back
Red groans but gets up and grabs their flashlight anyway. Tump mocks them for being afraid of the dark, but they just stick their tongue out at him, ignore Caen's sarcastic "take care", and depart. They leave the door a bit open, the light spilling into the corridor outside and illuminating a sliver of shaggy dorm carpet.
"Mess says it'll be here in ten", says Sylvi, and everyone goes back to playing around with their phones while the film is paused.
In the silence, they all hear the angry scream and the sound of something shattering downstairs very clearly. Three pairs of terrified eyes meet before they're all scrambling out of the room to check on their friend. Sylvi takes her phone, still in her hand, and Caen grabs a flashlight on the way out, but everything else is left behind in their haste.
The three of them arrive in the kitchen to signs of an obvious struggle; there is a tipped over vase in the middle of the room, its contents spilling all over the tile, and blood spattered onto most surfaces of the kitchen island. Both the door to the downstairs corridor and that to the front lobby are wide open.
Will you
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While Caen stares at the blood as though hypnotized, Tump and Sylvi each run for one of the doors. Tump, at the door to the lobby, grimaces and waves the other two over. There is blood soaking the patterned carpet of the front lobby, making a clear trail for the open front door.
Will you
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While Caen stares at the blood as though hypnotized, Tump and Sylvi each run to close one of the doors. Tump, at the door to the lobby, grimaces and waves the other two over. There is blood soaking the patterned carpet of the front lobby, making a clear trail for the open front door. Caen shuts the door softly and shushes the others. In the tense silence that falls over them, Sylvi remembers she's still holding the cellphone.
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Sylvi dials Mess’ number and they wait in tense silence for a second. Then, the faint sound of a cell phone ringing can be heard from outside the building. For the second time that day, their eyes meet, before, as if coordinated, all three creep over to a window. Because nobody turned on the lights in the kitchen, their eyes are already adjusted, and so they see Mess standing over Red's body in the bushes outside with bone chilling clarity. One of the three gasps, and Mess turns slowly to look at them.
back
Caen tears herself away first, dropping the flashlight and bounding through the kitchen and lobby for the front door to shut it. Tump and Sylvi see Mess move from the window and Sylvi jumps into action as well, running through the downstairs corridor to shut and lock the entrance to the other side of the building.
Just as Caen reaches the door, so does Mess, and though they get it most of the way shut, it manages to wedge their foot in at the last second. Caen makes a frustrated sound and keeps trying to close the door while kicking at its foot.
back
Sylvi grabs the other two by the wrists and pulls them up to the room. As she's shutting the door, you hear footsteps already bounding up the stairs. Yet, she hesitates to lock the door for a second: "Do we just hide or... try to get it?"
back
Cin dials 911 and explains your situation in a hushed whisper when an operator picks up. They say they'll have someone there as quickly as possible, and to remain calm. Sylvi hangs up and when the others open their mouths to ask why, she does an urgent 'shh' gesture. She silently suggests you either go back up and lock the door to the dorm room or hurry off campus to wait for the police by the street.
Will you
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You do your best to stay silent as you make your way through the lobby. Caen is out the door first and freezes not a step outside the building, making Tump and Cin run into her. Standing in the bushes next to the building is Mess, it's are holding a kitchen knife you recognize, and its hoodie is torn and blood soaked. At its feet lies Red, their torso is a bloody mess, their face in the dirt. You stare at each other over the bloody heap for a second.
Mess curses, and the next second it’s cleared the body of your friend in a leap trying to get to you. In the same moment Tump grabs Caen and Cin by the arm to pull them back inside. Before he can manage to shut the door however, Mess wedges its foot in the gap to keep it open.
back
As Tump struggles with the door, Caen bats at Mess' foot with the flashlight, trying to get it to flinch it back enough that you can lock the door.
After a bit of back and forth, Mess suddenly lets up and Tump manages to pull the door shut. Before he can even lock it, Mess is hurrying through the greenery towards the large window at the side of the room. Cin screams, and sprints further into the house just as Caen pushes the door open again. She grabs Tump's arm and pulls him outside to the sound of glass shattering behind them. For a fraction of a second Mess seems torn between the three fleeing parties, then it seems to decide its chances of getting Cin are higher than the others.
