Cry to Me

1.

Blackness surrounded them in the darkness of the night. There was a commotion and sense of panic as bodies rushed around the room moving objects in front of doors and windows. A man sat on the floor with his head bobbing to the side. A girl carrying a white towel swiftly sat beside him, looking back and forth between his head and his abdomen. She opened his button down shirt and winced as she saw the large red wound leaking fluids and drenching the ground around him. His breathing was fast and panicked, the light in his eyes beginning to fade.

Taylor: Stay with me. David, do you hear me! Stay awake!

Simon looked out a crack in the window.

Simon: I think they're going away – for now. What should we do?

Everyone's eyes fell on David.

Charlie: Is he... is he going to make it?

Taylor focused on David and continued to apply pressure to his bleeding abdomen. It was as if she was submerged in water, where everything outside the bubble of her and David was hazy and distant.

Taylor: Look at me!

She gently caressed the side of his face, and with what little power he had left, he turned his head to look at her. Their eyes locked. With tears in her eyes, she looked longingly into his eyes and smiled, and for a brief moment he gave his familiar dopey smile back. Suddenly he looked away and started gasping.

Taylor: No, no... David... David!!!!

***

Everything was fuzzy as a nearby alarm clock suddenly rang. Taylor's hand slammed down on the clock to stop it from making more noise, and she tried to remember why she had to get up. It was the first day of her second year of medical school. She opened her eyes, took a deep breath in and out, and forced herself out of bed to start getting ready.

She arrived on campus to a bustle of activity, walking past a bunch of kids - obviously a bunch of undergrad freshman - trying to get their bearings. She liked that she knew exactly where she was going, like she was finally a real grown up who actually knew what she was doing. The world seemed a little less scary than when she first started her undergrad five years earlier.

She made it to the auditorium where the second year orientation was going to take place. It was a large room with a few hundred seats, and two entrances at the back where people were slowly trickling in. It took her a few minutes, but as soon as she spotted her friend Clary she hurried to sit beside her.

Clary: Ready for this?

Taylor: Are you kidding? I just want to get into clinical already. Can you believe we have to wait six weeks before we even get out of this building!

Clary: I know. I am so done with classrooms – ugh! I heard they have some really good placements though – like actually interesting things. I overheard one of the girls saying there were OR placements.

Taylor: For our first clinical? I highly doubt that.

Clary: Well, that's just what I heard. Don't shoot the messenger!

They both laughed and spent the rest of their time greeting familiar classmates and talking to each other. The orientation lasted a few hours, and it was not until the next day that they had their first class, research theory. It was one minute before eight in the morning when a tall man with wide-set shoulders walked into the room. He was dressed in a casual suite and a button-down shirt, but no tie. He spent the first few minutes setting up the computer and then began talking. His tone revealed a unique mix of something both somber and playful. It was as though he was very serious, but at the same time you always had to be on your guard for when he made a witty joke without breaking form.