Gray

"Good evening, tonight the latest news on the situation,"

"What the f*cking hell is this?" Said one of their rather vulgar teammates.

Ma Liang, a boy in her year, he could not go a sentence without swearing.

"They look our age I'm guessing they got some good hackers, cause the school wouldn't publicize this,"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,"

"Though rumoured, another death has occurred in the Australian house in the same manner as the past three,"

"The girl is a 14-year-old girl, the name unknown. Her last known sighting was out in front of her team house before she mysteriously disappeared and reappeared hanging from the roof of the team house,"

"Now, onto our next topic. The school has yet to announce any delay or plan of delay regarding the first day of classes. Sources have confirmed that students are still arriving, but tours were cancelled,"

"That is all for today,"

da da duuuun, da da da duuuun, boom boom

(imagine the universal studio theme song please)

"Hey, I think I have a f*cking good idea, let's not go the f*ck out tomorrow!" A few people cheered in return.

"Everybody gather here tomorrow for morning exercise," Precious announced.The few people groaned.

"Shut up, the movie's starting!"

In the end, they ended up watching three more movies after the first. By the time the last movie was over, most of them had retired for the night or fell asleep while watching, she was part of the latter group.

When she woke up, she was able to witness the first crack of dawn shining over the tips of the trees.

She squinted her eyes to avoid being blinded by the bright light.

When her senses had cleared, she found herself resting on one of the couches in the living room. There were about 10 others there with her, including her friends.

Others included Ma Liang, her brother, and the Kahn twins.

Her lower body was unusually heavy, and the seat cushion a little hard for her liking. She shifted around for a bit, trying to find a more comfortable position, but the weight around her waist restrained her, and it tightened when she moved.

Her eyes travelled downwards and were met with the sight of two arms wrapped around her. Next to her head, she heard the owner of the two arms groan, how did she not realize that she was sitting on Angli's lap?!

Was she an idiot!?

"Yah, Angli, let me go, will you?"

"Mmm," He tightened his arms again. "no..." He dug his head into her neck.

She hissed at him and forcefully pulled his arms off of her, replacing her with a throw pillow.

A deep breath of air was released when Angli stopped struggling to find her. She froze again when he fell over onto his side, landing on top of Ma Liang.

When neither of them showed any more signs of waking up, her feet tiptoed away from the living room, avoiding the others as best as she could.

"Morning roomie,"

"I see you're up early,"

"When am I not, I'm done with the bathroom so feel free to head in,"

"Great, thanks," As she gathered her change of clothes for the day, her eyes landed upon a piece of burnt towel.

"What happened to the towel?"

"What towel?"

"This one," She reached of the towel, but unexpectedly her hand went right through, and it disappeared. "N-nevermind," Her eyes were playing tricks on her. She was pretty hungry.

"Okay...?"

She plugged in her phone to charge before entering the washroom.

_______________________

"You can't keep doing this to yourself," Her delicate hands moved swiftly and carefully, she let the bandages fall to the ground like a waterfall.

"It's just a scratch, I'll be fine,"

"Just a SCRATCH! That scratch is big enough to cover your whole back, dislocate your shoulder, and give you a concussion!"

"But nothing happened to me last time, that's gotta count for something, right?"

"That was LAST time!"

"No more alien until you get fully healed, alright?"

"Whatever you say, madam,"

She poured some disinfectant onto cotton and begun to gently apply it.

"What were you thinking?"

"I couldn't just sit back and do nothing,"

"You know how smart she is though, she'll catch on soon enough,"

"I didn't do it because of her, I did because they deserved it,"

"They didn't even do anything yet,"

"Exactly, YET. It's better to end it before it even starts,"

"You're impossible," She applied extra pressure onto his wound, making him hiss and curse.

"Oops, my bad,"

"That was on purpose, and you know it," She smiled.

"What do you plan on doing now?"

"Another one of us is on the loose, my plan is to track him down, get him on our side,"

"And what about the twins?"

"They're suspecting us, but they'll come after me first,"

"Then lead them to me first, they won't hurt me, and you know that I'll give them a false name,"

"As you said, she's smart, and she has allies, way better than us,"

"Then call back up,"

"The humans will notice,"

"Then bring them in little by little,"

"Too much commotion,"

"Bring a big batch every few weeks then,"

"We'll see,"

______________________________________

Flashback to the last time Wenshi was in the hospital

Zhang Maorong's POV

"How are you?" Maorong walked into the room.

