Red Planet Rebellion

"Fear is a powerful emotion, and it can be used to control many people."

My captor said this as he sat across from me. I couldn't see his face, but I recognized his voice, and the tone of it frightened me all the more.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said it with conviction, but inside I was shaking. My wrists were bound by leather straps to the arms of the chair, my ankles shackled to the legs. But that wasn't what scared me; it was how my captor had found me. For months now, I'd been in hiding, and here he was - right in front of me. Even if I could have screamed for help, no one would hear me.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He shifted slightly in his seat, and I heard a clink of metal against metal as his arm brushed against something on the table beside him. "You've been selling my drugs."

I stammered out an explanation. "I...I've never sold any drugs! Never! Why would you think that?"

He chuckled softly. "Why do you think? I have eyes everywhere, my boy. It's been weeks since you've left your apartment, but before then...there were signs."

"No!" I denied it again, but inside my mind raced. What signs? Maybe I'd left some prints somewhere? Maybe someone had seen me talking with another dealer? No...that couldn't be possible because there was no other dealer anywhere near here who peddled my boss' product. There were only two people who knew where the product came from: Me and him. And if he thought that....no....no way could he know about those girls at the bar...could he? The thought sent a chill through my body despite the warmth of the room and its fire. My boss had sent me a message through one of those girls at one point or another; she'd come to my apartment to give it to me - told me she still wanted to work for me even after her friends quit after they got caught up in a police raid while they were delivering some product for our boss - but still....that didn't mean that she hadn't told him anything about our arrangement or even her friends who worked there with her. Could he know about them too? Was that why he sent one of his men to find me? Had she talked after all? How did he get so close without anyone seeing him? He must have disguised himself somehow....but how? Then again...maybe not...he was sitting across from me after all. But what if this was a trap? What if he just wanted to draw me out into the open so someone could jump out and grab me as soon as I entered the room? Did I dare stay or should I just turn around and run back out into the darkness where no one could see or follow me? What choice did I have anyway? If I ran now, then he would know where I lived and that would be worse than staying here with him right now since he could easily break into my place at any time once he knew where it was; whereas if I stayed here with him tonight then maybe there was still hope that my dark secret would remain hidden from the public eye forever if only for tonight. Because if someone found out who brought these drugs into their community then everything would change for everyone involved - including everyone who worked for our boss - if we weren't dead already beforehand then we surely would be afterward once our boss discovered that we were trying to sell off his product without his permission; which meant that either way this night ended badly for us whether we died tonight or eventually after going on trial and ending up behind bars like so many other drug traffickers before us; so maybe staying here was better than running away right now since at least there might be a small chance our boss wouldn't realize what happened until morning when those hookers went to work again at their usual time and noticed that they had missed their customers' visits last night; maybe they'd think nothing of it since sometimes people go home early when they're tired or need privacy or something else like that instead of visiting them at work like they usually do; maybe they'd tell their bosses at work next week when they show up again looking for their customers but then those bosses might just assume that their employees are slacking off instead of doing something else more exciting than working when really they're off doing whores work too - drugs trafficking - instead in order to afford bigger house payments or whatever else goes along with living in a nice neighborhood like theirs because rich people always try to keep other rich people away from their nice houses by keeping poor people like us away from nicer neighborhoods by putting certain laws in place making it hard for us to live there even though we're just as good as them otherwise; maybe none of this will ever happen though because we'll die tonight before our hooker friends even wake up in order to make sure no one discovers our secret business partnership too soon; because if word gets out before we figure out how to end this thing ourselves then there won't be much we can do anymore besides hope and pray someone else finds out first so that they can take care of everything else before we have no say anymore in how things get handled; hopefully there will also be enough time left over before our deaths for us to find an honorable way out of this predicament instead of getting killed by some man who doesn't care at all about being discreet while killing us so long as no one notices while he does it; hopefully someone will see him kill us instead otherwise we'll end up getting blamed for whatever happens next when this whole mess comes down tomorrow morning including whoever ends up taking over our positions once everything gets taken over by someone else willing to sell drugs without permission from anyone so long as they get paid well enough for their trouble; hopefully someone will save us from all of this tonight before it's too late."