Episode 1: Welcome to Wheldrake College: Part 9

This is how you die in a horror movie, Oliver thought to herself, sprinting down the walkway desperately looking for Scott and Gwen. The kind of cute officer, who was nice enough not to break up the party back at Mason, had warned everyone there were some bad people on campus. He was doing his rounds, Mason's party not being the only one going on tonight, to make sure everyone travels in packs to get back home.

Oliver, without thinking, kicked herself now about it, was running into the dark looking for her friends, hoping not to get killed. She wasn't sure what walkway they would take; there seemed to be a dozen storybook paths on the campus, each one having a different color to it. The blue path with markings on the streetlamps was one of the closest walkways to the party, but there was the red path, with the same markings, but it was also close to the party.

She stood at the fork of the paths, staring down both of them. The streetlamps ran down both of the paths, bending around the trees, and both of the paths were welcoming to her. She blinked a couple of times, not sure where to go.

Oliver huffed, throwing her hands down, wishing she hadn't let Scott go off after Gwen alone. She didn't know why she was being pulled to Gwen except for the feeling she got around her. It was a bit dark, like rain on the wind, but she had felt it before in her life. She always seemed to be pulled to the fuzzy energy around such people. Sometimes, they knew about energy; sometimes, they had no idea.

Her only friends back in high school believed it to be magic. They wanted to be witches or wizards, but they were killed in a car crash. Oliver wanted to believe it was merely fate, but she didn't believe in fate and always knew there was something more to the crash.

It might have been a curse.

Her friends might have played with the wrong kind of spells.

Oliver didn't know, and the only thing that seemed to matter was that they were dead, and she was alone.

"Ugh," she growled to herself, staring at the path. "Only one way to handle this." She pulled a coin from her pocket. "Head's left, tales' right."

She flipped the coin into the air, watching the silver high-five a bit of light before falling back down. She went to catch it but missed it, watching it hit the stone ground and roll towards the woods. She was never good at catching anything, coins, footballs, boys, and most of all, hints. People always thought she was an oddball, a bit crazy, and might have been, but she liked to believe the best people are.

She chased after the coin.

People didn't get too close to her because she was odd. What they didn't understand was that Oliver knew she didn't belong to this world. There was a deep feeling in the depths of her soul whispering that she was an outsider. She was, and she knew it, and sometimes, it hurt until she accepted it as a part of herself.

She had hoped college would be different. She would find other outcasts among the halls. She at least found one, Scott and maybe, Gwen.

Oliver was going to make Gwen her friend. She seemed lonely among all the normal people, and Oliver could see it. Gwen was different from Oliver. They would be best friends soon.

The coin ran off into the grass, and Oliver bent down to try to find it. She was hunting for it on all fours, cursing herself the whole time. She stopped hearing something in the woods. She looked up, closing her eyes for a moment.

She had seen enough horror movies to know how they ended. In fact, she loved horror movies and watched them all the time. She slowly opened her eyes, planning on seeing the Shape from Halloween. The actual name, Michael Myers, was given in the script, or maybe Jason, but there was nothing.

Oliver rose to her feet, holding the coin, not looking down at it. The coin in her hand was a tale and would have sent her down the left path, the red one, right to Gwen, doing everything she could to keep Scott alive, but something moved beyond the darkness.

She shook her head, knowing it would be a bad idea to follow the sound. It was a rookie move, and yet her feet were already taking a step forward into the woods. One of her shoes was untied, another bad move, while the dark trees stared down at her in a bit of awe and horror. She had no idea what she was walking up to, but the great trees knew�"they always knew.

Movement behind her made Oliver gasp, looking behind, almost expecting to see Pumpkinhead there about to drive a pole into her back, but then she remembered she hadn't been riding a dirt bike, killing some little boy. At least, she didn't think she had been.

But what she did see were two foxes sitting on the edge of the walkway, staring at her. They both tilted their heads at her as if wanting to say something. Oliver had seen those foxes before, mostly in her dreams.

Crack.

The breaking sound pulled Oliver away from the foxes. It sounded as if someone was trying to chop down a tree. She moved slowly deeper into the woods, hiding behind the trees. A rush of wind brought a warm iron smell assaulting her face. She wasn't sure what the heavy iron was at first, but the closer she got to the sound, she saw blood in the trees and on the ground.

It was a little path for her to follow.

She bent around the tree to see a sight worse than any gore-porn horror movie she had ever seen before, or the weird moments where she went looking for some pure gore on the web. It was a mistake; she found things she could never forget, much like what was happening in front of her now.

A man with details always fleeting her mind was cutting out the bones of some poor homeless man. She wanted to gasp, but the darkness around her welcomed her into it as she passed out, crumbling to the earth.