"Ah."
Exclaiming in defeat, Ralph helplessly watched as I dodged his traps and captured his last soldiers, completely turning the tide for this match and winning the entire game. Sitting on the side after being eliminated in the early stages of the game, Oliver was writing in his notebook, ignoring the passionate match that was occurring beside him.
I sighed in delight at my victory as the two of us reset our boards for another round. From the corner of my eye, I saw Oliver scribbling down on his notebook again, his sandbox left abandoned next to him.
The three of us had started this game to lighten the heavy atmosphere that had come from sharing about Uril and Aaron. Although I was incredibly grateful to Ralph and Oliver for listening to my bittersweet memories from the past, I didn't want this entire meeting between the three of us to be tinged with sadness. So, I instinctively busted out the sandboxes and invited the two of them to play.
I don't know if they picked up on the fact that I was trying to distract myself after remembering Uril's last scene, but even if they did, nobody said a thing.
At first, the three of us played our usual game. However, throughout that round, Oliver seemed to be incredibly distracted and ended up losing in the first half. Then, after he lost, he didn't show a face of defeat, but instead pulled out his notebook and started jotting things down. Seeing the look of seriousness and concentration on his face, Ralph and I exchanged glances and agreed that dragging him to continue playing with us in that state wouldn't be fun for any of us. So we just let him sit there, writing down notes in his notebook.
Cleaning the sandbox as we prepared for the next round, I curiously sneaked a peek at the prompts he was writing. I had asked to look at it before, and its contents just caused me to raise an eyebrow in surprise when Oliver casually handed it over to me. The lined pages had short phrases and questions interjected between them, neatly spaced from the next prompt by one blank row. The prompts seemed to have some relationship with each other but looked more like key questions Oliver had written down to mull over.
Like the phrase that he was currently writing, 'Big plans?', and the phrases above them. 'Empty jail? and 'No space?'. Next to those words, the names of the current acting leader of the Adult Protest group, Mark, as well as the vice leader, James, were circled. With the two circles having lines extended to the previous prompts.
"Dan."
Hearing Ralph call my name from in front of me, I tore my gaze from Oliver's notebook and returned my attention to the game. Going first, I put forward my first soldier and lowered my voice such that only Ralph could hear. The notebook's prompts had gotten the gears in my head turning, and I didn't want to disturb the busy Oliver to explain what he was thinking as he wrote them. So I turned to the oldest out of us three, who had already finished school and may be able to spot things that I wouldn't have even thought about.
"What do you think those people from High Street are doing by releasing past protesters?"
Reacting to my move and question. Ralph narrowed his eyebrows as he placed his soldier a decent distance away from mine.
"Past protester? Aaron?"
I added another soldier and glanced at the spot where Ralph had placed his soldier. Judging by that position, the match was going to be a long and drawn-out one.
"Many years ago, more than two years actually, Aaron was arrested for 'abiding with a conspiracy theory'. Back then, I had just gotten close to Camellia, so I don't know a lot of details. But from what I understood, they had fallaciously accused him of something in order to lock him and a bunch more people in jail. And based on how they were treated, everyone thought that the prisoners would never be released."
I shook my head as I spoke while paying attention as Ralph placed another soldier a small distance away from his current one.
"If that's the case, maybe their plans have changed?"
Furrowing his eyebrows, Ralph answered as he seemed to ponder over what sort of change could involve releasing so many prisoners. Based on the fact that Aaron had said they started releasing people in the morning and that Aaron was convicted over 2 years ago, the number of prisoners released was surely not small.
"It surely feels like they're planning on catching a lot of more important protesters. As if they are clearing the jail for more people."
I placed another soldier near my last one, slowly building a sizeable army as Ralph scattered his soldiers over a large area.
"Clearing space..."
Mumbling that phrase, Ralph finally stopped deploying his soldiers and started delegating them to different strategic points on the boards. In response to this, instead of scattering my army in a reckless struggle to take over these points, I slowly moved my way towards the strategic points, all the while charting several routes I could take in my mind.
"It sounds a little far-fetched."
After thinking for a while, Ralph declared as he moved his soldiers out of the way of my large army. Seeing the spot the soldier had moved to, I narrowed my eyebrows and repressed the excitement boiling inside of me. I then moved the soldiers at the back of the army, creating a vague fan shape.
"Far-fetched?"
