“You’re the one going?!” Ramona exclaimed as she barged into the apartment.
I jumped, turning from the pot of stew I was cooking to look back at Ramona’s flustered face. “What?” I asked.
“Leslie –” She cut herself off, glancing over her shoulder at the still open door. Ramona closed it then turned back to me. “Leslie told me wejowkmdajuhdioaljkmskndhn.”
Ramona stared at me with a frown, her eyebrows cinched together in the middle, as she waited for my response.
“I’m the best chance they’ve got,” I said. The sound of the pot boiling over drew my attention. “Shit,” I muttered, moving the pot off the heat as Ramona spoke behind me.
“Ywejdlamkndiuhiwojkadmu hate it there. Why would you want to go back?”
“You’re the one who negotiated this!” I shouted in frustration as I spun to face her again. “The Strokes needed someone who could adapt to the System quickly because of how little time we have!”
“I got you more time,” Ramona replied.
I blinked. I had to have misheard that. Ramona always believed the System should be left alone. The last thing she would have done was give the Strokes more time to take the System down. Right? “What do you mean?” I asked slowly.
Ramona scoffed. She crossed her arms, glancing away as she spoke. “When the meetings with the mayor started, I truly believed the wishes of byte ancestors should be respected. But after the truth of the anti-bytes came out…” Ramona shook her head, the corner of her mouth turning down. “The way Mayor Isabel twisted my values made me sick. Swejfalkmko ‘avoid retaliation even for a noble cause’ as if the whole thing was Leslie’s fault.”
Ramona met my eyes. “I’ve changed my mind about how to handle the System. But now I wish I’d changed it sooner.”
I sighed. “Look, Ramona, I know you meant well –”
“It doesn’t matter what I meant!” Ramona shouted, throwing her hands up. “Ifwejwejoifjslkd cost me a friend, I would’ve nwjeoijfmsdkjkhfuaiojelkmdie!”
I tilted my head to one side. “You’re talking as if I’m not coming back,” I stated.
Ramona gave me a blank stare. “Leslie also told me what the System does to Outcasts.”
Silence. I knew exactly the kind of risk I was taking by volunteering to reenter the System. I also knew how good I was at tricking the System before I’d messed up.
“This is different,” I said finally. “None of the Outcasts sent in before were also former bytes.”
Ramona frowned.
“I’ll come back,” I stated. Yet, in the back of my mind, a whisper snaked in to ask, Will you, though?
Ramona rushed over to give me a hug which took me by surprise. “You’d better,” she said.
“I promise I’ll come back,” I responded. A statement that was as much for her as it was for me to silence the lingering doubt in my mind.
To be continued…