Harvard University, Cambridge…
It was Midnight and a heavy storm raged outside, the female dorms of the prestigious Harvard University were filled with the sleeping figures of students.
Some rooms were still seen as slightly lively with some students burning the midnight oil.
One room in particular was very peculiar,
The walls were covered in post-it notes, and the floor was covered in Anatomy Books.
The shelves held an assortment of books from other fields such as Biomechanical engineering, Quantum Physics, Chemistry and Philosophy.
There were multiple posters of different fictional media, Dr. Who, Creature Commandos, The Avengers, Minecraft.
The room was an utter mess, clothes flayed around on the bed, figurines of multiple characters placed here and there.
The cleanest part of the room was a bedside table, it was neatly arranged with an Acer laptop placed on top with The Marvel Rivals Character selection on screen.
Aside from the laptop was a Samsung phone placed next to it charging, and a Lemony Snicket novel.
Seated at the table was a young lady, a messy haired brunette with silver glasses.
She layed slumped down onto the table clutching a can of Mountain Dew and mumbling incoherently.
"Why, why, why?!!" She said suddenly standing up from her chair and clutching her hair.
This was Dolores Greyer, a final year anatomy student that was days away from graduating from Harvard and getting her degree in anatomy.
She was finally free from the tyranny of classes, deadlines and shitty coursemates, she could rest for the next 3 days and on Friday get her degree and leave Harvard finally into the real world.
She decided to spend her first night of freedom playing Marvel rivals to celebrate, but she couldn't imagine she'd lose 8 matches in a row, mostly because no one on her team wanted to pick anything other than DPS.
She put down her hands from her hair and tossed the can of Mountain Dew into the trash.
"Guess I'm not lucky tonight" she mumbled and closed the game.
She moved the mouse and opened Google Docs, on it were a bunch of documents, she clicked on one.
It was an in-depth seminar report on Darwin's Theory of Evolution and various anatomical inconsistencies in related species.
She was asked by the head of her department to give a seminar on the topic a few days before her graduation, so she started working tirelessly since then.
"Tomorrow's the day for the seminar, I've memorized everything required, I just hope I don't get caught with stage fright tomorrow" she said and did a once-over of the report before shutting down her laptop.
She climbed atop her bed and picked out The Jojo's Bizarre Adventure : Kishibe Rohan spin-off from the stack of manga next to her pillow and read it till the jet lag from her late night sessions finally caught up with her.
The next day rolled over and Dolores was everything but ready for her seminar.
Her alarm dinged fruitlessly till she stumbled off her bed.
She looked down at her phone.
An hour, she had an hour to dress up and get ready for the presentation.
She tripped and tumbled towards her bathroom and took a quick shower.
Stepping out of the shower in haphazardly worn towels, she rushed to her closet and took out her clothes.
Putting them on and creasing them down, she started to feel the adrenaline rush through her, she felt less afraid and more confident.
She took out her shoes and put them on, then cleaned off her glasses and wore them.
She took the essential things she needed, her Laptop, phone and student ID card.
Having everything she needed on her, she felt more comfortable, she grabbed her room key and went straight for the door.
As she was about to step out of the room, she noticed a sealed letter at her door.
She was puzzled, she looked left to right and saw no one in the hallway.
'could it be a love letter?!' she thought as her cheeks flushed red, but she immediately pushed that idea out.
"It's definitely not a love letter is it" she mumbled sadly.
She bent over and picked up the letter filled with curiosity.
Opening the letter she read the first sentence and felt her curiosity rise.
*Immediately destroy letter after reading or face instant extermination*
Was this real or fake, these words echoed through Dolores' mind, then she remembered her seminar.
'I'll figure it out later' she thought and stuffed the letter into her bag before locking her room and rushing down the hallway.
The moment she left her dormitory she was overwhelmed by crowds of students heading towards various locations all trying to prepare for their upcoming graduation in 2 days.
Dolores shimmied and squirmed through the crowd, utilizing her slender frame to ADHD slide inbetween people.
She needed to make it to the seminar hall as quickly as possible.
She moved as fast as she could avoiding every and anything or situation that could make her late for the seminar.
10 minutes before the seminar she made it to the front door of the seminar hall.
She huffed out in relief.
Despite the fatigue from her jog over there, her face couldn't help but beam with joy, she was about to do something great and amazing and graduate with a bang.
As she reached out for the door handle, the door creaked open and a person walked out.
