Free Monthly #15 Evelyn Meets Vasil

A selection from 21st Century Short Stories

Introduction

We find ourselves getting another point of view from Evelyn as she travels to meet Vasilevsky (Vasil) to discuss who she will be fighting in an exhibition match. Only, Evelyn finds the conversation is far from what she was expecting. What is Vasil up to in this 21st Century Short Story? Read below to find out!

21st Century Short Stories | Evelyn Meets Vasil

I sat across from Vasil, an Absolutist from Europe. I was under the impression I would be fighting two of Europe’s best fighters in the octagon but found myself speaking with the person who paid for my time instead. I had not seen either fighter, Bruno or Ivanchuck, and had begun to wonder if I had wasted all my time prepping to fight the men. I would get paid either way, but I was not sure why Ivan Vasilevsky, who almost demanded that he be called Vasil, had spent all that money to fly me over to Europe just to talk about history.

“Evelyn, it is all true. Every word I have spoken. I have access to information you do not. I know you are unhappy with your lot in life, and I want to find a way for you to follow a new calling.”

“Am I really to believe this? Is it even possible?! That this is all true?” I demanded of him; unsure whether I could buy into everything he had told me.

“It is as I have outlined. There were other reasons, other motives throughout the years, but I have given you the main event, if you will allow me to say it; the rest is a matter of small details. For the most part anyway.”

“Run it through again.” I said and moved my hands to either side of my head to rub my temples as he spoke.

“The Genetic Crusades were perpetuated as a way to end conflict among humanity. The Absolutists of the time, technocrats and oligarchs at that time, were working on AI that would be powerful enough to run governments. The birth of the All-Seeing Eyes occurred shortly before the advent of the genetic mutation warfare. The All-Seeing Eyes were responsible for the mutations of the Zero People and the brown hair and brown eye overrides.” I self-consciously adjusted my dark brown hair and adverted my light brown eyes away from Vasil’s face which was covered in a salt and pepper beard. His eyes were a deep shade of brown, almost black if one did not look closely.

“The creation of the Zero People was invented by the All-Seeing Eyes Evelyn. They created the problem. When it was identified that the only traits that were not overridden by the Zero People’s genes were those that controlled the color of hair and eyes, blonde and blue respectively, well, my dear, it was a matter of narrative. The AI was able to build the narrative and convince enough people to make it a reality. I’m sure some of the programmers knew the truth but all they saw was power. They saw control. They saw a scapegoat for all their problems, as did humanity.”

“But why those people? Those traits? Why condemn them?” I asked baffled by the logic of destroying an entire group of people who did nothing but exist, with the only sin of being targeted by the All-Seeing Eyes. It was not whether I believed what Vasil was telling me, but a matter of protecting myself as I had all my life. I played the game of ignorance like many of those around me. Failure to do so would jettison me from the cushy job and luxuries I had and put me in with the laborers who worked without question until they were told to stop; people who did not get time off and the chance of free time to do as they pleased. Vasil was an Absolutist, someone who would know enough about the past, but I found the idea not only incredible but also illogical. It made me wonder if it was a staged event to get me to admit guilt so that my manager could get rid of me once and for all. Even as that thought weighed on my mind, I knew I wanted to believe Vasil even if I did not understand his motive.

“Because from the midish twentieth century through the Genetic Crusades, we have demonized those people we are told to hate. We called them racists. We called them Nazis. The AI only has what we have provided digital records of the written word.” Vasil paused to catch his breath and I could not help but smile at his accent as he pronounced the double-u as a vee. He continued without acknowledging my reaction, “Most of those records come from the first twenty years of this century. When the AI had read all there was to read, it concluded all modern problems must stem from a single source. When that single source was hard to pin down, when it was too hard to properly identify, the AI created a way to divide what it believed to be the source group away. All the Zero People were created by the All-Seeing Eyes so that the Abnormals, the blonde-haired blue-eyed people, would be distinctly different. Like I said, after that it was a matter of narrative, my dear. A scapegoat to unify the world, which was the ultimate goal of the AI.”

