Endy- Reaching for the Missing Moon

by Jiny Lee

Long time ago, when people were living peacefully all together under the sun, there was a man, the most powerful man on earth, dared to challenge everything in the world. He was the son of the sky and the earth itself.

  He shouted, 'There's nothing on earth that's more powerful than I!' The mountain came upon him and challenged him. The mountain said, 'I am the tallest and the biggest daughter of all my mother earth have created. I am the mother myself of all the trees and the creatures. How dare you say you're the most powerful being on earth!' They wrestled for days and nights and finally the man smashed the mountain down with the edge of his hand.

  He shouted with laughter, 'Even the giant mountain couldn't be a match for me. There's nothing under the sky that's more powerful than I!' The storm challenged him. The storm said, 'I am the mightiest axe, and the fiercest arrow on my father's hand. I am the bringer of flood, the bringer of thunder, and the bringer of destruction! I am the ferocious destroyer of civilizations myself! How dare you say you're the most powerful being under the sky?'

  The storm brought a powerful wind to blew the man but the man was standing still like a tall mountain. He said, 'How could you blow me when the wind can't move a mountain?' Then the storm brought thunders and threw a rain of lightnings bolts on the man but the man laughed and said, 'I'm the master of thunder! I am the master of lightnings and the master of water and fire! And the fire your thunderbolts are making is nothing but a bonfire compared to what I'm capable of!'

  The man defeated the storm with his chariots of flaming wheels and burning arrows and shouted even more arrogantly. 'I have defeated the powerful storm! There's truly nothing on earth, under the sky, or in the whole world that's more powerful than I!'

  The Sun and the Moon was watching all these days and nights. While the Moon enjoyed to watch the man's confidence the Sun wasn't happy with this arrogant man. The Sun talked to the man, 'I admire your might and your will but I hardly enjoy your arrogance.' The man said, 'The Sun! The brightest watcher on the sky! I chopped downed the giant mountain and I defeated the powerful storm! I challenge you to come down from your observatory and defeat me if you doubt I'm the most powerful in the world!'

  By the man's demand, the sun came slowly down the earth. All the animals, plants, water and the earth itself started to burn with magnificent heat from the Sun.

  When the Sun came down all the way near the earth, the man cried for mercy with his burning eyes and his melting body. The sun gloatingly smiled and went back to the sky. The man was left dying on the ground, regretting his arrogant self.

  The Sun went over the horizon to his sacred temple and the Moon came upon the sky and looked at the dying man. She pitied the man and she couldn't let the man die. She called the wolves, the owls, and all the creatures of the night to come out from the darkness and they made shelter for the man...

  The story has a few variable sequels after that. Some say the man lived to see his children prospering on the ground but still being hated by the sun and that became the kind of us. Some say the man died and the mythical creatures buried him in the ground so that the sun couldn't burn down the dead man's body, and our ancestors were born from the ashes of his dead body. So, some people in the building believe that we are all from the earth. Kimmy told me that her great grandmother believed that our ancestors were the earth worms under the ground. What a nonsense.

  Anyway the day walkers liked the story. They said the story is mythical and mysterious, and at the same time, allegorical.

  I didn't know what's the true story behind the story. You know, every story must have some reality to be based on. But whatever the real story is, the lesson this story gives is not that you should be modest or you should always be humble. The lesson I think is that one who has the superior power always has to prove himself by destroying those who are inferior to him.

  15

  There's a time when you feel like you've seen something before, like in a dream. It's called a deja vu. People say it's just an illusion of your brain, but I'd say, it's our instinct trying to shout out to ourselves.

  That day, I instantly felt I'd seen this scene before. It might have been from one of my weird dreams, I wasn't sure, but I strongly felt that I'd seen it before.

  Purple finally found the vault. There was more money than we'd thought. After a quick research, we estimated that we could buy all six Ids and a place to live. If we got to above the 100th floor, we would have a chance to see Hannibal one day.

  Before we left the prison floors, Jacques asked a favor. He asked us to let him go up together. He said he should see how things were going on in the building, so that maybe he could be of our help one day. That wasn't a big problem for us. We agreed. and we went up together.

  For a few weeks, he stayed with us. He helped us in setting our plans. He knew a lot of things. He especially knew a lot about the history outside the building. Histories of revolutions in the world. He said, to start a revolution is a lot like to start a fire. Just like a domino. The most important thing he said was to pick on the right spot to ignite.

  I told him that the first one we had to kill was a guy called Hannibal. I told him what he had done and what he had become. Jacques understood my rage and how I wanted to get my revenge. But he carefully said that I should separate my personal revenge and my cause. He said, we would get Hannibal but that shouldn't be the first step only because of my vengeance.

  Well, at that point, I thought to myself. What's the cause for all this? Why am I trying to take over the whole system? For justice? For everyone? No, I wasn't. The mere vengeance itself was what was driving me actually. The people who were around me, my family, and Diane, they were the motivation for me that kept me moving. Perhaps Jacques was right about what he was saying, but, I couldn't help questioning what the revolution was about if I had to separate it with my personal feeling.

