The Days We Remember [Requests Closed]

Virginia Tech

She didn't know what was going on. There was an air of panic everywhere in the university. Everything was being kept quiet, no one would give her a straight answer.

"Janet?"

She looked up to see a girl looking to her concerned. A student that came to the university. She watched her eyes widen as the pain in her chest suddenly sparked again.

"Janet, you're bleeding," she pointed out. "We need to get you help." She put an arm around Virginia, lifting her to her feet.

"No... We can't leave," she protested. "There's a man with a gun."

Despite Virginia's protests, she pushed a door open. The man was there and so was the gunfire.

She woke in her bed. Her heart slowly returned to a normal pulse. Her hair stuck to her skin as she pushed it away. Virginia sat up taking in a deep breath.

Why was this bothering her so much? She'd lived through wars and epidemics. How was this that much different? Maybe she wouldn't ever understand it.

She pushed her feet out of bed and got up. In the dark, she carefully made her way out of her room until her eyes slowly adjusted. Downstairs in the kitchen she fixed herself some tea. The kettle screeching before she turned the stove off and filled her cup.

"Make enough for two?"

She jumped at New York's voice. She nodded. "There's plenty of water." She pulled down another cup and filled it with water, putting a tea bag in each cup as steam rose from the liquid. She passed a cup to New York, holding one in her hands.

"What are you doing up?" he asked.

"A bad dream is all. You?"

"The same."

She waited a moment before continuing. "What was it about? Your dream."

New York inhaled deeply as he leaned against the counter. "The towers."

Oh. Her dream seemed so minuscule to his. How could she bother him? And wasn't she supposed to be the older sibling?

"And yours?"

She looked up to see New York taking a quick sip from his cup, steam still rising. "It was... What happened back in '04 at Virginia Tech," she said softly.

"Are you alright?"

She shook her head. "What happened bothers me so much, it hurts."

"If he worried if it didn't."

"But, I've seen wars, there was 9/11, I've seen people die and yet, this is what's been bothering me out of all of that."

"Don't beat yourself up. We're all different. Different things affect us all in a variety of ways. What causes nightmares for you, someone else may be able to deal with. It doesn't make you weak or strong, it's just who you are."

She looked up to him. "You come up with this on your own."

"Dakota's words, sort of."

Virginia smirked. New Hampshire had always been better with words than him. And maybe she was right.

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Requested by Cranberry_Otaku.
Um, I don't know how I didn't notice this before I actually wrote this, but the shooting I found was in 2007. Anyways...

On April 16 of 2007, a senior student at Virginia Tech shot and killed thirty-two people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks that were about two hours apart before he killed himself. Six other were injured trying to escape through windows.

Media covered the attacks internationally and drew much criticism over US gun control and gaps in the US system for treating mental-health.

Every year since, Virginia tech has held days of remembrance on the anniversary of the attacks.