First night at Luna House, I lay on the mattress and looked at the unfamiliar ceiling. I was tired, but I couldn't sleep. My mind was going all over the place. Who knows how things will turn out like this?

I don't think I regretted it, but this was the consequence, huh? The more I help Atlas, the more criminals will know me, and they might target me like this. Obviously, that doesn't sound so great, and it might not be too late to go back on my words and just go on with my life like I always did, not getting involved in dangerous and annoying things like this.

But...

I looked at my hand. I didn't feel like doing that right now. This whole thing was a pain most of the time, but I guess I didn't enjoy being alone as much as I thought I did. After all, getting ignored by Luna annoyed me so much.

The door was knocked.

"Are you asleep yet?" Atlas asked from behind the door.

"Not yet," I said, waking up.

The door was opened.

"Good," he said as he entered with a bunch of clothes in his hand. "I forgot to give you these. Sleeping with your uniform was not comfortable, right? It's my clothes, so they might be too big, but they should be better than your uniform."

"Thanks," I said, receiving the clothes.

"Anyway," Atlas said, "I just checked with my colleagues, and they still haven't seen Mars anywhere. It's highly possible that he's waiting for night to come so that we will be less vigilant. Don't worry, some of my colleagues are already here outside. We will definitely protect you."

"Okay," I said, putting the clothes on the mattress.

I knew he was trying to make me feel safer, but instead, knowing that something might happen tonight made me more anxious.

"And unfortunately, we still don't know how Mars managed to escape from prison," Atlas continued. "There was no damage to the cell bars, and we didn't find any holes or signs that he forced his way out."

"And Mars was only recently imprisoned," I said.

"There's no way he had time to make a hidden escape route. So someone must have helped him."

Atlas nodded, looking angry. "Most likely," he said. "Right now, we're trying to dig into the prison guards who were working when Mars escaped, especially the one who was on duty that day. Unfortunately, we still haven't found any connection between them and Mars. No friendship or family ties."

"What about money?" I guessed. "Maybe whoever helped him was bribed?"

"I thought so too," Atlas said. "So we're checking their bank accounts, but we haven't found anyone who received a large amount of money recently."

"They might have been paid directly, not through a bank transfer," I suggested.

"Of course," Atlas said. "I've thought about that too. But nobody seems to have suddenly come into a large amount of money. They haven't bought expensive things like cars, for example."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"But just because they have the money," I said, "doesn't mean they'll use it right away."

"That's exactly why I'm frustrated," Atlas said, gritting his teeth. "If they do that, we can't do anything about it! For now, all we can do is watch them."

I nodded.

"Anyway, is there no camera in that prison?" I asked.

"There is," Atlas said, "but obviously, the cameras didn't record directly to Mars' cell. And the videos on that day were corrupted for some reason."

"Isn't that proof then?" I said.

"Yeah, we're trying to look closely at that," Atlas said, "but still nothing. They're prison guards after all, they know all tricks to hide evidence."

"So the worst enemy of law enforcement was law enforcement itself?" I said.

Atlas smiled. "Pretty much."

Well, that sucks then.

"I have an idea," I said. "What if I go there and check it myself?"

"What?" This obviously shocked him.

"There should be some stuff Mars left there, right? If I touch it--"

"No," Atlas cut me off. "I get what you mean, but I won't allow that. And for some reason, most of Mars' stuff was not there anyway, as if he knows your power."

"But there's maybe still something," I said. "And we must move fast. If a few days pass, I might have a hard time looking for the correct memories."

"I said no," Atlas said. "Your safety is more important. I can't take this risk, Geo! Just let us do our job. We can handle it even without your ability."

"What's the point of making me work with you then?" I said.

"We're talking about a serial killer here," Atlas said. "Do you want to die that much?"

I snorted. "Of course not. But--"

"Enough," Atlas said. "Just go to sleep. We will do our best to handle this."

He then got out of the room and closed the door.

I sighed.

"As if I can sleep tonight," I muttered to myself.

I looked at the clothes Atlas brought me - a black t-shirt and long pants. There was nothing else I could do, so I changed into the clothes and lay down on the bed once again.

***

Surprisingly, I actually can sleep. And not only that, nothing really happened last night. Mars didn't even appear, as far as the lookout team said. Did he figure out that it would be hard to reach me? Or does he even know where I am right now? More questions without clear answers.

We then ate breakfast. It was such a strange feeling to eat breakfast with them, and I think I wasn't the only one who thought so, because Luna barely looked at me.

"I don't know why Mars didn't make a move yesterday," Atlas said, "but still, we must keep vigilant. It's still not safe yet."

I nodded.

"You stay here too, Lu," Atlas said to his sister. "No need to go to school yet. It will just give us more problems if Mars ends up changing his target to you."

"Okay," Luna said.

So we spent the rest of the day at Luna's house. To pass the time, Atlas offered us to play some multiplayer games.

"No need to be overly tense either," he said. "I will keep watching. Both of you can relax a little."

He gave a controller to me. I looked at Luna, and she nodded.

So we ended up playing a roguelike platformer called Spelunky and died a lot. It made me think that human life was like that too. If things didn't go in my favor, I could easily die, and there was nothing I could do about it. What a stupid thought.

"Ahh! I'm done!" Luna said, frustrated, as she died again. "Let's just watch a movie instead."

"Sure," I smiled.

We watched a few random movies that had been released a while ago, like a spinoff of an old cartoon or a remake of a successful movie from the past. But they were all boring. And it didn't seem like I was the only one thinking that, because Luna, who was sitting beside me, ended up sleeping.

She looks cuter when she's calm like that.

I shook my head and stopped the movie, even though it was only halfway through. I know it sucks, so there's no point in keeping watching.

"Finish watching?" Atlas asked.

I nodded. "Anything happened?" I asked back.

"No," Atlas said. "All the reports said nobody saw him. It seems like he's hiding seriously."

"That... doesn't sound like him," I said. "I mean, at least from how he acted before. He acted more recklessly."

Atlas nodded. "Of course, there's always a possibility that he learned his lesson and changed, but I doubt it," he said. "Most likely, he met that guy with glasses and is being forced to hide instead. He hasn't gotten in contact with his friends or family yet, but his escape was so smooth. Usually, escaping from prison alone is hard. He needs a place to hide, new clothes to change out of his prison uniform, and food so he doesn't need to go out in the open. Otherwise, people will immediately alert the police about him."

I thought the same thing. And another idea has been bothering me.

"Hey," I said. "I've been thinking about this, but is it possible that Mars wasn't really targeting me? I mean, even if the prison guards knew about me, it's not like they would just tell him about me when he asked. Then his actions don't make sense. So, I thought that it was a clever ploy they did. They planned this whole thing where Mars targets me so the police will focus on me instead. That's why Mars can move more freely."

Atlas sighed, "It's possible," he said. "Still, that's just one possibility. Unfortunately, we can't be sure of anything unless they make a move. The best thing we can do right now is to keep you safe. So we will keep doing this at least for a week."

"Okay," I said, suddenly feeling tired.

He looked at me. "Hey," he said. "Are you regretting this? Things have turned out to be more problematic for you, right? If you didn't get involved..."

I smiled. "That's funny because yesterday I was just thinking about that."

"And?" he asked.

"It's fine," I said. "Every action has consequences, right? I guess this is simply just that. I don't think what I did was wrong."

"Is that so?" Atlas grinned. "That's great. And don't worry, we're in this together. I've got your back."

***