The Decision

Chapter 12: How silly it is to risk your own life, just to save another

Her face slightly dirty, her fair hair wildly standing up of her head, flat but regular breathing. I'm near her and almost can hear her silent caughs, caused by carbon monoxide particles.
She turns and I jump back, fearing she's awake, but she stays silent after the noise of her sheets while she turned. I wonder how somebody this beautiful can have such a bad reputation.

As I hear doctors approaching the room through the hallway, I take one last look at her, before I rush out, carefully watching out for people not to see me.

Half an hour later I carry my stuff to my bed, as Maya walks by;"Oh, hey, you're better. We're have you been ?", she asks.
„Yes, I am, otherwise I'd still lay in bed, in the hospital."
„Hospital ? What happened ?"
„Well, there was a little incident, nothing special."
„Nothing Special? Are you kidding ? You spent three days in hospital, in the middle of initiation. That truly Is something special. So tell me, what happened ? Sora said you wanted to hand in your project, but never returned.", I have never seen Maya more excited for somebody's answer to one of her questions.
"It's nothing interesting, really, just a fire in one of the hallways."
"A FIRE ? Nothing interesting ? Sephora North, you truly have a weird intention of uninteresting. Tell me, what happened exactly ?"
"We better go to the library to talk, not everyone has to know.", I suggest.

At the library, we both take a seat next to each other and I start telling my friend, what had happened that day. As I finished, Maya's Eyes were as wide as saucers.

"So,you, an initiant, saved the leader of Erudite from a fire!"
„Pssssssht ! Don't tell anyone, she wouldn't like to let everyone know she couldn't control the fire by herself.", I harshly remind her, asking myself if  I shouldn't have told her about the incident.
„Okay, Okay, but why didn't you just extinguish the fire and walk away, it wasn't your business to keep her safe, you risked your own life for hers."
"I-I don't know. It's- It's just that I saw her laying on the floor and I felt like helping her, I mean, she was unconscious, she could have died."
In this moment, I realize, that I didn't even have to think about my own life at the sight of Jeanine and there was a strange feeling in my stomach, thinking about the possible death of our leader. What is wrong with me ? Why do I seem to care more for this woman than for me ?

These thoughts keep me busy for the whole rest of the day, while I repeat the stuff we learned in the past months. A girl, just slightly taller than me approaches the table I'm sitting at and politely asks with a bright smile on her lips: " Excuse me, is there a seat at this table that is still free ?"
"Yes, take a seat please.", I politely offer her the chair next to me.
"I'm Chloe, aren't you Sephora North, the girl that worked on the protheses project with Sora Baker ?"
"Yes, but how'd you know, we've never met before ?"
"That's exactly how I know, just one initiant was absent at the presentation of our projects. It was you. "
"Yes, you caught me."
"But why weren't you there ? We had to present our projects with all the members of the group?"
I get slightly nervous at her question, knowing I can't just tell her the truth. I hurry to think of a lie instead and answer: " I got sick that day, the doctors believe it was because I was nervous." Even though I'm not likely to get nervous, yet alone sick because of a single presentation in front of people, I know that she can't know so I hope it's enough of an answer for her. Chloe nods and excuses herself after some other smalltalk to finish an assignment of her class.