Ralph glanced at my moves and seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then, moving his hovering hand from one soldier to the other, he chose to give up the closest soldier to my army to evacuate the other soldiers from their points.
I forcefully held back the smile that was forming on my face.
"Aren't those in High Street incredibly rich? Instead of releasing so many prisoners, wouldn't they either eliminate them or relocate them to another place?"
Hearing that sentence, I froze, as that point caused my heart to sink at the realization.
That's right! How could I forget? The opponents we are facing are able to immediately demolish a large amount of land and build several new cemeteries when the older ones fill up. They had an unfathomable amount of money, so much so that I heard that the prices of things sold at High Market could buy apartment buildings. If those people wanted to clear out the jail, they would probably either repurpose one of the ghost buildings nearer to Middle Street. Everyone knows there are so many of them due to the shrinking population and the High street's disdain for the lower streets. There would be no need to release any prisoners at all!
And if they didn't want all that, they would have just executed everyone. Countless protesters have perished at their hands. Surely they wouldn't suddenly just grow a conscience now?
"Then...why?'
Snapping out of my thoughts with a shiver, I stared at Ralph with wide eyes as we temporarily stopped the game.
"That..."
Ralph trailed off as he showed a face of deep thought. The cogs in his head turned and ground against each other, screeching as they worked overtime to think up a reason why those soulless beings would suddenly do such an uncharacteristic thing.
"Because it's a trap."
A cold voice cut into our conversation from my right, and I whipped my head to meet a pair of obsidian eyes staring straight into our souls. Closing his notebook with a small 'bang' that echoed through the large living room, Oliver turned towards us and scooted closer.
"Sorry, were we too loud?"
Moving a little to the side to make some space for Oliver, the three of us huddled up and lowered our voices as we continued talking.
"You weren't too loud."
Oliver shook his head and took a peek at my board. Seeing the situation, his eyes suddenly narrowed, and a smile appeared on his face.
"So, what did you mean by 'trap'?"
Judging by his smile and the light in his eyes, Oliver had most likely found out about my secret plan against Ralph. So, to distract him, I drew his attention back to the much larger topic. Lifting his head, Oliver gave me a mischievous smile. With a twinkle in his eye, he winked at me, signaling that he wouldn't alert Ralph, before his face returned to its serious look.
"It's a similar trap to what they used for the reforms."
With a sarcastic smile and a roll of his eyes, Ralph's tone dropped below freezing as he spoke through gritted teeth.
"What they'll do is most likely choose several prisoners who they think will have connections and place a trail on them. Then, they'll similarly trail the people those prisoners meet until they have a list of those they think are in charge. And once enough time has passed, they'll move in to arrest and execute the leaders."
Sneering, Oliver's eyes sparked with hatred for a split second before the flame suddenly shot to the area right beside us. Narrowing his eyes for a split second, he closed his eyes to hide that burning flame before turning to us with his polite smile of a mask on.
"Is that how they got the previous leader?"
Speaking out from opposite the sandbox, Dan asked with a mostly emotionless face, and the two boys met eyes. Oliver softly shook his head and gave a small sigh.
"No, Vincent and his men were too smart to fall for such superficial tricks such as this."
Hearing the name of the ex-leader of the Adult Protester group, I remembered Lucifer's subtle sadness when he had heard Vincent had passed away.
"He used to be a friend of Andrew's and regularly came over to visit. Especially before he became the acting leader of the protest group. I talked to him a little back then. And I especially remember the two of them whispering and discussing things in hushed whispers every time they met. Up until the end, this was one of the things Andrew didn't tell me."
Oliver trailed off before giving an uncharacteristically long sigh.
"Mark and James used to be quite close to Vincent and the then vice leader, Mary. I just hope that they won't follow after Vincent."
Feeling the tension in the room drop to below freezing, Oliver suddenly shook his head and pointed to the sandboxes.
"Why don't you two continue your game?"
Turning our attention back to the game, I moved my soldier forward, focusing on slowly pushing Ralph's soldiers to a certain location. Similarly, Ralph maneuvered his soldiers away from mine, exactly in the direction I wanted him to move in.
"By the way, since you mentioned the trap, does that mean someone is following Aaron?"
I pushed Ralph further back with my soldiers, and Ralph seemed to finally get that I was leading him into a trap. However, even if he discovered it now, it was too late. He wouldn't be able to escape.
