Chapter Eleven, The Play Of Fate.

Another understanding of life is that the cycle cannot be broken. It can only be paused, delayed but never stopped infinitely. Legends are reborn over ages to die once again. Scum are created once more to destroy again. It's simple yet complicated for all beings to understand that this world only repeats itself, it's not creative, it's not gifted, it's no heaven. It's nothing but a prison that never upgrades it cell bars, the iron rusts but never the core falls.

These muddy streets misty with smoke, those laser robotic lights hitting everyone, the smell of fuel and cheap perfume, the mob's garlic soups in the midst of the cold nights, all under the unifying black skies erupting with impure acidic rain that every sunken eye in this world waits for, it's all nothing but a portrait of hell, a nightmare where no one realizes they're asleep, where everyone wishes to accomplish nothing but surviving a decade more.

But maybe the warmth of a small wooden haven in the corners of the suburbs can wipe away a burden, it's tranquility can fix a broken hinge within them, because simplicity was enough to trigger peace for the poor, it was enough to erase the mess the industrial world has suffocated them with, and so, Merit was a benefactor from this small heaven she stumbled upon.

The words the old lady said sent a shiver down Merit's spine as she tried to tie a memory to this lady but with no success, "Do I know you?" She asked as she ignored the fact she just broke into her house.

"Oh, silly me! You must have forgotten me. But it doesn't matter, come, have a seat. The cake is almost ready." The old lady trembled as she laughed to hide her first words to Merit, she ushered Merit to sit on a chair on the other side of the fireplace facing her, and when the yellow light of the fire cleared the lady's image, Merit found see the remains of once a beautiful woman, having her white hair braided on her shoulder, a beautiful glimmering golden eyes that looked exactly like Merit's and a necklace that she hid behind her simple grey dress. The lady looked like she's in her 60's but had the beauty to still stun anyone who sees her.

"I'm sorry I entered like that.." Merit Shamefully apologized as she stuck her eyes to the ground afraid to face the lady.

"It's alright!" She giggled as she continued sewing, "Some accidents are meant to happen, right?"

"Accidents?"

"Well, you see, I believe in fate myself, young lady. And I believe you're here for a reason." She said, "And how rude of me! Name's Menda, Or at least that's what they call me." she continued.

"Oh..Mine is Merit.." Merit said with her cheeks turning red not only due to the warmth she felt, but fact she was shy.

"Merit! What's a sweet name, so, tell me, it's true you love cinnamon cake and hot chocolate drink? I think it's a beautiful combination."

"Yes, I love it. It's my favorite." Merit trembled as Menda got up and went to the kitchen to get the cake and drink, Merit felt weird thinking of the fact she expected to see a hundred years old witch considering the fact that this house looked quite weird.

"This is weird. I think you should leave." whispered Elvey as he warned Merit who quickly pushed him back to her pocket as Menda came out with the freshly baked cinnamon cake and hot chocolate drink that almost made Merit's jaws to drop and engulf the entire plate all by herself, she did have quite a huge appetite.

"I can't thank you eno-"

"Thank me for what? It's the small act of kindness that makes the sun shine another day, sweetie."

"I haven't seen the sun in a while" Laughed Merit as she took the plate from Menda who breathed heavily as she sat down due to her age.

"It's a sad world, indeed." Sighed Menda.

"True..."

"For a child your age to move around the city with that heavy weight on your shoulders is nothing but a shame on us, the elders who couldn't provide you a better place."

"Blaming no longer works, slipping money into my pocket does." muttered Merit with her mouthful of food in an unlady like manner that made Menda giggle a bit when she pieced the words together.

"These are stolen goods, aren't they?" Asked Menda as Merit choked on the cake and struggled to drink the hot chocolate drink to breathe.

"E-excuse me?!" Coughed Merit.

"Nevermind, you seem hungry, eat well."

"If you're very curious they definitely are."

Merit slowed down when eating and tried to act a bit more behaved as a gloomy tone changed the atmosphere around both of them.

"I know all about everything going on in this city, Merit." Menda said, Merit's eyes focused on Menda leaving the empty plate she had almost licked on the table beside the fireplace.

