"S-so cold"
"Why do I feel so cold?"
I slowly opened my eyes facing the ceiling through my blurred vision.
Soon after I was awake I looked around the room to find what woke me up.
I then saw it, the blanket I had used to cover myself with,currently at the other side of the room.
As I got up to retrieve it, I noticed that my window was open and through it a cold breeze was blowing.
I stood in front of the window looking outside.
It's a rare phenomenon to see so much snow build up. The children in the orphanage will probably be overjoyed. Getting to play in the snow... especially here, since the weather doesn't really allow for this much snow to build up.
It was after some snowflakes had hit my face that I realized why I had awoken.
I closed the window to stop the cold air from flooding the room and moved to grab the blanket from the floor. Before retrieving it however, I noticed a peculiar jar was laying underneath.
After staring at it for a few seconds I decided to pick it up.
Upon taking a closer look, I realized that the content of the jar was made up of dirt.
"Maybe one of the kids did it as a farce?". I thought to myself.
"Well, anyway. I have school tomorrow."
After placing the jar on the floor near the window I leaned on my bed and placed the blanket on top of me.
Hearing the alarm clock ringing for some minutes I decided to get up from bed and prepare for university.
By the time I was ready to leave my room my eyes fell upon the jar that was placed next to the bed.
"I guess it wasn't a dream after all." I exhaled yawning.
As soon as I opened the door I almost fell upon two kids running in the hallway.
"Sorry Val." Both of them yelled and disappeared further into the hallway.
"I see that my day starts as usual." I exhaled while scratching my head.
Upon entering the dining room I was greeted by Mrs Ahiko, the owner of the orphanage.
"Good morning Val. I prepared two sandwiches for you." She said with a warm smile.
"Thanks Mrs Ahiko." I replied and grabbed my food from the table.
She was the one who raised me after my mom left me here. It was from her that I got the values I hold dear,from the woman who took care of me as her own son.
My biological mother on the other hand, I used to hate for leaving me here. But as the years passed by, I became accustomed to my life here and became indifferent to this matter.
When I opened the door to exit the building I felt the cold air all over my face. I could clearly see the carbon dioxide I exhaled going upwards in the air in the form of white mist.
The temperature must be below zero, seeing as how the snow is maintaining its structure so well without melting.
"Val, close the door please. It's freezing." Mrs ahiko yelled from behind the kitchen.
"Ah sorry, I'm closing it right away."
Wait! Don't close the door yet!" I heard a familiar voice from inside the building.
I didn't care to turn my head to see who it was, as from the voice alone I immediately knew.
"Hey Val, good morning." She said and hit me in the back.
"It was good, until you appeared." I replied.
"Oh, come on. Don't be like that." Sagiri said with a smile.
"Let's get going or we'll be late." I sighed.
"Sure thing." She replied and started running while holding my hand.
If I have to clarify one thing here, it's that Sagiri and I aren't together or anything like that. It's just that I've known her since I can remember myself.
She's Mrs Ahiko's daughter, so from the moment I was left at their doorstep we have been together.
"Hey Val, how come it's snowing? For as long as I can remember it only snowed once."
"How would I know? It's probably due to climate change."
"You know, if you were more active at school and university you could be the top student with that mind of yours."
"It's a nice day, let's not ruin it okay? I don't want to have the same conversation again."
After that we both stopped talking all the way to the university.
I don't know why she keeps mentioning this topic even though she knows my answer.
I may be a bit smart but I don't want to become the center of attention. I just want to be a background character and enjoy my life.
We arrived at the university just before the courses started.
We went in different directions and walked into our classes without saying a word to each other.
While walking to the back of the room where my usual seat is located, I noticed that one of the windows was open, and as it was next to my seat I went to close it.
The moment I looked outside the window I noticed someone standing in the middle of the yard, wearing a black robe while standing inside a brown circle, which pretty much looked like those summoning things you see in the games.
But that wasn't what made me think I might be hallucinating, it was the fact that there wasn't a single bit of snow outside. On the contrary, it looked like it was summer, with no clouds nor wind. Only a dazzling sun.
I kept gazing at the scene in front of me trying to collect information about what was happening but to no avail.
Suddenly the person in black looked at me and immediately the circle they were inside caught fire.
"Everyone please sit down, the lesson is about to start." A deep voice was heard from within the room.
It was that voice that made me turn away from the window and look to the direction the voice came from.
It was our professor who had sat down on his chair and was preparing to start the lesson.
After that I immediately looked out the window again but the scenery had completely changed.
It was the same as when I had first arrived.
Diverse clouds hiding the sun and snow all over the place. Needless to say that the person in black was nowhere to be seen.
As the cold wind blew in my face I looked around and realized that I was the only one standing.
"Mr Oswald, please close the window and sit down." The professor spoke.
Upon hearing that I immediately did as I was told.
"I guess I didn't get enough sleep yesterday." I thought while getting my notebook out of the bag.
After trying to wake the rest of the students by making a joke, the professor started the lecture by saying,
"Today we will learn about Quantum Mechanics."
That made everyone start looking at each other as no one was expecting to learn such a difficult subject here,at least not until the final year.