It was a tall male student, most likely of American descent, like the majority of people there.
Yellow straight slick back hair and a high nose-bridge along with a 45° jawline, he was a hottie for sure.
This was Jensen Brack, a person Dolores knew much too well, the easiest way to describe theirtheir relationship with each other was rivals.
Ever since Dolores got admitted into Harvard and he learnt of her admission, Jensen made it his personal life mission to ruin every second of Dolores' day.
The entire university saw him as the most moral and straight A's student to ever exist but Dolores knew what kind of wolf in sheep's clothing Jensen was.
He had always been number one, while Dolores remained number two, and she knew Jensen was making it quite sure that Dolores was always number two.
'Finally after so many long long semesters, I can be rid of this nuisance forever, with this seminar I can show Jensen what's what' Dolores thought to herself proudly.
"Dolores! I see you're ready for the seminar, I can't wait to hear what you've cooked up" Jensen said with a smile.
Dolores looked at him spitefully.
'Yeah i'm sure you can't wait to laugh at me if i fuck it up' Dolores thought to herself squinting her eyes at Jensen.
"Of Course i'm gonna blow the audience away with this one, wish me luck!" Dolores replied cheerfully.
"Break a leg," Jensen smiled and walked off.
'I'll gladly break yours,' she thought as he walked away.
She didn't have time to worry about Jensen right now, she had a seminar to deliver.
Dolores adjusted her composure and walked into the hall, the chairs were full to the brim, composed of students, senior staff and prestigious visitors.
The hall was silent and Dolores felt piercing gazes of the audience, she tapped the microphone on the mic-stand lightly, took a deep breath and began.
"I am Dolores Ottoman Greyer, a final year and soon-to-be graduate of the course Anatomy and physiology. My esteemed audience, I am here today to enlighten you all on the concept of Darwin's Theory Of Evolution…." she began.
The audience looked intrigued, Dolores felt hopeful, she feared that her stage fright might cloud her ability, but now, she decided to ride the flow.
She plowed through her presentation steadily but precisely, touching every aspect sequentially.
She covered all her bases, and made sure to arrange it in a manner that would keep the audience interested till the end.
She saw the furrowed eyebrows of various important individuals and the thoughtful looks on the faces of the various professors present.
Somehow, she had managed to captivate everyone.
Her eyes scanned around the room happily and stopped suddenly looking at the last row.
It was Jensen, sitting quietly, smiling at her.
"Creepy S-O-B" Dolores murmured and retained her composure.
She shook her head and continued with the flow.
'Right now, Jensen is the loser, and I'm finally the winner' She reassured herself.
The seminar went on smoothly and ended with a boisterous round of applause.
She was proud of herself, her lips coiled up into a smile as she answered multiple questions from the audience and took a bow leaving the stage filled with ecstasy.
Upon leaving the seminar hall, she dropped down to the side of the pavement and screamed with utter joy.
Her cheeks flushed red and tears came out of her eyes.
"This is so goddamn amazing!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.
She took some seconds to quiet herself down and sat at the pavement staring up at the darkening sky.
"This deserves a celebration" Dolores thought, imagining a feast of beer and Cooked lobster.
As she was daydreaming about her food choices, she saw someone walk up to her.
It was black-haired girl with gold rimmed glasses, she was a tad shorter than Dolores and she was much curvier.
This was the class representative for her department.
Anna Fullhouse, if there was a ranking at Harvard, Jensen would be number 1, Dolores number 2 and Anna number 3.
Unlike Jensen and Dolores she didn't care about who was a better student.
"Dolores, congrats on your seminar!" Anna said with a smile.
"Thanks Anna, it was…eventful" Dolores adjusted her glasses and spoke.
"Anyways, the head of our department said he wanted to see you after the seminar, he's in the faculty building" Anna told Dolores.
"Did he say why, like maybe to give me an award" Dolores said blissfully.
"No he didn't mention why, to be honest I wish I was the one up there, but between you, me and Jensen, you're certainly the most suited, anyways see you later" Anna said in thought before waving Dolores goodbye and walking off.
After seeing Anna disappear around the corner, Dolores adjusted herself and headed for the Faculty building.
It was a 10 minute walk but she arrived in time.
The Faculty building was a 3 story well defined structure, there were camellias shrubs lining the area around the building beautifying it intensely.
Dolores pushed open the glass doors and walked in, the hallways were empty and the walls were covered in academic posters.
The Department Head's Office was on the top floor, she took the stairs and walked up to the 3rd floor.
