My steps are light as I follow close behind them.
After some time, they arrive at a black metal gate that’s situated at the far right of campus. The building is separated from the rest of The King’s U by wires that surround the impossibly tall walls of the property. They extend for as far as the eye can see and fog eats up the rest of the distance like an ominous scene from a horror movie.
Ravens and sparrows line up along the top of the gate and shriek in unison as they fly away.
Okay. A hundred out of a hundred on the scary factor scale.
The group of students I followed queue at the end of a long line of about thirty people.
At the gate, there are two men wearing black suites and creepy bunny masks whose lips are smeared with blood.
Fake, hopefully.
One of the bunnies seems to be checking the students' QR codes. Then upon seeing something on his device, he confiscates their phones and mechanically feels them up for other phones, cameras, or electronic devices.
All of those go into a basket with a number tag on them. Then the other bunny straps a white mask with a number on each participant’s face and ties a bracelet with the same number on their wrist before letting them inside.
As my turn approaches, my whole body starts shaking. Second thoughts swarm my mind and I stare behind me, only to find others queuing on and on.
If I leave now, nothing will happen.
If I leave now…
No.
How is that different from being a coward all over again? Dev’s death hit me so deep, and I couldn’t deal with it for such a long time. This is my first real opportunity to get past this.
So what if there’s danger? I can take it.
Not sure how I got the invitation, but maybe that’s a sign to be here and finally get closure.
It’s my turn to give the creepy bunny my QR code. His dark eyes scan me before he takes my phone and mechanically searches me. Once he’s sure I have nothing on me, he nods to his friend and the other bunny shoves a mask on my face and a bracelet on my wrist and points inside.
Sixty-nine.
That’s my number. Blimey. What an unpleasant coincidence.
My steps are careful as I drift to what seems to be the front garden of a mansion. The giant building sits in the far distance with the imposing presence of a gothic chapel.
We’re all lined up facing it, as if we’re waiting for a grand opening or something. Some students chat with each other, some speaking in American accents, others in Russian and Italian. Some even in Japanese.
They are definitely all from The King’s U. I don’t dare speak or I would be picked up as the weakling from REU, as Anni so eloquently put it.
Instead, I focus on other students filtering in from the gates. With the masks on, we’re all anonymous here, like at a twisted costume party.
Some time passes before the last participant comes inside. One hundred.
That’s the number of students taking part in this fucked-up ceremony.
The gate screeches in unison with the crows as it slowly closes. I stare at it the entire time, along with the creepy bunnies who remain outside with all our belongings.
“It’s finally happening,” a giddy male voice, number sixty-seven, whispers to his friend, number sixty-six, in an American accent. Both of them are standing beside me, and unlike me, they’re only focused on the closed doors of the first story of the mansion.
“We failed last time, but we’re definitely getting in now,” sixty-six says. “What do you think the challenge will be this time?”
“As long as it’s not a mind game with the red or the orange mask, we’ll be fine.”
“You’re right. Those two are brutal.” Sixty-seven pauses. “But even the white mask can get tricky if he chooses to.”