Pov: Ashlyn

My name is Ashlyn, and I've just been invited to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles.

You've heard of it right? Everybody's dream school, and I'll finally be a part of it. This is the best I've felt in a very long time.

They scouted me themselves, and now I'm the ultimate artist. I'm not even that good, everything I've ever drawn kind of sucks. The first semester is starting soon, and I have to go buy some supplies for school, so I'm heading to the nearest mall. I don't like going out that much, but today is special I guess.

What's the name of the mall? I can't remember. I think it was Gateway plaza or something. I don't care anyway, I'll make a quick stop and I'll head straight home.

I checked my phone to find the way to the mall

So I need to take a train to the mall, then walk this way and oh gosh that's a long way. I hate taking the train. I hate walking.

It took about 20 minutes to get to the mall

I'm exhausted I should get a drink. I hope this mall has a food court. Orange juice would be nice. Then I can take time buying my stuff.

After heading to the food court and grabbing some orange juice, I reached into my pocket to find my shopping list, only to realise it wasn't there.

That's not good. Where is it? I only have two pockets, I couldn't have forgotten it right? No, I remember putting it into my pocket, so why isn't it with me? Maybe I dropped it. I'm going to go look around.

I walked around for a bit, but couldn't find my list. But as I was passing by the main entrance, I saw...

???: Let us out! Stupid thing...

???: Who are you? Why are you keeping us here?

I walked over to see what was going on

Ashlyn: Hey, what's happening?

Before anyone could answer me, I heard a loud metallic thump, then screams of people.

???: HIS HEAD! IT FELL OFF!

I walked to the front of the crowd and found a body of a security guard, just the body, standing in front of the main entrance, as if blocking it. The guard's head was rolling helplessly on the ground, but upon further inspection, I realised that there were wires poking out of the head. The security guard was no human, he was-

Ashlyn: A robot?!!

The people standing around me also took turns looking at the security guard and gasping at the fact that a robot could look so realistic.

???: What're we going to do about this thing? It can't work now, I assume. Not after Sumana punched his head off like that... hold on wha-

The headless robot guard was slowly bending down and picking up his own head, before seamlessly dropping it back onto his neck. The robot now looked brand new, as if nothing had happened.

???: What just happened?? Did it just fix itself?

Ashlyn: We need to leave, I need to leave.

???: We can't. We tried earlier, that security guard is keeping us away. Since we now know it's a robot that can fix itself, I doubt we can destroy it. Plus, that main door has a lock on it, I'm pretty sure that even if we got rid of the robot, that door would be locked too.

Ashlyn: Then what do we do? Does this building have any other entrances? Are we trapped here?

???: There are guards by the other entrances too. There are three in total, but they're all blocked. We're trapped for now. We should find the one keeping us here, the one controlling these robots. How many of us are here?

Ashlyn: I counted, there's ten of us here. Do you think there's more people other than us? I mean we're in a mall...

Suddenly, through the speakers in the mall, we heard a loud cartoon voice. It was kind of annoying, really.

Speaker: Students, please head to the 5th floor event auditorium for the entrance ceremony. I'll be waiting for you all, puhuhuhuhu!

Ashlyn: What the hell was that?

???: We should start heading to the 5th floor. Let's see what this guy wants.

Entrance ceremony? What? This feeling, what is it...?

It can't be...