Chapter Text
At the time, I wasn’t aware of how important what happened was, despite feeling there was more to everything she did. If I had paid more attention, I could’ve prevented her from going too far.
By abandoning my old self, I thought I was making a good choice. I’ve learned how to move forward, but that’s what kept me from seeing things more clearly.
The things that weaved themselves in from the start.
My life started to change at that point.
Despite the initial dullness.
The grim reaper came to save me.
It was on the day I tried to make my escape to Earth.
* * *
My mother would describe the stars as beautiful. When she would point out into space and tell me all sorts of stories about them, I would feel the same way.
It wasn’t very reasonable, but during those moments, I would dream of someday catching one.
That’s what I thought about while floating in the vast void of space.
With the place I considered a hellhole right below me.
“XY72Z53…” I whispered out the coordinates to my rendezvous point.
Doing that was completely pointless though, I thoroughly checked that my location would be the right one.
Weeks of strategizing, sleepless days.
I guess being nervous on this day was inevitable.
But now that I was floating here, with nothing left besides to wait, I was finally able to think freely.
I used to daydream about it constantly, what I would do on Earth. First would be to find somewhere to live. I’ve already researched where I could hide. Money had been handled for the first month.
I’ll change my appearance too and make up a new identity, a new last name.
And just live peacefully.
I stare out into the stars.
They weren’t obscured by a protective barrier. Their twinkles were clearer, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, I feel a little happy looking at them.
Suddenly, small, round flashes of orange light blink on the front of my space suit following two distinctive beeps, indicating less than 10 minutes of oxygen left. I stared at it, wide-eyed.
Maybe they wouldn’t come after all? That was my first though after a moment of panic. That I really did get ahead of myself.
The suit I was wearing suddenly felt suffocating along with each moment passing.
There was no method of returning despite the school being right below. I was helpless.
It was strangely ironic.
“Mom….”
I close my eyes momentary.
But then, fluttering them open, I finally saw it.
A blue star.
* * *
I was captured, last minute at that. It would’ve almost been funny if it wasn’t so disappointing.
Getting picked up, being driven out of the area, it was almost too easy.
When the ship made a full way into the Earth-sphere, I was overjoyed—because once the service ended, everything else would be on my own and I would be free.
It was exactly what I wanted, yet as my luck would have it I ran into a Dominicus member. On top of being identified right away, my father was in the area unbeknownst to me, and he ordered I be transferred over to his ship.
So here I was, with nothing to do besides stare blankly out a window.
The fact that I could only sigh while looking at the stars now pissed me off more than anything.
Another thing my father ruined.
I sunk deeper into my seat, it was in a luxurious part of the ship but it was only me who was sitting down. The only other person here was standing next to me, assigned to be my bodyguard.
It wasn’t like I had any escape routes, so his use was only to keep me in check. “Can’t you do something more productive than spying on me?”
“That is not up to me.” He was one of my father’s men and of course, only respected him.
I bite the bottom of my lip and decide to turn towards the window again, leaning against it hastily.
It was a frustrating feeling as if I was resigning myself, but I was too tired to complain anymore.
Not like it’ll make me feel better now.
The ship moved on and the stars passed along with it, carrying me closer back to Asticassia where I’ll be kept locked up again.
The same silent weight in my chest only grew.
Stars can grant wishes,
My mother told me that. Staring out into space, she would get lost in thought.
When I asked her what she wished for, she simply hugged me without an answer.
Then, she told me to make my own wish, one that would keep me moving.
I never really needed anything back then besides for things to stay the same.
But if I could ask for something now.
I wanted out.
* * *
Heavy red lights flickering, suddenly distorting the brightness of the room, then a loud alarm piercing my ears, starling me. I start to look around frantically.
“What’s happening?”
Without a word back to me, the bodyguard picks up his ringing cellphone, holding it up to his ear.
The other side was muffled, and I couldn’t hear a thing.
After the call was finished, he then rushed towards the door.
“Miss Miorine, please remain here while everything gets sorted out.”
“Why!? At least tell me what’s going on!”
“It doesn’t concern you, you only need to keep safe.”
He replies with the same monotonous tone that annoyed me with all of my father’s men, in this situation it irked me more than usual.
“If my safety is at stake, that means I’m involved enough.” I stay firm, but his stiff expression remains unmoved.
“Now’s not the time to argue. Let the adults handle it.”
Ignoring my further protests, he briefly shuts the door on me.
Damn it.
The flashing lights continued enveloping my vision. On top of my current feelings, it was starting to make me feel hazed.
I couldn’t stand it, so I won’t try to.
There was no way for me to judge the situation in here, how could I be expected to stay locked in without knowing why?
The door was secured by a keypad, but the bodyguard hadn’t been careful enough to hide his movements. Waiting for a minute to pass, I opened it. Looking into the hallway in front of me, I made sure there was no one else, and began moving forward.
