Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter XVI

Mira woke up on the next day. The room she was in was rather poorly lit, but it wasn't that way because of the lack of lights, they were simply turned off at that time. She looked around, but there was nothing that could indicate the location. She sat up, and as her eyes finally got used to being in the dark, she realized that she was in the hospital. The walls were stark white and the only person who was in the room was a woman sleeping in the bed across from hers, but she was sleeping so soundly, that Mira even wondered whether she's still alive. Actually, she didn't even know if it was definitely a woman, as she just assumed that if she's really in a hospital, there's no way she'd be placed in the same ward as a man.

After realizing it's night time, Mira tried sleeping, but her brain couldn't calm down. She remembered how she entered the hospital while carrying Lucy, but then she must've blacked out, nothing after that showed up in her head. She lay in her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. She knew if she went out looking for her friend in the middle of the night, she would only cause problems for the staff and gain nothing. After lying in bed for way to long without being able to fall asleep, she stood up and decided to walk around. After walking around her ward, she realized that nothing was really wrong with her, so she'd probably get discharged on the same day. She left her ward and looked around. The hallways of the hospital were very dimly enough, providing just enough light for you to see where you're going, but definitely not enough to be able to read anything if needed. While thinking of what she could do, she went to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and realized that her reflection looked rather poor. Her skin had gotten extremely pale, her under eyes had gotten extremely dark, and she, in general didn't look very alive. She tried fixing her hair, but after not washing it for a few days, it had become very oily, so the only thing she was able to do was try to throw it into a sleek ponytail, but then her bangs were too short to reach it. She sighed after seeing her terrible reflection and went to ask any staff available for any bobby pins she could use to move the hair out of her face. She walked out of the restroom and walked to the reception table, but to her surprise no one was there.

"I guess it might be a rather busy day, so all personnel is needed..." she said to herself really quietly and sat down on one of the couches in the reception.

Suddenly, a huge flashback appeared in her head, and in a moment she was taken back to multiple hours later. As if she was watching a movie, she saw herself enter with Lucy hanging on her neck and yelling out for someone that could help her friend. Moments later, she fell to the ground and Lucy fell next to her. Mira opened her eyes and tears started falling down her face. She looked around, but no one was there. As she wiped her tears with the hospital pajamas sleeve, she noticed that a journal was open on the receptionist's table. She glanced around, and once she was sure she wouldn't get caught, she sneaked up to the desk and turned the journal to her.

"Okay, what do we have here..." she mumbled to herself as she flipped through multiple pages at a time. "Let's see, anyone important on this little list?" she turned more pages and stopped. "Lucy - jackpot! Lucy was diagnosed with-" she froze and her words became even more quiet and distant. "Bad burns on most of the patient's body, hypothermia, will be put in a medically induced coma for however long it will take for the patient to get healthier-" Mira placed the journal back on the table. "Hypothermia? It really is my fault, isn't it." she was about to go back to her ward when another name caught her eye. "Renee Fader? What in the world- A nurse?"

After the sudden discovery, Mira went back to her room and began trying to piece everything. Although she didn't expect to see her mother's name listed as staff on the hospital's she was staying at journal, some things did make sense, but they weren't very positive. Mira sat up in her bed and started thinking.

"Okay, so... Steve did say that woman could possibly be my mother, and so did Gerald. The girls that I heard talking in the terrorist base, Melissa and her friend, they mentioned the name Renee. Why didn't it click to me before?" she moved a little in her bed. "If I understood the girls correctly, then that means my mother is the one who orchestrated all of the explosions, but... that's a bit bizarre." she shook her head. "That would imply that she was the one who caused Terra's death, along with thousands of innocent children around the tower, plus the deaths in the Level Hall... No, she definitely couldn't do that. Maybe she's working under someone else that's been ordering her around? Or, or- what if this Renee Fader is a completely different person? I mean, names do repeat themselves time after time, it wouldn't be too crazy, right?" she stood up and went to the window. "If it really is my mom, how am I... how could I even try to talk to her? Could I just infiltrate their group, considering she probably knows all of my information?" Mira looked up to the screen lit sky and whispered to herself. "Terra, Ava, Lucy... Dad... what would all of you do in my position?"

Mira stood in front of the window for a good 30 minutes, as if she was waiting for an answer to appear in front of her eyes, but nothing happened. She watched the stars fade and the sun rise, but couldn't stop thinking. She stared blankly at the sky and wondered what life would have been if the tower had never appeared in the first place. She wondered if the hidden stars, on the actual sky, are nearly as beautiful as they were told to be in all of the history books. She heard the morning announcement start and went back to her bed. She told herself the nurses or doctors will wake her up if anything needs to happen and covered herself with the blanket that was neatly placed on the end of her bed, just in case it'd get too cold under the regular duvet. Mira closed her eyes and fell asleep.

She was woken up a few hours later by a nurse. When she opened her eyes, she saw an older man standing at the end of her bed. The nurse quickly left the room, but the doctor said.

"Miss Fader, is it?"

"Uhm, yes?"

"When you passed out, we did a few tests, but what we found out might not be very pleasant. Do you have any relatives on the level that we could notify?"

Mira thought for a second about the possibility of her mother being right there, in the same building as she was in at that point, but shook her head.

"No, I only have my father, but he's on Level 4."

"Well then, I guess you'll be the only one who knows." he said and flipped a sheet of paper back. "What you have is..."

Mira spent a week at the hospital. While the doctors said she has to stay there longer and seek treatment, she pushed them off saying she won't get any treatment. As she was leaving the hospital, she watched the nurses that about her in secret, whispering everything while glancing occasionally. Mira just smiled at them and went out. As Lucy was supposed to stay in the hospital for at least a few months, Mira knew she had plenty of time to do everything she must.

In her free time after work, she befriended Melissa, the girl whom she heard talking in that room. Although neither of them would say anything about each other's line of work, Mira did everything she could to infiltrate. After a long month, Melissa finally let herself loose.

"Okay, so. Don't freak out okay?"

"Freak out about what?"

"Well, I never really talked about my line of work to you, and I figured it must be about time."

"Right?"

"So, I work in this company, and our main goal is to help people who have been falsely accused because of situational evidence."

"Okay-"

"We used to have a few friends in the safety office, who would sometimes help... deleting a few files, just so the wrong person wouldn't get caught, but he got involved in a lot of trouble, so we let him go." Mira straightened her back when she realized Melissa was talking about Gerald. "Well, anyways, you seem to be the kind of person that could really help us in reaching our goal. Plus, you have the access to all those files, so... what do you say, Elaina?"