I landed in the middle of what seemed to be a battlefield... I blinked. A ballroom in chaos seemed to be a better way to describe it. Colors blurred around me as I identified people in suits and ballgowns frantically running about, trying to escape the bloodbath that was occurring. Blotches of red splashed around the room, striking out to me the most among the different colors.

A loud clang of metal sounded through the air before being drowned out by the screams and battle cries. I realized I was breathing heavily, as if I had been in the middle of the battle for an extensive amount of time. I was wearing a dark purple gown that was ripped and covered in blood. Whether it was my blood or the blood of others remains unclear. A battle cry ripped through the blur of noise as a blotch of black rushed towards me.

I dodged it at the last second, grabbed one of the person's arm to pull him backwards and downwards and delivered a kick to his head. I looked around the room to survey the situation the best I could.

More people dressed in black emerged from the crowds and surrounded me. One of them lunged at me, whipping out their sword. I dodged it and picked a sword up from the ground and swung back. Another one made his move.

I blocked, swung, and stabbed at the attackers. My mind was completely empty and I was acting based on what I was seeing in front of me. I blocked when I saw a sword coming at me, and dodged when I felt a prickle on my skin that told me that something was dangerously close to me. I was doing pretty well in fending myself. I managed to injure some of them and knocked some of them out but the attackers kept on coming.

Through the noise of the fight and chaos, I heard someone shout my name. I stopped moving and began searching for the source. Bad move. Multiple sharp metal edges pierced through my body the instant I stopped fighting. I let out a blood curdling scream, and jerked my eyes open.

I was back in the lab. I sat upright and ripped the sensors off me. My eyes darted around the room to take in my surroundings and make sure that there were no attackers. My heartbeat was racing and beating so loudly, as if to reassure myself that I was still alive. Cold sweat dripped down my neck and back. I placed a hand over my heart and breathed in deeply. I fisted my hand, scrunching up the fabric of my shirt. It felt so real.

I heard the door slide open and I whipped my head up to see who was entering. It was one of the ladies in the lab coats. She came in holding a tray. "Here you go." She handed me a cup of water. I chugged it down gratefully before placing it back on the tray.

"Where's Mrs. Miller?" I asked her as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"She had work to do so she headed back upstairs." The lady replied, "You're free to go whenever you want. Please make sure you're back here by 5 PM though. Please place your hand on the black screen on your way out of the lab. We'll put your handprint into the system."

I nodded at her and stood up, my legs shaking slightly. "Oh, I haven't even introduced myself." The lady said again, turning my attention back to her. She extended a hand and I took it for a handshake, "My name's Isabelle. I'm one of the lead researchers for this department. I'll also be in charge of your virtual training sessions. If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to find me and let me know. I'll be happy to help!" She offered a wide smile and released her hold on my hand.

I offered a small smile in return and said a quiet, "it's nice to meet you," before I left the room. Before I left the lab, I did as she asked and pressed my hand against the screen. Once it had finished scanning, the screen turned green and a beep was heard.

I walked back to the hotel we were staying at, still feeling jittery. Every sudden noise made me jump and adrenaline was still flowing in my system. Once I finally made it behind the door of the hotel room, I exhaled a deep breath and went straight into the room I was sharing with Vanessa.

I dropped myself down onto the bed, face down in the pillow. The door opened and I spun around into a sitting position. Vanessa stood at the door, a hand on her hip. "You okay, Amelia?"

I let out another breath, "Yeah, just a little tired."

Vanessa hummed at that. "Well, you're back just in time for lunch. Get some food into your stomach then you can take a nap." She left to go back to the kitchen in our suite and left the door open.

Pushing myself off the bed, I went into the kitchen and plopped myself into one of the chairs. Vanessa handed me a bowl of food and sat down beside me with her own bowl. "The boys are out at an arcade and they're going to get something to eat outside."

