The stage was set. The bright lights hummed overhead. Protesters had been marching around since 11:00. By 5:00 the park lawn we were using was full of people of every color and their just as colorful signs. Good fortune seemed to smile on me; the crowd all seemed to be against Persim.

Our message worked, Logos voice was full of something close to pride.

I saw Persim across the stage behind the other side of the curtains.This was a small rally compared to anything she had ever been involved in. My heart sank. I had a crowd, but it was a small crowd. Persim still had most of the country bending to her will. What could actually be accomplished today.

Don’t fret, honey. We have taken people from nothing to everything.

Correction, all three of us have taken people from nothing to everything. Ethos is on the opposite side of this stage.

Pathos didn’t have to speak. I could feel her hot irritation with her brother in my veins. They were two sides of a coin called persuasion.

A voice outside of my mind snapped me back to the present.

“We were shocked when her secretary said she would be here,” Tracy, the woman who had organized the event, said to me when I had first arrived. She was a small time event planner that Boss said had owed him a favor.

“You must really be a thorn in her side.” Tracy was a thin young woman, who if she had the money, would be the right age to be working on a college degree. Her afro was pulled back into the thickest ponytail I had ever seen. She wore a tan pantsuit that had been a gift from her grandparents when she had graduated valedictorian of her high school last year. It had come as a real shock to most of her family. Tracy had been failing nearly every year until she turned 16. Then her last year and a half of high school, she just “got it.” She had winked at me when she told me earlier in the morning.

“Um, yeah, I don’t think the President will be joining my fan club anytime soon,” I said. Tracy laughed.

Don’t say um. We worked on that.

I felt irritated, not at Logos, but at myself. This was not a day to make mistakes. I could feel the energy of Pathos and Logos in my veins, as though electrical spiderwebs were woven throughout my skin. I inhaled deeply to quell my nerves and feed the energy.

“You look fierce, girl,” Tracy said.

I knew I did. I had grown in confidence in the last couple weeks. I nodded at Tracy and she excused herself to do a final mic check.

I made the mistake of staring across the stage too long, Persim looked up and smiled at me, hollow. I felt as if behind her teeth was a cold black hole, nothing human inside. We both stepped out from behind the curtains. A hush fell over the crowd.

“Allow me to begin,” Persim stepped forward before I had even settled my notes. “I am very proud of this community. You show your strength and determination with every day that you wake up. This gathering tonight, shows that this community is based on togetherness, being a united front. A family that stands up for the benefit of the whole.”

You need to speak up. This is Ethos’ favorite ploy. He will beat you to the start and never let you begin.

I stepped forward to speak, but Persim ignored me. The crowd ignored me. All eyes were on her, eating the words that built their small neighborhood up for the moment. A heat swelled inside me. This was my crowd. They came to listen to me.

“My opponent, if you can call her that, here would have you believe otherwise. She aims to sow seeds of doubt into your community. She will tell you that the policies I have put into play are harming you. I tell you the truth, they will benefit the future.”

A few angry eyes darted my way before landing on Persim again.

Speak up. Logos voice was calm.

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I cleared my throat and cut Persim off before she could begin her next sentence, “You speak of a future, President Persim. So too did a man with a small, funny mustache. A future that is perfect. Perfect schools, jobs for all, community for all, but that future is missing a huge part of humanity. The beauty of humanity is in its frailty. In a stranger helping someone who is down on their luck. In the teacher who perseveres to reach all students, and not the cookie cutter ones you desire. Your policies rip the beauty out from under our feet, and it attempts to slide in a concrete floor with a foundation made of crushed souls.”

I couldn’t read the crowd’s faces. They seemed blank.

You’re doing great, dear. They are processing. It’s slow. We’ve never been separated from our brother before.

Encouraged, I continued, “There has not been a protest in this country in years. Our founding-”

“You demonize me, girl,” Persim’s words were sharp. “These kind people are too smart to fall into your words. You want to undo what we have worked so hard for. You want a fight?” And she smiled that hollow smile at me again knowing full well the power of that word. From somewhere in the crowd they took up the chant.

