Road to Entitlement: Four

As soon as I got into my room, I pull out the biggest notebook I can hold on to, and the most comfortable pen I could find. If I were to be jolting words down, I needed a pen that could catch up to me. I reached onto my phone and dials Dion's number, after 4 rings, He answers.

"About time you called back." He says, I hear paper turning in the background.

"I'm sorry, I had to deal with something." I reply.

"Has anyone decided to forfeit the game yet?" I modulate my voice, I prepare my throat to the words that will come out of me. I form my lips.

"There is actually two people who got kicked out of the program." I say, waiting for him to say another word, before I continue. "They were kicked out, I have assumptions on why, but I can't reveal, it was not my information to begin with."

I hear him clear his throat, "It's okay, that will buy us some time. About two hours perhaps." Now I hear keyboard tapping in the background. His place is so quiet, I am doubting if he was home.

"I thought it was only for two hours?" I clarify, trying not to sound excited and scared at the same time.

"Yes, but since they are two of them, it will give us an hour for each, here is the plan." He says, I tightly clenched on my pen.

"On the day that the two contenders will leave the place, none of you guys are welcome to attend since you are not allowed to see the outside of the centrus, you will be placed in an area where you will stay as they do the process of letting them go. We have to make sure that the facilitators will believe you are staying there." I wrote everything he says, not even missing a single word.

"That is where we hack the security footage, you have to stay in the area for the first few minutes, I will hack the system that will replay the same footage for almost 2 hours, with a little tweaks, so when you arrive at the holding area, you have to make as plenty of movements as possible." He continues, I try coping with his speed, but when I couldn't, I just encircle the words "plenty" and "movements" for emphasis.

"It sounds so easy, why is it so easy?" I say, staring at the words I have written, shaking my hands through the air, We were so far away from doing it, but that doesn't mean my anxiety will came in late as well.

"It is easy, what isn't easy is how you can get back." I can hear the sound of uncertainty in his voice. The confidence in his voice earlier had disappear.

"How do we get back?" I ask, avoiding the crack in between the words.

"The same as how we get out, however, It is not easy, because there are no distraction present at both gates, only eyes on us." He continues. "Not to mention, they might have notice us gone." He adds.

I take a pause to think, are these all worth it? the risk of exposure? In case we did fall through, is there a chance we can get back without consequences? I doubt.

"Only 3 are allowed to get out, it minimizes the risk of exposure, plus only those who frequently misses their class schedule." Dion says on the other line, unaware of the thinking situation I am currently in.

"That is not a problem to me, I frequently miss my class." I say, completely hiding the confidence tone. This is not the time to confideng about something. In fact, my absence is not something i should be proud of. The first time, I skipped the class, I was crying, the second time as well.

"That's a new thing, you were always the nerdy one in our school." Dion jokes before I hear him chuckle.

"The chosen is new enough of me, I will be surprise if i am no longer the person you once knew once I got out." I hear a long dramatic pause on the other side. I form my lips some words I could think of but he outran me.

"When I first knew you were entering the chosen, I would have imagined you as the person changing the chosen, and not vice versa." Now is is my turn for such dramatic pause. I don't think I am that significant enough to actually change the chosen.

"Dion, let's focus on the problem. How are we going to get back?" I ask, hiding the irritated voice in me.

"Again, the same way, only 3 are allowed to get out and be back, the maximum time for disappearance is 2 days, longer than that will face consequences. I have prepared my dad's chopper to bust us in and out of the centrus. The gates security system will take 2 days until they recognize the change in codes, that's why we were only supposed to be gone 2 days max." He says, slowly regaining all of the confidence his voice has lost.

"Okay, other relevant information I will need? So I can rely these to the person who will be accompanying me?" I ask, turning the pen around my index and thumb.

"Yes, I mean No. I was waiting for your confirmation to join. I thought you won't." He says, I reply with a small laugh.

"But why? Of course I am going, I need to." I say with full conviction, I needed to go. The centrus air is suffocating as it is, I need to breathe.

"I'm just glad you will. See you." He finally says before I drop the call.

I immediately ran into Alessia's room, reaching it and gasping for air, I was shock to see Alistair behind me. He assisted me into sitting position and takes the paper in my hands. Slowly, he begins reading it through his eyes while I reach for air. I didn't notice that the anxiety in me had deepen that a quick run has exhausted me.

"We were really going to do this?" He ask, exchanging looks between me and Alessia. We both nod. He walks towards Alessia's bed and shows her the paper. Alessia had her eyes narrow due to confusion, she might be having a hard time deciphering my hand writing, but when she reached the end, I saw her brightest smile.

