Underneath The Hidden Stars

Chapter XXVIII

Moments after a loud bang, Renee's face was filled with shock. She stared in disbelief for a short moment, before finally opening her mouth.

"What the... why in the world would you do that?"

Right in front of her, where she had pointed her gun, was Terra, who jumped in front of her dad at the last second, saving his life. The bullet pierced her right shoulder, but didn't go through, leaving Emerson safe, although still unconscious. Renee's jaw had literally dropped and she was extremely confused, as she didn't expect her own daughter to disrespect her like that.

In the midst of what had already been happening, Mira managed to set herself free. When she fell during the shot, the chair that fell on her later hit the lamp, shattering the lightbulb into pieces and giving her a good tool for setting herself free, even though she cut her hands a little by doing so. Mira silently stood up, and walked up behind her mother, who had still been looking at Terra in shock. Renee swung the hand with the gun behind her, as if she was about to hit Terra with it, when Mira slammed the weapon out of her hand. It fell on the ground in the opposite side of the room and Renee slowly turned around, clearly pissed off.

"Mira. What. Did. You. Just. Do?"

"What was needed to be done." She replied and slapped her mother across the face.

As a little bit of blood showed up on her lip, Renee lifted her hand up to wipe it off and laughed in disbelief. The previously silent room was now filled with psychotic laughter, making everyone in the room extremely uncomfortable. Terra sat down on the cold floor and tried pushing herself to the wall in order to stop her bleeding at least a little bit, but she couldn't do it fast enough before Renee turned to her.

"Where do you think you're going, princess?" she said as she walked up to her daughter.

Renee giggled at the sight of her daughter struggling to survive and looked at her with clear malicious intent, when Mira hit her again. This time, Renee didn't respond with laughter. This time, she responded with violence. She hit Mira right in the face, with so much strength, that she ended up flying a little bit and landed on the ground with a loud thump. Slightly dazed, she stood up fast enough that she managed to block the next punch that had been thrown at her. They continue in a rather even powered grapple for a few minutes, but Mira trips on the lamp the she had previously broken and falls down. She got multiple cuts on her body from the glass shards, making her shriek in pain, but Renee didn't waste any time. While Mira tried to get up through the excruciating pain, she went to the opposite side of the room and picked up the gun that Mira had knocked out of her hand. Without even giving it a second thought, she loaded the gun up, and stretched her arm out, aiming straight at her oldest daughter. For a moment, Mira thought she saw her mother hesitating, as instead of pulling the trigger, she lifted her other hand to fix her hair, pulling it behind her ear, but she never took her eyes off Mira. She stared at her like a hunter, that's carefully watching their target and smiled softly. She then fixed her aim and pulled the trigger, which made her fall back a little herself. However, the bullet hit the wall and did no harm, as Mira managed to jump out of its way the last second.

"You can't dodge forever, sweetie." Renee grinned maliciously and pointed the gun at her again.

As the gun fired, Mira jumped to the side again, making Renee even more angry than she was before. Mira glanced at Terra for a moment, and noticed that she had taken off her jacket and tied it up on her wound, and was at that point trying to untie their father, who, unfortunately, was still unconscious. Mira turned back to her opponent and noticed that this time, there was no chance of dodging, as the gun was literally 10 centimeters away from her head. She lifted her gaze up to her mother's and their eyes met, for a split moment, before she grabbed Renee's leg and made her fall to the ground, making the bullet that she had shot at that precise moment hit the ceiling at an angle and ricocheted back to her, hitting Renee in the calve. She let out a short, yet painful scream, but didn't let that slow her down. She looked at Mira who had now taken the gun, knowing that if she left it like she did last time, that being leaving the weapon on the ground for some reason, she'd get pointed at within seconds. With the gun in her hand, even without holding her finger on the trigger, she knew she'd have enough leverage over her mother. She slowly stood up, leaving her mother on the floor, and went to her sister.

Mira briefly checked on Terra's wound, and after realizing it's as good as one's wound could be without any treatment, left her be. She then walked up to her father and checked his pulse, which was at peak condition, making Mira wonder how he hadn't woken up yet, even after all of the shots that had been fired. After turning back to her mother, Mira was immediately jumped on, as Renee had taken one of the tiny glass shards from the broken lightbulb and, while using it as a weapon, attacked Mira, aiming straight for the neck. Startled, Mira tried jumping back, but her mother overpowered her, and they both dropped on the ground. Mira grunted in pain as Renee landed on her, cutting her arm slightly. Renee, who was now sitting on top of Mira, thinking she had definitely overpowered her, started laughing manically from the situation.

"You try too hard, Mira. You had no chance to win this fight since the beginning, can't you see? I'm way stronger than you, and you're just a naïve child who can't understand her place. Oh, and before you die, there's something you should probably know. Remember how I told you about all of your friends dying? Well, remember that friend of yours, what's her name... Luna? Lira? Lucy? Whatever her name is... doesn't it seem odd to you that she hasn't woken up from her coma yet? I'm just saying, maybe someone added something to her IV or something, I don't know. You should check in on that, really. Oh wait. You'll be dead. Never mind that. Oh, oh, there were a few more friends you had, one of them, that boy toy, Prescott, was it? Yeah, I ordered the leftovers of the organization to find and kill him if I don't notify them within the next 2 days. Which I don't plan on doing, by the way. And, the last one, Ava... She'll probably end up rotting in the below. A shame really, I rather liked her..."

"The only one who will end up rotting in the below is you, you fucking lunatic." A deep voice said before knocking Renee off Mira. "I can't believe I actually married you once, you're an actual fucking psychopath!" he then turned to Mira. "You okay sweetie?"

"Yeah dad, I'm fine, thanks." She answered and crawled to Terra, leaving her parents alone.

"I can't believe you'd actually do this to them. To your own daughters! And I really did think highly of you once, but you made me realize how wrong I was." He took one of the glass shards and brought it near her face, so close, that her heavy breathing made it fog up. "I could kill you right here, right now. I could. And oh my goodness, do I want to do that, after seeing what you did to my little girls! But I won't." he tossed the shard on the ground, as far away from her as he possibly could. "I can't fall to your level, Renee."

As he left her lying there, speechless, Emerson went to check on his daughters. He spoke to them softly, knowing that they've been through too much already. He checked on their wounds and seconds later heard the door open behind him. Once he turned back, he noticed that Renee wasn't in the room anymore. Without even hurrying, he got up, walked to the door, and watched his ex-wife trying to walk straight. Although she was clearly in a lot of pain, she didn't let a single tear fall out of her eyes the whole time she was fighting Mira, and it didn't seem like the situation would change now. She kept tripping every few steps, falling down, and then getting back up, without making a sound.

She managed to get around 10 meters away from the door, with Emerson watching her, before officers started flooding the place. They had apparently received an anonymous tip that something illegal involving guns was taking place there, so half of the safety office hurried through. Emerson only needed to point his finger at Renee for her to be immediately arrested and taken in for questioning. Minutes later, doctors arrived, and without wasting second, took the sisters to the hospital, and convinced Emerson to get checked too, even though he tried declining.

As Mira was brought to the hospital, memories started flooding back, of the last time she had been on the one on Level 4, when her dad had thought that he might've lost both of his daughters. Mira smiled with melancholy, happy that it wasn't the case, and as the medicine kicked in, fell into a deep sleep.