“‘Calm down,’ hmph! What a joke.” Despite hours spent in detention, the girl in the red plaid skirt muttered under her breath, rushing as fast as she could. Thank God she’d survived another day of school.

Fortunately, the fiasco from the previous day was behind her, and if all went well in the coming days, Ayumi would simply ignore Derick. She still harboured a certain resentment toward him.

“Hmph!” she crossed her arms as she lay in bed, clearly sulking.

The girl’s dorm-mate, or at least the only one there at the time, alternated her gaze between Ayumi and the book she was reading. Every now and then the grumbling of the girl with the red ribbon drove her crazy.

“How long are you going to keep this up?” The girl with the curly pom-poms stared again, looking impatient.

“I-I’m sorry,” Ayumi coughed awkwardly, trying to hide it. “It’s just… stress.”

“…Oh! Let me guess…” the girl said, resting her chin on her hand as she thought.

The two girls stared at each other for a few minutes in complete silence.

“It’s that crazy aspiring… a…” Ayumi paused, searching for the right term to refer to the blue-eyed boy.

“That jerk!” Ayumi raised her hand toward the door, her nerves tightening. “The… the…” She clenched her fist, remembering everything the boy had done to her in the past twenty-four hours.

“Derick!” They both said in unison, as if they knew the root of the whole problem.

“I don’t like him at all…” The girl turned her attention back to the book. “And… well, don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad person. He’s just so damn stupid it drives me crazy.”

“He's... so clueless.” Ayumi nodded in agreement with the curly-haired girl.

“Absolutely! Now please, shh!” she said, pressing an index finger to her lips as she signaled for silence.

Ayumi muttered, laying her head back on the bed with the candy-patterned sheets. The girl’s dormitory, especially her roommates, was nice. “Well, at least there’s that…” She thought, on that first day. Surrounded by pleasant girls and, above all, a welcoming environment, made her feel less stressed about everything.

She crossed her arms and, before she could say another word, sleep claimed her. A quick nap after that exhausting first week was all it took to calm the short fuse of the girl with the red ribbon.

From what Ayumi counted, she hadn’t slept properly in a week. The recurring nightmares still haunted the girl, only now, they were growing oddly vivid and detailed. The one thing they all had in common? Each of them ended with the girl’s death in some way.

The nightmare that night was one of the worst of her life.

“Good heavens… geez.” Ayumi jolted awake in a cold sweat, her body trembling, as though someone were watching her every move.

She had the feeling first thing in the morning that today wasn’t going to be one of her best days.

Ayumi spent some time in complete shock watching the crimson liquid splash onto the bedroom floor, alerting her roommate, who rushed her to the infirmary. She appreciated the kindness of the girl who resembled Marcus, remembering the boy from the last few days, since he and Derick were in the same class as her.

“Thanks so much, Aileen.” Ayumi said, giving a thumbs-up in gratitude.

“Oh! You’re welcome.” She seemed increasingly confused. “Ayumi, what… the hell is this…?”

"It must be the heat." The girl held the cloth that one of the nurses, a novice of about twenty-something years old, had handed her.

“Okay…? Fine.” She said, scratching the back of her neck and looking confused. “I’ve got nothing better to do.” She pulled a book out of her school bag, the one she’d started the day before, intending to keep reading before the girl in the plaid skirt started chattering again.

The girl with the red ribbon exhaled a disappointed sigh, her shoulders sagging as though weighed down by her own thoughts.

“Well…” the nursing intern broke the silence. “How are you feeling now?”

"Embarrassed, knackered, and... a complete loser. Feeling down in the dumps. I think that's how you say it? Just to start..." Ayumi replied, sounding catatonic.

“But… why? As far as I know, you’ve already… been here for a week, right? Just like all the other children.” She continued, organizing some things in a nearby first-aid kit.

“You're right, but... I still feel conflicted. Like everyone is obligated to be nice to me, but I only feel like that happens because they're my classmates and... not my friends.” Ayumi said, pausing mid-sentence, wondering if she should talk so much about her feelings to a woman she didn't know until then.

“I understand you…” the blonde-haired novice said, laughing softly. “I’ve felt that way too, but sometimes people simply CHOOSE to be kind. Not always for some deep reason, but simply because they really like you. There are still good people in the world, and I want to keep believing that.”

“Yeah... I think you're right.” Ayumi stared at the cloth wrapped in ice, now stained with blood, forming funny shapes.

“If you'll excuse me, I need to leave now. Try to rest a little more and, just... try not to die, okay?” The woman in the white habit seemed a little worried as she left the room, tearful.

Ayumi gave a simple laugh, then nodded slightly in agreement.

The older woman left the room, her white robes fading and gradually blending into the scenery, while the girl's vision seemed increasingly blurry. Ayumi focused on her own breathing and the sounds around her: children talking in the background, footsteps, the sound of the wind in the trees outside. Suddenly, that same discomfort returned; the red liquid started running from the girl's nose again, but this time something seemed even more wrong.