"Does anyone know what Quantum Mechanics is about?" The professor asked
One student hesitantly raised her hand and said, "It's the study of matter and its interactions with energy on the scale of atomic and subatomic particles?"
"Yes, that's right." The professor answered.
I could see the surprise on his face as he didn't expect anyone to know something like that.
Which I find normal as our class doesn't have the brightest minds of the university.
Still, Quantum Mechanics isn't that hard.
I mean I know about Planck's radiation law that says that the energy E of the quantum is related to the frequency ν by E = hν. The quantity h, now known as Planck's constant, is a universal constant with the approximate value of 6.62607 × 10−34 joules∙second.
And about Einstein and the photoelectric effect, Bohr's theory of the atom, Scattering of X-rays, De Broglie's wave hypothesis, Schrödinger's wave mechanics and about the other theories that are in this field.
As I was absorbed in my thoughts analyzing these theories I didn't notice when the class ended till I had been left alone with our professor in the room.
"Mr Oswald I hope you are still here because you were keeping notes till the end and not daydreaming again." The professor spoke with a smirk.
"N-no, I was keeping notes" I replied, fitting the backpack to my right shoulder.
He smiled lightly and before leaving the room said "Well, in case you didn't keep any, you can ask your classmates. Although that knowledge will be useless for you now. Be prepared, youngster, your life is about to take a dramatic turn."
Those words confused me to the point of charging towards the door to ask him what exactly he ment.
But it wasn't just confusion. It was something entirely different. It was like I knew that those words would have a terrifying impact on my future.
As soon as I got to the door though he was nowhere to be seen.
I looked left and right in the corridor but except for the students there wasn't any professor there.
"Maybe he went to the restroom?" I thought, looking at the sign that was next to our class.
I decided to wait near the restroom until he comes out as I couldn't shake off the feeling of uneasiness.
But before I could complete twenty seconds of waiting a female figure stood in front of me.
"Are you Val Oswald?" She asked.
I slowly raised my head to look at the person that was standing in front of me.
Seeing that she was wearing the black outfit of our school it was clear that she was a member of the discipline committee. The expensive phone she had along with the golden necklace she was wearing revealed that she is one of the rich students here.
At first I didn't notice, but now that I took a better look at her, her red coloured hair and brown coloured eyes remind me of something. I'm pretty sure that I have seen her somewhere.
"Will you keep staring at me for long?" She asked, but I was so into my thoughts that I didn't even hear what she said and only murmured something I was thinking about.
"You freaking pervert." She yelled and swung her right hand towards me.
Although I was completely absorbed in my thoughts I managed to catch her hand one centimeter away from my face.
And that's due to my reflexes.
I don't know how, but even if I'm completely lost and don't know what is happening around me if anything moves threateningly towards me I can, depending on the object, either avoid it or catch it.
Pretty useful for times like this one.
"L-let go of me." She said with a tone that seemed to me like she was ready to cry.
Actually that may be because of me tightening my grasp.
"I'm sorry." I replied, releasing her hand.
"So what you wanted to ask me?" I continued.
"I asked if you're Val Oswald."
"Yes I am. How can I help you?"
"You are in great danger right now. You need to come with me." She said and grabbed my left hand.
But I didn't move from my position no matter how hard she tried to pull me.
"I don't know who you are, but you can't just interrupt me by saying something as illogical as this and pulling my hand for no reason." I replied as calmly as I could. Actually it was my usual tone as most of the time I am perfectly calm for some reason.
"If you don't follow me you may die."
"Last time I checked I didn't have any health problems and I don't have any grudges with anyone, so I'm pretty sure that I'm not in any danger."
"I'm not talking about something as minor as this. There will be something beyond you or me and we need your help or else we will all die."
It was time I heard enough from this girl so I just slipped my hand from her grip and said "Seems like you're freaking nuts. So I'll go my way and you go yours."
After those words I turned and started walking away from her.
But as I was getting further and further from her I heard "Your life will dramatically change soon. And you will regret not hearing me."
I quickly turned my head to the direction the voice came from, but she was already gone.
Those words… they're the same to professor's.
Something's really strange here, but there are almost eight billion people here, so I don't think that because I didn't hear what a psycho was saying the whole universe will be destroyed, so I pushed those thoughts aside.
By looking at my phone I noticed that it was time for the next lesson to start, but the professor hadn't gone out of the restroom yet. Or did he go out when this girl was distracting me?
Eh, I can ask him after the class.
And with that though I started heading to the next class.
The next hour passed by without any out-of-the-ordinary events so I was able to relax a little bit.
Except for the fact that the professor was looking at me quite often. Though it seems normal as I wasn't paying any attention.
But once the lesson ended and I went looking for the professor I couldn't find him anywhere.
After searching for fifteen minutes around the university I decided to give up on my tries.
I don't know why I became so obsessed over those words. They weren't anything special or weird at all. But, something about them made me feel too uneasy.
And as I was ready to return inside the university to meet with Sagiri to apologize for my behavior I saw the professor entering the university's gates holding his brown briefcase.
