Hide your face

I woke up like it was any other day in one of my family's many multi million dollar mansions. The butler that I was basically raised by calls for me on the intercom that goes through the house.

“Mr. Augustin, what would you like for breakfast and packed for your lunch?”

“Wick, I told you to stop calling me by my last name. You can call me by my first name when you call me.”

“Okay Sydney, what would you like for breakfast now and drop off later for lunch.”

“French toast and pasta for lunch.”And then suddenly it hit me that we have new classes today. I dread these days because somehow I always end up next to Kidd and one of his goons, I feel like he pays off the teacher to do it, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. I look out my window to see the neighboring mansion in the distance owned by Kidd’s family. 

Our families have hated each other for years now because of something that happened with our great grandfathers. I don't really care about it that much but he seems to live for it.

“Master Sydney, your ride is now here, and your breakfast is done.”

“Okay, thank you Wick.”

As I go downstairs and see the house that I’ve lived in my whole life, the giant gold structures and animals. I walk past my grandad shaking the hand of some random man, some expensive paintings and other expensive and unnecessary random things, I make my way down the stairs to the kitchen and grab my breakfast and lunch for the day, and walk outside to the custom car brand owned by my family, Lumina Prime. No idea why my dad decided we needed a car brand and when I asked he always said it in this pointing out the obvious tone.

“Why wouldn't we need our own car brand? 

You see the Benoit family has one so we have to get one too. Can’t let them get one up on us, Son.”I think he's the reason that Kidd always wants to bother me. Always in constant rivalry, but I can always count on the view that I get to see on the way to school to take my mind away from all the problems.  Neo City, the tall multi-color buildings, the robots walking around. And just as quickly as I was smiling to see the view, Kidd pulls out from his mansion and rolls his window down and yells while the cars are side by side.

“Hey Sydney, are you driving that sorry car brand your dad decided to make to try to compete with ours? What's it called?”

I sigh and answer because if I don't I just know I’m going to hear about it later.“Lumina Prime…”

“Haha!” He laughed “Lumina Prime? Where did he find that name? And why the prime?”

I wanted to respond to him but there was nothing I could possibly say to him. There's no way he can really be this annoying in the morning, just bored and asking questions he knows I can’t even answer, just to ruin my mood so I can't even start my day off on a good note. I feel like he has a 6th sense for when I’m happy and he has to come in and mess it up.

I finally get close to the school and as I’m finishing my breakfast, I see one of Kidd’s goons talking to a random man, one I've never seen before, I try to mind my business but I see them point at me, I could really care less it’s probably someone they paid off to join in on their bullying. 

“MORNING CLASS STARTS IN 5 MINUTES,” the intercom booms.

I have no time to worry about what they’re planning on doing to me later. It's probably no different from their normal tactics, they just want to scare me with an intimidating old man in a suit.

As the crowd of people grows bigger and bigger, with people with different projects walking around trying to make it to class on time I see Kidd’s goons walking around with that same old man but I don’t see Kidd anymore. Where did he go? Is he behind me? What's their goal? But just as I was having a million thoughts that old man in the suit comes up to me and grabs me.

“You're coming with me.”

 He grabbed my arm before I could even react. The crowd of students stopped moving and stared at me. Some pulled out their phones and started recording.

“Let go of me!” I shouted.

The man didn’t answer. He dragged me through the crowd and into the principal’s office. Inside, two city investigators stood waiting next to a holographic screen. The room felt strangely cold, one of the investigators looked at me and sighed.

“Sydney Augustin?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re being brought in for questioning regarding the death of Kidd Benoit.”

I laughed nervously. “What are you talking about? I just got here.”Nobody laughed back. 

The investigator pressed a button. And a hologram appeared, and my stomach dropped.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.

“This morning at 8:00am,” the investigator said” Kidd Beniot was found murdered in his car.”

The room spun around me. “This has to be fake.”

“It isn’t.” 

Then another video played. This time the screen showed someone entering the Benoit mansion shortly before Kidd died.

The person looked exactly like me, same face, same clothes, same walk, same everything.“What is this?” I whispered. 

“Evidence.”The investigator folded his arms.“Would you like to explain why you were at the Benoit residence?”

 “I wasn’t!”  But the more I pleaded it wasn’t me I looked at the hologram the worse I had felt. “It really does look like me.” I said quietly to myself.

By lunchtime the entire city knew. Every screen in Neo city showed my face. The news showed my face with big bolded words above it.

“A student killed a fellow student because of family history.”

 Students whispered whenever I walked by. Teachers avoided eye contact. Even people who had known me for years suddenly looked scared of me. I sat alone during lunch.

For the first time in my life being rich could just make my problems disappear. A message suddenly comes up on my phone.

Maya: We know you didn’t do it. Meet me and Trent after school. 

Maya and Trent, my friends closest friends since elementary school. If anyone would believe me it would be them. 

That afternoon I arrived at Maya’s house. Unlike me and Kidd’s families owning giant mansions, Maya’s house was normal, and at times it felt more comfortable than mine. As soon as I walked through her door she locked it with urgency.

“You didn’t kill him.”

“ I know I didn’t kill him, but thank you for believing me.”

