On the surface, life in the city was flawless. Clean streets. Balanced weather. Smiles on every corner. The kind of place where nothing bad ever happened—at least, not in public view.

Beck thrived in it, her days filled with coffee shops and late-night poetry readings. Joe appreciated the order, the absence of chaos. And you tried to enjoy it too, but a nagging thought always lingered: perfection doesn’t come without cost.

That suspicion turned into certainty the night you three took a wrong turn.

You’d been walking home after curfew, laughing too loud, the streets eerily empty. Then you noticed the man in the grey coat. He wasn’t smiling like everyone else. He was moving quickly, furtively, slipping into a door that blended almost seamlessly into the side of a government building.

Beck’s curiosity was immediate. “Did you see that? That wasn’t—normal.”

Joe frowned, already tense. “We should go home. Now.”

But you’d already made up your mind. Something in your chest burned hotter than fear. You followed.

Inside, the world changed.

Beneath the pristine surface of the city stretched a labyrinth of corridors, humming with machines. And people—hundreds of them—dressed in grey, moving in precise, silent patterns. They weren’t like the cheerful citizens above. Their faces were hard, tired, focused.

One woman noticed you. For a moment, she froze, and then she pulled you into the shadows. “You shouldn’t be here,” she hissed.

“Who are you?” Beck demanded, her voice shaking but strong.

The woman hesitated before answering: “We’re the ones keeping everything perfect.”

She explained in fragments. How the city’s harmony wasn’t natural—it was engineered. Every smile, every routine, carefully maintained by the society you’d stumbled upon. They adjusted moods with subliminal signals, rerouted conflicts before they could spark, even erased people who threatened stability.

“They call us The Custodians,” she said, her eyes hollow. “Without us, the utopia collapses. With us… freedom is an illusion.”

Joe’s jaw tightened, anger radiating from him. “So it’s all a lie.”

Beck shook her head, conflicted. “But without them, maybe everything falls apart. Maybe the chaos is worse.”