Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter XXV

Mira ran through the whole Level, passing the buildings that have all been part of her childhood. She ran past her high school, ran past the now completely rebuilt and usable primary school, straight through the park and turned the corner to get home. When she finally reached the door, she barged in and looked around. There was not a trace of him in the living room or kitchen, so she went through all of the rooms.

When she got to her parents' bedroom, she noticed it was suspiciously tidy. Mira tiptoed around the room, being extremely careful and meticulous, while looking for any trace of her father. She walked up to the bed and quickly raised up the covers before glancing under it, and sadly, found nothing but a few old boxes filled with Terra's childhood toys. Mira did the same thing with the wardrobe, quickly opening it so that if anyone was inside they'd have no time to hide, but it was also empty. She looked around the room once again and noticed something she did not see before. Since the bed sheets were white, a piece of paper was practically invisible in the dim lighting. Mira quickly picked it up and after glancing around to make sure she was alone, read it out loud.

"Dear whoever has decided to visit me, I have gone to a work trip to Level 3, because I was needed to show the importance of hard work, because, as my boss put it, I'm the epitome of it. I will return in a week, so if I am needed for some reason, leave a note and I'll make sure to contact you when I'm back. See you later! Love, Emerson Fader." Mira looked at the letter once again and squinted. "This does not look right. This looks anything but right."

She stood up from the bed and placed the letter in the pocket of her jacket, before pacing around the room like an insane person. She walked around, murmuring quietly to herself about something that has to do with 'Steve' and 'darn old computers'. Mira then turned on her heel and went back to the safety office, hoping that maybe she'll get information about the current situation there.

Once she was there, she sat down in front of one of the seemingly never used before computers and looked through her list again. She didn't know anyone with any of the surnames on the list that would live on Level 4, so she assumed that the killer, whoever they are, would not end up killing anyone else. Still, justice is justice, so Mira decided to still go along and try to catch the criminal, just like she had promised both the Head Officer on Level 8 and the governor. After glancing through the list again, she decided that nothing would get done if she just stared at the list for hours, so she left the room.

She was walking through one of the long halways in the safety office, when an idea popped into her head. She quickly turned around and ran for the camera room. Since installing video cameras was expensive, the only places that the higher ups had ordered the installation of the cameras were the ones that could be targets of unsuspected terrorist attack - that being all of the schools and the Level Hall. Mira turned on the footage of the first camera, the one in front of the primary school, and sped it up. As she was watching a few days old footage, she almost fell asleep, yawning almost every other second. Her eyes started watering from the constant yawns when she noticed something odd in the corner of her eye. Although not caught on camera completely, Mira noticed a silhouette standing in a corner where most cameras have a blind spot.The person was standing there for over an hour, and staring at the footage made Mira feel creeped out, as the person didn't move a single bit. She started suspecting that the video was replaced with a freezed frame, but then an old woman passed through, while the silhouette didn't even move an inch.

Mira skipped through the footage and noticed the person would stand there every single day for over a week, multiple hours at a time. She glanced at the time frame and noticed that it usually happens at 10am to 3pm, every day of the week, although the time frame seemed longer during the weekends. Mira glanced at her wrist watch and realized it was 7pm, meaning the evening announcement was about to ring and that she wouldn't find out who the mysterious persona standing in front of the school was, even if she wanted to do it now, as their face is invisible in all of the videos the camera captured, thanks to a hood they were wearing at all times.

Mira sat back in her chair and wondered what she could do in the meantime. As she still found her father's absence mysterious, she thought it wouldn't be safe staying in the house, even if she really missed her room. She walked around the safety office and looked for a quiet, yet comfortable place she could sleep in, and found a couch at the very end of one of the hallways, right next to the kitchen. Before setting up camp, she visited the kitchen and found a box of croissants that read 'take one!'.

"Don't mind if I do!" Mira grinned and stuffed one of the croissants into her mouth.

She then turned on the kettle for some tea, and after it was done, sat back on one of the chairs and enjoyed her meal. After eating definitely more than one croissant, she cleaned up the leftover dishes and went for the sofa. She fluffed up the pillows and covered herself with her jacket instead of a cover, all while quietly swearing at herself for not bringing her blanket with her and leaving it in her father's home. She then glanced at her watch, and as the evening announcement started playing, closed her eyes.

The next morning, Mira got woken up by a loud hussle in the safety office. As she got up, she saw multiple people running around frantically, and it didn't take long for her to realize what had happened while she was asleep: another murder. She jumped up from the couch she had been sleeping on and fixed herself up by tidying up her clothes and tying her hair up in a sleek ponytail. She then rushed to the others, trying to gather as much information as she could. After finding out the name of the victim, she turned on one of the computers and skimmed through the list – and bingo, there was a match. At that point, Mira knew that it was definitely connected to the organisation, the only question at hand was who exactly is doing the deed – was it someone who's angered by the situation and killing of the relatives of people in the organisation as a way of taking revenge for possibly lost family members, or was it someone from within the organisation that wasn't outed and is trying to eliminate any and all people that could or would know about who they are and their whereabouts. Wondering which of the two could be more true, Mira glanced at the clock on the wall and realized it's already past noon, meaning the mysterious persona was most likely standing in the usual spot in front of the primary school.

Around 10 minutes later, Mira had almost reached the school, but decided to stop for a moment and catch her breath just so she wouldn't look suspicious. She slowly walked around the corner and noticed that there was, indeed, a person standing in front of the school, motionless. Mira started walking closer, with every sense in her body telling her to be more careful. She instinctively placed her hand in her pocket, but the gun wasn't there, as she had to leave it back in the safety station on Level 8. Swearing at herself for not taking a gun while she had a chance, she realized she's too far gone for turning back now and just continued walking forward. From the direction she was going in, she only saw the back of the person she was after, but judging from the height and the way the person was built, she deduced it must've been either a short, rather petite woman, or a young girl, but couldn't make up her mind which one it was more likely to be. Mira felt her heart beating faster and faster with every single step, she felt it more and more difficult to breath steadily, but she kept walking. She moved extremely quietly, and she had managed to get so near, that if she just extended her arm she could touch them, or at least pull of their hood. She decided to take another step, when the person suddenly turned.

"Who's there?"