Chapter 3- "Don't Worry About It" (Jonny)

The Ambassador taunts the seven chosen individuals, revealing only one terrifying truth of the nature of their gathering.

3

          Jonny had found himself in some pretty ridiculous situations in his past.

          Once, on a trip with a college roommate to New York, he’d gotten lost, and had been misled into a cult meeting by a pedestrian who’d promised to help him find his hotel.

          On another occasion, he’d been convinced to work over a weekend as a stand-up comedian at a retirement home, without pay.

          He looked back especially fondly on the memories of the night he spent playing poker with an Irishman who spoke solely through his puppet.

          Yet none of these bizarre situations could prepare Jonny for what he was facing right now.

          “So, is everyone awake now? Have I shocked you out of your slumber?” the Ambassador asked coyly. “Come on, what’s wrong everybody? Cat’s got your tongue? All of your tongues?”

          Jonny tried to think of something witty to say, but as soon as something crossed his mind, the Ambassador’s words came rushing back to him, killing any new thoughts before they could leave his mouth. For the first time in a long while, Jonny felt truly and absolutely at a loss.

          “I think…”

          Jonny heard a female voice, and surveyed the room. There were three women in total, two young adults, and one teenager. It wasn’t hard to determine it was the teenager who had begun to speak, although now her head was down.

          “What’s that?” the Ambassador asked. It put a hand up to its head, where the ear would be on a normal person, and leaned forward. “You, young one, are Amber Duval, if I’m not mistaken. Was there something you wanted to say, sweetheart? If so, I’m all ears. Please, repeat yourself!”

          “I think this is stupid!” the girl yelled.

          “Stupid? Why, I never!” the Ambassador said, clearly feigning offense.

          With Amber’s sudden outburst, Jonny felt his own lips loosen, as if the stigma on speaking had suddenly been lifted. “I daresay the young lass may be right,” he said in a loud and, what he hoped was, assertive voice. “This does all seem a bit ridiculous.”

          The Ambassador turned to him. “Jonny Bowen! You’ve finally found your voice as well!” It looked around. “Does anybody else want to chime in? By all means, let’s start a dialogue!”

          “I don’t want to talk to you!” Amber said, yelling once again. “I want to know what the hell is going on! Those are the only words I want to hear from you!”

          “A feisty one…” the Ambassador said, almost too quietly for Jonny to hear.

          “The young lady has a point,” someone said, and Jonny quickly identified it as the old man standing across from him. “I would also like to know where I am, and what exactly is going on.”

          “Richard Pratts! My man!” the Ambassador said in apparent delight. “Oh, I’m sorry. May I call you Richard? Or would you prefer Dick? Or how about Richie? Whatever works for you!”

          “Richard suits me just fine,” Richard said, a hint of exasperation evident in his deep, gravelly voice. “Now, if you’d please-“

          “I’m so glad I’m getting to know you all!” the Ambassador said, interrupting Richard. “But there are still some people that are a bit tongue tied. How about you, young man? What’s your name?”

          The Ambassador was looking at the man standing right next to Jonny. He was nearly bald, save for a patch of light brown hair sitting on his scalp that looked as if it would fly off if the slightest breeze were to hit it. He wore simple jeans with a white jacket on, the two articles of clothing contrasting both in color and formality.

          He seemed taken aback upon being addressed, and stuttered a few times.

          The Ambassador put him out of his misery. “Don’t worry, I already know your name, Connor Donovan! In fact, I know just about everything about you. And-you didn’t hear this from me-but I have a feeling everybody else here is going to be privy to that very same knowledge before long.”

          Connor reached a hand up and wiped his forehead, as if removing sweat. He then kept his hand hair, twisting his hair as he spoke. “I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about.”

          Before the Ambassador could respond, somebody else spoke up. It was another new voice. “What you just said seems to be relevant.”

          “Hmm? And who might you be?” The three middle pillars rotated, such that the Ambassador could face the woman who had just spoken. She seemed to be about Jonny’s age, with short hair that dark as the night sky.

          “I’ll save you some trouble. My name is Louise Carry. And the reason I’ve remained silent for so long is because I was waiting for you to cease the incessant babble and actually say something important.”

          The Ambassador shook its head. “I’ll have you know, lass, that every single word, every single sound that I utter is of the utmost importance, and should be listened to with respect and humility.”

          Louise ignored his gloating. “You said you would tell us what we’re doing here, and what we need to do if we want to leave. I’ve been waiting patiently, and I still haven’t heard answers to those questions. I’d like you to stop wasting our time.”

          “Damn,” Jonny muttered. It was clear that this one wasn’t playing around.

          Evidently the Overseer realized this too, as it spoke up for the first time since passing the torch. “The woman is correct, Ambassador. We should proceed as quickly as possible. If you cannot explain the situation, I will.”