  Jacques said he should get used to the building first. He said he should get to know the forest in order to start a fire in it. While we were preparing ourselves for the moving, he spent all his days studying. He talked with people, hang around with people as if he was originally from the building. He talked a lot with Purple, too. Purple taught him a lot about the system, like how they controlled the whole building. Jacques seemed to have understand everything. He even said one day, that it might be easier than he thought. I just thought 'Well, he's from the bigger world, so probably he knows what's what.'

  We bought seven Ids and a small place on the 100th floor from the broker Alex and Wonder knew. The broker said it's impossible to get us any higher than the 100th floor. He said the customs were pretty tough those days. Jacques laughed. He said, 'What? Customs? You use the word custom? Are we going to another country or something?' The broker said, 'Yes, my buddy, you are. It's a whole different country.'

  ...

  We made a deal with him and he sent us to the 100th floor the next day in a box, disguising us as a shipment. The broker put us all in a wooden box and let us get in the 100th floor. He put us in an apartment where we had purchased and set us free from the box. The room wasn't that small. The broker then changed our clothes to some clean ones and told us a few basic rules that we should keep around there.

  The rule number one was to keep our identity a secret. If someone asked us where were we from, he said we had to say, 'Oh, we're from upstairs and we're only here for a short time. There must be some kind of mistake, you know. They're quite sensitive to the security issue.'

  Fox asked the broker, 'What security issue?' The broker said 'Who knows? People will come up with anything if you just say so.' Well, at least, we were more than familiar with the concept of saying, 'We're from somewhere higher,' since we used the same strategy before.

  The broker continued. He said, 'You know, people here are very different from you. People here, they're all bunch of cowards. They just want to believe that they are not like you. They want to differentiate them from people on the lower floors. See, they have food and they have power. They at least have so
mething on their hands and they don't want to lose it. Just remember what I'm saying and figure out the rest on your own.'

  He told us a few more rules that we had to keep.

  'The rule number two; Make a good social relationship with people. People here are mostly selfish and they are bunch of cowards. If you don't keep a good relationship with some of the influential people on the floor, you'll be targeted by their suspicion.'

  Purple asked him how we could find the influential people. The broker said that wouldn't be difficult since they have parties nearly everyday and the hosts of those parties were the most influential people. Jacques said, 'I'm more than familiar with those socializations. A Masquerade! Silent war of the hypocrites with no other weapons but their tongues!'

  'Good for you. Now, the rule number three,' the broker continued, 'always tell me when you have to go down the floors. Your ids are perfectly forged but you'll still be suspected if you go up and down the floors without any proper reasons. If you have to go downstairs, tell me in advance. It would be much easier to join me.'

  Alex answered, 'Ok. fair enough, since you're maybe one of the least suspected. I was a vendor myself, too. I know what you're saying.'

  The broker continued telling us the rules again.

  'Good. And the rule number four. Don't try to go up to the 102nd floor. Going upstairs is far more strictly prohibited than going downstairs. Just don't do anything suspicious, okay?'

  Alex said, 'No, why would we?'

  He continued. 'And the rule number five. It's the final rule. It's the most important rule of all actually. If you get compromised, do not mention anything about me.'

  We agreed on those rules and he left. He told us to get out of the room thirty minutes after he left. We left the room together in our fancy new clothes to see what's going on. And he was right. It was a whole different country.

  It was a different world. First of all, I could see why Alex said the hallways were called the streets on the 100th floor. The hallways perfectly resembled the streets of a small town. The streets were well lit with street lamps, the walls of the buildings were painted with various colors, and the floors were paved with pebbles and gravels. There were even small alleys in the middle of the small buildings.

  The apartment we came out of was a two story building. The roof of the building wasn't touching the ceiling of the 100th floor to make an impression of an independent building. I looked around to see other buildings as well.

  There were a few one-story houses but most of the other buildings were also two-story houses and had independent roofs separated from the ceiling. All the buildings were built aligned with the paved streets. How should I say, I got an impression that it was a near-perfect replication of a small town. It was like you're living in a movie set or in a museum exhibition with the title 'Elegant and artistic town of the world before the skyscrapers.'

  What was impressive was not only those houses. People were walking around with the same manners like they'd learned how to walk from the same manners school. They walked so unnaturally. They talked unnaturally as well. They had the habit of saying uhm, well, in the middle of every sentences a lot so that they could choose the words carefully.

  Most of all, I was impressed by the number of guards around. The guards were on every corners of the hallways. It was more than triple the number of guards we had on the lower floors. They didn't join the conversation or do any kind of interaction with the people. But we had to watch our mouths because they were listening. That was probably their most important job, listening to all the talks from the people to find anyone suspicious.

  So Jacques was right again. It was like a masquerade. They were putting on their masks at all times and never revealed their real faces.

  Jacques seemed to pick on the vibe right away. He said it was a lot like in the city outside the building. He said, 'They are also the people who are so tamed to the system and they are so accustomed to wearing the masks that they forgot who they actually were.'

