“You wait here. I’m going to call my friend and when she gets here, we are leaving. You wait. I’m going to have my friend at the counter text me when you leave. If you are legit, you will wait five minutes.” Madison directed. She was hoping he was legit. She was frightened of the possibilities that existed now that had not when she woke this morning. She really wished it would all just go away.

  She walked out of the room watching him in the reflections off gss partitions that were between the computer work areas. He was watching her. He hadn’t moved.

  “What is he thinking? His face doesn’t betray emotion.” She wonders. He looks at his phone.

  Arriving at the desk, she smiles at the person she talk to earlier, “Hey, umm can I ask you a huge favor?”

  The person looks up, “Hey, sure, what’s up girl?” they ask.

  “Umm, this is gonna sound strange, can you keep an eye on that guy I was talking to and text me when he leaves?” She pleads, letting some of her fear com to her eyes.

  “Mmmm, girl…you need me to call campus police or something?” They ask, concern on evident in their voice.

  “No, no, just text me when he leaves, ok?” She asks

  Her fellow student looks concerned, but used to odd situations, gives Madison a warm smile, “Sure, baby. But if I see you out you gotta buy me a drink OK?” they give her a quick wink.

  “Sure, you got it!” Madison smiles as she writes her number on the pad of paper near the computer.

  She takes out her phone and calls Mel.

  Smiling and mouthing “Thank you!”

  “Hey Mel, we’re done. Can you come get…” She starts

  Mel interrupts, “I’m walking in now. Never left.”

  Madison closes the call, looking at her friend walking in, she thinks “Man, I’m so lucky to have good friends!”

  She gives the clerk a little wave and walks over to Mel, giving her a quick hug. “Thank you so much!” she says into her friend’s shoulder, smelling the paint her friend had yet to wash off.

  They turn together and leave the library, Madison looking over her shoulder to see Agent Balerd still on the phone, watching them leave.

  Looking at her phone, Madison remembered, “Oh shit…I have dinner shift in the Union in like two hours…fuuuuuuuuuck!” she mented, “I am not in a working frame of mind, shit!”

  Mel smiled at her, “The only time you are in a ‘working frame of mind’ is near a pool.”

  Madison, still in coming to grips with reality, was not looking forward to four hours of handing out food, washing dishes and mopping.

  Giving Mel a dirty look she flipped her friend off.

  “Seriously, that guy,” she paused, what could she tell Mel? “Witches and Demons are real, and I was almost raped by one?” Her friend would call her parents immediately if she said some crazy stuff like that.

  “What?” Mel asked, concerned for her suitemate.

  “He, he, just scared me a bit and worst he told me I can’t talk about it with anyone because it’s an ‘ongoing investigation’” Madison replied realizing she really couldn’t say anything, Mel would smell an eborate lie immediately “Where are you guys going tonight?” Hoping to divert her friend’s concern.

  Looking at her watch, Mel jumped a bit, “Shit, I’m not even started getting ready yet! Jimmy won’t get like mad but, I want to look good for tonight.” she said, worry about being te evident in her voice.

  “We are going to an early movie tonight and then seeing where the night takes us.” Mel expined.

  “He’s a sweetheart, sooooo much better than Alex! Alex was complete shit.” Madison adding the ex-boyfriend’s name to the conversation.

  “That should stop her from asking a lot of questions,” Madison thought feeling just a little clever.

  Mel stopped, “Wait, seriously…what’s going on with that Agent guy?” she asked, bringing the conversation back to its start.

  “Fuck!” Madison thought, “What am I going to tell her, fuck fuck fuck…”

  “OK ummm, wait until we get back to the dorm and I’ll tell you what I can” Madison hedged.

  “OK but, I’m not letting you off the hook. You haven’t mentioned that asshole’s name in like six months; I picked up on what you were doing, ‘clever’ girl.” Mel pointed out with a smile.

  Madison looked at her friend thinking, “Ok so…the best lie has some truth in it…”

  ————

  As they lost sight of the library and turned the corner to their dorm, Madison got a text, “Mr. Boring-pants just left. Hope to see you soon, I’m sure you have stories to tell!” a wink face emoji came in just after that.

  “Well, he waited like I asked…” Madison announced.

  “Fuck, at least he seems like he’s legit.” Madison surmised.

  The door to her dorm room shut and Madison turned to Mel as she sat on her bed.

  “You can’t tell a soul about this not even Mr. Buttons, when you go home for the summer!” Madison demanded, invoking Mel’s cat ‘Mr. Buttons’.

  “OK you got it. So tell me what’s up!” Mel excimed.

  Whispering, Madison said, “The suit told me some people got killed and one of ‘em was a chick I met at the ‘Blue’.”

  “Oh wow! So he thought you were involved?” Mel asked.

  “No, some other people saw me with her and so he wanted to ask some questions about it. He really didn’t tell me much about it.” Madisone said.

  Mel, looking significantly at the shoe Madison had been carrying when she left the library but was now on the floor, asked “Where did he get your shoe?”

  “Fuck I didn’t even think about the shoe, of course she is gonna ask about the damn shoe!” Madison thought furiously as some color came to her cheeks.

  “Oh umm yeah, they found it in her car…” Madison replied, thinking “Fuck, Mel already kinda thinks I fuck around too much…”

  “So, you left your shoe in her car…damn Madison, it’s not like you don’t have your own room. Don’t you think hooking up in some chick’s car is kinda like, high school behavior?”

  Madison blushed furiously now… “She was…shit Mel, yeah…I guess at twenty-one…fuck…yeah, I, I won’t do that again. Pinky promise!” Madison decred. Her blush now even more deep, because of how believable the lie was.

