuff."
"who is keons?" josh asked.
"one of those asshole bishops." gerard replied.
"basically josh, he's the nicer of the bishops. as you heard in the letter, he was sweet when talking to clancy and convinced clancy that this place was home. while clancy was out in the open, or trench, he noticed he was tired, hungry. he was relieved to see keons."
"have you had any experience with him?" josh asked.
"no," mikey said. "we know people who have though." andy groaned.
"ok this is nice hearing about and all, but i wanna see this 'photographic evidence' that the banditos existed. because to me, this all seems like a fairytale and i'm not buying it." dom gave andy a dirty look and began digging through his book. he flipped to countless papers, some ripped, some black, some with just one word on them. finally, he opened to a page with pictures and pointed to one.
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"that's my photographic evidence." dom said in a sassy tone. andy couldn't help but stare at the grainy photo.
"holy shit." he eventually muttered to himself. "the torches, that clancy said we're on the hilltops, was.. was he referring to the banditos?"
gerard nodded.
"most likely."
everyone still had so many questions, but those thoughts were interrupted when mikey spoke up.
"we should start a rebellion." he said. everyone gave him a strange look.
"a rebellion?" gerard repeated. mikey nodded. he went on to say that they could be the new generation of banditos and help people come to their senses and leave dema.
"if we did escape this shitty place," gerard said. " what's out there? we have no idea if the world out there is worse than in here." mikey shrugged.
