Betrayal

Prologue

I'm still not sure what exactly had happened. It had been almost eight weeks that it lasted and it had been a good while since it all ended, but I was still trying to make sense of it. Within eight weeks my entire life had been changed and there was nothing I could have done to stop it.

I had my back to the mountain, standing outside the little hideout I had built for myself after... after everything that happened. At least I could see it from here - L'Manberg. It was too far away to make out details, but I could see it and that was enough for me. At least for now. Maybe I'd be able to return one day...

But that day would be far in the future, if I'd be able to return at all. Don't get me wrong - I love L'Manberg, I loved it when it was L'Manberg, I loved it when it was Manberg, it was always the same patch of land for me with the same people living on it. I tried to do what I thought was best, but...

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe all of it was wrong. Maybe L'Manberg wasn't meant to be in the end. I missed it. I knew I'd miss it, and I missed Wilbur and... and him. I don't even know how any of this could happen in the first place. How... how...

I feel like a traitor. I know I never did anything to hurt anyone... but what if I did? I have no idea what is right and what is wrong anymore. Nothing makes sense, but I feel that I am glad. I am glad to be away from it all now. I still miss L'Manberg and I still miss Wilbur, but this whole thing? It just went too far. It's not the same country that I had been living in all this time.

So many people that died for this place, so many sacrifices... and for what? What was the point of all this? I felt a stray tear running down my cheek, as I remembered the way he used to look proudly at the walls. The walls I helped tear down. How... how had all of this happened?

All I could was remember Wilbur - the way his curls fell into his face all the time, the way his coat was just a little too big on him, the way his eyes would shine sometimes, when he had one of his brilliant thoughts again. He was one of a kind. And I had no idea what had happened to him.

After he... after Schlatt died and I could finally meet up with him again, things were different. He wasn't the same anymore. Or maybe I wasn't the same. I'm sure we both had changed a lot. Maybe if I had fled the country with them... if I hadn't stayed and tried to be a double agent...

It was me who fucked it all up, wasn't it? I was the one that stayed, I was the one that did everything to get close to Schlatt, to get all the information that might help out Wilbur and Tommy. I was the one that ended up taking a liking to Schlatt. Maybe they were right about me being a traitor.

I sighed and leaned against the door of my little hideout. Something was definitely off when Wilbur told me to leave, to get away from him. Maybe I shouldn't have left him alone, who knew. But here I was now - I didn't belong to L'Manberg and I didn't belong to Pogtopia. I didn't belong anywhere. I was on my own.

With a sigh I looked back at the little hideout I had built myself. It wasn't much, definitely nothing compared to the presidential chambers in L'Manberg, but... well, at least it was something. It wasn't like I could ask for much after everything that had happened. Maybe I could talk to Wilbur at some point in the future. Maybe he just needed time. Yeah, that was probably it.

And maybe I needed time, too. Time to forget everything that had happened. The long nights working in the office, the smell of cigars, the taste of whiskey on my tongue, the feeling of soft and silky sheets beneath me...

I shook my head and looked back at L'Manberg on the horizon. I wanted to go back inside, but I had a weird feeling that it wasn't time yet. And then it happened. Just like that. L'Mansberg went up in flames.