The ambulance arrived as scheduled. Daniel was carried on to a stretcher and I followed along to get examined. Some emergency treatment was performed while on the way, the paramedics sighed.
"You're lucky, if the blade was moved any further then it would've seriously injured one of your organs."
"How did you get stabbed? Last time was when you beat students from a neighboring school into a pulp, was it from fighting?"
I forgot to mention how Daniel was a regular patient at the hospital, not from illness but injuries. He always gets into fights with delinquents from other schools, it would always be a one versus five situations and he'd win anyway. Compared to the others' injuries, his' was only a scratch. The only reason why the school allows him to do whatever he wants is that his parents are rich as hell.
Daniel dozed off from the lack of blood, leaving me and a paramedic awake in the back. As for the one driving, he's been silent all the time.
"Not from a fight, he got stabbed when saving me."
"That's new. This kid only ever cares for himself."
"You talk like you know him or something."
The paramedic stiffened. Noticing his reaction, I tried asking more.
"I'm right, aren't I? Are you some secret caretaker that his family hired to take care of him?
I was just kidding around, teasing him if I had to put it into words. It's more fun teasing adults than kids.
"Good guess kid, but not exactly."
Huh? What do you mean by not exactly...
"You'll find out soon.", he answered as if he read my mind.
I heard wheels screech, cars colliding, and water splashing. Before I could get back to my senses, the ambulance was already being flooded with water.
"Are you crazy!?"
The paramedic began to laugh.
"No, well at least not yet."
I felt something blunt hit my head, I passed out.
**
"2 dead, 2 missing in Metro City ambulance accident."
"Star athlete reported dead."
"Schoolgirl killed by falling fridge."
"Girl found dead in her room."
**
I woke up, my head was aching yet the rest of my body was fine after such an incident. I looked around, all I could see was a never end in an expanse of black. Very comforting, not.
I tried speaking, surprise surprise. I wasn't able to.
Am I dead? Probably.
In Heaven? I highly doubt it.
Then this place could either be my never-ending hell, or purgatory. Either way, it isn't good.
I sat around for what seemed like ages, well I don't know since I don't have a clock nor the sun to tell me.
[In fact, it was only about 5 minutes.]
White text popped up in this sea of black. Wh-what? What is that?
[Faith seemed confused, even so, he gathers his courage to shout into the darkness beyond.]
More words appeared, like an essay that was just being written.
[Faith's shout woke the slumbering heroes from the darkness.]
S-slumbering heroes? Gulp
[Wendell the Wise, a traveling sage, like the wind they never stay in the same place.]
Green wisps appeared in the vast expanse of darkness like drawn together by a magnet, the wisps began to combine in one place. Much like a tornado.
[The Princess of Snow, too noble to be given a name. Fairer than the fairest of princesses, yet colder than the coldest of glaciers.]
Snowflakes began to form in the dark, drawn by the tornado of green wisps, they began to take form.
[The Conquering Prince. Nothing but ash remains, yet from the embers a kingdom was reborn.]
Like the text said, embers formed in the darkness. Giving warmth and light.
[The Toughest of Stone. What happens if an immovable object becomes an unstoppable force?]
My feet finally touched the ground, well to be more accurate. Stone boulders appeared and served as platforms.
[And finally, the light which is called upon by faith.]
The darkness receded, no, to be more specific something overcame the darkness. Light swept away the darkness, revealing 5 other beings. 4 of them were standing atop stone boulders similar to mine, while the last one was floating in the center.
The four were familiar faces, including Daniel who I last saw unconscious. An average-looking girl wearing a pair of round glasses, her hair was tied into pigtails. And another girl, but in contrast to the last one. This one was much prettier (this was an understatement due to our protagonist's twisted sense of beauty, the earlier one was also pretty.) The prettier girl's face was frozen (figuratively), making it less beautiful. Both were in our school's girls' uniform.
Next was a tanned boy wearing a sports outfit, you can tell from a glance that the boy was a foreigner, though he didn't have blonde hair or blue eyes, the boy's facial features were sculpted differently from ours. It's like comparing pieces of art made by different artists, needless to say, the boy looked healthy and muscly, not to the point of ugliness. If you were a lover of foreign beauty, you could say that he was at the top of the looks department.
And there's Daniel, dyed blonde hair, rough skin loitered with scars and other marks. His uniform was in disarray, it looks like even in death he's still not bothered to fix his uniform.
The figure in the middle was... strange. Not in a mean-spirited way, the weirder and stranger kind.
They had a black book for ahead, and a body which you can't identify its gender from. There were 5 bookmarks in the book, it was closed at the moment.
"I expected Daniel to be here, but you guys too?!"
"[][][][] you're here!", yelled the tanned boy.
"I see... I suppose you do fit that role.", I heard the girl with glasses mumble something, but it wasn't quite clear to me.
"Mhn.", the pretty girl just nodded. Typical response.
"Oi, what the hell happened? Last thing I remembered was you talkin' in the ambulance."
"The driver went crazy and crashed us into Dezir Lake."
"Damn.", Daniel clicked his tongue, well I also left out him cursing, but that isn't necessary.
"Can we get a roll call to make sure who's here?", The glasses girl proposed, it was in line with her character seeing as how she's the school monitor, kuhum, Ex-School Monitor.
"Sheikh!", The tanned boy raised his hand, as if he was accustomed to this.
So we're actually doing the roll call routine from class. It does give a sense of security and familiarity.
"Do I hafta?", Daniel spat into the void.
"Uhm.. [][][][] here.", I raised my hand.
"Yukihime.", the pretty girl quietly muttered.
"And that leaves me, Wendy.", the glasses girl concluded. After that she took the initiative to talk to the book person, I guess birds of a feather flock together. Get it? Cause she's a bookworm... (Get out)
"Excuse me but, what are we all doing here?"
The book opened, pages flipped and words came flying out. I've seen them before, it was the white text.
"So thats where it came from...", Sheikh pondered.
"Books? Bah, I have to read even when I'm dead, this sucks."
The string of words formed a sentence.
[I am the Keeper of Stories. Welcome heroes to your new adventure.]