Through Russo's identity in the database we had at A.X.A., we only uncovered a single address. It was apparently where he'd lived for the last five years until the present, even while taking care of Henry. When we arrived, it turned out to be an apartment building. We didn't know what floor or room his was.
When we entered the the lobby, a receptionist at the front greeted us.
"Hi there."
"Hi, we're here to make a visit to Russo Imani's flat. Would you mind telling us what floor and what room number that is?"
She looked at Kyra strangely. "I'm sorry miss, but I can't permit a group of unknown individuals to visit a private living space unless permitted by the tenant themselves. And Mr. Imani isn't even here. He hasn't been back here for the last few months."
Kyra suddenly showed her ID. "I'm Second of the Upper Four, with Melysia's military. We're here to investigate Russo's apartment considering his recent murder and death."
The receptionist's eyes grew wide. "Murder and death?!"
Kyra nodded. "He worked as a caretaker for a certain Henry Bautista. Just yesterday he murdered Mr. Bautista, and in a violent exchange, he passed away."
The receptionist covered her mouth with shock. "I can't believe it… He was so put-together the last I spoke to him… I can't believe he would do that…"
"I understand, but we need to investigate his flat. Please provide us with his floor and room number."
"Floor 4. He's room 417." She gave us a keycard that granted access to the room. "Please take care."
Kyra smiled. "Thank you for your cooperation."
As we made our way up in the elevator to the fourth floor, Garren spoke up. "You're kinda scary when talking to others, Kyra."
"Huh?!? What do you mean by that?"
I laughed along. "He's right. You're super strict with all the civilians we've come across. 'I'm Second of the Upper Four'," I began to imitate her.
She flushed red with embarrassment. "Hey, I need to do that to get the seriousness across! Otherwise they won't understand the severity of the situation."
"I know, I know." Both me and Garren laughed while teasing her. She and Cynthia began to laugh along too.
Soon, we'd arrived to the fourth floor. Walking out of the elevator, we were met with a single long hallway. One direction indicated the rooms 400 to 437, while the other was 438 to 460. We walked towards the 400 to 437 direction.
"The length of this hall mesmerizes me," Cynthia said. "Kinda makes me dizzy."
I observed each room as we passed by, their doors counting down from 437. Eventually, we reached room 417.
"This is it." Kyra tapped the keycard on the sensor and the light lit-up green, unlocking the door. When we opened it and entered inside, we came across a view we wouldn't have expected.
The room was as plain as can-be. White walls, a cubic shape, and no furniture whatsoever. There was a washroom and a closet by the entrance, but into the room itself was nothing. Not even a bed.
"What the heck…?" I looked around, confused. There was no place to sleep, not even a couch or a chair. There was no TV or desk, nothing to keep one occupied. There was no lamp, no table and no cabinets. The room was completely empty. "Did he move all of his belongings to Henry's house? The receptionist did say he hadn't been back in months."
"Possibly. But in that case, why would he still have this apartment rented out? If he was already living at Henry's, why continue to pay to keep this place up?" Kyra then noticed that on one of the walls was a giant painting of the outline of a circle. It was colored red.
"Interesting design choice…" She looked at the circle. "What is this supposed to mean?"
The only thing that came to my head when thinking of symbolic circles was Menesism, and specifically, the Moon. "Maybe it represents MONA. Maybe Russo was a firm believer of Menesism."
"But then again, Heathen… If he was related to Heathen, wouldn't that be opposed to Menesism? In the article, Henry spoke about Heathen like it was better than Menesism."
I remembered I'd seen a picture of a depiction of the Moon in Henry's house. "You know, I saw similar symbolism in Henry's house. It was a picture of the Moon."
Garren spoke-out his concerns. "But wasn't Henry the one who spoke bad on Menisism? Why would he have something that represented it?"
Garren was right. It didn't make sense for Henry to have something that symbolized Menesism when he spoke more highly about Heathen. Russo also seemed to have known about Heathen, yet had direct representation of Menesism right on his wall in front of us. I thought back on the quote.
[ "Back in my day, 'Heathen' was where true enlightenment could be found. Now, only half that truth exists in these half-assed places." ]
Henry correlated 'enlightenment' and 'truth' to the word 'Heathen.' My mind began to stretch past the boundaries we'd set to it. All this time, we'd been thinking of Heathen as a place, as a location. That's because it was during the Filtering. But that was over 40 years ago. When I thought about how Kyra divided Heathen into the two eras: Heathen from the past, during the Filtering, and modern-day Heathen in the present, today, I realized that not everything from the past always remained the way it was. Heathen could have been a location back then, but now—
"Heathen isn't a place," I blurted out.
