Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter XV

Mira crawled through the small vent like tunnel for a good 5 minutes before she heard any sounds. She tried moving as quiet as she could, stopping for a bit every few seconds, just so she could listen if anyone heard her or was near. After a few more minutes, the vent split in 3 directions. Mira quietly swore at the sight and stopped to listen which direction the voices were coming from. While listening, she noticed that the paths going to the sides have more turns, while the one to the front of her just seems to go straight. Moments later, she heard something moving in the left side. Terrified, she moved to the right and turned on the first chance she got. After mere seconds, she saw a rather large man appear from one of the turns on the left tunnel and go towards the exit, somehow without noticing her. She felt her heart beat like crazy and tried to keep her breathing steady.

After calming down and feeling as good as one could in her position, she went out of the tunnel she was hiding in and went into the general direction of where the man came from. She moved slowly, while glancing at all sides, behind her too, for any other people. After crawling for a good 10 minutes, she reached what she thought for a few moments was a dead end, up until she heard voices coming from behind it. Mira crawled right up to it, and tried to hear what the people were saying.

"Wait, are you serious?"

"100%."

"She got fucking caught? What did she do, wave at the cameras?"

"I don't know, but they caught her in less than 12 hours, she must've done something."

"I told Renee we should postpone it till we have someone else in the police that could delete the files, after that idiot Gerald butchered the only job he had."

"That does make me curious though, did the safety office hire someone new? We've been doing this for like 5 years and no one moved a muscle, and now two of our best got caught in the span of a month?"

"I don't think it's because of someone new, to be completely honest with you. I think we've just become reckless, and this is the price we have to pay."

"Well yeah, but what if it's a combination of both? If that's true, how do we know we don't get ratted out? I mean, we can't just repeat the Gerald situation, as she's literally been caught, not just found out. There's no way Renee would make us go to the station and kill her off, right?" the voice said but after receiving no reply, started panicking. "Right? Come on, Melissa, you're just fueling my anxiety, please."

"What do you expect me to say? Oh, sweetie pie, she definitely wouldn't send us there, she loves us all like her own children, and that's exactly why she killed Gerald the second she saw him. Plus, even if she did treat us like her own children, did you hear that rumour? Some people have been saying that her own daughter was in one of the schools that were blown up."

"Wait, what? Are you serious? Her own kid?"

"Yeah, exactly-" she was interrupted by a distant voice. "Yeah, I'm coming, chief! I gotta go. You staying here?"
"Nah, I'll check if everything's okay everywhere and then go. I did promise my mom I'd be home before the announcement and I still have loads of homework left that I definitely need to do or I'll get grounded."

"Oh, okay. See you tomorrow then!"

"See ya!"

Mira listened for a good moment and heard the steps grow more and more distant. When she was sure no one was in the room before her, she pushed the wall in front of her that seemed like a dead end before. Behind it was a small room, that didn't look that different from any places in the level. It had multiple doors, all on different walls, which made Mira even more intimidated. After carefully looking around the whole room, she decided that it's not a good idea to walk in there alone. She then turned around and went back to the station.

The first thing Mira did when she reached the safety office was go to Steve for help. As she entered his small, yet cozy room that he prefered calling the office for reasons only known to him, he immediately looked up to her.

"How may I be of help, oh mighty Fader?"

"Well, Steve, mind looking up people named Melissa? Preferably ones that live on this level. Either has friends in highschool or is in highschool herself."

"Melissa... Melissa..." he started humming random notes as he types and scrolled. "Well there's an 86 year old Melissa Hammond, but I feel like the only good thing that we could get out of her would be her longevity secret." He giggled but went serious immediately after. "Right, what about this Melissa? Melissa Peterson, 22, was born in Level 9, but butchered their parents' dream for her and ended up here. Does she fit what you could be looking for?" he said and turned the screen to Mira. The picture that was on her portfolio made her seem more innocent that Mira had imagined after just hearing her voice. She had short, just slightly under her chin, platinum blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and freckles. Mira took the mouse out of Steve's hand and scrolled down a little for an address. She wrote it down in her blank note, sent an air kiss to Steve and ran out of the room.

Although Mira wanted to go straight after the girl, she realized that she wouldn't be home yet and that waiting for her to come back would just be a complete waste of time. Instead of waiting for a person that might not even return, she decided to go check on Lucy. She walked to the building and used a bundle of keys she had received from Lucy to unlock both the building and apartment doors. As she entered the flat and her it taken over by silence, Mira just assumed that Lucy was in bed and did everything as quiet as she could. She took off her shoes, hung her jacket on one of the hangers and tiptoed to the kitchen to make some tea, both for Lucy, and for herself. She poured some tap water into the kettle and let it boil. In the meantime, she prepared a couple of mugs, a bright pink one for Lucy and a marine blue one for herself. While looking for teabags in the cabinets, she found a packet of cookies, and by the date written on the pack, they were getting close to expiring.

"Better eat them now than throw them out later..." she whispered to herself and poured them into the first bowl she could find. When she finally found the tea, she placed the bags into the mugs and poured the boiling hot water over them. Mira poured a few teaspoons of sugar into both mugs, placed them and the cookies on a rather antique looking tray and walked into Lucy's room, who looked like she was soundly asleep.

Mira placed the tray on the cabinet that stood next to Lucy's bed and sat down on an old, wooden chair. She wondered whether she should wake Lucy up or not and started glancing out the window. It was still the early afternoon, so not much was happening, and there were little to no people on the streets. Tired of doing nothing, Mira stood up and decided to wake her friend up for a little bit, as the tea was starting to get cold. She walked up to the bed and touched Lucy's shoulder, but she didn't react.

"Someone sure is a deep sleeper." she sighed and extended her hand to touch the back of Lucy's neck, as she absolutely hated that and would definitely wake up after that.

However, as soon as Mira's fingers touched Lucy's skin, she felt that something was awfully off. Lucy's skin was stone cold. Mira immediately turned Lucy on her back and checked for a pulse, which was barely there - it was so slow that if she had moved her ear away even a few seconds earlier, she wouldn't have heard the beat. Without even thinking, Mira lifted Lucy out of her bed, placed her on her back and ran out of the apartment.

Although Lucy was too heavy for Mira, she couldn't give up. She just couldn't. She ran straight to the hospital, and felt her side begin to ache. Mira started thinking about how important her friend was to her, and the pain faded away. As she reached the hospital, she felt her legs start going numb. Scared, she pushed forward, and entered the building. She gathered all of her strength and opened her mouth.

"Please, help my friend, her heart is barely-" Mira stopped as her body gave out and she fell to the ground.