Shadows of Destiny

From The Top

~Sylvester~

Liam looked very afraid, staring at me from the table. His tears flowed freely, and I did not know how to make him comfortable.

Looking at him now, I could see his father’s features. I cleared my throat and asked that they bring him some juice.

“Have they been feeding you?” I asked him, and he nodded reluctantly.

I figured he might not have been eating. I felt sorry for him.

I could not be as cruel as I intended to be, knowing his age and the fact that he might be misguided.

“How about we start from the top,” I told him and narrowed my eyes, looking at him.

“I know little of the back story and how you pretended to be kidnapped so your father would do their bidding. I know everything, so I would advise you to be honest. The offence you have committed is treason, and I am sure you are a smart young man to know the repercussions of your crime. If you tell me the truth and it yields something, I will waive the death penalty and life imprisonment. You are too young for it. Do not let this matter escalate beyond this room. I will quietly send you home to your father if you tell me the truth, young man. Today some people threatened my mate, so I am not feeling kind,” I told him. He nodded quickly and swallowed.

Someone brought the juice, and they helped Liam take a sip. I could see some relief in his eyes which meant they were not feeding him. Knowing he was a minor made me feel bad, and I asked Theodore to

look into the prisoners’ feeding.

It was wrong to starve them. Anyone in the estate’s dungeons is awaiting trial and is just a suspect. It was wrong to treat them as convicted criminals.

“I am listening,” I said, giving Liam to the floor, and he nodded immediately.

“About two years ago, I started chatting online with a girl called Elaine. I received an email one day inviting me to d******d an app called Friendzone and make new friends. It wasn’t in my spam box. It was in my inbox, and I wondered who must have sent it because it did not look like an ad. Being a lonely child eager to make friends, I ignored all the warning signs and d******ded this app. It was called Friendzone. I would later find out that the app was private and it belonged to an organisation. After d******ding the app, I was asked to register my real name and upload my ID to start making friends. As eager as I was, I wasn’t stupid, so I joined in as a guest with just my first name and nothing more.

I received a lot of friend requests, and I was excited.

Unfortunately, I could only accept the request to interact with them if I was fully registered. So I went against my better judgement and registered fully on the app.

Uploading all that was required of me. My full name, ID, phone number, age, address, everything. They asked for everything, and I foolishly gave it.

True to the conditions, I was verified and allowed to accept the requests; I did so and messaged everyone that sent me a friend request. There were about twenty-three altogether,” He said and looked at me with shame.

“I felt I had hit the jackpot for someone that did not have any friends to having twenty-three potential friends. I felt like I wasn’t a weirdo anymore, and maybe I had finally found a community that I could belong to,” he said and bowed his head to show remorse.

I needed to know about her. She was an orphan who lived alone in Gad and worked in a bakery. She wasn’t financially buoyant, but she was getting by. I

he was relieving his experience, and I could also see that he

want to lose her. She asked and pleaded for me to find a way so we could

while I thought I came up with the idea alone, but now I realise she put it there,” he said,

someone like me. You had just conquered what was left of it; they were yet to

anyone else, it would be okay, but as the son of

unfair, and I threw some tantrums. I told him I had gotten admission to study there, and that was where I would go to further my

she encouraged it and fought my father for

I was

I could not be together because my father had placed me in a hostel where

condition there wasn’t really great, and Elaine and I would

tell me the people’s history in Gad and how

to conquer the rest of the west. I believed her, and soon

it was a place people affected by the war went to heal. It was also a place for a selected few. I felt it was weired because people in Gad spoke highly of you and loved you dearly. She made me believe it was a

they had a leader called Moses. He had no last name, just Moses, and he was an

and how it had plagued our world. I was made to believe that other than the north, the rest of

made to believe people lost their homes, families and lives because of

we

things. I honestly saw them as a hate group, but Elaine

someone from whom everything had been taken, and she

soon, I opened

would tell me not to tell my father as it could

asking for my father’s help. They somehow had a notion that the only thing that was protecting them from your wrath was the

copies of sanctions and orders you signed, which resulted in huge suffering in other

they had was that of

leader’s mate for yourself, and they

practice, and every region had

war and killings simply because people refused to agree to your requests. They made you

world would be better if you and your officers were no longer in power and the council was the

day I took a leap of faith and asked them how I could help. They said being the future

I wanted to prove myself badly. Moses teased me about living in a hostel under my father’s watch, and they

treating me like a child, so I decided to prove