Page 163 of Everdoll

Was Remi… immortal?

I had believed so since childhood; that was why I had grown so attached to him. I thought he was a damn robot, a machine who would never die.

I hate forever.

“I… I need to go.”

For the first time, I left the scene and ran. I didn’t know where I was going, or what I was trying to escape from. All I knew was that there was such a fierce storm raging inside me that I couldn’t stay still. I needed to get as far away as I could, hoping it would finally quiet down.

“Where are you?” I shouted at the empty streets.

Where are you now, my dear Remi?”

Tears gathering in my eyes, I stumbled. My senses rushed back all at once, my legs gave out. Sliding down against the wall, I collapsed silently onto the stone pavement, burying my face against my knees, crying out violently.

Why didn’t you lean on me when you were in so much pain? I wanted to ask. I wanted to beg him to answer me. You couldn’t bear to see even a drop of my blood shed. What about you? No one protected you when your blood was flowing. Not even me… You didn’t let me see. Why didn’t you let me do anything for you? Maybe that’s why I was suffocating. Not being able to help you was destroying me.

My dear Remi, you’ve been so lonely, right?

What snapped my unfocused eyes back to reality was the sudden noise of sirens. I looked up at the sky, the blaring sirens were familiar to every citizen. Across the terraformed planet, there were millions of massive facilities controlling the oxygen, weather patterns, seasons, and atmospheric pressure. A collapse of these systems was a one-in-a-thousand chance. Nearly impossible, and catastrophic.

It hardly felt like a coincidence for the first day of election week.

When the air grew thicker and more orange, I pulled my breather from my bag and sealed it over my face. I was still fishing around for my hat when my phone rang.

“Mina!” Prisne’s voice was laced with panic. “Where are you now? The ARG is down, and everyone blames Raymond.”

My blood ran cold. “What?”

“The budget earmarked for oxygen stations was siphoned into research on the Umbra element. Financial ledgers also surfaced proving Eleanor’s involvement in tax evasion and embezzlement.”

“What?” I could only repeat. “Did all of this happen in ten minutes?”

“The police department is in complete shambles. I won’t be able to make it home tonight, so grab something to eat on your own, okay?”

She couldn’t see me, but I nodded. “Okay. Has Raymond made any statement yet?”

“No. Nobody’s heard a word from him since yesterday. He probably won’t show his face ever again. He literally became wanted.”

I swallowed hard. “Pris…” I muttered. “Do you have a moment? I’m… not doing so well.”

Even through the phone, I could tell there was absolute chaos in the background, but a second later, Prisne must have moved to a quieter spot.

“I’m listening.”

Her compassionate tone made my lips press together. “What… what am I supposed to do? Raymond is immortal. The boy I’ve known for ten years is actually immortal. What does that even mean? How is that even possible? None of this makes any sense.”

“I don’t think there are many people in the entire universe who have ever experienced something like this, sweetheart. It’s only natural for you to be confused.”

Hearing the amusement in her voice lifted my spirits slightly, but the lump in my throat remained in place.

“So much is happening. I’m learning so much. I feel like I’m going crazy. I want to talk to him, but I don’t even know where he is. Are the police looking for him right now?”

“Girl, if we could pinpoint his location, I’d tell you, you know that. But he vanished into air. He shattered his identity chip, and probably flew to the Lesse. Krivan is also under suspicion since he was funding the Kerns’ research. They dragged him in here right after his speech, and believe me, things are just as crazy on this end.”

My brows furrowed. “Isn’t everything happening a bit too abruptly? Almost like someone planned it. Did all of this blow up when Krivan aired that footage?”

“Someone dropped a link right in the middle of that old geezer’s live stream. It was a file containing Eleanor Kern’s bank records. Which, by the way, became lost media after the Kern fire, so for it to surface out of nowhere is really strange.”