“Fight. Fight. Fight.”

And all hell broke loose.

I wasn’t sure where it began in the crowd. Everyone turned on the nearest person. Men and women were pummeling their fists into strangers' faces. Shirts were torn, the crowd seemed to be moaning a collective grunt.

Sorry, I heard Logos say in my head. We didn’t know he would do that.

Our brother must have felt cornered.

Ethos did this? I asked, but they were silent. I turned to Persim’s podium, but she was nowhere to be seen. Her bodyguard was gone, her bulletproof limo was gone. The sound of buzzing above my head made me look up. News drones circled around me. I knew I was their focus. Me in the midst of chaos. The prim President Persim vanished from the violence.

“Shit,” I said to the air.

Bang, bang.

I swiveled my head to the sound of gunshots from the back of the mob. The crowd moved as one wave. Those on the ground heaved themselves up, and the grunt turned to a unified scream. The wave rushed the stage, pure panic in all of their eyes. I stood frozen, I guess my body expected the flow to move around me, but my body was wrong. The first shoulder that ran into me was muscular and square. It knocked me back a few feet. I stumbled to get my footing, but before I could stand erect, more bodies slammed into me. With no other choice, I turned with the mass and ran. I jumped off the back of the stage. Sam was waiting for me in the beat up Escalade that belonged to Boss. The window was down, and I saw his eyes searching for me among the throng. The crowd was thinning out as people ran in all directions away from the park, and I turned to Sam. I kept my eyes on him until the glint of light caught my attention. I turned my head to see a man step around from the back side of the Escalade. He raised a handgun from his side and aimed at my head.

I felt a rock of a shoulder hit my chest at the same time I heard the shot fire. I tasted dirt and felt rubber soles on my face. My mind recognized the shape of a woman in panic as she scrambled off my body. She gave one final push with her leg, and I felt my nose crack as it was shoved into the ground. I saw dirt, and turned to the sky. The woman was gone. A few legs still streamed by my face. I found the Escalade with my eyes, and saw Sam, Robert, and Boss standing in a circle, taking turns kicking the shit out of the man with the gun.

“Uuaaaagh!” I heard. It took me a second to process that that animalistic groan was coming from me. I rolled over to see the sky again. There were no clouds, just a pink sunset streaked sky.

This could have been such a beautiful day, I thought.

A shape loomed over me. And my eyes adjusted from the distant watercolor sky to the face hovering directly over me.

“Your nose!” sounded from the shape above me.

“Ava!” shouted a deeper voice.

A larger shadow appeared over me. Nathan said nothing more as he scooped me up from the dirt.

I could hear Sam becoming hysterical as we approached. “You aimed at her! Don’t give me that shit. Persim sent you, didn’t she? Didn’t she!” The belligerent screaming was punctuated with a punch to the man’s face. Boss pulled him back.

“Tank, cool it.” Sam stepped back and our eyes locked. I heard the click of a hammer being pulled back. It was low, as I strained to listen. “Tell us the truth, and you won’t die here in the dust.”

The man whimpered something unintelligible. Blood sputtered onto his shirt through busted lips as he spoke. “Couldn’t hear you,” Boss said with chilling clarity.

“I had orders. I believe in President Persim. She can’t lead us wrong. She is perfection.” He smiled with bloody teeth. “Persim perfection, Persim perfection, Persim perfection.” Boss looked at me in Nathan’s arms. I shook my head no. Boss hit the man on the back of the head with the gun, and his unconscious body was slumped in the dirt of the parking lot.

Nathan turned Ava’s body so she faced him instead of the unconscious assassin. Her eyes were wide and she stared into the brown fabric of his jacket. He hugged her close to him and her little arms wrapped around him in return.

“Nathan…Ava…you’re alive,” I cried.

Tears began to flow freely down my face.