Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter XXIII

"...Over 20 people have been arrested in Level 8 during the past week, as an anonymous informant leaked the information of a highly secret terrorist organisation, which had been bringing terror to 9 out of 10 floors during the past year..."

"...60 citizens placed on watch? What could the safety office force of Level 8 be planning...?"

"... 3 more people were sent to the below, with the jury claiming that the evidence is all there, it doesn't even need to be present in court..."

Mira turned the TV off. The last few weeks had been absolutely hectic - ever since she released the list to the public, people have been arrested left and right. She still wasn't sure if she made the right decision at the time, as she was well aware there were minors in the company. However, although she did so much, the head officer decided she wasn't fit for the case and she had two relatives that were wanted on it. Mira tried arguing, but she knew it was pointless. At least she wasn't completely off the job like she had been before, but with the whole terrorist situation being handled at such a wide scale, no other criminals had the audacity to actually commit any crimes, they all knew they'd be thrown right down into the below if they got caught. Mira rolled over on her sofa and clicked the red button on the remote again. She clicked through a few more channels, but nothing good was on. The only things she had seen on TV ever since she got it a week ago, was just the same crime stuff, which she already knew too much about. She turned the TV off again and sat up. She picked up her cardigan that was thrown on the armrest of the couch and threw it on. She threw her hair up in a messy bun and left the building without even glancing at the mirror.

She walked straight to the bakery, following the scent from a few blocks away. She took a quick glance through the menu, but ended up ordering the exact same thing as always. After paying, she sat down on one of the bean bags and waited for her food. Once it arrived, she took a sip of the freshly made coffee and immediately burned her tongue. She then proceeded breathing through her mouth with her tongue out, looking more like a crazed dog than a healthy human being. In hopes to relieve her pain, she took a bite of her croissant hoping it'd be colder, but it wasn't. The croissant, that had been just taken out of the oven, not only burned her tongue even more, but also burned her whole throat as she accidentally swallowed it without even chewing it, as the heat surprised her more than it should have. At that point, Mira was wailing around like an octopus that had just been taken out of water, and rushed to the counter to ask for water. The waiter who had brought her order immediately poured her a glass and she drank it all in one gulp. Refreshed, she went back to her seat and waited for the food and drink to cool down a little before attempting to eat it again.

During one of her practically off days, Mira visited Lucy in the hospital. Although her doctor did say that her wounds were healing at way higher pace than they had been expecting, she'll definitely have to stay around in the hospital for rehabilitation even after she's out of the coma. Mira sat by her bed for an hour, staring at her friend, whom she felt like she placed in that position. After a while, she was asked to leave, as it had already reached the time of the curfew, and visitors weren't allowed to stay overnight.

Mira left the hospital and slowly walked towards her home, not paying any attention to the fact that, in theory, it was illegal to walk around after curfew. "What are they going to do? Arrest me? I'll arrest them back, those fuckers." she thought to herself and threw a few punches in the air while making odd sounds. When she finally reached home she fell back to the sofa she had spent days on before, and watched the same news reports for the fifth time. At that point she had learned them all by heart, and could say it along with the reporter, without even glancing at the screen. She clicked through a few more channels and finally found something that wasn't news. It was an only movie, definitely from the century prior to hers, but she couldn't for the life of her remember the movie's name the next morning. All she knew was that it had something to do with a shipwreck, unnecessary amounts of people dying, and that one of the songs in the soundtrack had gotten stuck in her head, even though she definitely didn't know the correct lyrics. She spent the entire morning of the next day singing it, be it in the shower, in front of the TV, in the bakery, at work, everywhere.

"I wish I could go back in time and punch the composer of this song in the face, as I can't even hear my own thoughts over this song! I swear I'll go insane if this keeps up." she rhetorically shouted out a few times when alone, making her believe her own insanity theory even more with each hour.

Thankfully, by the end of the day, the shipwreck song had gotten out of her head. Instead, she know had the intro of a cartoon that involved trains stuck there, making it even more annoying than before, as this one didn't even have lyrics. Mira sang its melody everywhere she went - in the shop, in the bakery, at home, in the shower - no place was free from the hauntingly addictive tune, which she couldn't get out of her head. She then started cursing the author of that piece, for making it so insanely addictive, completely forgetting she said that same thing not too long ago.

Like that, with a different song getting stuck in her head every other day, the case seem to get closer to being closed, although without actual closure. Neither her mother, nor her sister were anywhere close to being found, but the rest of the names on the list had then been crossed off. Since they were her family, she found herself smiling at the thought that they're not rotting in the below, but at the same time she didn't want Terra anywhere near their so called mother. No matter how positive the memories she had of her were, Mira knew how she was in the organisation, and that everyone within it feared her and was afraid of saying the wrong thing both in front of her and behind her back. The same fear, however, was a thing that made them scared of leaving, and in the end caused them to live the remainder of their lives below the lowest of levels - in the below.

From the stories Mira had heard before, the below was basically just an area below the tower - since it was deep underground, it was humid and cold, making everyone extremely likely to catch any kind of sickness. Unlike normal prisons, there were no cells or wards, making people able to live there freely, but without getting any support from the tower, the conditions down there were dire. There was no electricity, meaning no light. No plumbing, so the only water they could get was if they somehow managed to drain it from the damp ground. There was nothing there that would help people survive, and yet somehow some of them do. Within the absolute madness that is caused by criminals on the loose, there were even accounts of children born there, however, the poor souls wouldn't stand a chance. Their best chance of survival was if more prisoners were brought at a similar time, as then the guards could see the child and bring it at least one Level up. That only happened if the guard was kind. Most guards, were not, and would only come to burn the dead once in a while, completely ignoring any and all children that were forced to live underground, without even knowing of the possibilities they would have if they were born at least one Level higher up.

Although not all criminals were sentenced for life in the below, and there have been so called 'reports' of people going to the tower, there are no actual documents for them, as most of them most likely ended up dying less than a year into their sentence.

Mira fell on the sofa and picked up the remote from the coffee table. Without even glancing at it, she turned the TV on and surfed through the channels. She kept clicking forward, hoping to find something interesting, but clicking off before the channel even had the chance to load. In the midst of all of the clicking, she got lazy and just let the TV be, and noticed she had landed on a new news story.

"With almost all of the cases handled, this one is one of the saddest ones yet: Melissa Kelsington was only 19 when she got trapped in the terrorist organisation that wrecked havoc in our tower..." Mira turned away from the screen as she couldn't bare to look at the face of the girl she had to pretend to be friends with. "... is now sentenced for 47 years in the below, making it one of the shortest sentences in this case-"

With a single click, the TV was off. Mira turned on her belly and placed her face straight on a pillow that she had bought a few days before. It was light blue and hand white little snowflakes on it, but Mira only bought it cause it was on discount and she needed something on the sofa. As she laid there, head down, she didn't move a muscle. Every few moments, her breathing would become heavier, but she wouldn't move. Around 20 minutes later, the evening announcement started playing, making her snap out of it. She stood up from the sofa, leaving the damp pillow in the same spot, and went straight to bed. She placed her puffy face next to a small teddy bear she had managed to pull out of the claw machine back on Level 9 and slowly drifted away into the land of dreams.