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From the outside, Kiat had it all.
He was born into a millionaire family where he got to go on yearly vacations to expensive places in private jets, where he was served only the most high quality meals. Weekly parties were hosted at his house pool, right behind a four-story mansion that had a plethora of unused rooms.
It seemed like the life others could only dream of. But as soon as the party lights dimmed and all the guests went home as the door was shut, that was when things got ugly.
His parents.
He hated them. They'd berate him, scream about every little thing he did wrong, grab and punch him for hours until tears ran down his face as he begged and pleaded for them to stop, and at some point they'd get exhausted and leave him with bruises and bleeding wounds, inside and out. He'd end up bandaging his own injuries, trying to figure out what he could've possibly done wrong, how he could be better, but every time, the outcome was the same.
Every time he looked in the mirror, he seethed with rage at the pathetic girl he saw. He never wanted to be a woman, but that was the life that had been decided for him from the moment he was born. He put on dresses that made him scratch and scratch at his skin until it bled, applied makeup that made him break out in hives, slipped on heels that clenched his feet and made him stumble and trip. He was completely powerless against his situation, and it made him sink into despair.
In a way, hacking was just a way of taking that power back.
It made him feel just the slightest bit better when he stole three hundred dollars from his mother, or when he messed with the numbers on his father's bank account, or when he gave the grouchy old lady next door a virus on her computer.
It made him feel more in control as he watched the chaos, like he was the one deciding when things happened and when, and just maybe that fantasy would actually become a reality some special day. At least, he hoped so.
Eighteen.
He was eighteen now.
He’d finished school a month ago, and his parents already had his future decided for him. They’d already bribed the college admission officers so he could get into college and work at some “well-paying” job in an office, no if and buts. His life was perfectly curated for him, and he despised it. He didn’t care about some bullshit college, and he didn’t care about having some stupid office job.
And so, he'd finally spoken up at family dinner, saying how he didn't agree with a single decision they'd made for him, and that was where the arguing had begun.
His parents began to shout, saying how they had done everything for him and had worked so hard to get him where he was, and how he was acting like he didn't love them at all, to which he yelled out that he never loved them in the first place, and his mother screamed.
They kept on yelling, and at some point the soup had gotten cold and the sun had gone down, but they just kept on focusing on the battle that had to be won, neither of them giving up.
Finally, Kiat's father grabbed a knife.
Kiat's eyes widened.
He panicked, stepping back. His father threw it at his head as he ducked, grinning with the zeal of a madman. His mother had her hands on her hips, staring at him with contempt as if this was just a learning lesson and not his untimely demise.
Another knife was swung at him, and in that moment, the realization came to him.
It was first a thought, and then a possibility, and then a certainty that creeped along his spine, whispering in his ear:
He needed to do something. He was going to die if he didn't.
His eyes darted to the chair next to him — all his life, he'd always been annoyed at how unnecessarily big it was, but now he was grateful for that.
Adrenaline rushed through him. He grabbed the chair before the both of them could even react, lifting it up high, high, high above his head, and slammed it into their bodies.
He heard the heavy wood collide with their heads as screams were let out, their bodies writhing and fighting with the impact as they yelled for help, begging for somebody, anybody to come, and then their hands went limp as the screams faded, the gaze of their eyes slowly fading into oblivion as blood dripped from their mouths.
He was never quite the same after that.
Before long, handcuffs were promptly wrapped around his wrists and his rights were being read to him as he sat in a dingy interrogation room. Really, it was a pathetic way for his story to end. News headlines around the town and beyond were detailing the case, explaining how a heartless and cold-blooded girl brutally murdered her parents out of spite, how they were pushing to give him life and all of that crap . . . really, it didn't matter to him. Not anymore. None of it did.
That was, until the agency stepped in.
They offered him a choice: Rot in prison for the rest of his life, or join some strange rehabilitation syndicate intended to utilize a criminal’s skills for the benefit of the government, since his hacking and self-defense skills had proved useful blah, blah, blah, all that boring stuff . . . he zoned out at some point, but the message was clear: it was them or fate.
He decided to dodge fate that day.
Still, he entered the agency with a closed-mind, and nothing seemed to get him to open it. Scheduled wake-up times, one choice of meal per day, a dress code longer than the ones at rich kid private schools (and he’d had his experiences with those), being forced to risk his life on deadly missions — the list went on.
And God, did he not understand Sanjana and Kelvin. It wasn’t like he hated them or anything — no, they were friends, really, and he cared about them deeply, but he couldn’t understand their “nothing we can do” mindset. Sanjana had already given up leaving, and Kelvin kept trying to look on the bright side of things. What bright side was there? There was none.
That was the one thing that agitated Kiat about Kelvin. Kelvin was so positive all the time, and he tried to find good in everything, no matter what. At least Sanjana could see the realism in things, but Kelvin just smiled and shook it off like it was nothing, and it pissed Kiat off. He’d never been exposed to the realities of the real world. He didn’t understand.
Throughout every birthday party, every late night movie watch, every mission they came back alive from, he could only think about one thing:
He couldn't be himself. Not in a box.
Sanjana and Kelvin told him to quit trying to find a way out, that they could still be happy here, but Kiat never listened, continuing to try to find a way. He needed to.
Nothing was working, though. He'd tried every trick in the book, but he always ran into a dead end, getting frustrated and going to sleep with tears in his eyes. The more attempts he tried and failed, the more hopeless everything seemed.
