Ruin My Life

"It's fine, Zeal. You can keep this territory if I go with her. Hey, I want to know more about you before I agree to this. Who are you? What are your motives?" I asked the red-haired girl.

"Perception... that's your thing. I wouldn't be far-fetched if I assumed you knew about me being foreign to this Isle, would I?" She asked me. I shook my head. She looked different, I'd never seen a girl with red hair... or red eyes.

"I'm from Earth. I'm a leader down there in one of the last seven cities. I'm here to look for my sister. Have you seen a girl with red hair like me?" Nova asked us. Zeal shook his head, as her question was directed at him.

"I see. Well, that doesn't matter. I want this Isle as a backup for my city. I'll gladly take you under my wing, but if you refuse then... I'll have to kill every single one of you." She declared.

"Why?! That doesn't even make sense! We did nothing to you so why do you want to kill us?!" Zeal yelled out again. I could feel the tension rise within the forest. I kept watching around us while Zeal spoke.

"Because Arkians deserve to die for the crimes they've committed," Nova added.

Oh? This just got a lot more interesting.

"What crimes are you talking about? As far as I know, our species is relatively new! Only eight years at the oldest!" Zeal yelled out.

"Four hundred, to be precise. Your kind has committed atrocities against humans for so, very long, I'm here to exact revenge. You will be contained on this beach until further notice. We need to keep close watch over you." She said, walking backward from her position.

"Orion, what are you thinking? What should we do?" Zeal asked me, tugging on the sleeve of my shirt. I tried to analyze our surroundings more, watching for an opening, no matter how slight it was.

The gazes from the forest were getting more and more hostile. It almost made me feel sick as I slowly tilted my head and moved my eyes to watch them all focus on me. The girl said that she wanted me to join, but she never said how easy she would let me. Were they going to hurt me?

"Zeal, do you have a weapon of any kind on you? Anything will work." I asked him in a whisper. Zeal passed me a knife from his pocket, probably meant for skinning animals. I grabbed it, looking back to the forest.

I slowly noticed what Zeal had mentioned before. Today was my first day on the Isle, yet here I am ready to fight for my life. I shouldn't have any prior knowledge, yet I'm ready to kill if I need to do so. I'm so prepared to defend my own life that I started to believe Zeal in what he was saying before. Something I didn't want to listen to about our past was slowly coming true.

"We'll be back later tonight for the trade. Tell your friends goodbye before we come back to this exact location." The girl said, finally turning around and walking into the shrubbery in the forest. The gazes followed right behind her and eventually joined. While she was hidden, Zeal began to speak up.

"Does the name Deity mean anything to you?!" Zeal yelled out to her. I could feel her eyes turn toward the two of us.

"Wherever you heard that name from, you should forget it. I do know that name, but you shouldn't." The girl said, finally leaving for good.

"I have an idea, albeit terrible, but it's an idea, to get to Earth." Zeal said, taking the lead in walking back.

"You're thinking about using your knowledge of Deity to your advantage to get to Earth... but there's no way the girl would let you bring all of your people, would she?" I asked him, but he didn't seem concerned.

"Getting to Earth would push our plans into full drive. I could establish order there with the knowledge I know and bring everybody there. Then, you could claim this Isle for your own. See? I just have to convince the girl to bring me with her to Earth." Zeal explained.

"If you say so... but what makes you so confident that she'll bring you to Earth with her? She says the perceptive guy would be good in her ranks, you must have a lot to offer than you're keeping secret." I joked around, but he nodded his head.

"Out of everything I told you about the Deity, the one thing I wanted to emphasize was her need for a successor. That Deity contacted me personally and told me I'm a candidate to be her next successor with a latent power I have." Zeal explained. What he said made me pretty suspicious about his character.

"Why didn't you tell me you were so powerful?" I asked him.

