Tori James looked over at her sister, Sami, who was staring at her textbook on the table in front of her like she was trying to will the information into her head. Her sister's curly dark hair was pulled back in a bun to stay out of her face, which was screwed up tight in consternation.
"You okay?" Tori chuckled, patting her younger sister's shoulder.
Sami seemed to snap from her trance. Her dark eyes met her older sister's green ones. "Was your sophomore year this hard?"
"Of course it was. And it only gets harder."
"Comforting." Sami dropped her head into her hand, elbow propped on the table to support the weight.
"Looks like I'll be pulling an all-nighter," Andrew grumbled from next to Tori. "It's nearly three AM and I've got crew bright and early at six." He ran a hand over the short dark hair on his head to the back of his neck where he massaged it briefly before letting it fall to his lap.
"Whine, whine, whine, brother, that's all you do." Josh looked up from his finance book at his twin brother. They were identical, except for their hair. Josh liked his long. "I can't tell you how many times I've pulled all-nighters since we got to college a short four years ago."
A sudden loud snore caught the group's attention. All heads turned towards where Gregory was sitting, hunched over the table, his head resting on his sociology book, blond curls spread across the pages and his mouth wide open. He snored again and Matt laughed. The baseball player had his camera phone turned on his sleeping teammate.
"This will come in handy one day," he muttered. "I can feel it."
Sami shoved Matt. "Leave him alone. He's been working hard this semester. He's done nothing but study this week."
"Leave him alone!" Matt mimicked in a high pitched voice. "Leave my pansy boyfriend alone!"
This time Tori hit him. Hard.
"Shit. That hurt!"
"I know. Now leave my sister and her boyfriend alone. You two are teammates. You should have his back."
Josh had a sarcastic look on his face as he caught Matt's attention. "Watch out, she's starting to sound like Andrew."
Matt laughed. Greg's head snapped upward.
"Cultural relativism!" he cried.
This time the whole group laughed.
"You've been studying too hard dude." Josh stood up. "I'm gonna grab a soda from the vending machine. Anyone else want something?"
Most of the group shook their head. Matt stood up too.
"I'll come with you. I need a study break."
The two boys had just started away from the table when a shriek rang through the building. The whole group froze. The hairs on the back of Tori's neck were standing up.
"What was that?" Sami whispered, her frightened eyes searching her sister's face for some sort of answer.
"I don't -"
Another piercing scream echoed through the empty business lobby.
"It came from that way!" Andrew was on his feet, pointing towards the Hankamer side of the building.
"Are you crazy!?" Josh hissed. "We can't go that way!"
"We have to," Tori whispered, standing up too. "There might be someone who needs help."
Sami reached for Tori's hand. Greg was still sitting frozen in his chair, blue eyes wide, mouth open in a small 'o' of fright.
"Come on," Matt murmured finally. "I'm with Tori and Andrew. We've got to make sure whoever screamed is okay."
The tension in the air was thick as all six college students gathered close and slowly made their way towards the hallway leading to Hankamer. Their footsteps sounded like thunder to their ears, but they kept moving, each hoping and praying that nothing was amiss. Finally they reached the corner. Andrew pulled ahead of the group by a couple paces. He spotted a pair of legs draped down the stairs in front of Kayser Auditorium and hurried forward. The other five followed a few paces behind him.
"Oh God," Sami breathed, holding a hand over her mouth and turning away.
It was a girl, their own age, with long blond hair pulled back into a loose braid. Her neck was twisted at an odd angle. Andrew knelt beside her, placing two fingers on her neck, trying to locate a pulse.
"She's dead."
His voice was matter of fact but his expression gave him away. He was shocked.
"We need to call 9-1-1."
Josh pulled his cellphone from his pocket and swore. "AT&T service sucks."
Matt had his out. "Same."
Sami had pulled her cell phone from her pocket and was frowning at it. "I don't have service either."
"You're kidding." Tori looked over her sister's shoulder at the phone in her hand. "We get service everywhere."
"Not here. Not tonight." Her sister's voice trembled. "We need to find a landline."
"There's one in the -"
Without warning, the lights in the building flickered at went out. Sami let out a brief yelp and clung to Tori.
"Where's the lights?" Matt hissed. "There should be light coming in from outside!"
"Maybe those are out too," Tori answered, not quite believing her own answer.
After another few tense moments, the emergency lights flickered to life. Andrew was still kneeling on the ground, but now there was no body.
Andrew glanced down and his mouth fell open. "Where'd she go?"
"You tell us!" Greg finally snapped from the back of the group. "You were right next to her when the lights went out."
"She was dead!" Andrew answered forcefully. "I didn't move her, and she obviously didn't move herself, so who did move her?"
Silence fell as the six friends stole glances at one another. Suspicion was building. Tori could feel it.
"Look," she said finally, trying to keep her voice calm, "we didn't kill her. We were together as a group when she was killed, so none of us are the killer. That means that there's someone, or multiple someones in the building with us. We need to get out of here and find some help."
Matt jogged for the doors leading to the sidewalk out front. He tugged on the doors. "Locked!"
Josh suddenly took off towards the far end of the corridor, headed for the doors near the Accounting Department offices. He pulled and pushed at the doors. "These are too!"
Matt had reached the doors at the opposite end of the hallway, where the group had passed by. "These are too!"
"What's going on here?" Andrew asked, standing up slowly. "Something really strange is going on here and we need to find out what it is."
"No we don't!" his brother yelled from where he was still tugging at the doors. "We need to get the hell out!" The group watched as Josh tugged his sweatshirt sleeve over his fist and aimed a solid punch at the glass. A loud curse word and the fact that the door hadn't so much as cracked told them that it hadn't done any good.
"We're trapped," Sami whispered into her sister's shoulder. "We're never going to get out."
"Sure we are," Greg murmured from behind her. He laid comforting hands on his girlfriend's shoulders. "Someone will find us. All we have to do is stay awake until morning hits."
"No," Andrew told him. "Tomorrow is Saturday. Nobody's going to find us until Monday, so we need to find out what's going on and how to get out. Otherwise we're sitting ducks."
"And how do you propose we go about getting out, O Fearless Leader?" Matt demanded. "Show us O Great One."
Andrew shook his head and looked at the floor. "I don't know," he admitted finally. "But doing something is better than doing nothing."
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