That was, until the explosion happened.
It was horrific. Hundreds of people died that day. People in crowds walked to graveyards, putting flowers down on tombstones. The city was in ruins, wreckage everywhere and dozens of buildings having been torn down.
And it was absolutely perfect.
They’d been tracking this Watcher guy down for weeks, but only now did Kiat finally have a use for him. Whoever he was, he was a total wreck, which was perfect. If he could make an explosion this big, what else could he do that he could teach Kiat?
Was he desperate? Maybe. But what did it matter? He could be happy, and Sanjana and Kelvin could be, too. They were his friends, after all, and he really just wanted them all to be with him, too. Maybe they would all land in a perfect world where nothing bad ever happened, and Sanjana and Kelvin would thank him, saying how much better their lives were now.
Then again, maybe it would kill them all. He knew that. He wasn’t stupid.
But God, what if it didn’t? What if it took them to somewhere better? He was willing to take that chance, and eventually he managed to track the man behind the terrorist attack down.
Alexei.
A little troublemaker with too much time on his hands. Apparently, the whole explosion thing had been an accident, and he’d actually meant for it to be a “tiny” explosion, which only made it all the more amusing.
Alexei was lonely. Desperate. A total waste. He’d never had a single person who cared about him, and look where that got him. He almost laughed at how easy it was.
Over the next several months that passed by, Kiat slowly lured him in, building up his hacking skills through him over time, all while putting on a carefully curated persona just for him. He was serving him cyanide with glitter sprinkled on top, and Alexei ate it up just like that. Really, Kiat almost felt pity for him.
He distanced himself from Kelvin and Sanjana, trying to prepare himself for what he was going to do. He stopped eating with them, stopped hanging out in his free-time with them, stopped talking with them on missions. They tried to figure out what was going on, but he wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t raise suspicion.
The night had come.
Kelvin was staying late in the office. Again. He always hung around places he shouldn’t, and for what good reason? It didn’t matter anyways. If anything, it only made Kiat’s job easier.
Unfortunately, Kiat just had one little problem.
Alexei.
He’d told that little fucker to stay behind that night, but he just wouldn’t listen, breaking through all the firewalls he put. Apparently, he just loved to put his nose into places he wasn't supposed to go.
Enraged, he quickly put his mouse into a hardlock, rendering him unable to do anything but watch it all unfold. Kiat watched him through a loophole he'd found as he struggled with his mouse, trying to get it to work. It wouldn't budge an inch, and he turned a blind eye to Alexei's frustration as he scanned through the code one last time, double-checking to make sure he hadn't messed anything up.
What he was about to do was for the better. For all of them. If he had a chance to leave this place, then Sanjana and Kelvin should be allowed to come too — no, they had to. He had to save them. They all had to take that chance.
Everything seemed in order.
Moving quickly as he hid behind the wall outside the office, he turned on his tablet and opened up the Mist program, the Mist program that they’d been trying for years to successfully open up the Mist with.
It’d never worked. Until now. Kiat had rigged it so he could go past the limits of the program, and now was the time to find out if it really worked.
He hastily typed in a number:
“100.”
Large enough so that the Mist could hopefully open up, but small enough so that it wouldn’t suck him inside as well. Not until he completed his plan.
And just as he willed, the Mist began to expand, growing and growing and enlarging until Kelvin was floating up in the air. He yelled for help on his earpiece, begging for somebody, anybody to come.
Nobody came.
The Mist pulled him inside and he was gone, a single earpiece falling to the ground where he once stood.
To be honest, Kiat wasn’t really sure how to feel. Had it killed him? Had it brought him to a perfect utopia where nothing bad ever happened? He couldn’t know until he went in too, and once Kelvin was gone he walked up to the security cameras.
Alexei was completely helpless as he stared in utter shock, failing to process what had even happened. Kiat just smiled, giving a speech to him about everything — why he was doing this, what it all meant, how Alexei had helped him throughout all of this.
To be honest, he didn’t really need him anymore. His plan was nearly completed. That was what Kiat told him.
It probably crushed him. He didn't care.
And yet, somewhere along the way, Kiat had softened up to Alexei, just a bit. All those silly messages and photos he’d sent — he couldn’t deny they had become at least a little bit genuine at some point. They’d even maybe become friends — in their own twisted way.
God.
He’d gotten sidetracked. Of course he had. Stupid. He needed to focus. There was no time for this bullshit.
He breathed in. He turned around to face the Mist, and hesitated. If he jumped into here, there was no going back. Then again, he’d already gone too far to go back anyways.
This was it. He couldn’t just abandon his plan now. He’d worked so hard to get here, hadn’t he?
He dropped his tablet, staring down at his reflection through the screen. The Mist would probably only keep running without input for a few more hours, but if he left the program open, Sanjana would surely come for the both of them, right? Or at least for Kelvin. She was smart. She could figure out what to do. And Kiat knew her. If any of her friends were in danger — or at least if she thought they were — she'd immediately jump in for them.
He gave a final salute to the cameras before falling backwards, fading into nothing before Alexei could even blink.
It wasn’t like he could just leave Alexei out there though. Who knows what he could report to those shady cops around the city for a ticket out if he ever got caught, and if they found a way to drag him back . . .
No. He knew too much. Kiat needed to keep him in control.
Which was exactly why, before he’d vanished, he’d left him a little gift.
A gift that would lead him right where he wanted him.