"They fill these handcuffs with sulfuric acid, struggle, and the acid will spill. This is only as painful as you make it," Cyrus said as we were riding on one of the robot centipedes I saw in my dream. Sitting on them was highly uncomfortable because of how hard the metallic coating was.
"Look, I'm not a spy, honest to God," I groaned, still feeling a throbbing pain in my stomach.
"Then where is your identification?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
I wasn't about to tell him how I was a time traveler, so I instead decided not to say anything.
"I thought as much," he said, shaking his head.
"So, who are you, guys?" I asked, curious as to how a fascist state had been formed in the 23rd century. Hasn't fascism been out of fashion for I don't know forever now?
"Do you genuinely not know, or do you not have anything to talk about?" he asked, looking back towards me. Man, he was insufferable...
"I genuinely don't know."
"In 2215, Maynard Conrad the Second established the paramilitary Raven Corps. He trained all of us in warfare. Seeing the importance of CONIUM, the government contracted it for weapons. Maynard is an incredibly well-read man; he serves as an advisor for Tobias, who was a philosophy teacher before his political career. Does that explain everything?"
"Yes," I simply replied.
The rest of the ride was honestly uneventful as we didn't talk about anything and instead rode in complete silence. All I could think about at that moment was how my actions had led to these horrible things happening and how I never learned from my mistakes.
Eventually, we arrived at the palace. The inscription on top read XANADU, HOME SWEET HOME. I'm pretty confident it was a reference to Citizen Kane, as that's the name of his mansion in the movie.
"Let me take these off since you've been behaving so well," Cyrus said, unlocking my handcuffs and allowing my hands to breathe.
"Thank you. Wish me luck," I nervously replied.
"Luck doesn't save men, my child."
"Then what does?" I asked curiously.
"Their choices."
YOU ARE READING
The October Amaryllis
Science FictionClive Andrews is a typical 16-year-old boy who never had anything out of the ordinary happen until May 16th, 2020, when he was struck by several feet of ball lightning and nearly killed. After being discharged from the hospital, he realizes that he...
