Natasha woke up to the loud beeping of her phone. She looked at the screen. SCHOOL FIELD TRIP, ADOLPHA'S F.A.S.T TEST.
"Shit! Adolpha, wake up! Today's your F.A.S.T test!" she shouted, shaking Adolpha awake.
"Nat, don't defile my ears so early in the morning...need to sleep...” Adolpha mumbled.
"WAKE UP!" Natasha had enough. Hitting Adolpha with a pillow, she pulled her out of bed. Adolpha fell down with a bump.
"OW!" Adolpha glared at Natasha. "Got problem?” Adolpha ran her hand through her messy hair and yawned.
"It's not mine, it's your problem! Your F.A.S.T test is today, and we haven't even briefed you!" Nat retorted.
Adolpha's eyes grew wide." Crap!"
"Hey guys, could you keep it down a bit? I need my beauty sleep..." Rose appeared in the corridor, rubbing her eyes.
"Get ready!" Natasha flung open the wardrobe, throwing their uniforms at them.
"Where are we going anyway?" Adolpha asked as she washed her face.
" We don't know. It's a surprise. ManneQueens won't tell us until we're actually there. Then, it'll be way too late to do anything about it." Helen winked. "But between you and me, let's hope it's not raining. It's harder to survive that way."
"I hope you make it." Sherry squeezed Adolpha's hand and smiled encouragingly.
Adolpha returned the smile. "Me too."
"Will the students from dormitory 1 PLEASE hurry up?" The announcement came. Miss Lois sounded pissed.
“Guess we better..." Crystal said
"Hurry up! Crystal, run!" Pearlyn shouted.
They assembled in the Hera Hall. "Hey, where are all the other classes going?" Adolpha asked as the other classes began to move away.
"Different classes go to different places. We're grouped in according to our ability in classes." Crystal said curtly.
"Girls, get on the bus." Miss Lois ushered them on the bus, doing a headcount. " We're going to..." She looked down at her phone. "...Angel's Peak."
Miss Lois’s mouth dropped open. Why? Out of all the places, why Angel’s Peak? It brought back so many painful memories.
“Lois! Let’s play a game!” Ashley yanked her hand. “How about Hide-and-Seek?”
“Sure!” Lois smiled at her best friend. Ashley had long brown tresses that perfectly framed her heart shaped face, and an aquiline nose that Lois envied. “Okay, I’ll count, and you hide.” Ashley replied.
“ 1…2…3…4…5…” It was dark in the staircase, but she knew where to hide. There had always been a rumour that the school basement was haunted, but Lois didn’t believe them. She never had.
“6…7…8…9…10…” She couldn’t see the steps leading down to the basement. Come to think of it, why were the steps so wet? No one could knew about the secret passageway except her and Ashley. The area had been sealed up for years after…after…
After the old janitor died.
“11…12…13…14…15…” Yes, she remembered now. He was cleaning and had broken his neck on these steps. She began to be more aware of a chill creeping up her neck. Cold sweat dripped down her forehead.
“15…16…17…18…19…20…”
Something’s not right here. It was alright the other day when we came, but today, something’s wrong. I can tell.
“20…21…22…23…24…25…” She was about to run back up to the first floor. Ashley would laugh at her for being scared, but at least she would escape the basement.
“26…27…28…29…30…!”Ashley would find her now.
“Got you.” A deep, croaky voice behind her said. It didn’t sound like Ashley’s high pitched voice. She wouldn’t look back…didn’t dare to look back…
“It’s your turn now.” The voice behind her spoke again. The person had a cold grip on her.
“To die.” She felt an icy hand push her. She fell down, down, down the steps.
Just like the old janitor before her.
Lois woke up with a start.
Where am I?
She walked across the red brick ground and looked around. The Academy was emblazoned in silver letters across the school.
My school. But it looks so different. So high tech. How did this happen?
Perfects whizzed past her in scooters. They did not move, not even to avoid her. Students walked into her, as if she was transparent.
I must be in some kind of dream. Wait. Am I seeing the future? It would explain why this place looks so different.
A group of girls stood in the hallway, talking to each other. As Lois walked closer, she heard snatches of their conversation.
“Like she made your life hell…”
“She’s such a butthead…”
A Perfect, after hearing the student’s insult, gave her a reprimand. Lois smiled as a faint memory of how she and Ashley used to get into trouble often.
It’s changing.
She blinked as her vision of the girls grew misty and finally faded into black.
Where am I now?
She looked around. She was in a hallway, near the chemistry labs. She was still in the school though. Four girls ran toward her screaming. The explosion that happened next shook her vision up so badly that it was a few minutes before she could see clearly again.
A girl, about her age, was covered head to toe in blood. Her skull had cracked and Lois could see part of her brain. The girl stumbled towards her.
Can she see me?
“Please…take me with you. I can’t go on anymore. Please…” the girl appealed to her, holding her hands out. Lois reached out her hand to take the girl’s. It was the best thing she could do.
“Shh…shh…someone will come.” She murmured to the girl, stretched out on her lap. The girl smiled back at her. “They won’t.”
Her vision began to black out again.
Wait…No! What happened to the girl?
Her hands began to shake as it hit her. The girl would die. No one could survive after being injured that badly. Lips trembling, she said a silent prayer for her.
