Following a Golden Thread of Hair [Closed]

"Well... that was a thing," Rider said casually. "Now let's see what we have here."

Rider wheeled towards the mirrors and tried to examine the spot where the red letters had appeared, looking for anything the mirrors could have reflected or any sign of marks having been there.

The mirrors reflected Rider's darkened figure, the sunlight coming from behind him and outlining his white hair, ears and clothes. Touching the surface of the mirror, there was no trace of any substance on it, either. It was, once again, a plain mirror.

Caster looked the mirror up and down, biting his lip. "Hmm.. the lights were all out... So any simple mirror tricks are very unlike, if not out of the question. I would say it would be a light trick but the first account was so much different." Looking to Rider, he shrugged. "I'm not sure. This is quiet odd."

"Well gang," Rider says as he moved away from the mirro, "Looks like we've got a mystery on our hands."

Rider turned to Caster and Rayden.

"First off let's search for clues. So far we've only looked around the mirrors but there could be more to this. Let's spread out and search the gym area."

Nothing in the gym so far is out place in regards to the equipment. The cushions were freshly brushed and, the pipes and the balance beam were polished, the seats were unused. No one had really been in here. If they were to guess, no one had been here save for Jane during early practice sessions. There are curtains covering a portion of a nearby west wall, which is strange, as the only window known is the one on the south wall.

***

It's around this 10am when Mirai returns to the Academy's grounds with Wanyu. She stood by the fountain, one hand resting on her parasol.

"So plans are changing again?" she said with crossed arms. "I'm honestly getting annoyed with grandfather. I actually had everyone start packing up and now I hear this-"

"We're sorry about everything, Little Miss," Wanyu said bowing his head. And then, looking up with a grave look on his face. "But the Chaucers have been...watchful. They're aware of the pattern of your visits. We have to postpone until the Aesop Ministry can intervene."

Mirai looked away and nodded again.

"I understand..." Mirai said. "But I will not let anything stop me from visiting later than Friday."

"Of course, Little Miss," Wanyu said. "We would never want to hinder your time with Will. Your grandfather respects that."

"You're dismissed."

Rider decided to check behind the curtains covering the area of the west wall.

Caster moved to the window that had slammed shut, taking out Alakazam ad making a glyph so that he could reach it. Landing on the ledge, he started looking for any sort of mechanism that would have made it slam shut.

When Rider pulled back the long curtains, there was no window there but a small little metal panel. As he opened it, there were a few switches there. Six, to be precise. When Rider would flick them, it would turn on the lights in the first third, second third and last third of the gymnasium. Aside from how bright the gymnasium seemed after being so dark, there was nothing remarkable about them.

Caster examined the window. It was about a meter long and two meters wide. The window's panel could slide open and closed and the old green curtain covering was attached to a mechanism that also let it automatically close and open, aside from being done so manually. To the looks of it, a switch could be used to open and close it, but it wasn't visible anywhere really.

Caster grinned widely, watching Rider flick the lights before looking back to the window. "As I thought! There is a mechanism to make the window close. I think our ghost is no ghost at all." Creating a small, focused light, Caster began looking for something he could trail to a switch.

"Hm~" Rider hums placing his hand on his chin in thought, "Now why would their be curtains covering the light switches? I wonder..."

Rider examines not only the panel but the whole area that would be hidden by the curtains, looking for anything off. A switch or a loose brick, anything.

"What are the odds of finding all of you here," Mirai's voice came from the door.

She was standing there with crossed arms and her fan snapped closed resting in her right hand. She walked her way towards the mirror.

"I was on my way to the dormitory, but I wanted to check something here," Mirai said. "Mind telling me why you're searching the gymnasium so fervently?"

"Ah, well," Rider smiled as wheeled away from the switches, "We wanted to find that 'something interesting' you wanted to hear when we next heard you. So we decided to look into one of the many mysteries surrounding this school and attempt to solve it."

Rider begins recounting the events thus far since this morning for Mirai.

Mirai looked pleased. She listened carefully to the events, asking Rider to give her the smallest details, the smallest trivial thoughts, and she asked him to repeat it twice.