          “No, no. I’ve got this,” the Ambassador said. “Believe it or not, I’m capable of doing my job. I was just building up to it.”

          Jonny had a feeling the Ambassador was worried about losing the spotlight. He skirted around the question of how he could relate to the feeling.

          “So, without further ado, allow me to explain…explain the concept of our little project!”

          Suddenly, Jonny felt the tense, silent atmosphere that had momentarily been lifted rise up again. If anyone were to interrupt now, it would have to be a bolder man then him.

          “As for how you got here, I’ll just say this now. Don’t worry about it! Believe me, it isn’t important. You guys may be worried that you can’t remember where you were before coming here, or how you got here, but rest assured, it’s no big deal.”

          Jonny had a flashback to when a shady man in a poncho on the streets of New York had tried selling him what he claimed was a rare, golden coin from a lost civilization.

          “Now, as for where you are, I only have one thing to say: don’t worry about that either! You’re in our little world, a place so great, so advanced, so, dare I say it, special, that the minds of you feeble little humans couldn’t possibly comprehend it! Seriously, you’d spend months trying to wrap your heads around it, and you’d still fail, so don’t even bother! We’ll just move on!”

          Every time he’d asked a question about the coin, the poncho-clad individual had assured him it wasn’t important, that he didn’t need to worry about it.

          “Let’s see, what next…oh yeah, I should mention why the seven of you were chosen! To put it simply, that’s our little secret, so don’t worry about it!”

          The whole thing was preposterous, and insulting.

          Looking back, Jonny had no idea why he’d bought the coin.

          “Now that we’ve got that superfluous fluff out of the way, I can finally tell you what’s going to happen in the coming days!”

          “The way I see it, everybody, that means you, and you, and you, and you…” the Ambassador began pointing at each person in the room individually. “Every single one of you has secrets. Every single one of you got to this point in your lives by enduring several hardships in your past. Some of you had it worse than others, I’m sure, but either way, you all share a bond in that you’ve survived this long. You should all be proud.”

          “Each of you also have something else in common. You’re all horribly flawed.”

          The Ambassador’s tone of voice noticeably changed with those words. Instead of the whimsical, almost jovial tone he’d maintained up to this point, he now spoke seriously.

          “You don’t have to feel bad about it. No person is perfect. Yet the fact remains that among you all, there are some truly despicable people. In fact, deep down, you may all be despicable. Still, it’s not my place to judge. In fact, that job lies with each and every one of you.”

          Jonny found any other thoughts fading away as he listened to the Ambassador speak. It was like he was being pulled in, entranced.

          “Over the next several days, we’re going to show you all each other’s dirty little secrets. Your pasts, your flaws, all the things that define you. We’re going to put it all out into the open. But not just for show. Trust me, we wouldn’t expose you like this just for the fun of it.”

          Jonny wondered about that.

          “The truth of the matter is that this information will be what you use to make a very important decision at the end of our time together. This decision is the whole reason you’ve been gathered here, in fact. Do you remember what I said earlier? About how only three of the seven of you are going to survive?”

          “That’s because once all of your pasts have been revealed, you’ll all have to vote to determine who most deserves to live.”

          For a few seconds, nobody, not even the Ambassador, spoke. His words were allowed to sink into everyone’s minds. Jonny, for his part, didn’t understand.

          He’d have to vote to determine who would survive?

          Or to put things differently, he’d have to vote to determine who to kill?

          The Ambassador spoke again, returning to its former nature. Jonny couldn’t see it smiling, but he could practically hear the smile in the things voice. “So, that’s how it’s going to be, folks. To summarize, for the slower of you among us, we’re going to be taking a look at each of your lives, and at the end, we’ll vote to see who is most worthy to continue living. And remember, only three of you will get to make the cut. Of course, there’s more to it than that, there’s also…”

          Jonny’s attention began to slip away from the Ambassador. He was still trying to process what he’d already heard. His past was going to be revealed. He would have to vote on who was most worthy to live. Was there anything in his past, anything so bad, so terrible that would make someone think he didn’t deserve to live?

          Maybe he was biased, but he couldn’t think of anything.

          And was there anyone here who led such a terrible life that he could justify sentencing them to death?

          Jonny doubted it. He looked around the room again, this time looking closely at everyone. He knew not to judge books by their covers, or people by their appearances, but he just couldn’t believe that any of the people assembled could be so bad.

          And then his eyes settled on someone he’d barely taken notice of before. It was a young boy positioned three pillars down from him, partially obscured from his view. He hadn’t said anything, and he was hunched up, but now that he got a closer look, Jonny could only stand and stare.

          The age, the light blonde hair, and the formal attire. There could be no mistake.

          It was the same boy Jonny had seen when he’d first woken up, in the burning apartment.

          The boy that had burst into flames.