“I— were they not already a race that could be identified?”

“No. There is only one human race my dear.” Vasil replied in a way that made me feel as if my question was contemptible. “The human race. That is all there is. The All-Seeing Eyes have brainwashed that into most people, but it is a true fact. We are all the same. All they did was make it a point to erode the fabric of racism based on skin tone and ancestry out of society. It is easy to do when it is all the fault of the Abnormals, who have supposedly been diligently plotting their separation and destruction of the rest of us for centuries. The whole thing is absurd. The idea of one human race, except for the Abnormals who are according to the All-Seeing Eyes not exactly human, is absurd all by itself. Now, my dear, I know you have thought it; you’ve had access to a wide variety of literature on the matter in your position. You may not be an Absolutist, but you are adjacent. That comes with privileges, privileges I can see.”

“So you mean to tell me the Aryan Race did not exist before the Zero People?”

“That is what I’m saying.”

“But in the early ninetee—”

“Correct.” Vasil cut me off and winked as I shut my mouth and furrowed my eyes. He ploughed on shortly after taking a swig of some vodka. “The Nazis called their mythical ancestry, what they could not prove to exist, Aryan. It is made up much like most of their cult ideas. The closest they had was some remote Himalayan tribe or something like that in India or one of those countries. I’m no expert but the Western naming of some of those tribes can be easily confused. It does not matter though, for they spent a lot of money to search for evidence of an advanced ancient civilization that carried the name of their so-called race. They failed, Evelyn, they failed. They did not have the ability to edit the human genome as we have done. That is how we have ‘discovered’ the Abnormals.”

I glanced over at the other room where we left our wristphones and then back at Vasil. “So, you brought me all the way to Europe under the pretense of having me fight these two men of renown, all to lecture me about history that might not even be true?”

“Oh! But it is all true my dear, you just have to have a little faith that I have the proof.”

I stood up and straightened my back, cracked my neck, and let my full stature loom over the plump old man. I stood over six feet in height and was a good fighter, good enough to take on men in MMA. Something that was not exactly easy for women to do. Vasil was not a fighter, and I was relying on the maneuver to act as a form of intimidation. Even though I was a woman, I was someone that could toss him about stand up with a cross expression. “I think we are done here.”

“But we have not discussed the other piece of why you are here.”

“What is that?”

“Why you are unhappy with your current lot in life? Are you not unhappy my dear? I can help with that. As I said, I can help you find a new calling. One that will incorporate your skills.”

I gazed at Vasil with my darkest expression for a long moment, but he did not budge or react to me. It figured that most Absolutists would have a great poker face. You had to when you could be that two-faced. “Alright, I will hear you out.”

Vasil watched me sit as he downed the remainder of his glass of vodka and began to refill it. The man was not going light on the liquid, and I wondered if it was due to nerves or something else. After a long lull in the conversation, Vasil spoke. “I need someone to help train people. To help them become better fighters. I will not tell you why, only that I trust you will not ask questions that you are not ready to have answered. I am offering you a new job, one that is not at the end of the leash of the man called Paul.”

“Why me?”

“Because I trust you. I trust in what you are capable of and what you believe.”

“What do I believe?”

“I believe that you, my dear, want to believe that the All-Seeing Eyes are just as problematic as us Absolutists. I have studied you, Evelyn; you’ve done many things that can only be explained by a simple fact. You do not agree with the Absolutists that they deserve all the luxury. I can tell you that I certainty do not. You are an entertainer at heart, and you love to fight. Why not entertain me by teaching others to fight? I will not treat you like a pet; I will not force you into anything you do not wish to do. You are a woman who can control her own destiny. I merely want to give you the freedom to do so.”

“At what price?”

The old man lifted one of his hands to his chin and messed with his salt and pepper beard for a time. “The only thing I want from you is your word that you will not sell me or my organization out.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

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