Author's note: Greetings! Be especially nice, for this is my first Trauma Center fanfic. There is one AU-type thing that I must point out: For the sake of my ability to keep track of dates and ages, the Trauma Center characters featured (who are not in this chapter, incase you wondered) will be the ages that they are in the game, but rather than 2028, the story takes place in 2015. Now… let's begin with our thrilling tale…
*Rachael's POV*
A day in the life of smart ol' me. Sitting in a classroom… excuse me, a studio. The school I attended was built into another high school, technically. The colorfully painted blues and greens on our walls and the beautifully furnished birch wood and slate tables made the other part of the school… the traditional high school… seem like rooms filled with rotting antiques that could give an impression of a dying school that had started in 1929. In reality, it was built somewhere around the 1960s. My part had its first class in 2011. We got our work done with laptops, raising our productivity greatly. It's even through this that I was encouraged to chase my long-hidden dream of being a writer. The traditional school? Books. Heavy, rotting, absolutely futile pieces of cardboard filled with words duller than a rubber sword.
You, the reader, are looking at the year 2015. The year someone was supposed to return to the future… when in reality, a piece of my rather recent past would save my best friend's life whilst putting my own back up for auction.
When I had to choose between faking oblivion and risking death of my own.
The bell rang for our elective class. I quickly slipped my laptop into its case when I noticed the piece of paper that my fingers had gently stroked. Just another of the papers stuffed neatly within my case… but the graphite scribbles on it could have cost me my life in itself. I just had to make sure that my eyes were all that ever laid on it. That's all!
I sighed shakily as the flashback washed over my conscious mind's eye like a tidal wave.
("I will know if you've spoken a word. If yet another living soul finds out, I will find you, and I will kill you. Your blood will be strewn across the floors."
"I-I PROMISE! I won't say a WORD! PLEASE, LET ME GO! SOMEONE HELP MEEE!"
"If it weren't for the crowd above us, you'd be one with the sewers by now!")
It hurt to see that dark corridor again… the one with the clean stone ledge that just happened to be there, jutting out against a river of pure filth. It hurt to feel that blade just longing to cut into my skin, and the tears that seemed to spray from my eyes, and the desire for sunshine that would never have dared to form otherwise.
Indeed… another human being threatened to murder me.
And I knew what for as well. And it was all on that document that my fingers had gently brushed against. Hastily scribbled information that my brain had the power to keep.
But that was 5 months past.
I zipped up my case, and ten minutes later found me in a Physical Education attire, ready to begin a surprisingly non-strenuous class.
An hour or so after that found me back in my casual school attire, eagerly bursting through the gym door and letting my stomach guide me to the cafeteria, the holy center for hungry students everywhere. The fragrance of beautifully cooked meats and pizzas massaged my smell receptors. Everyone complained, but I honestly loved the food here.
Well… actually, I was barely able to turn a corner when the cries and screams of worried students rang throughout the hallways. Like the epicenter of an earthquake, I soon spotted a huge cluster of students, standing like an arc over the cause of everyone's fear.
Of course, my curiosity was sparked. The demeanor of today's society had made me lose interest in the common classmate and his or her woes, but in a time of mass panic or the production of physical tears, things were just… different. I walked quickly toward the crowd.
Not three steps could be taken by my own feet before I heard a worried voice say the name "Emily."
My heart froze. My best friend was an Emily. My best friend since middle school. My earliest true friend.
I was tempted to go against rules and dash to the crowd. Nevertheless, I got there.
The rest of me froze.
The body that was sprawled helplessly across the floor wore black jeans and a Batman-stamped shirt with a black hoodie. She had blonde hair that would normally come down to her shoulders, if it weren't sprawled just as helplessly as her body was.
Murder? I wasn't necessarily sure, but not a speck of blood whatsoever made an appearance on the floor. In fact, I could almost be sure that she was breathing. She just laid there… unconscious… pained.
The Emily I knew. My best friend… and her state rang a bell in my mind…
Author's note: A review would be much appreciated! Thank you for letting my work take up your precious time!