Firefly

|Ch. 24|

We inched our way still crawling in the small vent as dust began to build up in front of me. With every move, I heard faint murmuring coming from an open vent above a room. Megan turned around and placed her hand above her mouth in the "shhh" position. She edged her way over the vent quietly as I gazed down on Mrs. Collins and Mr. Bates having a serious conversation. Megan tried to urge me on but I stopped in my tracks and looked down at both of them.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Mr. Bates asked.

I watched as Mrs. Collins face turned into a half smile as she replied, "I am positive."

Megan tried to turn herself around as I shook my head at her trying to concentrate on the conversation below me.

"We have a full plan in force for this to happen," Mrs. Collins said reassuring Mr. Bates.

"Are you sure Sally will follow everything?"

"Positive. We plan on having Olivia direct her tomorrow to Alex's "secret place." They will meet and fall in love there is no doubting that," Mrs. Collins stated.

My face was in utter shock as I looked down at the two of them tapping their feet on the ground nervously. Megan was still turning back studying my every facial expression making sure I didn't snap.

I just couldn't believe that they were going to plan them meeting. Is this how it worked? Did they make a whole elaborate plan when I met Brian or was it just fate when we met?

"Are you sure he will be there?" Mr. Bates probed.

"He will. We will make sure of that. Our plan will work Mr. Bates. You just watch."

"And what about her?" Mr. Bates disgustfully mentioned.

"Maddie? She will be taken care of tomorrow. We plan on taking her at around the same time. We figured that she would like to watch all of this happen before....Well you know."

Megan's eyes widened at me as she held her hand up to her mouth. I looked at her with fight in my eyes. She shook her head as to remind me to wait. I nodded and looked down at both of them sneering.

"What about the other one?" Mrs. Collins reminded.

"Megan? Just get rid of her after. She is nothing but a nuisance."

Megan looked at me ready to turn around and cause a commotion. I stared at her with a pleading look in my eyes as she crouched there in stillness.

"So, it is settled, tomorrow afternoon. Make sure this whole place is on lockdown for this. This is the most important time and I don't want anything to disrupt this," Mrs. Collins affirmed.

Mr. Bates slowly nodded his head as they both exited the room. Looking up at Megan, I could tell the look of anger in her expression.

Worriedly, I wanted to mutter a sorrowful apology to her but nothing came off my lips. If there is not a commotion tomorrow by the two of us, then we will die.

"Do they plan out how people meet? Is that how this works?" I questioned.

Megan looked back at me with teary eyes. She tried to control her sobbing but I noticed a trail of tears escaping from her eyes. I held back my thoughts as I tried hard not to join her. At this time, I couldn't show weakness. They couldn't take our happiness from us. We were going to fight back even harder.

"Not always. Sometimes they do to push people together sooner. This time, they are doing it out of spite."

I stared down into the quiet office with a huge stack of file drawers located on one side of the room. The desk was neatly maintained as the large cushy black chair was situated behind of it. I crouched down almost laying on my stomach to get a better view of a screen flashing in front. I saw blinking dots moving around as I looked over at the name plate on the table labeled, "Mr. Bates." I guess they always had eyes on us.

"What about Olivia? They paired her with Brian? Didn't she have a soulmate?" I asked.

Megan sighed deeply as she muttered up the next words to say. Her head hung low as her medium brown hair covered up her expression. Something in me was telling me to not even dare to interrupt her.

"Considering that she is the company's daughter, I am guessing they gave her a fake necklace and she was able to choose her soulmate in the end," Megan replied.

I looked down at the tidy desk wanting desperately to rip a part everything located on it.

"How do we not get to choose, but she does?"

"He rigged the system, it's his daughter. She can do whatever she wants," Megan tiringly replied.

I looked at the picture frame perfectly placed at the top of desk with a picture of Olivia in it standing beside her dad beaming. Everything in me wanted to tear it up to shreds. My heart began to pound even harder as I tried to control the anger welling up inside of me. I squished my forehead together trying to remember if the first time I saw Olivia if she was wearing a necklace. Nothing. I couldn't even remember what she was wearing let alone if she was wearing a necklace.

My mind flashed to when I met her with her dad here and a tanging pang hit me as I realized she was wearing my necklace that matched Brian's. She had my life now and there was no denying that. However, Brian wasn't what I wanted anymore. I had almost forgotten about him considering I was so focused on seeing Alex all the time. I even had reacuring dreams about him being taken away from me.

"Do you get nightmares too? Please tell me I'm not the only one that's going crazy," I asked with a shaky tone in my voice.

"No, you're not alone. I dream all the time about what's it would be like standing in that spotlight holding onto every inch of me that I had left and then flashing back on all the regrets that I had made," Megan replied.

"You don't regret this, do you?"

"Not at all. I had a mission in my head to be with Matt forever and that will never change. Even if I die, it won't end. There will still be more people challenging the system for decades and killing us off won't change anything, until they kill you," Megan stuttered.

"Kill me? What about me?" I questioned.

"You are special to them. You are the one that is going to be shown on all the classrooms about what will happen if anyone disobeys the rules. Ultimately, you're the only one that's left of us that can beat the system and escape."

"Well can't we just take them now? I mean I could punch them in a heart beat. I have enough anger in me to last through a good couple of rounds," I said holding my fists above my face.

"Don't let it out here. Look it's now or never so we have to fight back tomorrow. I think you have it in you and we are going to try with everything we have got to escape," Megan comfortingly said.

"But what about the guards?"

"Don't worry. I have that covered."

I looked at her as she beamed with courage flashing a million-dollar smile at me.

"So, what's the plan?" I interrogated.

Megan looked down at the office and back up at me with a strain in her voice and said, "I can't tell you that. Because, I can't have you hoping that everything will turn out perfectly. I have a plan and you just have to trust me that I will be there, okay? I have to have you acting as normal as possible for this whole plan to work. If you had any knowledge of what was about to go down between us and them, it could ruin it all. Just believe me."

I hesitantly stared at her as she lifted her arm behind her and took my hand into hers gripping it hard with affirmation. She let go and half heartedly smiled at me with tears in her eyes.

"It's now or never, huh?" I said.

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Dear gosh next week it all goes down! I can't believe that by next Thursday, my last chapter will be out for this book. What did you think of this chapter? I got all deep and in the feels with it and decided to explain a bit more about the Olivia situation since some of you were confused so I hope that cleared it all up! Get ready for Monday you guys!! AHH!