“ I never said I believed you though,” Trent said from across the room.

“What?” 

“I'm joking, we know you didn't kill him.”

“Don’t joke like that, but how do y’all know the video is fake?”

Trent points to the holographic screen in front of him.

“We spent 3 hours looking at this for you,” he said expecting a thank you “  Maya zoomed in on his face.”

“What am I supposed to be looking at Trent?”

“How can you not tell what's wrong with your own face,” he said sarcastically “ Look at the tiny distortions around your face.”

“So?”

“So that means it’s AI generated”

“Huh?” I blinked. “You mean someone made a fake video of me?

“See you got it.” Maya leaned forward. “Someone wanted the city to think you killed Kidd.”

For the first time since this whole thing started I felt hope.“If the video was fake, who made it?”

“We’re trying to figure that out right now, so we are gonna need you to act the same and don’t go around showing people what we just showed you.”

“Okay.”

The next week felt like living inside a prison. News drones flying around the mansion, news reporters surrounding my house, and police monitoring the people and everything I did. Meanwhile Maya and Trent continued searching for answers. Every night they send updates, Most of them lead nowhere. Then on a random night after weeks I get a call from Maya.

“Sydney.”

“What happened?”

“I think we found something.”

My heart started racing. “What is it?”

“Kidd wasn’t the target”

I sat up straight. “What do you mean?”

Maya projected files onto my walls. Financial records. Bank statements. Government records. Millions of dollars moved between companies owned by the Benoit family and my family.

“What am I looking at?”

“Money laundering.” she had said flatly.

I froze. “No way.” I continued to look over the files, “There’s no way.”

Trent appeared beside her on the call. “And it gets worse.”

“Worse?”

“The government helped cover it up.” Suddenly all the pieces started fitting together. The secret meetings. the strange business men. the constant rivalry between our families. Maybe it was never about pride. Maybe it had always been about money.

A few days later I decided to do something I had never done before. I searched through my own family’s records. The deeper I looked, the worse it became. Hidden accounts, Fake businesses, private surveillance contracts. Thousands of cameras spread throughout Neo city. My family wasn’t just selling cars. They were helping monitor citizens. My hands shook as I opened another file, then it had Kidd’s name. A week before his death, Kidd had accessed the same records. He had discovered everything, and now he was dead.

“Guys,” I said during the group call, “ I know why Kidd was killed.”

Maya looked up. “Why?”

“Becuase he found the truth.” The room fell silent. If Kidd planned to expose the corruption, someone powerful would have wanted him stopped. Someone powerful enough to fake evidence. Someone powerful enough to frame me.

Three days later we found the most valuable information, Trent hacked into a private server connected to one of the government agencies where he found the original security footage. The real footage, not the doctored one putting me there. We watched it together. Nobody entered Kidd’s mansion that night. Not me, not anyone. The video used against me had been completely manufactured. 

“That’s it,” Maya whispered, “We got them.”

But exposing the truth wouldn’t be easy. The people involved controlled businesses, politicians, and most of the city’s media. If we made one mistake all the evidence would disappear.

 The  next morning every major screen in Neo City had suddenly changed.  People stopped walking, cars slowed down, and store owners walked outside. On thousands of displays, the evidence appeared. Bank records, private messages, the original security footage, Everything, unaltered and there for the whole city to see.  Tent had uploaded it everywhere at once there was no way to stop at this point. The city erupted, crowds growing at government buildings. Rorters demanding answers, Officials tried quietly resigning but the people grew more angry. The truth spread faster than anyone could contain it.

A week later, a public hearing was held. For the first time in decades, the Augustin family and the Benoit family sat in the same room. No body guards, no Lawyers speaking for them. Just the truth. The lead investigator stepped forward.

“After reviewing all the evidence, we can confirm that Sydney Augstin was framed using artificial intelligence footage.”

The crowd grew loud from conversations, I looked at my parents, neither could look me in the eyes.

“The investigation also uncovered years of large-scale corruption, illegal surveillance programs, and money laundering operations involving multiple people in power.”

Screens around the room showed all the evidence. Years of lies, years of greed, years of people using technology not to help security but to control it. One by one arrests were made of Government officials, ceo’s, even members of both families. Even my own grandfather.

Months later, Neo city felt different. The giant advertisements were gone, the surveillance was reduced. New laws protected citizens from AI manipulation and illegal monitoring. For the first time people trusted each other more than technology. 

One evening I stood on the balcony of my mansion overlooking the city. Sunset reflected off the glass of the glass skyscrapers. Wick stepped outside carrying two cups of coffee.

“Quite the year, Master Sydney.”

I laughed. “Still calling me that?”

“Old habits.” We stood quietly for a moment. 

“You know,” Wick said, “Kidd would have been happy.”

I looked down at the city lights.  “Maybe he would’ve.” The person I thought was my enemy had actually been trying to expose the truth. In the end, we wanted the same thing. “People spent years hiding behind wealth, fame, power, and technology,” I said.

Wick nodded. “And?”

I smiled.  “No matter how good the mask is, there’s a point in time where it will fall off.” Below us , Neo City glowed brighter than ever. Not because it was perfect, but because the people could see the truth, and nobody could hide their face anymore.