I Am Fictional Real

Chapter 4: You Don't Believe Me

          My ciphers could talk to the machine, and it could talk to her. I had a hunch that the reason that no one could survive these half-baked attempts at rescue was because they were pulled out without warning. The body was susceptible to shock when pulled away from the VR experience without warning- even fake VR. Bellieka just got lucky with me. I could talk her down with my ciphers, and I could release her from virtual prison. Alinak just gaped at my ability, gripping one of the oblong chairs that had been released a long time ago.
           "Who are you people?" Bellieka freaked.
           I clicked away on my APCA. Bellieka was an activist in her time and she often chatted with LACEI online. With me. I knew saying my real name wasn't enough for her, and I didn't want her to do what I did when I awakened.
           "You asked me what the best course of action was when running from Attin's police. I told you that the best course was to never make your life public enough to get caught," I sighed.
            Bellieka's stuttering body froze. "You're LACEI?"
              I nodded, turning my head to Alinak who continued to look surprised. I took in breath. "If either of you tell anyone about this, I will not hesitate." From within the opposite arm came an open panel that had a large gun. There was no reason to retract it from its hold because their shuttering reaction was enough. The gun tousled itself back into its compartment before I stood tall and pulled Bellieka with me.
           "Things have happened," I told her. "You were put into a fake R machine, and you were stuck in stasis for about 100 years."
            She jostled her gas mask. "Are you serious? I was being put in the electric chair for what I did, and I thought that was some distorted Hell."
               I could smell the toxic air corrupting my lungs, and I turned to Alinak. We had to go. There were only two gas masks, and I could feel myself getting light-headed. Alinak guided us both to the car where I managed to catch my breath, and everyone was still staring at me like it was unbelievable that I existed.
             I still pondered Bellieka's words. She seemed nonchalant about being put in the electric chair, but I remembered the news stating it. When I went into the marble building all those years ago, there was no one else in the room but Doctor Kresh and I, and I didn't even think taking convicts against the state was legal. THey had to have paid Attin off, or maybe they were working with Attin. I should have had more information on this, and it was bugging me that I didn't.
               "So, are you not going to talk about being LACEI?" Alinak said in complete monotone.
               He started driving back to the place we started, and I couldn't help but stare at him in awe. He had guts.
               "LACEI, as far as you need to be concerned, isn't here. I'm Esinna Valunett," I growled.
               He turned to me. "You are LACEI, and LACEI is important to our society at home. Why would you hide that?"
                "LACEI would do anything to hid that she is a real person. She wouldn't waltz the streets and announce to everyone that she created political chaos even a hundred years later when cities got destroyed. I only revealed myself because Bellieka wouldn't have listened to strangers knocking her out of stasis, huh?"
                 "But you're the LACEI."
                 I rolled my eyes. "I'm no more special than you, Alinak. I just decided that when Mom and Dad became indentured servants to the state that I needed to invoke change in the people. You or anyone could have done the same."
                "No one could of done it like you," he said in admiration. His driving slowed. "Your works are only popular because they tell the truth. Your fiction, your blog, your poetry, your articles. One thing about all of them is that they're not cut back by Attin at all."
                  I stayed silent. People like Alinak were exactly why I never wanted to come out into the public even after the chaos ended. Alinak drove on away from the city.
                 "Alinak," I started. "This was never for me. Or the people. I never wanted to be the most popular author or activist. My only goal all those years was to be the best sister." I took in a breath. "And I couldn't even do that."
                  Alinak shut his mouth and turned to the road. The trees were beginning to take over any sign of silver road, and I noticed the trees beginning to sway. The car was getting slower by the second. I was sure Alinak noticed it too because he tried to press on the gas, but the car wasn't reciprocating. He shut off the car and paused. His eyes were blank on the wheel. 
                "Bellieka," he said.
                He and I turned around to find her gripping both doors for dear life. She had been holding on so strongly that the doors were beginning to cave in on her frame. How? She immediately released her hands when she noticed we were staring. The doors, all bent out of shape, began to revert back to the way they were before she gripped them. Her fast breath began to lower, and Alinak turned to me. His eyes were sharp and darkened by battle, unlike the soft glow of Rantorm's eyes.
                "Esinna," he said, slowly like he was pronouncing it for the first time. "There are things you don't remember, don't you? After stasis?"
                 After? "This is after stasis. I've been asleep for a hundred years," I said.
                 Bellieka turned away and looked out of the window. Alinak sighed. "I'll have to show you when we get back. There's a public archive in one of the houses you need to see."