I immediately rushed towards him and enquired why he had left the university.
But the answer I received wasn't what I expected.
"I didn't leave at all. In fact I just got here. You see I wasn't feeling very well in the morning so I decided to stay at home. But don't worry, we will make up for that lesson." He said smiling and started walking towards the university.
On the contrary, I stayed frozen there.
If he wasn't here then who did the lesson to us?
But I was only left with more questions when I saw the others from my class walking through the gate.
"Don't tell me they also weren't here." I murmured in an anxious tone and set off running to ask one of them.
But the answer I received wasn't of much difference to the professor's. They just decided to skip the first two lessons and come later.
But this answer only made things worse for me who didn't know what was happening.
I was pretty sure that I saw and interacted with the professor and the others. There is no way I imagined all of that.
Not knowing what was wrong with me I decided to ask Sagiri if she knows or saw something.
I immediately started searching the whole university to find her.
And after about ten minutes of searching I found her.
Pretty fast in my opinion as our university is one of the biggest in the country.
She was sitting on one metallic bench talking with her friends.
I hurriedly moved closer to her and once I was near her I asked as politely as I could "Um Sagiri, could I have a bit of your time?"
Seeing her looking at me dumbified I assume that it isn't normal for her to see me acting politely.
But soon she came back to her senses and with a nod rose from the bench and led me to a corner not so far away from the bench.
"What is it?"
"First of all I would like to apologize for my previous behavior on our way here."
"Apology accepted."
"And secondly I would like to ask you if you walked outside of my class within the first two hours."
"Yea, I stopped by during the first lesson to talk to you, but I saw you looking outside of the window and you didn't react to what I was saying. Thus I thought you were still angry so I left. Why?"
"Was there anyone else with me?"
"No, you were all alone. Will you tell me why you are asking all this?"
"Nothing to worry about." I said with a smile.
"Yep, seeing you smile like that is like a beacon that tells me something's happened."
"As I said, nothing's happened. Everything's fine."
"If you say so." She sighed.
"Anyway, I gotta go. Next lesson is starting soon." I said and started walking further from her.
The reason I didn't say anything about what happened is because neither I am sure about what it was.
And I don't want to say something before I have a more spherical understanding of the situation.
The rest of the two hours went by smoothly without, I hope, anything out-of-the-ordinary.
I have come to the point of not trusting my senses after everything that has happened.
And as Sagiri had another lesson I decided to go back to the orphanage first.
On my way I could clearly hear someone's footsteps as they were shoving their feet into the snow making a loud sound on purpose.
As I was getting closer and closer to the orphanage the steps kept becoming louder. Thus I decided to do a small experiment. I started walking through the nearby alleys but the steps never stopped being behind me.
So I decided to discover who my stalker was.
With a quick move I turned over while at the same time being on guard.
But the person I saw behind me was the last one I thought I would see.
It was the same girl that was saying nonsense at the university.
But with the difference that now her look was a bit altered.
Her hair was a bit messy and she had some spots on her uniform.
It seemed to me like it was oil but due to the distance and the wind blowing to the opposite direction of me I couldn't figure out what it was.
"I give you one last chance to come with me."
"I told you that I'm fine. Stop following me around like a stalker."
"Well, I tried. Don't blame me for anything that may happen in the future. Consider yourself warned." She said and immediately turned over and walked away.
Something deep inside me knew that these words meant something. Something terrible.
But I decided to take them as the words of a crazy person.
Without further ado I continued walking towards the orthanage.
But as soon as I was ready to enter the door I saw miss Ahiko leaving the building in a hurry.
"Why are you in a hurry?" I asked as soon as I got close enough.
"I have to leave now. Sahiri got hit by a van and now she's being transported to the hospital."
These news were so sudden I immediately froze not being able to utter a word.
For the first time in my life I was so shocked over some news.
"Val, pull yourself together. We have to be strong." Miss Ahiko said while shaking me to bring me back to my senses.
Still not being able to say a word I just nodded and got into the car with her.
On the way neither of us uttered a word.
Either because we were both shocked like anything before or because none of us knew what to say as we literally didn't know anything about that accident.
As soon as we were at the hospital's grounds , Miss Ahiko parked the car in a hurry and we both went running to the entrance.
Miss Ahiko went straight to the receptionist and asked where her daughter was.
The moment we learned about her location we immediately rushed to the operating room she was in.
But once we arrived we saw one of the surgeons coming out with his gloves full of blood.
As Miss Ahiko went to consult him about her daughter's condition I stayed back to not interrupt in any way.
But although the surgeon talked with a low voice I could still hear what he was saying. Although even if I couldn't I would still be able to understand what had happened seeing Miss Ahiko's reaction.
With tears in her eyes she was trying to support herself on the walls around her.
I immediately went to hug her, both to support and offer her a person to lament to.
But although I was trying hard to be strong for her I couldn't help but shred a few tears myself.
For the first time in my life I was feeling such sorrow. I didn't know what to do. It was the first time in my life someone dear to me died.
Although I was acting like that to Sagiri, deep down I really cared about her. And I never got to tell her my biggest secret… that I loved her.