The blood, which had dripped slowly before, now surged violently, coating the girl’s hands in dark red while choking her as she gasped for breath. Unrestrained sighs and soundless grunts; Ayumi couldn't even muster the strength to scream.

Would she die like this? Suffocated in her own blood and agonizing on one of the stretchers in the school infirmary? "No fucking way!" She thought to herself, spitting it out and wiping it with her sleeve.

Ayumi slowly opened her mouth, placing some of her fingers inside and uncomfortably pulling at whatever was making it difficult for her to breathe at the moment.

“Urgh…”

The girl slowly pulled out the small object, wiping some of the blood from it with the tips of her thumbs. Revealing something that looked like a transparent yellow octahedron.

A shard of glass.

She spit the remaining objects out from the back of her throat into her palm, her face drawn in horror as she handled the tiny fragments. “Am I… possessed by something?” Ayumi thought, as she handled the small fragments. Perhaps watching so many horror movies with Jun had driven her crazy.

“Possessed? No fucking way.” She shook her head in denial, trying to find some logic in that absurd situation. At least she could breathe normally again.

“Ayumi 1, Life 0? Take that!” She cheered, pumping her fist in the air, celebrating another day alive.

The girl’s face twisted in confusion. What would she do with the shards of glass in her hand, especially knowing they came from inside her?

“Could some idiot have put this... in my food and I didn't see it?” She thought, frowning.

She picked one up with her index finger and thumb, examining it more closely. Shiny, like glitter.

“Maybe I should show this to someone?” She thought, examining the other fragments, one by one. Undecided, she simply tossed them into one of the pockets of her plaid skirt and walked towards the restrooms.

The priority now was washing her hands, finally rid of that strange, sticky texture of blood. She breathed easier. Then she raised them to her nose: the lavender scent of the infirmary’s liquid soap filled the air, soothing her with its quiet calm.

“Okay, Ayumi, don’t freak out.” She muttered, patting her own shoulders. Fortunately, neither Aileen nor the novice was near her at that moment. “DON’T FREAK OUT!” She yelled, slamming her hands firmly on the sink and staring at her reflection.

She gave up right then, if anything else happened, she’d explain it to the nuns later. She’d pretend to ignore it all: her disheveled hair, the unkempt ribbon, the confused look on her face. “I look like a witch…” She thought.

The weekend arrived like a godsend, earlier than she’d expected. Ayumi found a solid excuse to visit Jun, since the other children had also gone to visit their respective relatives, she knew she’d have a few worry-free days ahead.

“So... how were the last few days at school?” Jun asked, focusing on the noodles cooking. “I found a grocery store you might like. They have ramen stuff there, what do you think?” The man smiled, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Umm... it's been going well, I guess? I've made few friends... I-actually, I don't know if... they're REALLY my friends.” Ayumi replied, dejectedly.

Jun sat through the conversation with total disinterest, a habit the girl with the red ribbon hated most about her father. She stuck out her tongue at the man, who simply turned his back, placing some boiled eggs on whatever he was cooking.

“Hmpf!”

It was funny how Jun insisted on speaking Japanese whenever they talked, it was, he said, the only way they wouldn’t lose practice, since she was forever forgetting things.

“Ayumi, want some tempura?” Jun’s face brightened as he tried to reach out to his daughter. “It’s the weekend, a perfect time to be thankful you made it home safe and sound, right?”

The girl broke out in a cold sweat for a moment, looking away. Jun stared intently into her eyes, as if he knew something else had happened to her.

“I... I hope everything is going really well.” The older one replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Y-yeah, it was...” Ayumi replied, as if she didn't want to continue with the subject, watching the man serve the instant noodles.

Ayumi sighed deeply as she ate, maybe it was the low blood pressure, or the foul mood brought on by the week’s weird events. “Yeah… that must be it.” She thought, wanting to bury her head in a hole and scream at the top of her lungs. She admitted she might be overreacting, but the nagging question of what to do next refused to leave her mind.

At least her stomach was full, one fewer worry for now. Laziness slowly took over the 15-year-old girl, who left the house with a grumpy face after they ate, which made Jun take a deep breath in order to avoid complaining to the girl.

A terrible feeling that something bad would happen if she left the house, compounded by the week’s gloom, weighed heavily on her mind. Still, walking hand in hand with her father, an old habit since childhood, offered some relief. As they moved slowly, her eyes fixed on the ground, she felt a chill ran down her spine as she noticed the strange movement of the shadows, which seemed to be stealthily approaching her, like the one she had seen at school a few days ago.

The girl's curiosity led her to chase after the the source of the shadows’ movement, a sliver of fear creeping along her spine and spreading throughout her body. Why was all this happening to her? Why she and her father had to move? Why did everyone at the new school ignore her? And why couldn’t she feel even a single minute of peace since arriving in London?

The glass shards, the blood, the shadows, could it all be connected somehow?

She ran without looking back. Determined to find the answers to all of this once and for all.