Alessia tries to untie herself, and Alistair doubted for a while but he still unties her, Alessia runs to me and gives me the warmest hug.

"Thank you for trying, thank you for pursuing, I owe you another thank you if we come back here again." Alessia says as soon as she lets go of me. As Alessia is abkut to return to her bed, we heard noises outside her door, Alistair who is positioned already to go outside, slowly backs off. I stand up and walk as quietly as possible then locks the door. Suspicions will arise once we are all seen together.

"I let you talk me through it, I am stupid already, please distance yourself from me!" The voice outside says, all of us switched glances when we realize it was Amara.

It's a good thing we didn't met outside like Alistair said, or we might have bumped into them.

"I'm sorry, I kept on apologizing, you kept on ignoring me." The voice is from Marvelus, the voice became louder, meaning they are already at Alessia's door.

"You think it's such a small thing, I will lose my family's honor because of this, you can run to your family again, because it is allowed for your faction to quit, it is allowed for your faction to change the range of contenders, but what does that leave me?" I can hear Amara's voice cracking in between, It is not the usual scary, cold and harsh voice that comes out of her mouth.

"We may be rich, we may be had it all, but being a contender gives us honor, not all of us faction one are gifted with knowledge, and I am glad my family have that. But I am stripping them of it because a random boy shook my heart!" Amara says before we hear a glass shatters. Afterwards she lets out a huge cry. I am waiting for Marvelus to console her. He didn't, instead I hear a foosteps running.

I look at everyone's faces, I can't fathom Alistair's but I am sure he is liking what he is hearing. Meanwhile, Alessia seems to be guilty and happy at the same time. Atleast they knew what to feel about hearing this, I could only feel the heaviness in my heart for what we are about to do.

Amara's cries goes louder, loud enough that I heard a weird sound on the other door, maybe he got awaken from his sleep because Amara's cries are loud enough to wake people.

I hear footsteps running, Amara stops, until I hear Marvelus. "We are going to the records section, we are going to steal your file and make sure you are going home with your honor." Marvelus says, momentarily after, we heard footsteps. Until we no longer did.

None of us had left the room until there was complete presence of silence. All I could think of is the records section Marvelus is talking about, is it possible for me to have access in it, I wanted to know if there are more informations in which I know nothing of. But, Am I willing to sacrifice the calmness my mind has of not knowing all of things?

"Hey, It is time for us to go." I hear Alistair says as he taps my elbow, both of us bid oir goodbye to Alessia, I noticed that we left her untied, but I refuse to tell Alistair, She can now breathe, and there is no reason for her to climb the walls again, I will be granting her wish, through Dion.

Both of us reach my room, Alistair says goodbye before entering his room which is near to mine. I lie in bed. I need to remove in my thoughts the presence of such room, I will first deal with Alessia before anything else.

The next morning, all of us are having a heart breakfast, but upon looking around, I can see that Amara has no appetite, She usually eats vegetable salad and water, but even a piece of leaf hadn't entered her mouth, Marvelus however, stuff his mouth with all sorts of food, as if this is his last meal at the centrus.

The bell rang, but it was different this time, the melody of the alarms of the centrus are usually with tone with cool melody, not too high, not too low, just the right amount, however this tone had a hint of sadness in it. I know it now, When a male voice speaks out of the speakers surrounding the cafeteria, my hunch has been confirmed.

"Good Afternoon, 23rd contenders, You may now bid your Goodbye to Amara Sevilina, a contender from the Faction one." The male voice says before flashing some random clips of Amara in the center, ending with a photo of Amara in her keycard. All of us had keycard, I think it was just a normal ID, but the facilitators address it as keycard since we use it to access everything, food, room, even the books. After the clips of Amara played, The voice is heard again.

"And also to Marvelus Torres, a contender from faction two." Random clips are played, until the photo of him in his keycard also appears.

"You have three hours to say your goodbye, The aforementioned contenders will leave at exactly 10 o'clock in the morning." The voice ended, the holographic screen in the center also disappears.

I am thinking whether I should give her a hug or not? I am recalling whether or not she did something nice. But my instinct says so, even if she didn't, that defines her, that doesn't define me.

I stand up, walk towards Amara and gave her a hug, she hugged back a few seconds late but i am glad she did. I walk past Marvelus when he was expecting for one hug, If I hadn't heard there conversation last night i would have, But I did, and yes, I don't like her.

While approaching our table. It suddenly hit me. They were leaving at 10 o'clock in the morning, that means in 3 hours, we also have to prepare for our departure.