"You know, from the mayor's mad mistress to the hideout, everything is stored right here." Menda said, pointing with her finger to her head showing how much she knows about this city.

"I've spent so much time seeing these scandals, you know, these worn out eyes have seen a lot of terrible things in here."

"But Jacklot isn't as bad as Ilusia..It's still better at least for me."

"Ilusia is where the idiots think they're rich with two pennies in their pocket. These ripped suits and dirty yellow teeth of a thirty years old youngster makes them proud thinking they've a fortune in their banks while in reality, it's useless since they'll die with a heart attack in their late thirties. It's a circus. Everyone is a clown in their own circle, convincing each other they're racing for glory, what a waste. An entire generation is losing time for something unattainable.."

"At least Jacklot doesn't have that much robots.." Merit innocently replied to Menda's heartfelt words while she sipped the chocolate listening.

"Ahh, the glorious machines! What a pleasuring eyesight it was when they first came, we'd wait for hours in the scorching sun to watch Milasic's robot performance, but now, it's no longer amusing, these days it feels quite boring and..noisy."

"They're everywhere now"

"They're slowly replacing us, Merit."

"And who's to blame?"

"It's us..it's always us.."

Silence went on between the two for few minutes till Merit got up in a hurry with a terrified expression, "I'm late!!" She cried as she hurried to her bag and stumbled across the furniture with Menda watching her from her place.

"Thank you again!!" Said Merit as she carried her heavy bag painfully, "The cake was delicious! I haven't tasted anything like it in ages!" Merit thanked Menda as she hurried to the door to leave.

"Remember, Merit" Menda said, stopping her.

"I'll wait for your visit, there's enough cake for both of us."

Merit smiled and ran out with her heart filled with an unexplained pleasure and her insides burning with genuine warmth, it was the happiness of a child that the world mercilessly robbed them of, but a single lady gave her it back.

When one speaks about happiness, certain concepts are forced into its mold only to satisfy some, but happiness is subjective. Some might see their happiness as a floating kite in the sky, others might say it as a raise in salary, and others might smell it in a cinnamon cake at the corner of the slums.

The bells rang in the hall of the hideout and the elevators were packed with chasers who have finished their duties. Each one of them had their faces and clothes stained with dirt and most of them looked lifeless, they were pushed to their limits and exhaustion was the norm.

In the last elevator came the breathless little chaser with the heavy bag bending her back painfully as she jumped out of th elevator and ran towards the main hall looking around her in fear of being late.

As she ran across the hall, the last girl entered the equipment room had the door closed behind her by the main instructor.

The instructor who was called Kaela looked down on Merit with her eyebrows crossed looking like a nightmarish monster, she quickly grabbed the bag from Merit and pushed her aside and inspected the content of the bag, then, she placed it within the eextractor's line and held the terrified girl from her dirty jacket, sniffing her like a dog.

"You smells like food, isn't that strange you little filth?"

"I-I stumbled up-"

"shhh! Shut your dirty mouth you little brat, I'll show you true discipline."

The instructor shouted with a fistful of merit's clothes swaying the little girl around as she cried, Kaela called the guards who she ordered to lock her in the solitary cell for two days, and as Merit heard that word, she felt nothing but the tension of her bones and hot tears closing her eyes.

"Stop resisting!" Shouted the guard who dragged Merit across the hall shamefully with all the chasers and others looking down at her. Some showed genuine sadness, some didn't even look but others laughed at her as if she was their arch enemy.

Merit closed her eyes, hoping for one she could be Halluncinating, but she wasn't. As she felt her body no longer respond, feeling the shame stinging her skin and the pain caused by the tight grip of the guards alongside their continuous lashes that hurt her weary body even more, she felt her insides boiling with a new profound feeling she has never experienced, it was hatred, the hatred that would light up the entire hideout with all those who laughed at her hung on the ranking board, this fire wasn't meant to be ever put out, it's the fire that this world longed for.

Between the four eyeless walls Merit glued herself to the corner of this depressing dull room, "just for a damn piece of cake.." She sighed, burying her head between her legs and drying the still beating anger inside her, the room was lit by only a small white light on a shelf making the atmosphere even more eerie.

Merit begun tracing the pain on her skin only to find bruises and wounds from the painful lashes she took on her way here.

