Letting go is not the same as leaving.
Leaving is clean.
Letting go is expensive.
The city didn't feel freer after resistance fractured. It felt heavier—like a machine that had shed its casing and now exposed the moving parts to anyone willing to look.
People were choosing.
And choice, once multiplied, demands consequence.
I felt it first in the quiet spaces between decisions. The moments when no alert sounded, no authority stepped in, and someone had to decide whether to act without knowing if they'd be backed up later.
Arjun noticed it too.
"Everyone's hesitating again," he said.
"But not because they're afraid of the system."
"No," I replied.
"They're afraid of being wrong."
The girl folded her arms, watching a small crowd argue softly at a crossing where signals had been disabled for recalibration.
"Freedom without guidance is loud," she said.
"Yes," Aaryan added.
"And silence used to tell people what not to do."
✦
