[5. Hope]

The rooster outside roared. Well, not literally, there were no roars and no roosters in Blue City, just for the sake of being quiet. Poperri held bags under her eyes, not getting any sleep last night. She heard footsteps running up to her room, the door flew open.

"Poperri!" Redina exclaimed, "Look at yourself!"

Redina, acting concerned, said, "You don't look too good, it looks like you haven't had any sleep for the past day! Are you alright?"

Poperri was sat up in her bed, her back hunched over with a notebook in her right and a pen in the other.

"Alright, get up sleepyhead!" Redina held Poperri's hands, about to drag her out of bed when all of a sudden she saw the notebook, "Huh? What's might this be? Your diary?"

Redina started to grab the notebook but with all the strength Poperri had left, she yelled out a painful, "No!" and attempted to pull the notebook back. Her strength left from her body and all that was left of her was a motionless person in bed, she was so exhausted.

Redina flipped through the pages and stared in awe.

She started to stammer, then furiously asked, "What. Is. This?"

Her finger pointed to a quote written in the notebook.

"Hah! Save the Monkeys? Yeah right, like you'd ever support the monkey people, right Poperri?" Redina chuckled for a bit. Then she stopped laughing, "This isn't a joke, right?" she started flipping through a couple of pages, "You didn't think anyone would find this, hm? Well I did, and now I'm going to expose you to everyone. You'll see Poperri. You traitor."

Poperri started shaking her head furiously. No! You can't do this! Poperri continued to think and think, thinking that Redina could hear what she was saying but alas, she had no power to do so. She sat there, in her bed, helplessly.

Redina chuckled again, "You're like their little pet, are you? Even though you're my friend Poperri, you're too nice in this world." she grinned her signature evil grin,"If you're too nice, you'll end up getting squished, pulverized, and killed in this world, right? You're naive Poperri, you don't know the motto around here, now do you?"

Poperri had no clue what she was talking about. What? I'm not weak! What are you saying?

"I see you're trying to talk, oh! But you're too weak to even move a muscle! Little weakling. Let's see what everyone does when I show them this!" Redina started running out Poperri's bedroom door and towards the living room.

She's telling them. Why world, why'd you have to do this to me? Poperri thought. Blabbering and talking was going on below her. Poperri started to sweat, a lot. She started biting her nails and her hair started to fall off.

"No, I can do this!" Poperri gathered the strength to roll of the bed and stomp towards the kitchen.

Everyone in the room was staring at her. Redina left the front door, wide open. She had left already, probably to tell everyone about the notebook. Pops glared at Poperri with a deadly stare.

Pops hustled over and confronted her, "Are you insane?" Pops shouted and stomped his cane down onto the floor, causing a little earthquake to happen.

Poperri tensed up. No, Poperri. Be brave. She thought.

Pops spoke up once again, "I saw your little friend, that notebook. I know that's your handwriting! You're no granddaughter to me, you're just a nobody!" he started to tear up.

"I. I'm." Poperri stuttered, getting cut off once again.

Pops started to scold her, loudly, "Go! Go now! I trusted you, with all my heart, and now you just had to throw that trust in the trash? You, you're working for them. I know it. Get out of here! Get out before I make you into my next meal!" Pops yelled out for the whole city to hear.

Poperri, stunned, shook in fear. Not knowing what to do, she bolted out to the front door and burst into tears, running as fast as her little legs could take her.

I could've done something. Now I'm a. A. Nobody. Poperri sat on the sidewalk while crying. But something in her triggered, it felt like hope, determination. She thought, "No, I can't just stand here and cry! I'll do whatever I can. For my friends. For the privileges of the Keepuh's."

Poperri wiped off her tears and stood up, fist in the air. She chanted, "You people! Blue City citizens!"

People started going outside, woken up by Poperri's loud remarks and wondering what the noise was. Pops grunted while he went outside.

"I can't just stand here and say nothing about this! You people are oblivious about what's going on!" Poperri remembered the speech she wrote in her notebook last night, every single word, "Blue City might look and seem like the perfect place but it really isn't. Stories might say so but that isn't the truth! Those are lies, false information they want you to believe! I'll tell you the truth!"

The citizens pondered, thinking that the place that they lived in was always safe from the Monkey People. They all were calling out that the Monkey People were bad, horrible, terrifying, monsters.

Poperri stood up on a ledge where everybody could see her, she called out, "Well I'm saying, these rumors about these Monkey People are false! To accuse these people of being low-class, being harmful, and being trash. You know what I think? I had a look at these 'dangerous beings' and they're just as nice as us! You people are just assuming that they're harmful because of some false allegations and stories. Especially the one made by my grandpa."

They started to open up their eyes to the truth being said. Poperri ranted more, shouted out, and spoke up. People cheered while others just agreed to disagree.

"Let's meet the Keepuh people!" one person shouted.

"Yeah! Let's meet them! Become one! Equal treatment!" Blue City citizens started cheering with glee.

Poperri smiled for the first time in forever. A big, gleaming, and bright smile. This made the everybody smile. The city felt like a nice place for once.

Finally, everything is finally going right! It's going to be alright! Hoorah! Poperri reassured herself and started skipping to the forest to welcome the Keepuh people to her hometown. She just kept smiling. Her face started to hurt but she didn't care.

Poperri started shouting, "Everyone! Come here! It's safe!"

There was no response. Not a voice heard in the forest. Poperri started to ponder and worry, Are they okay? Let me check.

Poperri stepped into the shrubs. Crunching her way through the thicket, getting pricked along the way by thorns.

"Ouch, that really-" Poperri stopped. She stared at what was in front of her, her pupils started to dilate. She was shaking, nearly fell on the grass.

"Like what you see, Pop?" Redina asked, knife in hand.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Poperri stammered. She didn't know what to do in this situation. She had no words to utter out anymore. Blood. Blood everywhere. There were bodies. The Keepuh Family bodies. Poperri's face was pale, she stumbled behind into the thicket.

Redina kept on smiling, and laughed out,"You're so naive, Poperri. I mentioned that already. Now all your little friends are dead and no one can help you now."

Poperri kept on wondering why the Blue City people weren't worried about the fact that she stumbled into the forest. She worried if they'd planned to trick her all along, she thought about what was going to happen to her. Redina smiled at her terrified friend.

Redina sputtered, "What are you going to do? Rant about what your soul says? Ha! Not a chance. All you had to do was keep your little mouth shut, but no. Your mouth couldn't stop, and now all your nonsense talk has led you into this." Redina pointed to one of the dead heads, slaughtered in the massacre. She cackled and started saying something else, "See, not everything in life will go your way. Sometimes we have to eliminate others just to get ahead in life. They are the losers, we are the winners in society. Right, Pop?"

Poperri shook her head uncontrollably, twitching, laying on the grass and blood on her hands now. With her voice shaking, she muttered one last word, "Moe.

[END]