Oliver paused at this question, and I could feel sweat start to gather on my palms as I waited for him to answer. Opposite me, Ralph had also stopped his actions and was looking at Oliver. When Oliver's silence dragged on a little too long for comfort, he glanced towards the door and shifted his weight over, preparing to stand up and maybe peek behind it to check whether anyone was eavesdropping.
Seeing him move, I also prepared to sprint to my parent's bedroom. My mother had entered inside not long after Aaron and my father left. It was only us three children in the living room right now.
"The two of you don't have to worry. Nobody's following Aaron."
Just as I put my hand on the floor, getting ready to launch myself at the door, Oliver's words broke through the thick tension in the air.
"Sorry, it took a while to remember. But Aaron's name was not mentioned in any of the incidents I've heard, so he's most likely not considered 'important' enough for those at High Street to put a tail on him."
I retrieved my hand from the ground and brushed off the dirt on my palms. Ralph did the same, but his gaze remained on the door outside.
"Anyway, even if someone was tailing him, Elaine and Van would definitely find out. The two of them have been involved in the protest groups long enough that they've most likely already figured out that the jail release is a trap. They'll get rid of any tails."
With that last sentence, I saw Ralph give a small sigh of relief as his shoulders relaxed a little and he turned his attention back to the sandbox.
"If it's Elaine, things will work out just fine."
With a trusting smile on his face, Ralph sighed these words and then gestured for me to move. Taking my soldiers, I dealt the finishing move and ended this long match. And just in time too, since a couple of minutes after that, the sound of the door opening derailed all conversations and caused us all to turn our heads to see my father return with June in tow.
June entered our apartment with a slightly distracted look on her face. However, the moment she spotted Ralph, whatever thoughts that were distressing her flew out the window, and a sweet smile bloomed on her face.
"Darling, it's time to go home."
Pushing off from the floor, Ralph ran into her arms, and we waved goodbye to the mother-son pair. Then, closing the door behind them, my father walked up to us with a smile.
"Aaron's going to stay at Dara's place for the night. After that, he'll be staying at whatever place Ivan is arranging for him. He's going to be fine."
Bending his knees, my father placed a hand on my head and ruffled my hair with his ice-cold hands.
"Thanks, Dad. Mom's in the bedroom."
Straightening his back, my father nodded his head at me and entered the bedroom door. Watching his figure disappear behind the slab of metal, I quickly packed the sandboxes on the floor and stood up. Together with Oliver, we turned off the lights in the living room and retreated into our room.
Heading straight to the bookshelf, I placed the sandboxes back where they were and took out my towel and clothes. Beside me, Oliver stood in front of the end of the bookshelf, farthest from the door. There, on the shelf slightly lower than him, were two figures standing on boxes, gathering dust.
"Dan?"
Suddenly, as I was about to reach out my hand to open the bedroom door, I heard Oliver's voice call out to me.
"Yeah?"
Turning around, I saw him tear his eyes from the two figures and walk over to where the papers were. The old papers he had were gone, and the new ones had taken their place. Reaching out a hand, I could see a whirlwind of thoughts crash around inside his eyes before they stilled and his lips turned firm.
"You know I mentioned that Elaine and Van would most likely take care of any tails following Aaron?"
Oliver tilted his body in my direction, and I nodded my head. Seeing that, he then showed me a small smile.
"Actually, any tails would have already been taken care of by then. Since Aaron said that he visited the real leader first."
I narrowed my eyes at his words. The real leader? Aaron said that he was released in the evening, and it was currently night. There was no time for him to visit many people. The only person he said that he went to before our apartment was...
Ivan.
Widening my eyes, I saw Oliver nod his head at my conclusion and place a finger on his lips in a gesture of silence.
"We can never let those people from High Street find out who the real leader is. If they catch him, it's all over."
Making a zipping gesture on my face with my free hand, I nodded my head.
"But why are you telling me this?"
Staring into those near-obsidian eyes, I could see the void beckoning its hand from within. But even though I could see it beckoning, those claw-like hands soon started lashing out randomly in Oliver's eyes in frustration. Almost as if it was cursing him. Then, as if it noticed I was watching, it got closer and closer to the surface of his eyes, a wide smile cracking on its 'face'.
But then, the smile suddenly stopped. And the void vanished in his eyes.
"Because I want you to help me with something."