They all looked at me with confusion.
"Heathen may have been a place that you could go to that existed back in the Filtering like the General had said, but maybe that isn't the case today anymore. Maybe today it's a… belief?"
Kyra was clearly intrigued, yet skeptical. "Where are you getting this from?"
"Think of Henry's quote without the context of Heathen being a location. Yes, it was a place that he probably went to back in his time, but that place had to have represented something, right? He talks about it as if it were a place he gained knowledge, 'enlightenment,' and 'truth.' Those are terms you'd associate with something like a religion. Heathen had to be more than just a location. Heathen could have been the name of the place, but it also could have been the meaning of the place."
We all stared at the circle on the wall as I said this. For both Henry and Russo to own symbolism of Menesism even though they associated themselves with Heathen, something we assumed to be opposed to Menesism, it could only make sense if there was a direct correlation between Heathen and Menesism.
"Maybe this circle also represents Heathen," I said. I raised my arms, forming a circular shape with my hands and aligning it with the circle on the wall. "Maybe Heathen and Menesism are both religions that worship MONA, but with opposing sets of beliefs."
"That could make sense…" Kyra began to think deep about it. "Henry's quote makes sense in that context."
"It allows it to make sense for Henry and Russo to have symbols of the Moon too," Cynthia said.
"If Heathen was a location back in the Filtering, then it must have been where they preached the ideas of Heathen as a religion, or a belief. Almost like a church," Garren said.
"Considering all of this, wouldn't that mean that the Sin of Discrimination is a part of Heathen?" I asked. "Maybe all this time they weren't from Heathen, but rather, a part of Heathen."
"That means we need to uncover Heathen as a group to get to the Sin of Discrimination. But how? We'd need to find them." Kyra wondered. "There's so little evidence that they even exist. This could all just be speculation."
We all sighed at the thought of it. At this point, we were really only making assumptions. With so little to go off of, that was the most that we could do. We needed to confirm the truth behind Heathen to get to the Sin of Discrimination. If only Henry was still alive, we would have been able to do that.
We took note of what we'd found in Russo's room and left. There wasn't much else to investigate in his area. As we walked through the hall back towards the elevators, I felt a sense of oblivion among us four. I could tell that everyone was lost in their thoughts, trying hard to make sense out of the clues we'd discovered thus far. We were all on the same page, but that page was far from the conclusion. The book we'd been reading was missing nearly all its pages, and we were trying to write our own ones in.
Room 425. Room 426. Room 427.
Just like while we made our way to Russo's flat, I observed the numbers on the doors that we passed-by while now making our way back to the elevators. It was ascending in order from 400 to 437.
Room 428. Room 429. Room 430.
"You guys wanna stop by that cafe on the way back?" Cynthia asked. "I wanna try another flavor of their lemonade. Maybe strawberry this time…"
"Sure," I agreed. "Then Garren can go get his water."
Everyone laughed. The mood had lightened a little. I continued to read the numbers on the doors as we returned to the elevators.
Room 415. Room 416. Room 417.
"Wait." I stopped moving. Everyone else stopped too and looked back at me.
"What's wrong?" Kyra asked.
I pointed at the door in front of me. It was room 417. "It's Russo's room. Weren't we just walking away from it?"
They all came to my side and looked with me. Curious, Garren opened the door. We saw the resemblance. A cubic room with white walls and no furniture. The clearest indication was the giant red circle on the wall. He had a double take and re-read the door's number.
"417… Why are we back here?"
I looked straight ahead in the direction we'd been walking. "I was counting the door numbers as we walked past them. I recall seeing up until room 430. We should be close to the elevators."
We continued walking forwards, counting the door numbers as we went.
Room 418. Room 419. Room 420.
We looked ahead to see if the elevators were close, and sure enough, we were getting closer.
Room 415. Room 416. Room 417.
We stopped walking. We'd arrived back to room 417.
"What?" Garren opened the door again to check inside, and once again, it was a cubic room with white walls, no furniture, and a giant red circle painted on one side. "We've only been walking forwards. How did we end up back here again…?"
All four of us began to look around frantically. As an impulsive idea, I began to sprint in the elevator's direction.
"Kly?" Cynthia watched as I bolted off into the distance.
Room 418. Room 419. Room 420.
I counted the doors as I got further away from the others.
Room 415. Room 416. Room 417.
I stopped. I'd arrived back to everyone else, even though I'd only been running forwards, away from them the entire time.
"I was watching you. You were in front of me the entire time. But as soon as arrived behind us, and I turned around, you disappeared from over there," Cynthia pointed down the hall, towards the elevators.
"Are we stuck in a loop?"