Julia woke up right in time for class when she heard an announcement. At first she thought that she heard it wrong.

“Warning: The DTCA has infiltrated the system. All students are urged to stay indoors. If you are outdoors, please stand near the designated signposts marked with H-L-P. I repeat...”

It was only yesterday that she heard about the DTCA, and now they were trespassing? Julia didn’t know what to do. The first thing she did was that she checked the online notices. It didn’t load.

A few text messages was in her inbox.

Cole: Where are you?

Julia: In my dorm room.

Cole: Don’t go anywhere.

Silvio: Be careful, don’t go anywhere.

Julia: Okay, will you be defending??

Silvio: I’m just a first year student.

Julia: Good.

It was silent for at least an hour.

Cole: The university online server has been hacked. Don’t send texts with the university server.

Julia: I couldn’t even access it.

There was no reply. Julia wondered what happened to him. She couldn’t stay calm. Maybe nothing happened, but Julia began to hyperventilate and sweat. She felt nauseous. After going to the bathroom, she tried to puke but nothing happened. Julia returned to her room and lied down on her bed. The speaker used for announcements began to sound like an alarm. It stopped and let out a screech, as if it would no longer work. There was a pungent smell in the air, as if an electronic was burning. The smoke entered the room. Julia couldn’t breathe. She coughed as she took her wand in her hand, and her phone in her pajama pocket for safety and opened the door, and stood in the hallway.

She was able to call for help and go downstairs, when she came face to face with a masked man holding a gun. He was a bit far away, and he kept the gun in his pocket. On the floor, there was Patricia lying while covered with blood. Julia gasped but couldn’t scream, lest the murderer would hear her. Patricia had real wings that shed blood. There was a stench in the air. Julia looked behind and saw there was nothing wrong, no smoke or flames or anything. It was then Julia realized that she had been tricked by an illusion. She rushed back to the room, only to see that the room was no longer there. Neither was the masked man. The only ones there were Julia, and the corpse of Patricia. Julia shook and her teeth chattered.

The corpse was moving. No wait, that couldn’t be right! It started to repair itself, except the wings were shed. The eyeballs turned to face Julia. The corpse began to stand up.

Julia was now running away, not knowing what else to do. The corpse walked with heavy steps, and got a hold of Julia’s shoulders. She dared not to look behind, but couldn’t resist. There was no one there, except that Patricia’s detached and blood covered arms clung onto Julia’s shoulders, and then fell to the ground. Julia let out a shrill scream.

At once she started to try and remember her lessons. Ah yes, spell construction, that might be her only chance.

She waved her wand around, and chanted, “Send a signal towards those who may help, before the darkness takes another step!”

The magic sparks flew across.

Julia felt that the ground beneath her was crumbling. She had an incessant fall with her eyes closed. She felt someone’s hand hold hers. Her palm was sweaty, yet numb. She couldn’t open her eyes. Both of her palms felt sweaty now.

She heard the sound of violin and piano. Julia saw the vision of a pianist and a violinist playing. She had spent too much time worrying about the little things in life.

She opened her eyes at last. She stretched her arm and felt a pain. It was a bag of blood attached to her arm via a set of tubes.

“Ouch…” said Julia

The room was dark. The air smelled like hand sanitizer. There was still soft violin and piano music playing. Beside her own bed, there was someone sleeping in a sleeping bag, who had left the music on. The music was looped on and on, until it shut down. Whoever it was must have been fast asleep.

It was sunrise. Someone entered and switched the light on.

“Doctor, the patient is awake!”

She heard footsteps. The doctor entered wearing a lab coat.

“How are you now?” he asked

“I… I’m okay,” said Julia

“That’s a relief.”

She watched as the guy next to her rubbed his eyes. It was Silvio.

“How is she doing?” asked Silvio

“She’s awake,” said the nurse

“She is?” said Silvio, getting up

“How are you? Can you speak?” said Silvio

“Yes,” said Julia

“That’s a relief,” said Silvio, sighing and falling back into the sleeping bag

“So… what happened?” asked Julia

“I’m sorry,” said Silvio

“Sorry for what?” said Julia

“We could have called for a help a lot sooner if Cole and I weren’t arguing so much,” said Silvio

“If you guys weren’t there, I probably would’ve died,” said Julia

“Don’t say that,” said Silvio, giving her a stern look

There was silence. She found baskets of fruit and a few lilies in her room.

“Anyway, I gotta get to class, Cole will cover the next shift. It’s good that his blood type matches with yours... I got him to rest after he donated so much blood,” said Silvio

“Goodbye Silvio, thanks for looking after me,” said Julia

“No problem. See you later,” said Silvio

He took his bag and belongings and left the room.

She heard Cole’s voice from outside the room.

“You fool! Why is your phone switched off?” said Cole

“She’s awake,” said Silvio

“Oh thank goodness,” said Cole

He opened the door at once.

“How are you, are you okay?” said Cole

She looked at his face. He looked tired, with dark circles.

“Yes… what happened? I don’t remember,” said Julia

“You left the room! I told you not to,” said Cole

“But…” said Julia, as tears came to her eyes

She didn’t expect Cole to yell at her.

“Don’t cry… I was just worried,” said Cole

She cried for a bit while Cole wiped her tears away with a tissue.

“My room was filled with smoke,” said Julia

“Those DTCAs and their dirty tricks…” said Cole

Cole sat down. His eyes looked watery. His bit his lip and looked at the floor. Cole then looked at Julia again.

“Is Patricia dead?” asked Julia

“Who…? It was just a dream that causes physical damage,” said Cole

They spent the whole time in silence before Julia was released. Cole walked alongside as they took her payment information. They took her in a wheelchair as they loaded her onto Sunny’s car. Cole drove as Sunny sat beside Julia and looked at her with a deep frown and watery eyes. Sunny placed her hand on her head and let her sleep on Sunny’s shoulder. All the while she was sleeping, that violin and piano song was playing in her mind.