Afterward

"So what's that festival that you recently celebrated?" Olice mused. "It was the one with the witches or something?"

I watched him absentmindedly bend a strip of metal with his mind. "Oh, Halloween." I said. "It's when stupid little kids come dressed up in costumes to your house and beg for candy."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I think it was actually supposed to be about people dressing up as monsters to scare away the real monsters." I said. "Now it's just a popular thing to do, and they put candy in there for some reason."

"Did you get a lot of candy?" Olice twisted the metal into a ring.

"Nah. I'm too old to go trick-or-treating. I go dress up as a demon and scare the shit out of the kids that come to my door."

"Wow."

"Well, I mean, I give them candy afterwards." I cackled. "That is, if they haven't ran away screaming."

Olice finished the ring and delicately inscribed a little pattern into it. He admired his work in the sun for a bit, and then tossed it to me.

"Replicate that." He said and gave me a strip of metal.

I stared at the ring and then the metal. "What the hell is this going to teach me?"

"How to make jewelry to woo your fair maiden."

I shot him a hard look. "What?"

"Okay, I'm just bamboozling you." Olice strained a smile. "I just came over to talk to you about something."

"Like what?" I frowned.

"The Guild is going through some changes. They're reelecting their leaders. If somebody or another gets the spot, things are going to change drastically." He looked at me with his piercing blue gaze. Suddenly, I knew this was going to be important.

"Who are the guys?" I asked, furrowing my brow. "Is this going to affect me?"

"Yes, potentially." Olice nodded. "There are a few candidates, but the one I'm worried about is really appealing to the other leaders-"

"Wait," I interrupted, "don't you get to vote the leaders? I don't see what the problem is then."

"No, Coda isn't a democracy like the U.S." My mentor said. "The current leaders get to elect the others."

"Who's the guy then?" I asked.

"His name is Alexander Gallagher. He promises to fix all the problems in society, such as abolishing the black market, and also making a more powerful army so we won't have to worry about another world war."

"That sounds fine." I was confused. "I think you guys could be good with not having all the drugs and shit and anarchists."

Olice looked away. "But the thing is," he finally murmured "he's really nationalist. And he's also kind of obsessed with becoming the most powerful nation."

"Isn't Coda already?" I stared at him. "Cellon got kind of blown up."

"He's said that he will make sure there are no homeless and jobless."

"Isn't that a good thing...?"

Olice gave me a long look.

Then it clicked. "Gallagher would kill them all, wouldn't he?"

Olice nodded solemnly.

"What.... what the fuck?"

"As you know already, our society doesn't really tolerate the disabled, mentally challenged, or potentially disturbed." Olice said. "That's why I can't become a doctor, why Wes can't become a scientist, and Trae was stuck being a scapegoat for everything the Guild did. I believe Gallagher would take that to the next level."

I looked at Olice hard. I saw his unnaturally white scars on his arms and face, and I saw the natural, risen scars on his skin as well.

"You and your brothers didn't even deserve that though." I said angrily. "Would this guy try to kill you and your family too?"

Olice looked away and didn't say anything.

"Olice, seriously, would he fucking try to kill you?" Then a thought hit me. "Would he fucking try to kill me?"

"I don't know."

"Olice, tell me what you do know."

"I know that he follows in the path of our older leaders and believes their racist, extremist values. From listening to the media, I don't think he's going to just ignore the bad things like our current leaders do. I don't think he's going to be sympathetic like them. If he can't find a use for a person, I think he's just going to eliminate them. Or if they're a potential danger to society, he'd eliminate them too. I'm really afraid for Wes."

The paunchy, goofy little boy flashed through my head. I suddenly became furious.

"What the hell are we going to do about this?" I demanded.

"Hope he won't be elected."

"Fuck that! Let's go assassinate the fucking guy!" I shouted.

Olice didn't say anything.

I waited, fuming silently.

"Look, Ray," Olice started, "it was a miracle by itself that the Guild even kept my family. If they hadn't found a use in us, at least a little use in us, they would've banished us. I've been emotionally and physically scarred, Wes has a demon inside him, and Trae... Trae's has just been unfortunate. When I was gone, he had to miss out on college and take care of Wes. Now that he doesn't have an education, they won't let him do anything. It's just sad, really. I had to do some real convincing to the Guild for them to keep us. And luckily you came along, so now I have a job. If Gallagher gets the position, I think that all this torment would be for nothing."

"Coda's already enough corrupted without him." I said.

"There's not much we can do."

"I can become a politician." I said, halfway being serious. "And maybe oust him out.

"It'll be a long time before we reelect, Ray."

I scowled. "There has to be something we can do."

Olice looked at me for a very long time.

"We can't do anything, Ray. That is a fact. We can't do anything at all."