The Path To Perfection

Chapter 16: A Scheme

In the kitchen of Jurdelious and Krene, Eva was washing the dishes while humming a soothing melody, her black hair tied neatly into a bun. Everyone just had their dinner, Jurdelious and her son were watching a movie in the living room while her two daughters were already asleep. Krene was nowhere to be found in the house, she was most likely in the back yard sitting on her favorite chair and staring at the night sky.

*CLACK*

The front door opened, producing a rusty sound that attracted the attention of Eva and Jurdelious. Walking through the door was Al'ravee who seemed to be absent-minded.

Eva sighed in relief when she saw her husband. Earlier, Al'ravee had sent her a text that he was fine and just going to see an old friend, later he sent another text that said he was coming back home.

" Ravee, welcome home..." Eva was saying but stopped when she saw the troubled expression on Al'ravee's face. " How was your day, what's with the long face?"

Al'ravee looked at her and opened his mouth to respond but no words came forth. He wanted to tell her how his day was, he wanted to tell her that he finally met an old friend, he wanted to tell her that he got news of a friend that ran away... but... anytime he remembered what Murry had told him, he would just stand wherever he was, dumbfounded.

" I'll talk to you later, I'm going to bed." Al'ravee sighed and said in a low tone. He didn't wait for Eva's reaction before he walked upstairs to his old bedroom which he and his wife currently shared.

Jurdelious who heard the exchange between his son and his wife turned back to see Al'ravee walking up the stairs with slumped shoulders. Jurdelious sighed within and said to himself. " It's unavoidable that you will lose those that are close to you. Most of us had this experience..". Though Eva was unable to hear what he was saying. The little boy sitting next to him was too engrossed with what he was watching to notice that his father was back or that his grandfather just said something.

Al'ravee arrived in his bedroom and recounted all that Al'ravee had told him again and again.

According to Murry, he never passed the entrance test the first time. He had lied to everyone back then out of shame. That year, his family which only consisted of his brother and father happened to be moving to the city not too far from the University, and that's why Murry decided to go for the entrance exam. It was an advantage for him cause even though he failed, his residence was still nearby.

Murry didn't give up though, the university allowed students to write the exam multiple times so he was able to write and pass the exams the next year.

Murry had always had some sort of suppressed pride but his failure made him humble. Al'ravee was reminded of the last love play that Murry had with a girl named Josephine before he entered a higher institution. Out of pure coincidence, she was also admitted into the same university as Murry, though she passed the first year and was then further than him. One thing lead to another and they rekindled their old flame.

Murry wanted to be a politician but he never knew how hard it was to be one. It wasn't until his lecturer explained to his set that he finally understood the ups and downs of politics. In simple terms, if you stayed at a low position in society, maybe the chief of a small area, all will be fine. But if you tried to go higher, things will get really complicated. After all, no matter how you described politics, at the end of it was trying to gain authority and power... and in some cases, by any means possible. Murry said that most politicians would laugh in mockery anytime they saw actors trying to behave like actual politicians. They didn't even know a quarter of what goes on behind the scenes. In their circle, scheming was inevitable. After graduation, what Murry needed the most was support from someone he knew and trusted, lucky for him, he met Josephine.

The type of government practiced on Planet GreenCloud was a Council system where a group of people hold the highest power in a region. Over the years, countless scholars have perfected this practice to ensure effective leadership. In the country that Al'ravee lived in, the council was allowed to have a maximum of Twenty-five members. Normally, a new council member could only be selected if; A council member retired, died, or was jointly voted out by his fellow members, and someone could only become a part of the council if and only if the number of civilian votes in the country was highest among candidates.

Currently, Murry's goal was to occupy one of the three vacant spots for the council. This process could take years without anyone being chosen to take one of the seats so he still had enough time. What he needed was to gather people who were not gutsy enough to pursue the position to support him and to be able to convince more than half of the council members that he was worthy of the seat.

Of course, Murry wasn't the only one who wanted to achieve that goal, so he naturally had enemies. Every one of those candidates who wanted that position were willing to scheme against each other to make themselves look more appealing to the council... Ivan was a victim of one of those schemes.

During an operation with his gang, an operation where they were asked to silence the family member of an extremely rich and influential chief. It was one of those rare moments when the always-protected lady decided to go out on her own without anyone else knowing about it, or so she thought. With the help of inside information and a not-well-known gang, they successfully cornered her. Unfortunately, Ivan had to be the one to pull the trigger.

One of Murry's completions who he suspected was behind the killing in the first place, took the 'opportunity' to get Ivan, claiming that he was responsible for the murder, therefore gaining the support of the chief whose daughter was killed.

As for Ivan, according to the law, he was to be sentenced to death after the court trial. His execution date is three weeks from now.

Al'ravee lay on his bed, completely disheartened, not in any mood whatsoever to talk with anyone. There was nothing that Murry could do. Any act to assist Ivan in avoiding the death penalty will immediately give the council a bad impression of him, it wasn't like he would succeed. Murry simply came back to break the news to Ivan's parents when he found out that the scapegoat was his friend. What Al'ravee was thinking of was how to tell Selou about this.

Eva came in after some time to see Al'ravee sleeping peacefully, she decided to just ask about today tomorrow. When she got on the bed to lie down beside her husband, she noticed the trace of a frown on his face.

.....

*Three weeks later*

In a dimly lit room, three people could be seen, all having solemn expressions. The first person stood right next to the wall with one of his hands on a lever. The second person was a young man in a priest robe holding onto a string of beads while muttering a prayer. The last person was strapped to a wooden chair tightly to prevent him from moving.

The person on the wooden chair had his face down, clearly not paying attention to what came out of the priest's mouth. His head seemed to have just been shaved not too long ago as light from the ceiling was reflected from his bald head. If one looked carefully, one would see that the man's arms were trembling feverishly. The man on the chair was Ivan, a friend of Al'ravee and Murry, ex-lover of Selou, father of Duane, the one who was going to be executed today.

In front of them was a transparent glass wall and behind the glass wall was a group of about twenty-odd people. Among them were Al'ravee and other familiar faces. Al'ravee didn't want to be here today but he just couldn't help but come. He still remembered what Ivan said to him the last time he visited.

...

"Al'ravee... It is nice to see you again, though I would have preferred our last meeting in a.... better circumstance." Ivan said, his locks of blonde hair hanging over his eyes.

Al'ravee sat in front of him and just took in the current sight of Ivan in prison clothes. Long gone was that optimistic, always smiling, love-sick boy. All that's left is a dreg of society, his current situation a result of consecutive bad choices in the past.

" Oh... I see, there are a lot of things going through your mind right now so you are still speechless. I understand, I too was speechless in the courtroom." Ivan gave off a melancholic smile. " Can you believe it, I'm going to die soon, not by natural cause but by the hands of another man. Hehehe and there's no fucking thing I can do about it."

Al'ravee sighed. " What happened to you, Ivan."