We stood behind Dominique, back in the computer room, watching the screens with a sense of uncertainty as he looked back on the records.

"I usually get bored in here, and once I've finished living my fantasies in my head and there's nothing else to do, I start watching over the screens. I don't ever directly interfere, but sometimes I like to mess with the weather." He was so quick to sidetrack that I had to remind him of what we were doing.

"Right, and one time while I was checking them, I went back - curiosity, you know - and found something reaĺly, really weird. Check it."

He stopped at one recording, dated 2020. At this point I realized something that, now that I thought about it, shocked me that it hadn't crossed my mind sooner.

"What year are we in?"

They looked at me incredulously, which somehow got me defensive.

"Don't give me those looks! It's never come up before."

My eye twitched when they snickered, but fortunately Dominique answered.

"It is currently 1 AM of the year 2023. If you're tired, we'll catch some Z's later."

"No way am I tired, not yet."

"Then silence, and observe."

As he said that, he directed our attention back to the screen, where the Life Sphere remained motionless. Despite it being day time in the video, the surrounding area was completely empty, and so it wasn't showing anything from the real world.

For a moment I watched, wondering if there was just something I wasn't seeing, but just as I would open my mouth, the sphere in the footage began to shake.

Moving the very grounds it rested upon, I saw how the sphere moved, and how Dominique's eyes glinted with pride.

Then, from a side of the Life Sphere, a door opened upwards.

I watched with bated breath how the scene returned to peace, and then inhaled sharply when someone walked out.

He was an old man, for sure, with a gentle gaze that sweeped over the empty space. His long, well kept beard swayed in the breeze as he turned back to face the sphere and watch the door close.

"Li?" he said, and at once the smiling face appeared on the screen. The old man chuckled lightheartedly. "I simply can't get used to calling you that."

The screen smiled and answered:

"I do not mind, sir. It is an honor for me to be named after you."

...!

This man... was Li?

He smiled, continuing the conversation. I remained quiet.

"I was merely making sure everything is going smoothly, that no problems have arisen."

"None at all, sir."

"Excellent," said the man. "That would be all then. Keep up the vigilance, I'll be watching."

"Of course, sir."

The door would open again, and Li would walk back into the sphere as the screen turned off, leaving the scene in silence.

I took a step back, running a hand through my hair. A lot came to light watching that, a lot I wasn't sure how to respond. I glanced at Antoinette, who did the same to let us catch our mutual looks of confusion.

Dominique turned in his seat and clapped. "Well - there's no proof that that's an exit (for all I know it just leads somewhere else), but it's a start."

I nodded along, returning to my senses.

"The real question is where does it lead," I said. "In a place like this, I can't imagine they're anything lighthearted."

"You want to go, don't you?" Antoinette's question stopped me in my tracks.

I bit the inside of my lip. I didn't want to look at her and face the pleading look I knew she would give.

She addressed Dominique afterwards: "If this really is a way out, how come you haven't used it?"

"Every chance has slipped through my hands like sand, like I've got... sand hands."

He looked ridiculously proud of that comparison.

"It's not easy, yannow? If I do, I have to make sure no one sees me. That's pretty hard to do, especially there and especially if I have Li breathing down my neck every time there's even a glimmer of me. 'S why I stay down here, with the ants."

"There aren't ants in Paradise," said Antoinette.

"Major oversight."

I mentally rolled my eyes at the exchange and introduced a less ridiculous topic.

"So why show this to us? There's nothing the three of us can do."

He spun to me with an extended finger. "Wrong! Well, not entirely. We're allies, aren't we? I wouldn't hide important info from my allies." He shrugged and returned to the computers to close the footage. "Even if we can't do anything, we're united by a secret, an unbreakable bond, and if I find something else, you two-" he pointed at the two of us- "will be the first and only ones to know."

...United by a secret. I didn't realize I was pulling a face until Dominique looked at me quizzically. Was this really the best path to take? I looked at Antoinette, wondering if she thought the same. She, who was so against the idea of anything out of the ordinary, was a part of this secret as well. Just what changed? I watched her, pondering over this, and then yawned.

Both pairs of eyes were on me as my face flushed.
Antoinette laughed. "Looks like someone's a little tired. Should we call it a night?"

Shortly after that, we all departed for the night.

...

I couldn't sleep.

I stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, the sounds of soft breathing coming from somewhere in the room.

An hour must have passed since we ended our first pseudo meeting and we went to our respective rooms within the underground base. Since there were only two rooms suitable for sleeping, I ended up sleeping with Antoinette, which was probably for the best. I'd look up to her from my spot on the floor (which is where I insisted I slept, since I felt our relationship hadn't gotten to the point where we could sleep in the same bed without me wanting to walk right into the ocean) and think, taking the time to drown myself in the myriad of nighttime thoughts that invaded my head the very moment - the very instant - I opened my mind to them.

It never became an easy thing to do, and now wasn't the exception.

I didn't know what to think about the footage we saw. To think that something akin to an exit was so close all this time, and even now that I knew about it, so far out of reach.

What bothered me wasn't the fact that it looked nearly impossible to do, it was the fact that I didn't feel excited.

I thought that, after all this time, I'd want to leave at the first chance I had. Now that the chance was there, it didn't seem as important as I made it out to be. I realized it even before I asked about where it led, but at the time I didn't want to confront the thought.

Still, I wasn't a fool; I wasn't oblivious to my own feelings. The cause for this - or part of it - was in the same room.

