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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?"
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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