Somewhere within the city of Miro, a university women’s dorm had a new tenant pop into existence beneath the covers of a blanket. The young woman wore a large t-shirt that ran down to a few inches above her knees and a frown as her eyes twitched. Deep within her subconscious, she knew something was wrong with her surroundings and her dream self-began to throw warning signs to wake up. As she rolled across the bed and off of it, the smack of her head hitting carpeted floor woke her from her odd dream.
Looking around while rubbing her bruised forehead, a familiar scene entered Tessa’s eyes. A small aquarium with a mix of fish, a snail that she lovingly called Hitchhiker, a litterbox for the cat she kept illegally in the dorm beneath her student desk and an old laptop hand me down with a missing F1 key. Turning slightly, she found everything so familiar and yet felt something was very wrong about this situation; she just couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was. She frowned in contemplation before an alarm began ringing on her cell phone. Taking a look at the screen, it read 8:00am and she threw her confusing thoughts to the back of her head as she began her morning routine to get ready for class.
After an almost mechanical half hour of preparations, Tessa was dressed in a royal purple blouse and cut off blue jeans with her trademark red sneakers. Grabbing her purse and books, she walked out her dorm room door into an empty hallway that stalled her footsteps as it was never this quiet in her dorm. There was definitely something that she was missing and she tried to recall what it was as she rushed to her first class for the day. The campus sights, the smell in the air, and the sound of birds were all normal and the only missing piece was the variety of conversations of students.
That was it, Tessa realized as she entered the academic building for her first class. Where were all the students? She didn’t hear the gals next door blathering on about their late-night diversions or the dorm leader berating the women who kept leaving their clothes in the hallways. In fact, the hallway this morning was even cleaner than when the dorm was brand new. She even thought that she was making it dirtier just by existing within the area. As these odd thoughts whirled around in her head, she pushed open the classroom door and was shaken out of her thoughts by the eeriness of the scene in front of her eyes.
Beyond the door, all of her classmates were sitting straight backed in their chairs with fully ironed clothes, neat hair and pencils at the ready to take notes. The lecturer was standing at the podium presenting today’s PowerPoint with terrible clip art and a monotone voice that could drag anyone to sleep after a lengthy two hours. However, the shock to her system wasn’t from her odd classmates, it was the person sitting at her desk that looked exactly like her, from the bright red hair down to her oversized chest and neon red trademark sneakers. The woman in her chair had even turned from the lecture and stared back at her with a smile so wide that it threatened to dislocate her jaw.
Tessa felt a spine-chilling sensation race across her back and her heartbeat seemed to triple suddenly as terror draped itself across her face. She backed out of the doorway slowly, her eyes never leaving the other her before closing the door. Then she turned around fast enough to give anyone whiplash and began sprinting out of the building without any regard for where she was running; her only thought to escape as fast as possible. It was nearly fifteen minutes before she finally came to a stop.
Tessa pitched forward into a roll as her books flew off in another direction as her burning thighs couldn’t take the intensity anymore. Green grass, blue sky, brown brick buildings and white pavement streamed across her vision as she rolled down a small dirt mound. The deep aroma of freshly cut grass filled both her nose and mouth as she coughed it out while trying to pick herself back up to take in her surroundings. Eyes watering from the pain of her terror induced sprint and sharp rock scrapes from the roll, she focused her mind and saw the university’s famed lake in front of her. The implications of that struck her like a train as the academic building was on the west side of the campus while the lake was on the farthest east side. She recalled rumors in her dorm about a teacher and student being caught skinny dipping together in it, granting it its infamy or fame, depending on where you stood on the issue. Lost in her thoughts, she missed the sound of footsteps behind her and nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand landed on her shoulder.
“Ma’am, are you alright? Do you need some help to go to the clinic?”
A voice that held no emotion filled her ears as the hand clasping her shoulder tightened slightly. The natural scent of the grass was also washed away by heavy cologne trying to hide freshly smoked cigarettes and decades of alcoholism. The only person that fit those conditions in Tessa’s memories was a security guard, though he was always a happy fellow as his cigarettes were laced with an extra mellowing factor. Still though, her instincts were screaming at her to run away. That this man wasn’t the same one that she knew; this campus was not the one that she knew and she could only rely on herself now.
“I… I can make it there on my own. Thank you, Gregory.”
Tessa stammered out as she pulled herself together and stood up, turning to face the man. Gregory, the security guard, still looked normal on the outside from the neck down, but his eyes were purely egg white and the same jaw dislocating smile was on his face. His hand was also still outstretched to grab her, even though she had moved out of his reach. It was almost as if his body was not his own and he was still getting used to it as his arm finally retracted after some difficulty. He stepped forward to close the distance between them once more as his mouth opened to say more.
Feeling trapped by fear, her mind snapped and she felt a burst of courage and power from somewhere deep in her body. She lunged forward into Gregory’s embrace and wrestled away the stun gun on his waist before unleashing a few thousand volts into his chest. His body dropped like a rock and began convulsing on the ground immediately, which scared Tessa out of her courageous state. Freaking out, she apologized out of habit and ran to the nearest building and slammed the door shut behind her, sliding against it to prevent anyone following her. Her own body trembled in fright and she could feel her body go limp after the second adrenaline rush in under an hour drained what little energy she had left. She could vaguely see a silhouette approaching her as her tired eyes closed in on themselves.
