Hillside Academy

°~° Fear and regret °~°

We all arrived in a huge room full of machines and scientists. I knew a few of these scientists because I technically grew up in a lab, as my father is a scientist himself. Some of them happily waved at me and greeted me in a friendly manner. I had a little small talk with some of them and could feel a few weird looks from my classmates and a confused look from my teacher. So the scientist I was currently talking to gasped before starting to speak.

"Oh! Ashlynn and I know each other because her father is one of the best scientists we currently have! She came by in the labs a lot when she was a kid and is familiar with any criteria we rank after." He said and chuckled.

My classmates looked dumbfounded, and the teacher looked like a proud father, which I honestly didn't quite understand, but I would not dare get confused by a trivial matter like that.

"Well, let's begin the rankings then. We will do it in front of everyone, so you know what it's like to be in front of a crowd. " Mr Lavez, our teacher, said, and we all walked up to a big screen beside many machines. "And since you all seem very eager to become the top students. Is there anyone who wants to volunteer as the first one?" A few hands rose, and I sighed because I had knowledge that they couldn't possibly possess.

Little do they know that the fear simulation has advanced in the last five years. It's not as easy as before anymore. I thought and folded my arms in front of my chest, sitting down in a chair.

"Ok, Valentina. You can begin" Said girl walked up to one of the scientists and let him place a machine on top of her head. As they were preparing to start, the teacher walked up to me and asked me something in a quiet voice.

"You probably know about the advanced rankings, don't you?" I nodded and smirked slightly. "You think she'll make it?" He asked mischievously after sitting down beside me.

"Barely"

...

"The Mental Stability test of Student 1704711 begins now." A voice spoke through speakers in the lab. The screen before us lit up, and we could see out of Valentina's perspective. It was dark. Suddenly, she had been sent into the middle of the sky. She was flying. All our classmates found it cool. But they seemed to forget that what they are seeing right now is either regret or fear of her. A scream could be heard. She wiggled around in the air.

"Pteromerhanophobia...!" I said, mainly to myself, and my classmates looked at me, some of them very confused. "The fear of flying."

Valentina stayed in the air for about 7 to 10 minutes and seemed to start losing her mind. The screen turned black again. After she was released from the sky, Valentina seemed to be in a basement, tied up, and she seemed to know exactly where she was. A woman entered the basement with a baseball bat. Suddenly, the woman took a swing, and the bat hit Valentina's stomach. And another hit. And Another.

"No mom! Please...! Stop!" Valentina's screams could be heard, as she was uncontrollably crying in pain and agony.

"You mistake of a child!" The woman screamed out. But a few seconds later, she was put in the perspective of the woman, and into the woman's mind. She left the room and walked into the bathroom. "I do love Valentina, but if I make her strong, her father will kill her. I have to weaken her. She is not his target." The woman said. "But I can't do this anymore" A tear rolled down the woman's face, and she took out a knife.

Valentina was then brought back into her own perspective, still tied up. "No, mom, no! Don't do this again! Please! I don't want to lose you again!" Blood rushed out beneath the door of the room that the woman had just gone in.

It faded to black again, and Valentina dashed out of the room, crying heavily. Tears came streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were red and swollen. She silently sat down in a chair and tried to catch her breath.

"6 years ago, this test wasn't this hard!!" One of my classmates said. The teacher chuckled and looked at me.

"Somewhere in these six years, A big scientist found a way to make this test more difficult because of a little... inspiration."

But then, a scientist came up behind me and put a hand over my shoulder. "This inspiration is also called Ashlyn." He said and snickered at my classmates proudly.

"Can you stop being so proud of me and telling them my whole life story?" I asked Dan, pouting jokingly. The scientist chuckled, nodded and then walked off again.

"Well, if she's is so amazing, why don't you let her do the test now?" The girl with the plastic face said to the teacher.

He looked at me with a very intrigued look on his face. "Do you want to?" He asked me hesitantly.

"Look at the ranking I had 6 years ago." I bluntly said, and he looked through his notebook upon hearing me.

"Mental stability: 12." He whispered, shocked as that was the highest possible rank. And I had reached it by the age of 10. "Ok, she can do the test." The teacher said to the plastic girl. And she smirked widely. So I walked up to the room with the machines and quickly entered the simulation. I was put into a dark room and then into a school. My middle school. It was in a country that my family and I had moved away from because of what happened there. This is fear and regret at the same time. Wonderful. I thought and entered the school hesitantly.

"I love you." I could hear a shadow say from behind me, but as I turned around, there was nothing. A lot of whispers could be heard that surrounded me.

"I love you."

"You are my everything."

"Oh, my love."

"I love you to death."

"I love you."

I gulped as I entered my old classroom, trying to ignore the whispers that were ought to let me relive my past trauma. My former classmates sat in the room. Suddenly, the whispers turned into louder ones and now saying:

"I don't love you."

"I hate you."

"I only used you."

"You were never family for me."

"You mean nothing to me."

"I would be fine with it if you just died."

My classmates started maniacally laughing. I raised my hands and suddenly had a lighter placed in my hand. I knew what I had to do to get rid of the simulation. I exited the school building and started igniting pieces of paper and throwing them into nearby plants and bushes and the school building through the windows. I set the school on fire, Little by little. With all the people inside. I didn't bat an eye and just did it. As I was outside, the whole school was surrounded by flames and adorned by screams.

"I love you." A voice rang in my ears, which I immediately recognized. Behind me, there were three people: My sister, my first love and... Myself.

"I love you" The voice of my sister talked to me once again to gain my attention.

"I will forever love you" The voice of the boy rang in my ears, who I had loved so dearly once.

"I should've jumped off the roof when I had the chance..." My voice could be heard from beside me. I suddenly held a dagger in my hands, and the lighter was gone. Oh lord, this is going to be something. I thought when I realised what I was about to do. But before having the chance to hesitate, I stabbed my sister mercilessly.

I knew she wasn't real. But I also know that she had to disappear from this situation. So I can get out of this simulation. I then slit the throat of my childhood crush. Not real either. Obviously. I then went up to my clone. I put the dagger in her hand, knowing exactly what's about to happen. The person in front of me rammed the dagger into her own heart and vanished too. And you are not me. I was suddenly pulled out of the simulation, being greeted with a frightened face of an unfamiliar scientist.

I walked out of the room to see more frightening faces, including my teacher's.