January 2020 Present time—

" Do you think they'll arrive soon?" I asked once more, worried. I had been pacing for the past half hour, not wanting to sit down. Our friends would arrive near twelve and it was twenty to'. 

"  Yes, I do." 

Ted had this sweet voice that immediately calmed me.  But today was a tad different. We were going to speak about the horrors of the Virus story, and it was a very messed up one. Once you knew the details, it messed with your head. 

And you wonder why your mother 'had dementia'... 

He got up from the couch and took my hand. 

" Hey. Hey! Ava... You're torturing yourself. Please. Come sit down. It'll go great."

I reluctantly followed him to the couch and sat besides him. He irradiated confidence despite his knowledge on the Virus. I had no idea how he could mentally survive the truth like he did. My thoughts swerved back to my bad decision making. 

Telling him had been my first one. 

I had risked his safety when I decided to let him in the investigation I had started. But it got worse from there. He had discovered along side me the Truth, the one I could barely shake to this day. 

And then it got even worse, if it was even possible. 

All my life, my mother had given me the choice. She'd told me exactly how I could contact my father if that was my wish, she never dared talk bad about him in front of me, she'd been a very healthy parent. 

I had never reached out. Until my breakdown, the night of my Discovery of the truth. I'd called him, balling my eyes out, and he'd answered. He had a deep voice, the kind of one you'd associate to a wealthy business man. In fact, someone else had answered before I told who I was. 

A young woman by the sound of it. 

She was apparently his secretary and minutes later, my biological father was on the line. He'd growled a 'Ava? Is that you?' and I had timidly answered, stil crying like a baby. 

We had spoken for a few minutes, and I told him about Mum. He was sad, but not sad enough for my taste. He believed the official reason of her death so I didn't tell him the truth I now knew, not wanting to say any more than necessary. He'd asked to meet me and I refused, saying he lost that right when he bailed. 

That's when he told me he'd left to pursue a career in politics. He was a man named Edmund Paraciatos and he was a minister. Which meant I couldn't trust him anymore. That was the end of my non-existant relationship with my father. 

" Ava?" 

I snapped out of my thoughts, which seemed to happen rather often. Ted was caressing my dark hair whilst I leaned on him, something I hadn't realized I was doing. 

" Yes?"

I looked up to see his face. He was concentrated on me, and that made me feel self-conscious. I subconsciously adjusted my position against his powerful chest

" You were mumbling about some Paraciatos? Were you talking about the politic guy? You know him? 

— Uhm... Yeah. He's my biological father. When you helped me... with the notebooks, I called him for the first time. DIdn't help me in the least. I... I broke down." I answered, feeling lame 

Ted smiled sadly. 

" That jerk of a politician is probably one of the reasons behind the Virus. Did you do some research on him?

— No, actually. Way to be an idiot, right? 

— He is the founder of a political party known as the ' Controller'. He basically is a new Hitler, and yet he doesn't seem really persecuted, it's creepy as heck. He pitched an idea about ' perfect civilization' that obeyed the rules and adored their ruler. He basically craves power and love. But it's in a sick... way. 

— So you think he's the one that did.. everything? 

— Maybe not. He couldn't have orchestrated the whole virus himself. I think he managed to get to the Power's head and now the government helps him in his sick ideas. He'll probably be the damn president once the ' swooping' is over, or whatever they call this step of the plan.

— For a PS4 geek, you sure do know your politics. 

— I checked it out after that day."

Made sense. Once I revealed a terrible plan to basically kill everyone with their own mind, he probably wanted to understand how the thing arrived into the politicians minds in the first place. He'd been smarter than my sad self. 

" So let's admit your father—

— Paraciatos. I don't consider him my father. 

— Sorry. Let's admit Paraciatos is the mastermind behind the idea. He'd need people on his side to execute his will, correct? 

— Yeah. 

— I tried searching, and I think that's where Jami can help. On top of being a meme addict, they're a super into political psychology because of the whole 'make sure they don't ban LGBT people' problem. SO they'll help.

— Yeah. Please let the guys arrive now..."

Someone above must've heard my wish because someone knocked at the door. 

Soon later, the whole group was sitting on the couch, drinks in hand. I was anxiously pacing, building up the courage to start speaking. They could feel it was something serious, so they didn't speak or joke or mock me. 

" okay.. Okay. Guys... You're all here today because something real bad is happening. And I need your help and can't leave you here."

My voice was trembling, as were my hands. I took a deep, stress relieving breath. I could do this. I could do this. 

" This is hard for me to talk about... And it's even harder because no one except me and Ted seems to even know about it..." I said, referring to my mother's death. 

Brynn's dark eyes were focused on me. She looked genuinely worried and interested in what I had to say. I took another deep breath. 

" Several weeks or days or whatever... ago... My mother died. B, you might remember when I got called out of maths and never came back to school? Well I was told my mother had been acting crazy and I might want to go home and see her or whatever— sketchy, I know. But I knew she was investigating a serious matter called the Virus, which could probably bring her bad stuff."

I gathered my thoughts. I could do this. I just had to stay calm. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

" I arrived home to a weird, silent house. I knew something was wrong. I found my mother... dead. bloody. It was supposed to be an accident, maybe an attempt on her life that succeeded. I knew better."

Tears started filling my eyes. I held them back.

" I knew something was off. She wouldn't have tried anything were I'd find her. She wouldn't be so stupid. And I wouldn't have been there if it weren't for the principal. It felt like a warning— a 'beware, doom is upon you' kind of thing. 

That is almost the exact message told by the virus. maybe you've heard about it, maybe you. haven't. It hit a couple of people, a lot even, but the mainstream media was prohibited to talk about it. Why? Because it's basically a kill order. 

Whoever talks about it are deemed un-obedient citizens, not good enough for a perfect utopia. My mother was researching it for a blog article, y'all know she was an ambitious independent journalist. Thankfully her research had been also on paper in code."

A single tear escaped from my eye and rolled down my cheek. I wiped it away. Focus.

" The system is pretty simple. Someone ambitious wants power and obedience, wants to feel perfect. Wants specific qualities in his men— like someone you know by name, I bet. They have different ways of eliminating candidates. 

They get rid of the people who want to spread awareness. They get rid of people who disobey the law in anyway, now. Don't you find it weird we never saw Nancy again after she was found underage drinking? They get rid of the people easily. It's so weird how they cover it up. 

The police has to obey their laws. My mother's death wasn't even investigated. They ruled it as suicide and that was it. She wasn't crazy. She wasn't suicidal."

My breath was getting uneven and I started quietly crying. 

" And then... I discovered the person behind this was 99% possible to be Edmund Paraciatos, my freaking birth father..."

I was shaking. I felt the conforming hand of Ted on my waist, and realizes he'd came behind me, protecting me. I leaned my back against him. 

" And... Now we need to find whoever helped my freaking crazy father. How the... heck he managed to convince the government this was a good idea."

I glanced at Jami who was almost crying too. They'd always been an emphatic person. 

" The more we discover about this case, the worst it gets. We need to leave and fast, but we also need to stop them."