THE TEST OF PAIN

Dennise's legs, starting to discolor, were exposed as they pushed her back again to the bed. However, this time she was lying in her stomach without a single piece of clothing covering her.

She shivered in the cold with the air-conditioned room. However, it didn't take a while that the temperature began to change. It began to get warmer while anticipating the worst possible thing on what the initiator was about to do next.

She thought her intensified emotions caused the change of temperature in her surroundings, but it's not.

She realized that the temperature does really got literally warm, and to be honest, it wasn't just warm.

It was even hot…

She knew it by the moment the burning sting of something just touched the skin of her hind torso.

"Ouch!" Dennise shrieked as she felt the seemingly small and scattered ball of fire that just kept on dropping behind her.

For the beginning several moments, the stings had affected her body and made her groan. But eventually, she only felt numbness in her skin, and that pain almost felt like a tickle. Then she had thought and realized that it could be the melts of burning candles dropped in her skin.

She didn't understand, it was supposed to be the test of pain, but she didn't feel any physical pain with everything they had done to her. The emotional pain is rather painful than what they thought was pain.

She didn't even realize that they were done with it. She only felt the hardened candle taken away from her skin.

As if nothing happened, as if she was just simply having some spa day.

The broad smiles of the initiator greeted her as they had taken her blindfold away from her.

"Congratulations, you have passed the second initiation."

Dennise, full of excitement, got out of the bed by mistake without anticipating that the pain she was about to get was actually worse than what she had.

Her thighs are swelling as well as her back. She winced by trying so hard to cover her creased face by facing away from the initiators and even pretending to smile again when she was looking at them.

She was glad that she wasn't wearing any brassiere; that must be too painful if touched by her back. Her wearing a little loose soft fabric dress appears to be fortuitous in that situation. If she only wore something that fit the body, then she would be suffering more than intended.

They guided her out of the room and back to the others, where she saw the unexplainable appearance of her friends. Tears smudged Zara's makeup. Her dark eyeliner was dripping down in her cheeks, and you can surely guess that it was carried away by her tears.

Ella's still kept on wincing while tilting her head side to side, trying to find a better position that would hopefully ease her pain.

However, she never saw a single sign of pain in Leira's face. She, in fact, smiled after she caught eyes of her - a relieved smile.

She didn't see Yden right away, and she probably is not done with her initiation yet. Then a scream reverberated in the entire house. It was Yden.

They glanced at each other with worried and confused reactions. However, they didn't utter a word about it since they knew that the sorority girls surround them, and careless words that might come out to their mouths can be used to their disadvantage.

She saw Ella holding Zara's hand as she winced, feeling pain and worried every time she heard Yden's wail.

It was actually more agonizing to hear a friend crying in pain than to feel the pain themselves. However, they still all made it, even Yden herself. And even though she was trudging her way to them as she came out of the room.

"How are you?" Ella asked as she met Yden on her way.

Yden looked down to her hind thigh, and they saw blood leaking out from there. The paddling effect on Yden's was different, her skins were cut, and the color was even worse than any of them. It was more purple and darker.

The worst thing was Yden hadn't been able to say a word to answer Ella. Her body dropped down unexpectedly as she lost consciousness.

The five girls were shocked with what they saw, they looked over the sorority girls around them, but they simply stared at them with a shrugging reaction. Not a glimpse of worries in their faces. They simply do not care about what happened to Yden.

Dennise remembered the MI that handled them in their first initiation, so she took the vigor to approach her.

"My friend, one of the applicants, just collapsed. We need to take her to the hospital," Dennise said in a begging tone and expression.

However, the MI just simply gave her a sorry smile and said. "It is not part of our duty to send a failing applicant to any medical institution. You can either take her yourself or simply leave her here."

"She failed?" Dennise felt that word was more horrifying. The idea that one of them will be taken away from that quest started to give her an emotional pang.

"Yes, if she won't wake up before the sun rises, that means she failed the initiation. Even if she had survived going out of the room on her feet, she still can't pursue the next quest if she's already in a coma anyway," the MI made it clear that the possibility is stronger for Yden to fail the quest.

However, even Dennise was hopeful that all of them would survive and be sisters. The truth about Yden possibly being comatose won't be simply just passing by any sororities test. It was indeed a matter of life and death.

Dennise looked back at Yden. She whispered behind her thoughts, 'Please, Yden fight, after all, what happened to us? I know you are still meant to be my friend, and even more than that, you are meant to be sisters. So please fight."

Dennise, without glancing back to the other girls she and her other friends are trying their best to carry Yden to Leira's car. They need to send Yden to the hospital. They need to keep her alive.