Lovers: Boarding School

_halo

Thank you for the 160+ votes and the 2000+ reads on this story! I'm so blessed to have you guys FOR REAL  ( '͈ ॢꇴ '͈ॢ)･*♡  I won't badger you guys any longer than necessary so let's get to the story!

It really did hurt when Violet fell.

When the knife dislodged itself from her back, Violet dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. She hit the forest floor without feeling the impact, her menu options flashing and swirling in her vision as she sifted in and out of consciousness.

"Violet!" she heard someone scream, but the person's voice sounded distant. Sounds above her--shouting, something cracking--receded away until the only thing she could hear was her own deafening heartbeat.

Just as her vision began to fade to black, she felt hands lifting her from the ground.

"Violet? Violet? Can you hear me?"

Her every sense seemed to blur and cloud as if she was plunged underwater.

"Violet!"

The wound at her back gushed and throbbed, its heat fiery. 

"Violet, hold on! Stay with me!"

Stay with me. Don't leave me.

She heard other voices nearby, but she couldn't tell whose it was. A man held her up, pleading with her, begging her to wake up. But as soon as she looked up, her last ounce of strength evaporated.

The last thing Violet's eyes took in before they were blanketed by darkness was something glowing and pink above someone's head.

💜

Wake up.

-Violet- ripped off her headset and stood away from her monitor. A sheen of cold sweat beaded her forehead as she breathed in shallow wisps of air.

"What was that?" she said between breaths. -Violet- quickly checked the time on her clock and froze. Was I really unconscious?

Slowly, -Violet- touched the place where she had been stabbed in VR and felt smooth, unbroken skin. Dragging her eyes back to the monitor, she stared at her reflection on the monitor. Did a game actually render her unconscious? In RL?

"That's not possible," she found herself saying out loud. There were no games that -Violet- heard of that were capable of knocking users out cold in RL, or in any degree for the matter. Even if there were such games, they were definitely not available on the market (or legal for that matter), nor would they be compatible with her old IMG headset; her headset was not powerful enough to stimulate sensations strong enough to simulate pain.

A buzzing from her door bell nearly launched -Violet- into space before she calmed herself and warily checked her apartment's entrance monitor.

"Viola! Get down already! We're late for your sister's baby shower!" said a familiar face from the small screen.

-Violet- sighed. It looked like RL wanted a piece of her too.

XOXO

Violet returned to the game three days later.

Her intrigue in the game (and her dying curiosity) overrode any apprehension she had with the mysteries involving its origins and its exceptionally perplexing mechanics. She'd figure she would find her answers if she continued playing the game.