Just some things

Name: Clava
Fandom: Kutan (Original World by me and IndigoSilver08 )
Species: Human(?)
Location: Kitzle University of Health Sciences in Chikino, Kitzle

There's a saying in Kitzle:

    You always have two choices when becoming a doctor: to be a villain or to be a hero.

    Being a doctor is the best job one can have in Kitzle, or even all of Kutan for that matter. Doctors are constantly in high demand. Nurses too, but not as much.

    But in Kitzle, being a doctor is dangerous. Being a doctor means being exposed to knowledge that only a small minority of the population know. Being a doctor means possibly going insane.

    Being a doctor means being given knowledge that can save someone on the brink of death...or kill them and leave no trace.

    A doctor's responsibility is not light, nor is it easy. A doctor's responsibility is full of challenges and difficulties. Yet the rewards are great.

    The reputation of a doctor is one that calls for great respect. Everyone in Kitzle looks up to the doctors, and wishes to become one themselves.

    Back a few generations, however, the reputation of the doctors of Kutan was tainted with blood, and poisoned by a madness that haunts Kitzle.

    It lurks in the memories and waking nightmares of those who have lived through it. It lurks in the bedtime stories told to the small children by their parents.

    After the generation of insanity, as named by many, there was always fear lingering in the background of Kitzle.

    Which is why, at every start of year and end of year speech at Kitzle University of Health Sciences, the principal always ends it with the same line:

    You always have two choices when becoming a doctor: to be a villain or to be a hero.

Not that they actually have a choice... fifteen-year-old Clava thinks, as she wakes up once again, in the dead of night, on an unfamiliar street, her hands covered in blood, with no memory of how she got there. The air chills her to the bone as she trudges back to her home.

    Well, I don't, anyway... Clava thinks, washing her hands, leaving no traces of the blood.

    In the morning, the news broadcasts that an elderly woman was found dead that early morning, with stab wounds littering her body.

    Clava simply stays silent as she eats her breakfast.

    Because this is starting to become a normal occurrence.

"Now, I end this speech with a line I'm sure you're all familiar with." The principal smiles, as if telling a joke. However, for those who know about the origin of this line, they also know that this is not a joke. "You always have two choices when becoming a doctor: to be a villain or to be a hero."

    Polite clapping from the crowd as the principal steps down from the podium. Clava follows along, numbly. At this point, she doesn't really care for the saying. Not when she knows it's a lie—that she has no choice in the matter.

    So she merely follows the other students silently as the bell for first period rings.

During the first day of her university life, she gains a friend by pure coincidence.

    "Hey, sorry, but I think you grabbed my pencil by mistake," her tablemate, Joshua, says awkwardly, catching up to her in the hallway. "I can't find mine."

    Clava stops and stares at him blankly, before she starts digging in her backpack. She pulls out a pencil that was, indeed, not hers, and hands it to him.

    She continues on her way.

    "Oh, um, thanks! Sorry for bothering you...?"

    Clava gives him a suspicious look as Joshua follows her to her second class. He seems to notice as well, and he avoids her eyes as he rubs the back of his head.

    "I...guess we both have psychology together next," Joshua comments, laughing nervously, as they stop at the same door. "Ah... Sorry, about..." He gestures wildly to nothing in particular. "That. This. Yeah um..."

    They end up sitting together again. And again. All the way through the entire day.

    Joshua notes at the end of the last period, "This feels way too coincidental to be a coincidence." He frowns at his own sentence. "Well, not coincidental but, just, way too, like, well... You know..."

    Clava nods. He had been the one to speak anything at all the entire day, and not much either. Yet, somehow, neither of them seems to mind. They got closer in the weirdest way possible, and they are acquaintances now, if not friends.

    Clava does not speak at all to Joshua for weeks following, but he seems to understand her. It is the first time Clava felt somewhat happy, ever since that night years ago, the first time she woke up with blood on her hands, and the news broadcasting a murder the following morning. It is the first time she felt happy since her emotions were robbed from her that night.

Clava isn't sure what to make of what's in front of her when she wakes up in an unfamiliar alleyway again, in the middle of the night.

    There, right next to her, also covered in blood with the same dull, numb look, was Joshua, just waking up. He looks at Clava, and stares back.

    She speaks to him for the first time. "...You're going through the same thing as me?"

    It is, without a doubt, an odd thing to say. However, he understands, like he always does.

    Joshua gives her a mirthless smile. "I am."

    Needless to say, after that night, they became closer than ever. Perhaps even best friends, if they have the guts to admit it. They both have a quiet understanding of their situation, and neither would report the other, nor would they talk about it during the day.

    It is the most comfort they have found since this whole mess started.

    One can imagine the shock they feel when years later, the night before their graduation, they wake up to find themselves standing, blood pouring down their chests, with their own knives stabbing each other's hearts.

Tis short but its supposed to be so—