Two worlds divided

Chapter 9

Sneaking her way there was easy enough, she manoeuvred to the back of the building, around a left, down, three rights, one more left, and the third door down. Shockingly it wasn't that difficult to remember, as there were several types of walls on the way there to follow, white wallpaper with a golden trim meant the staff quarters. Plain stone brick meant the original admin building without the additions, this included the staff room, storage rooms, a few of the offices for minor staff, prep rooms, and the dangerous chemical storage cupboard for the sciences.

The wall she needed to follow was the maroon-painted brick walls, this was the major offices, such as the actual admin office, the IT support, front desk support, and the deputy and headmistress' office. This also included the headmistress' living chambers, they were hidden in a corner that Miranda didn't feel like exploring; wanting to be able to leave if need be. She followed the red walls, passing through the white with gold trim of her room, she wandered through the corridor, being sure to avoid being caught by anyone; she didn't feel like being turned to stone by a gorgon.

She gently pushed open the large wooden door of the office, being careful where she stepped, hoping that the vampire headmistress didn't take her meals in there. She slowly stepped into the large room and almost gasped; it was strangely normal for a woman who came from a lineage of powerful monsters. She looked from the normal-looking desk, the normal-looking chairs, the normal-looking lounge in front of her large window, and the normal-looking five-foot-tall Venus fly trap. She took a second glance at it and shivered, it was so large and strange, and slightly moving, that Miranda decided to stay away from it in favour of Selena's desk.

She decided to start snooping through the drawers, being careful to not make too much noise in case Nyx was still lurking around the building. The first drawer she opened was only filled with papers, ranging from meeting notes to student reports, she could see a folder at the bottom of the drawer and pulled it out, placing it on the desk. She flicked through to find staff profiles, alphabetically organised, some looked aged, and some were fresh, including her own.

Miranda brought out her phone and started taking pictures, she decided that gathering evidence would be good for both her mission and for getting the other off her back. She took a picture of each page, gathering information on each member of staff, though she paused once she got to Matthew, she looked through the pages and frowned. He had been here since the school's conception, not only that but his file included his student profile, which meant he had attended the school when he was younger. She took pictures of both; noting the aged paper and handwritten writing on the student profile.

She put the file away, closed the drawer, and moved along to the bottom drawer, though it had a lock on it, and searched for the key. She rifled through the sheets on the desk, looked in each plant pot, under the desk, under the random pile of embroidery materials, and even tried the chair. She finally found the key on her bookshelf, it was higher than she could reach, most likely due to Selena being able to reach it on her own with her massive height. She dragged over Selena's office chair and climbed on it, reaching up to the shelf and grabbing the key, she almost slipped on her way down but managed to catch herself before hitting the ground.

Miranda quickly pushed the chair back to where she had found it. The brunette decided to put the key in the drawer but didn't twist it; her phone went off with a text message notification. She decided to look at the message and cringed as she saw her mother freaking out with message after message.

"Milly, where are you? That doesn't look like the pics you sent of your room. Are you in someone else's room? Honey, why have you got a file of those? Where did you find them? Did you have to ask for a file on everyone?"

"Milly, get out of that room! I just realised cus dad said that there's a plant in the pic! They are going for your hayfever, I knew those beasts were heartless!"

"Love, have they given you Crystanthemums?! Get out! You're allergic to those, you silly idiot! Why weren't they in the bedroom pics, you should've told me?!"

"Miranda! Answer your phone! I tried to call you!"

"Miranda Rose Landon, I will come and get you from that school myself, answer your phone!!!"

That was when Miranda twisted the key in the lock; turning off her phone completely so it would stop going off. She needed to ensure that no one knew she was in here, especially that ditzy little deputy of hers. Selena seemed strangely protective of her; that was going to be horrific for her if she got on either of their bad sides. As she looked into the drawer her hands paused; the headmistress was quite certainly one strange woman, she had trophies from her human victims.

She rifled through the drawer in disgust, glancing at the odd collection of items. A blazer jacket with a strange logo stitched onto the breast pocket, a pill bottle with four human teeth, a photo album, a yearbook, a bag of human hair, and a few scribbles on a few pieces of paper. She took the items out individually and placed them on the desk to take pictures of them, but realised her phone was still off.

Due to her not wanting to have the boot-up sound go off through the office, Miranda decided to take the photo album and place the other items back where she found them, covering up that she had taken the album. Miranda placed the album in her shoulder bag and closed the drawer, dragging the chair back over to put the key back on the shelf.

Once she had organised everything, Miranda looked around the office, making sure everything was where she had found it. She walked over to the window and petted the cat lounging there, making sure to give it one of the treats she carried on her. Coco, her brown scruffy cat, would be annoyed if she found out another cat was stealing her treats. However, Selena's silky smooth grey cat was quite the charmer, even with its strange forked tongue and small baby goat horns.

The cat seemed to take to her as it bumped its head against her hand; the forked tongue coming out to lick at her arm, making quiet contented noises as she gave in and scratched the cat behind the ears. She looked down to read the name tag and frowned, what sane person would name their cat Supernova? It sounded too silly to be true.

"Hey there... Supernova, why don't you not tell your owner I've been in here, okay? She thinks I'm an adorable little clueless human who doesn't know the first thing about crime. So... let's keep it between us, okay? Okay."

The grey cat made a strange rumbling noise as Miranda walked away, she assumed that it meant she had heard her, and carried on, guessing that it was this odd creature's way of purring. Gently closing the door behind her Miranda decided to wander her way back through the building to try and find her room again. She passed several types of walls, somehow coming across one random green one, before bumping into Nyx; the poor woman had mascara running down her cheeks and she was holding a rather dirty looking tissue.

"Hello... Deputy... Um... I was just trying to find my room and got lost on the way there. Are... are you okay? You don't look it."

Tears started pouring down Nyx's face, she whimpered before bursting into incoherent babble. "She lied to me! She... I... It hurts so much, Miranda! Why would she do this?! That isn't the woman I sleep with, she... Matthew... I... Monster! She hurt so many... I don't.... He doesn't... She doesn't... UGH!"

Miranda watched in shock as the other woman hung her head in defeat, deciding to stop talking altogether, The human held her hand out in midair, unsure whether touching a monster would be safe for her to do. She chuckled nervously, trying desperately to not let Nyx see her shoulder bag was now suspiciously full. "Where did you go after you left the meeting? Selena wouldn't tell me."

The deputy just let out a sad wallowing noise before pushing past Miranda; she seemed to be wandering the halls, as Miranda watched her for a moment. Perhaps this was a good thing, Nyx and Selena were attached at the hip, maybe she should get between them, or would that be too cruel? No, not for these beasts. Nothing was off limits for creatures who treated humans in such a way, perhaps it was entirely just. The human held her shoulder bag closer to her as she walked away to her room; perhaps a gentle bit of emotional manipulation would be good for her to let off some steam.