I want to go back to Ashley…Please… What’s happening? Why am I seeing all of this?
The next vision was of a girl. Not the same one. She walked to the shore, as if bearing the weight of the world on her shoulder. She held a single rose out. Tears rolled down her face.
Someone close to her died.
The girl couldn’t take it any longer. She sank to her knees, sobbing. Her body shook as she screamed “Why? Why?”
The roar of the sea was her only answer.
Her friend walked over and gave a squeeze on the shoulder. She stood up, and with sudden anger and vengeance, flung the rose into the sea. The pair walked back to the car.
The wet fingers of the sea slowly engulfed the rose.
Lois picked up the rose. Somehow, she couldn’t let the sea take it away. She looked at the retreating backs of the two girls.
I’ll see you soon.
Her vision shifted to black again.
This time, it was at the side of the road. A sharp bend twisted the road. A silver car sped along the road. A signboard nearby read “ Angel’s Peak, 255m above sea level.”
Without warning, the car drove into the fence. It hung there, at the edge of the cliff for a brief second, balancing between life and death.
Suddenly, a little girl, barely more than eight was flung out of the car.
Lois held her breath. The car fell, plunging into the sea. A deadly drop.
Her mouth hung open in shock. It happened so quickly.
Oh no.
She jumped down the cliff to take a closer look at the crash. Amazingly, she did not die.
Maybe it’s because I’m not really here.
The crash was horrific. The car looked like a crooked smile, bending in a shape of U. Machinery stuck out in awkward directions. Gears and cogs lay smoking on the sand. Cracked glass lay around like blood diamonds on the sand, glinting in the sun, partially covered in blood.
She walked closer.
It’s like being in a horror story.
The smallest of smiles played around her lips as a bittersweet memory came back to her.
“Don’t you think she’s stupid? I mean, there’s a deranged maniac running loose in the neighbourhood and she decides to check it out?”
“Definitely falls under Too Dumb-ass to live.”
She missed the sleepovers at Ashley’s, watching horror shows and eating toffee popcorn.
Ashley…
There. She could see the body of a woman, mercilessly crushed by the metal.
She inched forward, too scared to see who it was.
Long, brown tresses matted with blood splayed out across the leather seat. An aquiline nose. A heart shaped face.
Ashley!
Her breath came in sharp, short bursts, and she felt as if someone had ripped her heart out.
You died…
No!
“Rose?” Adolpha murmured. “Yeah?” Rose looked up from her book. “Can I sit with you?”
“Okay.” She moved her things over to make space. Adolpha settled in. “Thanks.” Rose nodded and went back to her book. The bus began to move off.
“So, um, you like reading books, huh?” Adolpha cleared her throat, attempting to strike a conversation. “Yeah...” Rose stared out of the window.
Neither of them spoke for a minute, with Adolpha occasionally shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She hated awkward conversations. It made her feel as if she didn’t fit in. She preferred to hear the other party rattle on and on while she listened.
“I heard you came here on your own accord.”
“Huh?” Adolpha stared at the girl next to her, who was staring straight ahead, as though she were calculating something.
“Yeah, I did. Why?” Adolpha didn’t really want to talk about it. She did her gesture for “forget about it.” but Rose insisted. “No, I want to know. Why?”
“Because I heard a call and I came to answer.”
“ But why? Why is this call so important to you? Why do you want to come here?”
Pain coursed through her body as glass fragments of memories hit her. Fragile, yet sharp, Adolpha curled into a ball. The girl hadn’t noticed, that a smile had curled from the other girl’s lips. Agony had blinded her from reality.
“I… I don’t know! Can I get back to you later? After this? Please?” Adolpha looked away.
“Suit yourself.”
Sherry casually glanced behind to see Adolpha, even more sullen than usual. “Hey dude, you okay?” Looking up, brown eyes were radiating such terror and agony that Sherry could feel it.
“Oh man. Are you scared? I’m sure you’ll pull through.” Sherry didn’t know how to comfort her. “No. I’m not scared. Just so terribly confused. What is the purpose of this school anyway?” Adolpha unwittingly asked a question that really shouldn’t have been asked.
“ Well, if you really want to know,” Rose giggled. “No! Rose, this is a bad time. Not now.” Helen tried to persuade her otherwise, but was ignored. “This is a school, run by a principal whom really isn’t our pal. He sells us, trained assassins to serve the nation. We are mere tools, easily replaced by others, to kill. Life is cheapened in this process…”
“Rose, SHUT IT!” Sherry, Natasha, Helen, Pearlyn, and the many others on the bus roared their indignation. “Fine, fine. But it was Adol who wanted to know this in the first place.” She yawned.
“Adolpha, sit next to me instead.” One of Adolpha's classmates, Annie (she thought), smiled warmly at the startled girl and patted the empty seat beside her. “Oh, okay.”
Adolpha engaged herself with the fun girl for the rest of the trip, occasionally glancing at Rose whom was preoccupied with her nails. How could one feel so empty about life, Adolpha pondered. Isn’t life supposed to be colourful?
Well, she didn’t have time to ponder more about anything else for the time of her past life drew shorter, for her F.A.S.T Test was approaching.
“Adolpha, off the bus. This is your stop.” Ms Lois looked at the girl, possibly for the last time.