The Illusion Of Choice Novels & Stories

"You even messed with her applications and destroyed her laptop! If she hadn't found a way out of that cage, all her hard work would've been for nothing. I seriously misjudged you." After watching the video, the parents finally calmed down. Only then did they notice the dirty bandages wrapped around my hands. One by one, they apologized. I knew they were just scared for their kids, which was why they had lost control for a moment. Then they turned, grabbing Hayley and Terry tightly from the crowd. When she realized she couldn't get away, Hayley panicked. "No, Katrina staged all of it. It's fake! She hired that man in the video. It has nothing to do with me…"

I rambled like a crazed woman after him just because I was feeling petty and immature. “Just like I said before, it’s your decision.” He said before closing the door after him. I whirled to the three women he left me with. “That was definitely manipulation. I know it. What do they call it… aha! The illusion of choice.” The women were looking at me like I was crazy then surprisingly, their faces warmed into understanding and pity. The shit men put us women through, it was a universal experience.

⸻ Not power. But choice.

"Dr. Webb, do you know how many people die every year from preventable causes? How many wars are fought over resources we could easily share if we were just a little bit smarter, a little bit more empathetic?" "So you're doing this for humanitarian reasons?" "I'm doing this because evolution gave humanity the capacity for greatness and we've squandered it on petty conflicts and stupid mistakes." She turned to Sophie. "But you understand, don't you? You've seen what people are capable of when they're not limited by fear and ignorance." Sophie met Margaret's gaze with unsettling directness. "I've also seen what people are capable of when someone takes away their choice." "Choice is an illusion

Elias searched for the answer and found only sensation—the tightness in his chest, the subtle pull forward he refused to obey. “I don’t know,” he said. Vale regarded him carefully now. Not with command. With curiosity. “That,” he said, “is the beginning of refinement.” He moved again. Not close. Not far. Deliberate. “You think choice is a moment,” Vale continued. “A declaration. A line crossed.” A pause. “It isn’t.” The silence pressed in around them—weighted, intentional. “Choice is a pattern,” Vale said. “Repetition. The quiet alignment of behavior before the mind claims authorship.”

“They’ll just get better at pretending.” Lucien leans in the doorway, arms crossed. “What happens next?” I look at the black window, at the faint reflection of all of us sitting here, still deciding who we’re going to be when the pressure really starts. “They’ll try to make me choose,” I say. “Stay and hurt people… or leave and prove they were right all along.” Noelle’s voice is very soft. “And what are you going to do?” I don’t answer right away. Because “necessity” is the favorite word of people who want to take your choices away while pretending they never existed.

"I swear, if… If I did those things, I would… I would be doomed…" She couldn't bring herself to finish the vow. Just the thought of living in poverty for the rest of her life was enough to make her vision go dark. Jesse scoffed. "You can't even make a vow without stammering. How do you expect to continue lying to me? Then again, I'll admit that I've been pretty dumb in the past. That's why you were able to manipulate me like that!" His voice grew louder with each word, until he was pretty much bellowing out the last sentence.

“You are as perfectly imperfect just as I am—and was. So stop turning your back, it will just hurt your feet even more.” I swear my eyes were already bleeding just by seeing her, how much more my ears when hearing her chortle every damn minute! “Even if choice is an illusion, it doesn’t mean I cannot make an illusion of my own.” I narrowed my eyes no matter how bitchy I look, “The final decision is still on me. I know I will still die one way or another. But mind you, Eliane. This is my destiny now despite the freaking fact that you are me and I am you. I don’t care if my destiny will bleed. I will decide whether I will bleed laughing or I will bleed smiling.”

“Yes, I can. My true name is Fate.” My jaw drops. “You’re…Fate.” “Yep.” She confirms. I look at her. “And you can give me Grey?” She nods. “If that’s what you want.” “Are you kidding?!” I bounce in my seat. “Yes! A million times. Yes!” She puts her hands on me to stop me from bouncing. “Wait. You can’t make the choice that easily.” I stop. “Why?” She stands, walks a bit with her hands in her shorts pockets and turns. “There are a few….consequences.”

I went on, “it wasn’t there. That’s when she panicked. That’s when she started deflecting. Stirring things up about Summer. About me.” Lucian turned away, facing the window again. I hated that. I didn’t want him to hide behind silence. Not now. “Say something,” I said. He didn’t move. “She lied to my face.” “Yes.” “So did Summer.” I nodded. “She was scared. She still is.” “I’m not talking about fear,” Lucian bit out. “I’m talking about choice. She chose to go along with it. She chose to bring me into something that was a game to them.”