Infiltrating Harmony

Infiltrating Harmony Part 16

I knocked on the door, and on the other side I heard Simon bark excitedly. She's home, I thought, and knocked again.

    Footsteps alerted me to prepare for the door to open, and when it did Berlin stood in front of me. She rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

    "I just want to talk," I said. "It won't take long at all."

    "Fine. Come in," she said, and moved out of the way for me to enter. The room was how I had last seen it - the yellow couch sitting in front of the TV while a comedy played loudly.

    We walked over to the couch and took a seat, looking at each other. The whole way to the apartment I had been preparing myself for this talk... it wasn't going to be easy.

    I took a deep breath. "First off, I want to say that I'm really sorry for what happened to your dad. I know I've said that before but I just want to say it again... I can't imagine how hard it has been for you."

    "Okay," Berlin said. "If you're asking for my help again, don't waste your breath... the leaders killed my father, and there's no way I'm helping them in any way, shape, or form."

    "Berlin, I don't expect you to help me after what you just found out," I said. "But you have to understand something. The leaders did not kill your father. Officer Burton did. Vocation 13 did. And they're about to try to do something a lot worse, unless I stop them. I only came by to make sure you were okay."

    She looked at me for a second. "I'm okay."

    "Good," I said. "Now, I have to tell you something else. This might take a second for me to get out, but I need to tell you."

    "Alright," Berlin said, her eyebrows furrowing.

    "Before I got put onto the train, I was injected with a lethal amount of HARMONY, enough to make me not only oblivious to what was happening, but to see what my wildest hopes and dreams are." I had to take a deep breath. This was going to be hard. "Berlin... I saw you. You were in the dream, and we were living together."

    She looked at the floor, perhaps embarrassed. I felt humiliated.

    "I just wanted you to know. I have to go now." I got up to leave, and started towards the door. Halfway there, however I was stopped.

    "Wait!" Berlin yelled, and ran up to give me a big hug. A smile came to my face. Berlin had a knack for making me smile. "Be careful. And when you're done... come back here. Okay?" She looked up at me.

    "Okay," I mustered, and left the apartment. There was one other stop I had to make... and I was going to try to make this one as quick as possible.

   
     Genie sat in the same spot that I had left her, staring at the wall. I assume she hadn't been sitting there for the days that I had been gone, but who could've known?

    I pulled out a chair and sat next to her at the still-flipped over table. "Genie, we need to talk."

    "Sure," she said, still looking at the wall.

    "Genie... I'm not happy anymore."

    She pointed towards the empty syringe on the kitchen counter. "Then try some of that. It works for me."

    "Genie, it's not that simple. I think we should get... I think we should get a divorce," I said, knowing that she wasn't going to react.

    "Good idea," she said, not taking her eyes off of the one extremely interesting part of the wall.

    "I'm not sure if you hear me correctly because of the HARMONY, but I'm going to leave now. We can do this officially some other time. Goodbye, Genie."

    "Bye-bye."

    I stood up off of the chair and walked towards the door. In a day, I could be dead. But Genie didn't care, there was only one woman who cared.

    The streets were crowded as I walked back towards the hotel, thinking about the goodbyes that I had just had to make. Tomorrow was going to be my last day at HARMONY Headquarters. It was funny to me that this whole time, I was supposed to be a part of human resources.

    I walked through the hotel lobby, dodging people who looked at me in a confused way. Sitting down at the bar, I ordered a beer, and drank it without a care. The vocations around me could have been a part of Destruction, but in the end, what did it matter?

    I finished another five or six beers and then rode the elevator up to my floor, trying not to fall over. It took me a couple of tries to get the door open, but once I did I crashed onto my bed, a wave of nausea passing over me. But even through the haze that I had brought upon myself, I still kept thinking: It's almost over.