"I was right," Kyra said as she neared me and Cynthia. "The one responsible for the mirage was the receptionist."
"We finally escaped the loop?" Cynthia asked. Kyra nodded, smiling with relief.
I noticed the smears of blood on her arms. "What happened?"
"A little scuffle. Once I figured out it was her Fractal, she began to use it against me." Kyra pointed to her forehead. "The circle painted in Russo's room was ingrained onto her forehead. Exact same shape and color, same everything. The symbol was hidden behind her bangs."
"So did that circle have to do with her Fractal?"
"Pretty sure, yeah. My guess is that by coming into eye contact with both symbols, first on her forehead, and second on Russo's wall, it established a connection that activated her Fractal, setting the mirage on our eyes."
I scoffed. "Damn. There's no way we could have expected that, especially if one of the symbols was hidden behind her hair."
"I thought the Fractal's origin point was her eyes at first, but I didn't sense the same feeling looking into them that I did while looking at the circle in Russo's room," Kyra turned towards it.
Me and Cynthia looked back towards room 417, realizing Garren was still in there. We all went in to check on him and see if he was okay. He was still unconscious, laying on the floor.
"We've got to get him help. We need to take him back to A.X.A. now that the mirage is gone." Cynthia put his arm around her shoulder. "Someone get the other side!"
I went over and helped her carry Garren. We all walked out of room 417 and down the hall, past room 430, and into the elevator. The trip to floor one was silent. Feeling vertical movement after being stuck in the single segment of hallway on the fourth floor for nearly two days was unnatural.
55 hours we'd been stuck on that floor. I just realized how absurd that was.
"We were stuck for so long…"
"I know. I can't wait to get a breath of fresh air," Kyra said.
Cynthia finally brimmed back with excitement. "I want lemonade."
As we lowered down to the first floor, Kyra randomly decided to check her watch. Shock was suddenly plastered on her face.
"What's wrong?" I noticed it.
"It's still the same day…"
"Same day?"
"Same day that we first came here. According to my watch it's only been 2 hours since we first got here…?"
Cynthia coughed. "What? No way! Weren't you constantly checking your watch for how much time while we were stuck in the loop? Didn't we even hit 54 hours?"
Kyra nodded, unsure. "Yeah. But right now it's telling me it's only been 2 hours that we were up there."
"The mirage must have affected our perception of time too," I said, unsettled.
"But this feeling of dehydration… Is it just a placebo then…?" Cynthia wondered. We all wondered, and realized just how effective the mirage was at skewing our senses, whether it was through perception visually or perception of time.
Ding!
We finally arrived to the first floor, and anxiously stepped out of the elevator. We were back on the ground. Walking out into the lobby, we saw the bloody exchange that'd occurred with the receptionist.
"Jesus…" Me and Cynthia walked over with Kyra to check on the corpse. We saw that Kyra's knife had impaled right into the center of the receptionist's forehead, clearly marking the middle of the circular symbol that was uncanny to the one in Russo's room.
"That is so weird. Why would she have the same circle symbol on her forehead as the one in Russo's room…?"
I shared my concern with Cynthia. "Why would she even set that mirage on us?"
"It could only make sense if she was personally affiliated with Russo. Why else would she have a trap like that set up in his room?" Kyra began making the connection. "If we go along with your assumption, Klyson, that Heathen is a religion that worships the Moon just like Menesism, then this circular symbol on her forehead should also be representing Heathen. If it's the same circle as the one in Russo's room, someone we think must have been affiliated with Heathen, then she must be affiliated with Heathen too."
"So we were led into a trap," I made the statement. "Just like the moment we came across Russo at the front of Henry's house, the moment we met this receptionist here at the lobby we were being led-on from the very start."
Kyra knelt down next to her and observed the circle on her forehead. "What exactly is Heathen? Why is it so secretive? If people like Russo, and this receptionist, truly are a part of Heathen, it tells us that the members of it are willing to hurt others to keep it secret. What are they hiding?"
I watched the scene and wondered to myself. I realized that there was a lot going on behind the scenes that we weren't seeing upfront. I was unsettled and unsatisfied by the constant addition of loose ends to our investigation. As we pressed towards discovering more about Heathen, it only became increasingly mysterious.
Then, an oddity of a sensation hit me. There was something about the apartment building we stood in that put me off.
"If the receptionist had such a direct correlation to Russo, through his room, I wonder if anyone else in this building has a connection like that too."
Kyra caught onto what I was saying. "You mean, like, the possibility of other Heathen members here…?"
We looked around us. We realized the potential, but at the same time, understood we weren't well-equipped for something like that if it truly did come down to it.
Garren then mumbled in his unconscious state.
The reminder of his presence grounded us back to reality, away from the mystery of Heathen. We realized what was most important in the moment: getting Garren to safety and back to a healthy state.
"Next time," I told the other two. "Garren needs our help right now. That's what matters right now."
Kyra and Cynthia agreed. We carried Garren through the front door of the lobby, leaving behind the corpse of the receptionist who'd taunted us with their Fractal for what felt like two days.
"When we get back, I'll get A.X.A. to send in a clean-up crew for her," Kyra said. "And maybe, we can get them to check on some of the other tenants in the building too, just in case."
We made our way back to the A.X.A. Testing Facility.