                We managed to get back in one piece, and Bellieka didn't bend the car every which way. I was still trying to figure out how she managed that. Alinak sent her to the hospital to be analyzed, and he pulled me swiftly down the streets to a large, dusty house. People were filtering in and out of it like it was just a museum to stare at. But Alinak said this was archives.  Archives of... our history? Of LACEI? Of the marble building?
              When we made it inside, it was both virtual and physical copies of paper books. There were articles and magazines lying haphazardly over the floor, and there were children running up and down aisles of books. This house had its walls taken away to make room for those bookshelves, but there was an upstairs. It seemed to be cut away from the chaos of everything else, and there was a huge, bold label above the staircase.
               PHENOMENON.
              Alinak did not hesitate going up the cryptic staircase into the darkness above. The room up here had one shelf lined against the wall, and there was a monitor in the middle of the room. The monitor glowed orange and had a blinking square on the left end. However, there wasn't a keyboard. It was just... there as the only light on in the room.
             "No one comes up here anymore," Alinak whispered. "No one wants to face the real, hard truth. They'll read your fiction, but they will not acknowledge what you did."
              I pulled away from him and paced the room. "What did I do?"
              "Computer, tell me what a Phenomenon is."
              The computer processed for a second. "A FACT OR SITUATION THAT IS OBSERVED TO EXIST OR HAPPEN, ESPECIALLY ONE WHOSE CAUSE OR EXPLANATION IS IN QUESTION." The computer clicked. "IT IS ALSO THE WORD FOR THOSE WITH SUPER POWER-LIKE ABILITIES SUCH AS LACEI'S ABILITY TO DESTROY ALL FORMS OF TECHNOLOGY."
              "What?" I said. "What does that mean?"
              Alinak paced back and forth in the room. "It was a year before you were born when the first Phenomenon came to be. His real name was Jeko Sarper. Online? He went by-"
              "ARSER. That man was my idol growing up."
               I was ten years-old when he got stabbed in the neck by one of Attin's goons, but he had such a sense of justice. I used to joke with Lanien about being him when I was older.
               "He could fly. Did you know that?" Alinak spat. "In your time, there were people that had plans to destroy people like that so that he could reign as dictator without heroes getting in the way. One of his lackeys named Akalirng made the marble building and stuck people in stasis where he would concentrate their power to make electricity for the world. It worked until he got a hold of you."
               I tried not to look at him. His gaze was fierce and brooding, and he knew that this conversation was freaking me out.
              "Phenomenon don't know they're a Phenomenon until they get into a stressful situation that makes them lose control. Bellieka had super strength. You saw that. Look what you did."
                The monitor showed video footage of the marble building from a flying car. They seemed to be passing it with no worries in their eye recording augments. I saw the wave coming from the center, a large electric wave that went across the skies. There was a shout that came with it.
              "DON'T THINK I'M OVER NOW."
               A quote from my bio page on my blog. Fitting. And that was my voice. The camera cut as the car began to descend into the street. I gulped.
              "Attin wanted you dead. All Phenomenon were going to be used like energy sources forever. You saved most of them," Alinak grinned.
               I leaned against the wall. "I killed people!" LACEI wasn't about killing anyone.
               Alinak pulled me into a hug and hid my face from the room. "I told you that no one could have done it like you. Esinna, we need your help now."
               I pulled away. "With what?"
​​​​​​​               "Akalirng is still alive."