The Alpha's Strange Girl

People say studying medicine is noble, but then practicing it is beyond words. To help people, save lives, make a difference, nobody talks about the politics. The backstabbing. The fact that the smartest, most hard-working person in the room can still get destroyed for doing the right thing. At twenty-four, I was the youngest resident in the hospital and the top scorer. Everyone knew it. I didn’t come from money, didn’t have a family name to throw around, I got there with sleepless nights and pure efforts. So when Dr. Hill, the self imposed god of the VIP department started picking favorites, I saw it for what it was. He wasn’t choosing based on skill. He wanted residents with rich parents, easy to manipulate and fake smiles. If you refused to be molded by him, you were invisible. Unless you were a woman he found attractive. Then you got attention for other reasons. I couldn’t take it. So, I did what I thought was right. I filed an anonymous report. Detailed everything...his bias, the punishments, the way he ignored top-performing residents who didn’t suck up to him. I figured someone in leadership would care. Turns out, they cared more about protecting him. The next week, Dr Hill was acting too calm. Too smug. Then came the rumors, he said I took bribes, made fake receipts, and used pictures from things that was not even related to the situation, he told the board I was assigning shifts in exchange for money. I laughed at first because every accusation was ridiculous! No one would believe it.. I thought they wouldn't. And just like that, my name was dirt. They didn’t fire me outright. They couldn't. "Suspended, pending investigation,” they said The looks I got in the hallway told me everything, no one was on my side. Never was. I walked out of the hospital like a ghost, I felt some sort of relief at the same time. At least I know I wasn't a coward. I didn’t cry. I didn’t yell. I just walked.Literally. Sadly the night before I came in for an emergency patient, left my car at home and used a taxi. So I walked through traffic, down side streets, past busy restaurants and parks full of normal people with normal lives. I need air. Space. Time. Something that wasn’t sterile white walls and people who smiled to your face and stabbed your back. I need to release the stress in me. As I walked on the busy streets, I hear my name. "Star" I turn and my eyes locked with an elderly lady sitting on a blanket selling jewelry. An old lady? Does she know me, I wonder. She's sitting on a folded blanket near the entrance to the old train station, jewelry spread around her like a personal treasure chest. No sign, no light, no stall, it was just her at the corner in the dark, and a hundred handmade pieces glittering like stars. Everyone disappeared... I don’t know why, but one bracelet caught my eye. Silver. Simple. Carved with a sun and moon tangled together. It looked… right. Like it was meant for me. Like it was calling me. I picked it up. “You choose well,” the woman said. Her voice was soft but strong. “That one takes you far. Maybe even… another where.” I smiled a little. “Like another world?” She didn’t answer. Just handed it to me with a knowing look. I bought it and left. --- That night, I got home, shut the door, and finally let myself feel everything. I turned the music up. Loud. Something with bass and fire. Then I poured myself a drink. Then another. I couldn't care less, I was suspended, no more worries. I am free! I opened my laptop. If they wanted to ruin me, that's okay, but I am not going down without a fight. If the board is too afraid of confronting the truth with just one bold witness, I'm sure they would be more willing if a thousand testify! So I uploaded everything. Screenshots. Videos. Dr Hill taking bribes, flirting and making uncomfortable remarks about nurses. And lastly the audio of him in his office offering me a position in exchange for s*x. It was all there. Raw. Real. I hit post. Then I danced. Like a mad woman around the house, barefoot, angry and free, laughing and crying at the same time. The bracelet on my wrist burned, but I didn’t care. With my eyes closed, I started spinning, round and round till I dropped. I slept for a while until I felt something tap me. I ignored it. Another tap. I turned, expecting it to be my roommate Alicia or something. But it wasn’t either... It was a kid. A boy, maybe seven years old, holding a stick. He was poking me... with a stick? His eyes were bright yellow, glowing faintly in the dark. And behind him—nothing looked familiar. Gone were the walls of my apartment. I was lying on a forest. A massive, glowing forest. The trees were taller than buildings, their bark black with veins of gold running through them. The leaves shimmered green. The ground beneath me was soft, warm, and glowing with patches of moss. I stood up quickly and looked around, I pinched myself and felt pain. It was real. This wasn’t Earth. This wasn’t a dream either. It was too real. Too loud. Every sound, the wind, the trees, even the humming air. It felt like everything was watching me. “What… no, where am I?” I finally asked the little boy standing far from me with his stick still pointing at me. He grinned like I asked him something funny. “Sarako,” he said. “The land of the true".