Upon reaching the third floor she directed herself to his office and stood at the front.
'Richard Meyers' Dolores thought as she read the sign at the top of the office door.
Professor Meyers was a kind man as far as Dolores understood him, he was patient with students and was always ready to help with anyone's needs.
She knocked on the door three times and waited.
"Come in" Dolores heard a deep calm voice callout from inside the office.
She walked in and looked at the slightly balding man sitting at the center table.
"Good evening Professor Meyers" Dolores greeted him with a smile.
"Good evening Mrs Greyer, please have a seat" Richard Meyers said with a smile and gestured to the opposing seat at the table.
Dolores hurriedly sat down and waited for Professor Meyers to speak.
"Mrs Greyer…it is already well known that you are one of the best students at this school, probably only rivaled by Mr. Brack, you've made my department and this entire school proud time and time again" Professor Meyers began.
"I can still remember when you first got accepted here, you were one little buck in a big forest, and look at you now" Professor Meyers continued with a smile.
Soon his smile faded.
"I know that among every single student at this university, you, Brack and Fullhouse are the ones with the most exceptional potential" Professor Meyers looked at Dolores with pained eyes.
"That is why I hope there is a reasonable explanation to this" Professor Meyers said and took out a printed document and placed it before Dolores.
"What is this ?" Dolores' voice quivered slightly.
"Two days prior to the submission of your seminar, this document was sent to my email by an anonymous account, i looked through it once and shunned it off, but later on i re-examined it, and realized when your work came out, that the two looked quite similar, almost word for word, the difference is this one seems more refined than yours, can you explain this ?" Professor Meyers looked sternly at Dolores.
"I…don't know, how could that be possible ?" Dolores' voice became a bit shaky.
"You are sure that you have no knowledge of this whatsoever ?" Professor Meyers asked sternly again.
"Sir, I don't understand…are…you implying I copied my work ?" Dolores was flabbergasted.
"Dolores, I don't understand it either, i'm trying my best to make sense of this but…i'm inclined to believe you plagiarized this work" Professor Meyers said sadly.
Dolores first felt fear and sadness, then she felt rage build up in her uncontrollably, how could he accuse her of plagiarizing, something she spent sleepless nights working on over and over again.
"Sir! How could you say that, you know I'm one of your top students and you know I wouldn't do such a thing!" Dolores' voice raised strongly.
"Mrs Greyer! I know this must be a shock to you, i can't believe it either, but…the odds aren't in your favor, sorry but this will have to go on your permanent record, you'll still graduate but…it will always show this incident on record, it might affect your future career opportunities, but it's better than getting your degree revoked, i'll try to reduce the damage as much as possible" Professor Meyers said looking down, he could barely look Dolores in the eyes.
"Professor Meyer i-" Dolores tried to reason with him but was cut off.
"Mrs Greyer, out!" Professor Meyer said sternly.
Dolores stormed out fuming with rage, she couldn't believe this, today was supposed to be her perfect day, nothing was supposed to go wrong, but everything went crashing down.
As she stepped out the door she noticed someone leaning on the wall next to the door.
It was Jensen, he looked at her for the first time without the trace of a smile on his face.
They stared at each other for a moment quietly before she scoffed and walked off.
Dolores' figure disappeared down the stairs.
Once she was gone, Brack entered Professor Meyers' office.
"Jackass!" Jensen said with his voice raised.
"Mr Brack?!" Professor Meyers was stunned.
"Between you and me we both know Dolores isn't capable of doing something as illegal as that" Jensen Stormed towards Professor Meyers.
"Of the three of us, Me, her and FullHouse she is the best in every way, none of us could possibly write anything close to her seminar, that entire presentation screamed of Dolores" Jensen's fist clenched strongly.
"Despite that you didn't have the confidence to trust in your own student and ignore the fake claims!!" Jensen's anger reached its peak.
Suddenly he calmed down.
"Professor Meyers, Dolores doesn't deserve this, please fix this, please, no matter what it takes, hell you can say I was the one who wrote the fake document to prank her if it helps, but please don't do this to her" Jensen said looking down.
Jensen clenched his teeth and walked out of Professor Meyers office.
The faculty building finally returned to its usual quiet atmosphere.
The sky was pitch dark with no moon and barely any stars.
Jensen walked off back to his form in deep thought, as for Dolores….well.
In Dolores' room, Dolores sat at the foot of her bed, her books toppled to the floor as she bawled her eyes out as quietly as she could.
