Angelos Odyssey

2 – A New City-1

2

A New City

-

* * * *

Aaliyah

-

* * * *

I’ve got on a blue blazer on top of a black turtleneck, black pants too wide for me but better than that prison outfit Maxwell had me in. I’ve been busy trying to look professional, although it’s likely all for nothing.

Maxwell locked me up. He trapped me inside of the Dawn Bureau’s tomb, disappeared, and forced me to sit through his bullshit movie propaganda for eleven days. Constant grating noise for eleven days, with Maxwell reappearing at random moments to interrogate me about who I was on the inside. He replayed footage from eleven days ago, back when I was pressing a gun into Shenu’s head. He has made me watch Shenu’s death over and over again.

After he placed me on a temporary leave and released me from the Bureau, I was left with the image of red splattering across the ground.

I know that I’m going to have to go back.

I’ve been climbing the ladder of the justice department my whole life, looking for the right opportunity to change things for the better. Whenever I got stressed, I used to paint. I was never good at it, but my focus was always the same: to paint a better world. Besides, there’s nothing better for me than picturing what a happy existence would be like.

I’ve climbed to the top of that ladder and found an obstacle I don’t think I can overcome this time. I’d thought, at this point in my life—if I even made it this far—that I’d really be able to change the world in a way that made sense, and all I’ve succeeded in doing is bonding myself to a machine. I’ll have to go back, because I’m still guilty of murder. I’ll return, and then I suppose the punishment will go on. I’ve only been released because, ironically enough, I’m Maxwell’s best candidate when it comes to communications with his adversary: the Democratic Council.

Enough time’s passed to justify city-wide political action. The Council’s arranged a conference today, one which will decide the future of the Dawn Federation.

As part of the conference, the Council has demanded that the Dawn Bureau disband and render its apologies, but Maxwell’s sending me to do the exact opposite. He wants me to stand up for the Bureau... an organization I wish to destroy more than anything else.

And so I paint. I’m painting a world without Maxwell. Without Amour. Without the broken government of the Dawn Federation.

I paint, and then the Eye hidden underneath my blazer begins to tremble. With one vibration, I’m notified that one of Maxwell’s sentinels has arrived outside my apartment. It feels like I’ve just gotten back, and yet I’m being called to my next task.

Tallah follows me to the door.

“Are you going to be okay? Will he let you come back?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, but I don’t have the answers anymore.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

Tallah tries to grab me, but I push her away. She looks shocked, but I can’t let myself show too much emotion. The less she knows the better she’ll feel when I don’t come back.

“There are forces greater than me at work here. How can you expect me to know what those assholes won’t tell me?”

She doesn’t say anything, so I hug her.

“I’ll do everything I can to survive, Tallah, I promise you. We’ll see each other again.”

Before I leave, she asks me what I hoped she wouldn’t: “Why did it have to be you? Couldn’t someone else have done it?”

“No one else would’ve killed him,” is my final response.

-