  So he became our teacher. He taught us how to properly walk, talk, and dress. We did as we were taught and said that we were from upstairs and would be back in a short while. They seem to be suspicious at first, but by the way Jacques looked, they gradually began to believe that we were from the higher floors. The way he talked and behaved probably looked extraordinary to them as well. Soon, we were invited to join a party. We thought it would be a good opportunity for us to get some information.

  16

  The party was at a huge mansion of a person named Finlin. He was one of the most powerful figures on the floor. Even the guards were being cautious to him. We heard that he was the owner of a multiple factories on the lower floors.

  I looked around the huge hall inside his mansion and saw that he was walking around to say the words of greetings to everyone in the party. When he came to us, we all got nervous since it was the first time for us to talk with someone with that much power. Jacques gestured us to leave it all up to him. So we just nodded like a bubble head while he was doing all the talk. We were standing behind him awkwardly like a bunch of meerkats.

  Jacques said how much he liked the party and the place. They had a little chat for a while. A chat that was full of rhetorics and euphuism. Finlin seemed to like the way Jacques talked. He asked where we were from, saying that he didn't think he saw us around before.

  Jacques said in a low voice as if he didn't want anyone else to hear.

  'Mr. Finlin, we're from upstairs. You know how they works. They believe they run this building while it is we who actually do.'

  Finlin seemed to be surprised for a moment and then laughed out loud. He said, 'Wow! I like this gentleman. What you're saying is exactly the same as what I've been thinking myself! Excuse us for a moment gentlemen, ladies. I want to have some more meaningful conversation with Mr. Jacques. Enjoy yourselves my friends. Make yourself at home. Well, Mr. Jacques, I want to show you the way to my study and talk more about your, uhm, view on the running of the building.'

  And then they went to his study. Before leaving, Jacques told us to enjoy meeting the people. So we spread up and talked with as many people as we could. We didn't hurry to get information. We had to blend in first. We came back to our place after the party was over.

  I'd never thought that meeting and talking with people could be so tiring. I said, 'It's exhausting to do all the jibber jabber. Doesn't it feel creepy? The way they pretentiously talk and walk around? Is it just me?'

  Jacques said, 'You did a good job for the first timer. Actually, all of you did. I think you'll get used to it pretty soon. Now, lets talk about what we all have learned.'

  We shared all the information we'd learned from the party. We learned that they had parties like that every week. Most of the people owned small businesses downstairs from the 15th to the 99th floor. So they were the owners of all the products and goods made downstairs. But since it was just the 100th floor, they were not the owners of some real big plants and facilities. The real big figures were on much higher floors.

  I'd always thought the money from the lower floors was going directly to the guards, since it was the guards who came knocking on the door and collected the money and the products regularly. But it wasn't. Once they got the products and money from us, they deliver it to the business owners on the higher floors, and the business owners paid a certain amount to the cartel as a tax.

  As I said, since the 100th floor was the lowest floor of the higher floors, they mostly had ownerships of small trades on the lower floors. Finlin was exceptional. Actually, a person like him, a person who owns a couple of huge factories should be on a much higher floor. I asked Jacques if he had learned the reason why he was staying on the 100th floor.

  He said 'Normally, when someone with a power is making an exceptional decision, he always has an axe to grind.'

  According to Jacques, Finlin was not feeling favorable toward the cartel and the system. Finlin was an ambitious man and intentionally remaining on the
100th floor to minimize the possible interference from the Reaper. The higher you go up the ladder, the higher the level of intervention from the Cartel. So he perhaps chose to be a king on the 100th floor rather than to be a servant on one of the top floors. Jacques said we might be able to use his ambition.

  While we were gathering the information we had got, Kimmy didn't say anything. She seemed to be exhausted and she was sweating a lot. Why, she spent the whole day being nervous and being careful not to show her hands to others. I blamed myself for being ignorant of her condition. I told her everything was going alright and there was nothing to worry. She nodded and said she was tired and wanted to go to bed.

  Kimmy got sick the next day and stayed in her bed for a couple of days. We decided to let her stay inside while we went out and get what we needed.

  Fox told me a story about Kimmy that I hadn't known for my entire life. I always thought that Kimmy's fingers were born that way but Fox told me that Kimmy's parents cut them off when Kimmy was a little girl.

  Her parents were a bit paranoid, she said. They were one of the rebels intel inside the building and sickly obsessed by the belief that everything they did could be justified by the name of the rebel. Shortly speaking, they were radicals.

  When they decided that they should cut their daughter's fingers was when she was only five years old. They said they were doing it for Kimmy, but she was just a little girl! Not only that, her parents didn't allowed her to go out of their apartment. Not even a single footstep. So she had been separated from other people until one day her parents were killed by the guards and she escaped.

  I realized why she got angry at my mom that night. I felt deeply sorry for her. I couldn't dare to imagine how hard everything would've been for her as a little girl. And I couldn't imagine how she would've felt everyday when she had to go back to her floor after we played all night together. And it was probably even harder for her to be in a huge party while surrounded by that many strangers.