The Austrian countryside road was kept lit just enough by the combined efforts of the stars and moon above it. Emil and Camilla had an entire hour to go before they would arrive at the Silber residence. Both kept their eyes on the road ahead of them, feeling somewhat tense and unsure what to say to one another.

Finally, Emil broke the silence. "You will never see the full picture of a man. Not of any man."

"My father told me that, too. It was something he said quite often, come to think of it," Camilla said.

"He said you could know a man for your entire life, or for his entire life. You could love someone with all your heart, and they could reciprocate that," Emil said, glancing over to Camilla to see her reaction. "Yet you will never know him fully. Perhaps you won't even know the half of his true self."

Camilla's reaction was somewhat lifeless. "I only know the things a child knows about their father, and then some more things, I suppose. Anecdotes telling of his work ethic, his character."

"Well, that's something. If you were to ask me what I knew of my father, I could say even less."

"I'm sorry. I did not mean to infer that it is a child's responsibility to establish such a relationship with their parents."

Emil coughed. "You're missing my point. My relationship with Herr Silber—your father, I mean—it is probably the closest I've come to seeing a full picture of a man. In retrospect, I likely knew nothing of him. It causes me to wonder how much I even know myself."

Camilla took a moment to ponder this. She played with her hair, wrapping a single lock around her right pointer finger and tugging on it. Emil had seen her do this before. It was a fine detail of the picture of her, a picture that was larger than he could comprehend.

Emil thought he could hear a man shouting angrily in the distance. It was an older man's voice, coming from the north, possibly from above. "Come! Stop! Leave. Hey! Here. Enough!"

The voice was barely perceptible at all since it came from afar, but Emil could tell the tone of it was aggressive. Emil wondered if it was possible this could merely be a hallucination. He turned to Camilla and saw she was still playing with her hair, her eyes fixed down at her feet.

"You will never see the full picture of a man," Camilla repeated these words to herself loud enough for Emil to hear, then said, "It must be true. My mother hadn't seen this coming, either. I'm sure she's having trouble deciding what must be done."

The unknown voice from afar continued. "Hey! You. What!? Look!" It did not seem to come any closer, but rather, was staying at the same distance even as the pair continued walking down the path alone.

"Your mother is worried about you as well, Camilla. By now, she could have reported her daughter as missing." As Emil said this, he considered asking Camilla if she was hearing the same voice he heard, but he decided he would not mention it unless she brought it up first.

"She has not spoken to me in days. She has chosen to ignore me, and I don't really care if she does."

Emil was surprised by this. "Frau Silber always seemed to care about you more than anything. She was quite emotional when I spoke to her."

Camilla scoffed at Emil, releasing the lock of hair from her finger and rolling her eyes. "You do not see the full picture of the lady that is Paula Silber."

"Tell me, what do you see in your mother?"

"All that she does, and has done as long as I have known her, is for appearances. Merely that. Her relationship with my father was for the sake of her having these things, things which are superficial."

Emil pressed further. "Such as?"

As he did so, the voice from afar became even more ceaseless. "Here! You! Look. Enough. Hey! Stop! You!" It continued on and on, almost to the point of breaking Emil's concentration, but still he decided to ignore it.

"My parents did, at one time, live in a prominent city called Berlin. That is where my father met my mother. She showed little interest in him at first. However, when his career flourished and he wished to move out here to the country, she was right by his side. Do you see what I mean?"

"I do. It makes some sense, I suppose, but how do you know all this?"

"My goodness, Emil, you are quite persistant," Camilla replied, irked by Emil's pressing nature. "That will be a story for another time. For now, it is up to you whether you wish to believe me or not."

"Fair enough. I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable."

"There is no need for apologies," Camilla said with a sigh. "It is as I said before. You are my only friend. I confide in you more than anyone."

The voice from afar stopped. Emil paused and looked around, and Camilla did the same.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

Then, before Emil could respond, Camilla fell to the ground and began convulsing. Her eyes rolled back as she flailed uncontrollably. Emil kneeled beside her and called her name. She could not speak, she could not acknowledge Emil's words at all.

"This seems to be a full-blown seizure," Emil said to himself. "I will have to wait this out. Hopefully she will come out of it soon. I wonder, how long has poor Camilla been suffering from these symptoms."

Gustav Silber's voice emerged from behind Emil. "You have not seen the full picture of her yet. Perhaps you will now know what I mean."

Emil turned around, and there Gustav Silber was. The professor was in a seemingly two-dimensional form of pale blue light. From head to toe, he was glowing like the moon itself. Even his labcoat, his slacks, and his spectacles were of the strange blue-silverish color.

"Hello, Emil. What you see before you is my hologram."

Emil's eyes widened. "H-Hologram? What on Earth—"

"Do not fear this apparition. It cannot harm you. I have projected myself here from the origin point to give you a message. How you choose to react to it will shape your own future, as well as the future of the world."

Camilla's convulsions stopped. Her eyelids were now closed, but Emil could tell she was still breathing by the rise and fall of her abdomen. He looked back to the hologram and nodded, trying his best to maintain his composure.

"Very well, Herr Silber. What is it you wish to tell me?"