The Politician.

I was safe, finally safe. Away from their control, I could live my own life how I see fit now. I belonged to myself, after years of tugging on that rope, tying me to that place, to them. I never thought that freedom would be tucked away in the middle of Mexico City, but here I found myself, feeling a fresh breeze under my newly grown wings, learning how to live and not survive for the first time. I found joy in the simplest things, my entire apartment in one room; joyful to behold every inch, as if it were that first day I walked into that place. After six months, everything still felt so new. As if nothing I owned really belonged to me, like someone would come in one day and demand I give them back all their belongings and vacate the apartment. I was convinced I had stolen someone else's life, jumped into their reality and started using their identity. How was any of this possible? How could I, after fifteen years of trying and failing to find a life of my own, have one simply sitting here in Mexico waiting for me with only a few weeks of planning? I was a twenty-five year-old newborn, beholding the world; excited by the limitless possibilities. A walk felt like a leap, a warm meal like rejuvenation and even my dull job felt like saving the world. With every letter, every meeting planned and every coffee bought for my boss, I felt electric and alive. I loved my new life, I knew I had to protect it at all costs. It was important for me to keep my head down, not attract any attention to myself. I avoided any extravagance, any glorious ambitions that could lure them to me. I was never keen on attention, maybe that is who I have always been to my core, or maybe I was beaten down by their brainwashing for too long. The moment I met him, I knew I would have difficulty hiding for much longer. How could I have him in my life, when every step he took was subjected to camera flashes and news articles? Every room he walked into became captivated by his presence. He moved, the crowd moved. His gravitational pull exceeded that of the earths’. It was unavoidable. I looked into his dark brown eyes a second too long, and I was his. I was no different from everyone else, there was no fighting it. Physics said so. What I didn't expect was his attraction towards me, his eyes burning the back of my neck that first night at the city Gala. Everyone saw him, and he saw me.