I nodded and poked at a piece of vegetable with my fork. My mind drifted back to the virtual training session. "Are you sure you're okay, Amelia?" Vanessa lowered her spoon to look at me in concern. "You don't seem to be injured, but you seem really out of it."

I turned to look at her and shook my head. "I'm fine." I finished eating as fast as I could and tried to prevent my mind from wandering. I placed my bowl into the dishwasher and headed back into the room. I didn't bother changing out of my clothes and dropped back onto the bed. "If you're going to sleep, at least get under the blankets." Vanessa raised her eyebrows as she poked her head into the room. I shot her a look and pulled the blanket over me as she closed the door.

I laid in the bed thinking about the simulation. I could still feel the cold metal piercing through my skin. I shuddered, my hand subconsciously moving to one point on my stomach where I was stabbed. I drew in another shaky breath and hit my head with both my palms. "Okay. Stop thinking about it." I muttered to myself, repeatedly hitting my head as if it would get rid of the images.

I didn't end up falling asleep, but spent three hours laying there just thinking. I managed to stop my head from wandering too far but it was like I was battling myself. At 4:30 I decided that I should probably get going and dragged myself out of bed.

"Hey! You feeling better?" Vanessa called out from the living room as I passed by to get to the front door. Hugh was in the living room with her and they seemed to be playing a card game of sorts.

I nodded in response and made my way to the door. "You going somewhere?" Hugh asked as he placed another card onto the table.

"Just a walk. Will be back later." I replied, waving at them as I left the room.

As I walked towards the management building, my heartbeat began to speed up. Whether it was because of excitement or anxiety, or a bit of both, I wasn't sure. I got to the building a few minutes earlier and went straight to the elevator at the back of the building.

As I stepped into the elevator, I remembered how Mrs. Miller had pressed the black button. Imitating her motions, I placed my thumb on the button and pressed down. I felt a slight vibration come from the button before the button gave out a small green glow. The security in this building is amazing. A lot of it was biometric security that was placed in places you would least expect it.

I made my way to the same lab I was in last time. "Amelia! You're a few minutes early." Isabelle greeted me as I entered the lab. "You're free to start earlier if you want." I nodded in agreement.

"Isabelle, I've set the room up." A very familiar voice came from the left of the room. "Oh, Amelia?" I stared at Christopher who had just entered the lab.

"I forgot that you worked as a medic here." I muttered. My mind was too preoccupied with my virtual death from earlier in the day.

Christopher pretended to be hurt, "How could you forget me?" I snorted in response.

"Alright, Amelia, please come this way." Isabelle said as she began walking to the back of the room. She opened a door that led to stairs that went downstairs. The staircase was narrow and translucent. At the bottom of the staircase was a room aligned with a variety of weapons.

"You can pick any weapon that you want." Isabelle said as she walked through the room. I followed behind her as I looked around the room. I picked a dagger and a baton stun gun. I strapped the dagger to my thigh and sheathed the stun gun by my hip.

"Alright, behind that door is the training area where you will be fighting other skilled fighters. I will tell you when the fighting will commence. The fight will keep going until either I say stop, or one of you passes out."

I nodded in understanding and began to stretch my arms and legs. "Go head in when you're ready. Your opponent is already in there." Isabelle said before she began to head back up the stairs. I watched as she disappeared upwards and pushed the doors to the training area open.

My opponent sat with his back facing me. I walked towards the center of the room and stopped a bit away from him. He must have heard me approach as he began to stand up. He was tall and extremely muscular and a dark, gnarly scar ran down his forearm. From what I could see, he didn't have a weapon on him.

A beep sounded through the room as Isabelle's voice echoed through the room, "start."

At that, he sprinted towards me and his fist was in front of my face before I knew it. Fast. I dodged at the last second and moved away from him, only for him to show up in front of me. I continued to dodge his attacks, already struggling to keep up with all his attacks. As I tried jumping away from one of his punches, he reached over and grabbed onto my ankle, swung me around and threw me against the wall, knocking the air out of me.

