𝔸𝕟𝕕 𝕀𝕗 𝕀 𝔻𝕚𝕖 [ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕕]

꧁ ℂ𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟽 ℙ𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝟸 - 𝔸𝚗𝚍 𝙸𝚏 𝙸 𝙾𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜 ꧂

꧁ 𝔸𝕕𝕒'𝕤 ℙ.𝕆.𝕍 ꧂

Min lets me listen to the recording. The officer asks her questions about where she had been on that day, and what she did, and if she saw anyone going near or into the president's office. She answered all plainly and calmly, with a simple yes or no, or a short answer, without blundering at all. She doesn't seem suspicious in any way. Now it's my turn to carry on the police's confusion. I need to focus and be clear-headed before my questioning today, and we're both scheduled to have a lie detector test after my interrogation, so we need to be calm. Min and I spend the morning before our shift gardening, because I bought some cute, tiny, potted plants the week before, and we water those and watch the sun rise.

I didn't realise the impact. When I walk out of the apartment building, all I can see in the sky is the president's emotion switch, off, and all I can hear all around me is Officer Gray's voice and the booming laughter of the president. Citizens are everywhere, and they are all either enraged, scared or shocked. Those loyal to the president refuse the news, they say on social media that it is a tampered audio, and Officer Gray was blackmailed to say the truth. Well he wasn't, only intoxicated. Gasps are all that I can hear as I walked towards to café with Min, and many are frowning, or their mouths hang open in shock. It was as if they had finally woke up from a hallucination, a hallucination that we should idolise, worship and obey these mechanical robot officials, but finally woke up and saw how human they were. We are free from the delusion that the government had put us into, a never ending, seemingly-perfect dream. Some didn't take this well, and others took it very well, but neither could escape one thing: the truth, the truth that our world is a lie.

At the café, people gather around in circles around tables and whisper amongst each other, and the topic of their discussion is obvious, though unspoken. This means extra good business for us as more and more people come in to buy a hot drink and a warm pastry on this icy day, sit in groups and gossip about the phenomenon hanging in the air, literally, outdoors. Min and I are kept busy throughout our whole shift, we are given endless orders, serving and cleaning endless tables, asked our opinion on the incident, though we try to keep quiet about it. It's funny, how we started this and now we're asked what we think about it, as if we're bystanders and not the cause. Eventually, we have to make a rule where you can't hog a table for more than an hour because so many are reluctant to leave the warm ambience of the café, the fresh rumours and the delicious food and drink, but we can't let the latecomers stand, everyone needs to sit. Even with the rule, nobody leaves the café for the cold, biting wind outside, and the customers end up taking turns standing and sitting, so they don't break our rule, yet still get a mouthful of food and gossip.

Min and I reward ourselves after the long shift with a fancy and rather large portion of an ice mocha drink with a huge dollop of whipped cream on top and a generous amount of caramel drizzle. Because we have to pay for the drinks from the café even as an employee, we usually don't buy expensive items off the menu, and stick to homemade coffee, or just a latte or a simple black when we can't wait, and are desperate, but today, after the register count, we've earned three times as much as we do on average, and we've served hundreds of customers in just five hours with no break, and we definitely deserve a reward. We head back to my apartment, sipping our drinks and watching the footage that keeps replaying over and over again in the sky. We're tired, and Min tells me how badly she wants to flop onto the couch, I agree. The only problem is, when we reach my room door, there are armed police standing there already, waiting for us.

"Can I at least bring my drink?" "Whatever, just shut up and follow the instructions." "Okay." I keep quiet and try to keep my drink hidden. I look over at Min who smiles encouragingly then breaks eye contact before the police can notice. I feel the phone in my pocket, and I hope it's concealed well in my baggy attire, if I had worn tight pants, the police would have noticed and confiscated it. The handcuffs are tight and uncomfortably cold, but before they put them on I had managed to press the record button, and now my phone is actively keeping track of everything being said. We're driven in separate police cars until we reach the Zenith. "Why not the police station?" "It might help you recall something, and the environment might cause you to, well, slip us anything, maybe." "What? You think we're the guilty ones?" The police officer beside me nudges me in the ribs, as a cue to shut my mouth, but the head officer is calm when he replies, "No, not necessarily, but as the saying goes, to break a criminal, you bring them to the crime scene."

The head of police shows his badge to security, who lets the cops through but scans us for unauthorised weapons, then lets us all into the building. Min is told to wait outside the interrogation room where I'll be questioned, and I can tell she's calming herself down before the lie detector test after my interview, which will determine if we live or die. I try to calm myself too. The head of police asks two other officers to be security inside the room to stand next to me while he questions me, assigns two officers to guard the door from inside the room, then assigns two other officers to guard the door from outside the room. Then he makes the rest go keep a strict eye on Min. I sit down on the cold metal chair and my handcuffs are removed. The officer sits across me and places his interlaced fingers on the tabletop. To get through the questioning unscathed, I must be confident but calm, but only if I dominate. And if I intimidate. And if I control.

And If I Oppress.

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