"I wanted to make sure you were a good man. Offering yourself up like that in place of all of my people dying... that's noble. You're a good man, Orion. I want you to take care of everybody while I'm gone... if that's not too much to ask." Zeal said.

"It's not, but to trust me so fast? I know nothing about deception, but it seems a little too quick to believe in me with all of your people so quickly, right?" I asked. Zeal nodded and laughed a little.

"You're right, but your uncertainty and actions speak a lot more than anything else you've said. I know you mean well, even if you don't believe you've proved it with your words. I believe my people will be in good hands. I'll give you the layout for the transporter and then once you finish it, you can come to visit me someday." Zeal explained.

"Huh? You don't plan to come back?" I asked him back. Zeal shook his head, explaining that reforming the Earth and creating a sanctuary for everybody would take far too long and require too much of his presence to come back to visit. I didn't want to question it, so I just dealt with it.

"Then I'll take care of what goes on up here. So, we should go explain to your people what you plan to do." I told Zeal, but he shook his head again.

"We should go tell our people what I plan to do. Let's go." He said, picking up the pace and standing on top of an overhanging rock, leaning upon a cliff.

"Hey! Guys! I have some news for us!" Zeal shouted out. Moonlight turned up towards him, as did Alba, Dante, and the others. It looked like they returned from their trip as well. So many people willingly gave Zeal their attention with no delay. The respect they had for him made me envious. I was greedy for what he had.

"The news is probably not what you wanted to hear... as you can see, standing next to me is Orion. He is a White Stone like I am. Today, the two of us ran into a mysterious figure who demanded that one of us follow them down to Earth. As some of you are familiar with our big goal, this is huge! But... they only demanded that one of us go down there." Zeal said. The crowd paused after briefly cheering, waiting for Zeal to finish.

"Orion here volunteered to go down to Earth to keep me with you guys, but the person demanded that I go down to Earth due to what I've learned in the statue. I hope you all remember what information I shared with you." Zeal continued. I took close notice of the crowd's devoted attitude to Zeal. But, I couldn't help but notice Zeal was lying to them.

"I've tasked Orion with taking my place while I go to investigate. Once I come back and convince them to let us join them, we'll be given that second chance at the life we finally deserve! Hope is on the horizon, so I ask that you trust Orion and me as your leaders who will ultimately bring you all toward salvation." Zeal finished his speech and jumped down from the rock. I followed right behind him.

The crowd seemed to have understood his message. They were smiling, some of them were tearing up, and others were already approaching me to ask questions. I wanted to come off as a nice guy, I hadn't done anything wrong, but the conscience of Zeal lying to them was weighing on me more than it was on him.

…

Once everybody left the area after about an hour of talking to Zeal and me, I walked over to him, waiting to ask him why he lied.

"Well, it's simple. If I lie to my friends and they find out after so many years of blindly trusting me, wouldn't that make them angry?" Zeal asked me. I nodded, but I must've been missing his point.

"I want these people to trust you, to be devoted to you. So, I know this may be asking for a lot, but I want you to expose me once the girl gets here. Tell the people that I volunteered to be taken down to fulfill my selfish desires, and they will listen to you. You are the whistleblower that will unite the people and become their leader. You get your wish, I get mine." Zeal stated.

It was a selfish strategy... yet I could be on board with it. I would get what I wanted, but for Zeal to throw away four years of devotion and friendship so easily... maybe I didn't know everything about him.

"Alba is in on this already, I've spoken to her, but nobody else knows. Moonlight has been left in the dark, so you can impress her once you tell them the truth. The plan has been set into motion." Zeal explained.

"If you say so. I think there's another way to do this... but I'll listen to your judgment." I told him. Zeal laughed quietly as the chatter from the people around us started to kick back up.

"If you want something, you play off of the rage of others. People are easily manipulated when they're blinded by rage. When you tell them I lied and they're blinded by that rage, you make the call to become their leader. I've laid out the plan, you just have to follow it." He explained.