Grandfather (28 page)

We didn’t say anything at
first. Then, Marley answered. “They can probably still hear
us,”

She was probably right. A
whisper wasn’t enough to keep them from hearing us. If only we were
able to read each other’s’ minds. But that was obviously
impossible. No kind of technology could accomplish
mind-reading.

We agreed to keep thinking
of any plan as they left to go to their own rooms. Then, when one
of us had an idea, we would find a way to tell the other two. I
knew we couldn’t just walk out of the Presidential Tower. I mean,
Cornelius wasn’t
that
stupid. He would have guards standing nearby, expecting us to
do that if able. Needless to say, I had nothing. And I assumed
neither Ashton nor Marley had anything because they said nothing
for the rest of the next day.

We all ate our meals
together. They, too, were surprised by how much food was served to
us. And as I was, they were angry that people inside of the wall
were eating like kings when many people outside the wall were
starving.

I told them that Cornelius
was doing it on purpose, to make us feel like one of them. They
agreed that it was working.

The NWI prepared a bright
and sunny day. I sat on the balcony for a few hours just to enjoy
it. Or at least I tried enjoying it. I couldn’t relax, knowing we
needed to find a way out if we wanted to survive.

I often wondered what
Edgar and Belladonna were doing. How mad were they? And were they
doing anything to try and save us? A part of me hoped so, but I
knew it would be dumb for them to do so. They wouldn’t make it
inside the building. Cornelius would catch them and torture them
until they revealed our hiding spot. And then Cornelius would kill
them. That would leave us hopeless with no way to fight against
Grandfather.

The day passed by quickly
and, unfortunately, I had to say I was getting a bit hooked on a
television show about detectives fighting crime. Marley and Ashton
liked it too, but we would force ourselves to quit after a few
episodes. We were just so paranoid that we were going to become one
of the rich.

The day of the fundraiser
came. After lunch was brought to us, Helly brought me a full white
suit with a white dress shirt and a turquoise bow tie. Great. I was
going to stand out with such bright colors. I wondered if Ashton
and Marley got the same colors.

They didn’t.

By the time 5:00 rolled
around, Helly had us completely dressed and our hair fixed
perfectly. We met outside the doors. Ashton wore a dark blue suit
with a yellow bow tie. His hair was fixed similar to
mine.

Marley wore a short red
dress with an oversized black belt around her waist. Her brunette
hair was put up in a bun with a black bow in it. She was absolutely
beautiful. As she caught my gaze, I turned away quickly. While
Helly made sure our bow ties were straight and Marley’s hair was
perfect, Cornelius joined us. I wanted to throw up.

He was wearing a suit
exactly like mine. Even the tie was exactly the same.

“Matching suits,” Helly
said, clapping her hands together. “So cute.”

The last person I wanted
to match with was Cornelius. He was trying to draw attention to the
both of us in order to make him look like a better man. He was
known as my hero to everybody. The people loved him for
it.

“Did you watch the news?”
Ashton asked him, smiling.

Cornelius didn’t
answer.

“Looks like some people
are thinking those outside of the wall aren’t animals.”

Cornelius flung his hand
back, ready to slap Ashton.

Helly squealed, covering
her mouth.

Ashton didn’t turn away or
even throw his hands up. He was going to let it happen. But just as
Cornelius was about to actually slap Ashton, he forced his hand
down, taking a deep breath and letting it out.

“
You guys keep a smile on
your face,” he said as if nothing had happened. “You make it seem
as if this is the best thing to have happened to you. Remember the
note cards I gave you.” He pointed at Ashton and Marley. They
seemed to understand. Cornelius turned to face me. “You already
know the rules.”

“We could expose you so
easy,” Ashton said while Helly reached over and moved my hair
around. I didn’t resist.

“You could,” Cornelius
agreed. “You do that. Their blood will be on your hands.” He
pointed at me and Marley. “If you say anything, then you’ll see
Carsyn and Marley tortured.” Cornelius then pointed at me. “If
Carsyn says anything, he’ll see you and Marley tortured. The same
goes for Marley. Understood?”

I glanced at Marley who
was just terrified. I think we all were, so I didn’t blame her.
Ashton just looked angry. We weren’t in the position to let
anything about Cornelius and Grandfather slip. We all nodded
slowly.

“Good,” Cornelius said.
“You guys will be watched. So don’t get any ideas. Now let’s go.”
He turned around and started walking toward the elevator. Helly
signaled for us to follow, and we did so until we were in the
familiar long white vehicle. Helly didn’t ride with us. I don’t
even think she was invited to the fundraiser.

“
Enough has been said about
outside the wall,” Cornelius said, glaring at me once the vehicle
was moving. “Don’t mention it like you did last time.”

“No promises,” I said. Of
course I was joking because I knew Marley and Ashton would be in
danger if I did. I just wanted to tease Cornelius, who didn’t take
it so well. He grabbed my arm and squeezed tightly. I felt my arm
grow numb as the blood flow was cut off. “I mean it,” he hissed.
“I’ll not have you out here causing riots in my
country.”

“Carsyn won’t say
anything,” Marley told Cornelius, her eyes staring deep into mine.
Cornelius let go of my arm.

“Good,” he
said.

“It’s okay,” Ashton said,
“I don’t think we need to say anything. Something’s going to happen
soon. And you guys are just going to collapse.”

Cornelius chuckled. “We’re
too powerful for that to happen,” he said.

“All power comes to an
end,” Ashton argued back.

“Not this time,” Cornelius
said. “Not this time, my boy.”

“I’m not your
boy.”

“A shame,” he said. “I’d
love to have a boy with such energy as you.”

“Nobody deserves to have
an evil man like you as a father.”