I looked at Antoinette, but I knew she wasn't sleeping. It was a guess, but a certain one.

"Antoinette," I whispered.

"...Yeah?"

I sat up with effort, forcing my body to move again. "What do you think? About all this."

She immediately groaned.

"For God's sake, Sebastian, it's like four in the fucking morning."

"And yet you're still awake."

She inhaled sharply, and when she let out a sigh I knew I'd won. That thought was discarded when she answered.

"I think you're asking me because you don't know what you think," she said, sitting up as well to look at me. Even in the dim light of the room, I couldn't hide the truth.

"I don't. Ever since I arrived, I've wanted nothing more than to leave, but now..." I tried finding understanding in her eyes, but it was too dark. I glanced away. "Now, I don't know if I want to."

Her silhouette shifted closer to the edge of the bed. "Hm - hold on. You mean that after all this, you're okay with living in this fake utopia?"

"No. No, of course not. I still think this place is really fucked up, but I..." How could I say this to her? "... I don't want to leave, I just want to fix it."

"Sounds like someone's getting an epiphany," she laughed quietly. After a moment I smiled faintly, because it was true.

"And what about you? Weren't you the one that told me you didn't want to be involved in anything weird like this?"

"I don't want to be the center of attention," she countered. "But if it's about going against a system like this, it's worth the risk."

For her to say that... I moved closer, until I could rest my arms on the bed.

"Why?"

She turned her head to me. The question must have caught her off guard, as she stared at me silently. She was searching for her answer, for the right words to say.

"... Because it's not fair," she said finally, as though finally realizing what she thought. "To all those kids who have no idea what's going on, to be stuck in a place like this." I saw her turn her head away. "If it had been up to me, I'd be ignorant and sleeping in my own bed, but I do know. Because I know, it's my responsibility to fix the system for them - or at least to change it so it's not..."

"A make happy dictatorship?"

"Right, that. I don't want to do this, but I'd feel worse if I did nothing."

Something in the way she said that sounded off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. She wouldn't look back at me, keeping her gaze fixated into the distance.

But I noticed her hands in her lap, and with a sense of intimacy surrounding us, I placed my hand atop of hers.

She jolted, turning her head to me, but I stayed still and she would relax shortly after.

"We'll find a way," I said. "We have a reason to make this change, so you can count on me. I've got your back."

In that moment, we shared a silence. The more I looked at her, the more I could see her clearly, until the point in which I could look her directly in the eyes without turning away.

Her eyes widened slightly when that happened, and then I fully understood the reason I wanted to stay.

I squeezed Antoinette's hand and said softly:

"No matter what happens from here on out, I'll be at your side. I'd face death itself for you."

I could see her face flickering between emotions, as if unsure of what expression to make, but then she squeezed my hand.

For the first time in a while, Antoinette smiled at me. A genuine, honest smile, shining through the shadows.

"You're crazy if you think you'll do it alone."

I was speechless, the words losing sense in my mind before they could even leave. And yet, I felt as though then and there, we had said those things left unsaid.

Going to sleep after that felt like almost a joke, but when she stepped off the bed and took a seat next to me, wrapping the blanket over the two of us, I felt comfortable enough to.

The rest of the night passed easily.

When I woke up the next morning, a weight was leaning onto me. I didn't need to check to know who it was.

I didn't want to, either. Sitting against the bed with the blanket at her side, in the silence of the morning (or what I assumed to be) was enough to make me feel at ease.

That is, until I saw Antoinette walk in through the door.

I instinctively froze, and with my eyes open wide, turned my head like a rusty crane. When I saw who it was, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"What the hell, Dominique?!"

I'd never moved away from a bed as fast as I had in that moment.

My shouting and Antoinette's subsequent laughter woke him up, making him sit up like he'd been electrocuted. But once he saw the situation, he joined Antoinette in laughing at my surprise.

Feeling utterly humiliated, I didn't direct a word to either of them until we were ready to leave.

Thus, the morning was spent quietly with the occasional snicker whenever they saw me before I left with my head held high and my ears burning.

But by the time noon came around, Antoinette and I were ready to go, promising to return soon.

"Hit me up if anything happens, okay? I like the company - I mean, I'll be watching your every move so I'd know anyway, but it's the thought that counts." He smiled at us, and some part of me couldn't bring myself to point out how creepy that sounded.

And as I was still bothered by the morning, I waved a lazy hand and, after a lackluster goodbye, went through the door first.

Antoinette followed shortly after, and together we walked down the dark hall, no longer the people we were when we first came in.

"I'm not looking forward to explaining this to those two," I heard her mumble when we left through the trapdoor in the forest.

"I'll cover for you," I said. "It shouldn't be that hard."

She snorted, but accepted my suggestion.

We knew the way from there, so walking back would have been easy. Staying at a close distance, we were engulfed in our own private world, where nothing else existed but us two and the scenery of the forest.

"Hey, that's the sound of the waterfall. We're almost there," she said with a smile.

The sounds of leaves rustling our feet, the smell of a morning forest, and running water filled our senses, turning it into nothing but a peaceful walk through the woods.

That was why I couldn't understand it.

When we suddenly found ourselves standing in a small dark room, looking straight ahead into the screen of Li, I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

"You two have gone to see him, haven't you?"

His voice boomed into our ears. I held Antoinette's hand on instinct, but that wouldn't be enough to tame the fear that was already festering within me.

That primal fear, where you know you're in terrible danger, was the only thing that I could feel.

And this time, I didn't know what to do.