I didn’t actually think being outside was safer or rational.
It was the powerlessness that built up since entering the damned ship and the rebelliousness that kept me walking.
Looking back on it now, it was stupidly risky.
* * *
It was a large ship, but the hallways lacked turns. I had been walking for a while now.
The red glow of the emergency lights were even brighter here than in the room, they cast eerie shadows on the walls making me unsettled. Even with how much I hated being locked in, I realized I had no clue what danger they were indicating.
The moment I started to regret leaving, it was too late.
My vision turned pitch black, a loud click following the outage almost echoing from a distance, surprising me and making me shudder.
A power malfunction?
I thought about how a breaker might’ve been damaged on board.
Was that what the alarms were for? It would make sense. A power outage would’ve been more than a call for concern.
It was a bit anti-climatic, however.
Having been too dark to walk properly without bumping into something, I hugged the wall next to me, the surface feeling abnormally cold. My eyes were strained from the total darkness of the area and lack of distance. I recalled there being windows further ahead, if I could get there I could clear my head.
While walking, I noticed that it was way too quiet, no sounds of other people. And with how obvious my footsteps sounded it scared me to think about someone possibly being able to listen in.
Finally, I spotted some light coming from a new turn ahead. I slowed my stride and cautiously peeked around the corner, it was still too dim to see clearly. Still the starlight was enough to make out shapes, and at the end of the hall-length window was a figure.
A person.
Was it that bodyguard earlier? Assuming that it might be, I hid behind the wall again, peeking out only partially. It would be annoying to be caught and scolded.
I focused on their arm, but the shape looked off. Almost like it was too thin, I continued to focus on it. As they moved, I realized it was something they were holding something.
It was like…
It was a rifle.
Blankly, I stared. Then panic surged through me at the realization.
I stepped back, trying to control my trembling legs, holding my breath to avoid making any noise.
Many different thoughts raced in my head processing the situation, before realizing how stiff I became.
How hard my heart was pounding.
That if I couldn’t regain control of my body, I was really done for.
Out of sight and moving even further back, I began to turn around, carefully, feeling myself almost flinch hearing the rifle shift in the distance, making me want to give up my slow pace and make a run it. And it was when I was suddenly grabbed from behind did I actually flinch.
I was pulled backward, an arm wrapped around my torso, pushing me into the corner against the wall. A white face—or rather, a mask—peered at me from the side, covering my mouth with a rough hand to muffle any scream.
The masked person who held me stayed unmoved, remaining silent.
With the space barely being illuminated by the starlight, their silhouette being obscured, they were like a ghost.
They had been right behind me, yet I couldn’t hear their footsteps, like a trained professional, and that’s all I needed to know to realize how dangerous this all was, how out of hand it was for me to be here.
I’m going to die.
I shook in fear.
I knew it was dangerous yet I still—
It was bad judgment on my part.
My life had been too pathetic up to this point, I had cursed the trapped feeling of the school, but now I wished I never left.
I braced myself for whatever will happen next and—
“Don’t move, you’ll be caught.”
A young woman’s voice comes through from that mask, pressed and whispered against my ear. Soft and a bit weary.
And strangely, it was reassuring.
It was odd to me, even in that moment.
Taking a moment to process through their words, I nodded along, determined to make it out of this situation even if by someone I couldn’t trust.
With that, they released their hand, and I gasped silently.
They stayed for a second, and I glared up at them. Without tilting their head, I was unsure whether they were glaring at me or not.
After an unknown silence, they started to disappear into the hallway.
It’s a feeling I can’t describe to this day. It was this urge, or maybe due to how bewildered I was at what just happened. A curiosity for this person, that I somehow had the courage to peak out to see them walk away.
The starlight from the window made things more visible, but I couldn’t make out much of their features besides their taller build and darker clothes.
Too dark to make out the shade, I looked at their long hair, dark brown or was it something else? As they walked their hair swept and I was able to make out wild curls.
I simply observed them, realizing it was the armed person they were walking up to.
And upon seeing the masked person, they put their rifle down.
Ah.
My senses returned.
They’re a terrorist too.
“What’s up with that mask?”
The armed person had a completely different tone, more firm, cold.
“I thought it was….” The masked woman replies, but in an increasingly lower voice that the sentence trailed off.
Both voices quieted down even more afterward, and I couldn’t make out anything more they said.
They had left at some point. I didn’t hear their footsteps. I had only noticed they were gone when the lights suddenly switched back on.
A bodyguard had discovered me staring out of the window in that hallway in a daze, briefly taking me to the front to be transferred to another ship.
I was being sent back to school.
The incident was covered up, and I, of course, was not given an ounce of information about it.
Thanks to my lousy father.
I never did find out why I was saved.