"So you've spent this time trying to find some chaos for me," she said. "And the fact that the mystery's still unsolved will definitely stave off the boredom."

She began twirling her fan in the air as she sat down on one of the bleachers.

"Since you've started it already, I won't solve it for you," Mirai said smiling. "I've already aligned most of the pieces, but some are still lacking. Say, Caster, mind doing me a favor and light up your hand near the mirror again?"

"Sure thing, milady." Caster called before taking out Alakazam again and setting a glyph on the ground, hopping down and gracefully landing on it. The he walked to the mirror, lifting a hand and creating a wispy orb of flame and directing it towards the mirror.

"I never saw anything too out of the ordinary." he shrugged, motioning Mirai to the mirror.

"That's what you think," Mirai said as she faced the glass, her image now clearer with Caster's light there. "When you three came into the room, before you lit anything, the only light present was coming from behind you. And yet you all said you could see your faces clearly in the mirror, not shaded like how mine was before Caster lit an orb. After the incident with Jane and the written message, when you faced the mirrors, your images were darkened again.Can any of you guess why that is?"

After idly searching around the room with no real goal Rayden was happy to see Mirai back but knew better than interrupt her when she was in her mystery solving moods. As they all walked toward the mirror Rayden watched as Caster lit up and listened intently to Mirai's words. "Milady, if I may. What if there were another source of light? Maybe from somewhere that we could not reach that could still touch the mirror." Making his way around Caster Rayden stood in front of the mirror and tapped it with his knuckle. "I am not a very wise man but might there be the chance of a room behind this mirror?"

Caster crossed his arms, looking over the mirror and nodding. "Of course, that would make sense." he nodded and leaned closer, squinting and concentrating the light on the mirror and humming to himself. "Well, Mirai, any pieces we may have for you to put into this puzzle for you?"

Mirai smiled and began walking towards the mirror.

"From the south is a light that resembles our backside, not the expression of our faces, and yet we see them clearly..." Mirai began saying. She motioned for Caster and the others to come closer, but made Caster stay a meter away first. She showed them her fingernail and made it touch the glass, both her tip and the reflection completely touching. "A sign that two things connect rather than one thing touching a gapped end..."

She then proceeded to tapping the mirror's three portions one by one, starting with the one most distant. The first two made a dull sound, but as she leaned in on the fourth, it made a hollow one.

"An empty space that gives out it's calling...

Finally she motioned to Caster and brought his lit hand right next to the third portion of the mirror.

"There is more to you than a looking glass..." Mirai seemed to address it.

As they peered in closer, they could make out the image of another room, much smaller and full of crates. Something like a shut down projector on the other side, a table and a computer.

"You, my dear mirror, are a window..."

"Impressive," Rider commented. He wheeled his chair towards the indicated mirror and looked at it closely. "So that's how it's done. Well, if our mirror is a window is the window also a door?" Rider asked as he slid his fingers along the edges trying to find a means to open the window.

"We could always just break in." Caster suggested with a shrug, following Rider's finger with his light and humming softly to himself. "Though I assume you would prefer we did not."

As Rider touched the bar handles of the ballet mirror, he could slightly pull at it and it came a bit loose, stopping after an inch or so.

"A door, indeed," Mirai said. "But a locked one."

She moved around, walking back and forth again, taking five steps then turning the other way.

"The room from this side looks plain enough," Mirai said. "But you all have to wonder why someone would go through the trouble of trying to scare people away."

Mirai looked at her companions.

"The curtains were misplaced and you found the panel for light switches," Mirai said. "But perhaps it's not to hide something valuable, but to clearly make something lost. When you enter the room and it's dark, a normal person would look around for the light switch. Though anyone could find it behind the curtains, they wouldn't, assuming something else was probably there and leaving this room dark. That's when the scaring takes place. But why would someone go through an elaborate method of scaring people in a place so commonly used?"

She already knew the answer, of course, but she thought she'd let the boys try and figure it out.

"Because they have something to hide, perhaps?" Caster shrugged, trying to get better look into the room by squinting his eyes. "And where better to hide something than in plain sight? However, someone could also happen to think something looks off in the mirror and take a closer look."

