Page 105 of Charlie
When a few said no thank you, Conor pointed them out. “I’ll take it as a personal insult if you don’t share this toast with me.”
In the end, we all stood with glasses in our hands as Conor made his toast in a tone of importance. “Let’s cheer the fact that it’s time for us to take our group to the next level. Cheers!”
Everyone drank but I was paranoid and only pretended to drink before I discreetly emptied the glass in the plant behind me.
“We have become too powerful for the government to control and they hate it!” Conor’s words sounded strong and confident. “Throughout human history, free thinkers and progressive groups like ours have been at war with the establishment. They don’t understand that we’re not content with following their directions. We’re the true influencers of the world and our strength scares them. Our message confuses them. And just like Jesus was silenced with violence, I fear that retribution is coming our way as well. There are people who want to harm me.”
“No. We won’t let them.” Carlos, a famous cross dresser with a huge social media following, called out. He wasn’t wearing any make-up, which told me that like the rest of us, he’d been sleeping when he was called down to this meeting.
Conor continued his speech. “A friend alerted me that if we don’t act now, outside forces are going to force us apart?”
“What do you mean?” Sara asked and concerned glances were exchanged around the room.
“You know how much I love you all, but the haters have found a new way to destroy the beautiful bond between us. The same bond that they can never be part of.”
“They can try, but we won’t let them,” Sara declared and raised her chin.
Conor walked over to her and placed a slow kiss on her cheek before addressing the rest of us, “Sara is right. We can’t let them split us up, but trust me; at this point nothing they do truly scares me because I have a way to make us untouchable.” Raising his glass again, Conor scanned the room for those who still had champagne in their glasses. “Cheers. Bottoms up. This is the good stuff, let’s not let it go to waste.”
Conor waited until everyone had emptied their glass before he continued, “Going against the stream has always come with a high price. Jesus was persecuted and hung on the cross when his only crime was helping people and spreading a message of love and kindness. As we speak, I’m being framed for crimes that I didn’t commit and soon they’re coming for you as well.”
People began booing and Conor let them express their frustration before he held up a hand and silenced them. “All of you in this room are old souls who cannot be fooled by their threats of control over us.” He pointed to the entrance door and boomed, “They cannot control us!”
As if he had just cast a powerful spell, everyone around me raised their hands and shouted out their support.
“They cannot control us.”
“They cannot control us.”
“They cannot control us.”
Again, Conor silenced them and spoke. “Like magnets we’ve been drawn together as a family because our souls vibrate when we’re close. The family in this room aren’t like the young souls out there who are happy to be numbed by their government’s lies. We see the deceit with a clear mind. We know their false accusations are a matter of control. But what they fail to understand about us is that we hold tremendous power that we can take with us to the next level.”
I tried to refrain from frowning at his constant mention of the next level.
What is he talking about?
“We don’t have to stay and suffer through endless persecution from an establishment who fear us and attempt to imprison us and control our minds.”
“How dare they?” Carlos, who was wearing a pink kimono, snapped his fingers in the air with an attitude worthy of his popular drag queen performances, but he swayed and sounded slurred in his speech, which made me look around at the others.
“Are you okay?” I asked Maximum who was squinting his eyes as if seeing was difficult for him.
“Mmm, I’m fine.” Maximum giggled low and elbowed his brother, whispering. “Does Dad’s head look gigantic to you?”
Atlas was swaying too and his eyes were rolling up in his head.
Looking down at the empty champagne glasses in their hands, I felt guilt. Why hadn’t I stopped them from drinking it? What if Conor had poisoned all of them like that Jonestown cult leader did back in the seventies?
I was panicking as Conor kept rambling about the threat of outside powers trying to split us apart. His words made no sense to me. The others, however, behaved like they were high and once again they chanted:
“They cannot control us.”
“They cannot control us.”
When they began jumping up and down in what had to be mass psychosis, I backed to the entry door and unlocked it because I wanted an escape route if things got weirder.
“Liv, come here.” Atlas seemed to have forgotten all his troubles and reached out for me. “Why are you outside the group? Come and hug with us.”
