Carry Me Home - A LEGEND trilogy (Marie Lu) fanfiction

24: Day

Anden quickly learns about the note. All he knows is that it's the very first one. He didn't know it'd been going since the incident during my welcome-back banquet. He also wasn't aware that the incident on June's birthday night wasn't my only encounter with the insurgents who keep on saying June and I have debts to pay, that they are trying to return back the Old America. I guess I can give them the title, 'Old America'.

That's how I'm here in Anden's office with June once more. I'm able to breathe a little bit, since Captain Velarde isn't in today. Guy made the room so goddy tense yesterday. I wasn't able to tell June about my encounter with the Old America last night. I don't wish to let the Elector know about it. They probably committed that murder and decided to have a talk last night because the security protocol's too tight. They want June and I to be in the loose, easy to catch whenever necessary.

"It was confirmed that the blood used in the writing of this new note was the blood of the murdered victim," Anden tells the two of us, casual —like it is a common fact or today's breakfast. My eyes are focused on the tiled floor, my arms crossed absently on my chest. I don't plan to talk over the matter today.

"Is this the first time you receive such threat?" he continues.

June doesn't hesitate to lie. She's aware that I always tell her about the notes. She answers confidently, "Yes."

Anden nods. He doesn't see past June's lie. This person seems to be easy to fool after all. He then looks at the note once again and reads what is written. "'That government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' Who would dare to speak so bluntly?"

"If I remember correctly, I've retrieved some files from my brother, which contained the Republic's history, way back before America was split into two nations," June starts. "I can say that it is part of the speech by one of the presidents of that old country. Someone named Abraham."

"Abraham Lincoln," I state right away, completely uninterested. The two look at me but I keep my eyes pinned on the floor. "When I was in Antarctica, I researched through the history of the Republic, to the point that I came across the history of the United States of America. I remember his name. He was a great president who was loved by his people, especially when he ended the discrimination between the white and the black, and the slavery system."

Anden seems to take up such interest that he asked, "Was this Abraham Lincoln an idealist himself? If he was, we can say that this people that we are currently facing could be as well."

"I can't say that he was one," I mutter.

"Dealing with what they have left for us, it is possible that they want to change the government itself. They want to form such government where the people could rule, a government that has a care for its citizens," June states.

"Isn't that what we are right now?" asks Anden with a half-hearted laugh.

June hesitates for a moment to answer. But she then replies, "I am not saying that our government has no care for its people. This people that we are facing now seems to be part of the community where there is freedom in the choice of ruler. In short, they wanted a democratic country where they could choose their leader."

"It will be a huge change for everyone," the Elector states.

I instantly get June's idea. She isn't clearly telling that Anden should stop ruling, I know that what she wanted say we should start from the bottom. I lift my head and stare at the Elector, saying, "We can start with the Congress itself. This people can see that there is corruption going on in the Congress since your father's term. Even if you have fired them, it doesn't mean that the people was given the chance to choose their own representatives. Let the people themselves vote the people who could represent them in the government."

"The Congress, huh? If I bring this up to them, it will certainly start a disagreement." The Elector sighs.

June suddenly seems hopeless at the matter that she bits her lip and asks for permission, "Could you excuse me for a minute, Elector?"

"Yes, you may," Anden answers after a minute of hesitation.

June stands up from her seat and leaves the room without missing any beat at all.

I watch her walk out of the room and for a moment there, I want to run after her. Perhaps, if I tell her about my encounter with those rebels last night, things will change. So I turn to Anden and say, "Well... probably, there has to be some other way." I don't even dare to excuse myself. Instead, I just stand up and follow June outside of the room.

The moment that the door closes behind me, I look around the hallway to guess where June had gone. Luckily, I'm able to catch a trail of her long high ponytail on the other end of the hall. Probably, what she is thinking about is not escaping Anden's intriguing questions. Guess, she's just heading to the comfort room to ease herself.

I wait for her to enter and count a whole minute to see if someone's entering or exiting. When, a whole minute passes and nothing happens, I quietly and secretly slip into the comfort room. I really don't know what I am thinking about but this is the only time I can really tell June what happened last night. We can't discuss it in the hallway where other soldiers will hear it, and the moment that we're out of this building, the bodyguards will swarm around us again.

This is my only chance even if it means my dignity as a man is lost.

I see June washing her hands by the sink. She is so focused on the warm water that flows onto her hands that she doesn't realize that I'm already behind her. I call her name softly. She jumps in surprise and turns to me.

"What are you doing here, Day? You know that you shouldn't be here!" June shouts right in front of my face.

I try to hush her and calm her. We are the only two people in this room and probably, she is shouting because she fears that someone might enter and find the two of us here alone. "Just calm down. I just wanted to say that—"

I immediately turn my head to the door and see a young woman about to enter—but she shouts and decides to turn back. She immediately changes her mind.

"I can't actually think of any other place," I tell her.

She raises an eyebrow at me. "Well, there has to be some other place where the bodyguards won't find us and we can be alone, right?"

"Do you think your apartment is a 'free-bodyguard' place if we try to make out?" I ask, half-laughing at my own joke.

She blushes. "That's... do you also think that no one will just enter a female restroom?!"

"I've thought about it for a minute before taking the risk and sacrificing my pride," I reply. I wrap my arms around her and start dragging her along to one of the cubicles.

"What are you trying to do now, huh?" inquires June.

I close the door as she stands there, leaning onto one side with her cheeks blazing red and her eyes narrowed in mixed fear and anger. That look of hers only makes me want and need her more. "Would you be able to escape your bodyguards later tonight?"

"Do you really think that I could, given the fact that I am still healing?"

"As if your wound is continuously bleeding, is it?"

She remains silent.

"Okay, don't force yourself if that's the case then," I tell her.

June crosses her arms on her chest and finally asks, "Why, Daniel? What is this about?"

"I..." I start. But now, after all the effort effort I've made to be alone with her, I can't just blurt out what I want to say. I know that if I continue, things will take a major turn. I don't want it to do here. "If you could come to the hotel tonight at around twenty-two hundred..."

"Hotel?" she inquires. "You want me to escape the bodyguards just to meet you in a hotel?" She lookes away for a moment to hide her embarrassment. "And then what about it?"

I feel the heat on my cheeks when she asks. I look away as well and scratch the back of my ear as I answer "Then, I tell you everything."