The officers ignored my pleas as they shoved me inside the car. I knew it would cause more unnecessary trouble if I physically struggled against them. I played with the handle on the door, yanking the handle, making tons of noise.

"Your parents are really worried about you," an officer said the same thing as the security guard.

"My parents live in the third district." I countered.

"You can stop lying now. Maybe you got into a fight with your parents, but you can make up with them once you meet them." The same officer tried to console me to calm me down.

"And don't think we don't know the basic fact that people from the lower districts can't come up to the upper districts," the other officer added as if he couldn't be bothered with this.

This wasn't much better than yesterday. I found myself on a plain hospital bed inside a simple room with no other furnishing. It's been a while since I've been inside a room this humble. The room was so quiet with the door locked that I started listening to the conversation in the room beside me with nothing better to do.

"I'm sorry that your friend doesn't have much time left," The doctor delivered the bad news in the room beside me.

"She's so young," A familiar voice cried.

"Is there no other way? Is it really hopeless?" Another person started to plead.

"Well there is this surgery your friend can receive, it will extend her lifespan to about a decade. However, it is extremely expensive as not many skilled physicians in the second district have enough mana to do this surgery." The doctor grimly continued.

'Poor girl,' I thought.

The doctor must have left the room as the other room became silent. I disconnected myself to the IV by yanking the needle out from my hand. I pulled the useless oxygen mask off before I jumped off the bed.

I peeked into the other room with great curiosity to find my kidnappers standing in front of a young girl on a hospital bed.

"You!" The girl accused me.

"Let's make a deal," I tried to intimidate them with my cold stare.

"You desperately need my money to save the girl in front of you and I need help to escape from this hospital." I continued.

It was a fair deal. I knew I would attract too much attention if I used my mana or tried to sneak out on my own. There were few police officers and security guards that worked together while patrolling the grounds. I analyzed their footsteps with my enhanced hearing that wavered near my door.

Both the boy and the girl stayed silent as if they were still deciding if I was trustworthy. However, no matter how sick their friend was, they shouldn't have kidnapped someone off the streets.

"We'll think about it," The boy answered while holding the hands of the girl on the bed.

"Well seeing that you don't have any better option, I suggest you make your decision quickly. I'm in the room next door so just come by when you decide," I threatened them before leaving the room.

"I told you that children from the first district were creepy," The boy whispered softly to the girl.

I couldn't disagree but I was curious how they would react if they met the others in our inner circle that I considered to be much worse.

* * *

A girl wearing a silky white nightgown with fine strands of vermillion red hair greatly resembled one of Melissa's dolls from her playhouse when she was younger. She stood in the middle of room, barefoot with great confidence.

"Well seeing that you don't have any better option, I suggest you make your decision quickly. I'm in the room next door so just come by when you decide," The girl narrowed her bright pumpkin eyes.

"Melissa," I whispered to her, laying down on the bed.

'It's all my fault, I should've been the one that should be laying down on that bed,' I thought.

I stood under the bright blue sky that day. When I turned on the TV, all the weather forecasts announced that there would be no rain today. I didn't bring my umbrella and quickly ran out of my apartment to go to school.

"Melissa!" I shouted to greet my childhood friend.

Melissa stood there, waiting in front of the entrance of my apartment with a perfectly ironed uniform that was tailored for her since the beginning of the year.

"Noire. You're finally here," Melissa pouted.

"Sorry... I overslept," I replied sheepishly.

"It's only this time. I won't wait for you tomorrow!" Melissa sulked.

Melissa said this every day, but she always waited for me in front of my apartment so we could walk together to school together.

My apartment was only a short distance away from the school. My parents got relocated to the outer region of the second district few months ago. Since I couldn't transfer schools, I ended up staying in the apartment alone. We walked to school together under the cherry blossom trees.

'The weather is really great today,' I thought.

When school ended, Melissa and I decided to go to the new cafe that opened near her house. I took out my book from my bag to read while walking to the cafe.

"Noire! That's a bad habit. I told you that you may get into an accident if you don't carefully look where you're walking," Melissa angrily scolded me.

I placed my book back into my bag until we arrived to the cafe. "Do you want to transfer to another school that badly?" Melissa asked me.

"The school in the countryside is near my parent's workplace," I smiled sadly.

"But that means I'll be alone," Melissa pouted.

"Well that school is ranked really high so I think it'll take a while for me to accumulate enough points to enter anyways," I tried to console her.

When we finished eating our cakes, I took my book out of my bag from habit and started to cross the street when the light was white, indicating it was time for pedestrians to cross. I slightly flinched when I felt sudden sprinkles of rain on my head.

A person sped in an old antique right before my eyes. I instantly became blinded by the bright headlight as the light flashed in front of my face as I wondered if this was the 'end' as I dropped my book.

'Wow, no one actually drives a car nowadays,' I thought.

"Noire!" Melissa screamed as she pushed me out to the sidewalk.

The rain started to heavily pour down the streets as I saw myself staring at a unconscious girl covered in pool of blood underneath an old antique. Her limbs were cracked in odd directions like she was a contortionist with her legs crushed. Her eyes rolled up to show her white pupils with her expression stuck in blank horror like time had stopped for her.

'Huh? That's not Melissa. Melissa was just beside me a few seconds ago.'

I dropped onto my knees as I suddenly lost strength in my feet and cried underneath the pouring rain. Melissa's complexion increasingly became colder when I touched her blue face.

"I told you that children from the first district were creepy," Jack whispered softly to me, bringing me back to reality.

"Well seeing that she's our best option for now, maybe we should just agree to her terms," I mumbled while recalling the incident.

The doll-like girl who disappeared from our grasps was the only hope for now as I whispered to Melissa, "I'll make sure you'll get better. You have to... or else what am I going to do without you?"