"It's okay, Merit. Remember, everything happens for a reason." Elvey popped out of her pocket w

As he swayed around due to his Low Battery that Merit forgot to change, he waddled till her shut down beside Merit who held him tearfully and even felt more miserable.

"Just exactly what I needed" She cried as she walked across the room and out him on the wooden bed she'd sleep on as a punishment.

She kept moaning in pain from the wounds covering her body, as she took off her dirty clothes and threw them on the bed beside Elvey, but as she did so, she found a strange item behind her clothes, her weary state didn't prevent her from acquiring the usual curiosity that stings one's mind over the slightest detail that our minds ignore in moments of pain and gloom.

"Familiar?" She asked herself as she held the item which was the only reasonable item to exist at such a place and time. It's the work of either fate or intelligence.

It was the diary once again. Merit could only do nothing but hit her head to remember when did this come here with her but it was futile, she had no strength left to debate with herself, she preferred to add it to the list of all the unexplainable events she had accumulated this far.

As she lied down on her bed beside Elvey, the pain got worse, but her mind chose to focus on this mysterious book that for a child like her sounded like a magic book that would take her to another world and so, she didn't hesitate.

She opened the first page, squeezing her eyes to read the words written by ink. Merit could hardly read correctly, she received a little education but managed to get as far as reading and writing.

Date: 23rd of February 1975.

Hello. It's sounds a bit unusual for me to find time for such a useless activity but I felt the need to do so now. If I need to introduce myself then I'd say I'm the same face you see everyday on your way to work, the typical man with the same face, suitcase and uniform. I mean, nothing against the empire but we all look the same, right?

I'm Jackson Fenely, I'm approaching my late fifties. I have two sons, Both of them are grown up now. Oh boy! How time flies. I work as the secretary of a huge official in Milasic's industries under the rule of Wilies Antherford, quite a stressful job..paper here, paper there, lots of shouting, sleeping on the desk for days..But, it's all for a good pay to keep my dear wife, Anette, safe and sound.

It's just the same as before. Her illness is acting up again, she's coughing violently, staying asleep for hours and hours, hardly ever I see her up and about, always stuck to this bed I can't even change.

It was all nice and rosy back in the days, back when we were young, I was the rebel type before I gave in to desk work. All before the industrial revolution carried by Milasic's industry, I recall my blueprints of artificial intelligence models that would change the world that were burnt to ashes, me and the old boys were leaders! We'd trash Milasic's offices, burn their centers, all until they imprisoned us and carried out the restriction law, forbidding the trade or manufacture of AI by the hands of common people like us, it was only legalized within the company and army, other than that, there was no way you can even think of trading them or else you're on the execution list.

I miss them. Forger, our leader, is nowhere to be found, I stopped tracking their news after I realized I've got eyes on me.

It's unfortunate... How we, the thinkers, the creators were humiliated in this way, look at us now...fugitives, workers bees, tightly choking with our neckties and endless paperwork, slaves of the government. I no longer own my time.

Enough with the babbling I've written, there's a much greater feeling of confusion that has overtaken my thoughts for the last few days, I'm sensing a conspiracy.

I was passing by Willies' office yesterday, I was staying late to finish a document while the rest of the office was gone, it was just me and Willies' right hand man, Troy.

I'm not the type to overhear conversations but, there was a particular word that captured my attention when I was passing by his office.

It was.. "Kill Jen"

I stood still, amused at the resounding of the word inside my head, it does ring a bell.

I dropped the papers, to have an excuse in front of the security cameras to listen to more I'd this conversation, but what else did I need to know?

Jen..That name does ring a bell, I wasn't surprised to know that Antherford was planning to kill someone, after all, he climbed all the way up here on corpses, including the former Milasic leader, Kener.

I picked the rest of the papers knowing my knowledge of this plot doesn't help solving anything, I was just a slave to a desk, the simple man that would never be able to change anything, I went home, and here I am...the most useless old man in this world."

"Jen does ring a bell, Jack..Maybe you're not useless after all"

Merit closed the diary as her head got cramped with useless information about a man she never knew, but somehow, these words held a value, a one she's bound to know.

Because..Everything happens for a reason.