  “OK, no more slutting it up in parking lots, come back here and do it for fucks sake, like me.” Mel said with a smile and a wink to take the sting out of the words.

  “Yeah, I need to find someone nice, like Jimmy.” Madison mented…

  Mel stopped and smiled from the bathroom doorway, her voice muffled by the shirt she was taking off “You will sweety, I mean look at all the hotties you are around on the swim and dive teams.”

  The water comes on as Madison replies, “Yeah but dating athletes is tricky because they are all so horny!”

  Mel ughs, “Pot meet kettle!”

  “That was close, I hate lying to her like that but…I really don’t have a choice…” Madison thought feeling bad but at the same time feeling like she needed to protect her friend. She didn’t need to know how scary the world felt for Madison. Or how scary the world was for herself.

  For the next few minutes, she thought about everything that had happened. The ‘dream’ about the field and all, but surely the demon and all the light coming from the ground, that had to be her subconscious adding stuff to her memory because she obviously saw something fucking weird going on…Agent Balerd never really crified what he was investigating.

  “Hmmm,” she thought to herself, “…he never really said anything…he could still think I’m crazy, or compensating for, like, some trauma. Just because he didn’t act like I was crazy doesn’t mean he doesn’t think I’m crazy. I mean, maybe I am crazy? Maybe I hit my head and I’m still like dealing with a concussion or; what did Steven’s friend from the Army say he had a ‘PBI'…no, ‘TBI’? Yeah, that was it, Traumatic Brain Injury…he had gotten it when his HUMVE hit a mine or something…IEB, IET? Whatever, the military has too many acronyms.” She mused as she y on her bed listening to the water as Mel showered.

  Thinking about her much older brother made her miss him a bit, he was stationed in Japan now.

  “Maybe I should talk to him about me visiting over the summer…that would be cool.” her mind wandered until she heard the water shut off.

  “How te do you have to work tonight?” Mel asked.

  “Just till eight…” she answered, “Why?”

  “Well, ummm if the suite door is closed on myside…” Mel said, trailing off meaningfully.

  “Aww are you gonna get id tonight?” Madison asked with teasing lilt in her voice.

  “I better!” Mel decred, “it’s been like two days and that’s a crime damnit!” Mel quickly added “…when you are in a retionship.”

  Mel knew it had been at least two weeks for Madison, the st time would have been with that girl that got killed. “Damn, that’s probably really bothering her…she’s hiding it well.” Mel mused as she toweled off.

  “Hah!” Madison thought to herself, “more like over a month…she probably thinks my st time was with that chick from the ‘Blue’.”

  “Hey, are you OK, I mean…that girl from the club got killed…” Mel looked in on Madison, concerned for her friend.

  “Yeah, I think I am, or maybe I’m in shock? I don’t know. I mean it’s weird to think about.”, she said.

  “But it doesn’t seem real?” she said, “if that makes any sense?”

  “Yeah, I can imagine.” Mel said.

  “Well, if you need anything, don’t hesitate, ok?” concern evident in Mel’s voice, “I’m gonna finish getting ready.” she continued as she headed over to her room.

  Madison looked at her phone, “hmm I don’t really need to leave for a while…don’t really need to leave until three-forty-five…maybe I should take a nap?”

  She called out,” Hey Mel!”

  “What’s up?” came the reply.

  “I’m gonna take a nap, can you look in on me at like three twenty or thirty? I’m gonna set an arm; but just in case.” She called out, having conversations through the open shared bathroom was the norm for the girls.

  “Sure sweety. I’m sure you need it after the st couple of hours” Mel replied.

  Turning over, Madison brought the phone to her face and set the arm for 3:15.

  ————

  Madison floated aware she was dreaming but wondering if she really was dreaming. Down the hall from her room another student was watching cartoons and taking a hit off of a bong. The heavy coughing she did after told Madison the student was getting high. not that she was innocent enough to think that people actually smoked tobacco in those things anywhere except a hookah lounge.

  The next few rooms were empty. Then several rooms with students sleeping or studying. Then she saw two guys kissing, the voyeur in her thought she might like to stay and watch but they weren’t cute really…not to her anyway so…on she goes. The next room was something else. It was dark and felt cold. The girl was hunched over her computer screen, there was chanting from the speakers. Madison couldn’t make out what was going happening on the computer. She moved closer. Trying to see, the chanting was in some other nguage…not English nor Latin it was…singsongy and gutteral at the same time.

  “Fuck its cold in here,” Madison said to herself.

  “Who the fuck are you!” The girls head turned, softly glowing eyes looking right at Madison.

  “Shit!” Madison excimed.

  ————

  “Fuck me good, fuck me up, then I gotta move towns…” the female singers voice came out of Madison’s phone to wake her up.

  “What the actual fuck was that!” Madison said. She still felt the cold from that room. “Who was that girl, she seemed familiar but…” Madison thought trailing off.

  Sitting up she hugged herself. Her arms, even her shirt felt cold. Looking down, thinking “Dr. Strange, I could use the Sorcerer Supreme now!” She thought to herself… “In more ways than one!” she smirked as she thought about the handsome actor and the low ache that reminded her, she had failed in her mission for today.

  “Well, so far at least.” She thought, then “Oh my God, what is going on with me! I have another weird dream, and get the shit scared out of me by some strange chick watching some weird shit on the internet…then thirty seconds ter, I’m thinking about fucking an actor.”

  Looking at her phone again, she decides to get dressed for her shift in the Student Union Food Court, thinking to herself, “There are demons and other weird shit in the world and I’m gonna go make fucking pizza.”