Tears trickled down her cheeks and her eyes puffed red from all the crying.
She didn't feel like doing anything that night, she felt like a failure, like the entire universe was against her success.
"Not everyone can be winners" Dolores mumbled to herself through her tears.
As she sat at the foot of her bed in silence she heard the ringtone of her phone go off.
'who could it be at this hour?' she thought, getting up and answering the phone.
It was her mom, they were pretty much estranged since Dolores got accepted into Harvard, she was considered the black sheep of the family.
Her entire life she always felt her Mom preferred her siblings to her, especially when her father died.
"I'm sure she's calling me to nag about what happened" Dolores mumbled angrily.
She picked up the call and waited for the annoying speech she had heard much too many times.
But all she heard was the soft sound of her elder sister's voice.
"Hey…" Her sister's voice trailed off.
She sounded depressed.
"Hi Kaitlyn" Dolores cleaned her tears confused.
"Sorry to call on such short notice, it's just, it's about mom" Kaitlyn said slowly.
"Wha-, what's wrong ?" Dolores got worried.
"Last night she-, she passed," Kaitlyn said, hiding her quivering voice.
"Passed?! passed how Kaitlyn, what do you mean?!" Dolores' voice raised slightly.
"I don't know D, she called telling me something's wrong and i thought she was just you know doing her usual and complaining like always!!" Kaitlyn's voice got more stressed and high pitched.
"The point is, she's dead D, when I got over it looked like a heart attack!!" Kaitlyn said bursting into tears.
"So…what now ?" Dolores felt horrible, first her seminar now her mom, nothing was working out right.
"The ambulance arrived a few minutes ago, they're taking her in, maybe you can come by after your graduation ?" Kaitlyn's voice calm down partially.
"Alright, i'll…i'll see what i can do" Dolores hung up the call.
The day went from great to moody so fast.
Dolores' thoughts grew and grew, her mind spinned endlessly.
But one thought was at the centre.
'What do i do ?'
She concentrated on these words for a few minutes before something came to mind.
"The letter" These words trailed out of Dolores' mouth as she stared blankly at the floor of her room.
She rushed off the floor and ran for her bag, scattering the contents, she finally saw it.
The neatly sealed letter sat in her palms with an official looking seal on it.
Opening the letter, she read it carefully.
H.A.N.D :
*Be sure to destroy this letter after reading*
Mrs Dolores Ottoman Greyer, you are cordially granted an opportunity at the Non-governmental defense organization, H.A.N.D.
Your skills in multiple fields in the area of science are deemed viable to us at H.A.N.D.
In exchange for your services we offer full remission of criminal charges, debts or other aggravated acts. We also grant a salary of 2 million dollars per year worked for us.
Agreeing to this offer issues an NDA on you that if breached, will be followed by your extermination, blanked from public records, you will effectively cease to exist both directly and indirectly.
The exact specifics of this job are above your clearance for now, but know this, everything the world has to offer is here.
If you are interested, contact Us :
3*3**95***3
Looking at the letter her eyes squinted at one line.
"Everything the world has to offer is here" Dolores mumbled.
As soon as she processed that line, she struggled up away from her bag.
She rushed towards her closet and took out a travel bag, she also looked through the closet for anything else essential.
Looking next to the travel bag, she noticed a framed picture of her, her sister and her dad.
Her eyes softened a bit, then she decided to grab the picture and the bag.
'I need to pack quickly', Dolores thought to herself.
She had a chance to fix everything, she was definitely gonna take it.
After she had packed up all her essential belongings, making sure no trace of her was left behind, she left her dormitory as quietly as she could.
As she stepped out to the front of her dormitory, she left her room key at the front desk.
She stood out in the open darkness in deep thought.
'Where do I go from here ?'
As she was considering her options, she heard footsteps behind her.
She turned abruptly to see who it was.
It was Jensen, his usual bright smile had faded, he looked at Dolores in silence.
As she was about to speak up Jensen cut her off.
"I won't stop you, your decisions are always valid" Jensen said looking down a bit.
"You won't report me ?" Dolores was confused.
"No, go do whatever it is you need to do, just…keep in touch," Jensen said, handing her a piece of paper.
Dolores looked at it for a while.
She crumpled the paper and stuffed it in her pocket.
She took one last look at Jensen before disappearing into the darkness of the night.
"Stay safe" Jensen mumbled and walked off in the opposite direction.