We entered the nurse's office haphazardly and closed the door shut, it was truly a horrifying sight outside the room. There were corpses of students everywhere we looked, some had their abdomens torn while some had their heads bashed. 

"Put him on one of the beds", I commanded Michel who was paler than a ghost. He quickly followed my lead and placed Ryan on one of the nearest beds. 

I started going through the racks trying to find a bandage when from the distant corners of the room I heard a voice call out to me.

"Are there no more monsters outside?"

I was shocked, I turned around in a hurry, only to see a lady with black eyes and long black hair, with a mole near her eye looking back at me from one of the farthest beds from the door. 

Her face was a mess, there were tears all over her face, and she looked terrified.

"Nurse?", It was the school nurse, who was hiding under one of the beds. 

maybe it was Ryan's luck but having found the nurse alive was astonishing considering the numerous corpses that were piled outside. 

"We need your help !" I shouted, startling her.

"There are no monsters outside, can you please help him?" I cried and tears started rolling down my eyes. 

I was scared, scared at the thought of losing my best friend and scared of all that was happening.

My body trembled as I fell to the floor, the nurse quickly calmed herself down and got out from under the bed and hugged me, Michel on the other hand stood at the corner of the room silently staring at us. 

"It is going to be alright. don't worry", she said hugging me tightly, I could feel her arms tremble we were both scared and I could feel that we found some solace in that fact.

She stood up after hugging me for a second or two and quickly went to look at Ryan's wound, I looked up from where I sat and for the first time, I felt grateful towards her. 

I had never really liked her, she was always busy scolding us but right at that moment, she looked so professional, that she swiftly gave Ryan first aid, as I stared blankly at them.

"The wound is thankfully not too deep, but it is not something to overlook either," she said as she swiftly wrapped the bandage around his abdomen.

"If only I could heal him" and with that sentence of hers came bright white light from her palm, and it lasted not more than a few seconds, startling us all. 

The room fell quiet, as we all stood bewildered by what had just happened.

"What was that?" I asked as I rushed near Ryan to check if he was okay only to find the blood on Ryan's clothes retreat into his body. 

I and the nurse exchanged a glance before she rushed to undo his bandages. 

And to all our surprise and relief his wounds were healed, there was no evidence of him ever being hurt.

It was baffling, I looked at the nurse in confusion only to see her collapse to the ground. 

"Mam!"

I cried running to catch her, I held her body in my arms as I struggled to move her to the bed next to us. 

Michel stood as if he had lost his soul in the corner of the room.

"Give me a hand!" I cried, prompting him to return to his senses. 

He quickly lifted the nurse and laid her on the bed

"What happened?" asked a voice very familiar to me, I turned around only to find Ryan awake and well sitting up on the bed confused. 

I rushed to hug him as tears fell from my eyes, I could not express the joy that I felt seeing him alive and well. 

He seemed more confused, but quickly organised himself and patted the sobbing me on the back reassuring me. 

"I am alright now, don't cry"

He said as he patted my back.

I calmed down, and felt slightly embarrassed over my sobbing, Ryan scoffed as if to make fun of me which pissed me off a bit.

"Michel !" I cried startling the boys.

"We are going to the second floor to check for any survivors!", I commanded as I took a few arrows from Ryan's bag. 

Bella's class was on the second floor, I had to make sure she was alright.

"Okay," said Ryan as he swiftly got onto his feet.

"No, it is going to be just us two" I stated firmly.

"No, I am coming too, it would be dangerous for you two to go alone", stated Ryan grabbing my wrist.

I was quick to shake him off, "You were just injured, staying here is safer for you and you also have to protect the nurse."

Ryan took a quick look behind him, gaping in the air trying to find a reason to come along with us. 

But I was firm in my decision, I was more ready to be hurt in his stead. 

I couldn't stand the thought of losing him, ever.

Michel looked uncomfortable but soon showed his agreement with a nod. I gave him a slight smile before I opened the door and stormed out with a bow and a few arrows followed by Michel with a dagger. 

I turned to see Ryan standing at the door, I gave him a slight smile and a quick nod before I turned around to head to the stairs. 

I heard the door behind me shut as I walked the halls to the staircase, I pursued my lips looking at the dreadful scene in front of us. 

When we rushed to the nurse's I did not have any time or patience to take in the scene that I was witnessing. 

But now that things had calmed down, what I was seeing hit me like a ton of bricks, I slowly navigated my way around the dead bodies, as I stared at them trying to identify who they were. 

I prayed for them to rest in peace.

The nurse seemed to know what had happened in the school but now that she has fainted after performing a miracle I could not ask her more. 

It seemed to be related to monsters, as that was the first thing she mentioned.

"Wait!" said Michel jolting me back to reality. 

"I need to tell you something"

I turned around to find Michel giving out a rather creepy smile. 

It startled me "Why are you smiling like that?"

"I just realised we can improve our abilities with coins," he said, as he stared into space.

'Status ' I thought to open up the status window, 

[                      [Coins: 8800]

HP: 60                +

MP: 5                  +

Intelligence: 70  +

Agility: 7             +

Strength: 32       +  

Vitality: 69          +

Fatigue: 78          +

                     [skill]]

Taking a look again at the status window I realised that there was a plus symbol next to each of the elements within the status window, I clicked on the plus symbol next to the strength element twice and the next thing I knew the number next to the strength element had increased to 33 and the number of coins decreased to 7800.

I was amazed by it, but at the same time, I became very cautious of the status window.

Right as the strength element increased I could feel a sudden change in me, I could feel my muscles move a little. 

I felt just a little bit stronger than I was earlier, which was perplexing. 

A change had occurred in my body without my knowledge, I looked at Michel Who looked overjoyed, unlike me. 

I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. "It is alright" I muttered before increasing the elements which I deemed necessary. 

"What is HP ?" I asked Michel, who was rather jubilant. 

"It means health points," He replied without batting an eye to me. 

Health points eh?, amusing alright so it has to do with my health, better I increase it.  But considering each point takes up 500 coins I need to be careful, I thought as I increased my HP by 2.

Intelligence is also necessary so better if I increase that, hmm.... Agility must mean how fast I can run so I should increase that too just in case. Considering the troll, if I were to meet it I need to be fast. I thought as I increased intelligence by 4 and agility by 2. 

"What is MP?" I asked Michel who was now excitedly eyeing me. 

"It is Mana points, it is used for magic"

"Magic?", I almost scoffed but then it hit me everything that was happening was nothing like what would happen in reality, it seemed more like a fantasy so maybe magic was not farfetched. 

I pondered a little bit more before increasing my strength by 2 again. 

I was at last left with 3800 and I decided to invest them in the fatigue element, and to my surprise, the fatigue element took only 200 coins for each point that was subtracted. 

I invested all the coins I had to decrease my fatigue which was at 89.

I looked at Michel and gave him a nod, and soon we were on our way navigating through the bodies of our dead friends once again.

We reached the staircase which was on the other side of the school from the nurse's office and at last it was time for me to face reality. 

I was almost sure that Bella would be dead just like all the students on the ground floor. I took a deep breath in to calm myself as I tried not to cry. 

It was time to come to terms with reality, I climbed the first step ready to face what reality had in store for me.