The remaining two stand outside briefly and lose their mind worrying over Cin before their attention is drawn to Red's body. They are laying in the bushes, just out of view from the path that runs around the building, and their blood is slowly soaking into the ground around them.
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As they're struggling to hold the door closed, they exchange a panicked look, and Tump jerks his head in the direction of the downstairs corridor. Caen and Cin nod and the three of them start sprinting for their lives, throwing the lobby door closed behind you. It bounces open again, but manages to slow their pursuer down enough that you all make it through the kitchen into the corridor.
You haul ass out of there, emerging at the other side of the building.
Will you
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You run across the empty campus and throw yourself against the glass doors of the main building. Mess isn't far behind you as you enter and start in a random direction. You have no plan for where to go from here, and since taking the stairs will definitely get you killed, you've got limited options of where to run to inside the building.
Will you
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You run circles around the ground floor of the building, increasingly feeling like you're trapped in some bad cartoon. Always the same route, only slightly varied. The doors and stairs being death traps means you're only left with a very limited route and it's impossible to throw them off unless Mess trips.
Instead as you pass the library entrance where the linoleum is replaced briefly by carpeting, Tump trips.
ENDING 1
4/5 survive, the murderer gets away
You all walk through the building in tense silence, and emerge at the other side. There's a conversation held entirely in hand gestures, and you decide to make your way along the dorm to the math building, avoiding running right across campus and leaving yourselves wide open. You make it there without disturbance, but still only dare speak once you're two buildings over and behind multiple closed doors.
"What now?" says Tump, and you look at each other. Cin suggests warning Mess and then calling the police, and the other two agree. Mess does not pick up. After Cin has been congratulated on her quick reaction to something traumatic, Caen says "Takes about eight minutes to bleed out".
"Shut up Caen", says Tump, and you sit there in silence until the police arrive.
ENDING 2
4/5 survive, the killer is caught
You do your best to stay silent as you make your way through the lobby. Caen is out the door first and freezes not a step outside the building, making Tump and Cin run into her. Standing in the bushes next to the building is Mess, who is holding a kitchen knife you recognize and its hoodie is torn and blood soaked. The knife is buried to the hilt in Red's back where they are laying in the dirt, a bloody, twitching heap. You stare at each other for a second.
Mess curses, and the next second it’s jumping over the body of your friend to get to you, only it’s not armed anymore. Tump catches its arm as it swings for you and Cin crowds it up against the wall next to the door, screaming at it. Caen slips the phone out of Cin's hand and calls the police.
ENDING 3
4/5 survive, the murderer is caught
Tump grabs a broom on his way through the lobby and pokes it through the opening between the doorframe and the door trying to get at Mess. It works, and Caen manages to lock the door. They sprint back into the kitchen and lock the lobby door behind them as well. Cin comes running back into the kitchen, and seeing as all the doors you can think of are now locked, you all hurry back upstairs and pile into the room. It's as you left it, and right as you're turning the key in the lock you hear glass shattering downstairs.
Tump starts to push a couch against the door as Sylvi dials 911. All three grab their phones to lock themselves in the bathroom until the police arrive. One more door between you and a murderer hasn't ever hurt anybody and after a few minutes you start to hear knocking at the door to the room that only subsides as sirens rise in the distance.
ENDING 4
3/5 survive, the killer is caught
Tump wastes no time locking the door to the lobby before sprinting after Sylvi. He catches up with her before she reaches the door and together you run across campus to go hide in the administrator's building. Once there, Sylvi calls the police and you sit in traumatized silence until they arrive.
ENDING 5
4/5 survive, the killer is caught
"Everybody grab something!", hisses Tump as you all scramble for anything that could be used as a weapon. Sylvi by the door ends up with a fire extinguisher, Tump with a broom, and Caen with another flashlight. As the door bursts open, Sylvi swings first, aiming for Mess' hand that is holding the knife. It makes to turn on her, but a flashlight that hits it in the chest distracts it long enough for her blow to connect. It sounds like it hurts.