His sister sat on the bed, fiddling with her fingers. Her hands reached for her hair, only to remember that it was cut short for her surgery.

"I-I'm good,"

"Sure you are,"

"Thanks, again, for donating blood, must have taken a lot outta you,"

"It wasn't just me,"

"What...?"

"I don't know who he is, I never got a clear view of him because I was too focused on you,"

"She-"

"He,"

"HE could be a huge threat,"

"Then why would he help you?"

"Let's just wait and see,"

"Deal,"

It became silent after that, his sister returned to fiddling while he watched her quietly.

Quiet, too quiet.

"Where's Long Ao,"

"Sister,"

"Orange?"

"Yes, please,"

___________________________________

Gray skies.

Dewy grass.

They're a bit tall, aren't they?

No sun.

Are those crows?

Where was she?

She sat up, up off the dewy grass.

The backyard, what was she doing here?

A prank?

Whatever, she'll head back in first.

She turned and saw nothing, nothing but miles and miles of dewy grass.

Empty field or forest?

She observed the forest. It just looked like skinny trees, bare of leaves, of life. But in the back, a large tree, one with leaves as vibrant and brilliant as...as something.

Forest it is.

And so she walked, she walked for miles upon miles. It felt like she was getting closer, but she wasn't. With every step she took forward, the tree took one back.

Until she finally made it to the bottom of the tree.

The gaps in between the bark could fit her whole hand, and she could cleanly fit beneath the roots of the tree.

"Ah, shit," She tripped.

She sat up off the dirt.

What did she trip on? She felt the ground around her until her fingers grazed something hard, but smooth.

She kneeled over the spot she tripped over and tried to un-dust whatever she tripped on. The more she dusted, the bigger it got. Longer, actually.

She cleared up some dirt, then she moved left and right. Clearing off more and more, until there was no more to clean off.

What was left...was something she had never seen before.

_______________________________

Precious's POV

The next day

It's been two hours since her roommate's usual wake up time, and she had yet to show any signs of coming down for breakfast.

"Hey, uh...have you seen Yaorui, by any chance?"

"Hu Angli, I believe this is our first conversation,"

"Where is she?"

"In bed,""Can you check on her then? Please, for me,"

"And why would I do anything for you?"

"Then for her, she sleeps a lot, I know that, but she doesn't sleep in like this,"

"Fine, but let's be clear, you owe me a favour,"

"Well, there isn't much I can't do anyway,"

"I'll hold you to that,"

And she turned, making for the Eastern wing.

_______________________

When she got to her dorm, everything was normal.

Except her roomie was still in bed...convulsing intensely.

"Hey! HEY! GET UP!" She shook Yaorui as if her life depended on her shaking her.She was sweating buckets, something was wrong with her.

Something was very wrong with her.

When she finally came back to her senses and realized that shaking wasn't going to do anything to help her roommate. Precious ran out and knocked on Song Gebao's room, someone she knew was a close friend to her roommate and had medical experiences.

"Oh, Precious, is this about morning exercise? Don't worry, we were just heading out,"

"Not that, Li Yaorui, somethings wrong with her, she's convulsing and sweating buckets, I-"

"Say no more, I'll be right there. In a second year, third door to the right, there's a girl named Xin Weixia, she's a Chinese medicine doctor, and next door Zhang Wenshi is a nurse," Precious nodded and left to call on them.

_______________________________

Song Gebao's POV

She grabbed her things from her shelf, anything that might be useful and stuffed it all into a bag.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sheng Rong came out of the bathroom after hearing all the commotion.

"Yao Yao, that's who,"

"What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know, her roommate just came around, she told me she was convulsing and sweating a lot, I have to go," Her hands moved faster than her mouth, and once her hands had completed their job, she up' ed and left the room.

Her roommate and close friend right behind her.

Her feet made stomping sounds that were loud and clear as she ran down the hall to Yaorui's room.

A few girls were already there outside, having witnessed the commotion Precious had caused.

Xia Weixia was already there reading her pulse with a gray look on her face.

"How is she? What's wrong with her?" Hu Angli burst into the girls' wing, out of breath and messy.

Someone must've told him, wonder who.

Xia Weixia's face got grayer.