I pushed myself back up, coughing and blinking away tears that had made its way to my eyes. I moved away just before his fist made contact with the wall, where my head was previously. I collected my breath and focused my concentration.

He came running at me again. I watched him closely to identify his habits and movements. As I dodged his attacks, I didn't jump away but only moved the slightest bit backwards, forwards or sideways to avoid getting hit.

One of his hits caught me off balance and I tried to spin myself around on my heel. He used his foot to cut off my balance and his fist connected with my stomach. I stumbled but prevented myself from falling over. I managed to dodge his next attack but I still stumbled backwards. A scene from my virtual training popped into my mind. The sword going through my body. I gritted my teeth as I dodged a kick.

A hand shot out and grabbed hold of my throat, efficiently choking me. As I struggled in the grip, I remembered another scene from the virtual training. An idea popped into my head. I bit down on my lip as I swung my legs upwards and wrapped them around his head and twisted my body to get out of his grip while twisting his arm and choking him back. I grunted as I felt his grip loosen slightly. Taking this chance, I used on foot to kick his head as hard as I could. As his grip loosened even more, I pushed and somersaulted away from him.

He growled and rushed towards me again. I took my baton stun gun from its sheath and imitated what I had done in my virtual training. I dodged his attack at the last moment and grabbed hold of his arm to pull him backwards, then thrust the stun gun forward. It connected with his back and a few sparks flew as it stunned him. I let go of him and he fell forwards.

I exhaled a deep breath and fell onto the ground as well. A beep came from the speakers again, signalling the end of the fight. The doors to the training area opened at a few paramedics came in to get my opponent and I. I stood up on shaky legs and followed them to the medic center. They sat me down on one of the beds and Christopher walked in not too long later.

"So apparently I'm in charge of you." He said as he placed a tray of medical supplies onto the table beside me.

I snorted, "you mean my injuries."

Christopher hummed, "whatever floats your boat." I narrowed my eyes at him. He knelt down and began to disinfect a bloody cut by my ankle. I frowned, when did I get that?

"His shoes had hidden spikes, you know." Christopher said, answering my unasked question. "By the way, your fighting style looked really... elegant? I suppose."

"Elegant?" I asked before pausing slightly. "You were watching?"

"Yeah, and yeah. Like you looked like you were dancing, or something." Scenes from my virtual training ran through my head again.

"Is that so?" I muttered to myself. Christopher looked at me questioningly and I just shook my head. As he finished bandaging the cut, Isabelle and a few of the other lab coats came in with different machinery parts.

"Time for your scan!" she said as she and the others began putting the different pieces together. "From now on, we'll be using a different machine to scan you. You can keep your clothes on for this."

I nodded and lied down on the bed when directed to do so. The placed the machine so that it was pressed up against my sides. A light began to glow from the bottom at my feet and made its way upwards. I felt small prickles along my arms as some goosebumps formed.

The process ended a few seconds later and they dissembled the machine but kept it by the bed. I slid off the bed and stumbled a little bit as my head spun. One hand shot up to cradle my head as the other reached out to grab onto something to stabilize myself. I felt my hand grasp onto fabric and a hand grabbed onto my arm.

As I regained my balance and the world stopped spinning, I realized I had grabbed onto Christopher's shirt and he was gripping my arm to prevent me from falling over. I released my grip and he let go of my arm as well. He shot me a worried look before he was called over to check on the person I had fought with earlier.

"Make sure to get a lot of rest." Isabelle said as she lead me back into the main building. "We'll see you back here tomorrow at 4 PM."

I nodded and began to make my way back to the hotel. As I walked into the door, I smelt Vanessa's cooking. But I wasn't hungry. I felt nauseas.

"Welcome back, Amelia! Dinner?" Vanessa asked as she walked out of the mini kitchen with plates of food. The guys were already seated around the table, looking at me expectantly.

I turned to head into the bedroom. "Not hungry."

I shut the door behind me and got back into bed. Why do I feel so uneasy?