Cornelius smirked at him
and looked out of the window. “Where are your parents, Ashton?” he
asked. “Hiding with the others?”

“What’s it matter to you?”
Marley asked when Ashton didn’t answer right away.

Cornelius said nothing but
chuckled again. He kept his gaze out of the window.

I hated his chuckle. Just
the sound of it ran shivers down my spine and sparked my hatred for
him.

“You don’t know where they
are, do you?” he asked. He looked at Ashton, who had his fists
clenched up, ready to dive at Cornelius. Cornelius was loving it.
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “You say that nobody deserves to
have me as a father. Well, Ashton, it seems as if your parents
didn’t think you deserved them.”

Ashton jumped out of his
seat but moved too quickly. His head thumped against the ceiling.
Marley grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. Ashton held his
throbbing head.

Cornelius couldn’t help
but laugh loudly. “You know, Ashton, you’re making it harder on
yourself believing something that can never happen.”

“
You’ll meet the same fate
as the last Grand Imperial,” Ashton said, crossing his arms. “And
I’ll be here to see it.”

Cornelius shook his head.
“I’m much more advanced than Grand Imperial Doyle. We’ve had a lot
more time than him. Cornelius played with the black ring on his
finger.

That was the first time I
heard the original Grand Imperial’s name, and it was a really ugly
one. But I was actually curious. “What do you mean?”

Cornelius had this
expression, as if contemplating whether or not to tell me. I guess
he didn’t think it would hurt. “The government believed that every
single Grandfather supporter was tracked down and put on trial. But
that wasn’t the case. You see, the only way to absolutely destroy a
huge movement is to absolutely destroy its leader.”

“
He killed himself,” Ashton
smeared.

“
Exactly,” Cornelius said.
“But you don’t know the entire story.”

All we were told was that
the leader had killed himself. I didn’t even know there was more to
the story. A quick glance at Ashton and Marley told me they didn’t
know either.

Cornelius
continued.

“
After months of searching,
the military and police had Grand Imperial Doyle trapped. The only
thing keeping him alive was the fact that he took several
hostages.”

“
Hostages,” I said, shaking
my head “He sounds like a true role model.”

“
He was,” Cornelius
snapped. “He showed his remaining followers that he believed in the
cause so much that he would rather commit suicide than be tortured
for information; tortured for what was in the safe.”

“
And what cause was that?”
Ashton asked, chuckling. “Ruining people’s lives?”

“
You
would believe such a thing,”
Cornelius said.

Marley said, “Well, it’s
true. They tried controlling peoples’ lives.”

“
To make
those lives better,” Cornelius argued. “His idea was that society
could develop and prosper at a faster rate. Just imagine if
peoples’ ambitions were the same: Their ideas . . . their goals.
It’s easier when most of the people are working toward the same
goal. People wanting different goals leads to opposition, which
leads to arguing. Ultimately, if things
do
get done, it happens at a slower
rate. It’s true, wouldn’t you say?”

“
No,” was my simple
answer.

Ashton raised his voice.
“You can’t just –”

“
The Grand Imperial
believed there was too much arguing and hatred about differing
opinions,” Cornelius interrupted as if Ashton wasn’t even there.
“You probably don’t know, but way back when, we used to have
different political parties. These elections were nothing but
arguing and name-calling. Nobody could agree. Real life problems
were ignored as people worried about who was going to get
elected.”

I had no idea what
Cornelius meant by different political parties. I doubted Ashton
and Marley did either.

“
Everybody wants something
different. They have their own opinions, which would be okay if
they weren’t so closed-minded toward other opinions. Conflict does
nothing but pause progression. Sometimes conflict can even cause us
to regress.”

Cornelius quit playing
with his ring and looked out the window, his eyes sparkling. He was
enjoying the story.

“
So he wanted to speed up
progression?” Marley asked. “By forcing people to have the same
opinion and same goal?”

“
Grand Imperial Doyle
wanted everybody to realize how their petty arguments and
closed-minded thinking would get them nowhere.”

“
So he wanted to force
people to share his goals and opinions?” Ashton asked, perplexed.
“Who’s to say his opinions were right?”

“
Everybody wants
progression and succession,” Cornelius said. “He was just going to
help people understand the best way to do that.”

“
And the best way to do
that was to rise to power and control everybody?” I
asked.

“
It’s
unfortunate,” Cornelius said. “But it’s the only way. If it wasn’t
for the wars and arguing over things that don’t truly matter, who
knows what this society could be today. I can’t even
imagine
the
possibilities. If one person was in control, moving everybody in a
society in the same direction, things would be so much
easier.”

I just shook my head. I
couldn’t believe how anybody could see controlling everybody was
for the best. “Why are you telling us this? Are you stealing
Doyle’s cause?”

Cornelius chuckled,
spreading his arms out. “This is the same Grandfather.”

Man, always being
surprised and confused was getting to be exhausting.

“
Remember how I said that
the only way to kill an idea or movement is to kill the
leader.”

“
And he was killed,” I
said. “But here you are, copying him.”

Cornelius just laughed
again, placing his hands on his lap. “You’re not getting it. Open
your eyes. He killed himself! Don’t get me wrong, it’s very sad.
But when the remaining followers saw that he killed himself because
he believed in the cause so strongly, they believed even more. They
wanted to continue his legacy. And all they needed was a new
leader.”

I thought for a second. I
was beginning to understand everything. “You?” I said
slowly.

“People think we died, but
we never did. Twenty years ago, the leader killed himself. Twenty
years ago, the remaining members started rebuilding, secretly
recruiting, secretly planning, secretly working our way to the top,
secretly making our move so that we can truly guide our society in
the right direction with no set-backs. No pauses.”