It was 2:00 AM. My roommates were screaming at their screens, on a losing streak in ranked. I woke up, seething with annoyance, and went to the bathroom. While I was in there, a news alert popped up on my phone: [URGENT: An adult gorilla has escaped the city zoo due to unknown circumstances. Residents are advised to lock all doors and windows. Do not go out late at night.] When I got back to the dorm, I shoved my earplugs in and tried to force myself back to sleep. In the dark, I silently cursed them. If that gorilla broke in and mauled them to death, maybe I’d finally get some peace and quiet. The next morning, my RA (Resident Advisor) was shaking me awake, her face twisted in pure terror. "Dead. They're all dead. "Lily, wake up! Oh my god!" 1 I was still groggy, but the sight of the RA made me sit up fast. I checked the time. 9:00 AM. Damn it. The other four girls in the dorm had been gaming all night, screaming and raging. I hadn’t slept a wink. Now I’d overslept and missed my morning class. I scrambled to get dressed and climbed down from my bunk, ready to apologize to the RA and grab my books. But the RA didn’t say a word. She just stared at the floor, eyes bulging. I followed her gaze. And then I screamed. Two of my roommates were lying on the linoleum in twisted, unnatural poses. Their eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Their pajamas were soaked in red. They looked... they looked like broken dolls. 2 My legs gave out. I stumbled, barely catching myself on the bed frame. The blood had pooled all the way under my bunk. My heart was hammering against my ribs like it wanted to break out. I swallowed hard, dry and painful. To confirm what my brain refused to process, I stumbled toward the bodies and checked for breath. Nothing. Up close, the horror was worse. Their clothes were shredded by what looked like massive claws. Their bodies were covered in deep gouges. And their throats... chunks of flesh had been torn right out. I scrambled backward, crab-walking until I hit the wall, paralyzed. My stomach lurched. I dry heaved, nothing coming up but bile. The RA finally snapped out of her trance, grabbing my shoulder. "Lily! There are five of you in this suite. Where are the other two? "Are they okay?" Her question hit me like a slap. Right. Where were the other two? "Quick, help me look! Maybe they're hiding!" I nodded, taking a shaky breath. I checked the bunks. I pulled back the curtain on Bed 1. My roommate Sarah was curled up under the duvet, her back to me. Terrified she was dead too, I climbed up to shake her. The moment I touched her, her body flopped over, limp. Her throat was gone. The mattress was a sponge of blood. "Ahhhhhhh!" I recoiled, falling backward off the ladder and hitting the floor hard. At the same time, the RA found the fourth body. On the ground outside. She had fallen from our sixth-floor window. Smashed on the pavement below. I didn't even feel the pain in my twisted ankle. My mind was snapping. All I could think was: I spent the entire night sleeping in a room with four corpses. And those wounds... they looked like they’d been mauled by a wild animal. 3 I clutched my head. It was splitting, a migraine drilling behind my eyes. I hadn't even processed the fear yet. Then, the sirens started wailing downstairs. 4 Our dorm building was taped off. The school issued a gag order—no one was allowed to talk about it. Not long after, the RA and I were taken to the station for questioning. The RA came out quickly, looking grim. Then the detectives called me into the interrogation room. "What time did you go to sleep last night?" I bit my nail, trying to remember. "After I got woken up... I probably fell back asleep around 4 AM. They were gaming too loud. Screaming at the screen. It was impossible to sleep." The two detectives exchanged a look. "After you fell asleep, you didn't hear anything else?" I shook my head. "No. Nothing." I knew how fake that sounded. My four roommates had been slaughtered. There must have been a struggle. They wouldn't have just waited quietly to die. If their gaming could wake me up, surely their screams for help would have too. But I really didn't hear a thing. I didn't want to lie. The detective chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "The girls in the dorm next door said your room was screaming all night. They almost called the RA to check if you guys were in trouble. But since your room is constantly making noise, they figured it was just another gaming session and ignored it." "And yet, you say you heard nothing after 4 AM?" Hearing his skepticism, I felt a weird urge to laugh. My roommates... they were obsessed with finding "cracked" guys online to carry them in ranked matches. One guy carrying four girls. They always lost. They were close friends, inseparable, but toxic. When they lost, they'd mute their mics and trash-talk the guy carrying them, calling him trash. But the second they unmuted? "Op-pa, big brother, you're so good!" It was annoying as hell. Because of them, I hadn't had a good night's sleep in months. That’s why I had that thought last night. I hope the gorilla mauls you all to death. I picked at my cuticles. It was just a thought born of anger. But now... they were actually dead. The police noticed the shift in my expression. "Did you remember something?" I looked up. After a moment of hesitation, I decided to come clean. "At 2:20 AM, I woke up to go to the bathroom. My phone popped an alert: A gorilla escaped from the city zoo. "Our dorm window wasn't latched properly. I suspect... maybe the gorilla climbed up the drainpipes and got in. "They must have been mauled by the gorilla!" As I said it, my heart raced. I was terrified that my curse had actually come true. I rubbed my temples. The lack of sleep was causing tinnitus—a high-pitched ringing in my ears. My eyelids felt like lead. "So, you heard the gorilla?" "No. It probably came in after I fell asleep at 4. Like I said, after 4 AM, I heard nothing." I fought to keep my eyes open. The detectives looked at me with pure suspicion. I felt that familiar irritation rising. "Officers, you don't actually think I killed them, do you? It was four against one! How could I possibly solo-kill four people? I don't even have the guts to kill a chicken!" Just then, another officer walked in and whispered something to the interrogator. Next thing I knew, they were hooking me up to a polygraph. They asked the same questions. The machine showed I was telling the truth. According to the data, after 4 AM, I was out cold. Dead to the world. Regardless of the carnage happening feet away from me, I hadn't woken up. 5 The detective changed his angle. "Did you take sleeping pills because of the noise?" "No." "Before you slept, were they still gaming?" "Yes. I remember right before I passed out, Zoe yelled something like, 'Finally, no one's bothering us! We have to win this next round!'" "How was your relationship with them? Any conflicts last night?" I fell silent. They definitely suspected me. But to clear my name, I had to be honest. That comment about "no one bothering them" was obviously about me. "Relationship? Not good, not bad. Just... petty stuff. Locking me in the dorm so I'd miss class. Hiding the necklace my mom left me. Making up rumors about me sleeping around. That kind of stuff." The detectives looked at me with complicated expressions. They probably didn't expect me to be so calm about the bullying. But it didn't matter. They were dead. What’s the point of holding a grudge against corpses? I continued, digging through my memory. "We did argue last night. When I came back from the bathroom, I couldn't sleep. The ringing in my ears was bad. They were screaming. I finally snapped and told them to shut up. "The room went quiet for a few seconds. "Then I heard Zoe say... she said if I kept bothering them, she'd kill me. "They pinned me down. They poured something into my mouth. They choked me." Recallling it, a sudden wave of grief hit me. Tears splashed onto the metal table. They had said other things, too. But the moment I tried to remember the specific words, my head felt like it was splitting open. My brain refused to go there. The detective handed me a tissue, staring at my neck. "Looks like you were choked unconscious. You poor kid. Does your neck hurt? We'll get you some ointment later." I touched my neck. Hiss. It stung. But I wasn't crying because they bullied me. I couldn't explain the feeling. It was just an overwhelming wave of sorrow. Four people were dead. The police wouldn't stop just because I was crying. They placed a tablet in front of me. CCTV footage. I clicked play. What I saw made my blood run cold.
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