“I’m okay, I guess,” I replied.
“That’s good to hear.” He cleared his throat and spoke up again. “I’m sorry to do this to you right now, but we need you to tell us what happened again. From the very start.”
I sniffed. “I was in bed asleep, and then a bad dream woke me up. That’s when I realized someone was in my room. It was a man, and he was standing at the end of my bed.”
The security guard made a note on a piece of paper, and Sanders tipped his head to one side. “How do you know it was a man?”
“Body shape and size. He also spoke to me, and it was definitely a male voice.”
He nodded slowly. “I see. Keep going.”
“He was dressed in black, and his face was covered by a hockey mask.”
“A hockey mask?” Sanders echoed, brows shooting upward.
“Yes. I was so shocked at first that I didn’t say or do anything. I just sat there staring. Then I finally asked who he was and what he wanted. I can’t remember my exact words, but I think I also said something like, ‘I won’t tell anyone if you leave right now’.” I hesitated, swallowed a hard lump in my throat, and went on. “That was when he spoke for the first time. He said we both knew that wasn’t true. Then he jumped onto the bed and grabbed me.”
“He physically assaulted you?” Sanders asked, looking alarmed.
I nodded. “He held me down. Put his hand over my mouth. Then he said something about how easy it would be to kill me.” My hands began to tremble so violently I almost dropped my second cup of tea all over my lap.
The security guard leaned forward. “Take your time,” he said gently.
I took several deep breaths and finally went on. “I managed to get away from him, and I ran into my bathroom and locked myself in. Then I noticed all the graffiti on the walls. Messages written to me in black paint.”
“Do you remember what they said?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying my best to recall the petrifying messages daubed on the walls. “Leave now. Get out before it’s too late. Bitch. Whore. Go home before we make you regret it,” I said, voice barely above a murmur. “Stuff like that.”
“What happened then?”
“He started knocking at the door. I thought he might break it down eventually, so I went to the window and climbed out. I went down the trellis, and it broke when I reached the first story. That’s how I ended up falling in the bushes and getting all these cuts,” I said, gesturing to my arms and legs. “Then I ran to the nearest security guard. You know the rest.”
Sanders leaned over and muttered to the security guard for a moment. Then he straightened his shoulders and addressed me again.
“Did you attend Chris Hewittson’s party earlier tonight, Laney?”
My brows knitted. “Yes. Why?”
He ignored my question. “I believe it was a Friday the 13th event, and students were told to wear relevant costumes. Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“So some people were wearing hockey masks like the killer in the movie franchise?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“You also mentioned that you were having some sort of nightmare before the incident occurred in your dorm.”
“Yes.”
“Can you remember what happened in it?”
I scrunched up my eyes, straining to remember. “Um… I think I was being chased by weird monsters. Then I ran into some boys from my class in a forest. They yelled stuff at me, and then the ground suddenly swallowed me up.”
Sanders leaned forward. “What sort of things did these boys yell at you?”
“Stuff like ‘you don’t belong here’ and ‘you shouldn’t be here’,” I replied.