Sylvi shuts the door behind it and Tump herds Mess into the bathroom with the broom. You push a couch in front of it and wait another 8 minutes for the police to arrive. The bathroom behind you is dead silent, and so is the room, except for you all crying.
ENDING 6
1/5 survive, the killer is dead
The handle turns just as she's trying to turn the key and Sylvi falls to the side as the door busts open. Soaked in blood, holding a kitchen knife and staring at you with murderous intent, Mess is quite the frightening sight.
Tump and Caen scramble for the bathroom with its lockable door, but Mess is quicker, catching Caen's back with a slash of the knife that makes her stumble into Tump. They both fall, and Mess wastes no time wildly stabbing at them on the ground.
There is nothing but screams and the stomach-turning wet sounds of a knife plunging into flesh for about a minute, until all of it ends with a metallic clang, followed by a heavy thud.
Over Mess's crumpled body stands Sylvi, a slightly dented fire extinguisher in her shaking hands.
ENDING 7
4/5 survive, the murderer gets away
You all sneak back up the stairs and into the room, where the light and the tv are still on. It seems a bit surreal. You lock the door and huddle against the door. Someone starts crying, and between then and 13 minutes later when the police arrive, probably all three of you cry.
The next half hour is spent being questioned by the police and then being wrapped up in shock blankets, and you sit in silence on the curb next to a police vehicle as they comb the campus for the person who left Red's lifeless body in the bushes in front of the dorm.
At some point Mess joins you there, and it breaks the spell that's been hanging over you. Sylvi starts sobbing on Mess’ shoulder as Tump and Caen both call a close friend or family member to tearfully confide in.
ENDING 8
3/5 survive, the killer is caught
Caen crouches next to Red in the dirt and tentatively takes their wrist. There is no pulse, which she announces to Tump, who collapses rather than sits down next to her.
Silently, she turns the body over to examine the injuries: multiple stab wounds that seem to have hit larger blood vessels, surrounded by plenty of small scratches and cuts. They didn't go down without something of a fight at least.
"Died how they wanted to," Tump says weakly as they start to hear sirens in the distance.
ENDING 9
4/5 survive, the murderer is caught
The two of you make it around the building just in time to see Mess tackle Sylvi on the gravel path as she's coming out of the building.
She manages to hit its wrist at an angle that makes it gasp and drop the knife, and then the two are rolling around on the ground, each grasping for the knife.
Tump and Caen hurry over to the fighting pair, and together manage to pull Mess off of Sylvi. Another ten minutes pass until the police arrive, in which Sylvi screams at Mess while the other two hold them down. As the police arrive, she gets in one last good punch that sounds like it cracks its nose. They are all crying.
ENDING 10
4/5 survive, the murderer is caught
You all have enough adrenaline in your systems to easily sustain you as you run back around the building and across campus to the first street that actually has people again. There are a couple of close calls where one of you almost trips on the gravel path, but you make it, and then it's all smooth concrete and one of you has started yelling as though their life depends on it. Which likely, it does. The joy you feel at lights turning on in windows as you bound past is indescribable, and you're not even sure Mess is even running after you anymore.
You all stop about five streets down from campus to catch your breath, and for a while there is no sound but your labored breathing in the cool night air.
The police find you sitting on the ground on a street corner, backs to each other, still breathing heavily.
ENDING 11
1/5 survive, the killer gets away
Mess catches up to you just as Sylvi and Caen try to pull Tump to his feet, and due to his open back, it gets Tump first. The other two are momentarily frozen, which is time Mess uses to yank the knife out of Tump's back and lunge for them.
It gets both of you, in the end, and with no witnesses remaining, there is nothing pointing to Mess being the killer.
ENDING 12
2/5 survive, the killer is caught
Sylvi and Caen scatter, both running in different directions. As Mess is still occupied with Tump, they both take a shot on the stairs, Cin running downstairs and Caen upstairs. While the carpeting in the basement makes it harder for them to track her, Sylvi quickly finds that downstairs was a bad call, since there are no hiding places that aren't locked.
Caen wedges herself in a closet on the third floor and puts every breathing exercise she has ever learned to use trying not to give herself away by breaking into sobs.
