Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter XXVI

"Who's there?" a girl's voice asked and turned to Mira. The girl stared blankly in the direction of her, but didn't look straight at her, right until Mira made her move.

"Terra? Is that you?"

The girl paused for a second and turned to Mira, still avoiding eye contact.

"Mira?" Terra extended her hands towards her, but they kept wailing around without actually reaching her.

"Terra, what is..." she walked closer so that she'd be within arm's reach of her and continued. "Is everything alright?"

"Alright? Define alright." The girl responded with a short awkward giggle, making Mira even more confused than she had been before. After an awkward silence, her smile faded. "I can't see, Mira, if that's what you mean. I'm practically blind."

Mira froze in place. Her sister's statement didn't make sense. Why in the world would she be blind?

"Stop joking around Terra, there's no way you'd be blind, I mean, how would you even manage to get here if you were blind?"

"I didn't say I was completely blind, Mira, don't take it out of context. I said I'm practically blind, meaning my eyesight has gone from bad to worse, but I can still see shapes and outlines. Plus, we both know the level like the back of our hand, so what's so unbelievable about that?"

"I mean, I guess... but hold on, I have more questions. How are you alive? You were dead."

"Presumed dead, you mean. I never died. I was just taken from the spot and everyone thought I was dead because they couldn't find my body and I was supposed to be there-"

"Was it mom?"

"What are you-"

"Was it mom that took you from the place? After knocking me out, that is."

"How would you-"

"I knew it." Mira turned around in a circle. "I fucking knew it." She raised her voice and turned back at her. "She's been orchestrating this whole thing from the beginning, wasn't she... and you. Why didn't you run away? Or tell someone? How could you just abandon-"

"You clearly don't know everything. You weren't the only one knocked out in the ruins. I was too. In fact, it was a miracle that I survived, even mom thought she had accidentally killed me by overdoing the blow. That's exactly what ruined my eyesight, and why I couldn't run away or do anything against her."

"But what if you had died in the explosion? Wasn't it extremely unlikely for you to survive? I mean look at it from our mother's point of view, how could she have known you would've survived?"

"Oh, she definitely didn't. She thought the fact that I lived was a nuisance, but she didn't have the guts to outright kill me, or at least that's what I thought. She started sending me to various missions that involved placing bombs, knowing very well I couldn't see, yet I lived each time."

"Couldn't you have faked your death? Pretend that you died in one of the accidents and then never come back to her?"

"You seriously are an idiot. So what if I never returned? You think they don't have access to cameras? You think they couldn't see me walk out unscathed and then hide somewhere? She wouldn't have spared me then. She would've send some men after me and I would've ended up dead somewhere in the bushes. Or, say I did manage to escape. What would I do then? I'm still thought to be dead, Mira. You really think I could do anything?"

Mira looked down and bit her lip.

"You could've come to me. I would've helped."

"And what makes you think I knew where you were? By the time I regained my consciousness I was in an abandoned building in Level 3, a full Level away. How could I have possibly reached you?" She turned her head away from Mira. "Plus, it seems like my absence did you more good than harm. Safety office on Level 8, huh? Not fucking bad for someone who lost their sister a month before and wouldn't even attempt to find out the truth."

"That's not true, I didn't -"

"Oh, you didn't know? Well, join the queue, won't you? No one knows anything. No one knows anything about why the levels exist in the first place, no one knows who actually runs the tower – that reminds me, Mira, do you know who sits on the very top of Level 10? Who the person who commands everything and passes all the laws is?"

"Isn't it... the king?"

"Hah! You wish. That's who's supposed to rule the tower, right? The descendant of Aurthur the great, the one worthy of being the almighty ruler blah blah blah. Sure, the current king is his descendant. But it's a 4-year-old kid, Mira."

"Wait, what? How would you-"

"Yup, that's right. A child is ruling over. Now you understand why the organization is the way it is?"

"Are you trying to justify the murders of hundreds of children? Seriously? So what if the current king is a child? You're saying we can kill kids now? Just because?"

"No, that's not-"

"But that's exactly what you said Terra! I don't know what mother put in your head, but that's utter bullshit. Don't you even try justifying the murders, because I can put you behind bars for that, don't forget."

"Mira, hear me out-"

"I've heard enough, Terra. In the year that I haven't seen you, you sure changed a lot. I can't even bare to look at you, spitting out such nonsense. What if you had lost a sister in one of those explosions, Terra? What if I had died in one? What would you think then? Oh, good golly, maybe that'll make the king think, is that what you would say?"

"What? No way!"

"Then why are you saying it this way about the other children? The kids that died, they were relatives of other people. David's brother died there, Terra. All of you friends died in the accidents, and yet you talk like that? I don't even want to call you my sister any more, this is absurd!" Mira snarled and Terra turned to the side.

"I gotta go." She whispered silently. "Mom's gonna get mad that I'm late if I stay here."

"What? So suddenly-"

"See ya, Mira. Maybe we'll meet again." Terra said and walked away, leaving Mira frozen in place, unable to comprehend what had happened.

Mira stood around for a moment, and then decided to follow Terra, taking the fact that she can't see well as an advantage. She walked as quietly as she could, while keeping a safe distance just in case. Mira tried being discreet, hoping that no one sees her creeping behind. After a few minutes of walking, Terra glanced around and listened for a moment, before opening a door to a basement and going in. Mira waited a couple of moments and tiptoed to the door and noticed a small window on the wall beside it. She peeked in, and saw a man tied to a chair, with his head hanging forward as if he were asleep. Mira stared intently for a few seconds before realizing that she knew who that man was. With the dark graying hair, she had no doubts about it – it was her father. Mira looked around to see if she could get anyone to help her get in and get him out, but before she could do anything, she felt a blunt pain in the back of her head and fell to the ground unconscious.