He backed away and let the light spread over the glass, keeping it bright and putting a hand on his chin. "But what would they be hiding here?"

"Exactly," Mirai nodded. "Whoever's been doing this has been at it since the beginning of the school year, when the rumors first started, using ghost stories to cover up something he wants to hide. We can't say what he's hiding yet exactly, though. Not until we get inside that room. But if we break the mirror, it will merely alert him. We also don't know who the person is..."

Mirai had stopped fiddling with her fan.

"Well, that's enough for now," Mirai said. "We'd obviously need more clues and another sighting might be nice, but I'm sure he's done for the day. If we could catch him trying to open the door at night, that'd be great."

She sat down on the floor and then lied down, beginning to rollon the floor.

"Wonderful, I'm bored again...!" she muttered. "I can't wait until this evening for something like that...!

She sat up again. "By the way, we won't be traveling today after all. There's been a change of plans...again. Sorry to get your hopes up. But if you'd like, I can treat you all to lunch in the fields or snacks or something for the bother. It'll take place some other time this week and I'll be sure we'll go there at the very most Friday..."

Friday...when I need to see you she thought to herself. Her hand went to her chest as if she were going to touch something there, but when she did, Mirai realized something was missing. Her eyes widened and, for what looked like the first time, she appeared frightened.

"E-excuse me..." she said. "I-I have to go somewhere. See you for lunch."

She rushed as fast as she could, carrying her skirt up and her heels clacking on the ground. She quickly made her way the path she came, scanning the floor frantically all the way up to the dorm room.

"No..." she said, her voice desperate. "It has to be here somewhere..."

She searched under the beds and the coffee table, went under the desks and she clenched her teeth. She scattered her luggage.

"Where is it...?" she said. "Where is it? Where!?"

"Looking for this?" Rider smiled holding up the pendent at the doorway. "You dropped this earlier when you ran out of the room. I wanted to give it back to you next time we saw each other but you seemed really excited about that mystery."

Rider wheeled into the room and outstretched his hand holding the pendent to Mirai. "Don't worry, I didn't look inside," Rider swore with a smile on his face, "This seemed really important to you so I just wanted to give it back to you."

Mirai had been searching so frantically, she didn't noticed Rider until he spoke and held up the pendant. Mirai's eyes widened and she nabbed at it, falling back to her knees and crouching, her face not showing as she stared deeply at the pendant.

"Where did you...?" she started, but she didn't finish. Her fingers traced the outline of the cover. "This is very precious to me....so very precious."

She paused for a while and then pressed it close to her heart, her face suddenly filled with melancholy.

"I'm sorry," she said not to Rider but the pendant. "I won't ever lose you again. I'm sorry."

She opened it and from where Rider was, he could see a picture there, but it wasn't until she lifted it up to him that he could see the face of a young boy.

"This is my only picture of him," Mirai said not explaining to him who it was. "He never liked taking pictures and I was lucky enough to get this. But he closed his eyes..."

She breathed out as she closed it and hooked it back to the chain and to her neck.

"You said that you had someone you loved, right, Rider?" Mirai said as she stood up to look at the window. "Well, this is mine. I would go insane if I lost this pendant. So...thank you."

Rider just stared solemnly at Mirai. "You know, I'm actually sort of jealous princess," Rider said, putting up a smile. "Not of the boy in that picture. I'm actually jealous of you." Rider wheeled backwards out of the doorway. "Because to me, you're the strongest person I know."

Rider wheeled out of the room and closed the door without another word. It is notable that the suitcase he had fully packed that morning on his bed was missing.

Mirai let the door close behind her, her hand clutching on the pendant.

"Don't lie to me, Rabbit..." she muttered to herself as her shoulders began to tremble. "I'm not strong at all. I'm just a ghost passing time...following a golden thread I will never catch with these ghostly hands..."

She looked at the heart-shaped pendant.

"What can hurt a ghost after all? What does she need to be afraid of?" she muttered to the empty room. "What pain can something with no heart ever feel?"

And there, in the window-lit room, she was alone again with her thoughts. Clutching onto the pendant. Afraid what she could have lost. And scared of the things she had found in this academy. Scared she would feel pain if she lost them, too.