Part Two: Section VIII

We finally made it to O’Brien’s doorstep. Yes, it was a rash act to come at all and even worse to come together, but we were willing to take the risk. We couldn’t believe it. We were actually inside the Inner Party – somewhere very few people ever stepped foot. O’Brien’s servant had let us in without any questioning, but something suspicious had to be going on before we arrived.

After being there for a while, I realized what a stupid mistake I had just made. But there was no turning back now. O’Brien had his hand on the wall, and he was doing something that I couldn’t see. That was when the voice coming from the telescreen shut off completely. O’Brien had turned it off. And just like that, we were alone.

I didn’t know what sort of help I needed from O’Brien, so it wasn’t easy to tell him. But then I admitted what was on my mind. I told him that Julia and I believed there was some sort of conspiracy, some kind of secret organization, that was working against the Party and that we wanted to join it. We admitted that we were enemies of the Party, thought-criminals and adulterers. We wanted to put ourselves into their mercy. And that was final.

It was then that O’Brien brought us some wine to drink. I imagined the wine having some sort of sweet taste and an intoxicating effect, but when I swallowed it, it was extremely disappointing. After years of drinking gin, I could barely taste it.

O’Brien told us that we would never hear anything else about the Brotherhood, except that it existed and that we belonged to it. He even told us that Julia and I had to leave separately. I had no idea why. Then, he started asking questions about what we were and were not willing to go if we did, in fact, join the Brotherhood. Julia and I agreed to most of them and replied with a simple “yes.” Well, until the last question came up. No matter what, Julia and I were NOT willing to separate and never see one another again.

Before we left, O’Brien told Martin, his servant (who was also part of the Brotherhood), to remember our faces. He was memorizing our appearance but he appeared to have no interest in what he was doing. When Martin silently left the room, O’Brien already had something else to tell us. To sum it all up, he told us that we had to obey his every command and he was the only one that would ever give us an order. When we were finally caught, we had no choice but to confess.

For a moment, I had forgotten about Goldstein. But then it occurred to me…how could we ever defeat him?

It was Julia’s time to leave. Since she couldn’t leave the house smelling like wine, O’Brien had given her a flat white tablet to place on her tongue. And just like that, she was gone. To become a part of the Brotherhood, I would have to read Goldstein’s book, but since they weren’t that many in existence, I would just have to wait.

There was only a couple minutes left until I was forced to leave, but in the mean time, O’Brien had said, “We shall meet again – if we do meet again—“. And I, of course, knew exactly what he meant. We would meet again. In the place where there was no darkness.

As I walked out the door, I looked back to see O’Brien already in the process of putting me out of my mind. And just like that, I left. Within 30 seconds, I knew O’Brien would turn the telescreen back on and work on behalf of the Party.

- Winston Smith