𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚌𝚎.

mack was walking around campus happy to be back honestly. of course there was a moment of prayer to the young man who had lost his life here. she didn’t know him, barely even talked to him, but still. a life taken was a life taken. she had been standing a few feet away from the male that was now mumbling under his breath. soft eyes looking to him, the urge to give him a comforting touch was strong but she just shoved her hands into her designer jacket. “i don’t know.” she breathes out, honesty in her voice and her eyes. “obviously something not good.” she whispers, not wanting to break the still night with the sound of her voice. “you okay?” it was a genuine question. mack never just asking it to get a rise out of someone, or to prod at them. she was genuinely asking a question.

“just, you know, confused.” what else was new. however, this was a different sort of confusion. not the needing a few extra seconds before the puzzle pieced together or something that could be solved with asking just another question. this was bigger. “i feel guilty. like... i’ve just been ignoring it thinking it’ll stop.” marco squinted his eyes at the building. he hadn’t looked at it in a long time. felt a hell of a whole lot different now than it did freshman year. he looked over at mack. “feel like i can’t do that anymore.”

“I guess… At least it’s been shepherds, right?” Benji offered in an attempt to soothe. He didn’t know how to explain in simple terms that most people were safe as long as they didn’t meddle. “At least we know there’s safety in not pressing subscribe. So, just don’t. Maybe the deaths will end or they’ll just shut the campus down for good. I really wouldn’t blame them.”

subscribing had never been a temptation. marco hardly felt like he understood the app at all. beside, final year, he was just trying to focus on hockey and school, with a little bit of partying slipping through the cracks. “i don’t know if i could do another year, man. like... i never even intended to do five. six?” marco shook his head. in the grand scheme of things, what was one more year in comparison to ending up like, well, like chris. “feel like it’s stupid but i keep kind of hoping it’s the end. i mean, i hope it is. fuck.”

why did lockwood feel more like a graveyard then a college campus these days? seeming like more and more bodies were showing up and honestly the whole thing was fucked. honestly, bash still felt like he was in denial about it all. him and christoph hadn’t been on the best of terms, not since their break up but that didn’t mean bash didn’t care about him any less. “it’s all so fucking fucked.” honestly oblivious to the fact that his eyes had tears in them. maybe the other would think it was because of the wind. hesitant orbs flickered to take in the sight of the male, “you uh…okay? you need anything?”

marco nod his head. fucking fucked was an accurate representation; throw in a few question marks and that about summed up his reaction. “no, i’m... i’m good,” he replied, shaking his head softly, his eyes still cast towards the building. he’d lived on the third floor, third window from the right. marco wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that he didn’t know where chris had been. probably the latter, right? “just, the whole thing’s kinda hard to wrap my head around. like... it’s real but it doesn’t feel real. i don’t know, maybe that’s just me.”

“I wish I knew… A part of me feels like maybe transferring out of here is the safest thing to do,” he replied, eyes trailing over the abandoned building. After a great vacation, he should be feeling relaxed and refreshed, but instead he had a huge feeling of dread weighing down on his shoulders. He was thankful, at the very least, to be living off campus and a certain distance away from immediate danger.

“probably,” marco nodded, his eyes still cast upward at the dormitory. “my mom texted me before the flight about, uh, coming home but—” he paused, shaking his head. she’d found a flight to regina international, leaving just a few hours after his. the idea of going home sounded nice. safe. but marco continued to shake his head. “i can’t go. the season just started and, you know, i’m almost out of here anyway.”

Benji had sat on a curb outside the abandoned Fidelis dormitory, observing the yellow police tape that circled it. It felt a little too unreal like he was expecting someone to tap him on the shoulder and let him know that all of this was just some sort of prank. He couldn’t even really explain why he knew Christoph to most people. Glancing up at Marco when he was in hearing range, Benji shook his head. “Think maybe we were a little naïve to think that the tragedy was going to end last year.”

marco blinked as another voice chimed in. too distracted by the building itself, he hadn’t noticed benji sitting on the nearby curb. “i don’t... i don’t know what i thought.” he shrugged, taking a slow few steps closer to the other boy. “feel like i’ve, you know, been trying not to think it’s real.” but glancing over at the police tape now, it was smacking marco square in the face.

TASK 004 - "a fun and interesting fact about me is that i’m a fucking idiot”

“Huh,” Lana let out like he’d shed light on a complicated theorem, hand aimlessly feeling for her glass without actually glancing down to check it’s whereabouts. “I think the right’s my favourite, too. I don’t know, though. Kind of like them both,” she decided, eyes flitting between both of his, subconsciously still trying to decide if there was a tip in the scales. “Eyes are kind of gross, when you think about it. Just, like… Jelly marbles, or something.” Blinking down, she lifted her drink to take a sip. “I love crawling places, so maybe. Tommy from Rugrats vibes. It’s, like, easily top three, in ways to travel anywhere. Sometimes a girl has to feel at one with the worms.Wiggle around, a little.” Glass pulled down from her mouth, her eyebrows perked, grin ghosting her lips. “What’d you think I should be for Halloween? You can be my adviser. Making decisions is hard. Like, give me a break? Sometimes I wish everything would just… float out of a goblet, written on a piece of paper, in every situation. I like having instructions, you know? But I, um… I guess I hate following them.”

marco nodded his head in agreement. he did like both of his eyes, also had plans to keep both of them. but with that description? marco shook his head. “jelly marbles. man, i don’t want to think about that. you know... i don’t know how people, like, put contacts in. just touch their eye?” he lifted his hand, finger posed towards his eye, as if to try it for himself. but  a chill of sorts ran through marco’s body, making his wiggle out the discomfort and flop his hand back down to his side. “you could be tommy pickles,” he offered simply, gesturing in her direction. it had practically been her idea. he did pause, however, mostly to take a puff from the joint still burning between his fingers but also to give her costume thought. creativity wasn’t his strongest suit. pirate being example numero uno. the weed could only help. “i feel like a lot of people are going to be that, you know, that clown this year. i did hear this girl in my western civ lecture talk about going as, like, a sexy white claw.” it was about as confusing for him now as it was then. another puff and then loaded with a question, marco asked another silent one as he offered out the joint to lana. “were you thinking scary or funny? sorry, i... i suck at this stuff.”