Sshh, Be Quiet.

During the night, Lisa was woken up by a crash. She sat up quickly and could make out the silhouette of someone by the window. She reached for her glasses, put them on, and saw Brian standing by the window.

“What’s up?” Lisa asked, reaching to turn on the light.

“You didn’t feel the cold wind that was blowing in?” he asked.

“No. But maybe if you didn’t sleep half naked, you wouldn’t feel the breeze.”

“This window doesn’t even open, where the hell would a breeze come through?”

“A crack maybe? Explain the crash that woke me up.”

“Sorry about that, one of the boards decided to detach as I leaned on it.”

Brian went back to his bed, and Lisa went and laid back down herself. Within a matter of minutes, she could hear the deep soft snoring of the man in the next bed. She then really thought about it. Sleeping in the same room with a guy she never thought she would meet. After a short chuckle to herself, she fell asleep.

Another crash woke Lisa back up sometime later. Once again, she sat up and looked, assuming to see Brian standing by the window. Nothing.

“Brian?” she whispered.

Lisa turned to his bed, and he was sound asleep. She felt a sudden chill and turned to the window. She stepped out of bed, her bare feet coming into contact with an oddly cold floor with her bare feet.

“Oh shit,” she whispered in shock.

She walked towards the window, and put her hand by it, feeling for a breeze. There was nothing though. She turned back to her bed, but a glow on Brian’s nightstand caught her eye. It was his laptop. The top was open just a little, so she went and opened it. A box was on the screen. An instant messenger box. Lisa thought about ignoring it, not wanting to get into Brian’s privacy, but as she turned away, it beeped. She turned and decided to read what was there.

“’It will start tomorrow night,’” Lisa read the message quietly to herself. “What will start?”

She tapped on the keys, typing in a response. Seconds later, a reply popped up.

“’Start the killing. Start the killing.’”

Lisa instantly thought it was one of the other guys playing a prank, because it was a line out of a song. She closed the laptop then walked out of the room, down the hall. Passing each door, silence came from all the rooms. No lights under the doors, no sounds, nothing. She went back to the room and saw the laptop open, blinking with a new message.

“’You know I make you wanna scream,’” she read the message, then quickly typed a response. “Why are you quoting song lyrics?”

Lisa waited for a response, getting one seconds later.

“’What songs? I’m not quoting any songs.’”

Lisa blinked and closed the laptop, backing away. A moment later, she opened it again, seeing a new message.

“’You’re scared, aren’t you, Lisa?’”

As she typed a response in, a new message came up before she could enter hers.

“’Don’t bother asking who this is. Because it isn’t any of the eight others. They’re all sound asleep in their beds.’”

Lisa jumped on a bed, thinking it was her own, until she heard a groan.

“What the fuck?” Brian said groggily.

“Do any of them send anonymous instant messages to you at all?” Lisa asked.

“No, why?”

“Look at your laptop.” She got off Brian’s bed and sat on her own.

Brian picked up his laptop and looked at it. As he started to say it could be one of the others, something else struck him.

“I don’t have an internet connection right now. How the hell is this getting instant messages?”

He turned it off and took out the battery.

“That is fucking scary,” Lisa said.

Brian just grunted and got back into bed, shutting off the lamp. Lisa sat on her bed, listening to him. She thought she heard a frustrated sigh, and she felt bad for waking him up.

“Sorry for jumping on you like that,” she said, blushing to herself lightly.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled.

Lisa rolled over and tried to fall back to sleep. She stared at the wall, listening to Brian’s breathing become deep as he fell back to sleep. Then he started to snore. Lisa curled up and tried to calm herself down. Then she began tossing and turning, still unable to fall asleep.

“Can’t sleep?”

Lisa turned and saw Brian sitting up, looking her way. She shook her head.

“You fall asleep and wake up so quickly.”

“I wasn’t asleep.”

“You were snoring.”

“Okay so maybe I dozed for a bit. Don’t worry, I’m sure the computer thing was a glitch.”

“You said there was no internet connection. You can’t get messages without an internet connection.”

“It’s off now. Go back to sleep, and it’ll all be fine in the morning.”

Lisa shrugged, then she laid back down. The room fell silent again, and they both managed to fall back to sleep.